I replayed blessed are the peacemakers the other night and had a radical idea,,
What if Micah coordimated the parley with the o'driscolls, specifically to get Arthur out of the way? He's definitely not above it, and he's definitely clever enough to pull it off.
See like, Dutch aside, I think Micah is jealous of Arthur. Arthur is considered one of the most, if not /the/ most capable members of the gang. They respect his opinion on things and usually follow his lead without much fuss. They invite him to take a load off, sit by the fire and have a drink. The girls invite him to chat. He has an easy camaraderie with the rest of the gang.
Contrast this with Micah, who seems constantly at odds with everyone. Crazy homicidal tendencies aside, he does seem to want a connection with at least some of the gang. He'll sit by the fire and tell a story. He'll try to talk to the women, who brush him off with disdain or scorn. His sense of humor is fucked 9 ways to Sunday, so most of his "jokes" involve blatant sexism/racism, or he's just otherwise cruel (though I think his cruelty is half him lashing out, half him being cruel for the sake of it)
Half of the gangs rejection has to do with him just being a shitty person, but I think Arthur's attitude also plays a big part. Arthur makes no effort to hide his feelings about the man. He doesn't like him, he'd wish he'd get gone, he only tolerates him bc Dutch, ect. And because Arthur doesn't like him, the rest of the gang, subconsciously or not, follows his lead. I say this because you also have a man like Williamson, who is racist and filthy and a drunk, and yet because Arthur doesn't outright hate him, the rest of the gang tolerates him well enough.
And then there's Dutch. If there's anyone's opinion, anyone's esteem Micah truly wants to be held high in, it's Dutch's. And yet again Arthur stands in the way of this, at least in the early chapters. When Dutch wants something done, he sends Arthur. When Dutch wants to take a load off and fool around, he fucks off with Arthur and Hosea. On the rare occasions that Arthur offers his opinions on things, Dutch takes it into consideration, even if he ultimately does whatever he wants anyways. And oh I just know that Micah was stewing over the fact that the gang moved camp to Clemens Point, the place that Arthur and Charles found, instead of Dewberry Creek, the place he suggested.
All in all, Micah is envious of Arthur's place in the gang. He wants that for himself. Ultimately he manipulates his way to Dutch's right hand, but before he got to that point, he may have figured the best way to the top was to simply remove the competition.
So he runs into a few stray Odriscolls and instead of killing them, urges them to pass a message along to Colm. He plants the idea of kidnapping Arthur to lure the gang out, except he was never planning on turning them in, at least not yet. He has them suggest the meeting via Pearson to avoid arousing suspicion, though he throws his weight behind Pearson to make sure everything falls into place.
All so that Arthur when fails to meet them at the fork in the road after the parley, he can convince Dutch that it's fine, he probably saw some pretty buck or damsel in distress and went after it, you know how he is, he'll turn up.
All the while betting on the fact that Colm will eventually get tired of waiting for the rescue and just kill Arthur and be done with it. And with him out of the way, Micah can finally secure some authority within the gang.
