Red Dead Redemption 2 is packed full of mysteries that fans are still uncovering to this day. One of those mysteries unravels in the town of Strawberry and is a reminder of just how detailed the game was when it released back in 2018.
Strawberry is a small town in the West Elizabeth territory’s Big Valley, and if it’s the same Strawberry as the neighborhood that appears in San Andreas, it could connect the GTA and Red Dead universes. In Red Dead Redemption 2, however, the mystery is far more personal.
The Mayor of Strawberry in RDR2 is a man named Nicholas Timmins. Only recently elected, he can usually be found hanging outside Strawberry’s welcome center. Though he’s dressed in fancy clothes and references his desire to build a “Tolstoyan” community, he also constantly reminds Arthur and his residents to “be nice.” The Mayor even goes a bit overboard, declaring dramatically that “I, Nicholas Timmins, love all our visitors.”
Interactions with the Mayor, however, occasionally also reveal details that make him sound more melancholy than his usual self. “My family always wondered why I moved here. They blamed my failure at Princeton and a rather nasty rumor that went around about me but it wasn’t true.” The Mayor mentions his family again later: “Family. My God! It’s why we all ran away! They were very unkind to my wife.” With strange characters and even time-travelers in Read Dead 2, it’s understandable that some players might be suspicious of the Mayor’s story.
Some of the residents of Strawberry will make jokes and spread rumors that the Mayor is keeping his wife locked away in his house, but the truth is almost as strange: she never existed. Like the Emerald Ranch mystery, the truth can be found in a letter. If the player loots Mayor Timmins they can pick up a letter from his sister Belinda that reads:
Dear Nicholas,
Please write to me. I still think about you often and wonder if you are well and hope that you are happy. I know your feelings about mother and father but it is not fair to punish me by association. I am still not sure exactly what happened at Princeton and why you and that other professor (I do not remember his name?) left in such a hurry and I do not want know. I just want my brother back, that wonderful caring boy who rouged my cheeks and braided my hair all those years ago.
I saw some photographs of Big Valley in the library and it looks beautiful but I have to admit I find it difficult to picture a city boy like you roughing it up in the mountains! I do so miss our outings to the theater together. I am still hopeful of traveling out there to visit you one day although Bryce’s financial affairs are worse then ever now. Sometimes I think I should have taken a leaf out of your book and never married
Much love,
Belinda
The Mayor is heavily implied to be a gay man who had to leave Princeton after a relationship with another professor. The final piece of the puzzle is finding the other professor. Fortunately for Red Dead 2’s mystery hunters, there are few people in town who have much positive to say about Mayor Timmins. The clerk at the welcome center where the Mayor spends most of his time, however, calls Timmins a “fine man” and says it was Timmins who “convinced me to come out west,” implying that he is the other professor.
Through these incredible details Red Dead Redemption 2 is able to tell a non-linear story purely through its environment. Most players who unravel this mystery will go from seeing Timmins as an overenthusiastic but harmless eccentric to a suspicious man with a shadowy past to an ultimately sympathetic figure just trying to make a life for himself. As players continue to unravel all the game’s mysteries, fans will likely be excited to see what other stories Red Dead 2 has to tell.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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