FALLOUT ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐| The Four ♐Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Freedom, Knowledge, Truth, & Justice. The Ghoul (Cooper Howard). Lucy, Maximus, and Norm all built on the Sagittarius Archetype in one way or another . . .
Love has never been a popular movement, and no one’s ever wanted, really, to be free. The world is held together, really it is, by the love and the passion of a very few people. . . of course, you can despair. Walk down the street of any city, any afternoon, and look around you. What you have got to remember is what you are looking at is also you. Everyone you’re looking at is also you. You could be that person. You could be that monster. You could be that cop. And you have to decide in yourself, not to be. — James Balwin
FALLOUT (Amazon Prime) | a 5-Star ADAPTATION
FALLOUT is one of the best shows on television right now. Not simply because it's a great adaptation of a game, entertaining, scary, and funny. Not simply because the design of the whole experience is fabulous to look at and listen to.
It’s also because we, too, feel like we are in end-stage capitalism and that some kind of world-ending catastrophe is not so far away. We are more polarized than ever, and we feel surrounded by monsters.
And our ability to fight this future off feels to many of us like the exhausted and heckled politician in the show feels, blandly saying you have never heard of them because they aren’t paid for by corporations. It seems to me that character is America and her ideals, and she is as depressed as hell.
I think a big part of the reason FALLOUT is so good is how closely it holds to ancient archetypes we all recognize while also addressing our fears and the emotional and political realities of today. The familiar archetypes bring us into the story.
“Everyone you’re looking at is also you.” You, asking yourself moral questions: Who and what will I be inside this big fat mess? This is one of the best things about video games like this. You don’t just practice with weapons and strategies; you have to make moral decisions at every turn.
I’ll get to the Sagittarius archetype when I talk about the characters, but first, a review and an encouragement to watch it if you haven’t!
Contains SPOILERS for seasons one and two. I think this article will make a LOT more sense if you have already seen the first season.
The Story
Tim Cain designed the Fallout game. Based on his name and where he lives, he might be my cousin. There is a lot of loose talk in this show about cousins. Cain created the foundation for everything Fallout. Some say it’s the best RPG (Role-Playing Game) ever made. The whole concept is deeply creative.
Whatever else Fallout is, it is also a critique of militarism, war, and factionalism. That is what Cain says. The loss of truth, choice, transparency, and freedom is the result of that. As it happens, those are Sagittarius themes, too.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.
~ American President George Washington, 1776
In Fallout, a few people make all the decisions for everyone else and use their factions and inventive weapons of destruction and control to enforce them, and The People did not choose the deciders.
Cain says Fallout is not about the brutal, uncaring dominance of corporate capitalist culture. Sure, Timmy. Whatever you say, cousin. It seems fitting that the American creator doesn’t see that part; it’s so ingrained in us that it becomes invisible.
But not to Nolan.
Producer, writer, and director Jonathan Nolan played the game—as did the showrunners. The showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, have mentioned Nolan’s “specific,” “laser-focused” vision in interviews.
Jonathan Nolan is one of our best English-language screenwriters. The fact that he is British and American, and has lived in both places, helps him observe from a bit of a distance and know American culture intimately.
It’s a story for the whole world, and American influence cannot be overstated.
Whatever Tim Cain intended, Fallout is absolutely about end-stage capitalism, and its relationship to high tech. It’s not a pretty picture.
Acting and the depicted character arcs are the way we follow a story personally—it is where we imagine ourselves in the story.
The Acting
Thanks to all involved and the Casting Director, John Papsidera.
And my Emmy nods go to . . .
Walton Goggins as Cooper Howard/ and The Ghoul
Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean
Aaron Moten as Maximus (He is my One to Watch actor!)
Moises Arias as Norman MacLean
Kyle MacLachlin as Hank MacLean (Dark Dale Cooper, for Twin Peaks fans)
Xelia Mendes-Jones as Dane (You can also catch this actor tearing up the screen in The Wheel of Time)
Johnny Pemberton as Thaddeus
Leslie Uggams as Betty Pearson
Also brilliant performances by Dave Register, Frances Turner, Jon Daly, Reg Luzzi, Annabel O’Hagan, and Dale Dickey.
Hey, thanks for casting Erik Estrada and Fred Armisen, too. That was great. I can’t decide about McCauley Caukin in that role. Creepier? Meh? I feel bad for him that you can’t stop thinking of him as a kid. He wasn’t on screen long enough.
The Show Design is Awe-Inspiring
Costumes and Makeup
The costumes are pretty. They were designed by Amy Westcott, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Black Swan (2011).
What I love about her work is that she does not need to steal the spotlight; her costumes serve the story perfectly. Sounds weird, but she made the apocalypse watchable!
Jake Gerber (Walking Dead) and Vincent Van Dyke designed the makeup, while Mike Harvey leads the team. I am glad The Ghoul is not gruesome, since we have to look at him for so long.
SOME PHOTOS
Get a look at what actors Dale Dickey, Michael Emerson, and Ella Purnell are wearing. I’m going to cosplay Dale Dickey!
