A Quick Favor for an Old Friend
Uncle
With his debts mounting and a barn to buy, John accompanies Sadie to hunt down the wanted criminal, Ramón Cortez, and bring him to justice.
- Mission giver
- Uncle
- Playable
- Not stated
- Location
- Rhodes, Scarlett Meadows
- Target
- Not stated
- Unlocked by
- Not stated
- Unlocks
- Not stated
Player notes
John finds Uncle asleep beneath a tree at Beecher's Hope and presses him to help with the ranch. Uncle argues that the land is fit for grazing and tells John that livestock will require a barn. They visit Albert Cakes at the lumber yard, where John chooses a prefabricated barn, then go to the bank. Ansel Atherton refuses John another loan, though he gives him time to settle his debts. Outside, Sadie Adler offers John dangerous bounty work.
Sadie takes John to Painted Sky in Scarlett Meadows, following a report that Ramón Cortez of the Del Lobo Gang is hiding there. They split up on arrival. Sadie enters the house and frees Wróbel, who has been tied to a chair, while John searches the barn. Cortez attacks John, but John overpowers him. Sadie arrives and knocks the fugitive unconscious. They load Cortez onto a horse and ride for Rhodes as he tries to buy his freedom.
At the Rhodes sheriff's office, Sheriff Thomas accepts Cortez and puts him in a cell, intending to send him to Saint Denis for execution. Thomas asks John and Sadie to remain until his deputies arrive. By morning, Del Lobos surround the office and demand Cortez's release. John, Sadie and Thomas drive the gang out of town, but an explosion tears open the jail and Cortez escapes. Thomas cannot pay the bounty unless Cortez is recovered, so Sadie secures an increased payment and leaves with John to pursue him.
John and Sadie locate the gang near an old water mill. From above, John covers Sadie as she approaches their camp, then joins her in the fight. Cortez attempts to flee across the water in a rowboat, but John forces him back to shore and ties him up. They defeat the Del Lobos who come to rescue him and return Cortez to Rhodes. Sheriff Thomas puts him in a jail wagon for Saint Denis. John asks Sadie to send his share to the bank, then returns to Beecher's Hope, where the new barn stands completed.
Trivia
- ◆Before the mission starts, John can awake Uncle by firing a bullet next to him. This will cause him to awake and lock the mission for a short while.
- ◆Even if John already caught all the free roam bounties who are to be delivered at the Rhodes jail (Mark Johnson, etc.), his lines of dialogue will still read as if he had never been back to Rhodes since the epilogue started. He will also repeat the same lines of dialogue of the previous mission regarding him "doing some bounty hunting of his own" to Sadie, as if it were the first time she was told that.
- ◆Also, any bounty targets previously apprehended who may be awaiting the gallows in the Rhodes jail will disappear after this mission and their execution will never be played.
- ◆If John or Arthur has killed Flaco Hernández before this mission, John will reply to Sadie suggesting he has met Sheriff Freeman of Tumbleweed, even if the player has never ventured into New Austin or Tumbleweed.
- ◆This is likely an oversight tied to events when the player first meets the Del Lobo Gang as a part of "The Noblest of Men, and a Woman" Stranger Mission.
- ◆John can put Ramón Cortez on either Sadie's horse or his own, since the mission objective never specifies which horse to place him on.
- ◆If John ignores Sadie's instruction to check the barn at first, he can follow Sadie to find Wróbel tied to a chair, saying that Cortez is in the barn. Sadie will also comment on this.
- ◆After Cortez's escape from the jail, if incendiary buckshot is used on the Del Lobo gang members, John will become wanted by the law and the mission will automatically fail.
- ◆If Esteban Cortez is captured before completing this mission, and during the ride to Painted Sky, John will mention to Sadie that he met Sheriff Freeman and postulates that Esteban and Ramón are related, which Sadie confirms saying that they are brothers.
- ◆This mission is similar to the Red Dead Redemption mission Spare the Rod, Spoil the Bandit as in both missions, John checks a barn and a hostage(s) is saved from the main house.
- ◆If the player kills Ramón Cortez when he is rowing his boat to flee, Sadie will react and get mad at the player.
- ◆If the player takes a hat off one of the Del Lobos after the shootout at Rhodes, Sadie will comment that John has fallen on hard times that he needs to steal hats.
- ◆For this mission only, one of the graves at Rhodes Church has a hole that drops into the void below the map.
- ◆When John returns home to see the newly-built barn, a version of 'Dies Irae' plays. 'Dies Irae' is a musical representation of death, which alludes to John's death in The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed.
- ◆During the mission, John says he thinks Mexico is a tough place. Sadie retorts that it's a very tough place for him. This is ironic because four years later, John will be a major factor in ending the civil war in Mexico.
Mission data from Red Dead Wiki, CC BY-SA. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games.
Last verified September 14, 2026