Rick and Morty season six has gotten off to a roaring start and looks poised to live up to the high expectations surrounding the hit animated series. The first few episodes were packed with all the classic irreverent, meta humor and surprisingly heartfelt moral insights fans have come to love.
The most recent episode, “Rick: A well-lived death,” was a thrilling, action-packed ride that pitted characters against a gang of alien terrorists in a familiar location. As co-creator Justin Roiland explained in a recent interview, season six will likely have more canonical content than the previous one. seasons, which were primarily based on standalone adventures.While the setting and some plot points in episode two were familiar, the action had little to do with setting up broader storylines, which was refreshing after the relatively canon-heavy season premiere. events of “Rick: A Mort Well Lived” mean we’re moving forward?
Blips and Chitz will probably be a no-go from now on
“Rick: A Mort Well Lived” takes place in Blips and Chitz, an arcade-style establishment first introduced in the “Mortynight Run” episode. It features a wide variety of weird sci-fi games that are meant to entertain alien life from every corner of the galaxy.
While Rick has been a long-time customer of Blips and Chitz, and his grandchildren have come to love the establishment as well, it appears that the arcade has been officially removed from the list of potential destinations for future episodes. Alien terrorists destroyed the building, including many of the games. Rick probably won’t want to return to a location where he nearly lost his life, especially since both of his grandchildren have also been put in life-threatening situations. In all likelihood, it will be quite some time before fans get to see Blips and Chitz on the show.
Morty lost an important part of his personality in the form of NPC Marta 
“Mortynight Run” also introduced fans to an arcade game called Roy: A Life Well Lived. In the game, users play as the titular Roy and live their entire lives as the man while only a few moments pass in the real world. In “Rick: A Mort Well Lived,” Morty finds himself trapped in the game after the terrorist attack endangers Blips and Chitz’s electrical mainframe. To save his grandson, Rick enters that game as Roy. He then tries to convince the entire planet of NPC characters that they are all extensions of Morty’s subconscious so that everyone will board spaceships and fly past the game’s confines, thus restoring Morty’s spirit.
Although it takes some time and many virtual calamities, Rick eventually manages to convince the planet that they are all part of Morty. However, the NPC, who was his second-in-command in the simulated universe, a woman named Marta, is left behind, and Rick allows her to live her life in the flawed Roy to console. Marta was a big part of convincing the planet to follow Rick’s plans, but she also fights tooth and nail against him, at one point starting a civil war to keep her fellow NPCs on Earth.
It goes without saying that Marta represented the small part of Morty that is willing to stand up to his stubborn grandfather. Fans have theorized that Marta’s lagging behind will eventually lead to Morty is more submissive in the future.
Summer learned how to do a die hard
Rick and Morty has always enjoyed a bit of referential humour. Early trailers for season six teased the parody that eventually unfolded in “Rick: A Mort Well Lived,” when Rick informed his granddaughter Summer that in order to defeat a squad of terrorists, “… die hard.” Unfortunately Summer hadn’t seen it die hard. However, this works in her favor, as the alien terrorists expect her to behave exactly like John McClane in the movie, and they are surprised when she doesn’t.
Interestingly, the references in the recent episode to: die hard are probably a reference to the show’s co-creator Dan Harmon and his obsession with the franchise. Harmon uses a strict storytelling formula in his screenplays, inspired by Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”‘, a theory that suggests that all stories follow a similar set of steps die hard movies are an excellent example of this archetype.
There is much more Rick and Morty Madness is yet to come in season six, and the showrunners have suggested that the series will make episodes over the next few years at a rate that far exceeds the schedule of previous episodes. If “Rick: A Mort Well Lived” is any indication, this new season could potentially be one of the best yet.