Fallout “The Golden Rule” Review

Season 2 Episode 2 – You can’t put a price on family…

Please note, our reviews are based on likes and dislikes. These contain significant spoilers. If you haven’t already watched the episode, we recommend that you click off the article and come back once you have watched the episode. Enjoy!

What I Liked

1. Next scene is literally Maximus and another Knight in Power Armor tearing through a bunch of Ghouls. Maximus looks so at home in that suit now. It reminds me of the games so much when you first get Power Armor, then eventually you become so accustomed to it that it feels natural. It’s great to see Maximus more confident.

2. The Brotherhood of Steel manages to locate solar panels in the Wasteland. They begin to call it their new home. The Brotherhood has always been interested in pre-war technology, so it’s interesting to see them go for something as powerful as solar panels.

3. Fallout has no shortage of enemies. Whether it’s human, animals, or something even further unnatural. We get our first look at Radscorpions as Lucy and Ghoul take a detour into a hospital of sorts after hearing a woman scream for help. An intense action sequence follows, but it results in the Ghoul becoming injured. For a brief moment, we get a moment where Lucy has to either save the woman screaming for help or the Ghoul. Lucy actually chooses the woman instead in a brave move and leaves with her, leaving the Ghoul behind.

4. Norm sets out exactly what he intends to do. Bud the robot is destroyed, and Norm releases all of the people in the cryogenic chambers. I fully expected to see Barb in there, but she wasn’t there. All of the people released believed they were released at the same time due to Reclamation Day. Once they release that’s not fully true, chaos begins. It’s exactly what Norm said would happen.

5. We’re seeing the darker side of the Brotherhood of Steel. A meeting was called, bringing all of the Brotherhood factions together, and it was agreed that they couldn’t care less about the Commonwealth. They used choice words to declare that, obviously. The Brotherhood is a faction that a lot of players choose to side with in the games. When you look further into them, they’re not as clean-cut as they’re often made out to be. I’m glad the show is diving into that. It shows even further when Maximus has to defend himself against another Brotherhood member; nobody steps in to stop it. It’s like they enjoy it. What a moment for Maximus, though!

6. I think it’s safe to assume where Barb is now. Hank drives his little vehicle through to an area called “Premium Elite Plus”. This area houses further people in cryogenic chambers. There are only 8 chambers on display. We don’t see the names or anyone in them. It’s quite obvious this is likely where Barb is.

7. In this episode, we’ve seen Hank attempt to perfect the brain chip we saw Robert House use in the first episode. He goes as far as to take someone out of the Premium Elite Plus to attempt human trials. It doesn’t work. It shows how evil Hank is, as he quite simply has no care for human life in any capacity whatsoever.

8. Lucy stumbles across another main game faction. In Fallout: New Vegas, one of the main factions in that game is Caesar’s Legion. Lucy, being naive as always, is led astray by the woman she saved earlier on. She’s surrounded by the Legion, and it doesn’t look good. It’s always nice to see factions that we’re so familiar with show up in the series.

9. Norm and the entirety of Vault 31 manage to find their way out of the locked vault. Instead of going back through the other interconnected vaults, they use a maintenance hatch that actually leads them outside instead. I liked this because it shows how easy it was for other people to get in and out of Vault 31.

What I Disliked

Nothing to report this week.

Favorite Moment

Seeing Shady Sands prior to the nuclear bomb going off was a fantastic touch by the showrunners. We get to see how well the NCR rebuilt settlements, including Shady Sands. It almost looked perfectly rebuilt in parts. It further enhances how evil Vault-Tec truly is. I’ve always had a soft spot for Fallout, showing us what the world looked like pre-war and even when things are going well in the Wasteland. A perfect start to the episode.

Standout Character

This genuinely may be one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make during an episode. Every character shown stood out in their own way. However, as this was a dedicated Maximus episode, he takes it for me. His story was told extremely well, which is always a tough thing to do when you already establish a character in this way.

Verdict

Two for two! Fallout hits another home run. A perfect episode. I had zero complaints during the entirety of that episode. It feels like the showrunners have not let up after such an amazing first season.

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Rating 10/10

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