The sh!t hits the fan in episode four of Fallout’s second season. The situation with the Brotherhood of Steel quickly deteriorates. Vault 31’s grand plan seems to include some nasty things for Vault 32 and 33. Finally, Deathclaws… Okie Dokie.
Photo Credit: Lorenzo Sisti / Prime Fallout Episode 4 Review
© Amazon Content Services LLC
The Alaskan Front
The show starts with a scene set during the Alaskan war that has been referenced in the show repeatedly. Coop and Chuck are up in Alaska, with the latter’s arm malfunctioning in their T-45 Power Armor. They’re looking for “Raider 3,” and Coop is told to keep pursuing despite the malfunction.
He lies and tells Chuck to head back to base and that he’ll be right behind him. Then it happens, the moment I’ve been waiting for since the trailers hit. Coop hears some odd, animal noises around him before a Chinese squad fires repeatedly, damaging his leg armor. As his shitty battlesuit seizes up, they look over him, with their commander commenting on the armor and how it won’t be long before her side is fighting in them.
As Coop is about to be killed, his plot armor kicks in, and a mf’ing Deathclaw starts tearing everyone to bits. My screener copy is unbelievably bad quality, but it looked to be practical puppetry in close-ups and CG in far shots. It gives the classic nose-to-nose sniff of Coop, but takes off before hurting him because it reads ahead in the script. The scene ends with the Fallout title shot set amidst breaking Ice, it’s nice.
The Brotherhood of Steel(ing relics)
This episode sees The Brotherhood’s stand-off over the cold fusion relic come to a head. After Maximus killed the Commonwealth’s Paladin, he enlists his old pal Thaddeus to don the Paladin’s armor and pose as him. It works, because of course it does, despite Thaddeus having no idea how to properly wear the armor. He somehow struggled to fit through a doorway five straight times.
As they return to Area 51, Max tells Dane what he did and that his only choice now is to kill the High Cleric. Dane, being the background hero that he always is, gets all the young recruits to a safe spot, knowing shit is about to pop off. Maximus falters, unable to straight-up merc the High Cleric without hesitation. Meanwhile, Thaddeus is stuck between two of the rival faction leaders, trying to sway them for the Commonwealth’s support.
While all this is going down, Dane steals the relic, and Max confesses that he killed the Paladin to save some ghoul kids. I loved the back and forth with the situation as we jumped in and out of it over the course of the episode. Quintus was ready to understand and forgive Maximus right up until he said the word ghoul. That old religious fervor kicked in, and he immediately tried to blast his poor ‘son’. They’re both horrendous shots when the plot armor is so thick, though, so Max and Thaddeus take off while the three factions start blowing the hell out of one another.
The comedy of Thaddeus realizing that the ‘right thing to do’ meant wearing the power armor and then trying to use it properly was great. Max, Dane, and Thaddeus feel like some of, if not the only genuinely good people, in these Brotherhood factions. Outside of the terrible aim, the main characters’ have when they needed to the action were a lot better than last week’s terrible robot vs. power armor fight.
Photo Credit: Lorenzo Sisti / Prime Fallout Episode 4 Review
© Amazon Content Services LLC
The Vault Dwellers
We spend a fair bit of time in Vaults 32 and 33, with a bit of time given to Bud’s buds. Inside Vault 33, things are going terribly, water-wise. They’re running out, and the Inbreeding support group is giving out extra rations! Betty, the Vault 33 Overseer, pleads their case to Vault 32’s Steph. Steph, being the cold, heartless monster that she is, demands a mysterious ‘personal item’ of Hank’s from Vault 31 in exchange.
Woody, played wonderfully by Zack Cherry, overhears the conversation and, being the naïve s.o.a.b. that he is, reports Steph…. to Steph! She takes it about as well as any psycho can, and Chet finds out that she’s secretly Canadian while taking care of Chet Jr. For those who don’t remember, he is not the baby’s dad, but psycho Steph forces him to act like it.
Catching up with Bud’s Vault 31 buds for a scene sees them finding an old food truck. As they chow down Norm is doing his best to lead. When Budy’s main bud, Ronnie, asks Norm about “phase 2,” things get ominous. It seems like Reclamation Day for Vault 31 meant the members of the other two vaults had something nasty planned for them. The pace of dangling plot threads and pulling them into something interesting has been solid so far this season. I doubt it will be a mystery we have to wait a while on. It is curious how or if ever Lucy may become involved with her old vault mates, speaking of.
Viva New Vegas
The Ghoul brings Lucy back to the NCR camp, and they heal her up with a buttload of Buffout. If you’ve played Fallout, then you can guess what two days straight of that drug will do. Lucy is high as a kite and immediately hooked. Seeing a different, violent, coked-up side to the character is fun. There’s a nice Fallout theme sting when Lucy gets offered some guns by the NCR, who are finally leaving their hideout.
Ghoul Coop, being the bad influence that he is, gives Lucy more Buffout. She ends up going on a rampage as they walk into a group of Kings. They’re the ghoul faction from Fallout New Vegas, and this group of ferals becomes a plaything for Lucy. She gives in to her drug-fueled bloodlust and blasts the ever-loving shit out of the Kings with the new guns they got from the NCR.
It’s nice to see more quality combat and gore after, again, the god-awful Power Armor vs. Securitron fight. As Coop and Lucy get to the Lucky 38 casino, something is off. All the Securitrons are dead, and there is no one around. Lucy finds, uh oh, a gigantic egg, and Ghoul Coop immediately starts shitting his pants. Her coked-up persona is ready to kill anything, well, that is, until she sees the 15-foot-tall Deathclaw that tears its way out of a store right in front of her, and cuts to black.
That was a damned fine cup of episode. The plots are moving along at a brisk pace, which is good as we’re now halfway done with Season 2. The runtime on this one was a bit shorter, but that tends to happen when the CG budget gets turned up by violence. If you’ve watched the trailers, then we will see some form of Robert House in New Vegas. Outside of that, I happily have no clue where each storyline is heading, but I’m damned happy to be along for the ride.
Fallout S02E04
PROS
- Solid Action
- Brisk Pace
- DEATHCLAWS
CONS
- Heavy Plot Armor shenanigans
