Fallout boldly established its first season with three main characters. Lucy MacLean filled the role fans would expect by being a new citizen of the wasteland after leaving the vault. Maximus presented the Brotherhood of Steel perspective, representing an omnipresent faction. The Ghoul is the wild card. The omnicompetent, experienced, 200-year-old undead gunslinger is more than a wandering anti-hero. His backstory tells the story of the apocalypse as Fallout slowly lays out the details.
Walton Goggins was the biggest name in the cast of Fallout when Amazon announced the show. The star of shows like Justified and The Righteous Gemstones feels wonderfully at home in Westerns. He’s been a cowboy in every imaginable scenario, up and down the moral spectrum. Fallout asks him to portray a version of himself and the terrible monster that the character becomes after the bombs fall.
Who is Cooper Howard in Fallout?
Cooper Howard is one of the very few men who lived to see the world before, during, and after the bombs fell. Howard was once a US Marine. He fought in the Sino-American War, specifically defending the frontlines in Alaska. His experiences at war left him with an appreciation for his country and a healthy concern about the possibility of being conquered. After leaving the military, Howard became a movie star. He performed in Westerns like A Man and His Dog and The Man from Deadhorse. He developed a massive fanbase, but the industry seemed to shift around him. Anti-communist fever hit the US government, sending many respected writers and performers to jail for their political beliefs. This movement also altered popular trends in films. Howard typically played heroic sheriffs who stopped and arrested villains. Directors and audiences demanded death, pushing Howard past his comfort zone and forcing him to question his character. Around the same time, he took a lucrative advertising deal with Vault-Tec that would change his life.
Howard’s wife, Barb, worked at Vault-Tec. Howard used his celebrity to sell the bunkers his wife believed would save humanity when the nukes fell. Howard inspired the classic Vault Boy. His interactions with Vault-Tec executives caused him to develop misgivings. His partnership with the company also ruined his acting career as studios rejected him. As Howard learned more about the vaults, he frequently fought with his wife over the Draconian future her company imagined for humanity. His shifting feelings led him into a meeting with Charlie Whiteknife, whom he both acted and served alongside. He met a researcher named Miss Williams, who pushed him to pursue his suspicions by spying on Barb. After some trepidation, Howard bugged Barb’s Pip-Boy and overheard a meeting. Howard heard Barb suggest dropping nuclear bombs to guarantee Vault-Tec’s success and their larger mission of a perfect future, dominated by managers. This destroyed their marriage, leaving Howard saddled with alimony payments. Without acting opportunities, he became an entertainer for parties. At one of his jobs, he watched the nukes hit LA.
How did Cooper Howard become the Ghoul?
Howard suffered direct exposure to the nuclear blast. The show leaves a massive gap in his life after the bombs fell. Howard lived as a ghoul, an irradiated post-human. He survived for over 200 years, braving the wasteland through superior skills. His moral compass has changed drastically when the show catches up with him. The Ghoul becomes a bounty hunter, consistently tracking down wanted individuals for money. He needed to earn a suitable living in order to afford the unspecified chemical that kept him sapient. Regular inhalants kept the Ghoul in his right mind. Howard remained conscious, though he no longer used his name. If he couldn’t use his medicine, he’d risk becoming feral. He joins the show as a threat, hunting a target protected by Lucy MacLean.
The Ghoul’s place in the series involves showing Lucy a dark mirror. She’s experiencing the wasteland for the first time, convinced she can adapt to its challenges. The Ghoul attempted the same task, succeeded, and then continued to develop beyond a moral compass. The Ghoul hunts and captures Lucy to force her to give up a severed head she’s carrying. She loses his medicine, so he tries to sell her off for a fresh dose. After she escapes, saving him to prove him wrong, the Ghoul watches one of his old films. Filled with renewed vigor, the Ghoul hunts Miss Williams, now reborn as Lee Moldaver. Tracking Lucy, he reaches Moldaver’s hideout in time to realize Vault-Tec’s secret. The company kept its executives alive in stasis, prompting him to believe they have his wife and daughter somewhere. He puts a bullet in Lucy’s dad, secretly a Vault-Tech employee, and leaves with Lucy to track him down.
Cooper Howard is a living measure of the grim fate of the wasteland. He develops from a heroic sheriff to a vicious bounty hunter. He watches himself succumb to the villainy his career once fought. Lucy’s influence pushes him toward his old self, but some part of him can never return. Fallout provides extensive flashbacks to establish the character as one of the show’s best. Fans will have to wait and see where his hunt will take him if the show returns for a second season.
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