Was going to reblog a post I just saw and leave a veritable RAMBLE in the tags, but then I thought “Hm, Jackie, this IS the posting website” which it is, so.
On that note, and with that in mind… incredibly long thoughts on this week’s Fallout episode, Lucy and Max's respective character developments, and some theorizing under the cut.
First off, disclaimer that I AM a show-only sucker. I don’t know much about the world of Fallout outside of what the show has shown us thus far, and I like it that way.
Learning about the world of Fallout alongside Lucy has been deeply fun, as has been speculating on the environmental storytelling going on etc, so if you have in-game knowledge that refutes or contradicts any of the thoughts in this post please spare me the “spoilers” (in quotes because I know the games have been out for decades) and let the show take me there on its own.
That being said:
I’ve seen a lot of people after this episode equating the kids Max saved last episode (“they were fucking kids”) to the Ghouls Lucy killed this week outside of the strip (“they’re just Ghouls, right?”), and I don’t necessarily think that’s fair or what the show is going for.
While I understand how people are getting there, I don’t actually think that the show is trying to show us Lucy experiencing some kind of “moral decay” while Max (in parallel) finds his footing and “starts” to stand up for his principles.
The fun thing about Lucy is that out in the Wasteland, her “morals” (as instilled in her by her father and Vault-Tec, which is a whole different can of worms) ARE outrageously unrealistic, to the point that they make her dangerous to herself and to others. Without Cooper (and all the other people she meets along the way in S1, even including Wilzig!), objectively, she wouldn’t be alive.
Similarly (but not exactly the same), the fun thing about Maximus is that once he steps out into the Wasteland for real, he starts to find out that his morals— which ARE realistic, or at least generally speaking perfectly tenable— are actually completely incompatible with his status as a member of the Brotherhood of Steel. They, too, make him dangerous to himself and to others, most notably people he cares about, like Dane or the young Aspirant we see him interacting with in early S2.
While Lucy spends all of S1 haunted by the reality of the things she objectively HAS to do in order to survive because they go against her morals— even things that realistically she probably shouldn't feel guilty about, see killing the feral Ghouls in the Super-Duper Mart— in S2, Maximus is haunted by the reality of the things he is EXPECTED to do as a Knight. In Max's case, these are things which have always seemed fine on paper— but which are, in reality, too fucking much for him because he is a good fucking person, just like Lucy.
So. With all that in mind: in my opinion, what we're actually seeing this episode is the continuation of a slow but steady shift in Lucy's morals to better align with Max's, not the opposite.
To me, this is something that has clearly been happening since that altercation in the Super-Duper Mart. There, we see Lucy try to do a good thing based on her untenable moral framework (even feral Ghouls who want to eat you alive are people, and should be treated as such!); it backfires because her morals are in conflict with the reality of the world she lives in, and she has to kill in order to survive. It's a horrible thing for her, but it sticks: later that season, we see her morals have already shifted, as she recognizes that the "life" her mother is living with Moldaver is no life at all and opts to put her down. I don't think anyone would argue Lucy kills Rose because Rose is "just" a Ghoul; she does it because she's a feral Ghoul, and she's realized that while it's uncomfortable for her, it's the right thing to do for Rose.
Now, where I think this otherwise clear development got muddled for some people is around S2E2, where Lucy tells Cooper the Golden Rule is "for people"; this confusion makes sense! After all, what the hell, Lucy? Cooper is a person too!
...Except to Lucy, in that moment, he isn't. Not because he's a Ghoul, but because he's being (to her untrained eye) a complete fucking asshole. She knows he'll survive; the woman won't without Lucy's help, and yet Cooper is insisting Lucy should let the woman die seemingly just to lessen his own suffering. We've seen time and time again by this point in the show that Lucy needs to learn hard lessons on her own; she won't allow other people to alter her moral framework. Rather, she needs to experience or see something that leads to her choosing to alter it herself.
