Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Fallout Season 2 episode "The Innovator." Stream it with a Prime Video subscription and read at your own risk!
Fallout Season 2 started with a pretty epic scene, with The Ghoul, formerly Cooper Howard, and Lucy tricking a gang of Khans so they could steal all their stuff. It's a pivotal scene that sets the tone for how the story would kick off, with some time having passed between where it picks up and the Season 1 finale.
As the Prime Video series begins and bleeds into the 2026 TV schedule, I'm excited to see what comes from their eventual confrontation with Lucy's father, Hank, as well as all the wonders that await them in New Vegas. I'm also expecting as much violence as we saw in that opening scene, though I am relieved by one reveal that came from that sequence.
Lucy Has Not Lost Her Optimistic Attitude
In their original plan, The Ghoul planned for Lucy to pose as a bounty hunter, and hand him over to the Khans so they could get the drop on them, kill them, and take all their supplies. While it seemed that Lucy was on board with the plan and positioned to strike initially, she faltered and instead revealed herself and the plan to the Khans, hoping her honesty would lead to a diplomatic solution.
It failed miserably, and while Lucy and The Ghoul ultimately blew the Khan gang members to shreds, he later noted that she did little more than incapacitate most of them with non-lethal shots in the buttocks or knees. Indeed, Lucy intentionally tried not to kill anyone, and confirmed that she still hoped for the best in people, and was adamant in going the non-violent route when she could.
It was a relief to see, because I would've sworn by the end of Season 1, the chaos, violence, and selfishness of the Wasteland would've driven that out of her. That's especially after Lucy learned that her father played a key role in the nuclear destruction of the world. Her smile was gone at the end of Season 1, but it seems she's had some time to cool off and will resume her original optimistic and somewhat gullible self as Season 2 continues.
Will Season 2 Finally Break Her?
While Lucy was mostly the character we knew throughout most of Season 1 in the Fallout Season 2 premiere, a glimpse of that sadness and hopelessness crept through when she and The Ghoul explored an abandoned Vault.
They were there because they tracked Hank to the location, but they only found a twisted experiment he left behind. Hank had put a mind-control device (first scene in a flashback sequence with Mr. House) in the back of some Wastelander's neck. Hank then instructed the person to deliver a message to Lucy, telling her to stop following him. Shortly after relaying the message, the test subject's head exploded.
Lucy seemed upset that her father continues to hurt people, and perhaps more willing to let The Ghoul kill him rather than her initial plan to "bring him to justice." That said, the end of the episode gave a look ahead at Season 2 as a whole, and there was a brief clip that showed Lucy questioning The Ghoul's harsh methods, and wondering if the family he lost so long ago would recognize the person he is now. Given that, I'm now left to wonder if we'll see a hardened Lucy by the end of Season 2, or a softer Ghoul.
Fallout is back on Prime Video, and readers can expect a new episode to arrive on Christmas Eve, December 24th, at around 9:00 p.m. ET. I would love if that episode marks the first time we see Macaulay Culkin, and I hope the theories about the character he's playing are true.
