Rick and Morty (TV Series) Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender (2017) User Reviews

Why I actually liked this episode

[davidsonphone · 9/10 · 15 August 2017]

I give it a 9. Because every other episode I thought was hilarious, and for this to be sub-par, I take off a point.

For one, I love Marvel films. And I'm sure it was obvious the Vindicators are just generic cliché superheroes like the Avengers, which is the point. Seeing them both together was fun for me, especially watching them all die.

Let me start with the very opening scene. Back in I think it was episode 4 of season 1, Rick and Morty make bet. Morty gets to call one one of ten adventures if he's right, which he is at the end when the villagers get their loot. I always wondered if that was really going to be a thing, where Morty can veto a mission like that, and BOOM there it was! I loved it.

Rick tears into them immediately for their ultra-specific, basically pointless "super hero" abilities, while stating that he can just do anything he wants, whenever he wants, so yeah, he's up for the mission.

I love the little things they added that tie into the Marvel franchise, because it seems like they assumed most of the audience has seen them. For example, they were left out of Vindicators II, like Hulk and Thor were left out of Civil War. That and the list of Vindicators who had died since the last time they were there.

What really sets Rick off here is that Morty calls them HIS heroes. Not just anyone's heroes, but Morty's personal heroes. Morty is a 14 year old kid who reads comics and goes on adventures. Of course he loves these guys. And when Morty calls him out on being jealous of that later on, he nailed his real hatred of them. Morty respected them more than Rick, who he just calls an ***hole.

When the mission starts, everyone uses their powers in a way that is stupidly designed for one Vindicators use alone to bypass any obstacle. When Rick is up, he's still passed out from getting so Sh*tfaced, that he actually shits all over the floor. Just by tossing one of his devices on the floor, he can take out the turrets, and onward we go to find their nemesis dead, and an even greater threat to the Universe. Blackout drunk Rick.

Blackout Rick is awesome. He takes out the Vindicators arch nemesis while so drunk, he can't even remember doing it, or laying any of the traps. He even refers to blackout Rick in the third person, because even he has no idea what kind of things he could have done while that drunk. It could literally be anything. Seeing Rick being this drunk was just great for me.

(And how cool is it that Rick can't be strangled to death because of his defense mesh?) I'm not going to write about all the things I didn't like about this episode like everyone else seems to be. I write reviews because I love this show.

I know everyone isn't happy with the writing, but so far I'm having a blast with this new season.

So we're doing superheroes now

[ericstevenson · 9/10 · 18 August 2017]

This episode features Morty telling Rick that it's his turn to choose what adventure they go on. This was actually nicely alluded to in the episode with the Meseeks. There's even a card to record this. Rick and Morty go meet up with the Vindicators, a group of superheroes who need to defeat a villain. The funny thing is probably the main plot. It features Rick having already killed the villain while he got drunk so he puts the Vindicators through a series of tests with prerecorded messages. He can't really help them much in the present because he was drunk at the time.

I knew that one of the superheroes would be killed in every challenge. What's really interesting is how only half of them are killed by the actual challenge as the last of them are offed by killing each other. Only one superhero survives and escapes. It's a great way to set up a sequel where she'll probably come back as a villain. I don't know why, but I really liked Crocobot. The joke where he says he fell into redundant stuff got a chuckle out of me. That's even funnier given the context. ***1/2

'Marvel' At Its Beauty...

[mikelovell · 8/10 · 14 August 2017]

Okay, so this wasn't the greatest, most mind-blowing episode ever made - but even at its most 'mediocre', Rick & Morty is still several levels better than the next best thing out there - even really, really expensive, 'Hollywood' things out there.

Take a seemingly impossible duo, throw in fantastic adventures and writing to die for. Now conjure up an episode that faces them off with a bunch of well known 'superheroes' - and hang everyone out to dry. Rick telling the Vindicators that he's "a little more complex than you guys" and Morty feeling the need to apologise for his 'asshole' drunk Grandpa on a regular basis, sums up exactly why it's my favourite animated show ever.

Like every episode, it needs multiple viewings to find all the nuggets - and while this episode might not have hundreds to dig up and the premise might be one of the more obvious in the universe of R&M, it's still heaps of fun.

And let's face it... just HOW do you follow Pickle Rick? 8/10.

