Summer Higgins is a Yellowstone character played by Piper Perabo. She is an environmental activist who protests industrialized farming in Montana.
Biography[]
Summer is the leader of an activist group called Free Earth, based out of Portland, Oregon. She's vegan, gluten-free and doesn't eat food that contain GMO. She is passionate in her beliefs, which is what seemed to catch John's interest when he met her at the protest she organized and was arrested for. They have similar views even though their beliefs are extremely different. John respected her conviction so much that he bailed her out of jail even though he was the one that had her charged in the first place. Summer was weary of this man she had only met offering to take her to his ranch, but ultimately chose to trust him and got into his truck for a tour of his ranch. When she asked him why he was doing all this, he said it was because he hoped she would understand his and his way of life better, and for him to understand her better as well. After talking together in his house for hours, Summer agreed to spend the night, accepting a change of clothes from John since hers had pepper spray on them.
The next morning, Summer met Beth Dutton in the kitchen and the two instantly hated each other.
Summer was first seen protesting animal cruelty outside a boutique in town when Beth happens to drive by. She sees Beth approach the protest and the two exchange quips. Beth tells her that her protests are pointless and don't affect change, that she only does this to feel better about herself. Beth's intention was to lead up to leaking news about the airport that Market Equities is trying to build. Summer asks Beth if this is real, so she borrows Summer's phone to pull up an article. She tells her that "this one" - meaning the protest - demands real effort, strategy, sacrifice and risk, "Not that bullshit that you pulled with my brother". Angry at this news, Summer returns to the protest, looking back at Beth still in disbelief about the news. This leak later resulted in a protest; 350 people showed up with signs to block any progress on construction.
Summer lead the protest on the construction site where they are camping to halt progress. In the middle of the night, Summer gets up to relieve herself in the woods when she notices a squad of heavily armored and armed men approaching the camping site silently. Summer quickly pulls her pants back on and makes a call to Beth letting her know that they have come to raid the campers, so Beth tells her "time to take one for the team" and Summer agrees. The camp descends into chaos as every protestor is rounded up and subdued, Summer receives a blow to the head as she tries to save one of the other protestors from a beating, and is then quickly zip-tied herself. At day break, all the captured protestors are seen being taken into custody by a crowd of reporters, including Leslie, a reporter contacted by Beth in order to provide bad publicity for her bosses at Market Equities and their airport deal. A bloodied Summer with her hands bound behind her back walks amongst the other captured and looks around at all the cameras and reporters soaking up the situation. The raid makes the news - 117 captured protesters - and sheds Market Equities in a very bad light. Summer is shown in a news report as being charged with felony aggravated assault on a peace officer. John attempted to call in a favor on the presiding Judge Mitchell Davis to take it easy on Summer, but Davis, feeling this case was too close to home for him, reneged. Despite Summer pleading guilty for a light punishment, he instead chose to give her a vicious sentence and put her away for roughly 4 decades in which was eventually repealed.
Summer received clemency from John, one week after he was elected Governor of Montana; she was to serve the last six months of her sentence on house arrest. John arranged for her sentence to be carried out at his ranch so that he could use Summer to better understand the various environmental issues that his new position in the government brought up. It wasn't long before trouble started at the house with Summer and Beth under the same roof. At dinner one night, Summer criticized the meal that Gator had prepared which contained a lot of different types of game meat. After having heard enough, Beth asked Summer to go on a walk with her, immediately punching the latter once they were outside. Both women exchanged blows and rolled around the grass for a while before Rip Wheeler finally stepped in lectured them on their behaviour. He suggested they both stand in front of each other and take turns punching one another until one of them finally gave up and had enough, to get it all out of their system and put it behind them. Summer eventually relented and true to her word, Beth no longer held animosity towards Summer. The two even started talking in a friendly manner.
She had a brief fling with John Dutton III after he bailed her out of prison, and shortly before she was sent to prison for assault charges. The two continued their sexual relationship later after Summer received clemency and served the last six months of her prison sentence on house arrest at the ranch under John's supervision.