Warning: This article contains spoilers for Rick and Morty season 6, episode 1, "Solaricks."The Rick and Morty season 6 premiere solves a mystery around Rick's granddaughter Summer, and the answer is incredibly sad. Despite regularly having adventures with his grandson Morty, Rick has always appeared to prefer his granddaughter Summer. While it seems that this fondness is based on Summer's similarly pragmatic worldview and intelligence, Rick admits the real reason for his preference for Summer when he's sent back to his own universe.

Making it home after being left to drift through space on the destroyed Citadel of Ricks by Evil Morty, Rick implements a failed portal reset which accidentally sends everyone back to their original universe. Realizing his mistake, Rick trusts Summer to establish a navigational beacon that will bring everyone back home from their universes of origin. Rick then disappears back to the aftermath of the murder of his wife Diane and daughter Beth, a moment he's preserved inside a time loop.

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While there, he converses with an AI version of his dead wife, to whom he admits that he prefers Summer because she reminds him of Diane. It's a moment that humanizes the tragic backstory Rick has often been guilty of self-mythologizing, showing how much he still struggles to get past the deaths of his universe's Beth and Diane. It also lends a different dimension to Rick and Summer's relationship. They've always seemed to have much more in common with each other than Rick and Morty do, leading to tension between the three characters. Revealing that she reminds Rick of his dead wife adds an extra layer to the relationship that proves his supposed preference for Summer isn't just to mess with Morty and ties into the larger story that Rick and Morty season 6 appears to be telling.

Why Rick Says Summer Is The Smith Family Member Most Like Diane

Rick specifically tells the AI version of Diane about Summer as he justifies leaving his original universe behind. Realizing he has to move on from the tragedy of Beth and Diane's deaths, Rick risks his life to be reunited with the new family he's found for himself. Rick's second chance at family life appears to be the main story of Rick and Morty season 6, and it's emphasized by what he says to Diane as he prepares to leave. "We have grandkids. That's who Summer is. She's gonna get me out of here. She reminds me of you."

It's clear that Rick sees both Morty and Summer as a means to move on from his loss and to live out the life denied to him by the deaths of Diane and Beth. When the AI Diane - built by Rick to punish himself - replies "Really? Is she dead too?" it gives him the final push to leave his universe behind. It also informs the later scene where Morty pleads with Rick to save both Beths and Summer by abandoning his revenge against Weird Rick, who murdered Diane and Beth.

Rick's admission about Summer shows how Rick and Morty has evolved emotionally. Faced with a second chance at a family, Rick is clearly determined to protect them at all costs. It's why everyone shrugs off his nihilistic "You think the concept of 'family' matters to me?" once he finds them all a new home universe. Now that Rick and Morty has revealed that Summer reminds Rick of Diane, it will add an extra emotional dimension to his interactions with his granddaughter, as he strives not to repeat the failures of his past.