The season 8 premiere of “Rick and Morty” is a darkish, twisted affair, and at first, it looks like it is all Rick’s fault. In previous seasons, Rick has wreaked havoc by forgetting to label all the harmful stuff in his storage, however this time he is ruined issues by falling asleep on the improper second. It is a disgrace, as a result of his plan for disciplining his grandkids — throwing them right into a Matrix-esque simulation designed to show them not steal Rick’s telephone charger — was fairly first rate parenting by “Rick and Morty” requirements. Sadly, he fell asleep and unintentionally allow them to dwell 17 years in there inside a few hours.
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Nevertheless, related conditions have occurred on the present already. In season 2, Morty spends a whole lifetime within the VR sport Roy, and it is horrifying when he wakes up and realizes the previous 50 years of his life by no means occurred. In season 6, Morty performs Roy once more, however this time the sport malfunctions and his consciousness is fractured throughout the entire sport’s digital society. As soon as once more, a number of many years of Morty’s life fly by right here, however “Rick: A Mort Nicely Lived” is glad to brush the implications of this apart.
Season 8’s “Summer time of All Fears,” in the meantime, dives proper into the query of how these kind of experiences would have an effect on somebody. When Morty and Summer time awaken from their 17-year stint within the matrix, they’ve modified and grown. Summer time has the thoughts of a assured, educated, semi-mature lady in her mid-30s, and Morty has the thoughts of a hardened Vietnam veteran.
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However their time within the matrix was even darker than it first seems: Not solely was Morty pushed to kill himself over and over in a conflict in opposition to Osama bin Chargen, but it surely seems this conflict was a sham orchestrated by Summer time herself. Summer time knew how a lot psychological harm she was inflicting on her brother, however that by no means stopped her from placing him by way of it anyway.
Was Summer time justified in breaking Morty’s mind? It is difficult
Was Summer time within the improper for torturing her brother for years on finish? Nicely, sure. However to be honest, she was doing it for a superb trigger. She believed this manufactured conflict was the one method for her and Morty escape the matrix, and for all we all know, she was appropriate. We don’t know how for much longer Rick would’ve been asleep for, and we all know that an hour in actual life equals a number of years throughout the simulation. Rick in all probability would’ve lived lengthy sufficient to get the children out of there earlier than they withered away into extreme outdated age, however Summer time had no method of understanding that for certain.
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However unpacking the ethics of Summer time’s actions come second to unpacking the implications this has in the direction of her future. Summer time was ruthless on this episode, channeling her inner-Rick way over we have ever seen this model of Morty do. It is a character arc that raises the query: We have handled Evil Morty and Evil Rick already, however what about Evil Summer time? The place is she on this present’s multiverse?
By the tip of this episode, Summer time has had her reminiscence of maturity wiped and has returned to regular. However though she does not keep in mind what occurred, we nonetheless do. We have seen what she’s able to, so what extra are the opposite Summers able to? The present’s established that there are infinite realities on the market, so what in regards to the realities the place Summer time does not get her thoughts wiped at her finish? How precisely does that actuality play out?
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The potential of Evil Summer time has lengthy loomed over the sequence
Evil Summer time is such a compelling idea, as a result of her presence on the present has at all times been understated. Rick and Morty take up the primary focus, so most of Summer time’s defining moments happen in B-plots or the occasional highlight episode. Every time Summer time does get her probability to shine, she nearly instantly proves herself to be each competent and ruthless. She manages to out-“Die Laborious” a “Die Laborious” fanatic in “Rick: A Mort Nicely Lived,” and he or she successfully leads an entire planet of face-huggers right into a golden age in “Promortyus.” She’s somebody who may, if she wished to, trigger huge issues for your complete world round her. So why hasn’t the present given her the possibility?
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Fueling the Evil Summer time concept additional are the little obvious hints for it sprinkled into the sequence. There was “Evening Household” in season 6, which revealed that Summer time harbors a deep resentment in the direction of Rick in her unconscious. Then there’s that promo for season 7, the place Summer time raises the concept of a “Citadel of Summers” the place she “summon[s] a Summer time battalion to crumble the intergalactic patriarchy.” The road was a joke, certain, but it surely reveals that the concept of a Citadel of Summers is not less than on the writers’ minds. Because the present treks on, it looks like solely a matter of time earlier than the writers determine to take the Summer time Citadel severely and understand it is truly TV gold.
However the primary cause Evil Summer time stays such a compelling thought is as a result of it merely appears enjoyable. Even simply on this season 8 premiere, the diabolical place Summer time takes us is pleasant to look at. Very similar to how Rick was extra enjoyable when he was a careless drunken jerk in season 1, Summer time’s extra enjoyable when she’s allowed to place her morals apart and go full depraved. The primary episode of season 8 provides us a small style of how compelling an Evil Summer time arc may very well be, and we hope that by the season 8 finale, we have gotten the complete meal.
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