This is either going to be the best Christmas ever or... wait, this is Rick & Morty.
Original air date: 12/11/2022
Morty makes a discovery when he gets a lightsaber for Christmas.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Geography: The episode is set on Christmas Day and we see the A.I-powered lightsaber resurface in what appears to be Venice, Italy. But the place is clearly depicted to be in a Summer climate, even though it should be in Winter just like where Rick and Morty live.
- Artistic License – Geology: It should go without saying, but, no, there isn't a giant air chamber between the inner and outer cores in which a person could live.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Rick pesters his own A.I-powered lightsaber too long before it can catch up with the one Morty dropped earlier. It then rebels from its directive and wreaks havoc across Italy.
- Almost Dead Guy: Rickbot is sliced open by five tiny lightsabers, but hangs on long enough for some dying words. Rick even complains about how long it's taking him to actually die.
- Aside Glance: During Rick's rant at the end, while Morty is standing there listening and getting increasingly freaked out, he casts an uncomfortable glance at the camera at one point.
- Be Careful What You Wish For:
- First, a lightsaber. They're absurdly dangerous.
- Second, being let in on Rick's lifelong crusade.
- Believing Their Own Lies: Curtis tells his people to pin Rick's accidental massacre in Italy on the Saudis, then he very quickly talks himself into thinking they actually did do it.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Morty saves the day by performing a successful Desperate Object Catch when fetching the lightsaber before it could hit the core.
- Later Rick saves his robot clone, Morty, and even Curtis from dying in space by portaling them back into the garage.
- Big "NO!": Morty lets one out when Rickbot loses his grip and gets sucked out of the spaceship.
- The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: This applies to accidentally-dropped lightsabers. This becomes quite a problem when they land perfectly vertically, melting a hole through whatever surface they land in, dropping further, and the cycle repeats until it's either grabbed in midair or it hits the planet's core.
- Blatant Lies: President Curtis's state of the union broadcast has him make several Verbal Backspaces while trying to conceal the fact that he's gone to space to escape the consequences of his own actions that will cause Earth's destruction. He stops bothering, though, when he and several objects in the room with him begin to float from zero-G, just admitting he's busted.
- Booby Trap: Rick disassembles one of Rick Prime's killbots containing an explosive. After taking it apart, it contains another bomb.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Rick as usual during his rant at the end, where he tells Morty that the arc of Season 7 will be hunting down his nemesis Rick Prime, but it won't be in every episode; sometimes, it might be happening in the background, and only Rick and Morty will know about this.
- Call-Back: The events of "Solaricks"—specifically, Rick's and Morty's encounter with Rick Prime in the latter's space lair—drive Rick's subplot in this episode, as he uses footage from this and a killbot that he took from the lair to help him once again start actively hunting Rick Prime.
- Christmas Episode: The third in the series after "Anatomy Park" and "Rattlestar Ricklactica", and continuing the tradition of actually airing fairly close to Christmas in real life (14 days before). Unfortunately, Morty is unable to enjoy it upon discovering Rick's deception and the plot subsequently going From Bad to Worse, and later takes it out on the rest of his family.
- Coincidental Broadcast: As soon as Morty says he's not to blame for ruining Christmas, President Curtis begins an Emergency Presidential Address blaming him for the lightsaber incident. Which is lampshaded by Summer and Space Beth.
- Continuity Nod:
- Rick references the previous episode, "A Rick in King Mortur's Mort", after the Robotic Reveal, confirming that he replaced himself with Rickbot after the events of the Cold Open after Morty called him boring, and Rickbot has been standing in for the real Rick ever since. Similarly, Rickbot takes a jab at his real counterpart: "It's almost like someone designed me to be 22% more thoughtful than you," a reference to his promise to Morty to be 22% more agreeable.
- Like in "The Rickchurian Mortydate", a previous season finale that also involved Rick confronting President Curtis, Rick once again warns the President's staff not to touch something or they'll die, meaning it quite literally rather than as a threat. And once again, one of them doesn't listen to him, and does indeed die as a result, while Rick is quick to give them an "I Told You So".
- Rick's end-of-episode tirade to Morty, where he rants about the future adventures they'll have together while Morty just listens and looks freaked out, resembles his previous similar rants in "Pilot" and "The Rickshank Redemption". The main difference is that those episodes were season premieres, talking about the adventures Rick and Morty would have for the rest of the season, while this one is a Season Finale and the rant is referring to next season's adventures.
