Red Dead Redemption II | Ep. 23 – Some Roads Lead to Fortune. Ours Usually Lead to Gunfire

Arthur Morgan rides again as our Red Dead Redemption II adventure continues. Somewhere out there must be a peaceful road leading to prosperity and a comfortable retirement. Unfortunately, we seem to have an extraordinary talent for finding the ones that lead directly into trouble, gunfire, and somebody shouting about the law.

Tonight, we got much further than I originally expected. There were disastrous robberies, an enormous crocodile, several death loops, and yet more evidence that Dutch really shouldn’t be in charge of anything. We even managed to finish Chapter Four!

🤠 About the Game — Red Dead Redemption II

Red Dead Redemption II follows Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde Gang, a group of outlaws struggling to survive while federal agents and bounty hunters close in around them.

Set across the rugged heartland of America, the game takes us through a world of robberies, gunfights, difficult decisions and changing loyalties. As Arthur, we’re trying to keep the gang together while Dutch continues promising everyone a better future, usually involving another robbery that supposedly solves all our problems.

🐎 Where We Are in the Journey

We’re now on Episode 23 of our first Red Dead Redemption II playthrough, having spent much of Chapter Four causing trouble around Saint Denis.

Last week, we completed the riverboat mission, which unfortunately required giving Arthur an absolutely terrible haircut. This week began with an emergency visit to the barber to get something resembling his original appearance back.

With the gang still desperately searching for money and Dutch talking about escaping to Tahiti, we were heading towards what would turn out to be a major turning point in the story.

💥 What Happens in This Episode

Our first job of the evening was actually repairing a disaster from last week’s riverboat mission. We’d been forced to change Arthur’s hairstyle for that particular job, and the result was absolutely terrible. So, before doing anything else, we headed to the barber in Saint Denis to try and get it back to something resembling how it looked before. The facial hair wasn’t much better, but eventually we settled on something acceptable. Considering how frequently we seem to lose Arthur’s hat, having a decent haircut is becoming quite important.

With that sorted, we headed off to meet Dutch for Urban Pleasures, where we were finally going to rob the Saint Denis tram station. Dutch was still talking about getting enough money to escape to Australia or Tahiti, and apparently this robbery was supposed to help us get there. Unfortunately, the whole thing had been arranged based on information from Angelo Bronte, which should probably have been our first warning.

When we opened the safe, there was practically nothing inside. It immediately reminded me of Zoe’s line from Serenity: “Oh look, we can give up this life of crime.” Unfortunately, unlike in Serenity, there wasn’t a secret button we could press to reveal another vault full of money. That was it. We’d gone to all that trouble for almost nothing, and it was becoming fairly obvious that somebody had set us up.

Naturally, the police arrived almost immediately, and Dutch, being the absolutely useless leader that he is, decided our best escape plan was to jump aboard one of the city’s trams. We couldn’t work out why anybody would think this was sensible. The trams travel around Saint Denis on a closed loop, so exactly how far did Dutch imagine we were going to get? Was this tram somehow going to take us all the way to Tahiti?

Unsurprisingly, the escape went completely wrong. The tram’s brakes failed, we crashed, and suddenly we were fighting our way through what appeared to be the entire Saint Denis police force. I still don’t understand where they were all coming from. Every time we dealt with one group, another appeared, sometimes standing on rooftops or tucked away in little alleyways that they couldn’t possibly have reached that quickly. What were all those police officers doing up there, waiting for us?

Making matters worse, the game once again decided that we didn’t need the rifle I’d specifically chosen and modified. It seems that whenever we start an important mission, our preferred weapons mysteriously disappear, leaving us struggling with whatever the game decides we should be carrying.

Eventually, we escaped on a cart, although by that point we’d probably massacred most of the city’s police force several times over. Once we were safely out in the countryside, I considered turning around and heading straight back into Saint Denis to pay off our bounty. That seemed a little cheeky, even for us, so we rode out to Rhodes instead. Apparently, the price for everything we’d just done was £165, which seems remarkably reasonable for that much destruction.

