Fallout Season Two, Episode 2 "The Golden Rule" review

The episode opens in simpler, green-grassy times.  An Americana-fueled, retro-futuristic utopia built amidst the promise of Shady Sands.  Life seems like it’s looking up as young Maximus darts around in this idyllic little town.  Maximus’s father works on some sort of alembic-looking still device that, despite all odds, is producing clean, rad-free water!  It’s the key to a real future with farming, clean faces, and a world healing from devastation.  As the New Republic of California troops keep the city safe, it’s easy to imagine a world on a path towards a brighter future. I didn’t realize how much brighter.

As always, we’ll do our best to keep these reviews as light a touch on spoilers as possible while still delivering a full review. Here we go!

A caravan master guiding a two-headed brahmin pulling a converted truck bed on wheels loaded with goods rolled into town, muttering something familiar the entire time.  As people gathered around, he collapsed, his eyes bleeding as his muttering continued.  Pulling back a canvas cover, inside the cart lies a massive nuclear bomb!  Maximus’s father (whose name is still unknown) scrambles to disable the bomb, unfortunately triggering a failsafe and a 3 minute timer.  

The residents of Shady Sands retreat in vain to try to find some way to stay safe, but let’s be honest – that’s highly unlikely.  Instead, Maximus’s parents put him in a lead-lined refrigerator, hoping to ensure his survival and future.  It’s a bleak end for his family, his father imparting as much wisdom and guidance, wisdom, and positive reinforcement as he can muster inside of a minute’s worth of time.  A white flash ends Shady Sands in the blink of an eye – again.  The world of Fallout is always bleak, and this new full picture of the destruction of Shady Sands hits hard.  

We fast forward to Maximus on a mission to wipe out some local ghouls in his power armor, alongside his new Brotherhood family.  They find some sort of box, pack it up, and climb back aboard the Vertibird for extraction.  This is Maximus’ new life in the Brotherhood – trying to make the world a safer place astride their massive floating citadel, The Prydwen.  Life in the skies is tough, and serves only as a mobile base as they execute their true mission. 

The Brotherhood of Steel has become fractured into multiple factions, though all of them loosely follow a central mission, more or less – secure technology and use it to prevent another apocalypse, even when that means protecting wastelanders from themselves. The New California Republic chapter looks to unify the various chapters under one banner using the one bargaining chip at their disposal – power.  Not political power or influence, but actual power cores that can be used to bring their bases, ships, and armors to life.  They will use this power to force this fallen world to heel, and in the process make it better. Pax per imperium – Peace through power.  

Meanwhile, back in the wasteland we also see Lucy and The Ghoul continue their slow sojourn towards New Vegas.  Her relentless optimism and The Ghoul’s world-worn pessimism get them both in and out of trouble, sometimes with the help of copious amounts of gory, blood-soaked violence.  This time around it leads them underground into the basement of a hospital they happen upon on the path.  Naturally they give them a helping hand, and everything works out for the best.  Oh wait, I’m sorry – this is the world of Fallout.  No, instead we get our first peek at some horrifying familiar foes from the game in a scene that had every hair on my arm standing on edge.  I won’t ruin it, but it’s sure to set your teeth on edge. 

In this inspired sequence we also see Lucy’s humanity on display as she pushes back against the realization that he’s rubbing off on her to a degree.  Can she continue to keep that naïveté’? One thing is for certain – the wasteland will test that conviction.  

Back in Vault 31, we get our first glimpse of the vault inhabitants.  Norm MacLean, Lucy’s brother, is trying to figure out how to deal with the situation he’s uncovered there.  He has few options as his food and water dwindles.  His solution brings about panic and problems, but I’ll leave that for you to uncover for yourself.  

There are a lot of moments in this episode that put a smile on my face. There are so many fun nods, easter eggs, and familiar faces and places that I can safely assume will continue to be the case.  I was mentally mapping out precisely where these things are happening this season, and it really adds to the show’s authenticity. I know where Dinky is, I recognize the rollercoaster in the credits, and I know precisely where The Prydwen made its eventual stop.  As they get closer to the outskirts approaching New Vegas we’ll also get some other surprises but I’d be a terrible chaperone for that journey if I ruined that for you.

My favorite part of this episode is the unflinching look at Maximus. He is turning a corner, taking a role as a leader among The Brotherhood and realizing his place in this world.  The naive and scared kid is gone, replaced by a man trying to make the world a better place. By helping The Brotherhood establish a base of operations, The Brotherhood has a unique opportunity to consolidate power, and we see the first steps of that.  A consolidation of power under a single banner would likely lead to friction with other factions, but there’s no chance of that if they can’t even rule themselves.  Petty squabbling and old rivalries would need to be put aside for any progress to be made. 

Negotiations with the other Brotherhood members go about as well as you’d imagine.  It’s the equivalent of several noble frat houses coming together.  Infighting for fun, and all sorts of testosterone-fueled idiocy rules the day, leaving Maximus wondering if this is really the self-improvement he’s been preaching to his young recruits?  There’s one way to find out – set out with Xander Harkness, a Paladin from the Commonwealth (played expertly by Kumail Nanjiani) for a little roadtrip.   

As usual, the music choices are absolutely inspired, both the original tracks from the music team and the licensed classics.  There are some real laugh-out-loud moments made all the better by a well-positioned backing track to match.  This episode has some grim moments, as all of them do, but the soundtrack keeps them light, despite all the blood – how’s that for a new sentence in the world?