Get a look at the Ghoul makeup on Walton Goggins.
Check out Aaron Moten and The Brotherhood
Corporate Overseer Amazon has not yet approved my use of these photos (Ha!).
Sets
A lot has been said about the set design. The 50s and 60s aesthetic in Bethesda’s game design carried over into this particular story, and the American propaganda posters and household props in the background are cohesive across factions and brilliant in every frame.
You can rewatch the whole show just to look for Easter eggs. Thank you, Production Designer Howard Cummings and his team.
Cinematography
Jonathan Nolan’s vision, channeled through Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh and his team, was shot on film, with the Wasteland scenes shot on location in America and Namibia.
The Wasteland camera work was inspired by spaghetti western tropes in general and from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly specifically. The extreme long shots and closeups not only fit the period, but also remind us that it is a western in style, which again brings us back to the Sagittarius archetype (I am almost there).
Sound
Add the brilliant music by Ramin Djawadi and sound design by Susan Cahill and Daniel Colman. The flavor of the game's sound effects, the dry humor of the integrated songs, and the careful integration of character theme music are exceptionally well constructed and set the overall tone.
The music's editing is subtle when needed, which I appreciate. Djawadi worked with director Jonathan Nolan and sound supervisor Susan Cahill on Westworld.
I have linked to some detailed articles about these designers above. Why reinvent the wheel? I hope you can read those too.
Prediction: Fallout will continue to sweep design awards.
What’s the Apocalypse Downside?
“I just threw acid in an innocent man’s face, and I’ve only been up here two weeks. The wasteland sucks.” -Lucy MacLean
TRIGGER AND BOUNCE WARNINGS
Season two has a weekly release schedule, which removes the instant gratification we had with season 1, when all episodes were released together. Steel yourself.
This show is almost cartoonishly gross, once or twice an episode. The violence can hit viscerally, so be warned.
Hopefully, the slow motion, brilliant song choices, and music composition will help you distance yourself enough to tolerate it. Please don’t give up and bounce; it’s worth staying.
The violence is not gratuitous in this context. The writers want us to see the world as brutal. Brutality is the point. The fear of brutality is the point. Characters becoming hardened by the brutality and getting more and more cynical is the point.
If you are like me (and I know I am), you hate zombies. I hate zombies. So, usually, I’d bounce after I realized there were ghouls and feral ghouls (basically zombies), but I didn’t, and I am glad I stayed. They handled all that with some serious expertise. If you love zombies, well, you are in luck. There are Elvis ones!
There is a vulnerable dog. SPOILER: The Dog is still alive — so far — so don’t bounce. He gets healed.
Okey Dokey. Go watch, but please subscribe first.
Now for the♐THEMES & CHARACTERS
The main protagonists all have Sagittarius values. Traditionally, it is said that America has a Sagittarius Rising. That refers to the cowboy tropes and the freedom-loving, gun-loving, truth-telling image of Americans worldwide. This was certainly true in the 1950s when our own timeline diverged from the one in Fallout. The themes of the archetype of Sagittarius are at the core of the plot of Fallout. That is what I mean by genius structure.
We also have an image as a country of inventive, entrepreneurial spirits and an image of having rich corporations with too much control, but I’ll talk about that when I get to the Capricorn archetype next month.
The truth is, the writers didn’t have to know astrology consciously. It helps, but it isn’t crucial. Those ancient storytelling tropes and archetypes are ingrained in us. Sagittarius and Capricorn share space at the top of the astrological wheel. America is emblematic of the push-pull between them since we first began to form top-level organizations and governments.
A Cowboy and his Horse Dog.
I was watching someone who reacted to Fallout on YouTube (early in season 1, episode two) say that The Ghoul needed a horse or a dog, because, of course, he does. We all recognize Sagittarius characters, whether we call them that or not, and a Sagittarius needs an animal sidekick.
May I point out that he keeps that dog long after its usefulness in finding that particular McGuffin has ended?
COOPER HOWARD (THE GHOUL): The Cowboy
“Us cowpokes, we take it as it comes.” -Cooper Howard, Fallout, Amazon Prime
Our exposition on the big picture and timeline for Fallout is delivered through the character arc of Cowboy Actor Cooper Howard, who is turned into a Ghoul by radiation. He is the first on screen and at the core of the story. His story ties the Before the Bombs Dropped and After the Bombs Dropped timelines together.
We start season one by seeing the beginning and end of his arc so far, and as events unfold, we go back and revisit the middle. I am not sure I have ever seen a show jump between timelines as skillfully as they did in season one.
Season two has a couple of awkward transitions covered by great camera work, but it doesn’t matter so much because what these writers do so well is leave us with a hundred questions at the end of every scene. We can’t wait to find out what’s happening elsewhere.
Cooper Howard’s fame and his marriage to a higher-up in the corporation at the heart of the story mean he knows or meets most of the players. The irony is endless as corporate bad guy after corporate bad guy fawns over the white hat cowboy who represented everything people loved about free and generous America. It’s great writing.