There was also plenty happening in chat during all this. EntertainJD agreed that Dutch wasn’t much of a leader, while the familiar plum-shot jokes made another appearance whenever we landed a particularly satisfying shot. Mr Smith was encouraging more of them, and we even managed to fit in a community Hunger Games. Mr V emerged victorious once again, much to everyone’s amusement, while JD maintained that he was completely innocent.

With our bounty paid, we returned to Saint Denis for the final part of The Artist’s Way. Our rather unusual artist friend, Charles Châtenay, had managed to upset enough people that he needed help escaping the city. He was now completely dressed as a woman, and our job was to escort him through the streets and onto a departing ship.

The entire journey was ridiculous because practically everything we did looked suspicious. We were hiding behind things, changing direction and trying to avoid people who were looking for him. At no point did I think we were being particularly convincing. Eventually, though, we reached the docks, where we encountered a rather familiar problem.

I can never remember the melee combat controls in this game. We spend so much time shooting things that whenever we’re suddenly expected to fight somebody with our fists, I’ve completely forgotten which buttons do what. Unfortunately, this resulted in us getting killed and restarting the checkpoint. The first proper death loop of the evening had arrived.

On our next attempt, I resorted to repeatedly pressing buttons until something worked. It wasn’t particularly elegant, but eventually we managed to deal with the attackers and send Charles off on his ship.

Unfortunately, something else seemed to go wrong immediately afterwards. I’m not entirely certain whether I was distracted or whether we’d accidentally upset somebody, but suddenly the police were chasing us again. We tried escaping through the city, took a rather unfortunate route towards a dead end, and ended up getting shot again. Another death loop, and I’m still not entirely sure what we’d actually done to cause that one.

Between all these disasters, we also spent some time discussing the upcoming Discord movie night. There were votes for films including Thirteen Ghosts and Ghost Ship, along with the usual conversations about Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and other films. I also mentioned the problems with the Halloween event in Dune, which appeared to be broken for quite a few players, and we had a chat about preparations for Edinburgh Comic Con.

Eventually, we returned to the main story and Dutch’s latest questionable idea. This brought us to Country Pursuits, where we needed the assistance of a fellow called Thomas, who lived out in the swamp. Before he’d help us, however, we had to accompany him through crocodile-infested waters, check his fishing traps and find his missing companion, Jules.

We headed out in the boat, moving through water that was clearly full of things we’d rather not encounter. At one point, we even had to get into the water to help move the boat, which didn’t seem like a particularly good idea considering what was swimming around us.

Eventually, we discovered Jules hiding up a tree. Apparently, an absolutely enormous crocodile had been causing problems, and he’d decided that staying above the water was probably his best chance of survival. Unfortunately, getting him back to safety wasn’t quite as straightforward as we’d hoped.

While we were trying to free the boat, Jules ended up being dragged beneath the water by the creature. It immediately reminded me of the trash compactor scene from the original Star Wars, when something suddenly grabs Luke and pulls him underneath. Naturally, Arthur had to jump in and rescue him while Dutch, our supposedly magnificent leader, contributed very little to the situation.

We eventually managed to pull Jules out, although he’d suffered a particularly nasty injury to his leg. Looking at the state of that wound, and considering he’d just been dragged through filthy swamp water, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next time we see him he’s got a peg leg. That’s assuming we ever see him again, because I suspect an infection would already be causing problems.

The enormous crocodile wasn’t finished with us either. It kept coming back towards the boat, and we ended up using our shotgun to drive it away while trying to get everybody safely ashore. It was a very strange mission, but at least we survived it, and Thomas finally agreed to help us with Dutch’s next plan.

That led directly into Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten, where we headed out at night to deal with Angelo Bronte, the man responsible for setting us up at the tram station.

For once, I was actually preparing to approach things carefully and use a bit of stealth. Unfortunately, Dutch had other ideas and started a shooting gallery almost immediately. So much for sneaking around. We ended up fighting our way through the grounds and into Bronte’s mansion, dealing with guards as we searched the rooms.

