Review: Fallout, "The Innovator" | Season 2, Episode 1

Welcome to Episodic Medium's coverage of the second season of Prime Video's Fallout, which returns for its second season. As always, this first review is free for all, but subsequent reviews will be exclusive for paid subscribers. You can click here to access a 10% discount on yearly subscriptions.

“The world may end, but progress marches on.”

By most every metric you can measure, season one of Fallout was a hell of a success. According to Amazon, it attracted more viewers than any of their original series other than The Rings Of Power. It supercharged interest in its source material, pulling players old and new pulled back to every game in the series. It won support from the fan community for recreating the post-apocalyptic retro-futurist aesthetic and for capturing the story’s unique tonal blend of humor and horror. And it also pulled in a ton of award nominations, including a surprise nod for Best Drama Series at the Emmys to keep the streak of video game adaptation noms in between seasons of The Last of Us.

That level of success gives the Fallout showrunners carte blanche to do whatever they want in a second season. And as they teased at the end of season one’s finale “The Beginning,” what they want to do is to capture as much of the Fallout experience as possible, up to and including what’s arguably the high watermark of the franchise: 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas. Long argued as a contender for the best Fallout game, New Vegas iconography and characters have been central parts of season two’s marketing even as they brush up closer to official Fallout canon than ever before. Fallout is beloved as a whole, but New Vegas occupies a special spot for a lot of fans, and the series’ young success could go poorly if it handles that wrong.

And starting out, it feels like they’ve still got their hands on the wheel. Any doubts that Fallout forgot what made its first season a success are blown away—quite literally—with an early sequence of “The Innovator” that shows how effective Lucy and the Ghoul have become since teaming up in the wake of last season. An execution turned rescue pits the two against a party of Great Khans (a long-standing part of the franchise) with all the attendant mayhem and violence that made season one such a blast to witness. Wounding shots overlap with kill shots, slow-motion bullets right out of the V.A.T.S system splatter heads wide open, grenades get strapped to bodies who are tossed in a swimming pool, and all of it is set to beloved New Vegas soundtrack stalwart Marty Robbins’ “Big Iron.” This is a sequence that feels designed to make fans stand up and cheer, and director Frederick E. O. Toye delivers on those cheers.

That wildly successful fan service buys “The Innovator” a lot of goodwill, which is welcome given that this is a premiere stuffed to the brim with plot developments and season arcs. Lucy, the Ghoul, and Dogmeat remain teamed up in the search for Hank, following the trail of power armor footprints across the Mojave. The reveal of the Vault 32-33-34 conspiracy continues to reverberate, with new Overseers Betty and Stephanie firmly in charge as they field piddly complaints from Vault dwellers, and Norm remains trapped in the cryo chamber with only Bud’s brain for company. And the flashbacks to Cooper’s pre-war life remain, with indications that he’ll be drawn far deeper into Vault-Tec’s machinations now that he knows the true scope of their plan. (Notably absent from the mix is Maximus and the Brotherhood of Steel, but saving that arc for the next episode is a smart choice given how much is already on the plate.)

As far as season arcs go, Lucy and the Ghoul’s journey is clearly the driving force, and it remains the most fun one to watch. It’s exciting for them to get within sight of New Vegas in the first episode and feel like the season won’t waste its time getting to the good stuff, even if a quick sojourn to an abandoned Vault keeps to the Fallout maxim so perfectly summarized by the Ghoul last season that “thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamned time.” Pairing a wide-eyed optimist and jaded veteran is a long-trodden storytelling trope, but Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins are both excellent filling those roles, and their interactions bode well for more of that dynamic in future episodes. The aforementioned flashbacks also have a depth that was missing at times last season now that Lucy is deeper in the Vault-Tec conspiracy, and a welcome hint that exactly what Cooper Howard was up to two centuries ago might come back to bite everyone in present day.

Less compelling is the return to the Vaults, the weakest recurring plot thread from last season but one that paid off in the end with Norm’s discovery of the full “Bud’s Buds” conspiracy. Norm remains interesting to watch as he deals with the realities that his life was manufactured from the first part, and the cheerfulness that Bud puts into all his empty corporate speak remains downright terrifying. The other two Vaults lose some steam, as the main joke there is on how sheltered the majority of the Vault residents are and how deeply frustrating it is to the Overseers who know the truth. The Norm component keeps to the horror element Fallout can deploy so well, while the Vault dweller complaints feel like they belong on a sitcom about living in a Vault. It pulled off the trick last season so it’s entirely possible it’ll do it again, but with action in three Vaults it’s spreading itself too thin.

