Originally posted by Sicilian Babe:
... I believe that he had accepted his fate as such, and was willing to die for what he did.
1. Michael had become his whole life. He lived on the estate, had no wife, had no kids. He was everything that his father wasn't. He had no life except that which his brother offered him.
2. I believe, as you can see from his facial expressions during the "drink" in Havana, that he was wracked with guilt for what he had done. I think that part of him was willing to accept the punishment for his betrayal.
All these reasons are great except that you are seeing the situation from the POV of an intelligent person. Fredo was not an intelligent person.
Yes, Michael was his whole life and that's why he was content to live out his days under Mike's wing at the Tahoe estate, having been 'forgiven' for what he did. That does NOT mean that he would be willing to accept the punishment of death, even if ordered by his treasured kid brother.
Yes, he clearly felt guilty during the 'drink' chat in Havana. That does not mean that if discovered to have been THE TRAITOR, he would have been willing to accept punishment. If that were the case, he would not have run away from Michael TWICE on New Year's Eve. If he was not able to behave like a man then, then he would not have behaved like a man had he known what was about to happen on the fishing boat.
And of course he thought Neri was simply going to take him fishing. Neri was going to take him and Anthony fishing wasn't he? One can assume the three of them had been on previous fishing trips. No reason to assume that they shouldn't go fishing anyway, even though Anthony this time was called away to go to Reno with his father.
Also...dumb as Fredo was, he was (hopefully) at least bright enough to know that he would no longer have any part in the Family Business. So I don't feel a 'witness free' fishing trip on the lake would at that point be anything that would cause him alarm. He'd already been forgiven by his brother so in his mind there was no longer anything to fear or cause his guard to be up.
He didn't know.
Apple
