At first glance, Summer Smith seems like a stereotypical teen girl.
[I'm not giving you my phone.]
[Put it in the stocking, Summer, or I'm joining Facebook.]
She's obsessed with her phone, her body, and her reputation at school.
[This is my chance to gain some footing with the cool kids.]
But while some fans hope Morty will
turn out to be a genius like Rick, so far it's the elder grandchild who shows an
unexpected connection to the person who claims he can't stand girls like her.
[I'm ready when you are.]
[Bitch, I was ready yesterday.]
Summer and Rick both have oft-repeated catchphrases, and the scientist and his granddaughter have
a lot more in common than first meets the eye. There's a long-standing joke
that Morty is most useful because he's an idiot.
[You're a perfect impenetrable suit of human armor Morty because you're as dumb
as I am smart.]
And this is the perfect foil for Summer's aptitude.
[What kind of monster are you?]
[A competent one.]
Summer is capable, and she's the one who earns
the exceedingly rare shows of respect from her grandpa.
[You figured it out...Well, Summer did.]
Like Rick, Summer is able to assess a situation and slip into the role that
best suits the need.
[I think I look like this.]
[Wanna piss on him?]
[Get out of my head.]
On her very first
interdimensional adventure to the female-led Gazorpazorp, the role needed
is mastered, and with only slight hesitation she fits right in.
[You speak when you're spoken to ding-a-ling.]
By the time she visits the Mad Max inspired
hyper-violent dimension in Rickmancing the Stone, Summer immediately understands
the rules of this world and takes charge.
[Kill me, please.]
[Okay but not because you told me too.]
It's Summer whom Rick trusts to help him when he needs to escape the purge,
and Summer is completely unfazed in Morty's Mind Blowers when she has to
save Rick and Morty from killing themselves.
Rick's appreciation for his granddaughter's talents might have
something to do with the fact that she even outperforms the scientist in some
of her storylines. She helps the devil succeed even as Rick tries to take him
down; she figures out how to save Rick from the teenage angsty hell of tiny
Rick's mind;
[You put your mind into this body's young
brain it did what young brains do -- it shoved the bad thoughts into the back.
But those bad thoughts are the real Rick.]
And Summer saves them both with an
impromptu last-minute plea before their impending doom
[And if you think my top
is cute, you cannot execute.]
Even though Rick
might say he doesn't adventure with girls,
[Are you sure it doesn't make you
reevaluate your policy about taking girls on adventures?]
[No.]
There's good reason for
Rick to keep taking her along. Even without access to Rick's fancy gadgets
and tools, Summer proves that -- just like Rick -- she can get it done.
[Are you the ruler of this Earth?]
[How did you know?]
[The quality of your top.]
[Do you love it?]
[I love it.]
Summer and Rick are both pretty mean.
[It's not a conversation
you're holding me verbally hostage.]
[You're both equally mercurial, overly
sensitive, clingy, hysterical, birdbrain homunculi.]
And she can match Rick's
harsh criticisms when it comes to Morty.
When it comes to would-be-friends:
[Don't tell me you're friends with her.]
[Are you kidding me? I don't even know
what she's doing here.]
[You've got to look out for number one.]
[Number one is me asshole.]
And especially when it comes to Jerry:
[I don't give a F*** what you think Jerry.]
[That's you --
you're a baby and an idiot.]
But despite her sarcasm and sass, she desperately
wants to be loved on a grand scale -- just like Rick. They both seek validation from
the greater world around them, and Summer has a deep desire to be able to command
a room like Rick can. Summer wants the affection of her peers
[I want to be popular at school.]
And with all of his catchphrases and fourth-wall breaking
calls for our return, Rick seems to want us to love him. So despite pushing people
away, both secretly crave deeper connections. Summer can loathe her
parents in one moment,
[My God, my parents are so loud I want to die.]
and then feel great
relief to have them nearby in the next. Rick never admits how much he longed to
stay with Unity, but we know how badly she hurt him. Rick and Summer both have
it in them to tear people down.
[You're a fu**ng moron, Morty.]
[Morety, you fu**ing idiot.]
But this is self-defeating behavior. They deeply want the love from
the people that they so often try to keep at arm's length.
[My daughter's going through a divorce and I am NOT dealing with it in a
healthy way at all.]
We've seen both characters hurt.
Summer when she
discovers that her parents might have preferred a life without her in it.
[It's a real treat to be raised by parents that force themselves to be together
instead of being happy.]
