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Before me, at least six generations were born in chains and for the last three years, I've been running from every lawman and bounty hunter west of the Lannahechee River... So yeah, I feel lucky!
Lenny Summers

Leonard "Lenny" Summers[1] is a major character featured in Red Dead Redemption 2.

History[]

Background[]

LennySummersBio

Biography in RDR 2 (click to enlarge)

Lenny Summers was born circa 1880. Both of his parents were former slaves. His family's life had been hard even before he was born; his mother was born in a cotton field and immediately confiscated by the overseer from her own mother. When the Civil War ended, the overseer continued harassing Lenny's grandmother, who eventually killed him with a knife and subsequently fled, narrowly avoiding a lynching.[2] The girl never saw her mother again, but she eventually met and married Mr. Summers, who would become Lenny's father.

Mr. Summers was an educated man who could read and write; he taught Lenny everything he knew, and also gave him a pocket watch that was previously given to him by his former owner. One night, his father was beaten to death by a few drunk men, whom Lenny killed in revenge. He was forced to go on the run afterward, being only 15 years old at the time, and eventually joined the Van der Linde gang while traversing the Grizzlies in late 1898.[3]

It is known that Lenny fell in love with Jenny Kirk sometime before her death, and her loss hit him hard. Unfortunately, Lenny also lost the pocket watch given to him by his father during the chaos of the failed ferry robbery in Blackwater.

Events of Red Dead Redemption 2[]

Colter Chapter[]

Lenny Summers is first seen in "Outlaws from the West," during which he guards Colter and awaits the arrival of Dutch van der Linde and Arthur Morgan, who went out scouting for supplies. A few days later, Lenny takes part in the assault of an O'Driscoll hideout, paired with Javier Escuella. Despite his prior appearances in these missions, Lenny first takes the spotlight during the robbery of a train owned by Leviticus Cornwall. Prior to the robbery, Dutch praises Lenny for his eagerness and readiness.

When the explosives intended to bring the train to a stop fail to detonate, Lenny, Javier, and Arthur chase after the train and jump aboard. Although Javier falls off, Arthur and Lenny succeed, and the two fight their way through the train cars in an attempt to get to the locomotive and stop the train. Once the train is stopped, the two jump off the train and onto the ground to fight the rest of the guards. They are overwhelmed, but fortunately, the rest of the gang come in on horseback to take down the remaining adversaries. With the heat of battle dying down, Dutch orders Lenny, Arthur, and Micah Bell to loot Cornwall's private car. Lenny is praised by the gang for his good work, although Micah still does not resist teasing him.

The following day, as the gang leaves Colter and moves eastward, Micah and Lenny are sent ahead by Dutch to scout and make sure there is nothing of worry.

Horseshoe Overlook Chapter[]

Shortly after arriving at Horseshoe Overlook, Lenny and Micah are sent by Susan Grimshaw[4] to go scouting for anything notable. The pair eventually end up in the town of Strawberry, where Micah drunkenly murders two O'Driscolls, is arrested, and sentenced to be hanged. Lenny is almost lynched, but barely escapes, riding back full speed to Horseshoe Overlook.

Exhausted and out of breath, Lenny informs Dutch of the news. Dutch then instructs Arthur to take Lenny to the local saloon in Valentine, where Lenny and Arthur get highly intoxicated. During their midnight antics, they are pursued by deputies for drunken violence. Lenny, constantly vomiting, is immediately tackled by law enforcement, while Arthur is given an opportunity to escape. If Arthur fails to evade the deputies, he and Lenny will wake up the next morning in the town jail, where a deputy offers to let them go scot-free if they pay bail. Lenny obliges and pays the bail, returning to Horseshoe Overlook while Arthur remains in Valentine.

Following this mission, Lenny spends most of his time in Horseshoe Overlook, and can often be seen reading the daily paper or standing guard outside camp.

Clemens Point Chapter[]

As the gang moves southward to the state of Lemoyne, Lenny grows increasingly concerned with the prejudice against his race in the area. At some point after arriving, Lenny explores Rhodes and speaks to the black community there, from whom he learns of an ex-confederate militia known as the Lemoyne Raiders. He learns that this faction is camped in an old plantation house called Shady Belle, where they are stockpiling hordes of expensive weapons and explosives which they plan to sell abroad.