As payoff, we see this again with her interactions with the Legion, albeit more discreetly: Lucy follows her (flawed, untenable) moral code, "innocent" people (the woman she saved) get hurt (or in this case, killed!), and she adjusts. While she is admittedly dehydrated and exhausted and half conscious at the end of S2E3, one thing she isn't is stupid: when she asks Cooper "What did you do?" and he replies "Maybe something good, or maybe something stupid" followed by a catastrophic explosion in the Legion camp, I feel it's safe to say she puts two and two together.
...Quite notably though, she doesn't protest, something she has never hesitated to do otherwise in the face of violence from Cooper that she thinks is "senseless" (or otherwise against her own moral code), showing a certain progression yet again. The Legion hurts innocent people → Lucy tries (and fails) to reason with them, giving them a chance to be better which they refuse → Lucy does not object to violence against the Legion. The Golden Rule is for people. Perhaps most notably, people who are alive and sentient, and not complete fucking assholes who have proven themselves unwilling to be better.
(Note that I don't think Cooper actually falls into this category, and I don't think Lucy thinks he does either; rather I feel her snapping at him in that moment was sheer frustration, which served the dual purpose of also tipping the show's hand surrounding her ongoing moral shift to the audience. Otherwise, I sincerely don't think they'd still be traveling together. Anyway.)
On to the kicker: "They're just Ghouls, right?"
Lucy has, by this point, fully squared with her moral code that she doesn't need to feel guilty killing feral Ghouls. Super-Duper Mart sucked, and killing Rose sucked, but it got her there. She's coked out and simply telling Cooper— albeit very poorly— "See? I'm not an idiot; I've learned that this is okay, because it is." Of course the line sits strangely with Cooper, and we linger on his reaction; he's a Ghoul! Is he actually ruining Lucy? Is that something he wants? (Spoiler alert: I don't think he is, and I don't think it is, and if you're watching the show with your eyes open, you probably don't either.)
Still, he's not in Lucy's brain; how would he know? Maybe he thought it would feel good to watch Lucy get worse/more like him, but it doesn't! Uh-oh, Cooper.
Now, speaking of people getting what they wanted and finding out it doesn't feel good...
Maximus is already where Lucy is going this season, morally: He knows, and has always known, that good people don't let bad people hurt innocent people. His problem is that this whole time up until this episode, he's been clinging to the desperate belief that the Brotherhood of Steel, as an organization, is good. It isn't. There are good people in it, like himself and Dane, but he's learning that doesn't matter, not if being a part of it means being expected to do bad things and hurt innocent people.
Max doesn't hesitate to kill feral Ghouls— they're just Ghouls, right?— but draws the line at innocent people, children especially. He doesn't kill human beings for fun or for sport, rather only when forced to by his moral code (or the need to survive when there's no other option), just like Lucy: "I don't choose to do the things I have to do, they just keep happening." He only fires back when Elder Quintus fires on him, and even then, he can't bring himself to kill him; this is fine, because he's not ready to hurt people he cares about yet in any capacity, even if they're undeniably bad.
(Neither, for that matter, is Lucy, which is... interesting.)
So. While Lucy's moral code at the start of S1 was incompatible with the reality of the world, Max's is (and has always been) incompatible only with his own situation/environment. The good thing is that this is, comparably, easily rectified, and Max is rectifying it now; get out of there, boy! You deserve (and are) so much better!
Now, if you've made it this far, I have only one thing left to say regarding what I feel is the natural progression of these characters; if you don't understand what I mean, please reread the post or DM me, but.
Lucy and Maximus, get your asses to Vegas and kill Hank MacLean. You will be reincarnated as lotus flowers; Cooper might hate you for it if it prevents him from finding his family, but that's okay.
(There's nothing in this world better than a character getting what they thought they wanted— in this case, Lucy wising up to the reality of the Wasteland and thus "becoming more like Cooper"— only to find out it totally fucking sucks, now is there? I don't think so.)