But both Summer and Rick cope by going out of their way
to avoid facing the problem.
[I'm gonna move to the southwest and...I don't know
do something with turquoise.]
Rick is used to getting what he thinks he wants, like
separating Beth and Jerry, or throwing a successful house party. But then he gets
out of dealing with the ramifications of his actions by resorting to outrageous
solutions, like transforming himself into a PICKLE RICK, or freezing time for a few
months. And we can see that Summer is learning
to follow and Rick's footsteps by taking extreme over-the-top measures to avoid
the real issues that are bothering her. When her boyfriend starts dating someone
new, she augments her body. She claims that she wants her parents to get
divorced
[Whose idea was this stupid custody weekend thing? I want to be abandoned.]
But then when this actually comes to pass, she'd rather stay in a
different dimension married to a warlord then deal with the fact that her parents
split up.
[Losers look stuff up, while the rest of us are Carpen all them diems.]
[Listen to your sister Morty.]
In some ways, Summer also thinks like Rick, and sees
the world as he does. Just like her grandpa, Summer understands how to win an
argument by throwing out traditional ethics and assumptions.
[You work for the devil!]
[So what?]
[So what?1?]
[At least the devil has a job. At least
he's active in the community. What do you do?]
Like Rick, she understands relativity, and knows that people parse the world
through their own frames of reference.
[If the machine was made by spider people,
normal would mean eight legs.]
So while Jerry, of course, needs a lesson in fancy
alien truckstops
[You have no frame of reference. You're in a universe beyond
your imagining.]
Summer calls Christmas a human holiday
[Happy human holiday, Dad.]
Yet for all their similarities, Summer is also different from Rick in a couple of
key ways.
[Isn't it interesting Summer, that after all that stuff we just did
nothing really mattered and there was no point to it? Kind of makes you wonder huh?]
Summer represents a more optimistic side of the
Smith family. She's as yet unconvinced by Rick's worldview that nothing matters.
Whether it's because she's a young, potentially naive teenage girl, or
because she understands something Rick doesn't, Summer still has high hopes for
the good in the world. She holds strong opinions about right
and wrong, and takes a stand for what she believes in.
[Morty, open your eyes. There is no they. These poor people's bodies are being
used. They're a planet of puppets.]
[Yeah I can hear you.]
[Uhhh.]
She also shows empathy. Despite traveling inter-dimensionally a bit more
frequently now, and knowing that she's one of an infinite number of possible
Summers, Rick's granddaughter maintains appreciation and respect for life.
[No. no! Don't hurt anybody!]
She shows genuine concern for her neighbor across the street
[God I feel terrible.]
[Yep, it really makes you appreciate how fickle the universe can be.]
First Snuffles the dog,
[You can't, like, endow a creature with sentience and then rip it away.]
and especially for her grandpa
[Because I love you and I'm trying to save your life.]
Summer freely expresses her love and
admiration for Rick, always calling him grandpa Rick unlike Morty.
[Grandpa Rick.]
[A city of grandpas?]
[My grandpa was my hero.]
[Grandpa Rick must have gotten shitfaced.]
[Shut up Summer.]
It's obvious how much she admires his brain
[Oldest Rick trick in the book.]
[Fake gun. Shoot me in stand off. Brilliant!]
Summer also attends family therapy and appreciates the benefits of self
awareness and self-analysis. Rick can sometimes show signs of caring, but it's
Summer who proves capable of harnessing emotions that Rick would dismiss.
[Listen to it Tiny Rick. Listen to Elliott Smith. Feel what he's feeling.]
Her efforts in
Big Trouble in Little Sanchez prove just how much she cares.
While Morty would have preferred to stay with Tiny Rick, it's Summer who employs
empathy to realize Rick's pain. And then sacrifices her new popularity at school
to save the old man. As we see more and more how much Rick there is in Summer, it
becomes clear that she's far more than just a teen girl with boy troubles. The
show may use her sparingly, and sometimes as a damsel in distress or an extended
metaphor for teen angst, but when we start to view Summer as we
view Rick, it's easy to see all the potential that Tiny Rick admits is in her.
[Don't short sell yourself Summer. You got everything it takes.]
So, it's interesting that the show has yet to explore many other versions of Summer as
it's done with Rick and Morty, because it would make sense that there's at least
one Summer out there who could prove an even better nemesis than Evil Morty. And
there's definitely a dimension with a different title for this show -- Rick and Summer.
[Uh-huh. Totally let's do it.]
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