I’m not sure I’d call him a villain, but if I were gonna put him on the D&D alignment chart, he’d probably be Neutral Evil.
What makes his villain status iffy is that he is a protagonist. The narrative is setup so we root for him at least part of the time.
From the POV of almost anyone else in the Wasteland part of the narrative he’s a dangerous bad guy. Except with Lucy, where it’s ambivalent.
I think this episode made it clear why everyone is in New Vegas. Hank went there for several reasons. He knew there was a management vault with test subjects he could use and that the Ghoul ‘s family was there. And presumably to link up with House although I am not sure about that part. The rest went there to follow Hank.
As far as why House is important. Even without the game (which I did play but so many years ago I barely remember the story), we know he was part of the cabal that started the war and this season has given us more of his prewar back story. I think this show has been very good about telling their story separate from the game.
The Ghoul is not a villain; he’s an anti hero.
Anti-heroes are not heroic, but they still try to do good.
I’m not convinced The Ghoul is interested in “doing good”. He’s definitely got his own motives, but I’m not sure they’re anything but selfish.
The line between anti-hero and villain can be a thin one, and it’s my opinion that’s the case here although, of course, it’s my opinion. Feel free to have a different one.
I think flashback Cooper was an anti hero, The Ghoul is just a villain.
A real villain would have actually sold out that NCR remnant to the Legion, I think.
He might have, what he did at the end to get them fighting each other seemed to be more of an improvised move as he was leaving so betrayal might always have been the original plan.
Huh.
I perceive Ghoul as someone who wants to be a villain and who justifiably understands that is the best path to survival, that everyone else would kill him first given the chance, but who still, despite his better judgment, and reluctantly, can’t stop himself from occasionally caring and doing right things.
With last episodes reveal that he only took Lucy along as a bargaining chip I struggle to think of any instance that he tried to do good for unselfish reasons.
I think it’s pretty clear hat the Ghoul is bitter and pragmatic but Lucy’s morality is starting to have a positive effect on him. Other than using Lucy as bait in Season one he has consistently done the right thing since meeting her.
He’s been saving Lucy because he needed her, I can’t think of any instance of him doing “good” just for goods sake and not in efforts to rescue her or keep her out of trouble.
That was a reveal? To anyone other than Lucy?
I thought it was clear from last season’s end? The twist if there was one that feels bad about it by the time they got there. It’s the cynical bitter old gunfighter finding that there is still a part of him that cares about right and wrong damnit trope.
It was to me, maybe it should have been obvious but I never considered bargaining with Hank as an option.
He chose not to sell out the NCR when he would have easily. Instead he let the Legions kill each other.
Adding responses as I get caught up…
The show also has Maximus survive a nuke in a refrigerator to be fair.
I agree that this was the implication but I really really really hope that this is not the last we see if Caesar’s Legion! They were a very interesting faction in the game, even if I always treated them as antagonistic.
I noticed their weapons matched up very well to the weapons the Legion uses ingame, which was a nice touch.
That filthy IV was the worst thing I’ve ever seen 
I highly doubt that he only took Lucy along as a bargaining chip. That’s what he said now when it was time to betray her to justify it to himself, but he was clearly torn up about it. I think he might have known the bargaining chip aspect would come up in the back of his mind, but I don’t believe that this has been his only motivation for working with Lucy this whole time.
I think he sold them out reluctantly because he needed Lucy and then took the opportunity to have them wipe each other out when he saw it. The “distraction” that started the fight seemed like a completely impromptu decision as he was walking out and he noticed the barrel of explosives.
If he could have bargained with something other than Lucy, would he have done so? I think that likely.
But he clearly knew whose daughter she was even before she did, in the sense he was aware of her father’s bad side and bad actions. I think he expected the outcome that occurred (well, maybe not Lucy punching him out the window).
Oh, the Super Mutant was apparently Ron Perlman, the original “War. War never changes,” guy.
I found the time jumping in this one to be confusing (we had two different pre-war flashbacks going on throughout the episode)…also am not a fan of how much they are backing off on corporate callousness starting the war and going back to “government is eeeevil.” Which…yes… but also yes. Let it be them hand in hand and not Corpos blackmailed into it.
The corporate war room scene was so chilling because it went from “what? that’s craaazy, right?” to “how can we profit from the end of the world?” And then a pitch session.
Curious what other people think–remembering that the US of the Fallout universe is canonically a horrible, imperialist, paranoid and repressive place. There’s no bottom for what their governement and what their corporations were allowed to do.
I wonder why the show resonates with audiences.
I do think it’s interesting Perlman’s character said “mutants” and not “super mutants.” We’ve seen mutant-mutants in the show. I hope the the show doesn’t shy away from calling them Super Mutants.
The Uranium Fever music video was a lot of fun. I’m surprised Betty isn’t better at ‘managing’ this situation.
One of the “Big Unanswered Questions” ™ in the Fallout franchise is “who dropped the bombs first”, so I’m glad they’re keeping it ambiguous; those kinds of questions are never satisfying when they’re answered definitively. I hope we don’t get a definitive answer later in the series.