Underrated

[qatarnehabdallah · 10/10 · 17 November 2019]

I loved this episode. I rewatched it like a million times because it's purely funny and also was performed by a drunk justin roiland for a drunk rick performance

Great episode

[angliyskinikola · 10/10 · 13 August 2017]

A wonderful throwback to the old-school egocentric and nihilistic Rick Sanchez! I love the fact the show returned to the old Rick and Morty only adventure. Seeing Rick absolutely destroy the Vindicators like anything else he doesn't care about took me back to my favorite episodes and I enjoyed every second of it! Psychologically, the episode was top class as well. Rick's destructive wandering between his rationality that excludes any emotional connection and his jealousy and caring about Morty was also a nice inclusion in this episode. The genius scientist still managed to push Morty away by letting his drunkenness take control of him and exaggerating his need to be accepted by society, hence his proclaimed "love" for Noob Noob, who sentient Rick didn't even remember. The scene basically expressed Rick's jealousy as he still mentioned how Morty was glorifying the wrong people, who weren't who he thought they were. Moreover, it's highly unlikely that Rick would have let anyone else sit except Noob Noob if all of this was even meant to be for him. Seems like he cares for Morty even more than we think as he tries to push him as away as possible to avoid risking his grandson turning into him. Anyways, it was one of the best episodes I've seen!

R&M's "Pulp Fiction"

[rzajac · 10/10 · 19 September 2017]

I think this one sorta slid under most folks' radars. In short: It's a metaphor for the deeply internalized apologetic ("vindication") for the domination of an in-group basis for morality over "lesser" bases for morality. In other words, if you can get enough people to sign on, any action can be excused as falling under a "moral" umbrella.

Besides this, it's got everything we've come to expect from R&M: Great writing, great scenario work (with a stunning tour-de-force subjugation of the "bad guy"!), labor-of-love graphic work, good direction and voice work.

Others are tending to disagree on this one, but I think it represents their best.

Extremely underrated

[rileymichele · 10/10 · 2 June 2020]

This is one of the best episode of the series imo. The joke were just so amazing and layered and thought out

And that is how you destroy world's mightiest heroes and Worldender.....The "drunk" Rick Snachez way!

[shayanarshad · 14 August 2017]

What a fantastic episode. Some of us fans have been a little critical towards the introduction of female writers but this episode deserves a praise towards Sarah Carbiener & Erica Rosbe for their imaginative writing. This season is definitely getting better episode after episode. This episode had a everything. From Rick & Morty only adventure to a bunch of futile heroes (except for Supernova) to a drunk villainous Rick and finally ending with a rap from Logic. The biggest highlight of the episode was obviously Morty and his bizarre ways to solve drunk Rick's puzzle. The stray observation if this episode was that how dumb are the Vindicators for bringing Rick back? I guess they didn't want a repeat of Vindicators 2 (which killed off three heroes of color), but damn. At the end (in the concert) we saw a lot of characters from previous episode including our beloved Gearhead who had his gearmouth replaced with gearsticles by Rick last season. We have already seen that Tammy & Phenoix Person survived the events of "The Rickshank Redemption" and now that Supernova is also on the loose we are going to get one hell of a battle between Rick and the others. Plus the creators also hinted on the return of Evil Morty so let's see how that goes.

When Rick gets drunk!

[amindostiari · 10/10 · 27 January 2021]

This episode was very interesting,and it showed that Rick is very dangerous if he gets drunk! And of course, Rick's words were proven and showed that every hero gets dirty one day, and no championship is perfect!

Best episode of the series

[shipwreckjack · 10/10 · 16 July 2021]

They really nailed it. Lots of great lines, Rick at his sociopathic best, and just inanity brilliance.

It could have been so much better...an OK episode

[franco-km8 · 6/10 · 14 August 2017]

I've to be honest: something is missing in the last season of Rick and Morty. I'm not the biggest fan of season 3 so far, but when i watched the trailer for this episode, it looked so fun and entertaining that I forgot about that and watched it with high hopes. Well, it was just OK and we'll have to wait to watch an really good episode of the show. The plot is certainly attractive: the "Vindicators" ( a super team full of Morty's heroes) have to face their biggest and most powerful enemy, Worldender. They'll need the help of Rick and Morty to complete such a hard task. The design of the heroes is great, they look unique and there's a guy named Noob Noob who is really funny and reminded us of Mr poopy butthole. SPOILER Unfortunately Worldender is already dead when they met him ( Rick killed him easily during his blackout) and now they have to complete a series of bizarre games (just like saw) There'are ( again) a lot of violence, but the magic, the comedy, the adventure is not there. The vindicators died during the mission, wasting a lot of good characters ( except for the girl with super powers) Sorry, but the violence alone is not funny. Time to get new writers ( or hire the old ones) and make Rick and Morty great again.

