Rick and Morty season 8 just dropped its premiere, “Summer of All Fears,” and we did the exact same concept back in season 6. I’m not even going to bury the lead on that. We’ve seen virtual realities, we’ve seen trauma, and what I can’t shake is that we’ve seen it this way before, just slightly remixed.
So I’ve got some thoughts. Is this a bold new direction, or is the show starting to eat its own tail? And what does that one late-game twist really mean for the Smith family dynamic?
The quick version, without giving too much away: the episode sees Morty and Summer trapped in a high-stakes, digitally constructed environment that seems designed to prey on their deepest anxieties and fears, particularly Morty’s. Summer takes on a more central role in navigating it, trying to keep a terrified Morty from completely unraveling. Rick is initially somewhat on the periphery, dealing with the setup and the external circumstances of their situation. It leans heavily into psychological torture, and it tests the bond, or maybe the breaking point, between Morty and Summer while they sort out the traumatic experience they had in Rick’s matrix, if you will.
If you haven’t watched “Summer of All Fears” yet, go do that and come right back. Everything after this is spoilers.
We Did This in Season 6
The setup, in the episode’s own words: “Rick put us in a simulated reality to teach us a lesson about taking his phone charger and not giving it back, and then he fell asleep and forgot about us for the Matrix equivalent of 17 years.”
That premise echoes season 6 flat out the gate. Specifically season 6, episode 2, “Rick: A Mort Well Lived.” It’s the Roy game episode, remember? That episode literally ends with Rick saving the Roy game because, for whatever reason, they have the one piece of Morty that’s still in there. Both of those episodes trap characters in extensive, convincing digital realities where they live out their entire lives.
So was this fresh enough? The Summer-focused angle ostensibly gives Summer more agency. But how effectively does it do that? Is she genuinely driving the plot in any way, shape or form? That’s the big thing I find myself asking. Or is she still largely reacting to Morty’s trauma, which seems to be the go-to for this series?
This is absolutely Summer’s episode, by far. You can always hear the sheer panic in Morty’s voice, and it’s always well performed. Summer’s attempts to use her matrix experience to her advantage are really at the center of this whole thing. The voice acting has always been consistent and solid. My issue is with the writing. I feel like we’re treading the same ground, especially with Morty. We get it. We’ve seen him traumatized in digital spaces so many times. To be fair, Summer shows flashes, but even she feels a bit dialed back until the very, very end.
The Morty Trauma Train
We’re back on the Morty experiencing horrific, mind-bending digital trauma train. At what point does this stop being compelling character exploration and start feeling a little mean-spirited, without significant forward momentum for his character?
Let’s be real. Morty and Summer have been through the wringer, past tense. They’ve shown growth and resilience. They’ve had moments of profound understanding of their chaotic lives. I don’t know if this episode honors that growth. For me, it feels like they’ve been reset for the sake of a plot. Morty in particular seems almost back at season 1 levels of anxiety.
We’re at season 8. If shows like The Simpsons and South Park can reinvent themselves constantly for the sake of being fresh for their audience, what are we doing? Seriously, what are we doing?
I might’ve been more engaged with the journey if it didn’t ultimately feel like we were seeing such familiar beats. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a serviceable episode, but I don’t think it’s one I’m going to rush back to watch again tomorrow. That’s always been the benchmark for me: which ones I go back to see again and again and again.
So what’s the episode trying to say about fear, about sibling dynamics, about the consequences of Rick and Morty’s universe, if there even are any at this point? In season 6 and season 7 I feel like we were building toward something. Maybe it culminated in Rick finally defeating his nemesis last season, and now we’re looking at what the bounce back from that looks like. But I don’t know, man.
I went and looked online, because I needed to take the pulse. I didn’t know if I was crazy. Call it a sanity check. There’s a really strong sense of been there, done that for the core concept of this episode, and a lot of the same comparisons I made to “Rick: A Mort Well Lived.” The continued focus on Morty’s suffering in digital realms is becoming a tired trope for many of us. At least that’s what I got from it. And I’m beginning to have questions about character consistency, if nothing else. Shouldn’t Morty and Summer be more resilient, or changed, by their past experiences?
