Summary
Despite being almost five years old,Red Dead Redemption 2is still surprising fans with its countless different mysteries. While Rockstar has always put a few mystifying Easter eggs into its games - with the heart inside the Statue of Happiness inGTA 4being an obvious example -Red Dead Redemption 2fully embraces the strange, not just keeping mysterious characters restricted to little Easter eggs, but sometimes making them a large part of a side mission, or occasionally a prominent piece of the lore.
Some ofRed Dead Redemption 2’s most intriguing mysteriesrevolve around peculiar characters. The Strange Man is the most iconic example of this, along with the vampire in Saint Denis, but while these characters are fascinating, they don’t have much bearing on the actual plot ofRed Dead Redemption 2or its characters. Gertrude Braithwaite, on the other hand, has a close connection with some ofRed Dead Redemption 2’s most prominent characters.
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The Tragic Life and Death of Gertrude Braithwaite
When players begin Chapter 3 ofRed Dead Redemption 2, they’ll find themselves taking camp in Clemens Point. Just east of Clemens Point is the town of Rhodes, where players will first learn the legend of two rival families, the Braithwaites and the Grays. Traveling from England, the Braithwaites first arrived in America in 1779, and over the course of the next few decades, the family found their fortune by establishing a plantation and becoming slave owners. This fortune soon made the Braithwaites the dominant force in Rhodes, though their dominance over the area’s business would soon be interrupted by the Gray family.
Following a misunderstanding in which both families thought the other had stolen their money,Red Dead Redemption 2’s Grays and Braithwaitesbecame locked in an ever-lasting feud. In 1865, after the South lost the Civil War and slavery was abolished, the Braithwaites lost a lot of their influence and fortune, leading to the Grays becoming the more favorable family in Rhodes and the surrounding area. It was around this time that Gertrude Braithwaite must have been born.
Born physically disfigured and becoming mentally unwell later in life, Gertrude Braithwaite was the immediate black sheep of the family, and in a family that cares so much about keeping up appearances, Gertrude was destined for a tragic life. Though it’s unclear just when this happened, Gertrude was locked away in a tiny outhouse atthe back of Braithwaite Manor, with the rest of her family refusing to get her the help she needed, fearing that if word got out around town then the family would lose all of its social standing, which was already on a knife’s edge at the time.
When Arthur Morgan arrives in town and is caught up in theRomeo and Juliet-like love affair between two members of the opposing families, he stumbles upon Gertrude Braithwaite in her outhouse cage. Taking Penelope Braithwaite there to hide from her family, Morgan asks Penelope who this poor figure is, upon which Penelope confesses that Gertrude is her cousin that the family has locked away. Though Penelope promises that she’ll send help for Gertrude once she’s in Boston, Gertrude’s fate is much more gruesome. When players take control ofJohn Marston duringRed Dead Redemption 2’s epilogue, they can return to the burned-down remains of Braithwaite Manor. If they venture to Gertrude’s outhouse, they’ll find her skeletal remains lying on the floor. It’s believed that with her family dead and gone, Gertrude was left to starve, locked in her outhouse cage until her final moments.
Red Dead Redemption 2is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
