Fallout Season 2 Episode 2 finally feels like the real deal after last weeks premiere kinda just introduced us back into the world, The Golden Rule gets things moving and I am so damn glad they did not spend half the episode on stuff we already knew, it just jumps right in and thats exactly what this show needed. The Brotherhood of Steel stuff is where things really shine this episode, watching them set up at Area 51 with that alien in the freezer made me laugh and cringe at the same time but thats just how this series is with some characters, seeing these power armored knights act like complete idiots beating each other up or messing around with plasma grenades is perfect because it shows you they are dangerous, but also very very stupid and thats completely on brand for them. Quintis turning Maximus into this obedient killing machine is dark as hell, the cold opening with his family getting nuked in Shady Sands was a cool data dump for anyone who havent play the games just like me, his dad telling him he will be a good man only for Maximus to become this broken shell with no control over his own life is tragic and you can feel it in every scene he is in. The way they contrast his loving father with Quintis calling him son now is just sad, because you know he is desperately looking for that connection again, trying to find somebody who cares about him the way his real father did. The Hank flashback showing how he destroyed Shady Sands using those mind control chips just makes him even more of a bastard, seeing the town actually thriving before he wiped it out puts everything into perspective for the audience, you see clean water being pulled from underground, you see kids running around happy, you see people actually living decent lives, and then it all gets destroyed because Hank wanted his family back, and could not stand that people were doing fine without Vault Tec.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12637874/
- Platform: PRIMEVIDEO
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The whole sequence where Maximus dad tries to disarm the bomb but triggers the failsafe instead is heartbreaking, because he knows he only has three minuts left so he stuffs his kid in a fridge, the first time I saw Maximus coming out of the fridge scene I thought it was this bombing scene from planes or ships, then his dad tells him to eat and drink slowly knowing damn well nobody is coming to save him anytime soon, that entire opening scene is probably the best cold open this show has done. Lucy and the Ghoul are kind of doing the same thing again though, she saves him after he acts like a violent ass and it does feel a bit repetitive compared to their relationship from last season but I get what they are trying to do here, they want to show that Lucy still believes in the golden rule even after everything she has been through, and the Ghoul keeps trying to break her down and prove to her that being good in the wasteland gets you killed. The rad scorpion fight was cool and probaly one of the better action scenes in the episode, those things look terrifying and gross at the same time, the little ones specially, the big one eating the smaller ones was nasty and very much fits the tone of Fallout where everything is trying to kill you, including things that should be on your side. Lucy using the stimpack on the woman instead of the Ghoul makes sense because he can heal without it but the Ghoul throwing the golden rule back in her face like its a curse is such a dick move, he keeps telling her that her morals are going to get her in trouble, and then she gets tricked into ending up with Caesar Legion at the end, which is exactly what he said would happen, so now he gets to say I told you so next episode, and honestly he kind of earned it this time.
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The whole hospital scene with the people in tunics sets it up nicely, the Ghoul recognizes them right away because he has been around for over 200 years and knows every faction out there, but Lucy has no idea what she is walking into because she grew up in a vault where everyone was nice and followed rules, she does not understand that there are groups out here who do not care about kindness or fairness, they just take what they want and if you are in the way you either join them or die, thats the reality of the wasteland. Hank stuff this episode is disturbing as hell and shows just how far gone he really is, watching him kill a bunch of mice by exploding their heads while testing the mind control chip is bad enough, but then he moves on to actual people, and it gets so much worse than I was expecting. He thaws out this rich guy from cryo who thought he was getting premium elite plus treatment, but really he just signed his life away to Vault Tec without reading the fine print, Hank straps him down, and cranks up the device, and the guys head just explodes, and Hank does not even flinch at all, he just says he will try again like he is working on a science project for school, and not murdering people in a basement under New Vegas.
Seems obvious that the show is setting up Hank to be completely irredeemable at this point, he nuked Shady Sands, he killed his way into New Vegas, he is conducting experiments on people, and he is doing it all while playing with a yo yo like its no big deal, that disconnect between his actions and his behavior is what makes him so creepy, because he really thinks he is doing the right thing by trying to bring his family back together, but he is willing to kill thousands of people to make it happen, and that does not add up to being a good person no matter how you look at it, there is no way around that fact. I have a feeling that by the end of the season Hank is going to get a taste of his own medicine, maybe someone puts a chip on him and turns him into a puppet for Mr House, that would be some poetic justice right there, and honestly I would be very okay with that happening because he deserves it after everything he has done to innocent people. Norm finally getting out of the vault and seeing the sky for the first time while Lucy is walking inland made me smile, his whole middle manager crew thing moved fast which is good, because last season his stuff dragged sometimes, and I was worried they would do the same thing again with boring vault scenes.
Instead they had him wake up some co workers and then trick them into thinking he is a super manager sent by Bud to test them, the merit dots thing was hilarious because these corporate drones are so brainwashed, that they will do anything for a meaningless sticker, it shows how Vault Tec trained people to care more about fake rewards than actual survival, and Norm figured out how to use that against them in a very smart way. He is way smarter than people give him credit for, and I think this season is going to show that he is just as capable as Lucy, but in a completely different way that fits his personality better. When he climbs out of the vault and sees the ocean it feels like a huge moment for his character, because he has spent his entire life underground being told that the surface is a radioactive wasteland where nothing can survive, and now he is standing there looking at the sky, and realizing that everything he was taught was a lie, everything Vault Tec told him was bullshit designed to keep people underground and obedient. I am very excited to see where his story goes from here, because he is basically leading a group of clueless Vault Tec employees into the real world, and they are going to get eaten alive if they are not careful, these people have zero survival skills, and think merit dots are going to save them from raiders.
The Brotherhood civil war setup has me very excited to see where this goes, Quintis calling a meeting without the Commonwealth and offering unlimited fusion cores to the other chapters is such a power move but its also going to bite him in the ass eventually, because the Commonwealth is not going to let that slide at all. They are the strongest link in the entire Brotherhood and if they find out that Quintis is trying to take over without them there is going to be a war, and its going to be brutal. Maximus is stuck right in the middle of all this, and I do not think he realizes how bad things are about to get for him, he is trying to be a good person and it looks like he doesnt even know what the hell is going on, and make the world better, but the Brotherhood keeps pushing him to be more violent, and more ruthless with every mission they send him on. That scene where he kills the guy in the fight was rough, because you can see on his face that he does not want to do it and if he does not prove himself then everything falls apart, and he probaly gets killed for showing weakness. The whole Area 51 reveal was dope, the wind turbines blowing away the sand to show the hangars underneath looked amazing, and seeing all the pre war stuff they have stored in there was a nice touch for the world building, the frozen alien was funny but also kind of sad, because the Brotherhood does not even care about it, they only care about the fridge it was stored in, and that sums up their entire philosophy right there, they do not care about discovery or knowledge or what things mean, they only care about hording technology for themselves and using it to control everyone else in the wasteland. Overall this episode feels way more focused than the premiere, things are actually happening with the Brotherhood gearing up for war, Lucy is walking into a trap with the Legion, Hank is building mind control devices in his secret lab and Norm is about to learn that the surface world is way more dangerous than he thought it would be. Solid 8 out of 10 for me and I cannot wait to see what happens next episode that Im about to watch rn with Macaulay Culkin showing up as whoever he is playing in the Legion, I am guessing he is some kind of leader or important person who for some reason either is annoying or over power, because they would not cast him just to be a random soldier, idk this is just me guessing.
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