After watching the first six episodes, I can safely say Fallout Season 2 has managed to avoid any kind of sophomore slump and delivers something that stands tall next to the beloved video game series. Earlier this year, some fans of The Last of Us felt that the second season of that show was a misstep. It changed the tone of key moments from the game it was adapting, and generally felt like a step down from the prior season. Fallout doesn’t suffer from this fate, though. It manages to come back and push things forward in exciting ways by layering the existing mysteries created in Season 1, formulating new ones, and deepening all of the characters we’ve come to love.
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That’s not to say Fallout Season 2 is without flaws, though. It doesn’t take full advanatge of the fact that it has the opportunity to be a backdoor sequel to Fallout: New Vegas and the season has a fairly sluggish start. However, it overcomes all of its issues by being so strong everywhere else. It’s hard not to fall in love with the Wasteland and its occupants once again when the creative team is operating at this level.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
| PROS | CONS |
| Beloved characters become even more engaging and interesting, namely Cooper Howard/The Ghoul | A slow-ish start may lose some viewers with its weekly releases |
| Continues to successfully balance its irreverent humor with riveting, emotional drama | Doesn’t do enough with its place in the timeline for game fans |
| The plot thickens in thrilling ways that keep you on the edge of your seat |
Fallout Season 2 Continues to Do its Characters Justice
Fallout Season 2 picks up not long after the end of Season 1. Not unlike an actual Fallout game, Lucy and Cooper Howard, AKA The Ghoul, venture across the Wasteland in search of the Vault Dweller’s father, all while getting sidetracked by deviant factions and random dangers. Lucy is having to reckon more and more with the reality of the Wasteland and its rules, creating all kinds of moral dilemmas as she struggles with drug addiction and an appetite for violence. Elsewhere, Maximus has returned to the Brotherhood of Steel, but is quickly becoming disillusioned with their hardened methods after being exposed to a kindhearted soul like Lucy.
Howard continues to remain the most interesting piece of this story as The Ghoul out of time. As was the case with Season 1, the story flips back and forth between Howard pre-war and post-war, showing how the apocalypse has shaped him into a cruel, unforgiving monster that is one wrong moment away from going feral and losing himself for good. He’s desperately clinging on to his humanity, but the flashbacks to before the bombs dropped show that he was already beginning to lose his faith in the world way back then.
He’s torn about being a hype merchant for those capitalizing on the end of the world, quietly showing support to those who protest Vault-Tec and the larger establishment, while still playing his role as the poster boy of nuclear war. The many layers of Cooper Howard across centuries make him one of the most narratively rich characters on television right now. He’s one of the only characters in the history of Fallout to see the full extent of everything the world is capable of, with or without a nuclear apocalypse.
Walton Goggins turns in another captivating performance that repeatedly tests the audience’s empathy for his character. We see him doing heinous things as The Ghoul, but we also see the quiet moments that humanize him. Even after seeing 14 episodes with him, I still have no idea how to feel about The Ghoul. I know I am thoroughly entertained whenever he’s on screen and I want to see his story unfold, but am I repulsed by him? Do I feel bad for him? I genuinely don’t know. There are few characters that can find that nuance and walk a tight-rope through that morally grey area, which is what makes him so compelling
Still, despite my praise for Cooper Howard/The Ghoul, that doesn’t mean the other characters are boring or uninteresting. Following all of the mind-bending twists last season, Lucy has had to adapt to the world around her. While she still has a goodie-goodie attitude that prevents her from swearing, she is less reluctant to get her hands dirty. She’d prefer to use her speech skill to try and talk her way out of nasty situations, but she doesn’t really have the experience to do so yet. Still, she makes every effort she can to be a pacifist by aiming for legs and arms to maim foes without ending their lives.
However, the Wasteland corrupts all in time. Her story takes her down some darker paths, but her relentless optimism still lies inside her. That warring morality also makes Lucy a really fascinating character for the Fallout universe. She’s someone who believes that there’s hope for a world that is polluted with atomic monsters and men who literally crucify other survivors. Anyone else may come to the conclusion that this isn’t a world worth saving, but Lucy’s innocence allows her to see the good in everything and everyone, no matter what it may cost her.
