By now, we are all used to Rick and Morty either airing emotionally dense canon episodes or lighthearted fun satires of popular franchises. In Season 6, Episode 2, "Rick: A Mort Well Lived," they did both.

First, the new episode digs deep into the lore to bring Rick (voiced by Justin Roiland), Morty (voiced by Roiland), and Summer (voiced by Spencer Grammer) back to Blips and Chitz, the intergalactic arcade filled with wacky games. Then, the whole episode pays homage to Die Hard, with Summer fighting alone against a team of alien terrorists. Finally, "Rick: A Mort Well Lived" forces Rick to confront the fact he loves Morty and the Smiths, while also proving to the audience that In Denial Rick is still a selfish asshole. There's a lot to unpack, so let's get to it.

Related: 'Rick and Morty' Season 6 Review: Get Ready for Another Ricktastic Adventure

Do You Remember Roy?

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The first time Rick and Morty took us to Blips and Chitz was way back in Season 2, Episode 2, "Morynight Run." It's a great episode that follows Morty trying to save a cloud creature, killing thousands of innocent people, and throwing his moral compass away by becoming a murderer for self-preservation. Good times. Most importantly for us is that Blips and Chitz has an arcade machine named "Roy: A Life Well Lived," which sucks your conscience into the machine and allows you to live a whole life as a man named Roy, from birth to death. Thanks to time dilatation, an entire lifespan inside the machine only takes minutes in the real world.

While the titles of each Rick and Morty episode usually reference famous movies and TV shows, Season 6, Episode 2 is a self-reference, playing with the original name of the game Roy. That's because most of the episode takes place inside the machine, which got damaged during a terrorist attack while Morty was still plugged into it. The boy's conscience was split into five billion virtual humans, each leading a life based on Morty's very limited knowledge about other cultures, races, religions, and even age group. The result is a world built upon clichés — cringe, camp, and hilarious, just the way we like it. As for Rick, he takes the part of Roy and becomes a cult leader while trying to save his grandson.

As Roy, Rick tries to tell every living human in the world that they are not real, but basically 1/5 billionth of a 14-year-old boy's conscience trapped inside a videogame. His words start to draw the attention of people, who begin to follow Roy/Rick like a religious leader. He tries to tell them he's not a cult leader, just someone with a very important message he wants the whole world to hear. But soon he embraces the role as it helps him get to his goal faster.

In the episode, Rick needs to convince five billion Morty-like humans to follow him, build spaceships, and fly to the edges of the game. Due to limited processing power, there's just a fraction of space loaded in the game, and if they can cross the borders of the game map, they can escape their current digital prison.

Yippee Ki-Yay

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While Rick and Morty are trapped inside "Roy: A Life Well Lived," Summer is left behind in Blips and Chitz to defend their bodies and take down the terrorists. The only instruction she gets from Rick is "to do a Die Hard." But since Summer is an uncultured teenager, she has never watched one of the greatest action movies of all time. Shame on her! Fortunately for Summer, her ignorance about Die Hard proves to be a blessing, since the terrorists are also using the film as a source of inspiration. While on Earth Die Hard is only a movie, other species across the galaxy understand it as a ritual filled with meaning. So, led by an evil mastermind role-playing as Hans Gruber, the terrorists invade Blips and Chitz to recreate the Die Hard story as fateful as possible. They soon meet Summer, who inadvertency plays the part of John McClane. However, Summer shows nothing but disrespect for Die Hard, as she refuses to follow the script. Yet, that's exactly what makes her the best Yankee Doodle Ruffian in the whole galaxy, as she becomes as deadly and unpredictable as John McClane himself.

Excited about the challenge, alien Hans Gruber leads his goons into a blood and guts-filled game of cat and mouse, as Summer takes down the terrorists one by one in gruesome ways. That's right, explicit and gratuitous Rick and Morty violence, mixed with movie references to all the best Die Hard scenes. Once they realize Summer McClane doesn't follow scripts and is completely ignorant about Die Hard, the terrorists also start to improvise. However, Summer's arc holds a plot twist at its end.

The alien Hans Gruber finds Rick and Morty's bodies, using them as bait and hostages. But the villain is defeated thanks to Summer strapping a gun on her back. It turns out she needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the fight, snatched a book about Die Hard to have some reading material, and learned all about the movie's ending. The terrorists did not expect her to know something about the movie and are caught off guard by the most obvious Die Hard move. But wait, there's more, as in a second plot twist a goon that was shot by Summer has a near-death epiphany and realizes all his anger comes from the repressed desire to eat people. Free from his bounds, the goon turns into a tentacular monster, devours alien Hans Gruber, and flies away. Rick and Morty also wake up at the final confrontation and join the fight, but not before a Holy War almost completely wipes Morty's conscience.

Holy Wars and Deep Feelings

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After just a few years inside the game, Rick manages to convince almost every piece of Morty's conscience to go to space. After all, let's be honest, who wouldn't trade a life of potential misery for the possibility of only worrying about pizza and masturbation? While the spaceships for the big Morty exodus get ready, Rick and his main Morty try to convince the remaining eight percent fragments of consciousness to join them. But as it turns out, there's eight percent of Morty's consciousness that deeply mistrusts Rick. And when the president of the fake United States points out how Rick is pushy and never expresses his feelings, the most loyal part of Morty's conscience begins to doubt the plan.

Things escalate quickly once Rick proposes to leave the eight percent behind, killing a part of Morty's mind to save most of it. That soon leads to a Holy War, where people pro and against Rick raise their arms to either escape the game or fight for their rights to have an actual life in it. Even if you know reality is fake, wouldn't you grab the chance to live free from the ruling of an authoritarian family member? Rick and Morty is so interesting because it manages to ask big questions while still making you laugh, and Season 6, Episode 2 is actually a tale about freedom, reality, and emotional growth.

The Holy War extends for years, while Roy/Rick grows old. One day, the most faithful part of Morty's conscience reaches out to Rick. Then, the old man admits he does have love for Morty. However, words are not enough anymore, and while the leader of the Morty dissidents agrees to tell her people to follow Rick into space, it doesn't take a genius to realize their relationship will never be the same. So, Rick makes one of his most selfish and cruel decisions yet. He leaves every fraction of Morty's conscience that mistrusts him behind, trapped inside the Roy machine.

Morty now has a fractured conscience, and all that's left in his mind are the parts willing to follow Rick. With a single blow, Rick erases a good chunk of the character growth Morty had across the seasons. It's an unsettling move, and we are curious to see how it will reflect on the rest of the season. Even more because, while Rick is in denial, he can't prevent himself from loving Morty. So, instead of unplugging the Roy machine and killing the dissident part of Morty's conscience, Rick attaches a battery to the game and pays aliens to store it safely. That decision will most definitely come back to bite Rick in the ass, and he might finally lose Morty for good.

Interdimensional Lost & Found

  • We need a deep fake version of Die Hard where all the walkie-talkies are replaced by pink creatures. It's just hilarious to see Summer and the terrorists commit to the bit and squeeze the poor animals every time they want to communicate.
  • Jerry was nowhere to be seen, but the episode still takes a jab at him. At some point, a Morty says he doesn't like the part of his conscience that's his father, which is a great Freudian joke.
  • Rick tries to justify wiping part of Morty's conscience by pointing out that 8% of the Snyder Cut is just Batman dreaming. Season 6 is not holding any punches when it comes to superhero references.

New episodes of Rick and Morty come to Adult Swim every Sunday, at 11 p.m. ET.