Fallout season 2 leans into messy family ties between Lucy and Hank

Amazon’s Fallout season 2 centers on Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) as she attempts to find and stop her father Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan), who is running horrific mind-control experiments in a laboratory in New Vegas — a conflict that drives her storyline across the season. Polygon notes that fraught family bonds have long been central to the Fallout franchise, citing Fallout 3’s search for a father and Project Purity and Fallout 4’s parent searching for a kidnapped infant son taken by the Institute.

The show extends those themes: Lucy’s quest is mirrored by her brother Norm (Moises Arias) and revelations about Vault 33, and the Ghoul’s arc is spurred by his search for his wife Barbara and daughter Janey. In episode 6, Hank’s mind-controlling devices save Lucy as part of a demonstration; she almost shuts down the mainframe but relents after seeing a pacified Caesar’s Legion warrior warning her not to proceed because they've recently mopped the floor.

Hank’s paternal side is emphasized in intimate scenes — teaching Lucy to drive a golf cart, cooking her favorite meal, and asking about a book they had planned to discuss — many set in a kitchen that resembles the Vault 33 they once shared, complicating how Lucy and Norm still view him.

Polygon argues that while Hank does genuinely love his daughter, his actions are ultimately manipulative: he wants Lucy to see his side so he can continue his work and eradicate inter-faction conflict in the Wasteland.

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