Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Fallout Season 2 Episode 6.Fallout Season 2 has largely revolved around the factions in its world. Who can you trust, who is good and bad, and who will lead the Wasteland towards the future? All of these questions have been explored through the season’s smaller relationships, whether it’s Lucy (Ella Purnell) coming to trust the Ghoul (Walton Goggins), which bites her in the butt in last week’s episode, or Maximus (Aaron Moten) trying to figure out if he should follow the Brotherhood of Steel or what he believes to be right. Heading into the final episodes of Season 2, “The Other Player” adds some intriguing wrinkles to these factions. There’s more to Barb (Frances Turner) than meets the eye, old acquaintances are encountered in the Wasteland, and the Ghoul stumbles across a new character unlike anything we’ve ever seen before (but will certainly make fans of the game excited).
Barb Gets a Gift From Ro-Co in ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 6
“The Other Player” begins with Barb watching a presentation on nuclear bombs at Vault-Tec, and what will look best when the world comes to its end. This is followed by another presentation on water in the Vaults, where she’s told that they get to choose which Vaults run out of water. Another presentation revolves around premium highway lines in Los Angeles for their best customers, once they have to head to the Vaults. Afterward, Barb has a meeting with the public-facing Robert House (Rafi Silver), with Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan) taking notes.
“Robert House” presents Barb with a device from Rob-Co called the “automated man,” which seems to be a version of the mind-control device Hank is playing around with in the present. “House” says he spent a lot of time trying to make his machines more lifelike, but this device works the other way around. Barb points out that if Rob-Co wants to test this technology out in one of their many Vaults, they’re free to do so, but the fake House says that Vault-Tec is playing Rob-Co for this; in exchange, Rob-Co gets cold fusion for House’s experiment in Vegas. When asked about the experiment, House says that Barb will find out after the bombs drop. Later on, Barb is alone, tearfully looking at her family and clearly questioning her choices.
The Ghoul Meets a Supermutant in ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 6
In New Vegas, the Ghoul is still impaled on that pole while desperately reaching out for the medicine he’s dropped. Not even Dogmeat helps, grabbing the Ghoul’s hat instead. Later that night, the Ghoul remains stuck, getting sicker and sicker and making sounds that indicate he’s turning into an actual ghoul. Between screams and cries, he says to no one that he was Cooper Howard and that he has a daughter who is alive. This gives him the energy he needs to pull himself up the pole running through him. He uses all his energy to reach the top, but he can’t quite make it over and slips back down, spitting up blood as he does so. Some time later, a massive creature comes and cuts the pole, pulling the Ghoul off it and dragging him to a church.
In the church, the Ghoul comes to as he’s being tied and propped up to a netting. The creature has uranium, which can heal the Ghoul, who has a big gaping hole in him where the pole once was. This creature says there’s a war coming and that they’re going to need his help as he inserts the uranium into the wound, which begins to heal. The creature says they call their type abominations, but he and the Ghoul are kin, and they should unite against their common enemy. The creature talks about the Enclave, who put all of this into motion, and how they should get their revenge, but the Ghoul says whatever he’s got to do, he does it alone, and that he’s stayed alive to find his family. The creature says he’ll need friends, but if the Ghoul won’t work with them, he can’t remember where they live. The creature reveals that he is a supermutant (played by Ron Perlman) with a completely green face under his hood before knocking the Ghoul out.
Who Could Be Worse Than Barb in ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 6?
A flashback circles up with Cooper Howard and Barb after the events of Episode 5, while Cooper reflects on when he proposed to Barb at Catalina. Cooper then asks Barb if she was a monster back then, or if she became one later, admitting that he knows what Barb is planning to do. Later on, in another flashback, Cooper and Barb are finally having it out. Barb insists she’s doing this to protect their daughter, and Cooper asks if she’d kill millions just to save their daughter. Barb throws the question back at Cooper: Wouldn’t he do the same for Janey?