Impressive Storytelling

[havoke-74121 · 9/10 · 1 October 2020]

An Episode where the backbone of your enjoyment, is your suspension of genre tropes. All Elements contorting before your eyes.

Among the better ones, but only in this season.

[petrow-31308 · 6/10 · 17 August 2017]

After the letdown of episode 2 and 3, Vindicators 3 was a sigh of relief. It was focused on a single place instead of running multiple parallel story lines, but executed that one better than before.

A nice mixture of Saw and Avengers, its main selling point is that it revolves around the 2 main characters, Rick and Morty. Blackout Rick's "introduction" is also a good thing. The episode's pacing is also among the better ones, and the new characters start to open in an interesting way. Their development is nothing to write home about though, and honestly I did not feel anything about their deaths. If that was on purpose to show, how insignificant everyone is according to Rick, then my bad; job's well done.

It is more sad, that despite the lot of screen time together the relationship of R&M didn't develop any further than we already know. Morty is still being abused by Rick emotionally. Rick just wants to show, how insignificant Morty's beliefs and moral standards are, pretty much like in Mortynight Run, or Meeseeks and Destroy. However, each of those episodes added some extra bit of information about the two, while here we just get to know that even while completely drunk, Rick is an a-hole toward his grandson. Thanks, we've seen it before.

They promised this to be the darkest season of all, but that's not to make a Peter Griffin, or a present-day Homer Simpson out of Rick. I am looking forward to some serious development in Rick's character, something that the upcoming episode with Jerry gives some hope for.

Worst episode so far

[rodrigo-448-574593 · 4/10 · 13 August 2017]

Dan harmon and Justin roiland are dropping the ball letting this happen... the new writers are killing the show, wake up! its not about they being women writers, its about them being WORST writers. They could be gay black disabled genderfluid dwarf for all we the fans care if just they were as good writers as the ones in the first 2 seasons. Don't let this season become an indiana jones 4 where we have to ignore it and pretend it never existed (for the exception of the first episode of the season). In this episode 3.4, Rick doesn't even act according to his personality and some of the characters are just thrown in your face in an attempt (and fail) to amuse you. A really bad script that tries to copycat the style of the first ones and doesn't get even close of succeeding. You just stay with that bad taste in your mouth just like when you buy that generic cheap brand from your favorite snack.

Not horrible, but not as good as it could be.

[justicesegrest · 16 August 2017]

Rick and Morty has yet to come out with a downright bad episode, but after watching this, I remember being a little bummed out. My first problem with the episode is the way it was written. Watching this episode felt like watching a sequel to n episode that never came out. It almost seemed to tell us that we were supposed to know who these new characters were. My second problem was the character development. Rick was out of character, and most of the drama in the episode was based around characters we didn't know, or care about.

I refuse to answer a literal call to adventure, Morty.

[sharky_55 · 8/10 · 19 August 2017]

Amidst all the Szechuan sauce and streaming distribution shenanigans Rick and Morty has been quietly returning to the zany form that saw it become one of the best shows on television back when it first dropped. Last week's Pickle Rick was the epitome of the Roiland Harmon combo chucked into a blender and mixed into mush: Rick's a pickle, yes a pickle, but while he's busy escaping from secret Russian hideouts the Smith family (sans loser Jerry) is knee-deep in some serious denial, because the therapist is asking the hard questions. And certainly the brutal truths that Dr Wong offers to both Beth and Rick can hardly be hidden from even the most casual viewer; together they form a pretty toxic pairing, and slowly but surely the rest of the family is sinking alongside them. The pathway that season 3 is headed towards is undeniably a vital one, especially with the relative ease in which Rick's sacrifice in the season 2 finale was brushed aside (remember Pierce Hawthorne from season 2 to 3 of Community?). The adventures continue, but now there's a darker edge to them, as if Morty and Summer have finally realised that having a insane genius space scientist for a grandpa isn't all that it's cracked up to be. So thumbs up for Dr Wong laying down the truth, and a bigger thumbs up for having Beth and Rick react exactly how we have come to know them for. Beth has always been Rick's biggest enabler, and having already given up her marriage, it seems as though she might be ready to give up her kids too.

