'Rick and Morty' Season 3 Episode 10 Plot: Rick vs. the United States

by John Rosca / Sep 28, 2017 08:34 AM EDT

Rick and Morty Season 3 Episode 10 | The Rickchurian Mortydate

"Rick and Morty" co-creator Dan Harmon has teased a few details about Sunday's season 3 finale. He also discussed the possibility of doing more than the usual 10 episodes for the fourth season.

"Rick and Morty" season 3 episode 10 is titled "The Rickchurian Mortydate" and it will air on October 1, Sunday 11:30 p.m. EST on Adult Swim. The episode title parodies "The Manchurian Candidate," a famous 1962 political thriller about a man who is brainwashed into becoming a Communist sleeper agent and assassin.

Despite the political overtones of the title, "The Rickchurian Mortydate" is unlikely to tackle real-world political events. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Harmon said that he doesn't want the show to have a political stance.

Harmon did speak out in the EW interview about the online harassment faced by the show's female writers, an issue that gained widespread attention after receiving a lot of discussion on Reddit. Harmon called the harassers' behavior "disgusting" and said that the online trolls didn't know how a TV writers' room worked. "I want to scream at my computer: 'You idiots, we all write the show together!'," said Harmon.

When asked whether "Rick and Morty" would ever have more than ten episodes a season, Harmon said that he is still learning how to make the show in an efficient manner and that he is too much of a perfectionist. The A.V. Club notes that Harmon had initially promised fans that "Rick and Morty" season 3 would comprise 14 episodes, but he and co-creator Justin Roiland were forced to back off that commitment.

Harmon did not outright say that they would be doing 14 episodes in season 4. But he told EW that they hope to complete 10 episodes that would please the network enough to win them additional episodes. That means a 14-episode season 4 of "Rick and Morty" is possible but hardly a certainty.

Sunday's episode "The Rickchurian Mortydate" was rejiggered into a finale after the creative team learned that it would be the last episode produced for season 3. Its story will involve Rick and Morty performing a task assigned by the U.S. President, going by the preview trailer (watch it below).

Harmon teased that Rick would butt heads with the President in "The Rickchurian Mortydate." He described the main plot as "Rick vs. the United States," a phrase that calls to mind the classic "Simpsons" episodes "Bart vs. Australia" and "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson."