Fallout’s second season has been something of a strange beast – in fact, I can’t recall of a sophomore season that’s been quite so bold while being incredibly cagey at the same time. The steps the second batch of episodes have taken may have expanded the universe exponentially by dropping in lore from the games (New Vegas, Deathclaws, mutants, the Legion), but it also doubled-down on enriching the past while still trying to keep things ticking over in the remnants of the first season’s storylines.
The result was the show feeling rather overstuffed on a week by week basis that never felt dull, but also felt like we were stocking up for future seasons like we were cramming for an exam that won’t be taken for years to come. Well, now that we’re at the end of the season, does Fallout attempt to unravel any of its rapidly more tangled plot, or does it finally draw a few lines through any one of the multitudes of plot threads that are each still expanding episode by episode?
There’s busy times going on in New Las Vegas as a plethora of plots keep bubbling over at multiple levels of importance and some of the slightly less urgent ones see a disgraced Steph contact her superiors at the Enclave after her fellow Vaulties discovered her subterfuge, the schism within the warring Legion finally get resolved with Lacerta Legate announcing himself as the (still mispronounced) Caesar and Norm’s death sentence at the hands of the defrosted executives is thwarted thanks to a timely infestation of giant, flesh-eating cockroaches which only he and Claudia survive. But while all these events will go on to undoubtedly shape future events, far more pressing are the issues facing our three leads, Lucy, Maximus and the Ghoul.
Temporarily aligning himself with an A.I. construct of Robert House, the Ghoul continues with his exchange as he swaps the cold fusion for his wife and child who are in stasis somewhere in the building. However, while their cryo-pods are empty, the nose-less gunslinger finds a clue that not only gives him hope that they’re alive, but that they’re residing in Colorado. Meanwhile, a power-suited Maximus is still brawling against that nest of Deathclaws, but after his fight causes the battle to spill into Freeside, the innocent bystanders seem unwilling to help, even if it means their own deaths. However, just when things look their grimmest, the NCR arrive in force to help – which is probably for the best considering the Legion want to wipe Vegas off the face of the earth.
But what of Lucy and the continuing drama with her father, Hank? After he reveals a counter-plan that not only includes mind-controled sleeper agents out in the world doing his bidding, but involves wiping his daughter’s mind too, Lucy realises that she must put the kibosh on dear old dad once and for all. However, with growing threats from the Enclave, the Legion, Vault-Tech and a slowly stabilising Brotherhood, what possible future can the future have?
For a show that seems to be getting rapidly more dense with every passing episode, Fallout’s second season seems to be suffering slightly at the hands of its own ambition. Already forced to ditch various plotlines for whole episodes just to make everything fit, there’s a real feeling that this world has gotten so big so fast, it’s actually getting a little too complex to focus on. But, while there seems no signs of anything contracting as of yet, it’s down to us to follow at least seven or eight seperate plotlines that don’t actually end up converging with each other that much. What’s more, there’s precious little closure to be found, with everyone’s journey ending with a minor cliffhanger or at least an ominous threat for a future season.
In many ways, the major problem with this season has been that it’s mostly been a glorified advert for future seasons with numerous things being set up that have absolutely no payoff. But while middling Vault business, mentions of mutants and the non-event that was the introduction of the Legion sometimes irked, it also ensured that it was rare for an episode to actually be dull simply because so damn much was happening. Also, it made sure that it’s main trio of characters were always on the move and as it stands, the finale serves them pretty well. Firstly, Lucy finally gets to have a final stand-off with her father that, predictably, doesn’t seem quite that final. After discovering that if all else fails, Hank was willing to mind control her in order to get her back to being a dutiful, loving daughter, Lucy knows that he is a lost cause – however, instead of a thoroughly deserved killshot (provided by a penance serving Ghoul), she instead opts to subject him to his own mind wiping tech to nullify him without killing. However, after discovering that Hank’s plan reaches far further than just his workers in the lab, he takes himself off the board by wiping his brain voluntarily. It’s kind of smart that they’d finally take Kyle MacLachlan’s character out without actually taking him out as it gives them the choice to move on to one of the other, multiple villains lurking in the wings, but as there’s a whole new backstory uncovered that reveals the Hank married Steph back in 2077, I guess the show’s not done with him yet.
Also not done is the Ghoul’s quest to find his family, and some of the more cynical among you might find the breadcrumbs that steer him from Vegas to Colorado just an excuse to pull the same old shit but with a different locale. However, now that those Cooper Howard flashbacks have retconned his wife into someone way less ruthless than we first thought, his arrest for mistakenly handing over the cold fusion to the Enclave adds a whole new range of emotion to his quest that didn’t exist before.
Finally, Maximus’ journey to become an inspirational hero gets its best outing to date as his one-man battle royale against a whole horde of of Deathclaws provides the bulk of the action this episode. Slicing, stabbing and shooting the great horned beasts, he isn’t quite able to get the people of Freeside to rally to his cause (they’d rather bet on the outcome even if they’ll all be killed if Maximus fails), but a last minute save by the New California Republic means that we’re possibly up for some all-out war as the Legion approaches. However, with so much of the plot still up in the air when the season comes to an end, there’s some tantalising meat to allow a third season to chew. For a start, with Lucy and Maximus reuniting with the NCR in Vegas and the Legion approaching, there’s a great opportunity for the new couple to try and put their idealism to the test and rebuild the city into something approaching a new Shady Sands and with the Ghoul and Dogmeat now seemingly untethered from the main plot entirely, it could be cool to see what awaits him in Colorado.
While season 2 gave us a lot to process despite offering very little closure in return, it’s frenzied world expansion does actually make the prospect of a third go round in the Wasteland pretty exciting. However, just for the sake of those groaning runtimes, maybe a bit of condensing and pruning of some of those plots may help digesting the world of Fallout just that little bit easier.
Yeah, the show got a bit overstuffed, but it’s ultimately nothing to fall out over…
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