Okay, we’re going to break down that scene in season 2, episode 2 of Fallout where Lucy abandons The Ghoul.
What happened between Lucy and The Ghoul?
Lucy and the Ghoul run into two people wearing tunics marked with a red X.
Lucy sees injured strangers. The Ghoul recognizes them as slaves tied to Caesar’s Legion. The Legion is a brutal faction inspired by the ancient Romans. They’re also misogynistic to the point where they enslave all female members.
The Ghoul doesn’t share any of this with Lucy. He just gives vague statements about the duo not being worth saving and being smart about who you give your resources.
When everyone is attacked by Radscorpions, the female slave and The Ghoul get bitten. Lucy has to choose who to save with her only stimpack.
She chooses to save the woman, arguing that the Ghoul can survive long enough to wait for Lucy to take the woman home.
She does promise to come back for him. So technically you can’t call her a hypocrite or say she abandoned him but….
This Feels Like Season 1 All Over Again
I’m not thrilled with how the writers are handling Lucy this season. She’s lost that naive charm she had last season.
What’s frustrating is that the writers are rehashing the same story beats from season 1.
The Ghoul mocks Lucy for her compassion and naïvety. One of them gets injured. They go their separate ways. Lucy experiences some kind of trauma that spits her worldview back into her face, etc.
Bringing this cycle into season 2 feels repetitive but it’s also regressive for both Lucy and The Ghoul. We should be past this whole “my morals are better than yours” nonsense by now. It’s almost like the writers were struggling to come up with a more interesting conflict between the two.
The Legion arc could turn things around
The writers did mention in interviews that Lucy’s arc would take some dark turns this season.
If that is true, then she needs to experience the cruelty the Ghoul is already familiar with. Being left alone in with the Caesar’s Legion and their dangerous misogyny should do the trick.
Plus, we’re only 2 episodes into an 8 episode season. Lucy and the Ghoul are reluctant allies looking for her father Hank MacLean. It’s probably too early for Lucy and The Ghoul to upgrade their relationship to being proper frenemies. And that won’t happen if they don’t find some common ground. The Ghoul knows what it’s like to be broken down by an unforgiving Wasteland, followed by the betrayal of someone he loved. Lucy can sympathize with him. She’ll never truly relate to him until she goes through something like that herself.
