“The house always wins.” The age-old mantra, which refers to how the odds of casino games are against the bettors, indicates that it’s hard for one person to make a difference in the fate of a larger corporate machine. It’s a handy thematic treatise for Season 2 of Prime Video’s television adaptation of the “Fallout” video game franchise.
A little over a year and a half after its debut (a rarity in today’s streaming landscape, especially given how massive the production seems), “Fallout” has reloaded for another compelling and entertaining tale of violence, hilarity and heroism during the end of the world. The first season introduced viewers to the dangerous Wasteland through the eyes of naive Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), a “Vault-dweller” who lived a cushy life inside the safe and secure underground bunker Vault 33 before she set out to find her missing father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan). Along the way, she came across former Hollywood actor Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins), now a radiation-infected bounty hunter known as “The Ghoul,” and Maximus (Aaron Moten), a squire in the cultish Brotherhood of Steel.
Season 2 arrives with more on its mind, resulting in a darker journey. The eight-episode season (six of which were provided to critics) picks up in the wake of the finale with Lucy and The Ghoul in hot pursuit of Hank, who has fled to what remains of Las Vegas for unknown reasons. But just because the pair left together to find Hank doesn’t mean they’re any closer to being aligned on how to navigate the Wasteland. Maximus returns to the Brotherhood of Steel in a higher position of authority, but begins to doubt whether this specific sect of the group has the right idea about how to protect what’s left of the world. And in the past, as Cooper Howard comes to terms with the role his wife will play in ending the world, billionaire Robert House (Justin Theroux) begins seeding his own plans amid the impending end of days.
In bringing viewers back to the Wasteland, showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner take their time building out the season’s journey in service of a larger thematic arc. To wit: a squabble in the second episode between Lucy and The Ghoul doesn’t read any differently than many of the bickerings the two had throughout the first go round. It’s repetition for impact’s sake; it becomes clear that petty infighting — between Lucy and the Ghoul, Caesar’s Legion and the New California Republic, and even amongst the denizens of the resource-strapped Vault 33 — stops the larger whole from moving forward toward real change. Tribalism might be good enough to survive, but it won’t help those who remain in the wasteland live. And the world might be too harsh even to try to do anything other than make it another minute. The house always wins, so why even bother?
This is a weighty and nihilistic thesis to drop into the middle of a show that features several (hilarious) jokes about inbreeding between cousins, and where shootouts often conclude in a comedic banquet of blood and gore. And while it’s necessary to introduce early on to flesh out the rest of the season, it does bog down the opening installments of Season 2, making it a slower start compared to the propulsiveness of Season 1’s conclusion. Once this central tension is well-established, “Fallout” clicks back into top form. Howard Cummings’ continued production design makes the wasteland’s various locales (particularly New Vegas, once the series arrives there) feel tangible and real, even as the series broadens its already considerable scope.
Goggins and Purnell’s chemistry remains an absolute highlight. The core of the series is their relationship, making “Fallout” crackle with (radio)activity whenever they’re on-screen together. The relationship between Lucy and The Ghoul reads as paternal. If the Season 1 dynamic was that of a father with a newborn, Season 2 is the angsty teen years, with Lucy looking to rebel at every single stage. The show is at its best when the two are together, and half the fun of Season 2 is seeing how they’re beginning to influence one another — for good and for ill.
Maximus’ arc surprises the most. Morten’s portrayal of his role within the Brotherhood of Steel is complicated and nuanced. As a cog in the machine, he wants to do what’s right, but is constantly bogged down in organizational red tape. How Morten works through these internalized feelings involves a lot of subtle physicality that goes a long way toward conveying the depths of his emotionality at a given point in time. It also helps — for both characters — that he spends the six provided episodes on his own quest, separate from Lucy, which gives them both time to shine as individuals.
The splashiest new addition for Season 2 is Justin Theroux, who is clearly having a ball playing the Howard Hughes-esque Robert House. How he and Cooper Howard meet is one of a handful of bits of information that Prime Video asked reviewers to redact. Still, the inevitable collision between Goggins and Theroux is an immediate highlight — and shockingly timely. The intersection of Hollywood and big tech is, uh, certainly the talk of the town at the moment and a key part of the relationship between the pair. His presence is one of the season’s big mysteries — and one fans of “Fallout: New Vegas,” which serves as the inspiration for this season, are sure to have a lot of thoughts on.
Trips to Vegas can go any number of ways. Sometimes you hit it big only to lose it all or vice versa. The sophomore outing of “Fallout” might have a few shaky rounds to start the evening out, but across the latter portion of its season, it’s poised to go on quite the run before it leaves the table for the night. In short, Season 2 is well worth the ante up.
“Fallout” premieres Tuesday on Prime Video, with new episodes out Wednesdays through Feb. 4.
