Red Dead Redemption 2’s sprawling open world is full of mysteries. Some of them are still only just revealing themselves in full as players put together pieces of the puzzles left for them by Rockstar from when the game launched all the way back in October 2018.
There are some mysteries which, though thought solved, have unknown depths which some keen-eyed gamers have been able to plumb in search of the truth in Red Dead Redemption 2. One such mystery is the hermit’s map, which reveals a story of misplaced trust and murder with an ironic twist.
Player’s can find a hermit’s cottage in Manito Glade. The cottage appears inconspicuous enough at first, but has a sign that reads “NO TRESPASSING”. The hermit, a short man with a mustache, will first tell the player that they don’t want what they’re selling and will become increasingly belligerent the closer the player approaches. Unless hogtied, the hermit will attack, leading many players to shoot him even if they aren’t trying to play as an evil Arthur Morgan. The reason for his hostility is initially a mystery.
If the player then goes into the hermit’s house and rifles through his possessions, they will find a part of a map. The second half of the map can be found all the way at the edge of the game’s world, by the source of Little Creek River, near one of Red Dead 2‘s gang hideouts. This is also owned by a hermit, but this a time by a woman who will sick her dogs on the player if they get too close. If the player shoots or hogties her, they are able to find the second part of the map in her possession.
This puts an item in the player’s inventory called the Mended Map. At first, it appears to be like the other treasure maps in Red Dead and it leads players to the possessions of Otis Miller, including one pretty swanky looking revolver for their trouble.
However, the story doesn’t end there. Otis Miller is a famous outlaw in the Red Dead Redemption 2 universe akin to Jesse James. His life’s story is even a song that the gang will sing around a camp fire, one that tells the story of how Otis was a Robin Hood-esque outlaw who was eventually shot dead by his own close associate, a man named Charlie Tatum, leaving his wife behind. The song has the exact same melody and many of the same lyrics as the Jesse James folk song.
Though outlaw songs tend to be romantic, many of the details in the song can be confirmed in an article from the Blackwater Ledger titled “The Sad Story of Otis Miller Jr.” which talks about the six-year-old son Otis left behind when Charlie Tatum murdered him. On the back of the mended map is a note from Otis himself which describes his fear of betrayal and says that, as a result, he is hiding his possessions and moving with his wife to live with the Tatum brothers. It is then, presumably, that Charlie Tatum betrays and kills Otis.
The final ironic twist, however, can be found when the player takes a look at the Otis Miller Boys cigarette card in RDR2, found in Six Point Cabin. This shows two men either side of Otis. It is then that the player may realize that the hermit they very likely killed to get the first part of the map to begin with was in fact Charlie Tatum himself, which makes it extremely likely that the woman they got the other part of the map from was in fact Otis’ wife, who fled with part of the map after Charlie betrayed her husband.
The irony lies in the fact that as players try to figure out how the story ends, many realize that it ended exactly where their investigation began. The final twist is that many players discover that they already inadvertently got revenge on Otis’ behalf before they even began their investigation, and it is immersive storytelling like this that has players still diving into Red Dead Redemption 2 years after its original release.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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