Rick and Morty Timeline

myusernameyes

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Oct 14, 2024
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Timeline placement and reasoning:

The timeline of the show is extremely convoluted, considering that, despite multiple years having passed, the characters barely age. This means that the show operates in a "floating timeline" and the characters' ages should be counted from their first appearances and not from whatever year the episode premiered in as time in real world continues to pass (with Summer being scared of her dad joining Facebook in 2013 and Morty telling an alien to "take the L" in 2023). Perhaps Rick stopped the flow of time somehow and the characters stopped aging as a result, idk. From this, we can count the characters' ages.

In "Rest and Ricklaxation", Toxic Rick states he's been trapped inside Rick for 70 years, meaning he's at least that age, placing his birth year at 1943. However, an official Instagram account released a post seemingly stating that Rick is the same age as Tony Hawk, who, at the time of posting, was 54, meaning Rick was born in 1959. His daughter, Beth, had Summer when she was 17, and Summer herself is 17, meaning Beth is currently 34, placing her birth year at 1979, which would mean that Rick had her at 20. The Simple Rick commercial from "The Ricklantis Mixup" shows what appears to be Beth's 3rd birthday judging from the candles on her cake, placing that scene in 1981. In "Fear No Mort", while in the fear hole, Rick deages himself to 27, which is presumably the age he lost his family to Rick Prime. It's put into question considering Morty doesn't really know Rick's backstory, but considering he was exposed to his memories in "Rickmurai Jack", he might've partially kept them. That would mean he lost them in 1986. Later on, he began fighting other Ricks to find Rick Prime, the majority of which was shown in "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort". Here, he's said to be 35, which means this memory takes place in 1994. That, however, gets weird, due to one memory showing Rick and Birdperson attending Squanchy's stand-up with Rick's appearance being the same as when he was 27 instead of 35, though that can be ignored for the sake of simplicity. The flashbacks in "Bethic Twinstinct" and "The Jerrick Trap" show Jerry and Beth as seemingly high schoolers, which might take place sometime before Beth's pregnancy, which might take place in about 1996.

Later on, the timeline placement gets a bit convoluted. In "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", Beth (despite the scene taking place in another dimension, but the logic seems to apply to the normal reality Rick C-137 inhabited at the moment) states that Rick returned to the family on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, which is January 15. It is specifically stated that it's the 1 year anniversary, but some things don't add up. In "Morty's Mind Blowers", we're shown a memory of Rick being present at Morty's 13th birthday, which could mean that he returned at least sometime before then. However, if we assume the episodes take place in the exact year they release, "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" would have Rick celebrating the 2nd anniversary of his return to the family. Would that then mean the AU logic is off the table here? Either way, if that's the case and the next episodes continue directly after "Anatomy Park", which is at Christmas, then they must take place at an EXTREMELY compressed timespan to make it to January 15.

In "Mortynight Run", Rick is shown writing in "1-12-15" in the Jerryboree form, which means it's January 12, 2015, which is the only known date the episode is shown taking place in.

Other episodes since then have an extremely vague timespan that is hard to pinpoint, but it's definitely made certain that many episodes do not take place in the same year they release. "Rattlestar Ricklactica" once again takes place on Christmas, and in "Never Ricking Morty", several episodes after, Rick tells Morty about how nobody goes shopping with the virus going around, definitely making reference to the COVID-19 pandemic, which at the time was in full swing, meaning that episode took place in 2020. "Rick and Morty's Thanksploitation Spectacular" takes place on Thanksgiving, which in 2021 was on November 25. However, "Bethic Twinstinct" also takes place on Thanksgiving, and in "Night Family", directly after this episode, the Smiths get taken over by the night selves and spend several months before they decide to free them, but here's where the kicker comes in. In the end scene, Rick checks for how long they've been asleep, and exclaims that "THEY'VE KILLED THE CHOCO TACO". Choco Taco was discontinued in July 2022, which means that this episode must start before then. During the montage of the night Smiths doing their activities, they're seen celebrating what appears to be Chinese New Year, which is celebrated from January to February, meaning the episode began in 2021. That would place "Rick and Morty's Thanksplotation Spectacular", as well as the rest of Season 4, 5 and 6, in 2020 and the rest of 2021. The erased memories from "Morty's Mind Blowers" (except for Morty's 13th birthday one) also appear to be taking place at indiscernible time periods, so I will not be including them.

