Whereas there are nonetheless spinoffs to stay up for, Yellowstone‘s sequence finale was divisive amongst the fandom, and one character who bought the worst deal was Piper Perabo’s Summer season Higgins. All the second half of Yellowstone‘s fifth and ultimate season was marred by the departure of sequence lead Kevin Costner. The present by no means fairly discovered learn how to get better, with the dying of Costner’s John Dutton leaving a Montana-sized gap within the sequence. As his love curiosity, Summer season was left with no actual storyline of her personal.
Summer season Higgins is launched in Yellowstone season 4 as a fiery environmentalist who comes into John Dutton’s crosshairs. Nonetheless, she quickly begins to fall for the curmudgeonly ranch proprietor, and the 2 kind a type of romantic relationship. This places Summer season into direct battle with John’s fiercely protecting daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly), although the 2 kind a truce later within the present. However whereas loads of Yellowstone season 5’s predominant characters bought strong endings to their storylines, the present determined to finish Summer season’s within the least imaginative approach potential, which is irritating contemplating Perabo’s skills as an actress.
Summer season Leaves Montana After John Dutton’s Demise
Her Ending Is Abrupt
In all of the chaos and feelings surrounding John Dutton’s dying within the premiere of season 5, half 2, Summer season is not even current till Yellowstone episode 10, “The Apocalypse of Change”, when Beth bumps into her on the household homestead, saying she had fully forgotten concerning the environmental activist. In an extremely creepy twist, Beth reveals that after Summer season was granted clemency, she wasn’t really beneath home arrest, and that John had made that up so she would stick with him.
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This was a horrible violation of Summer season’s rights, however she’s by no means given the time to course of this, as Beth kicks her out of the home. From there, Rip drives her to the airport the place, quite than expressing rage or horror, Summer season makes a couple of wistful feedback about John earlier than leaving the present perpetually.
If Costner remained on the present and John’s character stayed alive, Summer season’s storyline would seemingly characteristic a extra full ending that detailed her response to the faux home arrest.
In fact, this seemingly wasn’t the plan for Summer season’s ending, and if Costner remained on the present and John’s character stayed alive, Summer season’s storyline would seemingly characteristic a extra full ending that detailed her response to the faux home arrest. It additionally begs the query, what number of different individuals knew that Summer season was free to go away the Dutton Ranch?
Beth definitely did — and why she did not use that data sooner to get Summer season out of her hair is a thriller. However actually John is the individual Summer season wanted to direct her vitriol to; with him lifeless and her solely outlined as his love curiosity, there was actually nowhere for her to go.
Why Summer season’s Departure Undermines Her Initially Sturdy Character
It Reduces Her To A Love Curiosity & Nothing Extra
When Summer season is first launched in Yellowstone, she’s depicted as a fierce environmental activist. She even meets John for the primary time sporting handcuffs at a protest. However Summer season’s character quickly loses her preventing spirit. Because the sequence progresses, Summer season is outlined by her relationship with John, and to a lesser diploma, Beth. Summer season is not given a lot to do within the present that does not relate to John, so when he is killed off, her story is over.
When Summer season and Beth have their ultimate confrontation, they yell at one another yet one more time, which reinforces their poisonous relationship whereas not permitting both of them, particularly Summer season, to discover any feelings they is perhaps feeling after John’s sudden dying.
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Contemplating their bond in Taylor Sheridan’s present, it is a disgrace that Yellowstone season 5 did not embody this character in John Dutton III’s funeral.
If the present had allowed Summer season to grieve, regardless of the faux home arrest, it will have given her some closure. Moreover, Summer season’s alternative to go away Montana after John’s dying proves that she solely existed as a personality in order that she could possibly be sexualized by means of her relationship with John. However her dependency on John wasn’t simply primarily based on intercourse; she additionally served as a counter to the Dutton patriarch on environmental points, which introduced Summer season’s ardour to the forefront. However because the present stopped seeing her as an environmentalist and solely as a intercourse object, there was no room for this storyline.
How Summer season’s Ending Might Have Given Her Extra Company
She Might Have Stood Her Floor Or Fought For The Ranch
Summer season may have sought authorized motion towards John and the Duttons, particularly contemplating she was falsely imprisoned. This might have definitely given her company as a personality and bolstered the preventing spirit that she had when she was launched. However she seeks little to no recourse and quietly goes away after John’s dying, giving no indication of what she’s planning on doing transferring ahead. It was by no means even revealed the place she was flying to.
Summer season even had a thriving environmental mission, however there have been no established plans for her to proceed. She additionally may have mended and even confronted her relationship with Beth as a substitute of merely leaving the ranch at Beth’s insistence. Regardless of being falsely imprisoned there, Summer season grew to have a gentle spot for the Yellowstone, and he or she and Beth may have fashioned a shaky alliance within the quest to assist reserve it. Kayce promoting the ranch to Chief Thomas Rainwater on the finish of Yellowstone would seemingly have been a choice Summer season supported, so she would not have been completely irrelevant.
Summer season’s Ending Displays Yellowstone’s Sexism Drawback
The Present Has An Situation With Feminine Characters
Yellowstone has an obsession with catfights that is irritating and problematic. Whereas Beth Dutton, the present’s most outstanding feminine character, definitely would not discriminate on gender strains with regards to throwing a punch, the quantity of girls she’s solely too comfortable to combat (for sexist causes) speaks to the present’s total lady downside.
One among her greatest fights is with Summer season in season 5, half 1. Whereas beneath home arrest at Dutton Ranch, Summer season criticizes a dinner that featured totally different sport meats. Summer season and Beth subsequently get right into a infantile catfight that turns ugly with regards to blows. The combat solely ends when Rip intervenes and orders them to combat correctly.
All the scenario is problematic, particularly contemplating that audiences are actually turning into used to seeing sturdy girls on tv. However, as a substitute, two main Yellowstone feminine characters get right into a petty squabble over a dinner menu that’s solely stopped by a person. The truth that Rip stops the combat perpetuates the notion that girls cannot remedy their issues on their very own and are solely delivered to their senses when a person breaks issues up.
Summer season’s romantic storyline is one other instance of Yellowstone‘s lady downside as she begins out as a passionate environmentalist however is finally decreased to nothing greater than John’s lover.
Summer season’s romantic storyline is one other instance of Yellowstone‘s lady downside as she begins out as a passionate environmentalist however is finally decreased to nothing greater than John’s lover. This mirrors Monica’s storyline within the present, as in earlier seasons, she was extremely obsessed with Indigenous points, instructing historical past at a university and even placing herself in hurt’s approach to assist catch a predator who was brutalizing girls within the Indigenous neighborhood.
However by the top of Yellowstone, Monica was nothing greater than the doting spouse of Kayce. Whether or not Summer season, Beth, or Monica, Yellowstone created some nice feminine characters, however the present did not care about them sufficient to provide them good endings.