Rick and Morty‘s Summer Smith has gone through some changes over the years. After episode seven of the newest season, Summer might have just become our hero.
Summer Smith (Spencer Grammer) started on Rick and Morty as a basic teen girl. She’s the sister to Morty and the granddaughter to Rick. Since most of the early episodes revolved around the titular characters, there wasn’t much to Summer beyond attitude and a lame boyfriend.
Eventually, she would become her own interesting character. When she adventures with Rick, she’s much more compatible with him than Morty is. They even got buff together! Summer also knows how to best use Rick’s technology. My girl Summer used the tech to get Wolverine claws. You really can’t get cooler than that. Yet in the most recent episode of Rick and Morty, Summer elevated herself to queen.
Get ’em Sum-Sum
**Spoilers for season 7, episode 7 of Rick and Morty ahead***
In episode 7, “Wet Kuat American Summer,” Summer begins the episode by doing a bunch of work for Rick to get an attribute device from him. Once she gets the device, Summer alters her attributes so she can be a hit at her friend’s “frolf” (frisbee golf) party. Morty is jealous that Rick just “gave” the device to Summer. When the siblings fall into the pool fighting, they become fused into a “Kuato” with Morty coming out of Summer’s stomach. Summer goes to a club just for the cool Kuats to hang out. She meets some cool people only to find that it is all a shady operation where Kuatos are black market commodities.
Kuato-Morty gets surgically removed from Summer. To save him before he’s sold to the highest bidder, Summer goes full badass. She’s shaking down everyone for information all while Rick is on the same trail. When Summer and Rick find each other, they team up. Rick reveals that he treats Summer differently because she’s “a cat.” Summer’s respect needs to be earned, just like a cat. Morty, on the other hand, is a hopeless dog. It makes total sense. Clearly, Rick thinks Summer is smarter, more reliable, and worthy of his time. Not that Morty is the worst—he’s just not Summer.
At the end of the episode, Summer watches Morty at the frolf game. One of her classmates, whom she was interested in at the start of the episode, asks her to be one of his girlfriends. Summer declines the offer. Then a woman she had saved during the Kuato situation appears, revealing herself to be Summer’s girlfriend. Talk about a mic drop. She knows her grandpa respects her and she’s realized she doesn’t need that lame high school guy.
We love you, Summer. Keep carpin’ all them diems.
(featured image: Adult Swim)
