January 2026 – Enneagram and Encaustic

Fallout: The Demon in the Snow

ONE

Gunfire, snow, and vertibirds.

Title card: The Alaskan Front

It’s the pre-apocalypse Battle of Anchorage. The Marines wear the janky T-45 power armor. Charlie’s left arm starts sparking and malfunctioning. Cooper orders him to return to base. Instead of following him, though, Coop continues his search for the missing unit. Falling snow and burning equipment in the dark make it hard to see.

TWO

Gunfire and approaching troops. Cooper tries to return fire, but his left leg armor sparks and locks up. He falls over like a tree. The Chinese soldiers approach and mock him as he lies helpless. Behind them, through the flames and snow, Cooper sees a beast approaching. We know what it is, although Coop doesn’t. He tries to signal with his eyes as the deathclaw comes up and eviscerates the troops. He’s terrified as the deathclaw breathes on his face. It leaves without touching him, though, and word comes over the radio that the battle is won. Cooper tries to say that it wasn’t the soldiers that routed the Chinese, but no one is listening.

Title card: Fallout

An overhead shot of Cooper lying on his side, helpless in the snow, is mirrored here as Max looks down at Xander’s dead body. It’s the moment immediately after Max drove the super sledge into Xander’s head at the end of the last episode.

Fallout: The Profligate

ONE

Thaddeus’ ghoulification has progressed. (He was briefly Max’s Squire, remember.)

TWO

He oversees children, some ghouled, whose job seems to be to drink Sunset Sarsparilla. The bottlecaps, Wasteland currency, are collected after the bottle is opened. He’s sympathetic and kind as he cracks the whip.

Title card: Fallout.

Lucy is a captive of the Legion. Slaves are tortured. Tunic Lady, who “lost her Legionary”, has her throat violently slit. Lucy reacts in shock.

Title card: The Legion.

THREE

She’s brought before Caesar. The Legate who cut Tunic Lady’s throat takes off his helmet in a prolonged reveal. It’s Macaulay Culkin. He refers to Lucy as “Profligate”.

Fallout: The Golden Rule

In Season One we learn that Shady Sands, a post-apocalypse, thriving community, is nuked by Hank. He wants only his controlled vaults, 31-33, to lead the world. Anyone not beholding to middle management should be stopped.

ONE

Episode Two of Season Two opens with the healthy Shady Sands. Boy Max lives here. His father invents a water purifier. The radiated water everyone’s been forced to accommodate is clean. Hope pervades the settlement.

A caravan man and his cart enter town. He robotically repeats the same phrase. Blood coming from his eyes, the man collapses in the center of town. People surround him, trying to help. When he curls over, the mind control device implanted at the base of his neck becomes visible. Max’s father quickly removes the tarp on the caravan cart. Underneath is a bomb.

(It’s an enlarged mini nuke design from the games with a Pip Boy interface. YAY!)

Joseph sends Max running for home and tries to dismantle the bomb’s timer. Closeup of the smiling Vault Boy as the Pip Boy screen informs him that by stopping the countdown Joseph has activated the fail safe. He runs.

Fallout: The Innovator

You may remember that I greatly enjoyed Season One of Amazon’s Fallout, based on Bethesda’s game series. Not only have I previously gamed Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 4, I’m currently having a lot of fun in Fallout 76’s MMORPG that takes place in a post-apocalyptic Appalachia.

However, I’ve been disappointed with and worried about some of the episodes I’ve seen so far in Season Two. They seem a little scattered. You’ll see what I mean even here in Episode One. Since notating the structure that exists, I’ve become convinced that a better structure is possible.

First, here’s the episode as broadcast. After, see my Critical Notes for how I would re-edit it.

Needless to say, spoilers abound.

ONE

Title card: The Man Who Knew

Pre-apocalypse Los Angeles. Protestors take bats to Mr. Handy robots outside of RobCo. headquarters.

Plight of the House Elf

Helping Deek, the house elf who stays in my Room of Requirement, is optional. However, until I talk to him I have only one outdoor space for my beasts. As I need to feed and brush them in order to get armor upgrade materials, it’s a small pain to rotate them in and out. The beast room can only hold four species at once. An oceanside space opens up after interacting with Deek.

Also, I’m still barely holding my own with leveling. To give myself a buffer, I pursue his quest to rescue his abused house elf friend. Spoiler: his buddy is dead, surrounded by spiders.

(I’m not enthusiastic about fighting game spiders, but I can do it. Tough mission for those vulnerable to arachnophobia, though.)