Fallout 2×01 & 2×02 Review: “The Innovator” & “The Golden Rule”

Welcome back to the Wasteland! Fallout is a retrofuturistic sci-fi series about what happens after atomic bombs wipe out civilization as we knew it. In season 2, the story continues.

Nerdy, gory, and darkly funny, Fallout is a stellar video game adaptation of the popular Bethesda franchise. Season 1 was a surprise and a delight as we watched Vaultdweller Lucy MacLean leave the safety of home to find her abducted father.

We got to know a colorful cast of characters: the new Brotherhood knight Maximus, a former-actor Ghoul looking for his family, Lucy’s flinty brother Norm, and many other Wasteland wanderers, naive Vaulties, and even 200-year-old people frozen before the bombs dropped.

Season 2 comes back shortly after the end of the last season. We’re two episodes deep, so don’t read until you’ve caught up: spoilers ahoy!

Last we saw, Lucy was leaving Maximus (who had become her love interest) to hunt her father with the Ghoul. Initially, Hank MacLean had seemed like a victim of cult leader Moldaver, but then we learned he bombed a thriving post-apocalypse city and killed his wife.

Now Lucy wants to bring him to justice.

Lucy and the Ghoul are still trucking through the Mojave in these first two episodes. Theirs is a clash between their fundamental natures: Ghoul’s hard-earned cynicism, cruelty, and ruthlessness, versus Lucy’s kind-hearted dedication to the Golden Rule.

They’ve teamed up to find people they love, but a new dynamic unfolds between them. The Ghoul started out torturing Lucy in season 1 (just a little) and she’s hellbent on teaching him how to treat people better. He wants to pull her to his side, though. It feels inevitable that they must either meet in the middle or even swap attitudes entirely.

Lucy’s just encountered the Legion, which Tumblr tells me are a lot of Roman-themed badmen who keep slaves. Ghoul tries to warn her away, but she doesn’t listen… and leaves him writhing with radscorpion toxins so he can’t look out for her. After the Ghoul dragged her around by a lasso and dunked her in toxic waters, it’s satisfying to see Lucy torturing him right on back.

They’re my favorite dynamic on the show by far. Grumpy vs Sunshine is always a delight, and there are so many ways this could go—most of them bad—which leaves me on tenterhooks. Plus, they get the best action sequences.

But they’re only one of several subplots we’re tracking through season 2.

We still have characters back in the various Vaults, which are fallout shelters designed around experiments on humanity. Lucy’s Vault of origin is least interesting to me. I don’t really care to see what her former neighbors are up to vis-a-vis Products of Incest Counseling and their failed water chip.

On the other hand, I love seeing her brother Norm turning into a dark genius like their father. Hopefully Norm doesn’t take directions quite as evil as Hank’s. Norm has every right to thaw Vault Tech’s middle management to save himself, but Hank is in New Vegas blowing off heads with mind-control chips. And somehow that’s not as evil as what he’s done in the past.

Seeing Hank bombing Shady Sands at the beginning of season 2 was the most emotional moment of the show so far. Little baby Maximus was sweet and thriving in the city. His family had hope. Watching his tearful parents put him into the fridge to survive, knowing they would die, made me want Hank dead yesterday.

Although we suffered the injustice of a Maximus-less episode 1, he got more screen time in episode 2. And what a change! He was still floundering in the Brotherhood last season, but now he’s the leader’s chosen son, and he’s getting tangled in violent messes to please him.

Max’s pining, handsome friend Dane obviously wants better for Max. It feels like Dane and Max are representing a moral gradient between Lucy and the Ghoul. Dane’s good-hearted enough to shine with echoes of Lucy’s idealism, whereas poor Max is getting pulled toward a hard-edged practicality that smacks of Ghoul.

I hope Max doesn’t get pulled fully in a Ghoul direction. I love seeing our beloved Ghoul act like a horrible person, but Max started out sweet, inexperienced, and so deeply beloved by his parents. Like Dane, I hope Max gets a better life.

That said, a tough, brawling Maximus parenting his fellow Knights (who are not very bright) is actually a really attractive look on him. What can I say? I’m a sucker for puppy eyes turned flinty.

So far, season 2 is everything I loved from season 1, but more concentrated. My only concern is that the season isn’t long enough for us to get much time with every one of these subplots I’m enjoying so much. We bounce between POVs repeatedly and only get a few minutes with each. We didn’t even get any Brotherhood (read: Maximus) in the first episode, and no Mr. House in the second episode.

They’ve bitten off a lot of story. I enjoy all of it. I just wish we had more of it. Luckily, we’ve already been renewed for season 3. There was only a year between the first two seasons, so hopefully we won’t be left hanging for long. Shoot the rope, Lucy!

Fallout season 2 can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video. The next episode airs on December 31st, 2025.

Author: SM Reine

Half-Tellarite SM Reine is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of fantasy. She’s been publishing since 2011 and a nerd since forever.

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