Fallout Season 2 Episode 6 Review: “The Other Player” Explained

This is my full Fallout Season 2 Episode 6 breakdown, and wow—there is a lot going on in this episode. We’ve got deep-cut Easter eggs from the games, massive WTF moments, and some genuinely huge reveals that completely reframe what we thought we knew about the Fallout timeline.

You can absolutely feel that we’re racing toward the end of the season now. All the major storylines are finally starting to collide, and the show is at last answering some of the biggest questions it raised way back at the start of Season 1.

The title of the episode, “The Other Player,” is doing a ton of heavy lifting here—and yes, it’s almost certainly a reference to the Enclave.

Before we continue, don't miss out on reading:

1. Fallout Season 2 Episode 1 Review
2. Fallout Season 2 Episode 2 Review
3. Fallout Season 2 Episode 3 Review
4. Fallout Season 2 Episode 4 Review
5. Fallout Season 2 Episode 5 Review

The Enclave Revealed as the Puppet Masters

For most of the episode, every major storyline circles back to the same shadowy force.

The group Mr. House was worried about.

The people every faction keeps hinting at.

The mysterious threat Barb said was blackmailing her through Wilzig.

It all points to the Enclave.

This episode strongly confirms that the Enclave was pulling the strings behind the Institute, Vault-Tec, and possibly even West-Tek, orchestrating events long before the bombs ever dropped. Barb is explicitly told to plant the idea with the Vault-Tec board that they should drop the bombs—when in reality, the Enclave was always going to do it themselves.

And yes, this means the apocalypse was their idea all along.

Ron Perlman’s Super Mutant Cameo (And “War Never Changes”)

One of the biggest moments in the episode is the surprise cameo from Ron Perlman, playing a Super Mutant.

For longtime Fallout fans, this hits hard. Perlman famously narrates the game intros and delivers the iconic line:

“War… war never changes.”

That line gets repeated several times throughout this episode—by different characters, in different contexts—and it’s absolutely intentional. Perlman’s Super Mutant doesn’t just show up for nostalgia points either. He straight-up calls out the Enclave as the true villains of the coming war.

This feels like clear setup for Season 3, positioning the Enclave as the overarching antagonist of the series.

Hank Was Talking to the Enclave All Along

This episode also recontextualizes Hank’s mysterious radio conversation from Episode 1.

At this point, it feels almost certain that Hank was speaking to the Enclave when he talked about restarting the control chip program to earn himself a promotion. He wasn’t bluffing—he was trying to climb the Enclave ladder.

And once you realize that, it opens up a much darker possibility…

Are Cooper’s wife and daughter even in those cryo tubes?

Cooper’s Family Might Not Be Where We Think

The more this episode unfolds, the less likely it feels that Cooper, Maximus, and Thaddeus will simply arrive in New Vegas, open the tubes, and find Cooper’s family waiting for him.

It almost feels too easy.

There’s a growing sense that the Enclave may be holding Cooper’s wife and daughter elsewhere—and that we won’t get the full truth until late this season or even Season 3.

This Is a Huge Barb Episode

Episode 6 spends more time with Barb than any episode before it, and it’s clearly designed to humanize her.

We see her in flashbacks at Vault-Tec, watching marketing presentations casually discussing bomb yields and profit margins like it’s a quarterly earnings report. It’s horrifying—but the episode goes out of its way to show that Barb wasn’t the mastermind we thought she was.

She was trapped.

Blackmailed.

Threatened.

Forced to comply by the Enclave to protect her family.

Cooper calls her a monster—and earlier seasons made her seem like one—but now the show is asking a harder question: How much blame belongs to someone who was coerced at every step?

Vault-Tec’s Failing Water Chip (Game Easter Egg)

One of the best Easter eggs in the episode involves the water chip failure.

Not only is fixing a broken water chip one of the very first missions in the Fallout games, but this episode reveals that Vault-Tec knew in advance which vaults would fail.

They literally asked Barb which vault should get the defective chip first.

And the cruel irony?

That vault turns out to be Vault 33, now run by Betty—who knew this would happen and still couldn’t stop it.

Classic Fallout.

Mr. House, Cold Fusion, and the Control Chip

The meeting between Barb, Hank, and the fake Mr. House is loaded with revelations.

Barb learns—much to her shock—that Vault-Tec ordered the creation of the control chip without her knowledge. This implies the Enclave used Vault-Tec as a shell company so House wouldn’t realize who he was really working for.

House thought he was making the chip for Vault-Tec.

In reality, he was making it for the Enclave.

In exchange, he was promised cold fusion, which he planned to use to power his missile defense system and survive the Great War.

The date of the bombs dropping kept shifting because someone kept interfering.

Now we know who.

Present Day: Lucy and Hank’s Nightmare Vault

Back in the present, Lucy wakes up inside Hank’s private company vault under New Vegas—and everything about it is unsettling.

Observation rooms.

Programmed Legionnaires acting like friendly security guards.

People turned into obedient flesh-puppets using the control chip.

Hank’s plan becomes horrifyingly clear:

Chip more people → build more chips → control the wasteland → control the world.

And he believes he’s right.

Hank’s Villain Logic (Peace Over Free Will)

Hank uses All Quiet on the Western Front to justify everything he’s done—from nuking Shady Sands to enslaving people with mind control chips.

His argument is simple and terrifying:

Free will causes chaos.

Chaos causes war.

So remove free will.

Peace, at the cost of humanity.

It’s classic S-tier villain logic—and by the end of the episode, Lucy finally understands something devastating:

Her father isn’t misunderstood.

He isn’t redeemable.

He is absolutely the villain.

Maximus, Thaddeus, and the Cold Fusion Dilemma

Meanwhile, Maximus and Thaddeus ditch the power armor and argue about what to do with the cold fusion.

Thaddeus wants money.

Maximus wants to give it to Lucy.

And that choice feels important—because Fallout has never been kind to people who think wealth will make them good.

Their path almost certainly leads them back to New Vegas… and right back into Mr. House’s orbit.

Super Mutants, the Enclave, and the Coming War

Ron Perlman’s Super Mutant spells it out clearly:

A war is coming.

Super mutants.

Ghouls.

Abominations.

Versus the Enclave.

And now that we know the Enclave likely orchestrated the creation of super mutants through West-Tek and the FEV, that war feels inevitable.

The Final Twist: Cold Fusion Was Inside Hank

The biggest twist of the episode comes in the final flashback.

Hank’s briefcase?

It wasn’t carrying the cold fusion.

Hank was.

Cold fusion was implanted directly into his body to prevent it from being stolen.

Which is… deeply unsettling, and probably not great for your long-term health.

End Credits Easter Eggs and Season 3 Teases

The end credits are packed with Fallout deep cuts:

• Bud’s brain-in-a-jar program manuals
• Grognak the Barbarian comics
• Vault-Tec offices abandoned in the wasteland
• Water chip callbacks

It really feels like the show is quietly laying the groundwork for Fallout Season 3, which we already know is coming soon.

Final Thoughts on Fallout Season 2 Episode 6

Episode 6 might be the most important episode of the season so far.

It:

• Confirms the Enclave as the true puppet masters
• Reframes Barb’s entire character
• Fully cements Hank as a villain
• Sets up a massive multi-faction war

We’ve only got two episodes left, and everything is converging on New Vegas.