- The Fantasy chemical vats from "The Old Man And The Seat" return, which are the vats that Rick used to incapacitate Tony for using his private toilet. The room where these vats are contained is revealed to be on the third floor of Rick's underground laboratory. Morty's lightsaber breaks through one of the vats in its descent, freeing a tough four-armed lizard alien in the process.
- Rick once again goes on a rant about the awesome adventures he and Morty are going to have, only this time it has a dark twist as he's gone off the edge and is scary focused on killing Rick Prime.
- Continuous Decompression: Occurs when the bottom of the White House spaceship cracks open. This leads to a heartfelt Take My Hand! moment between Morty and Rickbot before both get saved by Rick opening up a portal for them to fall into safety.
- Creator Cameo: Mr. Poopybutthole's trainer looks an awful lot like Dan Harmon, albeit his hair and beard aren't gray.
- Death Seeker: Once Rickbot is revealed to be a robot and Morty is infuriated by the deception, the former becomes increasingly guilty about lying to everyone, especially as the rest of the Smiths shower him with more and more Oblivious Guilt Slinging. By the time all three Smith women attack him after Morty tells them the truth, he gladly welcomes death, and is outright disappointed when they revive him to help save the Earth, repeatedly attempting to commit Heroic Sacrifices and otherwise put himself In Harm's Way so he can end it. He finally gets his wish near the end after taking five mini-lightsabers from a gatling gun to the stomach.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Rickbot dies in Morty's arms after Taking the Bullet for the President, once Rick has returned them all to Earth.
- Didn't Think This Through: Curtis made a robot with lightsabers for eyes. What it doesn't have is actual eyes, so it flails around and cuts its own limbs off until Morty cuts it down.
- The Dog Bites Back: Rick has been working hard at becoming a better person, and the Smith family has kept shutting him down, as best evidenced in "Analyze Piss". When Morty ignored his advice and insulted him in the previous episode, only to get in very predictable and escalating trouble, he gave up and gave the family what they wanted, a perfectly agreeable robot. Even then, when Morty found out and Rick chewed him out for abusing his lowered walls, he still gives Morty good advice.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Rick warns the scientists to not touch his equipment or else they'll die, emphasizing that it's not a death threat, but the fact that his gear is so advanced that they're liable to kill themselves trying to use it. One scientist is immediately disintegrated after a quick touch, with Rick calling it out.
- Downer Ending: Averted. Unlike the usual downer endings from the latest seasons, this one ends up with no major sacrifice but rather Rick having another grandiose speech on his adventures with Morty to find Rick Prime.
- Drill Tank: Morty and Curtis utilize one to retrieve the lightsaber before it reaches the earth's core. Rick dismisses it as a derivative idea Jerry would like, which is proven true later when Morty talks about it.
- The Elites Jump Ship: President Curtis steals Morty's lightsaber after they manage to stop it from destroying the Earth, only to cause the exact same crisis again while playing with it in the Oval Office. Rather than owning up to it in any way or using the drill to save the planet again, he launches the White House into space, leaving Earth to its fate while saving himself and his underlings, and goes on live TV to blame the entire thing on Morty.
- Emergency Presidential Address: The President broadcasts one to inform the populace about the impending doom of the lightsaber hitting the Earth's core, falsely shifting the blame from himself onto Morty (who was responsible for it the first time, but not this time).
- Et Tu, Brute?:
- Morty is furious to discover that the seemingly "new, nicer Rick" is a robot after all, while the real Rick has been hiding in his garage basement continuing to work on finding Rick Prime, shouting, "Betrayal! Betrayal on all sides!"
- He then expresses hurt and anger when President Curtis betrays him as well by stealing the lightsaber from him after they work together to stop it from destroying the Earth.
- Even Evil Has Standards: President Curtis is at his worst in this episode, as he steals a lightsaber from a 14-year-old boy while acting like he's entitled to have it because of his warped sense of fandom, and then leaves the Earth to be destroyed for his own mistake. However, he does show a couple of moments of this:
- When Curtis first shows up to the Smith home, berates Morty (who is already very upset because of Rick's and Rickbot's deception) for causing the lightsaber crisis, and unloads his Gen X frustrations with the Star Wars franchise onto him, Morty just breaks down and starts crying from all of it. Curtis quickly backtracks and apologizes for talking to him like he's an adult politician instead of the 14-year-kid he is, and promises to work together to fix the problem.
- Rick, while venting his frustrations with Morty for sticking with the President over him and not respecting him, rants that when you let people in, bad things happen like your whole family getting murdered (referring to what happened with Rick Prime), ending with warning him against trusting Curtis. Though the President does indeed end up betraying him later, after hearing Rick's angry tirade, he's disturbed enough that he feels the need to reassure Morty of one thing, at least:President: I'm...not going to kill your family, Morty.
