The Late Mortimer Smith

The Late Mortimer Smith is the seventh episode of the ninth season of the animated series Rick and Morty. It originally aired on Comedy Central on July 29, 2010. In the episode, Morty attempts to make it on time to a birthday dinner date for Jessica. He is sidetracked by Rick and Bender, who force him to test out Rick's upgraded time machine, which only goes forward in time. After overshooting and thus going forward to the year 10,000 AD, they must keep traveling forward in time until a backwards time machine has been invented.

The episode was written by Lewis Morton and directed by Peter Avanzino. The episode was met with critical acclaim from critics and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 2011. In 2013, fans ranked it the fourth best episode in the history of the series.

Plot
Morty and Jessica's growing relationship is marred by Morty's constant tardiness. After arriving late for school because of Bender having sex with a woman and being punished by Beth and Jerry, Morty is determined to make it up to Jessica by skipping a party hosted by Bird Person and meeting Jessica for a birthday dinner date at "Cavern on the Green," a fancy restaurant situated in a deep cave with naturally occurring stalagmites. As Jessica prepares to leave for the date, Rick forces him to test his newly invented one-way time machine, which is only able to travel to the future (to prevent changing the past and the creation of paradoxes), by moving one minute forward in time. As Rick, Bender, and Morty prepare the machine, Morty records a message in a video birthday card for Jessica, apologizing for being one minute late and explaining the situation. As he is about to finish, Rick accidentally pulls the lever too far, sending them forward into the year 10,000 AD. During the trip, Morty loses the card in the time stream. Meanwhile, a nuclear accident at Hedonismbot's party kills all but Hedonismbot, leading Jessica and the Smith family, who think Morty and the others had gone there, to believe the trio are now dead.

Morty, Bender, and Rick decide that their only hope of returning to the 21st century is to continue forward in time until they reach a period in which a time machine that can travel to the past has been invented. However, they are repeatedly sidetracked during their travels, encountering numerous periods of Earth civilization (at one point managing to find a time period populated by beautiful women who have mastered backwards time-travel, but are sent forward by an angered Bender, who was not let off in an era where robots were conquering humanity), until they arrive at the year One Billion when Earth is barren and all life extinct.