Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
We may be looking at the summer of Summer. Speaking to Spencer Grammer, the actor behind Rick and Morty‘s ever-chill, cellphone-bound member of the Smith family, Grammer assured us there will be more of her teenaged character to come.
“I think that there’s an appreciation for her life in a way that we haven’t seen before, maybe,” Grammer said about how Summer changes in Season 5. The actor also confirmed that there will be more Rick and Summer adventures as well as more family adventures in the upcoming episodes. But as a fan of the series, Grammer had some important questions to ask about this sci-fi comedy’s future. And they have to do with Morty’s ability to cancel out Rick’s brainwaves.
“[Morty] basically cancels out Rick, because they’re so opposite, so he has to have rays, like a protection. Then Summer is more like Rick, and so she’s just the side person who gets in there and gets stuff done. Just like I feel like Jerry cancels out to Beth,” Grammer explained. “Where’s Summer’s cancel-out buddy? That’s what I want to know. Where is she, him, they?”
One of the reasons why Grammer is such a fan of the series has to do with Rick and Morty‘s rewatchability. “I feel like if there was an episode that I really didn’t like originally, I would go back and watch and then I’m like, ‘Oh, but that was so brilliant.’ No matter what there’s something in it that just feels better the second or third time around. I guess that’s why it’s gained so much traction over the years. You can keep watching it over and over again and it doesn’t really get stale,” Grammer said.
Season 4’s “Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty” was an example of that for Grammer. “I was like, ‘OK, this is a lot,'” Grammer said. “But then the whole Talking Cat and Jerry thing in Florida was a really good episode. I don’t know why it makes the episode so good. It’s just this total loose end that we never know.”
That episode also ties into another reason why Grammer likes the show. “I really identify with Jerry a lot. I feel like I struggle with a lot of things, and Jerry just keeps plugging away. It’s so funny that his best life was a simulation,” Grammer said. That simulation is a reference to Season 1’s “”M. Night Shaym-Aliens!” When Rick is captured by a race of aliens using a virtual reality prison, Jerry is also taken by mistake. It’s only when Jerry is unknowingly trapped in the most basic version of this this VR world that he actually becomes a professional success. “I’m not even in that episode. The whole thing, it’s great. I think that my life is like that sometimes, that it’s all a simulation, and I think it’s the best life ever. But it turns out it’s just really sad because I’m just advertising Hungry for Apples.”
While Grammer really enjoys both Summer-and-Beth and family-focused episodes, what she finds most interesting are the rare Rick and Jerry adventures. Specifically the actor highlighted Season 3’s “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy.” That mashup changed the entire family dynamic. “Suddenly then everybody else has to come up with some agency,” Grammer said.
“Maybe that’s why the Rick and Jerry ones are so good because everybody else also has to suddenly be without Rick. And who are we without Rick, most of the time? How do we define our relationships independently?” Grammer said. “I think that one episode in particular was funny because it just highlighted a lot of Summer’s insecurities and Beth’s insecurities about how she thinks she might know better than Rick… I didn’t at the time watch it specifically enough, but going back to that one, I think it stands up really well.”
As for what’s ahead for Rick and Morty’s future, Grammer has a promising answer. “You won’t be disappointed. Or if you are disappointed there’s more to come, I like to say,” Grammer said. “You have so many more episodes coming that if you hate these ones like don’t worry. We got a whole bunch more coming your way.”
New episodes of Rick and Morty premiere Sundays on Adult Swim at 11/10c p.m.