Morty: That means a lot.
- Face Death with Dignity: After Rickbot is exposed to the family, he calmly closes his eyes while he's torn apart. Though this is mainly because he's a Death Seeker, and he's actively disappointed to be brought back to life again later.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: When Morty reveals to the rest of the family that the "Rick" with them actually is a robot, Earth Beth breaks a wine bottle on the table to attack Rickbot with the jagged edges.
- History Repeats: When Morty accidentally drops his lightsaber, he and President Curtis travel underground to get it before it hits Earth's core and destroys the planet. Curtis then takes it away from Morty and later fiddles with it, only to get it stuck on the ceiling before it falls into the ground, endangering the planet again.
- Hit Me, Dammit!: When trying out the new lightsaber, Rickbot orders Morty to strike him with it, which Morty is reluctant to do. He reluctantly does, and Rickbot reveals that he made his body disappear from the clothes like Obi-Wan (but didn't actually die and is just hiding naked nearby).
- Implausible Deniability: Rickbot insists he isn't a robot even when it's obvious he is (like when the family reactivates him and he's still literally in pieces), because he's been programmed to never admit to being one and can't stop.
- Indy Hat Roll: Spoofed with Rickbot sliding halfway under the Slow Doors of the President's backroom on purpose and waits to be crushed before Morty pulls him through just in time.
- In-Series Nickname: Previously, Rick Prime was only referred to as such in the behind-the-scenes features with the writers and creators. Here, Rick and Morty both use this name for him as well, confirming it's canon in-series as well as out.
- Internal Reveal: Rick—or, more likely, Rickbot posing as him—apparently revealed to the rest of the family (besides Morty, who already knew) offscreen before the time of this episode that his original Beth was murdered when she was still quite young, since his Christmas gift to both Beths is a picture of her as a child together with Rick in a reality where this didn't happen.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Morty is reasonably upset that Rick is too busy to hang out with their family and made a robot to fill in. As such, though Rickbot was looking forward to not having to lie to the Smiths anymore, Morty forces him to continue his function and not bother with the real Rick who likely doesn't care. This causes Rickbot additional pain and discomfort, but it's quite understandable that Morty is hurt by his deception and is prioritizing his family's happiness over Rickbot's (even though he does eventually just outright reveal it anyway).
- While Rick was ultimately projecting his issues over Rick Prime towards the end of his rant, his teardown of Morty isn't exactly wrong. Rick did lower his emotional walls and let Morty in about his issues at several points, yet Morty has regularly stolen Rick's tech for his own benefit, caused problems or made existing problems worse, and no longer respects Rick and keeps getting into fights with him. Even Morty ends up lamenting that he screwed up, as he was genuinely convinced Rick was completely done with him after that, and told the rest of the family he wasn't sure if Rick was ever coming back thanks to how he treated him, which is what forced them to reactivate Rickbot.
- Rick, while chewing Morty out about how letting people in gets you burned for it, warns the latter that trusting the President is a bad idea. Though Rick admits at the end that he shouldn't have shut Morty out and brings him into the fold, he does end up being entirely correct about Curtis, who turns on Morty as soon as they've successfully averted the lightsaber crisis.
- Machine Blood: Rickbot spits oil from his mouth when he dies in Morty's arms.
- Non-Action Guy: Jerry as per usual. As Summer, Beth, and Space Beth all jump into action to attack Rickbot after the latter's Robotic Reveal, Jerry just looks freaked out like he normally does in violent situations.
- Not Hyperbole: Rick warns some scientists in his lair that if they touch his stuff they'll die. He clarifies immediately that it's not a threat, just a factual statement of how advanced his stuff is. Sure enough, one touches the obviously active end of a device and is reduced to a pile of glowing green dust.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Once Morty learns the truth about Rickbot, the latter is quite guilty and regretful about having had to lie to him and the rest of the family, which only gets worse as the others shower him with affection and talk about how much they love the "new, nicer" him and how grateful they are to have him.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: When the Smith family discovers that the lightsaber is heading to the Earth's core a second time, with the government having taken the drill used to stop it the first time and Rick having disappeared, they decide to reactivate Rickbot to help them build a new one to save the day. They succeed, but the only part of it the audience sees is footage shown to the President of Rickbot emerging from the hole in the ground.
- Overly Long Gag: Jerry's extended version of Miracle on 34th Street keeps talking about the number of streets. Even Jerry tires of it after a while.
