The powder keg that is the Mojave is lit, and as the fuse burns, each character plays out their moral struggle in the merciless Wasteland in this episode of Amazon’s Fallout. In this third episode titled, “The Profligate”, we get to see what Caesar’s Legion and the NCR has been up to, the civil war bubbling up in the Brotherhood, and something from left field that’s totally Fallout. The setup was great, and the payoff explosive.
When we last saw her, Lucy had been taken captive by remnants of Caesar’s Legion, a barbaric, Roman-themed horde that had pillaged, raped, and enslaved its way to Nevada. A bit of harsh Wasteland karma for her treatment of The Ghoul? Yeah, probably. It’s here where we’re introduced to Macaulay Culkin’s character, the legate Lacerta. Despite not filling out a legate’s exaggerated armor, I found his performance as the soft, but well spoken advisor to his Caesar pretty refreshing. Despite his measured speech and smirk, he still was part of the legion and was just as blood-thirsty. Lucy’s speechcraft has been failing these past two episodes and harsh reality has been setting in.
The Ghoul survived his encounter with last episode’s Radscorpion and reflects on his past with Dogmeat as the silent listener. I can’t express enough how I enjoyed the building of Cooper Howard’s character, as more events from his past are laid bare and influencing his current moral choices. He’s truly the Clint Eastwood type of the show, a guy just trying to survive. When it’s not the Wasteland trying to get you, it’s the actions of a naive acquaintance. His actions leading up to the rescue of Lucy, because you knew he was going to do that, just fleshed his character out even more. And as usual, this show does a great job making Easter Eggs feel natural and part of the mystery. Especially when they introduced a certain Securitron robot.
Maximus is reaching the boiling point in his moral struggle with the Brotherhood as the political stakes of a civil war begin to take its toll on him. It’s a thing to watch as he struggles to find his own confidence in his own choices. Does he remain an unthinking, unfeeling tool for those above him? I’m sure being courted by Paladin Harkness (Kumail Nanjiani) to be a conspirator isn’t helping. His arc this episode was pushing him to the inevitable, and with all his waffling, his morality instinctively made the choice for him. I can’t wait to see how he recovers from the fallout.
As for that left field thing I mentioned? I didn’t expect to see a Sunset Sarsaparilla factory manned by children and managed by a ghoulish/FEV’d squire Thaddeus. I’ve learned that anytime the Wasteland deals with children the tragedy is dialed up. There’s a bit of dark humor too. Besides being an emotional speedbump, they do actually play a pivotal role in the show, and the random encounter was not wasted.
I’ve said before that I wanted to see how the events of a playthrough of New Vegas would be handled in the show, and so far, some things have worked really well, and some were weaker. For example, I still feel the NCR should have a bigger presence despite Shady Sands. The show does its best to justify it, and it does work to a point. But from what I’ve seen so far, it’s looking like the Courier won and blasted all the factions on his way up and the characters are working through that reality. Looking at it through that lens, it makes more sense. But we’ll see as this plays out.
I’m still hooked. Bring on episode 4.
******
---01.jpg)
English (US) · 