Fans of Red Dead Redemption 2 know how much of a slow burn the story can be. It spans 55-60 hours, and that’s not including all the side-missions, legendary animals, or the roughly six-hour-long epilogue. Red Dead Redemption 2’s epilogue may seem like an overextension of the game’s storyline after so many hours on Arthur Morgan's journey, but if players want to tie up loose ends from the main story, the epilogue certainly delivers. In a similar fashion to Red Dead Redemption focusing on Jack Marston for its last mission, where Jack becomes a playable character, Red Dead Redemption 2 switches to the perspective of John Marston for its final hours.
Besides getting to play as John, learning how he ended up where he is at the start of Red Dead Redemption, players can also meet up with surviving gang members. Since the game's world is filled with side characters who all have their own backstories and problems, players who spend a lot of time helping out around camp and going through dialogue may end up attached to them and wonder just where the members of Red Dead Redemption 2's gang ended up in the changing Wild West.
The main reason the epilogue lasts so long is to establish John’s place at the start of Red Dead Redemption. John takes his fallen brother’s last words of advice and decides to finally be a better man to his wife Abigail and a better father to Jack. Seven years after the gang’s downfall, the game picks back up and follows John’s adventures with his family.
Red Dead Redemption 2's Epilogue Focuses On Closure
The epilogue sees John striving to learn how to live a normal life. He gets a job as a farmhand and learns to become less aggressive. He even starts using the journal of Red Dead Redemption 2's Arthur Morgan to write his own entries. While players can see John beginning to grow into the man he becomes in Red Dead Redemption over the course of playing as Arthur, it isn’t until the epilogue where they see John calm down and reevaluate what’s really important to him in life. Instead of a jarring jump from John escaping with Arthur’s help to somehow owning a ranch with Abigail, Jack, and Uncle, the game shows how John changes and how his relationship with Abigail and Jack blossoms.
Outside of the focus on John, the storylines of Sadie Adler and Charles Smith get some closure. Sadie and Charles are a huge help in allowing John to get everything he needs for his new ranch. Red Dead Redemption 2's widowed bounty hunter Sadie also gets word of Micah and Dutch’s whereabouts. This leads John to a final confrontation with the two snakes, resulting in some much-needed closure with Micah. Charles helps John and Sadie find Dutch before leaving the county and heading to Canada to begin a new life. As for the other side characters of the Van Der Linde gang, a few can be found around the map. Tilly, Mary-Beth, and Pearson are all making their own legal livings after departing from the gang. Others are mentioned by name only like Strauss, Reverend Swanson, and Karen, while some await John’s arrival in Red Dead Redemption, like Javier, Bill, and Dutch.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s epilogue is so long because there are a lot of loose ends to tie up by the end of the game. Instead of rewinding time to before Arthur’s death, players get to continue on in the world to experience some of John's struggles that Red Dead Redemption never had the opportunity to show.