Summary

• Nick Valentine's character in Fallout 4 is deep, but he could've had an even more substantial role.
• Kellogg briefly takes over Nick's mind, but the potential story arc is underutilized in the game.
• Kellogg as a virus could've been a recurring subplot, but there are likely a few reasons it was left a one-off interaction.

Fallout 4 features some truly great companions, Nick Valentine being one of the most interesting among them. He's the first synth companion players are likely to meet and acts as an introduction to the ways in which synths and the Institute are viewed by wastelanders on the surface. But he goes past being a plot device and has actual depth to his characterization, with his own goals and wants, involving his job as a detective and the memories of a past love interest.

Nick even gets a feature role in one of Fallout 4's DLC packages, Far Harbor, as he reunites with his "brother," DiMA. But despite all of these ways that Nick Valentine can contribute to the plot and side quests of Fallout 4, parts of his character and events that relate to him still feel underutilized. One of the biggest missed opportunities players have noticed about Nick's character is his relationship with the mercenary known as Kellogg, and the experiment that brings them together midway through the game's main plot.

Kellogg Seems To Briefly Take Over Nick Valentine's Mind In Fallout 4

"Dangerous Minds" Quest

At the end of Fallout 4's first act, Nick Valentine helps the player to track down and kill Kellogg, the man who murdered their spouse and stole their son. This is all well and good, until players discover Kellogg had information they needed to find their son in the Institute. Luckily, all is not lost, since Kellogg had a cybernetic brain implant storing his memories, and Nick knows a doctor who could use that implant to let the players explore the dead merc's mind.

The Valentine Detective Agency is located in Diamond City, but players won't meet Nick until he's rescued from Vault 114.

The doctor needs a synth to hook themselves into Kellogg's brain for the process to work, and Nick volunteers. After the procedure, once players have gotten what they need from Kellogg's memories, they regain consciousness and are told that Nick recovered some minutes before and is waiting in another room. However, trying to talk to Nick right after this procedure provides a sort of jump scare moment when, instead of Nick's voice, the synthetic detective begins to speak like Kellogg, seemingly still aware and still bloodthirsty.

While Nick drops the matter here, many players stay on their toes for a while afterward, waiting for Kellogg to make a reappearance.

This moment can be incredibly unsettling, as it comes unexpectedly and suggests that the man they spent so long hunting down has now invaded the mind of a friend. However, it es quickly, and as soon as players respond, Nick seems to regain control. He has no memory of the eerie lines Kellogg said, nor does he seem overly concerned about the merc's presence in his circuits. While Nick drops the matter here, many players stay on their toes for a while afterward, waiting for Kellogg to make a reappearance.

Kellog Becoming A Virus In Nick's Programming Could've Been A Great Storyline

It Ties In Well With The Main Plot

Unfortunately, that reappearance never came. Nick's momentary glitch speaking as Kellogg never comes up again, and as the player's adventures continue, they will likely just forget about the incident, as the game seems to. Nick can remain a companion that stays with the player for the rest of the game, and never seems to show any evidence of turning into a grizzled murderer or betraying the player character as Kellogg gains control.

A quest where players must search for a way to delete Kellogg from Nick's brain before he takes over and turns the friendly robot against them could be very exciting.

It's a shame, because a subplot that went in that direction could prove very interesting, forcing Nick to deal with how his own personality is just programming and could potentially be erased, and allowing Kellogg to persist as a villain. A quest where players must search for a way to delete Kellogg from Nick's brain before he takes over and turns the friendly robot against them could be very exciting. If the solution was only available through one of Fallout 4's factions, like the Institute, it could also provide additional reasoning for siding with them.

It could also provide a conflict of interest with the quest that immediately follows exploring Kellogg's memories, which requires players to venture into the highly-irradiated Glowing Sea to find an escaped Institute scientist named Virgil. Nick is the obvious choice for which companion to bring into this area, since he is radiation-proof and has been finding missing people for decades. However, Kellogg's previous assignment was to hunt down and kill Virgil, meaning that a merc-possessed Nick might pose a threat to the scientist unintentionally.

Nick's Role In Future Content Was Likely Prioritized

Far Harbor

It's difficult to say why exactly this Nick-Kellogg crossover never came up again. It's possible that the content just got left on the cutting room floor; after all, Fallout 4 is a huge game, and developers likely had to scrap tons of content that they just didn't have the time or resources to get into the finished product. There's evidence of major and minor content in the game's files that was cut but not entirely removed, so this would not be unheard of.

Another likely reason this subplot was abandoned is because the developers already had Nick's role in future quests and content in mind. He plays a large part in the Far Harbor DLC if brought along, and creating a plot point that makes his death possible or likely would jeopardize that content. Bethesda may have decided to leave the Kellogg virus as a small scare without any real consequences for this reason.

It's disappointing that there aren't more consequences for this event, and overall, it goes along with the feeling in Fallout 4 that some choices don't really matter. The game still has many points which let the player decide the fate of certain Commonwealth groups or individuals, but smaller dialogue choices or side quest options can feel flat or inconsequential. Players put Nick at risk by letting him wire Kellogg's brain into his own, and that risk should have real consequences, not just a momentary scare which falls by the wayside.