Rick And Morty's Action Movie Homages Are Becoming A Pattern For Summer
This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Rick and Morty."
Season 7 of "Rick and Morty" was overdue for a Summer-centric episode, and last night's "Wet Kuat Amortican Summer" finally gave it to us. The episode starts off as a standard storyline about Summer trying out a new sci-fi gadget to become popular with her classmates, but it almost immediately ditches the high school stuff for something much darker and cooler. When Morty and Summer get into a fight at a party, the two end up infused together, with Summer mostly the same but Morty stuck as a small deformed mutant attached to Summer's stomach. In other words, he's a kuato, a creature named after the deformed mutant character in the 1990 sci-fi flick "Total Recall."
But despite how this all sounds, the episode is not primarily a parody of "Total Recall." As it turns out, kuatos are surprisingly common in the "Rick and Morty" universe; Summer's classmates are somewhat grossed out by what's happened to her and Morty, but they already know the word for what this is and they're not even that freaked out. Instead, the second act reveals that this episode is a "Taken" homage first and foremost. Just as Liam Neeson once had to shoot his way through a foreign city to rescue his daughter from being sold into some horrific sex trafficking ring, Summer now has to go on a quest to rescue the similarly helpless kuato Morty.
First Die Hard, now this?
The parallels are endless. Like in "Taken," Morty is kidnapped through the trickery of a seemingly cool, smooth-talking man he and Summer meet on a trip far away from home. Also like in "Taken," none of our main characters seem particularly concerned about all the other victims being abused by this messed-up criminal organization, just their own immediate family members. And, of course, the climax takes place on a boat. The episode might not entirely be about retreading the plot beats of "Taken," but it's about it enough it to feel awfully familiar.
After all, this is hardly the first time Summer's gotten to act out the plot to a famous action movie. Season 6's "Rick: A Mort Well Lived," put Summer in the tough position of having to "do a 'Die Hard,'" despite never actually having seen the movie in question. "I'm 17, no I haven't seen f**king 'Die Hard,'" she tells Rick, yet over the course of her storyline she manages to learn enough about the movie to beat out thief/terrorist Chans (voiced by Peter Dinklage), who is a "Die Hard" fanatic. Much like this latest episode, "Summer" spends her "Die Hard" storyline keeping a largely helpless Morty safe, proving once again that she takes after Rick way more than Morty.
A surprisingly sweet episode in general
The episode also gives us a surprisingly meaningful, blink-and-you-miss-it moment of earnestness between Summer and Rick, where Rick admits that Summer reminds him of his grandmother. Who is Rick's grandmother? We've never met her and probably never will, as mathematically speaking it feels safe to assume she's already dead. Still, it's an emotional revelation, not just because it gives us another glimpse into Rick's backstory, but because of how rare it is for Rick to voluntarily share anything about his past at all.
The episode in general is surprisingly sweet, as Summer and Morty get to experience some genuine sibling bonding in the third act after spending the first two thirds getting on each other's nerves. The emotional honesty makes sense considering that "Taken" was also a movie that wore its heart on its sleeve. Liam Neeson's character loved his daughter, the movie told us repeatedly, and it fully tapped into the grief and rage any parent would feel upon hearing their child's been kidnapped. The ending where the two finally reunite, both alive and safe, is as moving and satisfying as audiences could've hoped. Then again, could we expect any less from a movie where "Finding Nemo" was the main source of inspiration? "Rick and Morty" takes a similar cue, giving Summer, Rick, and Morty some moments of the heartwarming bonding they've each been craving all season.
What's next for Summer?
In addition to "Taken" and "Die Hard," in season 3 Summer also found herself thrust into the world of "Mad Max," surviving and thriving in an apocalyptic desert planet where gasoline triumphs all. Not long after season 6's "Die Hard" homage, Summer also played the role of Night Summer in "Night Family." The plot of this episode is often compared to "Severance," which makes sense, but I'd argue that Summer's role here is most similar to the character of Red from "Us," the evil leader of the doppelganger family. It's a surprising choice that raises a lot of questions, the main one being: out of all the family members' alter selves, why is Summer the one who takes charge?
We still haven't found an answer to that question yet — although the possibility of an Evil Summer down the line sure seems plausible — but it's safe to say that Summer is a surprisingly proactive, competent character in general. Whereas Morty clearly takes after his dad, Summer is perhaps the main inheritor of Rick's genes, so it makes sense that Summer gets to star in her own action movie homage every now and again. So, will season 8 let her be John Wick for an episode, or someone like Ellen Ripley or Ethan Hunt instead? We'll just have to wait and see.