It's that time of the week again for a new episode of Fallout! The fourth episode of season 2 continues the show's run of excellence, expanding the storylines for Lucy (Ella Purnell) and The Ghoul (Walton Goggings), Maximus (Aaron Moten), and Norm (Moisés Arias) in fun and unexpected ways. "The Demon in the Snow" features some extremely enjoyable nods to the Fallout video games, including a monster I've been dying to see on screen ever since it was teased at the end of season 1.
FULL SPOILERS for Fallout season 2 Episode 4 below.
The flaws of the T-45 power armor
"The Demon in the Snow" starts with its namesake scene, a flashback showing Cooper Howard (Goggins) during a pre-apocalypse war with China. Cooper was one of the first people to pilot a T-45 power armor, and those early suits left something to be desired. He hinted at this last season when he confronted Bud Askins over the flaws in the armor's design that got so many of his friends killed during the Alaskan campaign, and now we get to see that in action.
After sending his friend Charles Whiteknife (Dallas Goldtooth) back to the base because of how badly his armor was malfunctioning, Cooper continues the search for another unit. He's quickly set upon by Chinese soldiers, and when his suit gives out, he finds himself at their mercy. It's then that we get our first look at one of Fallout's most beloved and famous monsters: the Deathclaw. It rips the Chinese soldiers to shreds, and inspects Cooper's suit before more gunfire draws it off. Fallout did a really incredible job of combining practical with digital effects for the Deathclaw, giving it a presence on screen that most other modern sci-fi creatures lack.
This scene is really interesting, because it shows us the Deathclaw before the apocalypse. Most monsters in Fallout are a result of radiation that happened becaue of the bombs dropping, but Deathclaws were created earlier. That's deep Fallout lore, and I like that the show didn't balk at including it.
The Brotherhood of Steel goes to war
After Cooper's introduction we skip back to the present, where we catch up first with Maximus. The episode picks up right where the last left off, just as Maximus murdered the Commonwealth emissary Xander (Kumail Nanjiani) to keep him from slaughtering a bunch of ghoul children. The Brotherhood tracked their location and inconveniently arrives right as the dust settles, forcing Maximus' friend Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton) to pretend to be Xander in order to both avert a potential war and avoid the Brotherhood raiding the factory and killing all the kids. At least in theory.
Thaddeus is a terrible actor though; Fallout continues to have a lot of fun with using power armor for comedy, as he bumps into stuff and stumbles over his words in the deep, electronic voice of the suit. It takes Dane (Xelia Mendes-Jones) all of two seconds to realize something is wrong when he and Maximus get back to the Brotherhood's blimp. Maximus doesn't even attempt to hide the truth from them, or what he's planning next: to kill the Elder Cleric Quintus (Michael Cristofer), since he would undoubtedly slit Max's throat for offing the Commonwealth emissary against orders.
Things spiral fast. Fallout does a solid job building up the tension in the climactic sequence of the episode, where the Brotherhood elders try to negotiate with Thaddeus while he wards off a panic attack; Dane tries to keep the children on the base safe and steals the cold fusion device; and Maximus confronts Quintus and gets into a shootout. Maximus isn't able to kill Quintus, and ends up fleeing with the cold fusion relic and Thaddeus as the base devolves into a bloody skirmish. Michael Cristofer and Aaron Moten in particular have an excellent scene together before the gunfire starts; Cristofer continues to nail that perfect balance of charisma and borderline insanity that is such a hallmark of the Brotherhood of Steel.
I've enjoyed Maximus' time with the Brotherhood this season, but I've also been eager for him to start crossing over more with the other main characters. Hopefully now the way is clear for that to begin in the back half of the season.
One addiction at a time
"The Demon in the Snow" is a fun episode for Lucy and The Ghoul. Fresh off her escape from the Legion, Lucy wakes up in the New California Republic camp on a medicine drip. The Ghoul might be callous, but his choice to save Lucy shows he's still got a heart in there somewhere. There's a great moment where the NCR soldiers ask Lucy if she's searching for someone she loves or hates, and The Ghoul delights in the Vaultdweller's complicated feelings for her father. The NCR stocks them up on weapons, and they hit the road. I love the song drop for the main Fallout game theme that happens as the NCR breaks out the weapons. The show has done a good job of using that music sparingly, which makes it memorable whenever it appears.
As Lucy and The Ghoul make their way through the Wasteland, Lucy starts having strange mood swings and itchiness. It turns out the medicine drip she was on was Buffout, and she's now addicted to drugs. The Ghoul tells her she can either ride it out in extreme discomfort for five days, or just keep taking more drugs for the time being. She reluctantly agrees and keeps rolling on Buffout. Drug addiction is a mechanic of the Fallout video games that I did not expect to see crop up in the show in this way, and the series has a blast playing with it.
