Happy Saturday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with a reaction to Fallout Season Two’s Finale, “The Strip.” Before we get into any spoilers, I’ll set the table for this reaction/review. Fallout Season One played out similarly to Star Wars: A New Hope. The creatives behind the show didn’t know they were getting renewed for a second season, so they teased New Vegas as the setting for a potential Fallout Season Two. Conversely, the creatives behind the show knew they had been renewed for a third season before Season Two finished filming. So, Fallout Season Two’s finale plays out similarly to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Major plot points get introduced during the episode’s final ten minutes. Heck. There’s a rather large complication teased during Fallout Season Two’s end-credit scene.

Last week, I lauded Fallout season two’s penultimate episode for doing everything the next-to-last episode should do. It answers some questions, but held back elements for the season finale to explore. “The Strip” does a good job of answering some of these questions, but since season three is on the way, it asks almost as many questions as it answers.

I’ve kept this reaction spoiler-free for about as long as I can. We’re about to enter spoiler territory. You’ve been warned.

I’ll begin with Caesar’s Legion because it needs the least amount of explanation and receives the smallest airtime. Macauley Culkin’s character recovers Caesar’s corpse and reads the former leader’s last will. Basically, Caesar named himself his successor. Culkin’s Legate character doesn’t accept this answer and takes the crown for himself. He also eats Caesar’s message. Ew! Dude, that was on someone’s corpse, and it was decaying. Nastiness aside, Culkin’s character becomes the new Caesar and galvanizes the Legion toward the Holy Land, New Vegas, to build a palace. Caesar’s Palace. How many takes do you think it took Culkin to say that line without laughing? Watching the Legion march on New Vegas was a sight. I can’t wait for the impending battle.

Inside the Strip, Maximus fights off the horde of deathclaws. The action sequence ventures into the unrealistic. Deathclaws may be less deadly than radroaches. More on that in a minute. The scenes with Maximus and the deathclaws contain the most fan service. That’s much appreciated. Still no confirmation on what Thadeus is transforming into, but he manages to lead Freeside’s residents into a shop, where they promptly bet on how long Maximus can survive against the deathclaws. This is a nice callback to The Thorn (in Fallout: New Vegas). Combatants battled various wasteland creatures, like deathclaws, and observers would place bets. Nice!

The battle concludes when the New California Republic marches into town and takes over the deathclaw fight. While the moment when the NCR sniper kills a deathclaw brought a smile to my face, it was undercut by Lucy doing something similar a few episodes earlier. Why did Lucy need to mimic the NCR shot from the game? She was on Buffout. That was already cool and hilarious. I would’ve preferred Fallout to reserve that shot for the NCR. That’s a nitpick. The moment still rocked

Accompanied by Mr. House (via a Pip-Boy), The Ghoul searches the Vegas Executive Vault for his family. We receive a lot more of The Ghoul’s backstory, but I was left with even more questions. This is part of what I mean by Fallout Season 2 functioning like The Empire Strikes Back. The Enclave is behind most things, including the bombs falling, but we still don’t know who’s behind the Enclave. Someone’s behind it all, but we’ll get to that more while discussing Steph’s storyarc.
There are a lot of storyarcs during “The Strip.”

Surprise! The Ghoul’s family is not in the Vegas Executive Vault. Their cryogenic chambers are empty, but in Barb’s place was a postcard from Colorado. This is a callback to a Ghoul flashback. It looks like The Ghoul’s family is in Colorado. The Ghoul is at least on his way to Colorado. And this separates The Ghoul and Lucy.

Speaking of Lucy, she destroys the mainframe. Rather, at Diane Welch’s request, Lucy kills Welch’s severed head. Yeesh! I’m with Lucy in this scene. Why does everyone want her to kill them? While she ponders her next move, Lucy discovers her dad, Hank, escaped, and he wants to put a mind control chip on her, forcing her to obey. Dude, Hank just went total supervillain. Hank orders the brainwashed legionnaire to subdue Lucy, but The Ghoul shows up in the nick of time, shooting the legionnaire dead, and Hank in the buttocks. You could almost see the pop-up message, “Lucy Liked That.” Lucy turns the tables, placing a chip on Daddy Dearest. Before she hits the button, she wants answers. Of course, she doesn’t get them because Hank has his own button and resets his brain. This was a stellar moment.

Hank and Lucy’s story goes so hard. Both stay true to each other. We were never going to get a straight answer from Hank, and his action at the end solidified this fact. Loved this. We only have a few more threads to discuss: Steph, Norm, and the impending Enclave.

Surprise again! Steph and Hank are married. What? And the little time we get with Steph, we see her enact Phase Two, whatever that means. Steph contacts the Enclave, who have been listening to all the radio relays up to this point. A computer updates Phase One as completed, but Phase Two’s details are redacted. Because of course they are. My guess, and this is a guess, is that Phase Two has something to do with the Forced Evolutionary Virus. And that gets me back to Thaddeus. He may or may not become a Centaur, but he definitely got some variant of the Forced Evolutionary Virus.

We catch a glimpse of the Enclave, who have a base in the mountains. My guess, again a guess, is that the Enclave are based in Colorado, because that’s where The Ghoul is headed. We know the Super Mutants, who don’t make an appearance in this episode, have a vendetta against the Enclave. See what I mean about Fallout Season Two holding back most of its deck of cards? I have no idea where any of this will lead. “The Strip” gives us enough information to keep the audience engaged but dangles plenty of loose threads.

We have a couple more threads, I promise. The Vault-Tec goons unlock the radroaches from their farm. They wreak havoc. Seriously, the radroaches deal more damage than the deathclaws. Norm manages to rescue his would-be girlfriend, Claudia, from the wreckage. Funny how Norm and Claudia are the only ones left alive after the radroaches go ham. I’m not complaining. I don’t mind a Norm/Claudia side story for Fallout Season Three. So, that leaves us with at least four groups we’re following next season: Lucy, Maximus, and Thaddeus; The Ghoul and Dogmeat; Norm and Claudia; Vault 32 and 33. Oh. And the Brotherhood of Steel; they factor into the post-credit scene.

Elder Quintus has left his Unification stage and entered his Destruction stage. I’m unsure how the Brotherhood of Steel has hidden Liberty Prime Alpha, but I’m all for a kaiju battle in Fallout Season Three. There are so many places Fallout Season Three can go, and I’m pumped. Too bad we need to wait another year for the next episode.

So, what do you think? What was your favorite part about Fallout “The Strip?” Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.