Fallout’s second season kicks into high gear with an excellent, head-crushing, explosive third episode. Being nice is no help for Lucy. Maximus’s belief in a righteous Brotherhood is put to the ultimate test, and Cooper Howard still just might be there under all that wrinkled skin.
Photo Credit: Lorenzo Sisti / Prime
© Amazon Content Services LLC
Kids and Crosses
The episode begins with Thaddeus being a floor manager for a workshop full of kids, both smoothskins and ghouls alike. They’re at a Sunset Sasparilla plant, wrenching the precious caps off of each bottle and living off the incredibly old soda inside. “Most kids are dead by this age” is their rallying cry to keep spirits up, fitting the Fallout universe perfectly with its absurdity. This area serves well to book-end the start, showing the contrast of the cheerful absurdity and vicious reality of life in this world.
Lucy is stuck as a prisoner in the Legion camp. Turns out Caesar from the game has died, leading to a war between the two factions. The unfortunate slave that Lucy saved is immediately beheaded for ‘losing your legionnaire,’ and Lucy gets crucified for not being a virgin. Macaulay Culkin is the camp’s 2nd in command, sounding bad-ass in his Roman-inspired armor. The moment the helmet is off, he sounds like he’s 12, fitting the cosplaying nature of the Legion perfectly.
Ghoulper Howard
The emotional heart of this episode, for me, is the journey we see Cooper Howard, a.k.a. The Ghoul, go on. The show continuously takes us back and forth between his past and present, starting with the removal of his poisoned leg flesh in a gruesome scene. As he cuts out the parts of him infected by the last episode’s Radscorpion attack, we are brought to a Veterans celebration for the man who saved his life during the war.
There is a back and forth about the cost of protecting people. Justin Theroux’s as-of-yet unknown Robert House is waiting for Cooper as he goes to take a piss. He talks pinkos, knowing a lot about Cooper and his friends, but revealing nothing of himself, yet. We know from the ‘coming this season’ trailer that they’ll meet again in Las Vegas.
Bobby H.
The Ghoul runs into our old friend from Fallout: New Vegas, the Securitron Victor. A lovely little easter egg that leads us to the foothills where the remnants of the New California Republic have been trapped for decades. The Ghoul, in an absolutely stunning sequence, decides to trade the NCR’s location for Lucy. As he does so, we cut back to the Veterans event, as Coop’s savior discusses war and the sacrifices one must make to try and save those they care about. The music, acting, and writing are as good as it gets. I watched it three times in a row before moving on to the final scene.
It is a poignant, beautifully edited sequence. As the man, Cooper Howard, realizes he may just have to go to New Vegas and kill Robert House, the Ghoul gets a small part of his humanity back. He saves Lucy while betraying the Legion, exploding their kegs of dynamite. Chaos ensues as the two legion factions immediately begin to fight, leaving the Ghoul to wonder what his actions may lead to.
Oh Max…
We never venture back to Norm or Vault 33, instead spending our remaining time with the Brotherhood of Steel. Quintis is desperately trying to get the other local chapters to join him in rebelling against the Commonwealth. He insults Maximus as a ‘dull sword’ when Max questions why not just fight the Commonwealth if their cause is as righteous as Quintis is proclaiming.
Seeing the rift, Kumail Nanjiani’s Paladin attempts to woo Max into getting him the Cold Fusion relic. They go out for a flight with Paladin Harkness flying his own Vertbird. Everything is going swimmingly. Max is happy, seeing a real version of the Brotherhood he grew up idolizing in front of him. There is a pretty terrible action sequence where Max and Harkness fight a Securitron in a (dun dun dun) factory. The action is weak and slow, but the next scene makes up for it.
It turns out that the unauthorized automated factory is the Sunset Sasparilla plant we saw in the opening scene. Paladin Harkness finds the hiding kids and asks the ghouls and humans to separate. Despite Max and even Thaddeus’ pleading, it is clear that Harkness is going to slaughter every ghoul, (the one man, and many child(ren). Maximus, being the good person he is, uses the Super Sledge to crush Paladin Harkness’s helmet, seemingly killing him instantly. Goodbye, Kumail, and goodbye, one of my favorite episodes of the series yet.
Wrapping Things Up
Every scene in this episode was a winner. From all the New Vegas easter eggs to the emotional as hell sequence with the Ghoul at the Legion camp, I loved all of it. Well, maybe not the short fight between the Max, Harkness, and the robot. That was pretty weak, despite all of their power armor. Outside of that, hot damn was that fantastic. The story has ramped up in a big way, with five episodes left to go.
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Fallout S02E03
Played on
Amazon Prime Video
PROS
- Emotional impact
- Stakes are set
- OST hit just right
- (Almost) Every scene was a winner
CONS
- That power armor fight was kinda terrible
I thought it was ok