Deacon is a member of the Railroad specializing in intelligence. He’s also a potential companion inFallout 4— one with a penchant for lying. Though he likes to lie about himself and his past, Deacon will open up truthfully once the player raises their affinity with him.
To unlock Deacon as aFallout 4companion, the player must join the Railroad. This involves completing the quests “Road to Freedom” and “Tradecraft.” Once both have been completed, Deacon will offer his services as a follower.
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Deacon’s Violent Past
Deacon admits that he isn’t proud of his past. When he was younger, he joined a gang in University Point — the UP Deathclaws. This was likely a long time beforethe University Point Massacre inFallout 4, since Deacon was already part of the Railroad long before that occurred. Together, the Deathclaws would terrorize anyone whom they thought was a synth. It started with destroying the supposed synth’s property, then beatdowns, then eventually, their death.
Now, this was longbefore the events ofFallout4. Deacon supposedly only killed one person — synth or not — but that was enough for him to leave the Deathclaws. Deacon turned his back on his gang’s violent ways and made a living as a farmer instead. Sometime after, he met Barbara and settled in with her. The two tried to start a family, but, somehow, the Deathclaws learned that Barbara was a synth. They came for her before she and Deacon could have children.
Deacon doesn’t recall the specifics of what had happened, but he knew that the Deathclaws killed Barbara, and then he killed most of them. After,Fallout 4’s Railroad caught windof what he’d done, they contacted him, asking him to join their cause. They didn’t know that Deacon had once been part of their gang, because according to him, it had been years since he ran with them. Despite this, Deacon joined the organization, keeping his past a secret with layers upon layers of lies.
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Joining the Railroad
This, however, took a toll on Deacon’s psyche. Lying became second nature. He tells the Sole Survivor much later that he doesn’t even know why he does it anymore, but that he can’t tell the truth. Because of this, Deacon doesn’t think he deservesto be part of the Railroad. However, in practice, Deacon has more than proven his usefulness to the Railroad.
As the organization’s intelligence operative, Deacon keeps tabs on the most notablesettlements and characters inFallout 4’s Commonwealth. He’s able to do this without raising any suspicion, as he can easily blend into crowds with his many disguises and constant facial reconstruction sessions. Aside from this, Deacon is also crafty, even in crisis situations. During an Institute raid on the old Railroad hideout, he was the agent who thought up an escape plan. This was before Desdemona’s time, when someone named Pinky was still running things.
When Desdemona finally took the reins in 2277 (10 years before the start ofFallout 4), Deacon became one of her most trusted agents. She looped him into her plans of improving operational security and assigned him important missions, such as synth rescue and escort operations. Despite this, Desdemona and the new Railroad agents knew little about his past or who he truly was. And Deacon wasn’t going to tell them.
However, the Railroad’s old terminal entries reveal bits and pieces of Deacon’s long history with the Railroad. Desdemona believes that Deacon was John D.,a Railroad agent who was activeas early as 2266, when a man named Wyatt was the leader of the organization. John D. was similar to Deacon in that he was a skilled operative but mostly kept his true identity to himself. When Wyatt died and was replaced by Pinky in 2273, John D. was never reported dead. However, Pinky mentions the name Deacon for the first time, explaining that a former operative changed his codename to that.
Desdemona believes this was John D, though, of course, Deacon never confirms this. Another,more amusing theory about Deaconcomes from Tinker Tom. In his personal terminal, he has a list labeled “Active hypotheses,” and in it is the phrase “Deacon / Time Travel Conjecture.” In response to this, Deacon left a note at the bottom of the list that reads, “If I really were a time traveler, would I let a timeline exist where you knew I knew? -D.”
Deacon and the Sole Survivor in Fallout 4
Vault 111 ofFallout 4was one of the locations that Deacon took an interest in during his bouts of intel gathering. In fact, when the player first exists the vault, they can head west and find a table and chair set up bearing the mark of the Railroad. This was where Deacon kept an eye on the vault entrance, and he was likely there to see the Sole Survivor take their first steps into the wasteland because he’s been following them ever since.
Before even recruiting Deacon,theFallout 4player can meet themin disguise when they first enter Diamond City, in Goodneighbor’s Memory Den, and even Bunker Hill. He wears different sets of clothes in each area to blend in and comfortably keep an eye on the Sole Survivor. Plus, he even has unique dialogue should the player speak to him in his disguised state.
When the player finallyunlocks him as aFallout 4companion, he will have two affinity dialogue trees where he’ll straight up lie to the Sole Survivor about who they are. In the first, he’ll claim that he’s a synth with the recall code, “You can’t trust everyone.” And in the second, he says that he’s the leader of the Railroad, not Desdemona. He even claims to be one of the organization’s founders, along with “Johnny D. and Watts.” In both instances, he eventually admits that he’s bluffing and uses it to try and teach the player some sort of lesson about what the Commonwealth has become.
It’s only in his final affinity dialogue tree that he talks about his true past and everything he’s done. It’s a reminder that, despite Deacon’s cheery, nonchalant personality, he’s carrying a heavy weight with him. It’s that complexity that makes him an interesting character. With all that said, however, no one yet knows what his real name is — whether it’s Deacon, John D., or something else entirely.
Fallout 4is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
