The Reel Rejects - FALLOUT 2x04 Breakdown & Review!!!!

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

DEATHCLAW!! Fallout Season 2 Full Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Fallout 2x4 Reaction, Recap, Commentary, Analysis, Easter Eggs, & Spoiler Review! Greg Alba & Michael Tessler react to Fallout Season 2 Episode 4, and this episode changes EVERYTHING. Featuring the full live-action introduction of the Deathclaw, the devastating collapse of the Brotherhood of Steel, and harrowing flashbacks to Cooper Howard’s time during the war before the bombs fell. As the Deathclaw is finally unleashed, the wasteland shifts from tension to outright horror, reminding everyone why this creature is one of the most feared monsters in Fallout history. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood’s rigid ideology and internal fractures lead to catastrophic consequences, signaling the fall of an order that once believed itself untouchable. We also dig deeper into Cooper’s wartime flashbacks add emotional weight to his present-day choices and further connect the show’s story to the larger Fallout timeline and themes of power, survival, and loss. Follow Michael Tessler:r:https://www.instagram.com/mjtessler/ Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay, okey dokey. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, let's swing into the show, shall we? Michael Tesler. Greg. We are here with it, and yeah, I like this one a lot. I'm a sucker for Monster B-movie stuff, so to book-end it with that of him being confronted with a horror from his past, I thought was so cool. I mean, there's a lot that. happened in this episode.

Yeah. And, uh, you know, like it's, I like the illustration of him being part of a, the brotherhood of, like when he was fighting in the war, in the war. Was that him part of the brotherhood then? Oh. What was that? That's the United States Marine Corps. And that was before the Great War.

That was before the Great War. That was before he even like became an actor and stuff, right? Before it became a guy. Yeah, I'm just getting all that, uh, the timeline in my head corrected. And to see like the fallout of that, no pun, I don't see the fallout of that and that faction. And even with the NCR, watching that deteriorate, then you go to the Brotherhood and you're watching that deteriorate as well. You know, when they're talking about order versus anarchy, I love seeing how both stories are kind of paralleling one another.

And it's sort of similar to Hank's whole mantra of, it's never-ending factions just killing each other. And at some point, there needs to be something different. Yeah, yeah. So that's why I agree with the plan they did to tweak everything. but even what Lucy's going through here a person who's all about kind of construct and order

is now embracing anarchy you know I love the theme of the episode doesn't want to be wearing the same suits as everybody else the same jackets not anymore

what was your favorite development of this episode well you know it's funny because during the last episode you and I both you griped more than I griped

because I had faith Greg about Lucy about Lucy yeah and I feel vindicated because I think this was the episode where they decided to take that leap for her

and inevitably it almost, it's funny because I really appreciate throughout this episode they nod at some of the choices that a player has and very often when playing a game like Fall Out you start out with the most noble intentions and then you have to fight somebody and you have to use Buffout.

And then you use it again, and again, and next thing you know, you're a chem addict. And I think there's something really sort of fun about her going through the same sort of moral, like, oh, actually, as it turns out, like, the first time you blow somebody's leg off, that feels pretty good. And I thought that was a really fun. It was a fun development. I really, really love how we're exploring the ghoul's past. I feel like, number one, to see the war in Alaska up in Anchorage, to see that play out in live action was, I was not ready for it. And then to introduce the death claw that way, I thought was just, what a brilliant idea, you know, because I think, I'm not spoiling anything here,

because they obviously showed it. But I think a lot of people assume that the death clause exist as a result of the fallout and the radiation. Yeah. But as you saw... That was before. That was before.

So how? So I'm not going to say anything more than that. But you know the answer? Why don't you just whisper it to me? I'm really trying my best to not ruin everything this season. And for all of you, for that matter. But I thought, like, what a great way to introduce it in an unexpected environment.

And to see there is, it was in that moment when he saw the Death Claw again coming out of the Gamora Casino. There was this, the look on his face was the most like his old face that I had seen the entire series so far. Yeah, it had a similar thing with the last episode, though, too. with the crab monster. Yeah. They're actually, I think the ghoul kind of felt impenetrable in the last season. Like, he's really cool. Yeah.

And he's my favorite character. However, you do feel like the guy is fine all the time, you know? So to put a little bit more emphasis on his fear, I think helps elevate it to give it some stakes, especially when you're going to be following him around as not a, it's not as antagonistically. You're going to be following him as a protagonist. Yeah. Well, I think it's, it's, it's. It's one thing to get shot at when you know that you're going to heal from that.