In a flashback within the flashback, back at the Vault-Tec offices, Barb asks her assistant to get all the information she can about how the cold fusion is stored at Vault-Tec. When Betty asks if this is a good idea, Barb states that none of this is a good idea. She gets onto the elevator, where Siggi Wilzig (Michael Emerson) is waiting, who states that Barb is a very replaceable part of a bigger machine. If she forgets her place in the company, however, she’ll die, as will her family. Wilzig points out that they’re all in the same boat, himself included, and mentions that the leaders of the most powerful corporations will be gathering. When they do, Barb needs to tell them that the only way to guarantee results is by dropping the bomb themselves. Cut to the meeting from Season 1, where she does just that.
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Back in Barb’s confrontation with Cooper, he demands to know who controls Vault-Tec. She claims not to know, but Cooper says they need to find out. Barb points out that they can’t do anything, that this is going to go through whether they like it or not. She tries to console him by saying she’s his wife and that he knows her, but Cooper says he doesn’t know her. He walks away from her, saying he’s going to “fucking do something.” Later that same night, Cooper brings a drunk Hank MacLean back to his hotel room, his arm still cuffed to the case. Cooper is stone-cold sober, pouring Hank a drink and putting a pill into it. Soon after, Hank is knocked out cold, and Cooper opens the case. Inside, he finds an injector, and then tries to wake up Hank to no avail. At this moment, Barb walks in, sees what Cooper has done, takes the injector, and puts it into Hank’s neck, waking him up. It turns out the cold fusion was being kept in Hank’s neck all along.
Lucy Sees the Power of Hank’s Control in ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 6
After getting knocked out at the end of the last episode, Lucy wakes up in a recreation of her home from her vault, which has been remade in the Vault-Tec offices. Alongside a box of Sugar Bombs, there’s a note from her father telling Lucy to call him when she wakes up. Instead of that, she heads out into the hallway and finds two men dressed like members of Caesar’s Legion. But even though Lucy gets ready to hit them with a fire extinguisher, they wish her a good morning. As they head off, she spots the mind control device embedded in their necks.
Lucy also stumbles upon an office full of extremely polite and happy workers, working in perfect synchronization to create even more mind-control devices. As Lucy moves on, she finds a room labeled “Simulation,” which boasts a classic ‘50s-style Vault home inside. She finds that her father is there cooking, and he mentions that they never had the chance to discuss reading All Quiet on the Western Front, which he was waiting to do after Lucy’s wedding. Lucy admits she didn’t finish the book, but she found the parts she did read very upsetting. What upset Hank most was that everyone seemed to be fighting over nothing, and he saw the same thing on the surface. When he asks if that’s what Lucy saw as well, her reaction hints that she agrees. Hank states that some things never change, and ironically, the only way for people to feel safe is to hurt each other.
When Hank isn’t looking, Lucy sneaks up on him and holds a knife to his neck, telling him she’s going to bring him back to Vault 33 to face justice for murdering the citizens of Shady Sands. Hanks posits that for a second, he thought the Wasteland had changed Lucy, and that if she wants to make it official, she should handcuff him. Hank puts the cuffs on himself, saying he’s surrendering. When Lucy asks why, Hank says he did what he did to protect Lucy, but maybe it came at too high a price, and he has to take responsibility for the things he’s done. Before they go, however, Hank wants to explain what he’s been doing at Vault-Tec and tries to share a memory from when Lucy was younger, but she insists that they leave.
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Lucy leads Hank through the synchronized offices again, all of their occupants stopping to stare. Hank reassures them that there’s nothing to worry about, that Lucy is pursuing the cause of justice. This calms them down before Lucy asks where Hank found all these people — all over, he says, and that so many people need their help. One of his workers used to be a murderer, but now, she’s a pencil sharpener. Two other coworkers were in opposing gangs, but they’re now friends. Another woman used to cook people for the Legion, but now she makes trail mix. As they leave the office, Lucy orders Hank to leave the doors open so these people can go home. Lucy tells the workers they’re free now, but they insist they like it down here now, so Hank tells them they can stay there as long as they want.
