As if Fallout hasn’t already destroyed enough by laying waste to an entire civilisation – and then picking apart the civilisations within the civilisations – the show now seems to want to destroy relationships too. To be fair, that’s not exactly new for the video game adaptation that’s really been turning the screws lately. Yes, America blew up in nuclear fire and subsequently Vaults 33 to 31, makeshift settlement Shady Sands and even the Brotherhood Of Steel has been taken apart in some way or another and even the refuge of family isn’t safe when characters such as Lucy MacClean and Cooper Howard have descovered that loved ones aren’t to be trusted.
Well, prepare to go through it again as Fallout’s second season now takes aim at its newest partnership – the fragile, odd couple pairing or Lucy and the Ghoul. With a reckoning at hand and a revelation to discover, is there no safe shelter, both real and emotional, from the harsh wasteland and maniacal plotters?
Nope. Absolutely not.
Lucy and the Ghoul may have finally made it to New Las Vegas, but find that their path down the Strip is blocked by a heard of Deathclaws, horned lizard-creatures which even give the Ghoul pause. This causes the pair to temporarily halt their mission to locate Lucy’s father, Hank, and cool their heels in Freeside, where the skull-faced gunslinger urges his partner to go buy a special counter drug, Addictol, to end her recent addiction to Buffout. This gives him time to mull over his past as Cooper Howard back in 2077 as he refuses his mission to murder Robert House before he sells fusion technology to Howard’s wife to give Vault-Tech the power they need to bomb America for financial gain.
Meanwhile, the other members of the McClean family seem to also be getting extra productive but with various results. As Norm continues to lead the defrosted executives across the Wasteland, he meets roach farmers Ma June and Barv who have some unsettling (if inaccurate) news on his sister Lucy. Worse yet, he uncovers information at the ruins of the Vault-Tech company headquarters that alludes to the use of the Forced Evolutionary Virus, but is attacked by the backstabbing Ronnie who has figured out Norm’s lies. Elsewhere, after snatching up the Snake Oil Salesman to use in his continued experiments in mind control, the ruthless Hank finally gets the contraption to work without popping his victim’s head like a melon, which now gives him the ability to send the man out to do his bidding.
But what biddings need to be done? Well, it seems that while the good news is that Lucy’s kicked her habit of Buffout and stolen herself a Power Fist into the bargin, it seems that her “friendship” with the Ghoul was merely a ruse so he could use her as a bargaining chip in order to get Hank to defrost his wife and child. Understandably upset that she’s been betrayed, Lucy takes her frustrations out on her former partner with violent results (Power Gloves don’t play), but she’s still tranked and ready for her father to collect…
It seems that season 2 really has now gotten into its groove now that we’re used to the fact that one or two of the multiple story threads in play seem to take a week off in order to let the others have space to breathe, and for better and for worse, one of those threads that gets to take a breather this episode is the one that saw Maximus cause the Brotherhood Of Steel to collapse amid in-fighting. It’s a shame, because up until not, the Maximus storyline was the one that had the most traction, but on the flip side we also don’t waste any time with the tensions between Vaults 33 and 32, which I’d think you’d agreed, is probably wise. However, of all the threads to fully chase, I’m growing increasingly surprised that the show is dedicating so much time to the flashbacks of Cooper Howard.
While I would never begrudge Walton Goggins screen time out of that stifling Ghoul makeup, there is a school of thought that questions while we spend so much time raking up the past when we already know that the bomb dropped and (barring a massive twist) who was probably responsible for it. However, without these flashbacks, Fallout would be a far dumber show for it, because without these repeat trips to the 50s retrofuturism world of 2077, we would have a wacky, fun, dystopian sci-fi comedy that wouldn’t be that different thematically than fucking Borderlands. But when you add those bits, you actually get that real sense of historical scale that makes Fallout stand apart from the pack as it gets to roll around in Cold War intrigue, paranoid McCarthyism and the queasily familiar feeling of a society sliding in ice toward its own ruin.
Still, while Howard gets ever more disillusioned with the world he’s tumbled into, it’s to the flashback’s credit that they never feel like cheap add-ons – although I’d really appreciate it if they could come to a head by the climax.
In comparison the other, “lesser” plot points continue to chug along while bringing up some familiar, weathered faces from season 1 as Hank enslaves the Snake Oil Salesman and Norm and his compatriots run into Ma June and Barv. But while it’s nice to see some familiar faces, the fact that Norm’s thread is about to hit its stride proves to be especially intriguing as it involves a mention from the infamous F.E.V. from the games. Is this how they’re going to explain away things like Deathclaws? Who knows, but while it’s about time for another storyline to pop much like Maximus’ did last week, this week sees the implosion of the relationship between Lucy and the Ghoul.
I have to say, as fun and busy an episode as The Wrangler is, the events leading up to the big betrayal prove to be more engrossing than the twist itself. Watching an addled Lucy try to get back to her less chaotic self and messily kick her drug habit instantaneously is greatly amusing, but I have to say, I didn’t feel any real emotional resonance from the Ghoul’s betrayal because it wasn’t a surprise to me in the least. Furthermore, despite Lucy’s heartbroken claims that she thought they had become friends, I have to say, I didn’t particularly feel that from them either, so the episode ends on a supposedly shocking and emotional twist that neither surprised or move me. Still, the Ghoul will no doubt have time to reflect after getting punched out of a window by a Power Gloved Lucy and impaled on a pole, but with Lucy back in the clutches of her father, there’s a sense that things should start escalating pretty soon.
While the show was always going to have trouble following up the fall of the Brotherhood, Fallout still keeps it’s momentum going even if it’s mid-season twist was about as hard to spot as the sun on a summer’s afternoon. However, while all the threads continue to writhe and twist at their own pace, there’s a sense that with all the weirdly discarded plot points (the Legion and the Deathclaws all so far seem to be nothing more than mild diversions), the season is now in need of some focus to go with that growing scale.
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