Rick and Morty Star Spencer Grammer on the Darkness of Season 4

The first three seasons of Rick and Morty were pretty dark at times, showing the titular characters burying their own dead bodies in the back yard or watch as Rick fails in an attempt to take his own life. It’s a dark and nihilistic series to be sure, but something about Season 4 has felt even more depressing. There have only been two episodes in the new installment so far, but both have ended in devastating fashion. In the first episode, Morty realized that his dream of a life with Jessica was simply pity, rather than love, and the second concluded with Rick sitting on a toilet all by himself, his own voice telling him just how pathetic and worthless he actually is.

Both episodes of this season have made you think in the saddest kind of way, but will that be the norm of the episodes going forward? ComicBook.com spoke with Spencer Grammer, who voices Summer on the show, and asked if the darkness of the first two episodes was an indicator of what’s to come this season.

“I don’t know. I mean to me I’m like yes it’s feeling it too, cause like that’s just life,” Grammer says. “I do feel like there is, those themes are pretty heavy in this new season I think because that feels like a natural progression. But in the earlier seasons there is that there too, I felt like the divorce in season three was a really big thing. But even before that, Rick’s ‘Wubalubadubdub,’ put in bird person language is like ‘I am an extreme pain’ or whatever. And I’m like, yeah, that’s like a really heavy drug that shouldn’t be joking about it. And then there is, and also the first season like Rick was like way more wasted all the time and then was like, it’s somehow like more lucid now. Like as he gets to season two to season three it becomes like less drunk, which is, which I feel like it’s really great for the family.”

Grammer goes on to explain that, through the darkness of Rick’s life and the show itself, there is some light to be found. No matter how hard he tries to fight it, his family remains an integral part of who he is.

“It does take a toll,” she continues. “This is like a formulaic kind of family with a patriarch in it who is sort of a sociopathic-like genius who can transcend time and world. And yet you are nothing in this world if you don’t have the people who love you and follow you. And so that’s, I think why he always comes back to this. I mean I love the idea that there’s he’s like, ‘You’re all infinitely replaceable,’ but they’re not because they’re all the best versions of themselves in this reality. So I think that that’s, maybe that’s really not so dark if you think about it, right? Maybe it’s really beautiful, [even though] it is dark, but in this universe we accept the fact that we’re probably the best one of any of them. And like everyone in their other fractal dimension is also believing they’re living the best one that we all know that this is the one, right? That is the best one because it’s well, we’re watching, right? And so no one’s ever going to be really replaceable that this family unit is that strong, apart from maybe Jerry. Jerry’s not replaceable. But Jerry definitely, he’s definitely on the outside, and I do feel like it’s nice to see him stand up for himself this season. I think we’ve been waiting for that for a while, you know? Yeah, it is a little dark. I’m not going to disagree, but I think there’s been beams of darkness, on time. We’re also in kind of in a dark time in humanity and life.”

What do you think of Rick and Morty Season 4 so far? Let us know in the comments!