Free the Other Way: More Warlock in RDR2

All articles on this site feature detailed discussion of literary allusions in Red Dead Redemption 2, and as such contain unmarked major and minor spoilers for the game, and occasionally the eventual fates of some characters in Red Dead Redemption. Read at your own risk.

Read part 1 here. Check back next week for my last essay on the literature that shaped RDR2! Follow me on Bluesky (etc) for more updates on the site.

Themes

Freedom. Abe McQuown is a ranch owner and the leader of a group of men who rustle cattle, rob stagecoaches, and murder people in Warlock. Whenever any of the men are charged with their crimes, their associates lie for them and they’re acquitted. Despite that, the white Americans living in Warlock generally agree that Abe himself is not that bad of a guy, as criminals of that era went.

The system that Marshal Clay Blaisedell and the Citizens’ Committee put in place to handle McQuown’s men is “posting” people — banning them from coming into town. They have no real legal authority to do so. One of McQuown’s men, Billy Gannon, complains to his brother John about Blaisedell:

“Ask him who the hell he thinks he is. Lording it over everybody. Running everybody around and telling them when they can come and go and all. This is a free country, isn’t it? God damn it!”
“Billy,” he said. “It’s been free the way you mean, maybe, but it is going to have to be free the other way. So people are free to live peaceable, and free of being hurrahed and their property busted up, and their stock run off, and stages robbed.”

Hall 71

Billy’s attitude helped shape Dutch’s. Dutch steals and kills people and claims it’s somehow in defense of freedom, in pursuit of a beautiful dream. Freedom is never served by damaging the lives of average people. People who pretend otherwise only do so in the service of their own selfish desires, as RDR2 demonstrates well through the development of Dutch’s character.

Changing attitudes. During Billy’s conversation with John, he says “[Abe] goes along the way he always did that used to be all right with everybody, but everybody’s got down on him” (132). This is similar to Arthur’s belief that “they don’t want folk like us no more” (“A Quiet Time”). Both statements represent a misunderstanding of the situations the speaker finds himself in. It was never “all right with everybody” for Abe and his men to rob and murder, it just got to a point at which it was absolutely intolerable. Likewise, no one ever wanted outlaws — no matter how much they were romanticized — stealing their savings and killing guards. The changes that ended Dutch’s Boys were logistical: at this point in history, Western civilization had colonized what is now called the United States more broadly, meaning institutions could more effectively combat thieves.

After Abe dies, Judge Holloway tells Abe’s father, Ike:

“It is a battle you poor, dumb, ignorant, misled, die-hard fools have fought a million times and never won in the end, and I lost this leg beating you of it once before. Because times change, and will change, and are changing, Ike. If you will let them change like they are bound to do, why, they will change easy. But fight them like you do every time and they will change hard and grind you to dust like a millstone grinding.”

Hall 325

Dutch’s unwillingness to learn this exact lesson spells the gang’s doom. One of the last things he says is: “My whole life, all I ever did was fight.” As Holloway predicts, he was ground to dust.

Redemption. John Gannon used to work for Abe McQuown, like his brother Billy. Six months before the novel began, he went along with a plan to ambush and murder seventeen Mexican men who killed one of their number and crippled Abe’s father when McQuown’s men stole their cattle. John knew it was wrong at the time and went along with it because he was afraid of what the others would think if he didn’t. He’s haunted by his memories of his part in it; afterward, he left McQuown’s ranch. Despite intense criticism from his former friends, he eventually becomes a deputy and then the deputy sheriff, trying to redeem himself by stopping further iniquities and making Warlock safer. His job is a dangerous one, and eventually he’s murdered by one of his former associates.

Tom Morgan, too, seeks a kind of redemption in death. He’s cut himself off from genuine connection with the people around him. Unable to live authentically, he hopes that he can give Clay the freedom to do so. The theme of redemption through death and sacrifice is one of the most prominent in RDR2, especially in the last chapter.

Arthurian legend. Like RDR2, Warlock alludes to Arthurian legend: Blaisedell and the woman he’s courting are compared to the tragic lovers Tristram and Isolde, and the sword Excalibur is mentioned. Tom Morgan’s last name is partially an allusion to Morgan le Fay. A man who orchestrates illegal strikebreaking efforts is named Arthur Willingham. His name is an ironic allusion to King Arthur, since he acts autocratically, a would-be monarch who manipulates senile General Peach into illegally bringing the army to act against striking miners. This inversion pairs with the character of Tom Morgan, named for a villain, who sacrifices everything for his friend.

