Rick and Morty returned after a mid-season hiatus with its seventh episode, “Full Meta Jackrick.” As suggested by the title, there was no shortage of self-referential material in the latest adventure of the family duo. 

Rick, voiced by the show’s co-creator Justin Roiland (Solar Opposites), and Morty, also voiced by Roiland, find themselves stuck in a loop of “previously on” announcements, courtesy of a new character: Previous Leon. Rick notices this and breaks out of the loop with Morty. Previous Leon escapes into the meta-reality, Rick and Morty follow him and are about to kill him when he begins praying. This causes Storylord, voiced by Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Sideways), from season four’s “Never Ricking Morty” to appear. He has used that fictional Jesus Christ to transcend fiction and enter meta-reality. Storylord reveals that he used Previous Leon as bait and uses Rick’s device to enter reality in search of motivation. After Storylord leaves, Previous Leon uses his powers on Jesus Christ. What starts as a historically referential backstory quickly turns into an extended backstory, including encounters with Dracula and stories about him as a modern-day billionaire. Rick reveals how Leon is doing this to feed on your potential; he breaks the fourth wall and tells the viewer and Morty simultaneously that your life matters more than his. This entire encounter could be construed as one big nod to the viewer about Rick and Morty‘s lack of primary plotline now. 

Storylord visits his creator, who he is severely unimpressed by, but does help him discover his motivation is motivation itself. On the other hand, Rick and Morty battle the “self-referential six” before nearly dying past the fourth wall. Here they meet with Joseph Campbell, who heavily suggests that Rick needs to let Previous Leon help him so that he can change, complete his character arc, and return home. After appearing initially to have failed, Rick creates a device through Leon’s powers to return through the main credits. Rick fights Storylord while Morty tries to convince the writer to give up on his character. The ghost of Joseph Campbell helps Morty with his effort and makes the writer realize his lack of talent. Rick then easily defeats Storylord. The writer kills Storylord with new Rick merchandise, which certainly calls back to the monetary themes of Storylord’s previous episode. 

The latest episode incorporated fantastic timing to introduce Previous Leon and this premise after the brief break. The heavily self-referential happenings were hilarious and plentiful, even confusing at times because of their frequency. However, the number of jokes in this episode was brilliant and higher than usual. This could be a nod to the divergence from the more sinister and serious quality of episodes along the main storyline and reinforce the idea that Rick and Morty is more focused on having fun and not limiting its potential with the need to tie itself down to a continuous storyline. 

Rating 9.0/10