Summer Smith and Complex Family Dynamics in R&M

 When it comes to family relationships and drama, there’s a lot to love in Rick and Morty. 

You wouldn’t necessarily expect the Adult Swim show about fart jokes to have such juicy family dynamics, but you’d be sorely incorrect. In fact, I’d argue that this is the key to the show’s continued success: watching all of these relationships develop over the course of the show allows for a large-scale emotional narrative to exist even if the surface level plot is (usually) episodic. 

Some of the dynamics most frequently on display are:

• Rick and Morty. The titular duo, and definitely the most fluid dynamic of the show. Rick and Morty has this very explicit theme of Morty growing more independent, frustrated and assertive in his interactions with the rest of the family. In Season 1 he’s just an anxious kid who’ll do anything his grandfather wants, but as Rick emotionally pushes him to worse and worse situations, Morty pushes back. Season 3 shows that Morty is willing to kill Rick if he perceives Rick as being enough of a threat, yet Season 5 shows that Morty also needs Rick for emotional validation and adventure. 

• Morty and Summer. Genuinely one of the more refreshing dynamics to watch, because it feels like the writers were constantly pushing themselves to reinvent the relationship in new and exciting ways. On the one hand, they frequently annoy and frustrate each other, to the point of verbal or physical altercations. This only heightens their competition Rick’s attention, leading to a barrage of insults as both try to one-up the other, then try to emotionally distance themselves from accusations of envy. And yet, there are all sorts of other nuances to their relationship that show how well they can work when the chips are down. Season 4’s finale is a great example of that, and Season 3’s episode “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy” shows that Morty has a secret, protective side in his relationship with Summer. 

• Beth and Rick. Absolutely one of the most toxic relationships on the show. Beth clearly has such obvious abandonment issues, which is why she settled with Jerry in the first place, but Season 3 gives us some new, disturbing developments. Beth seems to resent her father when he is away from the family and in jail in the Season 3 premiere, causing her to blame him for everything, yet this is immediately reversed when he actually comes back. Beth knows how alike her father and her are, and that terrifies her as much as it excites her. As she begins to take charge of her own life and make healthy decisions, it also forces her to acknowledge how many of her flaws stem from Rick. Such a revelation would strain most relationships, but instead their dysfunctionality seems to only feed one-another. 

• Morty and Jerry. What starts as love and respect quickly turns to pity, then disappointment, then anger. As the show goes on and Morty grows a spine, he becomes more aware of how like his father he is. As “Rest and Ricklaxation” shows, Morty perceives his best traits as the confidence and assertiveness he received from going on Rick’s adventures, but he perceives his worst traits as cowardice and passiveness. The awareness that his worst traits come from Jerry severely strains their relationship, and though Jerry tries to deliver morsels of wisdom to his children, they always fall flat for this reason. 

• Beth and Jerry. The other most toxic relationship on the show. Beth and Jerry are the definition of codependent: Beth keeps Jerry around as a reminder of how much smarter she is, while Jerry stays with Beth because he’s too scared and she’ll compensate for his slack. At the same time, the constant attacks to Jerry’s ego exhaust and frustrate him, and his presence serves as a reminder to Beth of her wasted potential. 

Within this dysfunctional as hell family unit, Rick and Morty are often the catalyst for emotional change in a very indirect way: their sci-fi shenaniganry often drives the A-Plot, but then a more emotional and domestic B-Plot spins out of those same events. Their adventures usually incite some kind of breakthrough in another family member (Jerry, Summer or Beth), sending ripples throughout the other two that ultimately come around and affect Rick and Morty themselves when they get back from the adventure. “Rixty Minutes” and “Meseeks and Destroy” are both excellent examples of this phenomenon, but it appears throughout the whole show. 

Yet, I would argue that even though they are the catalyst for indirect change, neither is really the emotional center of the family. No, that title proudly goes to Summer. 

Summer is one of the best characters on the show. Summer starts as a bratty, older teenage sister that Morty despises and she despises him in turn. Honestly, there are only slight variations on this dynamic in later episodes, and isn’t that so accurate? 

However, she drastically changes as the story continues, turning into a total adrenaline junkie. Her arc weirdly parallels Morty’s own development. Morty is terrified by the multiverse yet ready to face it (albeit reluctantly) to achieve his goals, because for someone as anxious as him, the mundanity of his normal life feels safe and secure. A lot of this stems from the fact that Morty is more of his father’s son, and though he actually has a spine, he’s ultimately fearful at heart like Jerry. Summer is the exact opposite. Mundanity doesn’t feel safe to her, it feels suffocating. She’s willing to do anything it takes to explore the multiverse because that is her goal, not a means to another goal. She’ll go along with Rick and do everything he says, because even though she’s the more headstrong and self-asserted of the two siblings, all of those qualities go out the window the second she can go adventuring. 

