{"id":24685,"date":"2025-12-31T18:04:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=24685"},"modified":"2025-12-31T18:04:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:04:36","slug":"fallout-season-2-episode-3-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=24685","title":{"rendered":"Fallout Season 2, Episode 3 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"


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This review contains <\/em>spoilers <\/strong><\/em>for Fallout Season 2, Episode 3, \u201cThe Profligate,\u201d which is available to stream now on Prime Video. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think I just started a war.\u201d Yeah, Maximus, I think you did. <\/p>\n

Killing off Kumail Nanjiani\u2019s Paladin Harkness just a single episode after he was introduced is a bold move, but a shock that thrillingly caps off a great episode full of snarling factions, long-awaited fan service, and some huge decisions that not only have major consequences for the Mojave wasteland, but also provide deep, fascinating insights into the hearts of two of our leads: Maximus and The Ghoul. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with our noseless gunslinger, who after treading water for a couple of hours is suddenly on the move to some real interesting places. Left by Lucy last week to sweat it out with a leg full of radscorpion venom, The Ghoul has a remarkably vulnerable moment with the ever-faithful Dogmeat. His musings on how many planks you have to remove from a boat until it\u2019s not a boat anymore, muttered as he rips oozing chunks out of his own thigh, is a sort-of-ship-of-Theseus metaphor for his own life. His soul has lost too many planks, and it\u2019s a new milestone for what\u2019s left of Cooper Howard to admit that, even if he\u2019ll only say it to a dog. Lucy\u2019s Christmas Carol sermon from last week has clearly been ticking away in his mind \u2013 he\u2019s dedicated two centuries to finding his family, but will he be worth a damn when he finally does? <\/p>\n

Perhaps The Ghoul really can change, though, if his rescuing of Lucy is anything to go by. Her choice to help the tunic-wearing woman last week led her right into the den of Caesar\u2019s Legion, who naturally did what any bloodthirsty Romans would do: strung her up for crucifixion. The Ghoul goes significantly (and uncharacteristically) out of his way to save his travelling companion from such a fate, betraying his former uneasy allies at the NCR. As much as she may annoy the living heck out of him, it seems like The Ghoul may have developed some genuine (low level) affection for Lucy.<\/p>\n

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While Walton Goggins is undoubtedly the headliner of the Lucy\/Ghoul double act this week, Ella Purnell does get a solitary sparkling moment in the spotlight before she\u2019s Life of Brian\u2019d. Her argument with the Legion\u2019s leaders is really good fun, particularly her fast-fired, enjoyably educated objections to their prima nocta clause (although if we\u2019re honest, the \u201cI\u2019m not even a virgin, and that\u2019s not even including all of the cousin stuff\u201d is the real winning punchline here). Lucy has clearly hardened into someone who has no intention of being torn down by the wasteland, even when her opponent is much bigger and scarier than she is. <\/p>\n

And scary they are! Horrible cutthroats who butcher the woman Lucy saved within seconds of them entering the camp. But they\u2019re a wonderful contradiction of incredibly cruel and impossibly silly. We\u2019ve got a bunch of Roman cosplayers, wearing sunglasses and wielding machine guns, who have dedicated themselves to a man pretending to be Julius Caesar. Second in command is Macaulay Culkin, who\u2019s having an absolute riot in the role. His aloof, classical theatre tone, perfectly shaved head, and dedication to the Legion\u2019s rules makes him a deadly serious joke. I certainly hope this isn\u2019t the last we\u2019ve seen of him. <\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve mentioned in prior reviews, I\u2019m really pleased that showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet have made the faction interplay that defines the Fallout: New Vegas video game such a key part of this season\u2019s fabric. That continues here with the introduction of the game\u2019s NCR rangers, although they\u2019re sadly afforded much less screen time than the Legion. Now barely more than a handful of troops, their desperate fight for survival is interesting, but so far little explored. <\/p>\n

The Ghoul’s soul has lost too many planks, and it\u2019s a new milestone for what\u2019s left of Cooper Howard to admit that.<\/div>\n

