Red Dead Redemption II | Ep. 17 – Every Trail Leads to Trouble Eventually
The frontier continues to test us, and apparently in Red Dead Redemption II, the reward for surviving one disaster is simply being given directions to the next one.
We return after Arthur’s particularly unpleasant spell of captivity—possibly involving a coma, definitely involving being badly beaten—and finally escape the incredibly slow-moving campsite aboard our faithful horse, Tesco Lasagna. From there, the trail leads through escaped prisoners, hostile towns, alligator-infested swamps, mysterious Gavins and enough gunfire to depopulate another corner of America.
🤠 About Red Dead Redemption II
Red Dead Redemption II follows Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang, a band of outlaws increasingly running out of places to hide.
With federal agents and bounty hunters closing in, survival means robbing, stealing and fighting across a spectacular frontier while the gang desperately tries to stay ahead of the consequences of its own actions.
And judging by our playthrough, those consequences usually involve massacring whichever town we happen to be standing in.
🐎 Where We Are in the Journey
Episode 17 picks up late in Chapter 3, with Arthur recovering from his recent capture and the gang’s situation becoming increasingly unstable.
We’re sitting at roughly 38% story completion, but this stream becomes a major turning point. By the end of the night, Chapter 3 is finished, Chapter 4 has begun, and Saint Denis is waiting for us with a very important search ahead.
🔥 What Happens in This Episode
Things begin innocently enough when we leave camp on Tesco Lasagna and encounter an escaped prisoner on the road. After some confusion about what exactly we’re supposed to do, we shoot the chains from his ankles and let him disappear—while spending the next stretch of road half-expecting somebody to leap out looking for him.
Then we reach Rhodes.
Arthur heads into town with Bill, Micah and Sean, and an ambush by the Grays turns the streets into another enormous firefight. There’s an early checkpoint restart, bullets everywhere, and then Sean suddenly gets his head blown off.
I’ll admit Sean wasn’t exactly my favourite member of the gang, particularly after the insanity surrounding Strawberry, but even I wasn’t expecting his departure to be quite that abrupt.
Naturally, the response is to massacre most of Rhodes.
From there, things become considerably quieter with Arcadia for Amateurs – Part IV, as we reunite with photographer Albert Mason. After arriving late and remembering how camping works, we take him out in possibly the slowest rowboat ever constructed so he can photograph alligators.
Getting close to enormous swamp reptiles in a tiny wooden boat seems like an excellent plan. Somehow Mason survives—even after needing rescued from one—and we move on to Saint Denis.
I’d hoped to pay off the bounty generated by our latest massacre, but that wasn’t happening, so the area remains hostile for now. With thousands of dollars burning a hole in Arthur’s pocket, we instead upgrade the Lancaster rifle before I become distracted by the baffling geography of the Jade Restaurant sign, which appears to be advertising from halfway down the street while attached to another Chinese restaurant.
Leaving Saint Denis doesn’t improve matters.
A stranger asks us to rescue his kidnapped wife from a shack near the swamp. We shoot one captor before another appears from nowhere and introduces a knife directly to Arthur’s jaw.
Very polite.
Cue the customary #Deathloop and a failed rescue attempt. Next time, I’m thinking dynamite.
The road also introduces us to the legendary search for Gavin. Is Gavin a friend? An imaginary person? A dog? A squirrel? We spend far too long searching before discovering that Gavin is apparently one of the game’s running mysteries.
During the hunt we also intervene when another man is being attacked. We kill his attackers successfully—just slightly too late to prevent them killing him first. At that point, there isn’t much left to do except stare at the situation and walk away.
Back at camp, however, the story takes a much darker turn.
Jack has been abducted by the Braithwaites, sending the gang riding towards Braithwaite Manor in Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern. What follows is one of the most spectacular assaults of the playthrough so far: the gang storms the estate, another Deathloop emerges, and the Braithwaite operation is comprehensively dismantled.
We learn that Jack has been handed over to Angelo Bronte in Saint Denis before dragging the surviving Braithwaite matriarch outside and watching the manor burn.
Then the Pinkertons arrive.
Camp is no longer safe, meaning—as seems traditional whenever a chapter ends—we’re moving again.
The Battle of Shady Belle sends Arthur and John ahead to clear the remaining Lemoyne Raiders from the gang’s new home. Once the shooting stops, we’re left with the glamorous frontier task of dumping bodies into the swamp.
The downstairs corpses cooperate. The upstairs ones do not.
I attempt to throw them dramatically over the balcony, only to discover that the contextual engine won’t allow it—and because they’re story-related corpses, Arthur doesn’t particularly want to put them down either.
Eventually the scene fades, the gang arrives, and Chapter 3 officially comes to an end.
Chapter 4 begins in Saint Denis with the search for Jack ahead of us, making it the perfect point to stop for the night before we headed over to raid ArtsyCatsyBee.
Everybody’s dead, Dave.
🎬 Watch the Episode
If you want to see Rhodes descend into chaos, our deeply sensible approach to alligator photography, the Gavin investigation, the return of #Deathloop and the fiery end of Chapter 3, you can watch the full episode here:
Watch Red Dead Redemption II Episode 17
You can also follow the entire journey through the Red Dead Redemption II playlist.
If you enjoy the chaos, head over to Dr Ravenholm on YouTube, leave a like or comment and subscribe so you don’t miss the next expedition into Saint Denis.
🔴 Join the Adventure Live
The recorded episodes show you where the trail eventually led. The livestreams are where you get to watch us become completely lost along the way.
Join us live on Twitch or YouTube and become part of the expedition as questionable plans are formed, Deathloops are adjudicated by chat and supposedly simple journeys spiral into disasters.
And when the night’s adventure ends, we often keep the journey moving with a raid into another creator’s stream—just as we finished this one by heading over to ArtsyCatsyBee.
🌐 Community & Links
The frontier is considerably better with a crew behind you. If you want to stay connected between streams, follow the wider adventure or help keep the operation moving, there are plenty of places to join us.
When the red light comes on, the chaos begins live.
Watch on Twitch or join me on YouTube.
Pull up a chair around the community campfire.
Join the conversation over on Discord.
Follow the trail beyond the stream.
You’ll find me on TikTok, Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and X.
If you want to help keep the expedition supplied.
Visit the merch store or support the channel through Streamlabs.
There’s more beyond the gaming frontier too.
Explore the Business Centre, download the service brochure, learn more about me or explore the blog.
🌅 Until the Next Trail
Chapter 3 is behind us, Shady Belle is home—for however long that lasts—and somewhere in Saint Denis, Jack is waiting.
Next time we ride into Chapter 4. Given our track record, I’m sure everything will go completely according to plan.
Dr Ravenholm
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