Not everyone was on board with the anti-heist genre sentiment. U/Artur Zinurov offered their critique of the episode, especially its ridicule of certain elements. “Funny how they have the nerve to criticize heist movies when their season 3 premier is literally a heist movie except instead of stealing something it’s destroying the government,” they wrote. The commenter is referring to the episode, “The Rickshank Redemption.” It sees Rick destroy the Galactic Federation with consequences beyond the act itself. Viewers might be more familiar with the episode’s use of McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce, something that led the chain to make a special 64-ounce bottle of the sauce for co-creator Justin Roiland. They would also offer it to consumers a few times, most recently in 2022 as part an app-only promotion.
The theme of destruction came to mind for another commenter’s disapproval of the sequence as well as the entire episode. “So, Rick killed an entire species + their planet, literally stole the earth and even more planets apparently, made the entire Heistcon his puppets and wrecked Mr. Poopybuttholes career, just to crush Mortys dreams?” questioned u/scamanderous. “Man, talk about being petty.”
Others saw it as a problem for those recruited by the crew — namely not learning the job before taking it on. “Maybe they should [have] ASKED what was the job before joining him!” u/Ren Cen wrote. U/Griffin Sebastian referenced the team being left behind as soon as Rick and Morty got into the event. “You dragged them all the way through the universe just get some pass cards and not get called a regular audience,” they wrote.