There\u2019s a chance that die-hard fans may find the presentation of the NCR and the Legion somewhat frustrating because of how thinly drawn their direct links to the game are. With the show taking place a decade and a half after the events of Fallout: New Vegas, many will have hoped or even expected it to establish a \u201ccanon ending\u201d for the game. But it seems those answers aren\u2019t coming \u2013 while these are undoubtedly the factions we met in the digital world, brought to life with exceptional understanding of the material, the Legion\u2019s double-Caesar civil war and the NCR\u2019s continuing rivalry with them doesn\u2019t directly relate to any of the game\u2019s multiple endings. Both factions squabbling in the dirt, miles away from the Vegas Strip, does suggest that if there even is a canon ending to the game, it\u2019s the one that saw you fight for an independent Vegas (or, less likely, carried Mr. House to victory). But Wagner and Robertson-Dworet have wisely decided to leave the key events of New Vegas’ finale shrouded in mystery. Still, it\u2019s fun to wonder what happened to the original Caesar, whose death has split the Legion into rival gangs: was he killed by the courier, or did he die from that brain tumor? <\/p>\n

While the Legion wages its playground-sized war, the real thing is brewing over at Area 51. Maximus goes on a fantastically messy journey this week, once again crushed and reshaped by the bullies that rule his life. Belittled by Quintus for suggesting they kick-start the very war that his master has been plotting, Maximus finds an unexpected ego boost in the man he would assassinate. Paladin Harkness butters him up with tales of how he\u2019d be leadership material over in the Commonwealth \u2013 silver-tongued lies delivered by Kumail Nanjiani, who\u2019s having the time of his life. But you can see why Maximus falls for them; he may be made of matchsticks, but it\u2019d take an iron will to resist the Paladin\u2019s maverick charm. It\u2019s just a shame Nanjiani and his Han Solo-schtick didn\u2019t get to stick around longer. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s amusing to see just how easily-influenced Maximus is across this episode. First he wants to kill Harkness, then he walks into his arms after Quintus tells him off. He sees right through Harkness when it becomes clear all the Paladin wants is to take the Cold Fusion relic for the Commonwealth, but falls back under his smooth-talking spell the moment the pair get to goof off and play croquet with a Super Sledge hammer and a Securitron robot. He is so incredibly weak of character and so easily manipulated by external forces, which is exactly what makes the episode\u2019s final, fatal hammer blow so exciting. Finally, we see Maximus make a decision that\u2019s all his own, one that comes from his own sense of justice. And by killing Paladin Harkness to save the ghoul children, we can see that the good, moral man that his father always hoped he\u2019d grow up to become is somewhere inside him. <\/p>\n

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Of course, I can\u2019t move on from Maximus\u2019 story without mentioning the wonderful walking joke that is Johnny Pemberton\u2019s Thaddeus. His new life as a ghoul has turned him into some kind of Dickensian slave driver, with an army of kids twisting off soda bottle caps in an effort to fill his coffers. This kindergarten factory scores the best joke of the episode: two dozen eight year-olds cheering \u201cMost kids are dead by this age!\u201d <\/p>\n

Finally, this week\u2019s trip to pre-war America is surprisingly uneventful considering both the killer stakes established in the premiere and its absence last week. House\u2019s appearance feels a little thin and lacking in bite, but it\u2019s enough to demonstrate that he\u2019s already clued into Cooper and Moldaver\u2019s plans. He is The Man Who Knew, after all. Cooper, however, is very much a man who doesn\u2019t know, clueless as to who this moustachio\u2019d man that looks almost<\/em> identical to the famous Robert House is. This certainly clarifies that Justin Theroux\u2019s identity is supposed to be a mystery, and only further demonstrates what a bad idea the prior announcement of his casting was. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s still good stuff in the past, though, but it\u2019s all in character, not plot. Charlie Whiteknife\u2019s veteran award acceptance speech frames Cooper as a soldier who deeply cared for the people around him, emphasising a stark contrast with the man he\u2019ll be 200 years into the nuclear-scorched future. Later, Charlie explains that he won his award for saving people, not for the kills that heroic act required. The implication, of course, is that Cooper should kill Robert House to save humanity from annihilation. <\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more to that flashback than just Cooper\u2019s torn conscience. We see reflected in Charlie\u2019s words The Ghoul\u2019s choice. He\u2019d do pretty much anything to protect the people he loves, even something bad. Which, of course, wasn\u2019t sending the NCR to their deaths in order to save Lucy. No, that\u2019s not the man Cooper Howard becomes. For all his personal admissions of having lost too many planks, he\u2019s still content to be a pile of wood. Lucy is surely the price he\u2019ll pay to save his family. And he\u2019s not found his family yet, so Lucy has to live. Wherever this selfish decision takes him, it\u2019s sure to be a fascinating direction. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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This review contains spoilers for Fallout Season 2, Episode 3, \u201cThe Profligate,\u201d which is available to stream now on Prime Video. \u201cI think I just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[5776,3122,28,668],"class_list":["post-24685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-episode","tag-fallout","tag-review","tag-season","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}