The latest episode of Rick and Morty season 4, “One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty,” takes aim at the heist movie genre with an escalating series of twists, double-twists, reveals and ridiculous plot contrivances - culminating in an ultimate twist at the end of the episode. While attempting a tomb-raiding expedition on an alien planet, Rick and Morty discover that they’ve been beaten to the prize by professional heist organizer Miles Knightly.

A furious Rick drags Morty along to Heist Con, a convention organized by Knightly himself, to get revenge - but beating Knightly means that Rick will have to take part in the hated heist genre himself. The situation escalates until a robot called Heistatron, designed by Rick to put together heists using an algorithm, goes rogue and starts pulling off heists on entire planets.

In an elaborate parody of movies like Ocean’s Eleven and The Italian Job, Rick and Morty breaks down the heist genre into its tropes: the hiring of a crew of misfits; one or more of the misfits pulling a double cross; the dramatic reveal that the actual heist has already taken place; and the antagonists’ plan turning out to be part of the heist crew’s plan all along. It quickly becomes difficult to keep track of all the twists along the way, so here’s a summary of every twist in “One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty.”

  • The gem that Rick and Morty are looking for has already been stolen by Miles Knightly. Angie Flint, Glaar and Truckula double-cross Rick and join Knightly’s Eight. Miles Knightly already heisted the crystal skull before issuing the challenge to Rick. …Except he didn’t, because Rick used Heistatron to get ahead of Miles. Everyone at Heist Con has already been recruited to Heistatron’s crew. Heistatron double-crosses Rick and orders its crew to heist Heist Con. Professor Poopybutthole’s students are actually would-be assassins. Heistatron already heisted Earth while Rick was putting together a plan. Rick arriving at Heistatron’s base was part of Heistatron’s plan. Heistatron planning for Rick to arrive at Heistatron’s base was part of Rick’s plan. When Rick invented Heistatron and Randotron, he swapped their brains. Heistatron and Randotron switched places after having their brains swapped. Rick had already swapped Heistatron and Randotron’s labels before swapping their brains. Heistatron’s brain is programmed to explode at six levels of contrivance. Heistatron had prevously planted a Heistatron chip in Randotron’s brain. Randotron used its “random” plan as a way to bring Rick’s whole crew in. Rick programmed Randotron to explode after nine reveals. Randotron programmed Rick’s brain beforehand using its nanobots. …But Rick is immune to nanobots. …But Rick is only immune to the nanobots he designed, not Randotron’s. …But Rick also programmed Randotron to design ineffective nanobots. …But Rick only believed they were ineffective because Randotron’s nanobots programmed him to. …But Randotron only believes this because Rick programmed him to. All of these things were part of both Rick and Randotron’s plans all along.

So far all of this is easy to follow, but where things get really mind-blowing is in the final twist of “One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty.” As Randotron’s base starts to collapse, Morty realizes that he has to get to a meeting to pitch his heist movie to Netflix. Rick seems to be uncharacteristically supportive, but when Morty actually starts to pitch his idea, the true Machiavellian nature of Rick’s plan reveals itself. Morty is unable to explain the idea for his heist movie with any real enthusiasm, because his last adventure has deconstructed the heist genre so thoroughly that its tropes now seem hollow and silly. As a Netflix exec comments, Morty’s enthusiasm for heist movies has been stolen from him without him even realizing.

What this means is that the entire adventure - including the attempted tomb raid, the trip to Heist Con, and everything Heistatron and Randotron did - was all part of a much bigger heist planned by Rick to sabotage Morty’s heist movie. Yes, Rick allowed Heistatron to destroy an entire planet and everyone on it just to pull off his heist, so that Morty wouldn’t become happy and successful, but would instead resign himself to a future of endless adventures. Rick Sanchez, you son of a bitch.

More: Rick & Morty’s Poop Episode Is Rick’s Most Tragic