The title of the episode, "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy", was announced on July 25, 2017.[2] On August 7, 2017, Ryan Ridley revealed that he had written the fifth episode, along with the seventh one.[3] Upon the episode's airing, Juan Meza-León was revealed as the director.[4] Screen Rant called the Morty of the episode a "far more capable character, one who has learned so many hard lessons that he's now the one delivering them." Also in the episode, Rick "admits to having some culpability in the dissolution of Jerry and Beth's marriage, while Jerry seemingly comes to terms with his penchant for using pity as a tool to get others to do what he wants" according to Screen Rant.[5]