Despite the comics and the anime being stated to be connected to the show, I will not be including them here, because 1) there are too many of them, and 2) there are too many contradictions to consider any of that canon. I also originally intended to classify the many dimensions the show takes place in but decided it's too convoluted so I'm not gunna. Deal with it.

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1905
????
Rick and Morty, 2x01: "A Rickle in Time" (0:22:20 - 0:22:41)

late 1960's/early 1970's?
????
Rick and Morty, 5x08: "Rickternal Moonshine of the Spotless Mort" (00:20:24 - 0:20:34)

1981
????
Rick and Morty, 3x07: "The Ricklantis Mixup" (0:02:12 - 0:02:29)

1986
????
Rick and Morty, 3x01: "The Rickshank Rickdemption" (0:05:52 - 0:06:25)
Rick and Morty, 3x01: "The Rickshank Rickdemption" (0:07:32 - 0:08:24)
Rick and Morty, 3x01: "The Rickshank Rickdemption" (0:09:30 - 0:09:49)
Rick and Morty, 5x10: "Rickmurai Jack" (0:14:18 - 0:14:48)

1994
????
Rick and Morty, 5x08: "Rickternal Moonshine of the Spotless Mort" (0:03:30 - 0:04:13)
Rick and Morty, 5x10: "Rickmurai Jack" (0:14:49 - 0:14:56)
Rick and Morty, 5x08: "Rickternal Moonshine of the Spotless Mort" (0:10:45 - 0:13:22)
Rick and Morty, 5x10: "Rickmurai Jack" (0:15:00 - 0:15:40)

1996
????

Rick and Morty, 7x02: "The Jerrick Trap" (0:21:42 - 0:21:59)
Rick and Morty, 6x03: "Bethic Twinstinct" (0:13:23 - 0:13:48)

early 2010's
Rick and Morty, 5x10: "Rickmurai Jack" (0:15:41 - 0:16:09)

2013
January 15
Rick and Morty, 5x10: "Rickmurai Jack" (0:16:10 - 0:16:29)

????
Rick and Morty, 1x01: "Pilot"
Rick and Morty, 1x02: "Lawnmower Dog"

December 25
Rick and Morty, 1x03: "Anatomy Park"

2014
????
Rick and Morty, 1x04: "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!"
Rick and Morty, 1x05: "Meeseeks and Destroy"
Rick and Morty, 1x06: "Rick Potion #9"
Rick and Morty, 1x07: "Raising Gazorpazorp"
Rick and Morty, 1x08: "Rixty Minutes"
Rick and Morty, 1x09: "Something Ricked This Way Comes"

January 14
Rick and Morty, 7x05: "Unmortricken" (0:00:00 - 0:01:18)
Rick and Morty, 1x10: "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" (0:00:00 - 0:00:27)
Rick and Morty, 7x05: "Unmortricken" (0:01:25 - 0:01:41)

January 15
Rick and Morty, 1x10: "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" (0:01:00 - 0:22:24)

????
Rick and Morty, 1x11: "Ricksy Business"
Rick and Morty, 2x01: "A Rickle in Time"

2015
January 12
Rick and Morty, 2x02: "Mortynight Run"

????
Rick and Morty, 2x03: "Auto Erotic Assimilation"
Rick and Morty, 2x04: "Total Rickall"
Rick and Morty, 2x05: "Get Schwifty"
Rick and Morty, 2x06: "The Ricks Must Be Crazy"
Rick and Morty, 2x07: "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez"
Rick and Morty, 2x08: "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate"
Rick and Morty, 2x09: "Look Who's Purging Now"
Rick and Morty, 2x10: "The Wedding Squanchers"

2016
????