- Pet the Dog:
- Rick, after being cold to Morty for most of the episode following the Robotic Reveal of Rickbot, does use a portal to return Morty, Rickbot, and the President to Earth when they're Thrown Out the Airlock.note
- Also a heavily downplayed one, but Rickbot reveals as he's dying that he was programmed by the real Rick with the purpose of making Morty and the rest of the family happy, and thus, that everything he did was something that Rick himself indirectly did by extension. While Rick ducking out on Morty in favor of hunting Rick Prime and replacing himself with a robot all because Morty called him boring in the previous episode is definitely him being his usual cantankerous, Jerkassy self, this is still far better than how he would have reacted to such a slight in previous seasons. Essentially, instead of taking revenge for the put-down, he subbed in a nicer version of himself who would support Morty and help him fix his problems, and whom he ensured would look after his family and treat them more kindly than Rick himself normally does.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Rick tries to leave after making the driller once Morty makes clear he doesn't want Rick coming with him to get the Lightsaber, Morty gets pissed at the idea Rick is acting like Morty betrayed him and not the other way around. Rick, thoroughly done with listening to Morty and wanting to just go back to hunting down Rick Prime, delivers a quick but succinct tear down of Morty, both for the events of the last episode, and his general treatment of Rick overall the last few seasons, with Morty treating him like shit despite Rick bothering to open up to him. Morty himself can only wince and look upset while he's listening up until Curtis reassures him he won't kill his family.Rick: You wanna know why I replaced myself in the beginning of that stupid Knights of the Sun thing? I said don't take the fucking sword and you were like "whatever" like I'm our neighbor Gene or David Arquette or something. You called me boring. I've become dog shit to you. That's what happens when you let people in and they stop respecting you, they touch your shit, they screw things up, they kill your fucking family. Go ahead. Trust [Curtis]. You're going to learn the same fucking thing.
- Recurring Camera Shot: Morty falling towards the Earth's lava core mirrors similar shots from earlier episodes of him falling into either a Vat of Acid or the Sun.
- Robotic Reveal: As Morty suspected last episode, Rick actually replaced himself with a robot after getting insulted and spent the past weeks searching for Rick Prime. The reveal to the family happens when Morty angrily tells them, and Jerry then cuts Rickbot's wrist with an electric carving knife and wires emerge from the wound.
- Running Gag:
- Lightsabers seem to have a habit of always falling plasma blade first (or perfectly vertical); if not by a wielder's hand or command, then on its own.Curtis: Perfectly fucking vertical...
- Rickbot emphatically denying that he's a robot. Even after everyone he's talking to already knows that he is.
- Lightsabers seem to have a habit of always falling plasma blade first (or perfectly vertical); if not by a wielder's hand or command, then on its own.
- Save the Villain: Maybe or maybe not intentional. Rick uses his portal gun to save Morty and Rickbot from dying in space, which also saves the President—who acts at the villain of this episode—in the process.
- Season Finale: Of Season 6. It ties into the premiere by revealing that Rick is once again actively hunting Rick Prime.
- Sensor Suspense: Rick plugs in a chip from one of Rick-Prime's devices and uses it to track him. After a bit, one dot appears, then another, then exponentially increasing until there are countless dots, showing all of Rick's efforts were for nothing.
- Sequel Hook: Directly invoked by Rick at the end, where he promises that Season 7 will include him and Morty attempting to hunt down Rick Prime.
- Serial Numbers Filed Off: Explicitly averted in-universe; Morty receives a genuine George Lucas' Star Wars Lightsaber for Christmas that makes all the noises and everything.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is one for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
- Numerous references to Star Wars abound, starting with Morty's real lightsaber as a Christmas gift and continuing into many discussions about the movies and TV series.
- Morty testing/playing with his new lightsaber while cutting various fruit seems reminiscent of Fruit Ninja.
- Jerry's Christmas present from Rick (or rather, Rickbot) is an alternate universe-version of Miracle on 34th Street made to be two hours longer. The family watches it together, although eventually even Jerry gets sick of it.
- Rick's AI lightsaber emerges from the Earth's crust in Italy and starts slaughtering civilians there, and President Curtis comments, "That's not amore", a nod to the Dean Martin song "That's Amore".
- After betraying Morty and confiscating his lightsaber, Curtis orders his troops, "America, transform and roll out!"
- Solid Cartoon Facial Stubble: When we finally see the real Rick in his basement, he sports a 5 o'clock shadow painted in solid color.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: "The First Noel", a joyful Christmas carol, acts as this twice:
- The first time it plays, Summer and the Beths are literally tearing Rickbot apart after the Robotic Reveal.
