And The Truth Will Set You Free

Player notes

Screenshots from And The Truth Will Set You Free, mirrored from Red Dead Wiki.

• ◆The title of the mission (and the one before) is a reference to the Bible passage John 8:32 - "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free". This is also the unofficial motto of the CIA.
• ◆It can also be reference to Dutch finally coming to terms with what he's been living in denial of for so long; that the era of the Wild West has ended, and everything he's fought for his entire life is no more and all for nothing.
• ◆After the Stranger side-mission "The Wronged Woman", in which Marston kills Harold Thornton, the inscription "THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE" is written on his tombstone.
• ◆Similarly, the inscription "THE TRUTH SETS US FREE" is written on the tombstone of Alma Horlick after downloading the Undead Nightmare DLC and completing the Stranger side-mission "Let No Man Put Asunder".
• ◆When riding to the fort depending whether you're at the front of the "convoy" or the back you can have different conversations between the Captain and Ross.
• ◆The conversation with the Captain and Marston is somewhat friendly but short. They will introduce themselves and talk about their distaste for having to work with Ross.
• ◆Marston's conversation with Ross (and occasionally Fordham) is completely different. They will basically attack each other with words, making sure to talk badly about the other's personal situations.
• ◆When riding to the fort there will only be seven soldiers, but when attacking the fort there will be eight.
• ◆At the end of this mission, Ross gives Marston permission to go back to his family. As he mounts his horse, the song "Compass (Red Dead On Arrival Version)" by Jamie Lidell will begin playing. The song will cease playback if the player pauses the game, opens their satchel, dismounts their horse, or arrives at Beecher's Hope.
• ◆When chasing Dutch through the cave, he will fire at Marston from the top of the ladders. His gun changes during each cutscene.
• ◆Strangely, Dutch seems to be wounded in the cutscene in which John confronts him. However, he appears fine in the cutscenes following up to this.
• ◆If the player looks at the "Brief" section of the journal right before the final encounter with Dutch, it shows only John's words towards Dutch, stating: "I ain't like you" - " That's where you're wrong."
• ◆The fact that Dutch's death is at the place where you need one more person to get to would mean that Marston, Ross and Fordham had to help each other climb the place, even though it's staged as if Marston came to Dutch's body first before Ross could catch up, then Fordham came even further behind.
• ◆When Dutch is on the turret, it is possible to use the invincibility cheat to get behind him. The player can lasso Dutch and even carry him around. If John unties him, Dutch gets back up and goes into a unique animation where he clutches his left side as if wounded. When aiming at him with a weapon, Dutch might say "Don't do this John..." in a very sad and almost heartbroken tone.
• ◆It is possible that earlier in development, John was supposed to wound and corner Dutch atop the mountain, and then execute him on the ledge. Dutch's unique animation and quote, which does not appear anywhere else in the game, further supports this. This could also explain why Dutch has a wound on his left side that appears out of nowhere in the mission's final cutscene. Sure enough, in an interview done for the tenth anniversary of Red Dead Redemption, Benjamin Byron Davis revealed that Rockstar did consider letting the player decide Dutch's fate in this mission, but ultimately elected not to in the final game.
• ◆In Red Dead Redemption 2, Evelyn Miller at one point says to John that no one can fight his own nature, like Dutch does shortly before killing himself: in the prequel, it is stated multiple times that Dutch is very fond of Miller's work. Dutch gives a similar speech in the mission "Favored Sons."
• ◆Dutch's greet to John "We gotta stop meeting like this!" is referenced in the mission "American Venom", the final mission of Red Dead Redemption 2, in which they both meet in very similar circumstances, on top of a snowy mountain during a shootout.
• ◆The Gatling Gun scene with Dutch is a reference to the mission "Stronghold Assault" in Bully.
• ◆If you attempt to climb the ladders to Dutch’s area during the Gatling Gun scene the game will instantly kill you.