Spare the Love, Spoil the Child
Jack Marston
- Mission giver
- Jack Marston
- Location
- Nekoti Rock
- Starts at
- Beecher's Hope
- Ends at
- Beecher's Hope
- Unlocked by
- Wolves, Dogs and Sons
Player notes
At Beecher's Hope, Uncle tells John Marston that Jack has gone after grizzly bears. Alarmed, John sets out after him, with Rufus taking the lead from the ranch. John mounts up and follows the dog into the mountains, where the trail climbs toward Nekoti Rock.
At the top of Nekoti Rock, John finds Jack wounded and crouched behind a rock. The boy's attempt to hunt a grizzly has gone badly, and the bear is still nearby. It charges at Jack, forcing John to confront it before it can maul him again. John kills the grizzly and gets the injured Jack onto his horse.
John rides down from Nekoti Rock with Jack, while Rufus follows them back toward Beecher's Hope. Jack speaks with his father during the journey despite his injuries. They arrive at the ranch, where John brings Jack home.
Trivia
- โThis mission name is a reference to one of the first missions, "Spare the Rod, Spoil the Bandit", in the same spirit as "Old Friends, New Problems" and "New Friends, Old Problems".
- โThis mission and "Spare the Rod, Spoil the Bandit" are title parodies of the idiom "spare the rod, spoil the child", which indicates that discipline is necessary for good upbringing; the idiom itself is also derived from the Bible verse in the Book of Proverbs 13:24.
- โDuring the rescue part of this mission, it's possible to see Jack's mauled horse. It is the same as the cut Dead Horse.
- โThe best thing to do when killing the bear is to go into Dead Eye mode, because the bear moves pretty fast and you will probably get killed easily.
- โAfter the mission "The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed", Jack can be seen with scars that he received from the bear attack. Also, if one is to look at Jack while he is resting on his bed, his character model will be of the bloodied and scarred model that is in this mission.
- โOddly, most of the cuts Jack receives fully heal without scarring, and the ones that do become scars don't appear to be much more deeper or serious.
- โAfter the player kills a bear for the first time as Jack, Jack will say, "I did it, pa."
- โJohn's phrase "I didn't get these scars falling over a church" is reused in Redemption 2 during a random camp event involving him, Dutch and Bill: John will say the line and Dutch will answer "Not yet."
- โThe bear John killed may be the same bear that attacked John in "A Really Big Bastard" in Red Dead Redemption 2 due to similar appearances.
Mission data from Red Dead Wiki, CC BY-SA. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games.
Last verified September 14, 2026