It's another thing to be inside the digestive track of a monster. Yeah. So, but, you know, tomatoes, tomatoes. Yeah. I love that. I love, I thought the Brotherhood stuff, that all unraveled a lot faster than I expected it to unravel. I thought we were in for a lot more exposition. And in true fallout fashion, they said, no, we're just going to stab a guy in the throat.

but no I'm loving the direction of all of it I have so many thoughts of where it might go but I'm also really the setup for Vegas was so cool you know because based upon the ghouls that there were so many people there and stuff yeah and the players are familiar with

you know like it's called New Vegas for a reason yeah yeah there's humans there it was so cool to see the kings which were those Elvis impersonators apparently they did not do well but yeah what do you think that was your first time in New Vegas what did you think

I mean it's aesthetically cool and the hint at the thing before is cool and it's similar to stuff where sometimes I watch something and I go oh I want to read the comic or I want to read the book and then I end up actually doing that I am feeling that itch to grasp seeing how

because the last last season's felt like i i understand that it's connected to the game but it definitely doesn't it didn't make me go i have to play the game to really understand more yeah and this i don't feel like particularly left out so it's a little it's a little bit closer you know man okay mandolarian uh season one is like yeah i got this yeah and then season two was like shit if you didn't watch clone wards you're kind of fucked and it's like not there but there are times where i feel like you're sort of teetering the line to there. There's pieces of context that,

for me, I view it as it is enhancing my experience, but I definitely don't think it is required, which is a really impressive balancing act. And I think maybe also why this show is succeeding in that it's not overly reliant upon one's breadth

of knowledge on the intricate history of Mandalorian warrior culture and how it's evolved into a pacifist sort of you know yeah um however if you do happen to know like the intricacies of the brotherhood and blah blah blah like it adds a fun little uh flavor yeah yeah because i imagine especially with the collapse that's happening within it's leading to this like brotherhood civil war having more of that additional context probably makes that more impactful and and scarier because as an audience member i've only been at the camp of the brotherhood i haven't really seen

anything else outside of this like you know this is 40 square foot like i haven't really seen much else they've done outside of you know that one sometimes they go on a little adventure individually and the squire but i i don't know these towns or commonwealth or whatever so i my my ability to understand the scope at what's at stake here is very limited so in a lot of ways actually having you here and you reacting and i'm like oh this is like a much crazier thing than perhaps I'm actually latching on to. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's funny because players still

sort of have that same experience. Okay. Like, in every fallout game, you're only exposed to the factions that are within the place that you are. And you get little breadcrumbs. The show's been really cool because it's colliding all those worlds together. Yeah. Like

for me, the, and I really, I don't want to, like, maybe at the end, I'll say like a 30-second thing well, you keep your ears closed. Sure. Like the commonwealth and sort of what that can represent

plot-wise as we move forward, it's such like a fertile playground. And there's such a... There's just so much that they can do. And I love that they're taking all the different games and the lore that they've established in the show to create something that is both familiar but entirely new and surprising even for.

players of the game you know like i don't feel like i have much more of a inkling of of where this can go than you do even though i've played all the games and you know have read every single bit of content that can be consumed related to this universe well the word i wrote down to go back to the thing you were bringing up earlier the only word i wrote down this whole time was process because it dawned on me with lucy that she would kind of just default to how she knows how to be because she probably doesn't know how to process the pain that she's in, you know? And I imagine I've been, I'm very disciplined at not reading comments with a season of television until we're done with the season. I'm very disciplined about that.

I definitely haven't read all the comments. Yeah, I haven't read the comments. So if people are pointing out like something to counter what I was saying before, I imagine it would be something like what I'm about to say right now, is that with a person like her, she probably, like with grief, people often just resort back to who they were before the grief and that's how denial forms because they don't know how to process it.

