Fallout Season 2 Ep 4 Review
Deathclaw. If you’ve ever played any of the Fallout games before, then that one word should make you wanna wet yourself and drop a brick in your pants. They are another one of the depraved science experiments America worked on before the Great War, and they are terrifying! You either need to be really, really good at fighting or have a good suit of power armor to kill them in the games. The fact that the trailers confirmed that we were getting to see a Deathclaw in live action in this season was something that I eagerly awaited to see. Needless to say, the new episode of Fallout did not disappoint!
BEWARE THE DEATHCLAW!
The episode starts off with another flashback to the Ghoul’s past as Cooper Howard, this time during the fight to retake Alaska from the Chinese. After his Power Armor shorts out, Cooper is unfortunately ambushed by a squad of Chinese soldiers, and I think this might be one of the few times we actually see the Chinese Communists in the series. It doesn’t matter, though, as Cooper is forced to watch as the enemy are slaughtered by one of the first Deathclaws. And it is like something out of a horror movie.
If you haven’t played any of the games, Im not exaggerating about how dangerous a Deathclaw is. The first time I fought one in Fallout 4, it took a minigun and a full suit of Power Armor to put it down. They are an apex predator and menace to everything that moves. In fact, the act of killing one of them at age thirteen made Arthur Maxson be viewed as a man among men in the Brotherhood of Steel. They are absolutely terrifying, and getting to see the show play that up for horror was amazing. Not only that, but the model the show used for the creature was incredibly well-animated. I absolutely loved it, and I can’t wait to see more of it throughout the rest of the show.
We dont have to wait long, as by the end of the episode, Lucy and the Ghoul find another Deathclaw on the Strip itself. Which explains why New Vegas looks like it’s seen better days.
Lucy is High as a Kite, and I love it!
To understand how the group got there, though, let’s back up a bit. After spending two days recovering at a camp of NCR Rangers from her crucifixion, Lucy is eager to get back on the hunt for her dad. Not the least bit because the Rangers remind her how he destroyed the capital of the NCR out of petty spite. However, there’s a problem: they used the drug buffout in her IV to help her, and now her body’s addicted.
In the games, addiction is a status ailment that happens when you use drugs or alcohol too much, with a visit to a doctor helping. However, Lucy doesn’t have the time for it, and rather than wait to get it out of her system, she takes the Ghoul’s option: more drugs. Which leads to her letting herself a bit off the leash as she gleefully uses some new weapons to cut down a group of feral ghouls.
I know that drug addiction is a bad thing and should be discouraged whenever possible, but I couldn’t help it. I thought the sight of Lucy cutting loose while high was hilarious. It reminds me of my own rampages in the Fallout games, and while I think this could be some negative character development, I’m curious to see where this takes Lucy. Unfortunately, the drugs also make her blind to the danger of a deathclaw until she and the Ghoul actually see one on the Strip.
Anytime Vault-Tec Has it Rough, I Smile!
Back with the Vault Dwellers, though, Bud’s experiment has officially gone off the rails. It’s confirmed that Bud is, in fact, dead, which means that his Overseers, Step and Betty, have no idea what to do. In addition, Vault 33 is running dangerously low on water, with Steph using that as leverage against Betty to get whatever she wants. While that seem to go against what Bud had planned, there might be a reason for it: Steph’s Canadian.
Before the Great War, America had annexed its northern neighbor to exploit its natural resources and population, something that made Canadians very unhappy. If Steph is Canadian, then she might have a good reason to want to undermine Vault-Tec now that she’s in a position of authority. It will be interesting to see how that turns out.
As for Norm, for now he’s in charge of Bud’s Buds, but he has no real plan on what to do. He knows that he can’t lie to them forever, but has to keep up the deception until he can think of a better plan or convince them to abandon Bud’s experiment. I’m hoping it’s the latter as he seems to have started bonding with one Bud who seems around his age.
