Fallout Season 2 has no business being this good. Because as a reviewer I watch tons of TV. So much so that after a while things start blending together and it becomes endless stream of tropes, memes, stereotypes, and storylines that have been copy and pasted to boredom. Then Fallout Season 2 walks in proving that you can bring together fans of the game and the show and deliver a sophomore season that makes you want to create a time machine to get to whatever time Season 3 premieres. This is where my love for Fallout Season 2 is at.
In my Fallout Season 1 review, I praised the writers for somehow finding a balance between the stories of Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul. Because the promotional material did feel like they were centering Lucy. In Season 2, things are different in that all three are front and center when it comes to promos and trailers. But this show continues to do what they do best: not leaving anyone behind. Lucy got her time to confront the fact that this world is monstrous but so is her father. Maximus was stripped bare of everything and showed that no matter what, he’s a fighter. And as for The Ghoul, we were taken on a journey that proves Cooper is still there.
That’s not to say that everything was perfect with Season 2. And yes, I’m talking to about Lucy.
Ella Purnell’s Lucy spent half of Season 2 basically ignoring the events of the Season 1 finale. Yes, she went to hunt down her father. And yes, she kept talking about bringing her father to justice. But the pain of what her father did to her mother and Shady Sands, the show didn’t hint at it until the very moment Lucy met up with her father. And that’s where Purnell shined, exploring what it means to have a father who is a monster. But I should’ve seen how the events of the Season 1 finale changed her a little sooner instead of watching her go through the Wasteland like this was simply a walk in the park.
Then there’s Maximus, my beloved.
Maximus’ journey wasn’t easy in Season 2. But the best thing that this show did for Maximus is remember everything he went through in Season 1 and show how those moments defined him as a man, friend, and member of The Brotherhood. Season 2 elevated who Maximus is by A) giving us that truly devastating flashback with his father and mother and B) emphasizing how he remains kind despite experiencing the horrors of this world. But also how he knows there’s a time where kindness ends and strength is needed to fight for what’s right.
MORE: Want to cry more about Maximus? Read our review for Fallout Season 2 Episode 8 “The Strip.”
For someone who didn’t like Aaron Moten’s Maximus in Season 1, I recognize that I was completely wrong about his character. Because that moment in the final episode of Season 2, where he grabbed that roulette table and the pool cue to face the death claw, that was the character defining moment of his character but also of the entire show. Here was this young man who had had lost everything; his home, his found family, and even his armor. But he never broke. His will and his belief in protecting those people, that outlasted everything. That’s why he’s an unforgettable character. And that’s why Season 2 was such a success. At least in my eyes if anything.
And finally there’s Walton Goggins The Ghoul/Cooper.
The lore of Fallout is tired to who The Ghoul was as Cooper and what remains now 200+ years later. And the show used this connective tissue to the past masterfully to the point where I even saw connections in how Lucy and Maximus are present day reflections of who he used to be. Outside of that, I also love how I ended up reanalyzing who I thought The Ghoul was, who Cooper was, and even who Barbara was. Because the choices he made in life and this twisted afterlife, they were made with love. And shoutout to Goggins, who took a character that could’ve been this one-dimensional rouge of the Wasteland and showed the depth of why he keeps fighting.
MORE: Giving Barb more background was the right choice. Read our review for Fallout Season 2 Episode 6 “The Other Player.”
A huge part of the fight that keeps The Ghoul going, and what enriched this season in unexpected but profound ways, was the love between Cooper and and Barb. Because the relationship these two had in Season 1 felt like they ended on bad terms, him fighting for the future and her destroying it. But it couldn’t be further from the truth. Both of them were making choices for love. And now I need to know everything about Frances Turner’s Barb and what happened after Cooper was arrested and when she woke up with Janey in those cryochambers.
Overall, I’m grateful to have started this journey with Fallout. In only 2 seasons this show has managed to take years upon years of lore and transformed into something real, heartbreaking, and even funny at times. And it’s a show that’s worth obsessing over because it just keeps getting better. So, good luck Fallout Season 3 writers. You’ve got a lot to work with. But that also means the pressure is on to deliver a Season 3 that delivers on the quality we know and love but that also elevates things. Because I don’t know much about the Enclave, but they’re dangerous and they’re not done hurting people.
Fallout Season 1 and 2 are now available to stream on Prime Video.
I’ve been an avid fan of Fallout since the first game in 1997. We’re watching the series with my wife and when the Enclave started popping up more visibly in Season 2, I told her, you thought House is shady and the Legion is bad? These are the real bad guys!
Overall, I have little to complain about. Maximus’ character for me is terribly interesting because he’s so all over the place in Season 1 that he’s borderline unlikable and yet, given all that he has gone through, his character feels less than something someone wrote and more like what a human would be trying to survive in a crazy world like the Wasteland. Having said that, the Knights and Paladins of the Brotherhood seem more oafish and crass than they are in the games and I’m not a big fan of that. They have obvious problems as an organization in the games, the most obvious one being their obsession with technology, often to the detriment of the common people of the Wasteland and their indiscriminate hatred of ghouls, especially given the way they turn feral in the games, which is a much slower process and not dependent on medicine, like in the series.
Overall, there’s little to complain about. The series shows such a tremendous attention to detail in bringing the universe of Fallout to life that nitpicking is pointless. Season 3 can’t come soon enough.