Eventually, we reached the room where Bronte was hiding. I took out one of the men inside, but hadn’t realised somebody else was positioned off to the side. That somebody turned out to be Bronte himself, and before I properly understood what was happening, he’d killed us. Yet another death loop!

On the next attempt, we approached the room much more carefully, knowing where he was going to appear. This time we managed to capture him and drag him out of the building, fighting our way back towards the boat.

What happened next was another example of why I don’t think Dutch should be leading anybody. After taking Bronte out onto the water, Dutch drowned him and then fed his body to a crocodile. The man is completely insane. I genuinely cannot understand why the rest of the gang continues following him, especially when practically every plan he comes up with ends in disaster.

After dealing with Bronte, there was just one main mission remaining on the map: Banking, the Old American Art. I’d started to suspect we were approaching the end of Chapter Four, because the game seems to follow a pattern where each chapter finishes with a major disaster that forces the gang to move somewhere else.

This time, we were going to move rather further than I expected.

We began by heading into Saint Denis, all dressed up and standing suspiciously outside the bank before charging inside to rob it. Naturally, Dutch left most of the actual work to us. We had to intimidate the bank teller into opening the safe, and then I found myself working out the combination for a lockbox inside.

What confused me was that the safe I’d started opening seemed rather small. I hadn’t noticed the larger one nearby, so I wasn’t entirely sure whether I’d selected the correct thing. By the time I realised there was another option, we’d already worked through the combination.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get much opportunity to worry about that, because the Saint Denis police force turned up yet again. Apparently, the city had somehow recruited another ten million officers since our previous visit.

This time, however, things went considerably worse. Agent Milton appeared with Hosea as a prisoner, and the confrontation ended with Hosea being shot dead. The entire robbery descended into chaos, and we had to fight our way out while trying to keep the surviving members of the gang together.

We eventually blew a hole through one of the walls and climbed onto the roof, where we started shooting the police from above. Lenny was also killed during our escape, and we learned that John had apparently been captured. What was supposed to be the robbery that finally secured everyone’s future had instead cost us several important members of the gang.

I thought we might be about to do some proper Assassin’s Creed-style parkour across the rooftops, making our escape over the buildings. Unfortunately, that wasn’t quite how it worked out, and there was another unfortunate fall and checkpoint restart along the way.

Eventually, we ended up hiding in a warehouse until nightfall. Considering the police had been following us across the rooftops, I was surprised they never thought to search the building where we’d disappeared. But apparently that was good enough, and we remained hidden until it was safe to move.

Once darkness arrived, we had to make our way through the docks without attracting attention. This involved sneaking past guards, using distractions and trying not to accidentally start another enormous gunfight. After everything that had happened earlier, I was quite pleased that we managed to get through it.

We eventually secured passage aboard a ship, with the intention of heading towards Cuba and returning later for the rest of the gang.

I wasn’t particularly convinced by that plan either. We’d left people behind at the camp, and everybody knew where we’d been hiding. If we were going away on a ship, we could potentially be gone for months. What exactly was supposed to happen to everybody we’d abandoned in Saint Denis?

For all I knew, the authorities might already have dealt with them by the time we returned. This is my first time playing through Red Dead Redemption II, so I genuinely don’t know what happens next or whether we’ll ever see some of those characters again.

Of course, even escaping on the ship couldn’t go according to plan. We sailed away from Saint Denis, only to find ourselves caught in a storm. The ship was badly damaged, and before long we had to abandon it altogether.

That brought us into Chapter Five, with Arthur washing ashore on an unfamiliar tropical island called Guarma. It certainly wasn’t the peaceful arrival in Tahiti that Dutch had been promising.

Ideally, I would have ended the stream there, right at the beginning of the new chapter. Unfortunately, the game wouldn’t allow us to save because we’d been pushed straight into the mission Welcome to the New World. That meant we had to keep going until it finally gave us an opportunity to create a proper save.

