Lucy (Ella Purnell) looking down after pushing the Ghoul out the window in Fallout season 2, episode 5
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Matthew Rudoy
Published 28 minutes ago
Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025.
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Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Fallout season 2, episode 5, "The Wrangler."Fallout star Ella Purnell explains why her character, Lucy MacLean, betrays the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) and teases another game-changing twist still to come this season. When the Ghoul reveals that he always brought Lucy along to negotiate with her father, Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan), she punches her traveling companion out the window, and he is subsequently impaled.
While speaking with TV Insider, Purnell explains that the normally kind and thoughtful Lucy betrays the Ghoul out of instinct after being hurt and is no longer thinking before she acts. This is a pivotal change for her character and fulfills foreshadowing from earlier in the series. Check out Purnell's comments below:
It’s Lucy acting on instinct alone. It’s showing you the ways that she’s changed. She’s no longer thinking before she acts and applying intellect and caution. She’s hurt and wants to hurt this person as much as they hurt them. He said to her in Season 1, "You are me, sweetie, just give it time." This is what he means. It’s that age-old prophecy: What you fear is what you create. She spent so long trying to not be like him and suppressing and it comes out.
She also hints that this betrayal and Lucy's rage are not an anomaly, as a truly shocking and violent twist for the character is coming later on in Fallout season 2.
There is another moment coming that I think is going to blow people’s minds when you see it. It’s very violent and not at all what you would expect from Lucy.
This twist may connect to Hank, who finds her at the end of Fallout season 2, episode 5. Lucy has been adamant about locating her father so she can bring him to justice in a way that is fair instead of simply killing him, but her perspective may be different after her most recent actions.
Lucy's growing penchant for violence was emphasized earlier in the episode before she pushed the Ghoul out the window with her power-fist weapon. She shot and killed a stranger she encountered while desperately searching for drugs, all of which would have been incredibly uncharacteristic for her not that long ago.
As Lucy becomes more like the Ghoul, she is becoming an increasingly dangerous force to be reckoned with in the Wasteland. While the Ghoul isn't dead and will regenerate, his traveling companion has reached a new level of ruthlessness, and as teased by Purnell, it won't be long before others are hurt by this change.
The Ghoul impaled on a post in Fallout
There are three episodes remaining in season 2, with the remaining installments releasing weekly up to the finale on February 4. When the violent Lucy twist happens in one of these episodes, it could also involve Maximus (Aaron Moten), who is now in possession of the cold fusion device. He hasn't shared any scenes with Lucy yet this season and doesn't know how much she has changed.
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Dig deeper—subscribe to the newsletter for focused breakdowns of Fallout season 2: character motivations, spoiler-supported theories, and scene-level analysis that unpacks this season's major twists and their implications across the Wasteland. Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.While drastic character developments are sometimes not received well in popular shows, this is not the case for Fallout season 2. It holds a "Certified Fresh" 97% critics' score and 96% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and is leading Prime Video's top 10 streaming charts worldwide and in the U.S.
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Fallout
10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-MA Sci-Fi Action Adventure Drama Release Date April 10, 2024 Network Amazon Prime Video Showrunner Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan Directors Frederick E. O. Toye, Wayne Che Yip, Stephen Williams, Liz Friedlander, Jonathan Nolan, Daniel Gray Longino, Clare Kilner Writers Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan
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Ella Purnell
Lucy MacLean
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Aaron Moten
Maximus
Based on the hit video game series and set 200 years after an apocalypse, Fallout follows residents of luxury shelters as they re-enter a post-nuclear world. Confronted with a bizarre and violent landscape, the series explores the stark contrasts between their sheltered existence and the harsh realities of the outside universe.
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