Fabricated as it all may be by the Fear Hole, Rick and Diane go through a lot in “Fear No Mort.” We first see how this apparition of Diane reacts in horror to the nihilistic monster her husband has become. (“Stop wearing my husband’s face. You’re nothing like him,” she says. “Because I lost you!” Rick replies). But as time drags on, Rick and Diane begin to fall back in love, assisted by some alien alcohol, which naturally makes Rick want to live inside the Fear Hole forever.
If that all sounds like pretty emotionally complex stuff for any voice actor to tackle, imagine a voice actor tackling it on their first day of the job, which is essentially what Ian Cardoni had to do as the new voice of Rick.
“We initially started with the finale,” Cardoni says. “By the end of the summer [of recording], I felt I could top myself for a lot of what I had originally. So we collectively made the decision to re-record a lot of that finale so it would sync up with a lot of the work I had been doing.”
Even though “Fear No Mort” represents the first time that Diane has appeared in the flesh, albeit the Fear Hole-rendered flesh, her presence has indeed loomed large over this season. In the season 6 finale, Rick finally made the decision to track down and kill his greatest foe: Rick Prime – the man responsible for killing Diane and setting him down this dark path. In true Rick and Morty fashion, however, the culmination of that path arrives pretty quickly.
Rick finds and kills Rick Prime, not in the season 7 finale but in its otherwise unassuming fifth episode. As Marder explains it, the decision to launch the “lore-heavy” season 7 installment earlier than expected opened the season up to deal with its consequences, particularly with the finale.
“We put [episode five] there intentionally so we could enjoy getting to see how Rick is dealing with life after. What on Earth is he going to do now? That episode was about getting their groove back and we’re gradually see Rick step back into his shoes in the back half of the season and get back to his new normal.”
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