The opening involved Arthur staggering along a beach in a rather sorry state. For quite some time, the only thing we could do was move forward. We couldn’t explore, couldn’t do anything useful, and just had to keep walking along the beach and up the path until we eventually found some of our surviving companions.

It wasn’t long before we were arrested and forced to march along in chains. During this section, I discovered that I didn’t even need to keep holding the movement controls. If I let go, Arthur would simply be pulled along by the rest of the prisoners.

Unfortunately, that only worked for a little while. After failing to keep up properly, one of the guards knocked us down and ordered us to continue walking.

As we moved along, the guards began talking about a revolution, and we encountered other prisoners being escorted through the area. Based on the dialogue and the way these games usually structure their missions, I had a fairly good idea what was coming.

I predicted that somewhere along the road, a group of revolutionaries would suddenly appear and attack the guards.

Almost immediately after I’d finished saying it, that was exactly what happened!

We ended up helping the rebels fight off the guards and escape with the other prisoners. It was one of those moments where the game’s storytelling was just a little too predictable, although I was certainly pleased to finally have something to do other than walk forward.

Eventually, we reached a derelict building where Arthur and the others could get some rest. After sleeping through the night and waking up the following morning, the game finally returned control to us and allowed us to make a proper save.

That was where we left things, right at the beginning of Chapter Five, with the gang stranded on Guarma and absolutely no idea how we’re going to get back to everybody we left behind.

We’d managed to complete the rest of Chapter Four, survive several death loops, escape a giant crocodile, lose important members of the gang, wreck a ship and end up on a completely different island. We’d certainly made considerably more progress than I expected when we started the evening by visiting the barber.

We finished by saying goodnight to everyone and raiding into OurChickenLife, bringing another rather eventful Red Dead Redemption II stream to an end.

🎬 Watch the Episode

If you missed all the disastrous planning, crocodile encounters and unexpected journey to Guarma, you can catch everything in Red Dead Redemption II Episode 23.

You can also visit my YouTube channel or follow the complete adventure through the Red Dead Redemption II playlist.

If you’re enjoying the series, remember to leave a like, share your thoughts in the comments and subscribe for future episodes.

🔴 Join the Adventure Live

If you’d like to witness Dutch’s next terrible decision while we’re actually playing, come and join us live on Twitch or YouTube.

There’s always something happening in chat, whether we’re discussing the game, blaming Dutch, celebrating plum shots or trying to escape another death loop.

Red Dead Redemption II will return the Friday after our special HalloStream week. Check the schedule on Discord for the Halloween-themed streams and upcoming adventures.

🌎 Community & Links

Our adventures don’t end when Arthur puts his weapons away. There are plenty of other places to keep up with the streams, join the community and see what else I’ve been working on.

Live — Pull up a chair and join us for the next adventure:

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Community — Join the conversations, movie nights and whatever else we’re planning:

Discord

Socials — Keep up with everything happening between streams:

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Music — Listen to my music when we’re not causing chaos in Saint Denis:

Spotify | Apple Music

Support — If you’d like to support the channel and its future adventures:

Fourthwall | Teespring | Streamlabs

More — Discover my other projects, services and articles:

Business Centre | Download the Brochure | About Me | Blog

🌴 Tahiti Can Wait — We’ve Somehow Ended Up on Guarma

We started the evening fixing Arthur’s haircut and ended it stranded on a tropical island, having lost several members of the gang along the way. That’s quite a lot of progress for one stream, although not necessarily the sort Dutch originally promised.

Chapter Five is now ready for us, but first we’re taking a break from Red Dead Redemption II for HallowStream week. There’ll also be no Saturday stream ahead of Edinburgh Comic Con, and Oblivion Remastered will return after Halloween.

Thanks to everyone who joined us, contributed to chat and endured another evening of Dutch’s leadership. I’ll see you for the Halloween streams, and we’ll find out what Guarma has waiting for us when Red Dead Redemption II returns.

— Dr Ravenholm