Abusive fathers. Abe’s full first name is Abraham. His father is Ike, which is usually a nickname for Isaac. This is another ironic inversion: the names allude to the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac, in which God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, but rescinds the order at the last moment. Ike is an emotionally and psychologically abusive father, constantly berating his son for not being more violent and toxic. His vicious haranguing is part of the reason Abe feels he has to continue defying Warlock, and therefore why he ends up dead. “Geld him,” Dutch’s line from “Paying a Social Call,” are Ike’s exact words to Abe when John Gannon goes to tell him not to ride against Blaisedell.

The story of Isaac and Abraham is alluded to in RDR2 as well, in the name of Arthur’s son and in his death. Arthur has had two abusive fathers: his biological one, Lyle Morgan, and his false father, Dutch. Dutch’s abuse is far more insidious. His manipulations directly and indirectly lead to Arthur’s death, just as Ike’s contributed to Abe’s.

Duality. Duality is obviously a major theme of RDR2, one of its questions to the player whether Arthur is Good or Bad. “He was good and bad, and it’s hard to say quite what he was in the end,” John tells Mickey, the homeless man in Valentine, but the game fails to make the case for this very well. Because of the honor system, the writers had to allow for a certain amount of flexibility in Arthur’s character. Unfortunately, with the variables involved, it is basically impossible to do this justice. In good writing, character drives plot. If the differences in the versions of Arthur’s character were as deep as they’re supposed to be, the paths of the plot would branch earlier and more often; the endings wouldn’t be variations in mood, but genuinely different. The version the writers do justice to is high-honor Arthur, who has an internal cohesion that low-honor Arthur lacks. The latter is simply not as believable as a character.

It’s Dutch who best embodies duality. He has shown genuine care for the people in the gang, rescuing many of them in one way or another. He’s also manipulated and used them. This trait comes from Abe McQuown. He hired Billy and John Gannon when they were young and their father had just died. Both men feel a great deal of gratitude toward him. But he’s also led them astray, involving them in the murderous ambush that killed seventeen people.

Parts of Warlock are Henry Holmes Goodpasture’s journals. He describes McQuown’s relationship with his good friend, Curley Burne, who was part of the inspiration for Hosea: “As Blaikie puts it, who is something of a philosopher, McQuown is like a coin, with Curley Burne imprinted upon one side, and the evil physiognomy of Jack Cade upon the other. A man’s attitude toward McQuown depends upon which side of the coin he has seen” (61). Dutch’s duality is expressed in metal, too: one of his revolvers is silver, the other blackened steel.

Taking action. One of the novel’s major themes is the struggle to “be a man.” Although this struggle concerns fulfilling heteronormative gender roles, it also means learning how to take action. Part of the reason Tom Morgan is not a pure villain, and that Clay values him so much, is that he’s never afraid and never hesitates. (Of course, he has something of a death wish.)

Most of the men in Warlock are cowed by McQuown’s men, to the detriment of their self-image. Over the course of the novel, we see characters — particularly John Gannon — learn to take action in accordance with their principles. As I’ve discussed before, individuation is one of the major themes of RDR2.

Motifs & Symbols

Baylock. Micah Bell’s horse Baylock looks very similar to the Dark Horse from Red Dead Redemption, which only spawns when the player’s honor drops below a certain level. The most notable difference between Baylock and the Dark Horse is their markings: while the Dark Horse has two socks, Baylock has three stockings and a sock (“socks” and “stockings” are the white markings that some horses have on their legs. Stockings travel farther up the leg than socks). Baylock’s coloring is an allusion to Clay Blaisedell’s horse, which is black with a white face and stockings.

This is part of the color inversion motif that the writers borrowed from Arthurian legend: the bad guy rides the horse of a hero who’s about as upright as they come.

Baylock’s name may be wordplay: “bay” is a horse color; “blaze” (“Blaise-“) is a horse marking. “Lock” shares an origin with the German “loch,” meaning “hole.” “Dell” is also Germanic in origin and means “hollow” (albeit in the sense of a small valley). Besides that, “Bay” + “lock” is reminiscent of “War” + “lock.” Still, these parallels aren’t precise enough to be certain; the name may be an allusion to something more specific.

Silver Dollar. When Curley Burne, who helped inspire the character of Hosea, is incorrectly believed to have murdered someone, he attempts to escape on a horse that’s a “long-legged, big-barreled, steady-standing gray.” Hosea also rides a long-legged gray horse.

Events

Running away. Kate Dollar, Tom Morgan’s former lover, becomes close with John Gannon and asks him to run away with her when his job as deputy sheriff puts him in danger. Mary Linton asks Arthur Morgan to do the same thing (“Fatherhood and Other Dreams II”).

Although Kate asks John and not Tom, her function in Warlock is the same as Mary’s in RDR2: a former lover and morally strict woman trying to rescue a man from the circumstances he’s gotten himself into. John explains to Kate that he has a duty to stay, just as Arthur does to Mary. Both men end up dead.