So with the person this kind of like pain where everything's getting kind of shattered, this episode really highlighted how the addiction can sort, even though it was like addiction not by her like trying something out, it just happened. Which is how a lot of addiction happens. Yeah, succumbing to it and then

finding the fun and the killing watching her change because you see who Cooper used to be of a person with a lot of soul, a lot of heart, a lot of care, a lot of love. But then after a while, you just start to sort of change your point of view and become a hollow person and just succumb to how everything's kind of a joke now. Yeah. Oh, and try to get those little bits of the fake joy that you get the temporary dopamine hit that you get from those. No, I mean, I was thinking about it. one of the brilliant things that they've done here on just like a writing level is her first major loss was her mother and she was so young and it's abundantly clear that the culture of the vault is to push all of those feelings down don't ask questions yeah okay dokey everything's fine and we keep moving on yeah and so learning how to grieve is is such a uh a new an important

she is in many ways also becoming human in the same ways that the ghoul is also becoming human again that's cool that's good point it's good parallel

but yeah what did y'all think well last we haven't talked all about what's going on the vault what is happening in the vault yeah what's going on

with Stephanie and Betty and how are you feeling about how that's all going you know it's interesting because obviously I'm not, I, I am not as invested in that plot line as I am in all the other plot lines. Well, everything above the vaults is complimenting each other, whereas here it seems like a very separate storyline. It's, it's interesting, I think sort of the Hank's whatever item, mystery item.

Mcuffin thing. And that's exactly what it. It is a true McGuffin where it's like, we need a thing to create an extra. I'm curious as to how that ties into Hank's master plan or is what's going on in the vault still going to be narratively threaded to what else is happening in the rest of the story. I feel like thematically with civil wars

and insurgents is happening, it seems like that's what they're building up to here. It's just sad. It all makes me sad, those poor people. they just want to be happy and they're not i like how they've developed stephanie though yeah like where she was from last season this feels like a lot a lot sprung after wanting revenge for what happened and having something taken away that she loves and then now where she's at with this power and it's it is cool illustrating the two of even though she

probably believes the same thing betty does that hey our plan did not go according to plan when we were frozen and shit and she's like well i still want the power? Well, I think the amount of time that she's been unfrozen and the amount of time that Betty's been unfrozen, I think, is also sort of an important, there are certain lessons learned and a certain level of humanity that I think Betty, by virtue of being around all these people for so long, whether or not she could admit it, like, she can't just let all these people die, you know?

And I think that's the... What if that's Cooper's? wife you know that the internet the internet has suggested that could be his daughter or his wife but betty yeah but i think that's just racist you think so i think so i i think that's too uh that's a little too on the nose i don't know if it's racist it's it's it's racist they're like oh look a character of color this must be his wife but she's been a lot she's been around a lot longer and that she was played a very important role in running things and there's no other black women we've got to

and she's a there's not many black people and that's also racist and he's looking for his wife but where would the daughter be? Unless she's the daughter unless she's the daughter that is not racist to you

no I mean sure like timeline wise it makes total sense I just I can't help but imagine that I feel like the wife is dead i think the daughter is alive yeah that's what my feelings say because i don't even know how

you could have a conversation with his wife i just hope that she in some way shape or form redeemed herself at the end yeah fair enough all right well that's it guys what do you think do you think regs are racist leave a comment down below people do well guys uh who are you racist against leave it in the comments below uh thank you michael for being here happy holidays to everyone real rejects this is the final day of the year oh yeah it's still the holidays yeah it's the holidays happy 2026 leave your predictions down below oh can i give a 30 second ramble sure with your ears covered you can still hear me oh yeah is that okay all right rejects that have watched fallout, spoiler alert, spoiler alert, spoiler alert. Okay, I have a theory. So

House, right? So he went to the Commonwealth Institute of Technology, CIT, where, you know, the institute is from, the whole big part of the Commonwealth. His whole entire idea is self-preservation, right? Isn't that like crazy? So let's say he survived all of this. And it looks like somehow he has. His one desire is to have a functional body. Who could make him a functional body? That's right, the Commonwealth, who makes sense. And I think that's our setup for season three, where House has one purpose, and that is to find a new body for himself. Also, the guy that's running around that looks like him, that looks really like him, I think that's his brother, Anthony House, who owns the company that he was supposed to inherit, but he got disinherited.

And anyway, I think that he has like this, like the brain thing on the back of his head, and he's basically torturing his brother by making him pretend to be him in front of all those different people, because he's just that kind of psycho. Anyway, that's what I'm thinking. thinking. I think we're going to go to the Commonwealth. I think Mr. House is going to try to resurrect himself in the form of the synth, and that is where all roads are leading, and I'm so excited. Am I crazy? What do you think? Leave your comments below, but make sure you say, spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, that way we don't ruin it for anybody else. Anyway, that's all. You're good.