Fallout's Brutal Fourth Episode Actually Matches The Outrageous Violence Of The Original Games
This article contains spoilers for "Fallout."
Ever since the trailer for Prime Video's "Fallout" series debuted and promised a funny and weird take on the apocalypse, it was obvious that the trademark violence and grim comedy of the video games would be in evidence. Since its 1997 inception, the "Fallout" series has never shied away from depicting the harrowing reality of a post-apocalyptic future, contrasting that against the upbeat American boosterism that characterized the 1950s-era culture from which the series borrows. Now, with its TV debut, co-creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have done an excellent job of preserving that amusing yet unsettling tone.
The "Fallout" streaming series is in canon with the video games but tells a wholly original story. What makes the show a success is that it still feels like "Fallout," despite featuring a whole cast of new characters and an original narrative. In other words, the tone of this series is just right, blending dark comedy with pure horror to create a unique take on the post-apocalypse genre that is desperately needed in 2024. "Fallout 3" and "Fallout 4" director and executive producer on the TV show, Todd Howard, spoke to Vanity Fair about maintaining the right balance between humor and horror, saying:
"We had a lot of conversations over the style of humor, the level of violence, the style of violence. Look, 'Fallout' can be very dramatic, and dark, and post-apocalyptic, but you need to weave in a little bit of a wink [...] I think they threaded that needle really well on the TV show."
But if there's one episode where the violence gains the edge, it's surely the fourth episode, which is unrelentingly brutal throughout.
Comedy and violence in Fallout
A perfect example of the grim comedy in "Fallout" is the subterranean vault-dwellers. The absurdity of a whole underground society going about their business, as if the world above hasn't been completely scorched and infested with wretched, bloodthirsty creatures literally eating each other, is not only darkly funny but feels like it has parallels to our current moment when major parts of the world are on fire and many of us remain far removed from it. None of this dynamic in the show feels didactic or judgmental, either, just eerily familiar and slightly unsettling in a distinctly "Fallout" way.
This contrast between the humorous and the horrific is bolstered by using that old trick of playing upbeat, wholesome tunes over gratuitously violent sequences. In the very first episode, the inhabitants of Vault 33 are overrun by surface dwellers, who embark on a murderous rampage that's depicted in all its viscera-soaked glory, accompanied by the euphonious sounds of "Some Enchanted Evening." It's certainly a way to kick off the series with a bang, although the bloody sequence still doesn't quite match up to the unrelenting savagery of episode 4.
Entitled "The Ghouls," this chapter sees former Vault 33 resident Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) continue her journey through the wasteland as the captive of Walton Goggin's hot Ghoul — and from the outset, things are decidedly grim.
Fallout episode 4 is a bloodbath
Things kick off with a nice little scene in which the Ghoul introduces Lucy to a fellow inhabitant of the wasteland, who's on the verge of turning feral and recalling fond memories of his childhood right at the point Goggins' character delivers a close-range head-shot. Lucy is then forced to cut the meat off the poor guy's back for later consumption by her captor. Lovely stuff. As episode 4 goes on, Lucy attempts to flee the Ghoul, only to be lassoed by the former western star turned irradiated bounty hunter. In the ensuing struggle, she bites off his finger, after which the Ghoul appears to take great pleasure in slowly slicing off one of Lucy's digits. It's all quite graphic, but still not quite as gratuitous as the vault massacre from episode 1. Things get worse from there, however.
After recapturing Lucy, the Ghoul delivers her to a mysterious repurposed grocery store inhabited by a congenial floating robot with a charming English accent who should be immediately recognizable to "Fallout" players. The General Atomics/RobCo model robot is known as Mr. Handy in the games and hosts Ella on her impromptu visit to the gutted grocery store in the TV series. The robot then rummages through a draw of severed fingers and fuses a long-dead digit onto Lucy's bloodied hand. Unfortunately, Mr. Handy then reveals a more sinister side when he states that he's there to remove Lucy's organs, after which the former vault dweller manages to escape to the main room of the grocery store. There, she encounters the real horror of this place.
Fallout episode 4 is a hinge moment in the series
Once Lucy finds her way into the main room of the grocery store, she sees various ghouls being held captive by two guards who are whatever the post-apocalyptic equivalent of stoners would be. After forcing the guards to open the various containment chambers, all hell breaks loose, with the feral ghouls tearing their captors to shreds and feasting on their flesh. All of this would be enough gore and violence by itself, but when we're not witnessing all this graphic death in real-time, we're being shown the aftermath of another vault massacre in the episode's B-story, wherein we're taken on what is basically a tour of the various mutilated bodies that adorn the fallen vault's rooms.
Episode 4 seems to be the point at which writer Kieran Fitzgerald was tasked with reminding viewers that the world of "Fallout," darkly funny though it may be, is a truly savage and unforgiving place. While Mr. Handy and his cheerful announcement about harvesting Lucy's organs is amusing, the rest of the violence is just outright graphic. It also recalls the video games themselves, which similarly balanced humor and violence but at times leaned much more into the latter. Anyone who's used the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (V.A.T.S.) in the games and gleefully watched their target's head fulminate in slow motion will know what I mean.
But there's a point the violence, here. Having fought her way out of the organ harvesting factory, by the end of the episode Lucy has transformed from a terrified captive gasping for water into a fully-fledged badass. The violence was a test of the former vault-dweller's mettle, and she came out on top. That helps make the back half of the season a real doozy.
"Fallout" is now streaming on Prime Video.