Here’s an in-depth run-through of 30+ easter eggs and references in Rick and Morty season 4, episode 6, “Never Ricking Morty”, an episode loaded with more metanarratives than ever before. While not the most consistent in of emotional stakes, Season 4 of Rick and Morty is a rip-roaring joy ride, rife with a wacky inventiveness and caustic self-awareness that fans of the show are familiar with and adore.
Warning! Spoilers ahead: Rick and Morty Season 4 Episode 6, "Never Ricking Morty"
“Never Ricking Morty” might have been one of Rick & Morty's most meta-phor laden story structures of the show so far, featuring a literal and figurative Story Train - a homage of sorts to the art of writing. This anthology episode starts with the duo aboard the Story Train, wherein engers exchange stories about “the man in the white coat” i.e. Rick. Following a ‘continuity explosion’, Rick and Morty embark upon a journey to the engine room, which houses the Story Lord, who intends to exploit their “story potential” via three parameters: marketability, broad appeal, and relativity.
From there on, the episode goes off-the-rails, with flashes of alternative timelines, references to other Rick and Morty episodes, clever easter eggs, and the breaking of the fifth wall. Here are 30+ easter eggs and references in the episode explained.
The Episode’s Title
The title “Never Ricking Morty” is a direct reference to The NeverEnding Story, a 1984 family fantasy film based on the namesake novel by Michael Ende. The NeverEnding Story evokes much of the episode’s themes of layered metanarratives and the conflation of reality and imagination, while the title applies to the Story Train itself, which creates self-sustaining mini-stories while being united by a master storyline. This also alludes to the painstaking, yet thrilling craft of generating never-ending stories in episodic form, especially for a show like Rick and Morty that constantly one-ups itself.
Dan Harmon’s Story Circle
The concept of the Story Train is a metaphorical manifestation of Rick & Morty creator Dan Harmon’s writing process, which is a story circle adapted from Joseph Campbell's Monomyth in Hero With A Thousand Faces. This narrative device traces the transformative adventures of a heroic protagonist, and Harmon’s story circle consists of an eight-step framework that can be applied to any episode, except “Never Ricking Morty.” Rick seems aware of this literary device, utilizing his knowledge of the circle to break the cyclical narrative of the Story Train. The story circle can also be seen as a ship’s wheel on every compartment door, reiterating its significance within the narrative fabric.
‘Venomous’ Beer Taps
In the initial bar scene, the draught beers available on the train’s counter are snake-based, two of which are named ‘Killer IPA’ and ‘Viper’ - a probable reference to the Snake Planet that was featured in season 4, episode 5, "Rattlestar Ricklactica”. On top of this, the Killer IPA beer tap is in the form of a gromflomite, who were a leading species of the Galactic Federation prior to its downfall. It could also be a throwback reference to the gromflomite assassin, Krombopulos Michael, first seen in “Mortynight Run.”
The Ice Queen
In the compartment filled with Rick’s exes appears a character that is reminiscent of the Ice Queen Jadis, the antagonist in C.S. Lewis’ children’s fantasy, Frozen), Aldrich (Dark Souls III), and “the concept of time”, which alludes to the limited time allotted for each episode’s narrative to unfold.
Star Wars/Total Recall
Among Rick’s ex-lovers on the train is what appears to be Yaddle, a Force-sensitive female being from the same species as Grand Master Yoda, who appears as a part of the Jedi High Council in Total Recall. It is also a throwback to the Season 2 episode “Total Rickall.”
Tickets, Please
“Jesus! The tickets please guy is cut!”, exclaims Morty, as the figure in question rips his shirt off to sport his physique. The character is a possible easter egg reference to Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade, in which Harrison Ford impersonates a ticket collector to evade a Gestapo officer. He also represents an obstacle that the duo have to overcome in order to break off narrative continuity, although his only purpose in the narrative is to collect tickets, similar to the Butter Robot in “Something Ricked This Way Comes.”
Interdimensional Cable
This quintessential Rick and Morty plot device is brought up several times throughout Episode 6, which had made its debut in “Rixty Minutes.” While Interdimensional Cable provides access to television shows across different dimensions, the reference to this here makes sense on a meta-level. The fact that this episode comes very close to showcasing disconnected ‘vignettes’ (that Rick also references to) is the joke here, however, it blossoms into something more.
Blips and Chitz
The ticket collector is seen breaching continuity when his body is snapped in half through the window. Once he leaves the narrative structure, he wakes up at Blips and Chitz, an arcade-themed building where in Season 2’s “Mortynight Run”, Morty plays a virtual reality game, living the life of a carpet salesman named Roy up to the age of 55. The circular ring above the arcade machine also says ‘Tickets Please.’
Non-Diegetic Reality
Shortly after the ‘tickets please’ guy wakes up from the game, he disintegrates as he is unsure about the nature of his reality. A shell of a character with no purpose, the tickets please guy is “suspended in disbelief”, which again, is a literary device in speculative fiction, where the audience is willing to forego logic to embrace a fantastical storyline. As Diegetic refers to anything within the bounds of a story, Non-Diegetic reality, at least for the tickets guy, is harrowing and disted.
Birdperson’s Musical Number
After the continuity explosion, the fabric of reality becomes malleable and anything can happen. Rick and Morty can pop up in any narrative inside the story train, and this leads to a commercial break, followed by a non-sequitur featuring Birdperson! Rick and Birdperson perform a musical number, a call-back to their friendship in older times.
