Fallout Season 2 Ep 2 Review
Happy belated holidays, fellow Wastelanders, for what it may be worth out here. I, for one, think that it’s appropriate that the new season of Fallout started close to Christmas, as the holiday’s message of generosity and goodwill might seem pointless in a post-apocalyptic world, but it’s actually the opposite. It’s people not caring about each other that helped lead to the Great War, and it’s why the Wasteland remains as divided as ever. And as Maximus discovers firsthand for himself, even a group like the Brotherhood of Steel can turn on itself as we’re looking at a potential civil war.
Patrolling the Mojave…uh-oh
The episode opens up in the best way possible, with a flashback to Maximus’ childhood in Shady Sands, the capital of the NCR. And for anyone who spent time building settlements in Fallout 4, it’s like a dream come true. People are able to wear normal clothes, there are shops and food everywhere. Shady Sands was everything the world could become if it had the chance to rebuild. Which only makes it harder to watch when we see Hank set off the nuke that destroys the place.
Make no mistake about it, Hank Maclean is a monster. The fact that he destroyed a city founded by Vault-Dwellers out of pure spite shows just how little he and Vault-Tec care about the rest of humanity. The build-up to the detonation is even more terrifying though, as we see how he used those mind-control chips to have the nuke delivered by caravan. Hearing the poor driver repeat the “patrolling the Mojave” line from New Vegas set off alarm bells in my head!
Thankfully, in the present day, Hank’s attempts to perfect the mind-control technology continue to end in failure. Unfortunately, we have to watch as said failures involve exploding mice. And then, he uses one of the people who paid for cryostasis as a test subject. I mean, the man in question left his family to die, something that even Hank hates, but still.
Maximus, You Need to Decide What You’re Doing Soon
Meanwhile, we finally get back to the Brotherhood storyline as we see how Maximus is doing in the present day as a Paladin. It’s a role he’s not comfortable with and is clearly conflicted with the fact that he got it based on a lie (he didn’t kill Moldaver), but he keeps quiet about it. He remembers his parents last words being about making the world a better place, and he thinks the Brotherhood are the best way to do so. As we’ve already seen in the first season and in this episode, the Brotherhood isn’t infallible.
With the stolen cold fusion tech providing them unlimited power, this branch of the Brotherhood relocates to Area 51 and starts summoning the other chapters from across the country. The result is a pretty impressive display of power as each chapter comes with its own airship, signifying how they’re a dominant power in the Wasteland. However, as Maximus watches, Elder Quintus has called them all there to unify the Brotherhood under a single banner once more, with the promise of enough power for their Power Armor as an incentive.
The catch is that one chapter is notably absent: the Commonwealth Brotherhood. Introduced in Fallout 3 before relocating to what’s left of Massachusetts, the Commonwealth Brotherhood is led by Arthur Maxson, a descendant of their founder, and they’re the strongest of all the chapters. And Quintus is openly talking about overthrowing them to seize power for themselves, and Maximus is just listening to it, much to his friend Dane’s dismay.
Knights Weren’t Always a Good Thing
It’s been a motif of theirs since the start, but this episode really reinforces the fact that the Brotherhood of Steel is based on the knightly orders of old. And while some see knights as good and noble, history should remind us that that’s not always the case. As Maximus himself sees, many members of the Brotherhood are selfish, self-centered, and willing to ignore their core tenets for their own interests. In this case, they’re willing to go to war with their brethren. Even Maximus violates the codex by killing another member in combat. That other guy drew a knife, but still.
My opinion: this power play is bad news for everyone. The Brotherhood hoarding the cold fusion tech for themselves is bad since it could lead to some neo-feudal society. Thankfully, a member of the Commonwealth Brotherhood shows up to make it clear they’re not going to let any of this civil war nonsense slide, though time will tell how things pan out.
Norm Rolled a Nat 20 on Charisma
As for the Maclean siblings, one sibling’s arc might be going up, while another is hitting a low point. Norm thaws out all the Vault-Tec junior execs, then proceeds to lie to them that Bud is dead (sadly, he’s not) and this is all a test to see if they can escape. Surprisingly, it works, giving Norm the means of escaping the Vaults. His situation is still precarious, though, as if they find out the truth, they could turn on him and revert back to Bud’s goals. Whatever concerns there may be for Norm, though, are overshadowed by the fact that this is his first time on the surface. Whereas the Vault-Tec flunkies see dirt and ruin, though, Norm doesn’t. He says it looks beautiful.
Norm’s attitude ties back to one of the core themes of the show and the franchise as a whole: hope. Despite humanity almost destroying the world, people survived and began to slowly rebuild. Across the Fallout games, players have the opportunity to become this beacon of hope that can change things for the better. So, seeing Norm look at the Wasteland and see only the beauty and potential is an important moment. It’s that kind of thinking that his world needs if it ever wants to build something better from the ashes. Hopefully, he can keep his ruse up long enough to make a genuine impact on California.
Unfortunately, Lucy’s story isn’t going so well.
Lucy Made a Bad Decision
During Lucy’s part of the episode, she and the Ghoul continue to butt heads over cynicism vs idealism. The Ghoul’s been broken by the past two hundred years, while Lucy continues to try to see the best in people. Things finally come to a head when they end up saving a woman from a radscorpion, but the Ghoul gets injured in the process. So Lucy decides to leave him like that so he can think about what he did while he takes the woman back to her home. Had this been any other circumstance, then Lucy might have had a point. Unfortunately, the woman in question is a slave from Caesar’s Legion, and by the end of the episode, Lucy winds up their prisoner.
Getting captured by the Legion is bad enough as it is, but it’s even worse if you’re a woman. Women have no rights in the legion, and are seen fit only to have kids and tend to the home. So, Lucy had better hope that those points she put into her charisma can get her out of this. Otherwise, she’s literally screwed.
This may seem like a bleak way to end the episode, but like Norm, I think it’s important to remain positive. Hopefully, Maximus will realize that the path he’s on is not what he should be doing. Norm can do some good with the Vault-Tec underlings without them becoming wise. And hopefully, Lucy can get out of the Legion’s captivity. Or that the Ghoul can bail her out; I’m not picky.
