Fallout Season 2 Episode 3 Review: The Profligate

With Fallout Season 2 Episode 3, not only are we treated to the live-action debut of Caesar’s Legion, but also the unruly politics that plague the Mojave, yet makes our main characters exciting to dissect.

Through one of Fallout: New Vegas‘s most iconic factions, Episode 3 presents an insightful look into the diversity of moral and ethical obligation when it comes to finding a viable solution. Of course, not everyone would be on the same page.

In the world of Fallout, the show has made it incredibly clear that everyone’s fighting for their own beliefs and causes. However, what happens if there’s doubt from those foundational beliefs and that grows? Fallout Season 2 Episode 3 “The Profligate” answers that straight away.

From the time the events of Fallout: New Vegas to now, Caesar’s Legion, a totalitarian slaver state, seemed to fracture into two. The original Caesar’s death caused a power vacuum in the system, causing there to be two Caesars instead of one. The resulting civil war is what Lucy inevitably found herself in at the end of “The Golden Rule”.

This infighting in the Legion is key to understanding the larger picture of Season 2 as a whole. While the first two episodes presented a case about sticking to your moral code, Season 2 Episode 3 emphasizes what happens if one’s code isn’t enough to solve the bigger problem at hand.

We see this in Lucy, who stands her ground about her upbringing in Vault 33 and questions about the cultural blend Caesar’s Legion has concocted. In an awkwardly hilarious moment, Lucy puts herself in this messy predicament because she believes she can do good, like what she did with the slave woman she found.

Lucy has clearly been a character that sticks to her ethics, even though the Wasteland has given her a sense of realism. When she tries to negotiate with Legate Lacerta about her skills in conflict resolution, Lucy still retains that open empathy even when he dismisses her help as being imposing.

Lucy’s need to help others does have its perks, but seeing the other side of that coin again, perhaps more intensified due to the human stakes, provides this episode with a unique obstacle. Going forward, at least on this episode, she’s strung up on a cross to be devoured by crows.

This isn’t like Lucy being strung up by the Ghoul to fish for his medicine from the Gulper way back in Fallout Season 1. Caesar’s Legion is a different ball game, which the Ghoul seems to know much about.

Given how Lucy abandoned him to protect the slave woman, the Ghoul’s initial consideration to not rescue her is certainly a choice he could make. Yet, it’s Cooper Howard, the “good guy”, that wants to do the right thing, but mostly because he has to if he wants to find his family.

Unlike Lucy, Cooper’s incredibly complex personality is what drives him as he’s experienced multiple perspectives about protecting others. The most vocal of these voices shines through his buddy, Charles Whiteknife, who’s being celebrated for his wartime achievements.

Through these flashbacks, Cooper’s doubt in the pre-War system and its opposition carefully peeks through as he’s presented with an extreme measure to take out Mr. House. Yet, he insists on a more cautious way because of his own internal struggle with large-scale conflict.

Being influenced to do such activities that constitute more conflict certainly goes against Cooper’s new philosophy. In that internal war, there’s this realization that adds more complexity to his character. He deeply cares about those closest to him, but he protects on his own terms.

This is something that’s felt in the present-day, when he eventually reaches the group of NCR rangers thanks to a returning Victor. Even though Cooper the hero wants to believe they can do good, his “Ghoul” persona believes otherwise with his own declaration of the NCR being dead for a reason.

This brief encounter subtly shows the Ghoul’s emotional toil he has to face. On one side, he wants to be a good guy and save lives wherever he can, something that’s been sparked thanks to Lucy. On the other side, he still has a lot of pessimism given how many years of experience he has in the Wasteland.

The tension that’s cautiously built up in this moment really keeps us hooked on whether or not the Ghoul sides with the NCR or the Legion.

Essentially, the Ghoul on this episode is what would happen if you combined both sides of morality into a single figure, which is exactly what players face in Fallout: New Vegas. However, what happens next confirms that the Ghoul is a bit of a wild card in the Mojave.

Despite assertively negotiating with the Legion to free Lucy by giving them the location of the rangers, the Ghoul takes it upon himself to upstart the warring within. This reveal in characteristic really rounds out the Ghoul because, up to now, his allegiance has never truly been nailed.

In the pre-War flashbacks, it was as if Cooper was siding with the NCR. The fact that the Ghoul both tattled on the rangers and caused both Legions to fight again shows that the Ghoul-side can be receptive, as if finally taking another step to mesh both sides together. 

Perhaps watching Cooper through these pre-War flashbacks and seeing their influences on the present-day Ghoul is the best thing about this episode as well as Fallout Season 2 as a whole. By giving the Ghoul more vulnerability to emotional connection, it continues to make him all the more compelling.

Additionally, the same thing can also be said about Maximus, who’s dealing with the Brotherhood also facing their own civil war with the arrival of Xander Harkness.

This episode poses a unique question of what Maximus believes in: staying in his place on behalf of Elder Quintus or taking action for himself by teaming up with Harkness. Although Maximus remains dedicated to the Mojave Brotherhood, his adventure with Harkness rejuvenates that awe within him.

This is something that Maximus has been faced with previously, where he wants to stay loyal to his ideals, but also knows that Quintus is taking too desperate measures. In that moment where Maximus decides to input his thoughts to the gathered council, it fortifies Maximus’s character quite nicely.

However, it’s when Maximus and Harkness fly out to reclaim a point of interest for the Brotherhood where Maximus’s vulnerability shows. Maximus and Harkness clash with the place’s Securitron in crazy, if clanky, fashion. It turns out it was there for a reason: to protect Thaddeus’s operation and his workers, who turn out to be kids.

What we get in this heated confrontation is perhaps the most grueling moment of the episode as Harkness’s dedication to the Brotherhood code takes priority over the innocence of life. When Maximus sees this and decides to take Harkness’s life, it’s all devastating, yet satisfying.

Fallout Season 2 Episode 3 brutally explores what it means to find the right solution through opposing perspectives, in subtle and violent ways. If future episodes in Season 2 retain this style of thematic and narrative storytelling, I’ll continue to be hooked in until the very end!

Additional Thoughts:

• I’m still wondering how Victor ended up in the position he’s now in, given the canonicity of things from Fallout: New Vegas.
• Surely this group of NCR rangers isn’t the only group we’ll be seeing from the New California Republic in Season 2.

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Fallout Season 2 premieres on Tuesday, December 16, on Prime Video.

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