Fallout TV Series Makes Hilarious Meta Joke About the Games In Episode 3

Fallout is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, and the TV series adaptation has some winking humor for fans of the games. 

(FALLOUT EPISODE 3 – MILD SPOILER) 

In Fallout Episode 3 “The Head” plucky young Vault-dweller Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) is trying to track down a bounty (a severed head) that can give her leverage to negotiate to get her father Hank (Kyle MacLachlan) freed from the group of raiders that captured him. Of course, other parties are involved in the hunt for the head – including Walton Goggins’ character, celebrity actor-turned-mutant-marauder The Ghoul. 

The Ghoul manages to follow Lucy’s trail, and ambushes her right as a “Gulper” frog monster has swallowed the head whole.The Ghoul uses Lucy as bait for the monster, but can’t successfully kill it before it escapes. During the struggle with the Gulper, Lucy defends herself using The Ghoul’s satchel – the satchel that contains the crucial medicine that The Ghoul uses to retain his humanity, instead of devolving into a feral zombie-style monster like so many other ghouls. 

With his crucial supply of “vials” gone, The Ghoul has to change his mission parameters, adding a stop to visit an employer who can re-up his supply of vials. Needless to say, The Ghoul isn’t happy for the detour. When Lucy tries to protest her captivity by leaning on the “Golden Rule” of vault culture, The Ghoul blows her off, dropping the retort that “The Wasteland’s got its own Golden Rule: ‘Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullsh*t every goddamn time.’”

The Fallout TV Series Mocks One of the Games’ Most Controversial Parts

Fallout games each have their strengths and weaknesses, but one aspect of the gameplay that always gets debated is the balance between open-world exploration, “main quest” missions that advance the main storyline, and side quest missions that either require players to complete extraneous tasks for advancement or allow them to experience many additional hours of gameplay outside the main story. 

There’s an entire sub-culture dedicated to Fallout quests, which have caused so much frustration, confusion, or backlash (see: “Kid In A Fridge” pictured above) that they’re almost as infamous as the main content of the games. There can also be an overabundance of quests if a Fallout game isn’t balanced properly (see: Fallout 76), leading to player confusion over what to focus on, and how to move through the game. 

So, when The Ghoul is making jokes about how the Wastelands of Fallout will get one sidetracked by bullsh*t, it’s definitely a meta-joke that hardcore Fallout game fans can chuckle about. 

Fallout Season 1 is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.