Before they can leave, the Snake Oil Salesman (Jon Daly) comes in with two people who he says haven’t been “fixed” yet, one from Caesar’s Legion, and one of whom is Biff (Jon Gries) from the NCR. Lucy says they should go free, as-is, which Hank allows. This leads to the Caesar’s Legion soldier immediately attacking Biff. Lucy runs over to Biff and tries to protect him, but the soldier picks Lucy up, and she stabs him with a pencil. Undeterred, the man pursues Biff and starts stapling his head. Lucy pushes the button at Hank’s urging, and the men’s mind-control devices kick in, turning them into fast friends. Hank stands there proudly in front of Lucy, proving his point that his idea of control might be a good thing.
There’s a Wedding in the Vaults in ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 6
Back in Vault 33, the Inbreeding Support Group is only growing more popular, as there’s now a line to get into the meeting. Reg (Rodrigo Luzzi) is having a blast, even sitting at the piano and imagining himself in his own musical number, where people are eating and drinking without worry. Back in reality, it’s really just a quiet, sad gathering that’s still somehow very popular, but Overseer Betty Pearson (Leslie Uggams) has come with guards to shut the party down, saying that the snack budget has been rescinded and the group has been dissolved. Reg tells Betty that they can shut down the group, but they can’t take away his snack budget. Betty mentions they’re in a water crisis, and Reg is serving salty snacks, and that Reg doesn’t get special treatment just because of who his parents were — but Reg says this is America, and because of that, they do. In fact, they’re in the Vault because of who their parents are. Reg tells Betty she wouldn’t understand because she’s from Vault 31 and things are different there, before grabbing a handful of a nearby gelatin statue and eating it spitefully right in Betty’s face.
Over in Vault 31, Chet (Dave Register) overhears Davey (Leer Leary) say that he was supposed to play checkers with Woody (Zach Cherry) — which is pretty suspicious, considering his most recent confrontation with Overseer Stephanie (Annabel O’Hagan). Another Vault Dweller points out to Chet that there’s also a poster that says Chet and Stephanie are engaged, and when Chet finds the poster, it states that they’re getting married tomorrow, which probably should’ve been brought to Chet’s attention.
Maximus and Thaddeus Meet Up With an Old “Friend” in ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 6
For the first time since Episode 4, the show circles back to Maximus and Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton), who has finally gotten out of his Brotherhood of Steel power armor, and they decide to leave the suit behind so they can’t be tracked. As Maximus and Thaddeus make their way through the desert, Maximus insists that he’s not selling the cold fusion despite Thaddeus’s wanting to, but that they’ll give it to the right person — a good person. When Thaddeus asks who’s a good person, Max replies that Lucy was, but Thaddeus says if they sell the cold fusion, they can be rich enough to be good people too. Thaddeus says he was born in the boneyard, and Max says he’s lucky, having been raised in Shady Sands, because he remembers good people. At the end of the episode, Maximus and Thaddeus are woken up by their fire by Dogmeat, who carries the Ghoul’s hat in his mouth, and decide to follow the dog. The next morning, the two discover that Dogmeat has brought them to the Ghoul, and neither side seems particularly excited to see the other.
“The Other Player” ends in a great place near the end of Season 2. It’s a clever episode that leads to questions about which character can be trusted, and really leans into the shades of gray for characters that initially seem just inherently evil. It also sets up some great potential team-ups for the rest of the season, as Lucy still has Hank under her control, and the trio of Maximus, the Ghoul, and Thaddeus is… certainly something. Season 2 has also been issuing reminders that there are other factions on the outskirts of the story, with Caesar’s Legion, the NCR, and Brotherhood of Steel all still around — and now there are supermutants, too? “The Other Player” gets fans ready for the end with an exciting episode of Fallout.
New episodes of Fallout premiere Wednesdays on Prime Video in the U.S.
- Release Date
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April 10, 2024
- Network
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Amazon Prime Video
- Showrunner
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Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan
Pros & Cons
- “The Other Player” wraps up with some fascinating team-ups going into the season’s final two episodes.
- Villains are given a much-needed moral gray area in this episode.
- The introduction of supermutants proves there’s still so many secrets to explore in this world.
