The third episode of Fallout’s second season makes major decisions that push every main character down a more dangerous path. The Ghoul gets a piece of his history back, Lucy finds the limits of her optimistic negotiation, and Maximus commits an act that threatens to plunge the entire wasteland into a larger war.
Lucy’s Capture and a Harsh Lesson from Caesar’s Legion
The episode sees Lucy MacLean captured by Caesar’s Legion after her attempt to save a fleeing woman backfires. The Legion immediately executes the woman Lucy saved, establishing their brutal rule. She is brought before the new leaders of the faction, who have split into two warring camps following the death of the original Caesar from the video games.
Lucy tries to use her knowledge and reason to negotiate, even pointing out historical inaccuracies in their customs. Her attempt fails completely. As punishment, the Legion crucifies her under the desert sun. The faction’s leader, Legate Lacerta, played by guest star Macaulay Culkin, dismisses her arguments about American values with a cold statement.
“All that remains of America is its overwhelming failure,” Legate Lacerta tells Lucy.
This moment shows Lucy that her vault-taught methods of conflict resolution hold no power in the face of the wasteland’s hardened fanaticism.
The Ghoul’s Painful Journey and a Glimpse of Humanity
Meanwhile, The Ghoul is recovering from a poisonous radscorpion sting. In a grim scene, he performs surgery on his own leg, musing about how many parts of a person can change before they become someone else entirely. His journey to find and rescue Lucy is intercut with major flashbacks to his past as Cooper Howard.
In the pre-war era, Cooper attends a veterans ceremony for his friend, Charlie. There, he is approached in a restroom by a mysterious man who strongly resembles Robert House. The man, played by Justin Theroux, subtly threatens Cooper and reveals he knows about Cooper’s secret mission to assassinate House. Charlie’s speech at the ceremony about doing bad things to protect those you care about echoes in Cooper’s mind.
In the present, The Ghoul’s search leads him to Camp Golf, an abandoned resort where he finds Victor, a rundown Securitron robot from the Fallout: New Vegas game. Victor directs him to the last remnants of the New California Republic (NCR), which consists of just two rangers hiding in the hills. The Ghoul then finds the Legion camp holding Lucy. To secure her release, he makes a deal: he gives the Legion the location of the two NCR rangers in exchange for Lucy. It seems like a cruel betrayal.
However, after Lucy is freed, The Ghoul uses a Zippo lighter—a gift from his friend Charlie—to ignite a hidden stash of dynamite in the Legion camp. The massive explosion reignites the civil war between the two Legion factions as they blame each other for the attack. His action saves the NCR rangers and suggests a sliver of his old Cooper Howard conscience might still be alive.
Maximus and the Act That Changes Everything
The episode’s most dramatic story belongs to Maximus. At a tense Brotherhood of Steel gathering, Elder Quintus is trying to unite various chapters to rebel against the powerful Commonwealth faction. When Maximus suggests simply killing the Commonwealth’s envoy, Paladin Xander Harkness, he is publicly humiliated by Quintus.
Feeling rejected, Maximus is easily charmed by Xander, played by Kumail Nanjiani. Xander treats Maximus as an equal, takes him on a flight in a vertibird, and they bond while destroying rogue robots. Xander’s charismatic, “frat bro” attitude makes Maximus feel valued for the first time. Their partnership takes them to a bottling plant, which turns out to be run by Maximus’s old comrade, Thaddeus.
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Thaddeus, now a ghoul, employs a group of human and ghoul children to collect bottle caps. When Xander sees the ghoul children, his friendly demeanor vanishes. Following Brotherhood doctrine that labels ghouls as abominations, he separates them and prepares to execute them.
Maximus faces an instant moral crisis. He cannot allow the murder of children. In a swift, decisive move, he grabs Xander’s own rocket-powered Super Sledge weapon and crushes the Paladin’s helmet, killing him instantly. Stunned by his own actions, Maximus looks at Thaddeus.
“I think I just started a war,” Maximus says.
This act of defiance, driven by his own moral code rather than Brotherhood dogma, will have severe consequences. Killing a high-ranking Paladin of the Commonwealth guarantees a massive retaliation, potentially starting the very war Quintus was trying to plan.
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