Posted in: Adult Swim, Rick and Morty, TV | Tagged: rick and morty

Rick and Morty Season 8: Our Thoughts on S08E01: "Summer of All Fears"

Adult Swim's Rick and Morty is back, people! Here's a look at our real-time thoughts on the Season 8 opener, S08E01: "Summer of All Fears."

Adult Swim's Rick and Morty is back for an eighth season, and all is right with the world – or, at least we hope so. After coming off what might be the best top-to-bottom season of the Emmy Award-winning animated series so far, we're interested to see where Rick (Ian Cardoni), Morty (Harry Belden), Beth (Sarah Chalke), Jerry (Chris Parnell), Summer (Spencer Grammer), and Space Beth (Chalke) go from here now that Rick Prime is no longer a factor. During an interview heading into this weekend, series co-creator Dan Harmon and showrunner Scott Marder discussed how that will be an overarching theme for the season, with each family member looking to take back ownership of their lives. Of course, that's something easier to want to do than to actually do – and that seems to be the case with Summer heading into tonight's Season 8 Episode 1: "Summer of All Fears."

First off, it's refreshing to see that the focus of promos heading into tonight's episode was on Summer and not our dimension-hopping duo. It goes a long way towards reminding viewers that while it might be called "Rick and Morty," the Adult Swim series has definitely become a family affair. We had a very complicated love/hate relationship with Morty's big sister up until the start of the sixth season, and that's a testament to both Grammer and the writers for making Summer a complex and relatable character – even when we're screaming at our screens for Summer to stop fighting with Morty and just hug her little brother. But it's not fair to feel that way without also realizing that Summer's been the odd person out through most of the show's run, while traumatic moments (like the ones involving incest baby Naruto) only add to the pressures of life, attempting to break Summer. With that in mind, we're passing along our real-time thoughts on what went down during S08E01: "Summer of All Fears" (make sure to watch the episode first so this makes much more sense to you).

Rick and Morty S08E01: "Summer of All Fears" Real-Time Thoughts

Don't forget: we've got a new opening for Season 8:

Addressing the fallout from Rick's adventures and his mind-wiping is a fascinating subject, with Summer choosing to continue her life holding onto the memories of being a 34-year-old successful Summer in Rick's "Matrix" world.

Rick putting Morty and Summer through "Matrix Hell" over his charger vibes like old-school Rick, but this episode examines the ramifications of the trauma that he causes with those petty actions. Morty is suffering outwardly, while Summer attempts to internalize her pain into something useful and life-changing.

Morty is living his life dying over and over again, playing out in front of everyone – and yet, Rick seems happy with the "improvement" in Morty.

Did anyone else get serious flashbacks to Evil Morty's backstory from last season when Morty used that device on Rick and then strapped him into his own "Matrix"?

Summer's interactions with Beth are also very telling – a serious swapping of mother/daughter roles (with Summer letting loose with a whole lot of pent-up pain as the "disappointed mother" criticizing Beth for how she lives her life).

For a season opener, S08E01: "Summer of All Fears" is pretty dark and intense so far; a worthy return episode from an excellent seventh season.

It was nice to see Summer and Beth having some one-on-one discussions about their mother-daughter dynamic. But with Morty, it's clearly going to take much more than that: his PTSD is too deeply ingrained.

A "Matrix" for Rick that lectures him about not putting people into "Matrixes" was actually pretty funny…

Once again, we're faced with a situation in which Rick and Summer are a little too much like one another, and Morty pays the price for it.

Beth Smith, Vampire Hunter?!?

As much as I would've loved a Summer solo episode, I appreciated getting an interesting examination of the dynamics at play between Summer and Morty, and their respective issues with Rick and Beth.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!