Fallout S2 E6– “The Other Player”

Preview

This week, the “Other Player” finally reveals their hand, and it turns out the table is much bigger than Lucy ever imagined. After her shocking confrontation with The Ghoul, Lucy awakens in a surreal, picture-perfect recreation of her old life, but the “neighbors” are a bit more mindless than she remembers. As she delves deeper into the heart of Vault-Tec’s New Vegas operations, she discovers that her father’s “reclamation” project involves a lot more lobotomies and a lot less liberty than the brochures promised.

Out in the wastes, the Ghoul finds himself literally stuck in a rut until a legendary figure from the shadows of the past provides a very painful helping hand. Meanwhile, the flashbacks return to the pre-war boardrooms of Vault-Tec, where Barb Howard faces a series of pitches for the end of the world that would make a used-car salesman blush. It’s an episode where history repeats itself, mostly because the people in charge are too stubborn to let it die.

Episode Review

Stars: Ella Purnell (Lucy), Walton Goggins (The Ghoul), Kyle MacLachlan (Hank MacLean), Frances Turner (Barb Howard), Michael Emerson (Dr. Siggi Wilzig), Ron Perlman (The Super Mutant), Aaron Moten (Maximus), Johnny Pemberton (Thaddeus).

If you’ve been waiting for the show to drop the big “Super Mutant” bomb, “The Other Player” delivers in a way that’ll make any long-time fan of the games squeal. Seeing Ron Perlman the voice of the franchise itself actually show up as a massive, green, hooded Super Mutant was the kind of fan service that actually feels earned. He brings a gravelly, weary gravitas to a character that could have just been a CGI monster. Speaking of which, the special effects on the mutant were a great mix of practical makeup and digital enhancement; he looked heavy, dangerous, and lived-in, not like a cartoon.

The episode also highlights some “bad effects” of corporate greed—literally. The board meetings where they discuss the “aesthetic of the mushroom cloud” are hilariously dark, but they point out the horrifying reality that these people viewed the end of the world as a marketing opportunity. On the downside, the subplot back in the Vaults regarding the “Incest Social Club” is starting to feel a little bit like it’s spinning its wheels compared to the high-stakes drama in New Vegas, but Kyle MacLachlan’s performance as a “nice guy” dictator keeps the tension high. It’s a smart, cynical hour of TV that manages to make you feel bad for a 200-year-old bounty hunter while he’s getting a chunk of uranium shoved into a gaping chest wound.

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5)

Complete Synopsis & Plot Breakdown

The episode opens in 2077, with Barb Howard attending a series of increasingly depraved pitch meetings. Companies are competing for “Vault slots” by suggesting ways to monetize the apocalypse, ranging from faulty water chips to “automated man” mind-control devices. We see a younger Hank MacLean taking notes like a loyal puppy. The real kicker? A flashback cameo from Dr. Wilzig, who reveals he’s part of a “higher power” (The Enclave) that is pressuring Vault-Tec to drop the bombs themselves to ensure their “monopoly on the future” actually happens. Barb, desperate to save her daughter Janie, finally agrees to the plan.

In the present day, Lucy wakes up in a “Simulation” room inside the Vault-Tec offices beneath New Vegas. It’s a perfect replica of her Vault 33 apartment, complete with Sugar Bombs. She quickly realizes the “citizens” outside are actually wastelanders (including some Legion and NCR remnants) who have had automated man chips installed in their necks. They are polite, happy, and completely brain-dead. She eventually finds Hank, who tries to sell her on the idea that this “peace” is better than the chaos outside. Lucy isn’t buying it. After being forced to use a control chip to stop a violent fight, she realizes her father is just a different kind of monster. Instead of joining him, she uses her Vault-Tec knowledge to apprehend him, intending to drag him back to the ruins of Shady Sands for a proper trial.

Meanwhile, The Ghoul is still impaled on that pole in Freeside, slowly losing his mind and turning feral. Just as he’s about to give up, a massive, hooded figure snaps the pole and carries him off. He wakes up in a ruined church to find a Super Mutant (voiced by Ron Perlman) “healing” him by shoving a glowing piece of uranium into his wound. The Mutant tells him there’s a war coming against the Enclave who are the people who actually pulled the strings on the Great War, and he wants the Ghoul to join his “kin.” The Ghoul, being a professional loner, refuses, so the Mutant knocks him out and leaves him in the desert, where he is eventually found by Maximus and Thaddeus, who have been tracking Lucy using Dogmeat.

The episode ends with the Brotherhood boys finding the half-dead Ghoul, while Lucy begins her long, dangerous trek back through the Mojave with her father in chains, unaware that the “other player”—the Enclave—is already moving its pieces into position.

Photos

Review Notes

Loved seeing Ron Perlman take on that role, they keep killing it with the cameos in this.