Rick and Morty season 3 episode 6 recap

In season 3’s sixth episode, a relaxing trip to the alien spa turns hectic as Rick and Morty find themselves split into two different versions.

Part of the appeal of Rick and Morty is how out of control each episode’s adventure can get with merely quick rebounds between death and destruction. The beginning of episode 6 of season 3 (“Rest and Ricklaxation”) turns that expectation on its head. After stealing Morty away from school, Rick takes his nephew on a mission unlike any we’ve seen before. The two are devastated by the life-threatening situation they were just in and break down screaming and crying in Rick’s spaceship. It’s a rare moment of “reality” for the outlandish show met with a sensical conclusion: the two main characters need a break. They head to an alien spa.

Rick and Morty enter a detoxifying machine and suddenly find themselves in a goopy hellscape. They assume the machine has crashed and they have to run from the gross monsters headed for them. After closer investigation into their world, they realize they’re in a puddle of toxins. In fact, they themselves are Rick and Morty’s toxins. There is a smash cut to the “real” Rick and Morty (detoxed) exiting the spa as much happier healthier people.

Healthy Rick and Morty are almost tragically boring. They speak in aphorisms and listen to soft rock on the ship radio. We see Morty become uber popular at school—suddenly the most winning and charismatic version of himself. Rick (politely) interrupts him in the locker bay to announce he’s been getting weird voice mails. The messages, of course, are from the toxic version of himself, who Healthy Rick feels an obligation to save.

Morty insists he is better without his Toxic Self and takes Jessica to dinner. He reveals himself to be too charismatic, rapidly spilling cheesy lines and freaking his date out. Rick forces Morty to do what their toxins request and join together. Twist! The toxins simply free themselves and, led by Toxic Rick who thinks he is a god, want to be independent. However, after figuring out that Toxic Rick will do anything for Toxic Morty, Healthy Rick forces Toxic Rick to merge with him via threatening to kill his nephew.

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With Rick’s halves in the same body, Morty escapes. In a flash forward we see him living out an “American Psycho” lifestyle of Wall Street and hot women. By tracing a call to Morty’s apartment, Rick finally forces him to take on his toxic elements thus returning the characters to their original status—ready for next week’s wild adventure.