With her high ponytail, dark sense of humor, and ability to stay calm during most life and death situations, Summer is proving to be the best member of the Smith household. Though often overlooked and overshadowed by younger brother Morty, Summer has proved time and time again that she can hang with the big boys and is perfectly capable of saving the Earth if she wanted.
9. Summer Kills Best Friend Tinkles & Saves Morty
Season 2, Episode 4 – “Total Rickall”
After an intergalactic parasite invades the Smith household, the family can no longer tell the difference between life-long friends, relatives, and shape-shifting alien parasites. One of which was Summer’s imaginary friend Tinkles, who Summer destroys once she discovers that the flying uni-lamb is an alien in disguise.
As the parasites can only create good memories, the Smith family are forced to remember all the terrible, terrible things they have done to each other in an effort weed out who is a memory implant and who is real. Summer’s memory of Morty’s nocturnal kitchen activities saves her brother’s life.
8. Summer Sets Off To Find Rick And Faces The Council Of Ricks
Season 3, Episode 1 – “The Rickshaw Rickdemption”
After Rick is taken by the Galactic Federation and the Earth under their rule, creating a military state where everyone is drugged and forced into jobs. Summer describes the new world order as a pure nightmare:
We’re miserable, Morty! There’s a mandatory curfew, their weird calendar made me 47, and they’ve weaponized the Eiffel tower!
Summer decides enough is enough and tries to save Rick herself.
Summer: I’ll rescue Grandpa myself.
Morty: And how are you gonna do that?
Summer: I don’t know yet. I’ll make it up as I go. That’s what Grandpa Rick does. That’s what heroes do.
After she digs up the portal gun that was buried with an alternative version of Rick, Summer takes Morty back to Cronenberg World, where they are chased by a Rick Council Seal Team and brought to the Council of Ricks at the Citadel of Ricks.
Summer gives an impassioned speech about how her grandfather is the Rickest of all the Ricks, and will no doubt save her and Morty. And this time, she just happens to be correct.
7. Summer Works With Morty To Defeat Tammy
Season 4, Episode 10 – “Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri”
After spending a majority of the episode bickering with her little brother, Summer joins forces with Morty to save their family from the evil Tammy several times in this episode. They use an invisibility belt and love for violence to defeat guards and her former bestie-turned-secret agent.
Morty: We are working together! That’s our arc!
Summer: We went from sibling, to invisible, to working together.
Morty: It’s not Citizen Kane, but why compete with whatever is going on here.
6. Summer Saves Rick And Morty After They Lose Their Memories
Season 3, Episode 8 – “Morty’s Mind Blowers”
After Rick and Morty accidentally lose all their memories and sense of self, Summer saves the day as she recognizes the incident as a Scenario 4. She uses a key she keeps around her neck to open a lockbox that holds protocol instructions, then she casually spits out a popsicle stick, shoots darts into both her brother and her grandfather, and revives them with memories intact.
And for all her troubles, Rick and Morty blame her for falling asleep during Inter-dimensional Cable.
No good deed goes unpunished.
5. Summer Thrives In A Post-Apocalyptic Version Of Earth
Season 3, Episode 2 – “Rickmancing The Stone”
There are few versions of Summer that are as awesome as the version that goes full Mad Max in a diesel-fueled post-apocalyptic version of Earth in the episode “Rickmancing The Stone.” Armed with a shotgun, fighting cannibals, and ignoring the reality of her parents’ impending divorce, Summer buries her emotions in the steampunk hell hole in which she flourishes.
In one particular scene, Summer destroys the leader of the Death Stalkers with a single, impressive shot. As he crawls toward Summer, begging her to end his life, she looks at him coldly and states:
O.K., but not because you told me to.
4. Summer Becomes An Alien Queen
Season 4, Episode 7 – “Promortyus”
After a race of facehuggers take hold of Rick and Morty, Summer is left alone on an alien planet. When Rick and Morty return to their senses and finally remember to rescue Summer was left on the alien world, they quickly discover she has become the empress.
While left on her own, the facehuggers attempt to assimilate Summer, only to be thwarted by a toothpick. After she is deemed a god, she helps renovate and rebuild their society, advancing the alien race and becoming their queen.
3. Summer Forces Jerry To Confront His Terrible Life Decisions
Season 3, Episode 9 – “The ABC’s of Beth”
With each passing season, Summer loses more and more respect for dad Jerry. In “The ABC’s of Beth,” after a particularly trying day of forced hunting with Jerry’s rebound girlfriend Kiara, Summer forces her father to admit his faults, which include being a cowardly racist and sexist who drags people into his problems because he is stupid.
Sadly, Jerry opts tell Kiara that Summer and Morty are the cause of their breakup, which she does not take very well.
2. Summer Goes Full Action Hero When Snakes Attack Her Family
Season 4, Episode 5 – “Rattlestar Ricklactica”
After Morty alters the timeline and technology of a snake planet, he creates a Terminator-esque situation but involving reptiles. As the snakes attack the Smith household in an attempt to both save and kill Morty, the whole family is forced to battle the slimey timetravelers.
Summer has her moment when snakes descend on the house and she begins killing snakes by the hundreds with a large machete, screaming:
Nobody chokes me without consent!
1. Summer Beats The Hell Out Of The Devil
Season 1, Episode 9 – “Something Ricked This Way Comes”
Summer gets a summer job working for the Devil in a “Needful Things”-style antique store. Rick takes it upon himself to rid the town of “Mr. Needful” and his various items that ultimately destroy lives, causing Summer to lash out at her grandpa for interfering in her first real job. When asked why, she states:
Fast food gives people diabetes, and clothing stores have sweat shops. Is there a company hiring teenagers that isn’t evil?
Sadly, her loyalty was misplaced, as Mr. Needful stabs Summer in the back by stealing her ideas and firing her. But Summer gets her revenge when she teams with Rick to become jacked, muscular versions of themselves and beat the living snot out of Mr. Needful (in front of a live audience, no less).