Lenny convinces Arthur to ride out with him to ambush Shady Belle and steal some weapons. After killing the Lemoyne Raiders occupying the plantation, they steal the stash of weapons, place them on a wagon, and then ride back to camp. The pair are ambushed after fleeing the place, but they fight off their attackers.

Soon afterward, Bill Williamson and Karen Jones approach Lenny and Arthur, planning to rob the bank in Valentine now that the heat has died down. The robbery is successful and, although lawmen begin to close in, the four gang members manage to fight their way out and escape the law, taking with them several thousand dollars.

By the end of the chapter, Lenny joins most of the gang in the assault against Braithwaite Manor in an effort to find the kidnapped Jack Marston. The day following the massive shootout, Pinkerton agents Milton and Ross discover the gang's camp. After a tense standoff, the two leave, and the gang agrees to move camps to Shady Belle, which Lenny suggested.

Saint Denis Chapter[]

Soon after arriving in Saint Denis and retrieving Jack, Dutch is invited to a gala by Angelo Bronte. Dutch, Hosea, Arthur, and Bill travel via stagecoach, which is driven by Lenny, to the gala, which is taking place at mayor Henri Lemieux's residence. When the four leave the party, Lenny drives them back to camp in the stagecoach.

During the gala, Bronte tips Dutch off about the trolley station at Victory Street, which supposedly has hordes of cash. Lenny and Dutch meet Arthur at an alleyway, where they prepare to rob the station. However, the heist proves to be a setup, as the station's vault contains a paltry sum and numerous policemen pour from the streets of Saint Denis, forcing the trio to shoot their way out of the city. Lenny leads most of the escape and is later praised for his prowess.

Lenny also appears in a companion activity in Chapter 4 in which he and Arthur rob a stagecoach. Lenny originally wishes to go alone after finding a lead, but Arthur insists that he should accompany him. The robbery turns out to be a setup, however, as U.S. Marshals ambush them. Despite this, the pair manage to follow through with the heist. At the end of the mission, Lenny is warned by Arthur to be careful of leads that come from the stagecoach company, as they are often used as setups.

Lenny is also involved in the assault on Angelo Bronte's mansion in a quest for revenge led by Dutch. The gang manages to kidnap Bronte, carrying him out back onto a boat. As the gang rows for Shady Belle, Dutch drowns Bronte in a fit of rage. A short while later, Lenny participates in what Dutch and Hosea believed would be the gang's last score: the robbery of the Lemoyne National Bank. During the heist, which goes horribly awry, Lenny, Arthur, and the rest of the gang try to escape the bank via the rooftops. During their escape, Lenny is gunned down by two Pinkerton riflemen, immediately dying. Arthur is distraught by Lenny's death, but neither he, nor the rest of the gang, have any time to mourn.

Later on, Sadie Adler mentions that she and the remaining gang managed to get Lenny's body out of Saint Denis by robbing the local morgue, and eventually buried both Lenny and Hosea (who also died during the robbery) together in Bluewater Marsh.

Character[]

Personality[]

Lenny is shown to be an intelligent, fun-loving young man. He is also shown to be very competent and effective in many situations, with Hosea and Arthur particularly viewing him as one of the gang's best men. Like most members, he is very loyal to the Van der Linde gang and considers them family. Out of everyone at camp, he appears to be the most educated; this is likely due to his upbringing which, when compared to others in the gang, was more reasonably decent.

He shows a confident and cocky attitude, replying with "’course I’m ready" when Javier asks if he’s ready for the train robbery, and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty on many occasions. He leads most of the escape during the Saint Denis trolley station robbery and later in the bank robbery, showing his confidence, but this ultimately costs him his life in the latter occasion. When playing Poker and Five Finger Fillet at camp, he playfully teases Arthur about being slow due to his older age.

Despite being part of an ethnic minority, Lenny displays no real care of what others think, perhaps because the gang as a whole live an outcast lifestyle and can all be considered outcasts from society as a result. He sometimes satirically compares himself to common black stereotypes. In a conversation with Sean MacGuire, Lenny states he's uncertain of who to hate more: the slavers who oppressed his ancestors, or the general white populace for antagonizing him because of the recent Emancipation Proclamation.

