Part 2 is the final part of Red Dead Redemption 2. John Marston builds up the Beecher's Hope ranch with Uncle and a returning Charles Smith, pays down his bank debt through bounty work with Sadie Adler, and hunts down Micah Bell. It ends by setting up the original Red Dead Redemption.

Full spoilers for the Red Dead Redemption 2 ending follow.

Setting: Beecher's Hope

Beecher's Hope sits in the Great Plains of West Elizabeth. It is the home base for Part 2, with trips out to Blackwater, Lemoyne, Tall Trees and Rhodes. John owes the Blackwater bank for the land, and the debt drives the money missions of the chapter. Only story-mission payments reduce it.

The missions of Part 2

Part 2 has twelve story missions, with the character who gives each one, followed by an ending credits sequence. As in Part 1, the order can vary.

  1. Bare Knuckle Friendships · Uncle
  2. An Honest Day's Labors · Sadie Adler
  3. Home Improvement for Beginners · Uncle
  4. The Tool Box · Albert Cakes
  5. A New Jerusalem · Uncle
  6. A Quick Favor for an Old Friend · Uncle
  7. Uncle's Bad Day · Uncle
  8. The Best of Women · Abigail Marston
  9. Trying Again · Jack Marston
  10. A Really Big Bastard · Abigail Marston and Sadie Adler
  11. A New Future Imagined · Abigail Roberts
  12. American Venom · Abigail Roberts and Sadie Adler

Building the ranch

Charles Smith reappears in Bare Knuckle Friendships, in a fistfight in Saint Denis. Building follows: John buys lumber in The Tool Box, and in A New Jerusalem he assembles the ranch house with Charles while Uncle supervises. The barn is bought pre-cut and set up separately in A Quick Favor for an Old Friend. Bounty work with Sadie, such as An Honest Day's Labors, pays down the bank debt.

A gunfight in the snow at Mount Hagen in Red Dead Redemption 2
Mount Hagen, where the hunt for Micah Bell ends.

The family together

With the house finished, Abigail and Jack return to it in The Best of Women. In A New Future Imagined, John proposes to Abigail in Blackwater. That mission is the last before the finale.

American Venom: the hunt for Micah

The final mission is American Venom. Sadie brings word that Cleet, one of Micah's men, is drinking in Strawberry and knows where Micah is. John, Sadie and Charles catch Cleet and force the location from him: Micah is at Mount Hagen, in the Grizzlies. Cleet is hanged, or shot by Sadie if John spares him.

On the mountain, Charles is shot in the shoulder and Sadie is stabbed. Both survive. John continues up alone. He reaches Micah, and Sadie flanks him and holds him at gunpoint. Then Dutch van der Linde walks out of the cabin with his guns drawn. Sadie hesitates, and Micah takes her hostage.

Dutch van der Linde firing his revolver at Mount Hagen in Red Dead Redemption 2
Dutch fires the first shot into Micah, then leaves without a word.

John pleads with Dutch. Dutch shoots Micah in the chest, holsters his gun, and walks away without a word. A wounded Micah reaches for his revolver, and John shoots him dead in the snow. The kill is shared: Dutch fires first, John finishes it. John and Sadie then find a cache of money and gold hidden in the cabin. The game does not say where it comes from on screen; it is widely taken to be the gang's money from the 1899 Blackwater ferry robbery.

The ending: Edgar Ross

The ending credits play as a series of cutscenes. Two Bureau of Investigation agents, Edgar Ross and Archer Fordham, investigate Micah's death and find his body at Mount Hagen. They trace the trail to Beecher's Hope. In the last of these scenes, they watch John and Jack through binoculars from a distance, then turn and leave.

That surveillance is the setup for the original Red Dead Redemption. It establishes that the Bureau has identified John, the leverage it uses against him in 1911. Sadie leaves for South America and Charles for Canada. This is the end of Red Dead Redemption 2.

Key events of Part 2

  • Charles Smith returns and helps John build the Beecher's Hope ranch house.
  • John pays down his Blackwater bank debt through bounty work with Sadie Adler.
  • Abigail and Jack move into the finished house; John proposes to Abigail.
  • In American Venom, John, Sadie and Charles track Micah to Mount Hagen.
  • Dutch appears, shoots Micah first, and leaves; John kills Micah.
  • John and Sadie recover a cache of money and gold from Micah's cabin.
  • Agents Edgar Ross and Archer Fordham place John under surveillance, setting up Red Dead Redemption.