‘Fallout’ Season 2 review: Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins strike a glorious gory path to truth

After that mind-blowing (literally) opener in episode 1, Fallout settles into an easy rhythm. Based on Bethesda’s eponymous video game, Fallout is set 200 years after a nuclear holocaust following the Great War of 2077.

While some of the population lives in vaults (unaware they are sociological experiments), the surface is a wasteland with people scratching out an existence in a savage battle for survival.

Season 1 ended with an uneasy alliance between Lucy (Ella Purnell), a vault dweller who has come to the surface looking for her father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a Hollywood star in the before times.

The Ghoul, mutated by radiation poisoning and kept from going feral with chemicals, knows a lot about Vault-Tec, the evil corporation, and politicians who are responsible for the state of the world. He is looking for his wife Barbara (Frances Turner), a senior Vault-Tec executive and their daughter, Janey (Teagan Meredith).

Lucy has an ally in Maximus (Aaron Moten) of the Brotherhood of Steel, a group that eschews pre-war technology. Maximus grows increasingly disillusioned with the infighting among different branches of the Brotherhood. Matters reach a head with the appearance of Paladin Xander Harkness (Kumail Nanjiani) an uninvited envoy from the Commonwealth Brotherhood of Steel.

There is plenty happening in the vaults too, with water running out; Lucy’s friend Steph (Annabel O’Hagan) hiding a secret; and Lucy’s brother Norm (Moisés Arias) escaping from Brain‑on‑a‑Roomba (giggle), also known as Vault‑Tec senior junior vice president Bud Askins (Michael Esper), and awakening all the cryogenically frozen Vault‑Tec employees.

A still from ‘Fallout’ Season 2
| Photo Credit:
Prime Video

Steph insists Lucy’s cousin Chet (Dave Register) look after her baby and Councillor Reg (Rodrigo Luzzi) sets up an inbreeding support group with unlimited snacks.

The many threads might seem to be all over the place, but strong performances from the ensemble cast anchor the story. While Purnell, Moten, MacLachlan, and Goggins are excellent, inhabiting their characters like a second skin, Justin Theroux as the oily CEO of RobCo Industries, Robert House, Nanjiani and Macaulay Culkin as Lacerta Legate, from Caesar’s Legion, a group modelled on ancient Rome, create unforgettable characters.

Ramin Djawadi’s score is bright and jolly even as mayhem is unleashed on screen. Produced by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy (Westworld), Fallout is eminently watchable from its themed titles to explosive action and game Easter Eggs.

There are delightfully horrid monsters from cockroaches and scorpions as big as leopards to the dreadful Death Claw. The writing is as sharp as it is funny including Legate’s line “good is not a meaningful vector in history” and The Ghoul’s ironic “never underestimate the power of brand recognition.” 

The post-credit scene in the finale, where all is made clear and obscured, points to season 3, which has already been greenlit. 

Fallout is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video