Appearance[]

Lenny has black skin and neat, relatively short black hair, with little in the way of facial hair. Being one of the younger gang members, he is nineteen years old as of 1899, and is seen to be of a fairly slim build, and slightly shorter than Arthur. While committing crimes, he wears a bright orange bandana around his face. He also wears a black duster coat during certain robberies.

Lenny's usual attire consists of a pinstriped, buttoned white shirt over a red union suit and braces, accompanied with black trousers and boots. In Horseshoe Overlook, he normally wears a dark blue vest and a silver jacket on top of this, sometimes with the bandana around his neck. During the gang's stay at Colter, Summers is seen wearing a blue coat with a stripy scarf and grey trousers, accompanied by a brown, wide-brimmed hat.

When at camp, Lenny occasionally wears a grey straight-jacket with a black and white checkered vest underneath. He wears a similar outfit to this during the Saint Denis bank robbery, along with a red tie, black gloves and a black bowler hat with a red band.

Mission appearances[]

Red Dead Redemption 2

Companion Activities

Trivia[]

  • Lenny is Curzon Dobell's favorite character.[5]
  • Both Lenny and Hosea stated in a random dialogue that they wanted to be buried with friends, foreshadowing that they would be buried together. The player may visit their graves after completing the mission "Fleeting Joy".
  • Hosea and Lenny's relationship mirrors Arthur and John's. Both relationships feature one member (Hosea and Arthur) being unsure about their more junior comrade (Lenny and John), but later grow to like them and eventually try to convince the other member to leave the gang. However, Lenny remains loyal to the gang until death, whereas John leaves to start a better life for his family.
  • It's apparent that Lenny had a crush on Jenny Kirk from the game's dialogue. He brings up the idea of giving her a proper burial in Colter, mentions her when playing Five Finger Fillet and Arthur and Hosea discuss his fondness of her.
  • Whilst at Horseshoe Overlook, he can be seen debating with Dutch over Evelyn Miller and his books. Lenny argues that the author is a fraud and that their gang is a better representation of American freedom than Miller's ideas, which causes Dutch to laugh and concede the argument.
  • Lenny's bandana is orange, in contrast with the usual black ones of the other gang members. The only others to not use black bandanas are Dutch and Uncle.
  • Lenny's primary weapon of choice is a custom Cattleman Revolver with a worn blackened steel look similar to John and Hosea's Cattlemans and an ebony grip.
  • There is a letter at camp titled 'Letter to Lenny from Father'. In it, the writer mentions his own abandonment of his family, that he had been 'more tutor than father' and that he hoped his son's future was as a lawyer. It also states "you have redeemed more than you know, or can ever know, or should ever be expected to bear", tying in with the series' theme of redemption.
  • In a random encounter in camp, Lenny can be seen attempting to teach Sean MacGuire to read. Sean does not seem to want to, however, as he says it will "just put silly ideas in [his] head".
  • Lenny, along with John, Bill, Javier, Charles, and Sean, is one of the characters who may throw Arthur out of the camp if he antagonizes too many gang members.
  • After getting shot by the Pinkertons, Lenny appears to be still alive and breathing but the gang is forced to leave him behind during the escape across the rooftops.[6]
  • How the Van der Linde gang reacts to Lenny's death paints a clue to their personality at the end of the game as well as within Red Dead Redemption. For example, Dutch, Bill, and Micah continue running without glancing, Charles and Javier only stop for a bit to glance before continuing, and Arthur attempts to help him before being discouraged by the gang.
  • Strangely, Arthur writes in his journal that Lenny got shot in the head when he was killed, even though he clearly sees Lenny get shot through the abdomen when the Pinkertons kill him.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. A letter from his father refers to Lenny as "Leonard", indicating that it’s his given name.
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwU4nyCftGM
  3. During the stagecoach robbery with Lenny, Arthur states that Lenny has been with the gang for six months.
  4. Stated by Arthur during Exit, Pursued by a Bruised Ego.
  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifohZGPVBMQ
  6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrkX61-zl2c

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