Summer Roberts
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Summer Roberts is fictional character on the FOX television series, The O.C. played by Rachel Bilson.
Summer lives in Newport Beach, California with her father, plastic surgeon Dr. Neil Roberts (Michael Nouri). For much of the series, she has also lived with a stepmother, an unseen character who viewers know is prone to mood swings and various addictive pills. She is often paired in scenes with her best friend, Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton).
Character history
Season 1
In the first season of The O.C., Summer was portrayed as a stereotypical spoiled and somewhat snobby rich girl, however different sides to her character have been shown as she has developed. It is during her transformation that Summer and Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) fall in love with each other. In the process of their characters' relationship, Summer and Seth experience many struggles because Summer thinks it will affect her popular reputation at their high school. Because the relationship does not go too well, Seth decides to take his chances with another girl, Anna Stern (Samaire Armstrong), who exhibits a similarly strong personality and shares his sarcastic sense of humour and love of comic books.As the season progresses, Summer is affected by their relationship and is often jealous of Seth since he seems to be enjoying Anna's company so much. As a result, Summer gets angry and starts dating a not-so-funny guy, named Danny, but that relationship doesn't last long, and Seth is suddenly back on her mind. Towards the end of the first season, Anna breaks up with Seth because it is obvious he is still in love with Summer. Seth and Summer become a couple, and announce their romance at a school kissing booth, after which they become very close. However, as soon as Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), Seth's adopted brother, moves away, Seth realizes that the immediate past and present are meaningless, because before Ryan moved to Newport Beach, Seth was a painfully shy social misfit, and he is afraid that since Ryan had left, he will once again be alone. Seth then sails away at the end of the season, leaving behind his worried parents and a heartbroken Summer.
Season 2
Summer has a new boyfriend, Zach Stevens (Michael Cassidy). Zach is starting to become friends with Seth, whom he met shortly before Zach and Summer started dating, yet their friendship is a little mixed since they both have feelings for Summer. Summer seems committed to putting Seth behind her, although at times it becomes clear that she still has feelings for him. This inevitably caused problems for her relationship with Zach, who suspected they still held feelings for each other. This is further complicated when Summer also becomes professionally involved with Seth and Zach as they develop their comic book, Atomic County, for publication. This relationship proves inextricably linked with the personal feelings all have for each other, and resulted in a bad meeting with a media executive that effectively killed their partnership.Summer was about to go on an overseas trip to Italy with Zach and his family, when the feelings she still had for Seth prevented her from doing so and she left her heartbroken Zach at the airport, going back to Seth. Zach returned later on in the season however, and this along with Zach and Seth once again going into a partnership for a comic book strained her relationship with Seth. Zach also somewhat subtlely exploited this to weaken Seth & Summer's relationship and restart his relationship with her, causing somewhat of a love triangle. The introduction of Reed, a female attractive, older comic book executive who Seth was not initially truthful about also caused difficulties. This was eventually resolved when on the day of the Junior Prom they flipped a coin as to who would go to the prom with Summer and who would meet George Lucas for a comic book project meeting, with Zach winning the date with Summer. However at the Prom both Summer and Zach seemed unhappy with their choices, and at the last minute Seth arrived at the prom to receive the Prom Queen/King award with Summer and reconciled their relationship. Zach apparently succeeded in impressing Lucas and it has been rumoured he was given an internship and moved away from Newport as a result, explaining his absence for season 3.
Towards the end of the season Summer also became worried about her best friend Marissa's behaviour, unexplained bruises and a tension with her boyfriend Ryan and his brother Trey. She confronted Marissa and Marissa confessed Trey had attempted to rape her. Summer consulted Seth about this, who felt obliged to tell Ryan and as a result the tragic events of Trey's shooting happened, with Seth & Summer arriving at the aftermath of the shooting.
Season 3
Summer is adjusting to her senior year at Harbor School, with the year starting originally with her best friend Marissa Cooper being expelled from Harbour as a result of her involvement in the shooting of Trey Atwood. As a result, Summer reluctantly seeks a more involved role in student politics, thus gaining a new rival in fellow student Taylor Townsend (Autumn Reeser). They have since become (albeit at times reluctantly on Summer's part) friends, particularly when Taylor helped her get Marissa back in by organising a petition.
Also, her relationship with Seth is closer than it was during much of the previous year, and the couple's post-graduation future is one she finds harder to ignore. They had trouble earlier in the season deciding what colleges to go to and how it would affect their future together, but eventually they both agreed on going to Brown University, which was more feasible after Summer got a high SAT score. Shortly before they got their college acceptance letters Summer said that should she get in to Brown and not Seth, she would not go. When they got their college acceptance letters, to Seth's dismay this was exactly what happened. Seth, not wanting to be personally responsible for Summer turning down a major educational and life opportunity for him said he did not want to go to Brown anymore. As a result they broke up, with Seth stating when confronted by Summer that he did not love her anymore. While their future as a couple seemed uncertain at this point, (and was further complicated by the return of Seth's ex-girlfriend Anna Stern) they appeared to reconcile at the end of the season when Seth tells her the truth about Brown. They have resigned to going to school together in Rhode Island, albeit at different schools.
Summer has also dealt with several changes in her home life, such as her stepmother, an unseen character, leaving and divorcing her father. Also more recently she has had to deal with her father dating her best friend's mother, Julie Cooper. She eventually accepted the relationship and recently announced engagement, however, seeing the happiness it had brought her father despite her own reservations on Julie Cooper.
| The O.C. | ||
| Episode List | [Official Website] | ||
| Current Main Characters | Ryan Atwood | Kirsten Cohen | Sandy Cohen | Seth Cohen Julie Cooper | Kaitlin Cooper | Summer Roberts | Taylor Townsend | |
| Former Main Characters | Marissa Cooper (S1 - S3) | Jimmy Cooper (S1) | Luke Ward (S1) | Caleb Nichol (S2) | |
| Recurring Characters |
Dawn Atwood | Trey Atwood | Lance Baldwin | Rebecca Bloom Carter Buckley | Reed Carlson | Sophie Cohen | Theresa Diaz Lindsay Gardner | Johnny Harper | Alex Kelly | Charlotte Morgan Hailey Nichol | Matt Ramsey | Jess Sathers | Anna Stern Zach Stevens | Veronica Townsend | Oliver Trask | Kevin Volchok | |
| Places | Newport Beach, Orange County, California | |
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