The Fallout season 2 finale is ambitious – but proves a monstrous point

Warning: spoilers ahead for the Fallout season 2 finale.

Idealism is hard to hold onto in a post-apocalyptic wasteland: betrayal is necessary for survival, trust, often a death sentence, murder as mundane as brushing your teeth (which of course, there’s none of now). Oh, and empathy? Eradicated with that nuclear Armageddon.

That’s the state of the landscape in Fallout, except, still, miraculously, for Lucy (Ella Purnell). Even with her drug-fuelled trigger-happy moments, shooting Elvis impersonator ghouls or delights in throwing Cooper (Walton Goggins) from a window after he betrayed her, there’s a faint hope that Lucy’s persistent, relentless optimism will iron out the injustices in this brutish land. But that naivety is annihilated with one irreversible act in the finale.

After hand-cuffing her father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), to the retro-futuristic replica of the quaint kitchen from their below-ground bunker, Lucy, in a violent act of kindness, destroys the dismembered (still moaning) head of Congresswoman Diane Welch (Martha Kelly) to shut down Vault-Tec’s mainframe.

Going against her smooth-talking father leads Hank to do the unthinkable in retaliation: attempt to place a micro-version of the brainwashing chip he modified to wipe Lucy’s memories and force her into obedience. Flip a switch and revert his daughter back to the sheltered, sweet, easy, breezy girl she was in the vault.

Thankfully, the first of many long-awaited reunions occurs to kickstart the impressive task of tying up all the growing threads in season two. Cooper arrives, not a moment too soon, to save Lucy from a fate worse than death (a living puppet). Now, Lucy has to face the impossible decision that’s been looming over her since the season one finale: does she kill her father? Or turn him into one of his experiments?

That wide-eyed, golly gosh girl from the vault is gone; left behind is the realist who has finally come to terms with the fact that the man she had searched an entire Wasteland for, never existed at all. Hank’s betrayal shatters any hope of a return to a vault, which is good, as only carnage remains there, too.

Even as the father-daughter dynamic has evolved, from their sickly-sweet synergy in the vault to being confronted with the reality of that rose-tinted time, there’s a heart-wrenching finality to their relationship as Lucy implants a microchip into Hank’s head.

Intending to turn him into the “father she thought he was”, ironically, it’s Hank’s final act in his own mind that seals his fate as a subdued servant. By pressing the small red button to sacrifice himself, Hank sets the final part of his plan in motion. Conveniently, one of the few people who knew what phase two was has now had his memory wiped.

Flitting from the past to the present, it’s revealed that Cooper, back in his root-tootin’ Cowboy actor era, also placed his trust in the wrong man. Back in the days when he shared Lucy’s futile hope that one good act could save the world, Cooper handed over the cold fusion to the President (Clancy Brown) to try to prevent the bombs from being dropped.

This fatal error – giving the world-ending device to the head of the Enclave – the secret organisation in charge of Vault-Tec (and all world-dooming activities) – only sealed this tragic fate, including being separated from his family and jeopardising their place of safety in the vault.

Robert House (Justin Theroux), the moustached man with the ability to predict the future, commends Cooper for his heroism, but gloats that he’s placed his trust in the wrong man. Though it’s unclear how trustworthy House is, even two centuries later.

House is now immortalised in a computer, but still oozing Theroux’s slightly too charming-to-trust tone that made him a standout this season. Jaded with regret, Cooper’s only hope to redeem his mistake is to be reunited with his family.

Yet, this is another case of misplaced optimism as the cryochambers of his wife and daughter are empty, with only a Colorado postcard left behind. Many revelations in the finale set up the purpose of next season’s journey for our band of misfit, outcast heroes.

Mirrored to Lucy, Maximus (Aaron Moten) has grappled with his moral code too, rebelling against the iron-suited Brotherhood to align with the one person he trusts, Lucy (and by association, Cooper). It’s inevitably a difficult pursuit to be a good person in a hostile, broken world, but Maximus is willing to die to live up to his father’s reassurances (as a child) that he would be a ‘good man.’

Faced with a line of frothing-at-the-mouth deathclaws, Maximus valiantly defends the residents of New Vegas until the NCR (New California Republic) arrive to finish the job. Finding allies to build a community against the growing monstrosities in the wasteland is another important theme throughout this season, which saves all of their lives several times.

Hostility spreads like butter over the troops, even to each other, as seen with the Legion’s bloodthirsty battle for the title of Caesar, which Lacerate (Macaulay Culkin) finally claims, after eating the evidence of Caesar’s final words that the Legion would die with him.

Fallout’s finale is an ambitious attempt to tie together the expansive plot lines: from Norm’s (Moisés Arias) bloodthirsty ‘vaulties’ who have awoken from a two-century slumber only to be savaged by roaches to the cut-throat Canadian, Steph (Annabel O’Hagan), who hunkers down in the overseers office as the angry mob of residents call for ‘death to management.’

Yet, the pre-planned phases continue to fall into motion – with or without Hank’s mind to orchestrate them – as Steph, Hank’s wife, radios for an immediate action of phase two. And, of course, the real overseer to all this chaos is still listening.

The abrupt chop and change between storylines is jarring in the final act, impacting the pace, as the stakes are escalated without ever really explaining what the next threat will be.

War is imminent in New Vegas between NCR and the Legion, thanks to Lucy’s refusal to allow her father to make peace with robotic enhancements. All of which is another test of morality and identity, as Lucy begins to question whether her father’s cruelty would have prevented more bloodshed.

Maximus and Lucy’s reunion is a heartfelt addition, bringing together two of the most earnest characters who continue to want to fight for a better world.

Ultimately, Fallout makes it brutally clear that the real monsters in this world aren’t the death claws or ghouls, but their makers: the supposedly ‘good’ men. True evil doesn’t snarl or bite or savage in this world, it hides behind a smile and a suit, speaks softly, while making decisions to massacre, murder or control millions.

Men in trusted positions of power, like the President or mild-mannered, inconsequential cogs in the machine at Vault-Tec, like Hank, are underestimated. Yet, they hide behind the illusion of being morally superior to manipulate everyone around them to bend to their insidious agenda.

Our heroes continue to be the underdogs – Maximus, Cooper and Lucy – who all grapple with their attempt to stay true to themselves as the horrors of life on the surface set out to corrode it. They kill, lie and betray one another to survive, but it’s always in pursuit of protection of themselves and others to try to reverse some of the corruption that has seeped into every corner of this wasteland.

Enough questions are answered to give a satisfying end to the season, but there’s a major promise of more to be explored and discovered on the horizon, after a third season was confirmed last year.

Fallout seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

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