Rick & Morty may have recently promised that the upcoming Season 5 would introduce a love interest for Morty and it wouldn’t be Jessica, but hasn’t the show done this before? Beginning life was a goofy, raunchy spoof of Back to the Future, Rick & Morty has since gone on to become a critically acclaimed send-up of sitcom cliches and sci-fi conventions alike. In its four seasons, Rick & Morty has taken satirical aim at everything from Jurassic Park to The Avengers, to Game of Thrones and its obsessive fan base.
However, the Adult Swim hit has also garnered a pretty massive fan base of its own and, as proven by the many fan theories circulating about the series online, Rick & Morty fans are arguably as deeply invested in the anarchic animated comedy as even the most enthusiastic viewer of George RR martin’s HBO adaptation. All of which makes it surprising that the show’s creators recently promised that Rick & Morty season 5 would feature a non-Jessica love interest for Morty when even casual fans of the series know that Morty has been through many short-lived romantic paramours.
Ever since the first episode of Rick & Morty, the unattainable (and undeniably thinly-sketched) Jessica has been the apple of Morty’s eye, but this has never stopped Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s show from also adding "girl of the week" love interests into the show’s continuity. Since as early as season 1, episode 3’s Jurassic Park spoof “Anatomy Park,” Rick & Morty has thrown in love interests for Morty only for the partners to never last much longer than one episode appearance. Still, this brevity has never impacted the ability of Morty’s love interests to make an impression, as proven by a look back on Morty’s many Rick & Morty love interests.
Annie
The first non-Jessica love interest for Morty in Rick & Morty’s four seasons, Annie appeared in “Anatomy Park" and has never been seen since. Fans have theorized that she likely underwent a pretty gruesome off-screen fate, but this sad end doesn’t lessen her impact on the series. In this early, Fantastic Voyage-parodying outing for Rick & Morty, Annie accompanied Morty through the deadly environs of the titular theme park, outlasting everyone else on the expedition. Annie was nonetheless as impactful a character as any of her teammates and even almost survived her adventure with Morty, making it a shame that, like Scary Terry and many more fan favorites, the series never revisited this one-off character.
Jessica
The longest-lasting love interest of Morty’s, Jessica is the “great white buffalo” (as Hot Tub Time Machine phrased it) who consistently gets away from Morty despite many of his ambitious sci-fi storylines centering around attempts to woo her. A somewhat problematic figure on the show, Jessica is more often used as a plot device whose unrequited attraction from the title character causes many of Morty’s schemes, as seen in the season four debut “Edge of Tomorty: Rick.Die.Rickpeat.” She’s rarely given much agency of her own, something that the series' recent season 5 animatic promo hinted at discussing further. However, the news that Morty will gain a non-Jessica girlfriend in season 5 of Rick & Morty may be confirmation that the promo’s tease was just that, and Jessica will remain a prop for the show’s foreseeable future.
Arthricia
Star of season 2’s Purge-spoofing outing “Look Who’s Purging Now” (season 2, episode 9), Arthricia was the local girl who Morty was pursuing until she flatly informed him after their adventure that she was already seeing someone. A clever riff on the “girl of the week” convention, Arthricia’s fully-rounded character arc ensured that she served a purpose in the horror trope-parodying Rick & Morty episode behind merely providing a companion for the title character, thus making her last line reveal all the funnier. It’s a smart subversion of viewer expectations and one that has since been repeated by both Vampires Vs The Bronx and the 2015 blockbuster Jurassic World (wherein Jake Johnson's nerdy side character learns Lauren Lapkus' co-worker is seeing someone as he attempts to steal a triumphant kiss). The popularity of this gag makes Arthicia arguably Morty’s most memorable and influential love interest despite — or rather because — she was never actually a viable love interest at all.
Gwendolyn
The sex robot with whom Morty unintentionally fathered Gazorpazorp, Gwendolyn admittedly didn’t have much of a role in the episode “Raising Gazorpazorp” (season 1, episode 7) beyond proving Rick right when he warns Morty against treating the doll as an object. Still, the birth of Gazorpazorp does give Rick, Morty, and Summer a solid chance to spend the rest of the episode offering surprisingly sharp commentary on gender roles in an episode whose canny satire proved the series could be smarter than a goofy, gory riff on sci-fi staples. Gwendolyn may not have been central to proceedings, but this just-glimpsed love interest did birth one of the show’s most engaging early Rick & Morty adventures.
Jacqueline
The briefly-seen girlfriend who is madly in love with Morty in his idyllic NYC life during the action of “Rest and Ricklaxation,” Jacqueline’s story function is a lot like that of Jessica throughout the series at large. Where many Rick & Morty episodes like "Rick Potion #9" see Morty attempt to impress Jessica, thus giving rise to a scheme that then becomes the episode’s real plot, Jacqueline was living proof that an “idealized” version of Morty wouldn’t struggle to woo women (nor to afford a Patrick Bateman-esque NYC apartment). However, much like Jessica, Jacqueline wasn’t given much character in her brief Rick & Morty appearance beyond illustrating Morty’s potential if he were the most perfect version of himself, so she’s not a figure many fans are likely to be clamoring to see a return from any time soon.
Morty’s Unnamed Girlfriend
Seen in "The Vat of Acid Episode", Morty’s nameless love interest starred in a poignant, wordless love story that became a life-or-death adventure—only to be undone by the episode’s ending. Although this nameless character goes through a traumatic, terrifying ordeal with Morty, the pair ultimately end up happy despite everything, making the "The Vat of Acid Episode"’s ending all the more brutally funny when all of this Alive-spoofing tragedy is effectively undone via the titular gambit. This pathos with a chaser of goofy nihilism is a classic Rick & Morty combination, and Morty's unnamed girlfriend is one of the most unfortunate victims of the show's sick sense of humor.