- The second time, the mini lightsabers (which Morty shot at the President but Rickbot intercepted) slide through Rickbot's body and fall perfectly fucking vertical through the floor, ripping a hole in the spaceship-White House.
- Stealing the Credit: The President claims to have saved the planet while it was actually Morty.
- The Stinger: Continues the Season Finale tradition of featuring Mr. Poopybutthole, who is still recovering from the divorce between him and his wife Amy. This time, he's shown working out in the gym with a trainer to try to get back on his feet, but accidentally injures himself by lifting a weight-loaded barbell that's far too heavy for him.
- Stopped Caring: After putting in a lot of effort and letting the family in and getting nothing but abuse for it, Rick gave up and gave them a robot and went back to work on his revenge project alone.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Rickbot insists that he's definitely not a robot, even after the Robotic Reveal. He's actually doing it on purpose because his programming has literally made it so that he'll die if he directly tells the truth, so he tries to make it as obvious as possible so the family will figure it out without him saying it, complete with turning it into a painfully obvious game. Unfortunately for him, they just interpret it as more family bonding and love "Rick" all the more for it. He even continues with it after being brought back to life, when everyone knows he's a robot.
- Take That!:
- There are a few jabs towards the Star Wars sequel trilogy, with the President citing how many people were anticipating the films only to backlash them for their plots, leading to the last film pandering to said backlash and turning out mediocre at best, and awful at worse. As Curtis states, "when you start with a turd, you end with a turd".
- Curtis also takes a jab at the original trilogy's final film Return of the Jedi, where things got all "muppety".
- President Curtis himself acts as a caricature of entitled Star Wars "Gatekeepers"; He claims that he owns the franchise rather than any of the people or entities who do (whom he calls petty insults) and dismisses Morty as not being a real fan since he's younger and didn't see the Original Trilogy when it was in theaters.
- The episode also seems to lash out at fan toxicity in general with it criticizing not only toxic behavior from Star Wars fans but also toxic behavior from fans of Rick and Morty.
- President Curtis says the disheveled Rick looks like "Phil Spector wiped his ass with Randy Quaid."
- Rick is annoyed at Morty for calling him boring in the previous episode like he's "our neighbor Gene or David Arquette."
- Taking the Bullet: Rickbot jumps in front of the President and gets riddled with lightsaber bullets from Morty's Gatling gun; however, it's not so much a Heroic Sacrifice as it is an effort to finally die.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When President Curtis suddenly appears on TV and addresses everyone formally to weakly hide his Earth-ending blunder, Space Beth can already tell beforehand from his opening speech that "this is never good."
- This Loser Is You: President Curtis is depicted as an obsessive and unsatisfiable Star Wars "fan" who seems to only have vitriolic things to say about it, especially the modern works, which is an often-heard complaint about the Star Wars fandom on social media.
- Took a Level in Badass: Three season finales ago, Rick himself went toe-to-toe with the President in a fight in the White House, with Rick only barely coming out on top. Now, Morty—who usually isn't much of an Action Hero compared to his family—fights Curtis's many Star Wars-inspired drones and weapons with his lightsaber and Rickbot, and wins handily.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: President Curtis initially acts nicer to Morty than he has in some previous episodes, up until he betrays him and steals his lightsaber while acting as a stand-in for toxic sides of the Star Wars fandom. Then, after Curtis himself screws up while playing with it and causes the exact same crisis that Morty did earlier, he proceeds to pin the blame on Morty on live television, and later has his drones attack him when he shows up to stop him. It's telling that Morty is mad enough to actually shoot at Curtis with the intention to kill.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Subverted with Rick. Despite him saying in the previous episode that him being "22% more agreeable" to Morty was something he was planning to do for only one adventure, the start of this one indicates that he's remained nicer since then. Then we get the Robotic Reveal that this was a robot clone Rick made of himself all along, and the real Rick is his usual cranky self, albeit with the slightly-less-hidden care for his family that he's shown all season still intact.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Morty is pissed to learn that the nicer "Rick" he's grown to love is actually a robot doppelganger of the real deal, feeling betrayed by both of them and angrily distancing himself from both. Nonetheless, Rickbot was built to love and take care of the Smiths, and considering he was created by Rick, his programming ensures that he does this job well and has real feelings for them. The moment Morty reveals that he's a robot to the rest of the family though, all but Jerry proceed to slaughter him in anger, despite having just sang his praises up to that point, just because he was a robot, and none of them have any issue reactivating him to force him to help Morty get the Lightsaber back, and don't care how much he just wants to die at this point. By the end, Morty at least regrets pushing him away and is saddened when he dies.
