Category: Episode Enneagrams

Episode Three of the Fallout TV series begins . . .

LEFTOVER NINE

Title card: THE BEGINNING

Pre-apocalypse Cooper, wearing a fringed cowboy shirt, holds a gun on a cringing villain. After a beat, Cooper looks at the camera and says, “Do I really have to kill him?” Pull out to reveal a film set.

The director comes over. Cooper plays a sheriff who normally just arrests people. Director Emil explains that now they want a good man to wrestle with evil. A new kind of western. Where’s Bob, the old writer? Fired, for being a communist.

Outside of the set, Coop flirts with a stylish woman, Barb, who is his wife. Janey the daughter joins them. Barb is there in a professional capacity, though. She’s arranged a photo shoot for Coop during his lunch break. He carries the costume box as the family strolls down the studio street.

ONE

Hard cut to a bloody, headless torso. Ghoul Coop, puzzled, examines it. Coughing, he opens a little case from his pack and loads a vial into an inhaler, taking a hit. Relief. Looking around past the derelict Slocum Joe’s, he sees foot prints in the sand headed to the city on the horizon. He and Four, the dog, set off walking.

Roll title.

Episode Two of the Fallout TV series begins . . .

LEFTOVER NINE

Small puppies in a laboratory. A sign on the wall says, “Incinerate newborns less than 10 ounces.” We see one rat-sized pup tossed into the fire. A doctor — wearing round glasses and looking like our bingo man — furtively weighs a pup who is just under the limit. He records a fake weight and brands the pup’s belly with a number, CX404. (For some reason the pups are born blackened as if they’ve been soaked in tar.)

Iris-fade to a proper puppy being weighed. Our Glasses Doctor picks it up, petting it, and carries it out of Behavioral Engineering. He takes it through a security checkpoint and past grown dogs being identically trained. In his office (his name, Dr. Wilzig is on the door) he encourages the puppy with treats and a stuffed teddy bear. (YAY! Dogmeat in game will randomly toss about a teddy.)

Transition to a bigger puppy, and then a dog. Wilzig continues to gently train CX. Behind his office chalkboard is a hole in the wall where CX has her bed. He’s developing something: A blue glowing chip in a glass jar. Taking a swig for the pain, Wilzig injects the chip behind his own ear, then cauterizes the site. CX watches as he writhes. Behind his ear and under the skin we can see the glow of blue from the chip.

He’s just putting CX back in her cubby when another doctor walks in and begins arguing with him. They struggle, and Wilzig is pushed down. Out comes CX, charging and attacking. Blood.

Wilzig leads CX out of the facility, escaping. Just as they get clear, a machine gun turret (YAY!) pops up. He and CX run away. In the background are high, snowy mountains and dim light. (Anchorage?)

Roll title card.

Episode One of the Fallout TV series concludes . . .

We’ve ignored Goggins long enough. Let’s look at that opening scene with Cooper Howard.

ONE

Wearing a flashy cowboy outfit, he sits on a horse, performing lasso tricks. Nat King Cole plays, over, which is wonderfully Fallout. So far, so good. Cooper is entertaining poolside at a suburban child’s birthday party. In a matching outfit, a girl smiles and applauds. (We assume, rightly, that this is his daughter.)

Briefly insert a radio, broadcasting tense international news. Indoors, adults watch a TV reporting on trouble in Anchorage, Alaska (easter egg from Fallout 3) and the threat of nuclear war. Birthday Mom shuts off both devices.

A beautiful, Technicolor-dream shot of the yard gives a semi-futuristic view of the city skyline. (It feels like this is California, one of the classic Fallout New Vegas locations.) Cooper finishes his rodeo trick and invites birthday boy for a picture on the horse. Two fathers gossip about Cooper doing party side gigs to meet his alimony payments. As they snap pictures, they ask Cooper to do his “thumbs up”. Cooper demures, even though he’s “famous for it”. Birthday Mom pays him, the fathers look on with snide faces, and Cooper leads his horse and his daughter away from them. 

The fathers refer to Cooper as a “Pinko”. (The nuclear enemy in Fallout are stereotyped Chinese communists.)

Episode One of the Fallout TV series continues . . .

ONE

With no introduction, this storyline starts mid-episode with a man in a possible boot camp situation as he’s beaten up by other recruits.

Roll title card: MAXIMUS.

His friend and fellow recruit, Dane, runs over and helps him up.

Establish the location. A Brotherhood of Steel (BoS) flag is raised. We see an isolated camp with barracks. Johnny Cash plays, over. 

Maximus attends class in an airplane hangar; the Cleric teacher presents the tenets of the BoS. Squires will help their Knights identify pre-war tech and secure it from the Wasteland. Maximus appears to be daydreaming. Cleric Felix puts him on the spot with a test to identify a relic. He fails, and Felix clocks his nose with a thick ruler. If you don’t know what to preserve, you’re useless.

Did anyone doubt that, when a major series about a beloved video game dropped, I wouldn’t review it, lol? It’s a Fallout show, and I have played this game up and down, backwards and forwards. I’ve had huge anticipation and dread, hoping the showrunners would do a good job representing the tone of the world.

So, how did they do? This is a freshly dropped series. Spoilers will be everywhere in the following. And, I’m reviewing it as I watch. I don’t know where the series will take us.

In Episode One, we basically have three stories. I hope (and intend to find out) that each has its own Enneagram structure. The great Walton Goggins opens the series, showing us the pre-apocalyptic world. He will bookend the beginning of the episode and coming in at the close. I’ll deal with him later. Another storyline involves an initiate to the Brotherhood of Steel, Maximus. I’ll cover him in the next analysis.

For this post, let’s look at our Vault Dweller, Lucy MacLean. (Why they named her after Die Hard’s daughter, I’m not sure. I think it’s just a nod.) I’m going to be overwhelmed by all the brilliant easter eggs this series includes. How am I supposed to gush without bogging down my comments? The details — and in a game where you collect junk for scrap, every detail is instantly recognizable — are beautiful. I won’t be able to resist some happy pointing and clapping. Please excuse my ‘stanning.