Red Dead Redemption 2 Story Explained

The Van der Linde gang formation 

The Van der Linde gang (also referred to as Dutch's Boys)  is a gang of outlaws, and believe me, dutch insists on the word outlaws, to quote the man himself “We're not criminals, we're outlaws.”

The roots of the gang go back to a little competition between the young Dutch and Hosea Mathews. They both tried to scam each other only to find out in the end.

After laughing at the situation and seeing the other person's skills, they decided to team up and face the world together. 

They started robbing the rich to help the poor, and step by step, people joined the cause, men, women, and couples.

1899

The year is 1899, and we're playing As Arthur, a high member of the Van der Linde gang.

After a failed heist, Dutch and the gang were forced to leave Blackwater and cross the mountains west to evade law enforcement.

It was very snowy, and they had trouble finding shelter. 

John Martson was lost in the blizzard, and later on, in a mission, Arthur goes to find him and succeeds at that.

Because of how rushed and hasty the departure from Blackwater was, the gang at that point was short on supplies; right after finding a shelter, Micah, who went scouting, tells Dutch and Arthur of a house that seems to have people and supplies in it.

When they ask for help, They find out that those people are part of the O'Driscoll Boys. 

Naturally, they get into a shoot-out with each other, as a group of outlaws does. 

The train 

After The snow went away, Dutch came up with a plan to rob a train to get money for the camp. It later would turn out that the train they robbed was owned by a very powerful man named Cornwall. 

Things go wrong, so the gang escapes to a little town called valentine with orders from the Dutch to find work and lay low.

Rhodes 

After three weeks, Cornwall's men catch up with the gang, and they get into a bloody shoot-out.

Now that the camp location is compromised and Cornwall can send more men any minute, the gang decides to move.

They Move south and camp out near a town called Rhodes.

Grays and Braithwaite

The Grays and the Braithwaites are two prominent families that live in Rhodes and have had a feud for generations. 

Dutch comes with a plan again that essentially boils down to pretending to help each family without the knowledge of the other. The good ol’ playing both sides.

The family figures this so the Grays ambush some of the gang in the town. This leads to significant character death in the game, and the rest barely survive and head back to the camp.

When they get to the camp, they discover that Jack has been kidnaped. Jack, who's a little kid at this point, is John Marston's son.

Dutch and the gang head to the Braithwaits' big house and have an epic showdown. Before burning the whole thing to the ground, they discover that Jack isn't there.

Angelo Bronte 

The gang finds out that Jack has been given to Angelo Bronte, a rich, powerful man in Saint-Denis, but Agent Milton pays them a visit before they head there.

Milton offers them a deal, Dutch surrenders himself, and the rest of the gang go free. The gang refuses, so Milton leaves with his tail between his legs but promises to come back.

The gang heads to Saint denis and finds out where Jack is after Deals with Angelo Bronte go south quickly. Things get to the shootie shootie situation, but the gang ends up winning and returning Jack sound and safe.

Dutch got a new plan.

Dutch wants a big robbery that would retire the whole gang from the outlaw life, the one to end them all. So they plan a bank heist. Things get very complicated with law enforcement leading everyone to escape, but John gets arrested.

With no way of getting out, Dutch and the rest of the Heist crew get on a boat at night.

Guarma 

Remember that boat they got on to? Yeah, it caught on fire, and they jumped out and got washed up by the island of Guarma .

Guarma is owned by a wealthy, powerful man who's a slave plantation owner. That plantation is pretty much the island itself.

The boys work with the people trying to lead a revolution there, overthrow the slave owner, and secure a boat that gets them home.

Back on American soil

When they arrive back to America, they spread out to find the rest of the gang they left behind before the unprompted visit to Garma.

Arthur finds a note in an abandoned house and leads him to a town where he finds some of the gang. 

The law enforcement shows up at that moment, and the gang flees the place by heading to Annenberg. 

Reuniting 

Arthur breaks John out of jail, and the whole gang reunites; Dutch insists on doing a big heist that would get them out of the outlaw game for good.

Judging by how bad this went in the past, Arthur and John question these decisions by Dutch, and he starts thinking of them as disloyal. This creates a rift in the gang.

What the hell did you do, Dutch?

While they're in Annesburg, Cornwall and his men show up; instead of dutch properly negotiating with him to leave the gang alone, he kills him by surprise, and the situation gets sticky.

This action by Dutch leads Arthur to truly question Dutch’s motives and ways of handling things.

Dutch’s Final plan, I swear.

Dutch says he has the final plan that is guaranteed to work and will be the one they've been looking for all this time.

The plan is blowing up a bridge that would trigger a war between Native Americans and the U.S army.

Naturally, the government would send money to Annesburg to fix the bridge, which would be the train they rob and get that sweet cash.

It did not work out.

Yes and no, actually.

They managed to rob the train, but John was lost during the robbery. They didn't know if he was arrested or dead.

When they got back to the camp, they found out that Agent Milton Arrested Abigail, John's girlfriend, Micah, and Dutch, who refused to help get her back.

Arthur attempts to save Abigail, and in that, he discovers that Micah has been working with Milton all along.

Abigail shoots Milton dead, and they escape that place.

Back to the camp.

Arthur returns to the camp and accuses Micah of being a rat and a traitor working with law enforcement. 

Now Dutch don't know what to believe, and as that's going. John pops up and accuses Dutch of abandoning him.

This lovely meeting gets interrupted by law enforcement.

Dutch and Micah run away, leaving Arthur and John fighting on their own. 

Arthur gives his hat to John and tells him to go be his own man. Sacrificing himself for John and his family.

Arthur holds law enforcement off while John gets as far as he can. Yes, you will cry. I know I am.

Epilogue

Years later, we're playing as John Martson trying to settle down with Abigail and Jack during it. 

John finds work on a big farm, they provide him with a house for his wife and kid, and they work on that farm.

One night some boys who work for a nearby farm come to mess things up, pushing John to grab a gun again, killing every last one of them and even burning their farm down. 

The End 

John buys his own Ranch to live in with his wife and kid but then receives information on the whereabouts of Micah.

Abigail begs him to not go, but what Micah did can not be forgiven, and what Arthur did for them as a family can't be dismissed.

When John gets to Micah on the top of a snowy mountain, he's surprised by Dutch being there; Dutch kills Micah and walks away in the last act of a slight redemption.

Get it? Redemption because it's the name of the game, I'll stop.

With A family and a ranch, some old friends, and revenge settled, John tries to live everyday life, and that is the end.

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