At the end of Fallout season two, the Ghoul, aka Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins), finally tracks down the facility where he believes his wife and daughter have been in cryostasis for more than 200 years. When he opens their cryo-pods, he finds them empty, with his only clue being a postcard that points him toward Colorado.
It’s a major cliffhanger, given that the Ghoul’s entire journey up to this point has been about finding his family. The Ghoul clearly sees it as a good sign; as he tells House (Justin Theroux), “For the first time in 200 long-ass years, I know my family is alive.”
In a recent interview with Deadline, Goggins was a little more cagey about whether or not Coop’s family is safe. “I don’t know that I could speak to [whether they’re alive] totally, but I can tell you that it was not without a lot of deliberation by the powers that be. What does it mean if he does find them? He could have found them, right? It is the first moment in 200 years where hope really does spring eternal,” he said.
That hope is a huge turning point for his character, a hardened survivor who’s wandered the irradiated wastes of California since the mysterious, massive nuclear event that nearly ended the world two centuries ago. “From the Ghoul’s perspective, there was real shame and emotion that he hasn’t felt for maybe 200 years, and that was real, and it was just one of the many things that kind of happened along this journey for him,” Goggins said.
Though Fallout has plenty of flashbacks to the time before the bombs dropped that show Coop in a more flattering, sympathetic light, it’s hard to square the Ghoul with who Coop once was. There’s certainly no going back to the way things were, but maybe there’s at least room for the Ghoul to grow in season three.
Fallout has been renewed by Prime Video for season three but has no set release date yet.
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