Vindicators 3 might not be Rick and Morty in top form, but it continues that line of thinking by holding up a microscope to the titular relationship, and besides all that, it's just plain fun. It's a testament to the sheer audaciousness and confidence in their audience and concept that the show can casually drop in references to the first two (non-existent) Vindicators episodes and know that we'll be fully on board. The supernatural abilities of the heroic team feel like they have been cobbled together in a drunken session of mad libs because that's probably how Harmon and Roiland came up with them. "He summons...ghost trains!" "He's half crocodile and half...robot?" "He's made up of ants. A million of them." Morty idolises the whole bunch, obviously. And so you trust that Rick is not far behind with his trademark dose of unrelenting cynicism, casually and drunkenly whipping up a 'Saw' style gauntlet to test their mettle but also reveal the petty squabbles and darker secrets their shiny uniform conceals.

Yes, Rick is an a**hole, but unsurprisingly, Rick is also right, AND absurdly powerful, and the episode becomes less a superhero showcase and more a therapy session where the Vindicators are put on trial. If more than a few of them die, what's the big deal? The show as a whole had been increasingly pushing this tension between Rick's blunt truths and casual insensitivity, and tearing down the shiny mantle of Morty's idols is just another day of work for him. For the former he's spot on; it's hinted that the Vindicators wiped out an entire planet only because they were too proud to ask Rick for help, and you can see Rick's reasoning. He just wants the best for Morty, and these faux-heroes certainly aren't the best role models. But Rick has never stepped up to the plate either, and after two and a half seasons Morty has probably realised that by now. His handling of drunk Rick's antics reveals how uncomfortably familiar he is with this routine ("I'll disarm the drunkenly-improvised neutrino bomb. There's a 40 percent chance it's a dud, but y-you should still stay back."), and it doesn't help that Rick's only response to all this is a snappy "I told you so". Like Dr Wong put it so succinctly, Rick puts being right ahead of his family's feelings, and often the result is a messy affair. And the episode doesn't even give us a glimpse of that infamous softer side of Rick Sanchez. After a sappy and drunken confession, the rug is pulled under our feet to reveal that Rick's emotional unloading was addressed not to Morty, but Noob Noob, the cute little bit-character and assistant/cleaner of the crew. After that the walls raise and Logic's party begins and the whole thing is brushed off like a bad dream. I suppose that we should come to expect that from a show that has previously used its denouements to make feverish, fourth-wall breaking appeals to Nintendo and McDonalds, but now that they've clearly established the unravelling of Rick's so-called heroism, hopefully there's an end goal planned. And hopefully the payoff is more than just a crappy, fizzling neutrino bomb.

8/10

Don't review much, but

[dankasf · 9/10 · 16 August 2017]

i don't see the hate on this episode. it wasn't perfect but by no means the worst episode, or even in the top worst 3. That title belongs to the second intergalactic cable episode, but this episode was just about having fun with a new story. It was also a very intelligent parody not only to marvel and saw, but our philosophies.

Pretty decent but everyone are so mean for no reason

[chayapol-31693 · 7/10 · 2 October 2022]

The episode is overally pretty decent but I find that everyone is being too much of a prick. The humours are pretty mid in this episode, it's not bad just... mid.

I feel like the Vindicators team don't really have anything special, I know that is the point but they just don't aren't a characters that really have any impact. Rick character is a bit weird in this episode, the twist in the end are pretty good but maybe I'm just overthinking that Drunk Rick are just trying to prank Morty at the end because he know he wouldn't remember anything. I'm not really sure did Drunk Rick try tokill everyone on purpose or trying to found out is the Vindicators really a good team.

Not a bad episode but some parts feel pretty akward.

Range some where between 5.9 and 7.6.

Not that as good

[luisgabriel-25931 · 2/10 · 14 August 2017]

Okay, sorry for ruining this episode, but the writing is bad, they just introduce 8 new characters, 6 of them died in the first two minutes like it was nothing. The deaths weren't funny, were just there because the writers wanted, there are no good jokes nor character development. In fact, changed the whole characters, killing every good one, and changing Rick's personality again. Not a good episode.

