By Erik Hinterleuthner
If you were in the wasteland where all the worst of humanity runs rampant, would you still help strangers, or would you leave them to die? That’s the question at the heart of season two of Fallout. Along the way fans of the Amazon Prime series get exciting twists that always leave viewers on the edge of your seat. It’s a great watch for the whole family.
So far, the season lives up to the hype set up by the previous one, when things were left on the edge with Lucy’s father escaping into the post apocalyptic wasteland and Maximus as a general of the faction known as the Brotherhood of Steel.
Lucy (played by Ella Purnell) in the first season is shown to be optimistic, and undeterred by the terrible nature of the wasteland. In this new season, she becomes a more gritty version of herself; the wasteland does that to a person. This unsettling yet humorous twist is enjoyable to watch while still having darker implications. She still feels surprisingly believable as a character, despite her overly optimistic and almost detached nature. She truly does feel like someone who came from a pseudo-utopian bunker and went into the wasteland. Her values of “doing the right thing” amidst people who do not, makes sense and still has its limits.
When she has to kill she does it to save herself, or to save the Ghoul, yet she continues with her upbeat attitude intact. While this might seem hard to believe or even cartoonish, it still makes sense as a traumatic response being thrown into horror so suddenly. She never had a mean side growing up, and she doesn’t later in life. Although her nature does start to wane in the new season.
Meanwhile, back in the vault things are getting uncanny but riveting for viewers. Whether it’s Norm being trapped within the cryo storage area and his chaotic tactics to escape starvation, or the main population of the vault slowly figuring out the mystery their superiors try to hide, Fallout season two keeps you engaged no matter what is going on.
Lucy’s father escapes the wasteland and finds his way into another vault. His surprising storylines of his many experiments within the vault are very interesting, and watching someone alone in an underground bunker has never been so engaging. He does his experiments to try to reach out to Mr. House, who is currently the only member of the pre-war Vault Tec Corporation that he can reach. Mr. House doesn’t respond, whether intentionally or whether he is no longer alive remains to be seen and leaves the audience in suspense.
Mr. House is the new character introduced in season two, based on an NPC from the Fallout games. While in the games he only speaks to you from TV monitors, in the show we meet him in the flesh.Through pre-war flashback sequences we learn more about Mr. House, and try to figure out whether he is the one who ended the world.
Maximus (played by Aaron Moten) being left as a high ranking general of the Brotherhood of Steel traps him among the warrior faction while all he really wants to do is to be with Lucy. As he initially gives into the leader and carries out his requests, his story takes a turn as he rebels against the Brotherhood.
The Ghoul (played by Walton Goggins) remains as a protector of Lucy for as long as their interests align, and his commonly morally dubious actions create an interesting story. His indifference to suffering feels authentic for a character who has been alive for over 200 years. While Lucy wants to help people, he reluctantly agrees, though he performs his more immoral actions behind her back and often as an attempt to save her. Lucy and the Ghoul have multiple clashes with each other that always leave them both in a predicament.
All in all, this new Fallout season is filled with surprises and the writers are willing to kill off characters you thought were untouchable, while also allowing the heroes to get captured and lose in ways that don’t usually occur in other shows. This nod to reality makes it feel earned when they win. If the heroes always emerge victorious, then there would be no reason to cheer for them since there would be nothing to cheer against.
Though there is one thing off with this season, it seems that the Brotherhood of Steel soldiers in power armor feel very CGI and the voice acting seems off. While it is intended to feel like they are children in war machines, the show tends to overdo it and it sometimes comes off as inadvertently comical.
The show keeps its special atmosphere while still finding new ways of keeping the show rolling. It doesn’t fall into the trap many shows fall into where they repeat the basics of the first season and ultimately nothing happens. Fallout season 2 ventures into different story genres with its various plots that is certainly worth a watch.
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