Anna Daniels
In the beginning, Morty uses the save device to satisfy his darkest inclinations. In one particularly cringe-worthy interaction, he comes upon an old man sitting idly by a crosswalk in a wheelchair. Morty pretends to offer his assistance, and instead dumps the poor old guy unceremoniously in the street. After undoing this act of unspeakable cruelty with his handy-dandy device, he makes like a Boy Scout and wheels the old man across the street. If you were focused too closely on the interaction between Morty and the man, you probably missed that bar in the background, which is a dead ringer for Moe’s.
It makes sense that Harmon would choose to use this little Springfield watering hole to honor his venerable predecessor in the world of irreverent animation. Few locations in television history are as iconic as Moe’s Tavern. There’s the Seinfeld diner and the coffee shop from Friends, of course. Maybe an argument could be made for the Bada-Bing from The Sopranos, but that’s pretty much it. Moe’s Tavern occupies pretty rarefied air.
By the end of the episode, it turns out that Morty’s device doesn’t work at all how he intended, and Rick actually devised the little gadget to be an elaborate and devastating lesson for his mouthy grandson. The lesson for the audience, of course, is don’t blink unless you want to miss one of Harmon’s clever references on Rick and Morty.
Written by: Looper
