Rick and Morty – Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation Review

Rick and Morty’s sixth season has come to an end. It concludes with a Christmas episode and continues the wider story.

It’s Christmas time and Rick gets gifts from across the multiverse for his family. This includes a lightsabre for Morty. However, when Morty drops the lightsabre vertically, he discovers that Rick had replaced himself with a robot. Even worse for Morty the President tells the teenager that the lightsabre will destroy the planet if it hits the Earth’s core.

“Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation” was a smaller-scale season finale which was remarkable considering it was an episode that featured lightsabre battles, the White House up in space, and the potential destruction. This was due to the episode being a standalone adventure whilst Rick’s search for Rick Prime was a subplot.

“Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation” retooled ideas from previous episodes. It continues the rivalry between Rick, Morty, and the President, a rivalry that started in the third season finale “The Rickchurian Mortydate,” and like “Rick & Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular,” “Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortication” was a holiday-themed episode about the rivalry. Like the Season Four finale, “Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortication” was a Star Wars-themed finale. In “Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortication” the President acted like Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons because he was a fanboy who complained about the franchise’s decline since Return of the Jedi yet wants to play with lightsabres. Star Wars fans should get a laugh from the references and ripping into the worst aspects of the fandom.

There was a risk that “Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation” could have felt repetitive because of reused themes and pop culture references. Fortunately, “Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation” had enough in it to make it feel fresh. This was due to the episode focusing mostly on Morty and The President. The pair worked together during the first half and had an epic moment to grab the lightsabre. The second half revolved around The President’s betrayal where he took the lightsabre for himself. He had to learn the hard way pissing off Morty is a bad idea.

The reveal of Rick who replaced himself with a robot put “A Rick in King Mortur’s Mort” in a new light. It showed that if Rick acts overly nice then something’s seriously wrong. This happened in “Rest and Ricklaxation” when it turned out that Nice Rick was crueler than Toxic Rick. Morty’s had his suspicions in the previous episodes and “Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation” showed those suspicions to be true. It was funny to see the Smith family preferring their wholesome time with Rickbot and Rickbot longing for death, but couldn’t self-terminate, so looked for ways to subvert his programming.

The subplot involving Rick’s search for Rick Prime was included to set up the next season. Rick’s rant highlighted this because he said that it will be a second-long arc and even in standalone episodes the search for Rick Prime will play in the background. When Rick discovered Rick Prime’s location, he realised how difficult it would be to find his nemesis, since Rick Prime was in multiple places at once. Rick’s obsession with finding Rick Prime led him from being an idealist to the dejected man fans have come to know. This transformation was shown in the Season Five finale with this montage. The months Rick spent locked away made him into an underpants wearing slob with a five o’clock shadow. The change for Rick is he now has Morty. As much as he denies it, Rick needs his grandson.

“Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation” wasn’t as big or epic as some of the other Rick and Morty finales but it served its purpose of continuing the wider story, whilst also being a fun Morty-focused episode.