In the garage, Morty begins to have an understandable scare. Previous Leon escapes through a portal that Rick describes as a hole in the fourth wall that leads to the metanarrative layer. Yes he is about to be that kind of episode.

The two go in search of the previous Lion in the metanarrative layer, which is represented as a landscape with pathways to different archetypes and story tropes. Rick comments that the entire premise is “A bunch of groan-inducing puns for seven TV critics who won’t even enjoy it.” First of all, oh? And secondly, yes, exactly.

Rick and Morty find the previous Leon hiding, where else, literally in the brush. The branches even spell, “Weeds”. But hold on to your plumb lines, folks, because we’re only one layer deep on this nesting doll…