They eventually arrive at the main entrance to New Vegas, but it's being guarded by a bunch of feral ghouls in Kings outfits — that would be a gang of Elvis impersonators from the Fallout: New Vegas video game. They've fallen on hard times since then, and even harder times now that Lucy is drugged out and ready to blast her way through to the gate. She promptly murders everyone with glee, while The Ghoul watches on in amusement. It's a gonzo scene that's total Fallout. Lucy even strikes the classic Vaultdweller pose with a thumbs up, and we get a slow motion shot similar to V.A.T.S.
Despite how fun the scene is, the show does a good job of reminding us that Lucy is, in fact, in some trouble with the drug addiction. Hopefully she's able to kick it somehow sooner rather than later, before she goes on more killing sprees.
Strangely, The Ghoul and Lucy find the main strip of New Vegas completely deserted. The Ghoul wants to head to a neighborhood on the other side of town called Freeside to find out what happened, but Lucy starts yelling heedlessly. It doesn't take long to find out why there are no people. Lucy's Pip-Boy starts clicking from nearby radiation, and she finds a massive, cracked egg. Cue some ominous roars, and a Deathclaw emerges from one of the buildings ready to defend its turf. It looks amazing. Next week can't get here fast enough to see how the cliffhanger standoff resolves.
Vault 33 and 32
Down in Vault 33, the inbreeding support group is properly humming and has become very popular, to the point where people who aren't even sure if they have any inbred relatives are attending. That might be because they have a snack budget though, while the rest of the Vault is on strict rationing because of the broken water chip. This creates some tension between Overseer Betty (Leslie Uggams) and Reg (Rodrigo Luzzi), but Reg insists that she can't take away his snack budget because it's built into the Vault charter. Don't forget, Betty is from the management vault, 31. There's no doubt she's going to find some way to put the pressure on Reg to fix the situation.
Over in Vault 32, Woody Thomas (Zach Cherry) is struggling with navigating the Vault's slightly different layout, continuing a gag from earlier in the season. This leads him to accidentally overhear a conversation between Betty and Steph (Annabel O'Hagen), who are meeting in a liminal space between their respective Vaults to discuss the fact that Vault 31 has been emptied. Realizing it's just the two of them left as the only remaining members of the management Vault, Steph promptly begins strong-arming Betty. She refuses to help with Vault 33's water crisis, because it would make it harder for Vault 32 to survive. But she makes Betty a deal: if she brings Steph Hank MacLean's keepsake box from Vault 33, she'll give her access to the water. It didn't take long for the last remaining managers to go at each other's throats, and it makes for even more interesting times in the Vaults.
The naivety of the Vaultdwellers knowns no bounds, though. Woody reports this violation of Vault communication policy...to Steph herself. So he's expecting her to hold herself accountable. Which, she obviously will not, and instead he just paints a target on his back. Now I'm nervous for Woody. Chet (Dave Register) overhears and seems to understand the gravity of the situation, at least. He finds a false bottom in one of Steph's drawers as he's folding her laundry, where he discovers her wallet from before the apocalypse with her Canadian ID, revealing her true age. Steph is feeling really villainous this season, and I'm very curious to see how this is going to play out.
The VaultTec management field trip
We only get a very brief scene of Norm this week, as he leads the Vault 31 management trainees through the Wasteland, where they think scavenging is a great time. He gets to know a few of the Vault 31 people, including Ronnie (Adam Faison), Bud Askins' former personal assistant who knows all about the messed up experiment between Vaults 31, 32, and 33. Norm's grip on the situation grows more tenuous as Ronnie asks him questions he should know the answer to, and he tries to bluff his way through. Ronnie uses Norm's hesitancy to try and take charge of the group, which doesn't bode well. This is set up for next week, so we'll have to see where things go for Norm as he tries to stay ahead of the management trainees' suspicions.
Verdict
"The Demon in the Snow" is a brisk episode of Fallout that clocks in under 50 minutes, and for the most part it feels a like a bridge episode. Lucy and The Ghoul mostly travel and deal with her addiction, Norm gets one very brief scene (also traveling), and there's set up in the Vaults. The one plotline that really takes a leap forward this week is Maximus, who is now finally off into the Wasteland after spending the first four episodes hanging around the Brotherhood of Steel. "The Demon in the Snow" is a good episode, especially when it shows the titular Deathclaws, but it feels like a precursor to even greater things to come.