Rick and Morty – Full Meta Jackrick Review

After a brief hiatus the sixth season of Rick and Morty with the self-referential episode “Full Meta Jackrick.” It’s an episode that acts as a sequel to “Never Ricking Morty.”

Rick and Morty find they have the target of a space parasite that makes them experience past events that never really happened. When they break free from its grip Rick and Morty chase it into the ‘Meta,’ a world where all fictional characters are real and they come face-to-face with an old enemy.

“Never Ricking Morty” was arguably the best episode of Rick and Morty’s fourth season. It’s certainly a tight contest between “Never Ricking Morty” and “The Vat of Acid Episode.” Like “Never Ricking Morty,” “Full Meta Jackrick” was an episode that restarted Rick and Morty after a mid-season break and acted as a breakdown of creative writing. As someone with the pretensions of being a filmmaker, both episodes appealed to me.

“Full Meta Jackrick” felt like a writing masterclass. It looked at the issues and pitfalls of creative writing. It was filled with references to writing tropes. An early reference I saw one for Chekov’s Gun. The references were explicit when Rick and Morty get confronted by the Self-Referential Six and their reality-bending powers. The appearance of Joseph Campbell was a nod to any writers in the audience because of his monomyth theory. However, general audiences probably won’t know who he was.

Rick and Morty has tended to screw with the audience. The show has often made subversive jokes and goes out of its way to disprove fan theories. One fan theory is that Rick knows he’s a fictional character who would eventually meet his creators. “Full Meta Jackrick” made that idea unlikely since The Story Lord escapes from ‘Meta’ and meets his creator and he ended up being disappointed. If there was ever an episode where Rick and Morty meet Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon it would probably play out in a similar manner.

There has been criticism of the show because it has become too reliant on self-referential humour. The showrunners have decided to steer into the skid since they have made an episode based on meta-humour. It was an episode that was made for long-time fans because of its references, like Story Lord wanting to be declared the new Mr. Nimbus and Rick and Morty’s Space Jam cameo.

Another issue some fans have had with recent seasons of Rick and Morty is Rick being overpowered. Season Six has tried to rectify this. The first half of Season Six showed Rick being unable to fix portal travel until the omnipotent dinosaurs showed him up. In “Full Meta Jackrick” Rick was shown to mess up when his plan to free Brett Con, the member of the Self-Referential Six with the power to retcon everything, goes array. Rick admitted that he messed up when Morty chastised his grandfather.

There was some classic Rick and Morty-style humour. The pre-title sequence when felt like a combination of “M. Night Shaym-Aliens” and “Total Rickall” when Rick knew there was something wrong and their perception of reality was altered. Previous-Leon’s ability to give Rick and Morty false memories felt a lot like “Total Rickall” where the Smith Family also experienced false memories. The joke involving Marvin the Cowardly Security Guard felt like a segment from the “Interdimensional Cable” episodes, especially when it turned into a sitcom-style introduction.

“Full Meta Jackrick” was more of a niche episode of Rick and Morty because of its focus on story writing and structure. For audience members who are interested in creative writing they would get a kick out of “Full Meta Jackrick.”