Rick and Morty, 3x01: "The Rickshank Rickdemption" (0:00:00 - 0:05:51)
Rick and Morty, 3x01: "The Rickshank Rickdemption" (0:06:26 - 0:07:31)
Rick and Morty, 3x01: "The Rickshank Rickdemption" (0:08:25 - 0:09:29)
Rick and Morty, 3x01: "The Rickshank Rickdemption" (0:09:40 - 0:23:21)
Rick and Morty, 3x02: "Rickmancing the Stone"
Rick and Morty, 3x03: "Pickle Rick"
Vindicators 2, 1x01: "Rick Can Handle It"
Vindicators 2, 1x02: "Pro-Nouns"
Vindicators 2, 1x03: "The Dance"
Vindicators 2, 1x04: "Out of Gas"
Vindicators 2, 1x05: "First Love"
Vindicators 2, 1x06: "Mercy Kill"
Vindicators 2, 1x07: "Girls Night"
Vindicators 2, 1x08: "Kintsugi"
Vindicators 2, 1x09: "Little Trains"
Vindicators 2, 1x10: "Heroes"
Rick and Morty, 3x04: "Vindicators 3: The Return of World-Ender"
Rick and Morty, 3x05: "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy"
Rick and Morty, 3x06: "Rest and Ricklaxation"
Rick and Morty, 7x05: "Unmortricken" (0:01:56 - 0:02:00)
Rick and Morty, 3x07: "The Ricklantis Mixup"
Rick and Morty, 3x08: "Morty's Mind Blowers"
Rick and Morty. 3x09: "The ABC's of Beth"
Rick and Morty, 3x10: "The Rickchurian Mortydate"

2019
????
Rick and Morty, 4x01: "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat"
Rick and Morty, 4x02: "The Old Man and the Seat"
Rick and Morty, 4x03: "One Crew Over the Crewcoo's Morty"
Rick and Morty, 4x04: "Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty"

December 25
Rick and Morty, 4x05: "Rattlestar Ricklactica"

2020
????
Rick and Morty, 4x06: "Never Ricking Morty"
Rick and Morty, 4x07: "Promortyus"
Rick and Morty, 4x08: "The Vat of Acid Episode"
Rick and Morty, 4x09: "Childrick of Mort"
Rick and Morty, 4x10: "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri"
Rick and Morty, 5x01: "Mort Dinner Rick Andre"
Rick and Morty, 5x02: "Mortyplicity"
Rick and Morty, 5x03: "A Rickconvenient Mort"
Rick and Morty, 5x04: "Rickdependence Spray"
Rick and Morty, 5x05: "Amortycan Grickffiti"

November 26
Rick and Morty, 5x06: "Rick and Morty's Thanksploitation Spectacular"

2021
????

Rick and Morty, 5x07: "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion"
Rick and Morty, 5x08: "Rickternal Moonshine of the Spotless Mort"
Rick and Morty, 5x09: "Forgetting Sarick Mortshall"
Rick and Morty, 5x10: "Rickmurai Jack" (0:00:00 - 0:14:08)
Rick and Morty, 5x10: "Rickmurai Jack" (0:16:30 - 0:22:01)
Rick and Morty, 6x01: "Solaricks"
Rick and Morty, 6x02: "Rick: A Mort Well Lived"

November 25
Rick and Morty, 6x03: "Bethic Twinstinct" (0:00:00 - 0:13:22)
Rick and Morty, 6x03: "Bethic Twinstinct" (0:13:49 - 0:21:58)

????
Rick and Morty, 6x04: "Night Family" (0:00:00 - 0:19:16)

2022
February 1

Rick and Morty, 6x04: "Night Family" (0:19:17 - 0:19:20)

????
Rick and Morty, 6x04: "Night Family" (0:19:20 - 0:20:44)
Rick and Morty, 6x05: "Final DeSmithation"
Rick and Morty, 6x06: "JuRicksic Mort"
Rick and Morty, 6x07: "Full Meta Jackrick"
Rick and Morty, 6x08: "Analyze Piss"
Rick and Morty, 6x09: "A Rick in King Mortur's Mort"

December 25
Rick and Morty, 6x10: "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation"

2023
????

Rick and Morty, 7x01: "How Poopy Got His Poop Back"
Rick and Morty, 7x02: "The Jerrick Trap"
Rick and Morty, 7x03: "Air Force Wong"
Rick and Morty, 7x04: "That's Amorte"
Rick and Morty, 7x05: "Unmortricken" (0:02:33 - 0:22:47)
Rick and Morty, 7x06: "Rickfending Your Mort"
Rick and Morty, 7x07: "Wet Kuat Amortican Summer"
Rick and Morty, 7x08: "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie"
Rick and Morty, 7x09: "Mort: Ragnarick"
Rick and Morty, 7x10: "Fear No Mort"
 
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