Maximus is a character who has slowly continued to rope me in more and more as time has gone on. I was initially uninterested in him when Season 1 began, but as time has passed, he has become a favorite. His progression from a coward hiding behind a suit of armor to a fully capable survivor of the Wasteland, willing to take matters into his own hands, has been a joy to watch. He keeps getting put in impossible situations and has to make impulsive decisions, which typically just result in more impossible situations. At no point in Season 2 did I know where his story was going to go next, which kept me highly invested.
Fallout Season 2’s Story Takes Its Time, But It’s For the Better
The first few episodes of Fallout Season 2 feel like they’re on cruise control. They’re definitely going somewhere, but they’re not in a hurry to get there. There are some explosive action and humorous moments, but it takes a minute for things to really move. Once it hits the end of Episode 3, however, it feels like the show puts its power armored foot on the gas and doesn’t let up. The show is constantly building upon its momentum, uncovering new revelations and making it clear that even if you think you know what’s going on, you never really do.
Mr. House plays a big role in that as a snake-y businessman who keeps all of his cards close to the chest. I really wasn’t expecting to come away more fascinated by House than I was when I played New Vegas, but alas, he is a standout, even with relatively limited screentime compared to other characters. Similar to The Ghoul, House is a complex figure where you’re not always sure what exactly his larger role is. His actions are often contradictory, as we see him get his hands dirty early on in the show, but he also seems to be wrestling with an internal Doomsday Clock.
Is Mr. House a villain? A hero? Something in-between? Fallout Season 2 may suggest that none of those labels really exist in this world. Everyone – whether it be Mr. House, The Ghoul, or Hank MacLean – is just their own shade of human, something that can’t be identified into black or white terms.
Fallout Season 2 Continues to Faithfully Adapt Familiar Content from the Games, But Could Do More
Fallout Season 2 will have a lot that pleases fans of the games. We finally get to see the hulking, monstrous Deathclaws, and they’re implemented in a way that elevates the story instead of just being fanfare. They’re as horrific as you’d hope they’d be and make for menacing foes for the protagonists. New Vegas also boasts its various neon-lit landmarks, including Freeside, which are exciting to see. However, the show feels afraid of dabbling much in what the video game Fallout: New Vegas did.
This is only 15 years after that game, and we don’t learn a ton about what happened after the events of that game. The NCR is in a pretty bad state, and Caesar’s Legion is taking part in its own strange civil war, but ultimately, it leaves a lot to be desired. All of its answers for what has happened since that game are so broad that it becomes kind of uninteresting. It’s not even totally clear why New Vegas has become so run-down since we last saw it.
I understand that the writers may not want to tell players that their choices are or aren’t canon, as it can undermine that feeling of player agency, but it would be nice to have something that feels more definitive. If you’re going to build up a return to one of the most beloved settings in the franchise, especially one that fans thought they may never see again, it would be nice to do more with the narrative pieces that were left behind. Of course, it’s worth noting that I haven’t seen the final two episodes of Season 2, so maybe we will get a better grasp of things there, but it doesn’t seem to be building in that direction.
Fallout Season 2 Sticks the Landing
Even with some critiques of Fallout Season 2, the show masterfully guides itself through its second season. It’s a great expansion and companion piece to the video game franchise while also standing tall on its own with nuanced characters. While it’s not the only post-apocalyptic TV adaptation of a video game out there, it is easily the most consistent and fulfilling one of the bunch.
Fallout continues to be a captivating piece of television and one that I will gleefully tune into for years to come. There’s no other show delivering the laughs and shocks at this level, and it continues to be endlessly impressive.
Fallout Season 2 will premiere on Prime Video on December 16th at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET and air new episodes on Wednesdays weekly until February 4th, 2026. Are you excited for the new season? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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