‘Yellowstone’s Piper Perabo Teases Midseason Finale: ‘Things Are on the Move’

Piper Perabo in 'Yellowstone'
Paramount Network

For its super-sized fifth season, Yellowstone will be ending the first half with “something like” a major cliffhanger, Piper Perabo (activist and environmental advisor Summer Higgins) teases.

Hesitating to reveal anything specific (“this Taylor Sheridan Universe will drop you off at the train station, and they’ll never come and get you”), all she could say was, “there’s a lot coming. Things are on the move. I can’t wait to get back to the back half just because I want to know what happens. I personally only know what happens up to the midseason finale up to that last second, and I don’t know what happens when we come back.”

Perabo is a fan of Yellowstone, and as one admits, “I’m nervous.” In fact, she recalled the Season 3 finale, which ended with John Dutton (Kevin Costner) getting shot, Beth’s (Kelly Reilly) office exploding, and Kayce (Luke Grimes) under fire. “I wasn’t on the show yet, and I was watching it like, ‘Wait, how long do we have to wait until the beginning of Season 4?'” she says. “And it was so long. I feel that way every time there’s an end of a chunk of Yellowstone. I’m like, wait, what? It’s gonna be that way again, I think.”

The episode before the midseason finale, “The Dream Is Not Me,” didn’t just feature a big turn for Summer and John’s relationship. It also ended with Jamie (Wes Bentley) practicing his speech to call a vote to impeach John, the man who adopted him (but has said Kayce is his only son — ouch!), as governor.

“There’s a whole political thing that has a lot of potential there. Plus, I’m a huge Wes Bentley fan, from like American Beauty, all the way back,” Perabo shares. “I think Wes is such a good actor and so fun, and I love that he continues to be — no matter how much John includes him — the thorn in his side. And this relationship that he’s getting into [with Dawn Olivieri’s Sarah Atwood] is so much trouble — so much trouble.”

She continues, “I think you can tell that things are going really south because [the seventh] episode doesn’t end at the fair; it ends with him practicing that speech. And Taylor’s very good — if you’re paying attention, he’s telling you where the trouble’s coming from. I think the fact that he ends with that scene is, for those paying attention, he’s showing you.”

Yellowstone, Midseason Finale, Sunday, January 1, 2023, 8/7c, Paramount Network