Summer is, essentially, what all Ricks dream their Morty is: one with just enough thrill-seeking tendencies to endlessly go on adventures, and with enough resilience to never be as completely traumatized as Morty is. The irony is that even though Summer is the most ideal travel companion for Rick in terms of personality, Summer isn’t as compatible for Rick because she doesn’t have the “Morty waves” that her brother has. To put it more explicitly, she’s too much like her grandfather. Rick and Summer share so many of the same toxic traits (recklessness, apathy towards others, lust for adventure, etc.) because Summer is her mother’s daughter and Beth is her father’s daughter. These traits are just as likely to make them bond as it is to hinder their existing relationships. After all, Rick hates no one more than himself, but he loves nothing more than his family, so seeing his daughter and granddaughter constantly act like him elicits mixed emotions. 

When I say that Summer is the heart of Rick and Morty, what I mean is that she’s at the center of almost every meaningful emotional conflict in the family. Even if those conflicts occur against a science-fiction backdrop set in motion by Rick and/or Morty, Summer is either the one most affected, the one who ultimately resolves the argument, or (more rarely) the one who actually initiates the argument. Let’s go through some examples:

• In “Rixty Minutes,” Summer learns that she was an unwanted pregnancy who was almost aborted. It would be normal for Summer to emotionally shut down or wail and sob. Instead, she displays a character trait we’ll see a lot: her honesty. She calls out Beth and Jerry for their parenting and dysfunctionality. She shifts the blame off her and makes it clear that if they feel trapped together because of her, that’s on them, and she’s not the one at fault. By calling out her parents, it forces Beth and Jerry to realize that their anger isn’t with Summer, but at one-another. When they themselves reconcile in an alternate universe where they never had Summer at the end of the episode, combined with Summer’s lecture, it sets them on the path to correcting their toxic dynamic. 

• In “Big Trouble and Little Sanchez,” the narrative is set in motion when Rick puts himself in a younger clone body. But Summer is the one who initiates emotional change in the family unit, forcing Rick to confront his self-loathing. This is one of the first times Rick’s self-loathing tendencies appear, and it will continue to be a dominant motif throughout the story. 

• In “The Rickshank Redemption,” even though Rick is the one who indirectly caused the situation (by being an intergalactic criminal and getting arrested), this ultimately serves as the backdrop for the episode’s first act. Whereas Morty has resigned himself to his fate, Summer fights against destiny and starts a rescue mission to save Rick. Summer and Morty end up helping Rick in his own mission more than they rescue him independently, but it is still a pivotal moment in the family dynamic: Morty begins coming to terms with both newfound independence and his anger at Rick as an authority figure, Beth’s anxious attachment to Rick is brought to the surface, and Jerry is forced out of the family in the ensuing emotional fallout. 

• In “Childrick of Mort,” Rick is the one who hijacks the camping trip and brings everyone through Gaia, but Summer is the one who shreds Jerry’s already fragile ego. This sets off a chain reaction, with Jerry looking for validation and eventually opposing Beth and Rick’s new order. 

• In “Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion” (god I hate these episode names), Summer falls into the same role that Beth did in Childrick of Mort: she aids Rick at every turn, running herself ragged and ignoring the rest of the family in the process. Just as her actions caused a butterfly effect that forced Jerry from the family in Season 3, her actions now ultimately force Morty from the family. 

Looking at everything I’ve said about Summer, all of this makes sense. She’s simultaneously more socially-involved than any of her family, but has much more life experience than most teenagers her age. This gives her emotional intelligence, but also an outsider’s insight into social dynamics.  

In the early seasons, her ability to incite direct emotional change largely occurs by default: after all, Morty is too anxious to care about these things, so it falls to Summer. But in later seasons, this seems to be an actual part of her personality. She has the same drive and intelligence as Rick and Beth, but she’s not held back by mundanity (Beth) or apathy (Rick). 

“Promortyus” is an interesting example of Summer’s character arc taken to its logical extreme. She crash lands on a strange alien world, quickly realizes how messed up their entire way of life is, and manages to quickly retool the entire society into something more constructive. All because she was bored, more or less. 

To conclude, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy this show. It has all the makings of an excellent drama despite never actually setting out to be one. The drama of Rick and Morty works so well because it’s synthesized with science-fiction and black comedy, and Summer’s character is a microcosm of that design philosophy: always tied up in adventures, and multifaceted enough that she can either create humor or advance the drama of a given scene she’s in. I have complete faith in Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland’s ability to continue making her hilarious and relevant to the show’s emotional narrative, and I look forward to seeing more of her in Season 6.