I know some folks found the episode less funny than usual, and I’ve got to agree with that. There weren’t a whole lot of ha-has, because they leaned so far into the psychological discomfort of it all.
Summer Knew
The most interesting reveal of the episode comes right at the very end. For the whole episode Summer’s a victim right alongside Morty. Then you find out she was part of what caused the traumatic experiences Morty had to deal with.
“You couldn’t have known what would happen in that war.”
“But I did know, Morty. Once I understood the rules of the Matrix, taking power was easy. But making power wasn’t. There was only one way to make the charging science work.”
It was apparently necessary to secure the in-Matrix lithium batteries she needed to help build, or configure, the very device that would ultimately allow them to escape said Matrix. Very convoluted. She essentially weaponized Morty’s fear and suffering for their survival. Because remember, he couldn’t die the whole time. So he had to go through this entire scenario, because she knew he’d be the right one to do the thing.
I think he’s supposed to feel some way about it, and we’re supposed to go, “Oh, that makes sense.” But I don’t know that the late reveal, while impactful to the story, made me feel any better. The bulk of the episode was less engaging than it could’ve been if this dynamic had been hinted at earlier. Honestly, for me, you start the episode there. You tell us out the gate.
The fact that I’m having this much trouble walking through this thing should give you some indication as to what was ultimately wrong with the episode.
Start With the Guilt
My overall take on “Summer of All Fears” is that it’s lackluster. It’s a lackluster premiere for season 8. We did the exact same concept back in season 6, and I’d argue what they did with it then was more interesting. That episode explored the NPCs becoming self-aware. This felt more like torture for the sake of torture, at least until the very end.
We continue to go full steam ahead on what I’m calling the Morty trauma train, especially with the digital experiences, and man, it’s really starting to rub me the wrong way. I watched it and I felt uncomfortable. Maybe I’m just reaching the tipping point in my desire to keep watching this particular well go dry. It’s especially frustrating when we’ve seen both Morty and Summer become more well-rounded. They’ve dealt first-hand with such insane, genuinely traumatic stuff, and in the past they came out stronger and at least some level of more self-aware. Here it feels like they regressed, particularly Morty, just to service the plot.
The episode finally gets interesting in the very final moment, with the reveal that Summer caused Morty’s live-die-repeat nightmare to help build the device that rescues them. You start there, and you let the tension be her guilt.
Instead, we deal with this oddly misplaced bonding thing between her and Beth. I’ll be honest, I just didn’t care. We’ve seen them bond in the past. The episode where she was turned inside out. The episode with Space Beth and regular Beth, and how Summer reacts to them and who’s mom and who’s not. We’ve seen them do this bonding. We didn’t need it here.
So toss that out, and have Rick be the one evaluating it. We’ve seen Rick do that before too. You have Rick noticing Summer’s behavior, whether it’s callous or whatever else, because obviously she’s dealing with the fact that she’s in her 30s in her mind. You keep that dimension. I think that dimension was actually interesting. Then you get it to the point where Summer’s like, “I don’t know what’s going on with him,” and she storms off, only to have Rick show up and be like, “So, how many times did you have to let him die?” You have him figure it out. Why? Because she’s starting to act more like him.
I really think that’s cool. That morally gray area for Summer hints at a darker side, and that’s an exploration worth going into. It makes her complicit in Morty’s suffering for a supposed greater good. Like I said in my example, that’s a very Rick-like move. Ironically.
It doesn’t really save the whole episode, though. Ultimately the entire episode felt like a re-tread, and it was a season premiere. One, the characters deserve better. Two, we as fans, the audience, deserve better.
The Verdict
Rick and Morty season 8’s premiere, “Summer of All Fears,” gets a six and a half out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
The final reveal about Summer added that half point, but overall I was really underwhelmed by this premiere. I’m hopeful for next week’s episode, especially since it’s very Space Beth-centric, which could definitely inject some much-needed freshness. I’m down for seeing some Space Beth.
So there you go. Now you know. And if knowing’s half the battle, you’re halfway to being a know-it-all yourself.
What did you think? Was I way off base? Did “Summer of All Fears” work for you, or are you feeling a bit of that concept fatigue too? Let me know all your thoughts and theories. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above. Never forget: everyone loves a know-it-all.
