Yellowstone's Piper Perabo's Advice for Her New Character: Don't Underestimate Beth

Summer Higgins is not your typical Yellowstone character, but she may fit in just fine anyway. Piper Perabo joined the hit Paramount Network drama in the most recent episode as an environmental activist ready to take down the livestock association and its livestock agents, or cops tasked with protecting ranchers' properties by truly any means necessary (like the occasional murder). She's not wrong that it's kind of an insane concept that has gotten people killed, but of course, she was quickly swept up into the world of the Duttons and taught that the world is not entirely black and white. 

She mostly got that lesson thanks to John Dutton (Kevin Costner), who had her thrown in jail and then bailed her out. He knows she's doing what she believes is right, and he can respect that, even if he doesn't agree with her. He would just appreciate it if she stopped throwing rocks at his son. Over the course of the episode, it became clear that there was something more there than just a rancher dealing with a problem in the way ranchers tend to deal with problems on this show. As Perabo put it in a conversation with TV Guide, she was thrilled to find that "John and Summer would have this larger shared understanding of the world." 

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That, of course, does not mean John will be going vegan and dousing himself in red paint any time soon, but Summer might still have as much of an impact on John as he is clearly having on her. 

"I don't know that he changes, but I think John does open up in some ways," she says. "Part of what makes him so powerful is how smart he is. You've seen his alliance with Broken Rock and Gil Birmingham's character. He's willing to contain a lot of ideas at the same time, if it has to do with protecting the ranch and the land and his family." 

Perabo obviously didn't want to spoil what comes next for this unlikely connection, but she did have a warning for the Yellowstone newbie. "If I could give Summer one piece of advice when she comes into the Dutton family or enters the ranch? I think she thinks John is the boss and doesn't really realize what a power player Beth is," she says. "And that's a mistake to underestimate Beth." 

Sometimes, that mistake is deadly, but hopefully, Summer can stand her ground. There's a brief shot in the teaser for the next episode that shows Summer and Beth (Kelly Reilly) facing off across a table in the Dutton kitchen. Either Summer will have to hold her own, or Beth will eat her alive. Fortunately for Summer, she's also not the only woman trying to take Beth down. Jacki Weaver plays Caroline Warner, Beth's new boss at Market Equities, and she's certainly got her target locked on the lone Dutton daughter.

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"No man could ever beat Beth Dutton, but maybe a woman could," Perabo says. "And because [creator Taylor Sheridan] wrote Summer Higgins and Jacki Weaver's character into the same season, it's like two different kinds of women are coming for Beth at the same time. So you've at least got a chance, you know what I mean? If you're coming at the wolf from both sides, maybe, but you're still up against a wolf. So I feel lucky that Jacki Weaver is giving her hell at the same time I am." 

It's not like anyone's rooting for Beth to be taken down, but it's always fun to watch people try. 

Yellowstone continues Sundays at 8/7c on Paramount Network. 

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