The most encouraging developments between season one and “The Innovator” are on the villain side, first with the full establishment of Hank as both a Vault-Tec conspirator and one with his own agenda. We mostly got the outwardly cheerful side of Kyle MacLachlan in his interactions with Lucy, but that’s only ever been part of MacLachlan’s wheelhouse, and it’s incredibly satisfying to see the sinister grin cross his face as he sets up shop in a secured Vault-Tec facility, donning a grey suit and golden Pip-Boy like he’s shedding an ill-fitting skin. Even if it’s a repeat of last season and it takes a while for him to cross paths with Lucy and the Ghoul again—a reunion he’s looking to postpone by means of a kamikaze messenger, possibly the premiere's most horrifying visual—he’s such a charming performer that he can make wandering through an empty office and talking to dead air feel worth the time.

It’s an easy guess who he’s hoping is on the other side of that radio, as “The Innovator” makes its biggest move with the introduction of one of the Fallout universe’s most infamous figures: Robert House, CEO of RobCo and one of the architects of the wasteland. Teased in the flashbacks of “The Beginning” and (partially) recast in between seasons, House is now set up as a central figure between flashback Cooper being urged to get close to him, and present-day Ghoul speaking of him in rarely used tones of caution. After the Novac gunfight, the best part of the premiere is the cold open “The Man Who Knew,” Justin Theroux perfectly channeling the trans-Atlantic disdain that the late René Auberjonois gave House in New Vegas and making it clear how little regard he has for anyone other than himself. (His reading of “Hm, obsolesence. It’s a heck of a thing” is an easy choice for best delivery of the episode.) Seeing him bait and dispose of three blue-collar workers for no better reason than testing a device is one of the coldest things seen on Fallout, and we’ve seen some pretty cold things.

It’s a coldness that’s also fully in keeping with the attitude of all aspects of Fallout, which adds to the overall feeling of “The Innovator” that the show knows exactly what it’s doing as it kicks off season two. It remains as violent and bleakly humorous as ever, and feels comfortable in expanding its storytelling into new corners of the franchise universe. There’s a lot of balls being juggled right now—and with the Brotherhood and other teased factions yet to come there’s even more to throw in the air—but at the moment those can be dismissed with how damn good it feels to be back in the wasteland.

Stray observations

• Welcome back to Fallout, everyone! After season one released all at once and forced an entire season into two posts, I’m ecstatic to be on a weekly schedule and get a proper conversation going. Apologies for the delay on this one, I was traveling and Amazon moving up the premiere shuffled some things.
• Reminder that these reviews are specific to the show itself, and any discussion of Fallout game details that could be potential spoilers (or just my own obsessive deep dives) are delegated to the Vault-Tec Operations Manual section below.
• Despite the casting of Theroux, Rafi Silver still appears as House in various interviews through the episode. Makes for good continuity between seasons, as well as making sense in the universe of the show: of course someone like House would have contingencies up to and including a body double for events public and private.
• Another addition to the horrors of Vault-Tec experiments: Vault 24 was set up for the purpose of brainwashing its residents into Communists.
• Barb came across as a clear villain in the Vault-Tec presentation last year, but the moment of pause she took before rejoining Cooper indicates her decisions may not be sitting as well as they seemed. I look forward to those conflicts developing further on the Vegas trip.
• I defy anyone to admit they didn’t hear “Damn good coffee” in their head as Hank took his first sip.
• “Hit me in the mouth. I think I’d enjoy it.”
• “Signage! No, that could be controversial.”
• “He took my son. He’s dead. Just my kind of luck. Cocksucker owed me money.” “I’m sorry for… money.”
• Radio New Vegas: Peggy Lee, “Cheek to Cheek;” Marty Robbins, “Big Iron;” Eddy Arnold, “Make The World Go Away;” The Ink Spots, “It’s All Over But The Crying;” Roy Orbison, “Working For The Man.”

Vault-Tec Operations Manual

• With the full commitment to a New Vegas setting, it remains to be seen if the show commits to any of the four possible Fallout: New Vegas endings as canon, or if they decide that the fifteen years between the events of the game and the events of the series are enough to hand-wave away that discussion.
• Novac is of course a well-remembered setting of New Vegas, being where you can recruit the sniper companion Boone (who once occupied the sniper spot Lucy takes up) and acquire 200 Dinky the T-Rex souvenirs. The Ghoul’s memory of Darla predates the game however, as no such NPC exists there.
• The Starlight Drive-In hiding Vault 24 isn’t a New Vegas location, but outposts of the chain can be seen in Fallout 4 and Fallout 76.
• Vault-Tec representative seen prior to the test of the alert system! Wonder if he’ll have any luck getting that set of steak knives.
• Cooper’s radio broadcast includes an ad for West-Tek, promoting their latest efforts in biological research for skincare. Might want to check the label for side effects.
• That looks a lot like a Pimp-Boy 3-Billion on Hank’s wrist.