Review: Fallout, "The Golden Rule" | Season 2, Episode 2

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“It’s always gonna get dirty again.”

In the trailers for the first season of Fallout, one of the most commonly repeated quotes was Maximus staring out at the ruins of Shady Sands, imparting a key philosophy to Lucy: “Everyone wants to save the world. They just disagree on how.” Second only to the Ghoul’s observation on sidetracking via bullshit, this is the central tenet of the Fallout universe. Corporate greed and Cold War paranoia was what originally destroyed the world, and the ideological differences of varied factions are what keeps anything new from taking its place atop the ashes. With the clear front-loading of Fallout: New Vegas elements, Fallout season two is showing a willingness to double down on that idea, given how heavily that game forces players to pick a side and make difficult decisions.

Making tough decisions is an idea threaded throughout “The Golden Rule,” another busy episode that indicates it could be a while before we get to New Vegas after all. Our main cast is on track to spend a good amount of time apart—Maximus is on his own story arc, the partnership of Lucy and the Ghoul seems to end before it even gets started—but at least it looks like it won’t be boring as they head off on their different directions. And it adds a few new players to an already crowded board, making it clear that any saving of the world is going to come at a lot of peoples’ expense.

After being entirely absent in “The Innovator,” the Brotherhood of Steel returns with a vengeance in “The Golden Rule,” Elder Quintus staking his claim in Nevada over the ruins of Area 51 and setting Maximus firmly at his side. Failing upward into a position of Knighthood thanks to being credited for Moldaver’s death, Maximus has embraced his new role in the Brotherhood and voices a clear commitment to its tenets. While his interactions with Lucy proved he’s capable of being enjoyably dopey, there’s none of that lightness to Aaron Moten’s performance here, spending most of the episode with a humorless expression as he guns down feral ghouls or squares off with a fellow knight.