Morty meanwhile causes chaos as he kills numerous people and uses special ferro-fluid to turn himself into a cyborg abomination to pursue his desired future.
Meanwhile, Rick finds out someone else used his toilet and tracks down an alien businessman named Tony, who admits his guilt and points out they are both private poopers since pooping is the only amount of control they feel they have in their lives.
Heist-o-Tron then goes rogue and begins stealing planets, forcing Rick to organize a second team which includes Mr. Poopybutthole.
Angered at Balthromaw stealing Morty's attention, Rick tries to kill the dragon, but they both end up realizing they have much in common and inadvertently soul bond.
With the help of other slut dragons, Rick and Morty are able to rescue Balthromaw, kill the Wizard, and break the soul bond.
Rick and Morty then meet their future selves, who remind them they need to help their past selves solve the snake problem and close the time loop.
Morty then dares Rick to invent something based on one of his ideas, where he can create a "save point" in time that he can return to in order to escape death or correct mistakes.
When they end up stranded in the wilderness, Morty considers using the remote but calls for rescue instead, wanting to preserve the relationship he has.
Morty fails his attempt to restart the relationship when his save point is accidentally overwritten, and he returns to Rick, saying he has learned his lesson that one shouldn't live a consequence free life.
As Jerry takes the family out on a camping trip, Rick receives a call from Gaia, a sentient planet, that she is pregnant with his children.
Beth pressures Rick not to abandon his offspring, so he reluctantly takes the family to Gaia where the first generation of Gaians are born.
Jerry takes Morty and Summer into the wilderness to camp while Rick and Beth build an advanced civilization for the Gaians so they can be self sufficient.
Morty and Summer find a crashed alien spaceship and manage to make it fly after some improvised repair.
On Earth, Beth and Jerry go to family counseling at Dr. Wong's, while Morty and Summer fight over Rick's invisibility belt.
The family heads to the ship, with Rick going to free the Beths while Morty and Summer shut off its superlaser before it can annihilate Earth.
After admitting to himself that he is "a terrible father", Rick tries to be a good friend instead and fix Phoenixperson (whose remains he retrieved after the battle), only to be aggressively rejected.
Following the conclusion of the third season in October 2017, the future of the show had remained in question, with no announcement of renewal or status of production.
[20] Production on the third season reportedly had issues between Harmon and Roiland working with each other, causing multiple writing delays and massive tension among their partnership.
They eventually agreed to work out their differences in order to ensure the show's survival with Roiland being relegated to voicing the characters which were mainly recorded from his home.
[21] Co-creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland wanted to have assurance that there would be many more seasons of Rick and Morty in the future, so that they would be able to focus on the show and minimize their involvement in other projects.
This was in reference to him admitting that he should work more efficiently, control his perfectionism, and avoid past mistakes that had resulted in the third season of the show comprising only ten episodes instead of fourteen, as was initially intended.
[23] In May 2018, after prolonged contract negotiations, Adult Swim announced a long-term deal with the creators, ordering 70 new episodes over an unspecified number of seasons.
"[25] Harmon added: "Justin and I just needed enough episodes and the right kind of deal structure that would give us permission to do what we want to do, which is truly focus on the show.
[30] Writing began in June 2018, with Roiland saying that—alongside maintaining product quality—this time around, the writers would have to work faster, so that the episodes get released quicker.
[25] Additionally, Harmon expressed his intention to let the show move forward by collaborating with the animators and making any necessary corrections along the way, instead of applying his perfectionistic tendencies in the earliest stages of writing.
[28] In October 2018, series composer Ryan Elder told Inverse that he was expecting to get involved with the season, when the writing process would have been partially completed.
[35] The first guest voice was revealed in November 2018, when Sam Neill tweeted that he had enjoyed working with Rick and Morty, indicating that the team had finished writing some episodes.
[36] Later, Roiland would also announce Paul Giamatti, Taika Waititi and Kathleen Turner as guest stars in the fourth season.
The site's critics consensus reads, "Rick and Morty's fourth season is both an exciting progression and a delightful return to form that proves more than worth the two-year wait.
"[40] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the fourth season a score of 84 out of 100 based on 5 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".