Spoilers for Fallout Season 2

Fantastic is the term that best describes the most recent episode of Fallout. It was a definite step-up over the previous instalments of season 2. And they were pretty good already.

I did notice that this episode was more focused than others. If I’ve had one complaint this season, it’s that the show is trying to balance too many storylines. The result is that they’re all fighting for screen time and can’t advance that much in any given episode. This episode corrected for that; a couple of the storylines went on a temporary hiatus.

I do have slightly mixed feelings about that hiatus, though I’m generally positive. That is, the hiatus is fine for some of the storylines, like the events inside Vaults 32 and 33. Those do kind of feel like B plots anyway. Perhaps more notably, Maximus didn’t appear in this episode. That’s the second time he’s been absent this season, and it does feel a tad conspicuous. He is one of the main characters after all.

Nevertheless, the slightly narrower focus did massively improve the pacing of this episode and helped it to cover a lot more ground. In turn, making it a pivotal episode. I also appreciated the slightly more serious tone. Dark humour is an integral part of the Fallout aesthetic, and I would miss it if it were gone. Still, that does sometimes need to be balanced with the more dramatic stuff, and this episode did that perfectly.

It also had some amazing scenes. The scene with Robert House is a particular standout. It was an incredible performance by Justin Theroux, and I can’t wait to see more. Furthermore, it hinted at the Enclave, confirmed that the other House is a decoy, and was a perfect depiction of House’s character. I never doubted that the show’s version of House would be lore accurate, but it’s still nice to see it.

There were actually loads of cool lore moments in the episode, including a cameo by Fisto. I particularly liked seeing a fully populated Freeside, which the New Vegas game had struggled with due to hardware limitations. The Freeside barman’s reference to constantly shifting management (NCR, Legion, Robots, Deathclaws) also seemed a good way to avoid canonising any particular New Vegas ending. I suspect that House’s use of body doubles will play into that as well.

As a final note, the episode confirmed that the Future Enterprise Ventures is code for the Forced Evolutionary Virus. There have been two versions of F.E.V in Fallout. The primary version turns humans into Super Mutants, which might have happened to Thaddeus. The second version kills humans with mutations, which includes everyone on the surface. The second one seems more in-keeping with Vault-Tec’s M.O. It’ll be interesting to see that play out.

Next week, it seems like we’ll get to see Maximus fighting the Deathclaws in a suit of NCR power armour. That’s going to be awesome. I’m also hoping, based on a couple of trailer snippets, that we’ll see an armoured Super Mutant fighting beside him. That would be a pretty good way to introduce new fans to F.E.V, and would be awesome in its own right.

-Dexter