The main problem is that there new writers every damn episode. 3 episodes back they were in a super bad ass chase away, now it's just paroding movies, and becoming feminists(if you didn't noticed, the girl is super strong, kills and hummilhates her husband and just gets out. Hated that characters)

Rick and Morty is still a good show. I'm just hoping it gets better. Not sure about this third season. Nothing against the new writers, just against their work

Solid episode

[epicbrowniez · 12 February 2020]

I enjoying watching this episode, and the logic cameo was a great addition to add at the end, also noob noob was a pretty funny mr. poopy butthole replacement, great episode

Need morty to be his morty

[sparsh900 · 7/10 · 10 June 2020]

Need morty to be his morty , I watched rick and morty for 3rd time and episode to be about his morty he (1 rick)sacrifice himself for the morty once is split timeline and he should be while he do it in this episode ... I rate this series 10 on 10 ..... the great part about this series is that he know and shows that he dont care when it comes to an end his is up for him this series is called rick and morty for a reason and I love rick and morty both I will definitely do a fan art but this epi break heart but still love rick XD

Worst episode in the whole series

[djkv-67958 · 1/10 · 14 August 2017]

Something isn't right with this season, its losing its creative touch and is below par at times.

It's turning into a family girly drama, not the sci-fi adventure comedy that made it the great and unique show it was the first 2 seasons.

In this season, you can easily tell Rick is being emasculated and stripped off his legendary status.

Horrble episode

[dannyo-96464 · 1/10 · 29 December 2019]

In this episode we see Rick enjoy murdering a bunch of super heroes who are trying to help the universe. Unlike the previous seasons, this season's episodes are devoid of any wit, charm, or cleverness, and are simply about the main characters mass murdering people for no good reason.

That's nasty! No wonder it got bumped up from TV-14 to TV-MA. Where is Rick and Morty's FIRST Vindicators episode from Season 2?

[adampkalb · 1/10 · 16 March 2018]

This is the only episode after Season 1 to be as violent and disturbing as Rick Potion #9. Things were going great in Season 2, and then we got this episode. It's worse than Raising Gazorpazorp, but barely avoids becoming as horrible as Rick Potion #9. Where to begin? Well, most of the "superheroes" are jerks to Noop Noop the janitor (although I think Vance and Million Ants are nice), and Morty still goes along with them after he learns they are frauds. Supernova turns out to be the worst of them, which I will get to. The only redeeming value of this episode is that Rick is the only one who likes Noop Noop. Rick managed to defeat WorldEnder without them and turned this into a Saw trap that killed 2 of the Vindicators. Supernova also killed the other 2 Vindicators and got away with it. I wish Rick would just kill her like when he killed the evil jellybean in Meeseeks and Destroy. She's even more despicable than Morty Junior from Raising Gazorpazorp because while Morty was able to reason with Morty Junior and stop his murderous rage, it didn't work out when Million Ants tried to stop Supernova from killing Rick and Morty.

For more minor but still important problems: It was a shallow parody of superheroes when all the 5 characteristics matched all 5 Vindicators. I guess the whole point of this was that Rick wanted to prove the Vindicators' lack of worth by defeating the Worldender by himself and planning a big party when they got to the end of the dungeon. I also have a huge problem watching this episode because in Season 3 of Rick and Morty they stopped censoring f-bombs when Seasons 1 and 2 used to beep them out.

The 7th, 8th and 9th episodes of Rick and Morty's 3rd season also have this problem of too much unnecessary violence completely detached from any sort of plot, which makes it hard for me to judge the storyline on its own merits because even if the violence isn't part of the plot like it was in Rick Potion #9 and Vindicators 3, just having unnecessary violence there ruins any chance they had of being good. But since other sorts of awful things happen in this episode, that's why I can talk about this and not them. It's also a poorly-written rehash of the earlier Rick and Morty episodes Anatomy Park and Mortynight Run mashed together. I just hate how unnecessarily violent, dark and unfunny Season 3 has got and I think Rick Potion #9 and Raising Gazorpazorp from Season 1 warned us about this. The worst part is that the writers admitted to laziness because they dropped this new conflict in the climax by being anticlimactic because they interrupted it with a dance party and let Supernova get away. Supernova turning out to be a villain pretending to be a hero, or Revolio Junior having a Vindicator jacket and being seen as a Vindicator while being too cowardly to really be a Vindicator would have made better plots than what we actually got. This clearly dropped the more interesting plot points as soon as they came up and focused on the wrong stuff. That's nasty.