Pistol whipping. A moment from “A Really Big Bastard” is lifted directly from Warlock: A mob is attempting to lynch some men accused of robbing a stage and killing a passenger when Blaisedell shows up at the jail. The mob is threatening to trample over (“tromp”) the deputy sheriff and the men helping him.

“Come here and tromp me,” Blaisedell said.
Vint stepped back. Those around him retreated further.
“Come here,” Blaisedell said. “Come here!” Vint came a step forward. His face looked like gray dough.
“This is none of your put-in, Marshal!” someone yelled, but the rest of the mob was silent.
“Come here!” Blaisedell said once more, dangerously. Vint sobbed with fear, but he came on another step. Blaisedell’s hand shot up suddenly, the Colt’s barrel gleaming as he clubbed it down. The fat man cried out as he fell. There was silence again.

Hall 103

In RDR2:

Sadie’s line, “Thurwell … call yourself a man?” touches on Warlock‘s major theme surrounding the struggle to “be a man” in ways both healthy and toxic.

Sadie assaulting Thurwell is one of the relatively rare instances in which a man’s actions in one work are “given” to a female character in RDR2.

Wrestling over a weapon. John Gannon asks Abe McQuown if he’s afraid of Blaisedell, sending him into a rage:

Abe grunted as though he’d been hit in the belly, and snatched for his knife. Curley leaped toward him and caught his wrist. It look all his strength to thrust that steel wrist down, and the knife down, while Abe glared past him at Bud, panting, his teeth bared and beads of sweat on his forehead. “You are to quit this, Abe!” Curley whispered. “I mean right now directly! You are making a damned fool of yourself!” And Abe’s hand relaxed against his. Abe resheathed the knife.

Hall 113-114

In “That’s Murfree Country,” Dutch pulls his gun on Molly O’Shea and Arthur grapples it down, sternly telling him to send Molly away.

Like Abe, Dutch is enraged because someone with whom he was once close has insulted his ego. Hosea is partly modeled on Curley, but he’s died by this point in the story, so his double, Arthur, stands in for him.

Former friends. After Curley’s death, Abe announces he and his men are “Regulators” and will be coming for Clay for the deaths of Curley Burne and Billy Gannon (to Clay’s persistent angst, the two were innocent of the crimes they were accused of. They came to town despite being banned in part to protest this illegal treatment, and, not knowing their innocence, he killed them).

By this point, John Gannon is the deputy sheriff. In that capacity, he goes to see Abe and his other former friends to tell them to leave Clay alone. Abe once took John and Billy in like Dutch took Arthur and John Marston in, and both Abe and Dutch expect the younger mens’ loyalty in return. Gannon and Arthur both develop a sense of morality that makes this impossible. Gannon gets into a physical altercation with the other men, and Abe stabs John through the right hand, pinning him down. John thinks back on it: “And now he could almost pity Abe McQuown, remembering the desperation he had seen in Abe’s eyes as he leaned upon the knife, Abe fighting and torturing for the Right as though it were something that could be taken by force” (307).

Of course, Sadie stabs an irritating barfly through the hand in “Gainful Employment,” but this scene’s real parallel is elsewhere: at the end of Arthur and Micah’s fight, Arthur crawls for Micah’s gun. When he reaches for it, Dutch steps hard on his right hand so he can’t pick it up. Dutch, like Abe, is struggling to believe that he’s in the right in a situation in which he clearly is not.

Johnson County War. The last third of Warlock draws some inspiration from the Johnson County War. The first part of RDR2’s epilogue is based on the same dynamic that drove this conflict: powerful cattle barons trying to intimidate and run off smaller farmers. (The Johnson County in question is in Wyoming; the Laramie Boys get their name from Laramie, Wyoming.)

Places

Pleasance. Pleasance is something of a locus of convergence for allusions in RDR2. In the graveyard are at least two allusions to Warlock: Curley, as a last name, alludes to Curley Burne, as does Curtis Baines (both names are CUR*** B**NE*). Jessie Yeatman’s first name may allude to the novel’s Miss Jessie, since “Jessie,” when a woman’s name, is usually an abbreviation for Jessica, and headstones usually have full names.

Mission Names

“The Sheep and the Goats.” During the army’s illegal action against the striking miners, young Jimmy Fitzsimmons intentionally gets himself locked up in the jail with the leaders instead of the stable with the rest of the workers, explaining: “Sheep up in the livery stable, goats in here.” This is a Biblical allusion, and where the mission “The Sheep and the Goats” got its name. Jimmy, although the youngest of the miners, is by far one of the brightest, which may have helped shape Lenny Summers’s character.

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Bibliography