New Rick And Morty Season 4 Episode Titles Reveal What's Ahead

Quick, prepare your Szechuan sauce and pickles! The fourth season of Rick and Morty is fixin' to return from its mid-season hiatus, and if things go as they tend to, the only thing that's certain is that no one's safe — not the world, not the universe, not the multiverse, and definitely not Morty. But exactly how is everything going to be ruined and (more or less) fixed this time? It'll still be a little while before we find out, but fortunately, the show has started throwing a few bones for those who wait. 

The official Rick and Morty Twitter page just dropped the titles of the upcoming five episodes of season 4, the first of which will air on May 3. We're going to start with "Never Ricking Morty," after which it's off to "Promortyus." The next episode is the ominously named "The Vat of Acid Episode," followed by "Childrick of Mort." And finally, the Rick and Morty season 4 season finale is titled "Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri."

Those... are certainly names, all right. Luckily, Rick and Morty episode titles tend to be a treasure trove of references and hidden revelations. What do these particular episode names reveal about what's ahead? Let's dicuss.

On past seasons of Rick and Morty, episode titles have given cheeky nods to classic movies. The movie references in this batch of episodes are, for the most part, pretty easy to figure out. 

"Never Ricking Morty" seems to be a spoof of the fantasy classic Neverending Story, and "Promortyus" is clearly meant to invoke Prometheus. "Childrick of Mort" is quite likely all about Children of Men, and we'd be genuinely surprised if the phonetics of "Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri" fit any other movie than Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. The only episode title that doesn't really seem to fit the bill is "The Vat of Acid Episode" — which, to be fair, seems self-explanatory. Just reading that out loud, we imagine some sort of Batman villain trap where Rick and/or Morty (or, most likely, Jerry) spend the majority of the episode hanging over a gigantic vat of, yeah, you know.

In even more good news, these aren't the only hints we have about what's to come on Rick and Morty season 4. As Bradley Russell of Games Radar notes, the showrunners have also provided characteristically oddball "broh" synopses for all the upcoming episodes, save for the first one. Maybe they'll shed some more light on the laugh-a-minute terrors Rick and Morty is about to throw at us?

Not all the episode synopses are particularly helpful. "Never Ricking Morty" doesn't even get one, and "The Vat of Acid Episode" comes with the less than helpful description: "The one with the acid vat, broh." 

However, the other three do bring a measure of clarity. The "Promortyus" synopsis — "Get off my face broh" — seems to underline that the incoming Prometheus parody is going to include a hefty helping of Alien-style face-huggers. "Childrick of Mort," on the other hand, gives us this: "Miracle of life broh. Whole family in this one broh." While we're fully on board with a Children of Men parody wherein Rick and Morty escort some poor — and almost certainly secretly horrendous — baby creature to safety, the line about the whole family being present might indicate that, along with the Smith family, the monstrous Morty Jr. from "Raising Gazorpazorp" might also make an appearance.

And then there's the "Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri" synopsis, which keeps with the family theme: "Parenting is crazy broh. Stuff straight disappearing in this one." Though the Star Wars reference alone is enough to make us suspect that this season finale is going to be big with a capital B, the parenting part makes us think that this episode might be closely connected with "Childrick of Mort." A two-parter, maybe? 

So, in a nutshell, it looks like we're starting the second leg of our Rick and Morty season 4 adventure with a Neverending Story-style journey, then diving into some Ridley Scott-inspired alien terrors. After that, we find out what the deal with the acid vat is about, before moving on to a whole lot of family-themed, presumably galactic-scale craziness. Or maybe absolutely nothing about that is right. We're about to find out, we suppose — and frankly, we can't wait.   

Rick and Morty season 4 returns to Adult Swim on Sunday, May 3 at 11:30 PM ET.