Squid's Hideaway (2024)

Much as I’d love to believe he’s there to kill Micah and make things“right” for Arthur, I don’t.I’ve remarked that Sadie is the only one who really had the proximity, opportunity, and knowledge to have a good chance to save Arthur’s life that night. John didn’t have the opportunity given the need to focus on his family. Charles didn’t have the proximity and knowledge. But Sadie wasn’t the only one. Dutch had the best chance of all. He was right there and saw it all unfold. All he had to do was pick up Arthur and get him off that mountain. If he truly regretted anything, if he truly loved Arthur, caring for Arthur as he either recovered, or at least making sure he didn’t die alone after being beaten half to death, would have been a good sign.Dutch is selfish, at the end of the day. He walks away. I doubt he suddenly had a moment of clarity eight years later and decided to kill Micah as atonement. He’s on Mount Hagen alone, facing a dangerous man and his miniature gang-army. Unless he was suicidal, he didn’t walk in there to kill Micah, because virtually no way he walked out alive after that. He commits suicide in 1911 because there’s no way out of it anymore, but he’s not suicidal. He’s not a despondent deathseeker like Sadie, or like Arthur is implied to be with his comments about “some part of me has always longed for death”.So I think he was there to team up with Micah again. He’s been mostly hiding out all these years, but as he tells John in RDR1, he can’t change his nature. He still has the same old dreams. He misses the thrill of it. Giving the middle finger to society. Fighting back, increasingly violently. Being admired and worshipped by young men who hang on his words. And we see it happening all over again in 1911 in this even more violent and sad version of the 1899 gang.Then John shows up. Or John and Arthur show up, in that alternate scenario. An injured Sadie shows up. An injured Charles is nearby, which he may or may not know. Dutch and Micah figure out that no, these visitors are nothere to relive the bad old days. They’re here for Micah (and possibly Dutch as well, since he’s there.)He kills Micah, because it’s eliminating his rival for power in the end, and because he knows that’s the one thingthat maybe lets him walk off this mountain alive and unchallenged. He helped raise John and Arthur. He knows them well enough still. He believes neither of them will shoot him in cold blood to begin (and we see in 1911 John still can’t), especially not when Dutch just killed Micah and saved their lives. They probably can’t even turn him in after that. They have too much loyalty and sense of right and wrong for that.He sees his only chance to escape and takes it. And clearly, it works. John and Arthur’s gratitude kicks in. It costs him Micah’s men, and a hell of a lot of money, but he can find more men and more money.How Arthur changes things? It probably makes Dutch’s decision easier. Arthur’s more unpredictable than John at this point, given how he was changing at the end, and that he has little reason to trust Dutch now after being abandoned to die by him (twice). He’s almost definitely not going to be swayed back into the old life.Not to mention I’ve said Hosea saw a spark between Arthur and Sadie, but I imagine Dutch did too. Even if he’s not sure whether they’re romantically together, he’s smart enough to imagine she probably saved Arthur’s life, and that they’re even closer than they were in 1899. And here they are together on this mission. Unlike John towards Sadie, this is acutely personal. If Micah’s taking Sadie hostage, Arthur is absolutely going to kill him, and anyone supporting him. If Micah actually took Arthurhostage, Sadie is absolutely going to kill him, and anyone supporting him. Any way this happens, Dutch realizes that the minute these folks show up that Micah’s already dead. Better be Dutch that kills him and buys some immunity by it, or he’s possibly next.