His transformation into his black-hat side, and the counterpoint to the young, idealistic Lucy and the earnest Maximus, make the choice between ethics and cynicism central to all the character arcs and, certainly, to this truth-and-freedom-loving Sagittarius archetype.
Walter Groggins plays Howard and The Ghoul with equal one-pointed concentration and a complete awareness of the horrible absurdity of every situation he finds himself in. It makes us want his gravelly-voiced cowboy on screen at all times.
America has always prided itself on valuing freedom above all else, and the Wild West (called the Wasteland in Fallout) is a problematic symbol of that freedom.
Do we really want freedom? For everyone? If so, why do we keep giving it and taking it away?
LUCY MacLean: The Reformer
“I may end up looking like you, but I’ll never be like you.” - Lucy MacLean
The next main character we meet is the naive and idealistic Squeaky MacLean (See what I did there?). I almost said “innocent.” She isn’t. She is well-read and highly educated. She is naive; she believes people will come around if she just says the right thing.
She, too, carries the Sagittarius archetype's idea of America as a blunt truth-teller, a generous, freedom-loving nation that needs only to be rebuilt to regain its moral glory. Everyone she meets tells her she is out of her mind. And yet, they like her. They make a few changes in their actions to get her approval. The force is strong in that one.
Ella Purnell plays this Statue of Liberty on foot with a mid-west accent and a fresh-faced eagerness that makes me, as an American (Purnell is British), feel called out.
I think Lucy has an Aquarius Sun, Libra Moon, and Sagittarius rising. I’ll talk about her more in the Aquarius newsletter.
RELATED POST: HOW to Write Astrology Archetypes: Sun Signs, Moon Signs, and Rising Signs
MAXIMUS: The Knight in Shining Armor
“It is a knight’s duty to better this fallen world.” -Maximus, Fallout
Right now, Maximus is Don Quixote, the earnest and delusional knight created by the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, or “Cervantes.” As Thaddeus would say, Guess What! Thadeus is Fallout’s version of Quixote’s companion, Sancho Panza.
Maximus wants to be the knight who is motivated by finding the truth or achieving freedom for all—and that may be his eventual path.
Sagittarius rules religions, and Max is a true believer. He can’t quite comprehend the hypocrisy and cynicism around him. He is a little too flexible, easy to manipulate, and sways in the direction of the thoughts of the last person he spoke with.
But he just can’t stop acting independently. He says, “I don’t want to do the things I have to do! They just keep happening!”
I am also giving Maximus a Capricorn Rising because the world sees him as an ambitious climber. He fails up. We know he has Daddy issues and is looking for approval, and the way he navigates the Brotherhood definitely fits the Capricorn profile. Now in season 2, he is once again hooked up with an older man. Let’s find out what happens.
Capricorn is next month, so I’ll talk about Maximus more in-depth then.
NORM McClean: Deep Diver
“Maybe we could do to them what they would have done to us.”
-Norm MacLean, Fallout
People always forget about Norman MacLean, Lucy’s brother, played by the capable and fascinating actor Moises Arias. Arias has mastered the power of stillness. This actor portrays Norm as a quiet, determined person.
Norm is the Scorpio Detective trope in many ways. He wants to dig deeper. He can’t leave well enough alone.
Norm didn’t get his name on the screen as an introduction. His face isn’t on the poster. He is the underground hero, so to speak. (See what I did there?) This is my only quibble. In S1E8, when he was standing in Vault 31, realizing what was happening, that’s when we should have seen “NORM” fill the screen. It made me wonder how long he will live.
Chaos Agent?
Introverts are interesting when the camera closes in.
I’m thinking Norm is our secret agent for chaos. Having a Sagittarius moon and Gemini Rising puts Norm in a classic Independent Study class. He learned all about the computers so he could snoop around and get the big picture, not as the “job” the Vault leaders gave him.
That Sagittarius-Gemini Moon-Rising combination can be dangerous to the status quo! They know bullsh!t when they hear it and can dish some out themselves if the situation calls for it.
When Norm reveals his father’s backstory and storylines overlap, and Hank and Betty appear in the Cooper Howard storyline, you can hear the collective audience saying, “There’s Betty!”
Norm’s nemesis, Betty, is played by the great Leslie Uggams. I don’t think it’s going to be a small part. That doesn’t bode well for Norm. He is going to have to shake things up and get out of there.
I’m going to save the longer article about Norm until I get to the Scorpio Newsletter in November 2026. Hopefully, that will be right before season three, and hopefully he will still be alive.
What do you think? I have a question. Do you think Norm was named after the author of A River Runs Through It? Hank is a big reader. If so, why? Seems too coincidental to me.
Fallout has put each of our characters in situations that will test their skills and moral fortitude, forcing them to examine every action. The show is popular just when we need to examine our actions as Americans and as world citizens, deciding how to deal with America and its Corporate Overseers.
SEASON 2 of Fallout is on Amazon Prime as of December 17, 2025. Get a Fallout recap before diving into this season.