Fallout Season Two, Episode 6 “The Other Player” review

This season has been a whirlwind, and we're not done yet. As we Powerfist our way into Episode 6, we see the Vault-Tec team debating just how the various megaton blasts will look from a marketing perspective. We also find out a little bit about the water chips. Both are familiar territory for anyone who's played a Fallout game, but this one takes a different bend.

Every episode up to this point has cast Barb Howard in a rather dark and uncaring light, but it's obvious that there's more going on than meets the eye. We see her taking a few meetings, including one with Mr. House. In it, he presents that his "Automated Man" and the related chip will make "robots more lifelike" but also infers that it'll work the other way around too. Ominous, but we know how this story ends.

Back in New Vegas, The Ghoul contemplates the gravity of his situation, what with being skewered like a rat on a stick. Without his vials, he's feeling the effects of withdrawal and the weight of his past decisions - literally, as he tries to dis-impale himself but can't lift his own torso off the spike. Somehow, his situation might be better than what Lucy is facing.

Awakening in the cold confines of her concrete prison / home, "Observation 07", she's not in any immediate danger, but as is often the case, things are not always as they appear. Making her way out into an expansive office space, she finds herself amidst a whole group of smiling people assembling various bits of electronics. All of these people are entirely too happy to be there, and even among Vault Dwellers, this is just unnatural.  

Just beyond this room is one even more strange – a fully furnished Vault-Tec home, in which her father stands with a copy of "All Quiet on the Western Front" in hand. If you've never read that particular book, look up how it ends – the irony won't be lost on you. Using said book as an allegory, he and Lucy discuss the fact that the world is tearing itself apart over something as trivial as bottle caps, and that he just wants to make it a better place. Surprisingly, he takes an action that I can't and won't spoil here, but like any good villain, he feels the need to explain his awful plan in painful detail first.

Back in the wasteland, Thaddeus and Maximus leave the Power Armor behind, fearing a tracker might be in it. They're carrying what might be the most important object in the world right now – the vial containing the secrets of cold fusion. They recognize the absolutely incredible magnitude of the discovery in their hands, and then spend a good deal of time discussing the prospect of selling it instead. The world of Fallout is nothing if not transactional at this point.

Back in Vegas, the Ghoul continues to struggle, both with his humanity and with the several feet of steel extending through his chest. His bag of precious vials are just outside his reach, so he grasps at the one thing that might help him get through this - his family. He makes the Herculean effort to once again try to extricate himself from this pokey position, but he just might need a little help here. Thankfully, a cloaked figure comes by and pulls him clear, albeit with a bit of blood and pain in the process.

From a struggle to survival to a struggle with the snack budget, we jump back to Vault 33 and the battle over the budget for the Inbreeding Support Group. As their numbers swell, so does the variety of sweets – it's almost like they aren't even there to get support for their inbreeding problems! Things finally come to a head, with Betty and Reg McPhee doing some verbal sparring amidst the strawberry sweets.  

While we're at Vault 33 we also pop over to 32 to check in on Chet and the baby, where we learn that he's about to get married. Granted, it's news to him, but hey -- Steph seems like she's a great Overseer and not hiding any nefarious and awful things, right?  Sometimes your life runs away from you, but tomorrow Chet gets to run towards it instead. Congratulations, buddy!

Meanwhile, The Ghoul is on his last legs, but that's nothing a little enriched Uranium can't help, right? His new friend wants to team up to take on the folks who caused all this mess.  If you're a long time Fallout fan, you know exactly who that is -- The Enclave. If you're unfamiliar with The Enclave, their mission is basically the same as The Brotherhood of Steel -- control over the United States.  Could this be a nod to the introduction of President Dick Richardson for Season 3? Time will tell.

Back at New Vegas, Barb and Cooper finally have it out – the cat's out of the bag, and he confronts her on her role in the impending nuclear bombing of her own people. The rose is fully off the bloom at this point. Unfortunately, so many things have been set in motion, and it turns out she's a cog in a far larger machine.

Bouncing back to Observation 07, Lucy and Hank have a quick chat with the folks he's assembled to do work for him, but there's a handful of decisions to be made ahead of their departure. Hank's trying to make the world a better place, and damn it -- it's working. Well, if your moral compass is inexorably broken, it's working. But hey -- broken eggs to omelets, am I right?

Episode 6 ends the way it started – with a bit of drinking and some moral dilemma. Can Cooper really bring himself to kill a man to secure his family's future? And once again, things are not quite what they seem. With only two more episodes to go, there's a lot of road to cover to find out what led to where we are today. The Brotherhood, the Enclave, ghouls, Mr. House, all of it. It's gonna be one heck of a finale!