Ella Purnell explains Lucy’s big decision in the Fallout season 1 finale, how the climactic scene came together, and what it means for season 2.

Fallout star Ella Purnell explains the climactic decision that Lucy makes during the season 1 finale. Releasing in its entirety on Prime Video earlier this month, the acclaimed adaptation hails from showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. After an action-packed and twisting season, the Fallout season 1 finale sees Lucy learn that her father, Hank (Kyle Maclachlan), is responsible for the destruction of Shady Sands and her mother being turned into a Ghoul. In the season’s finale moments, Lucy kills what remains of her mother before opting to follow Walton Goggins’ Ghoul out into the Wasteland.

Following the Fallout season 2 confirmation, Purnell breaks down Lucy’s big decision and moment of revelation during an interview with GQ. According to the actor, the scene of Lucy mercy-killing her mother went through several different iterations on set before they landed on the correct tone and level of emotion. Purnell also teases what this could mean for Lucy heading into season 2. Check out her full comment below:

She has to go through the five stages of grief in such a short amount of time.

We reshot [the scene], because originally we all had a different idea of how that ending was going to go. We originally shot me killing my mum as a really emotional moment; there were a lot of tears and wailing. And it just didn’t feel right. We felt like, if she’s gonna get up and go into the wasteland, she needs to be a changed woman, and maybe her grief needs to give way to something harder.

By killing her mum in a mercy kill, she’s doing exactly what the Ghoul did to Roger [in episode four]. She’s learnt from him. She has turned into him. When she said, “I’ll never be you,” maybe that’s not true. And in that moment, when she shoots her mum, it means so many things. It means, ‘I’m coming with you.’ It means, ‘I’m gonna meet my makers.’ It means, ‘I f***ing hate you, but I have turned into you, you were right.’ It means she’s letting go of her golden centre.

I want the audience at the end of the show to wonder if their hero is still a good person. I don’t know who she’s gonna be in season two, [but] this is what happens when you break the unbreakable. I don’t know who she’s about to become.

What Could Be Next For Lucy In Fallout Season 2

Ella Purnell’s Character Has Been Changed By The Season 1 Finale

Lucy, a Vault Dweller, essentially serves as an audience stand-in for much of season 1, helping introduce the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout to viewers who aren’t familiar with the games. It’s through Lucy that the different factions and creatures of the apocalypse are introduced, and she slowly becomes more hardened as the series goes on. After she goes through all this hardship and finally finds her father, she learns about his evil deeds and his hit with several big revelations all at once.

After she disowns her father in the Fallout season 1 finale, season 2 could feature a Lucy who is far less wide-eyed and naive. She has now truly experienced the horrors of the Wasteland and will have to come to terms with her family’s role in the state of the world. The Ghoul is shown to be a violent and generally remorseless figure, and her decision to follow him suggests she could become someone similar.

It’s not clear when season 2 will pick up in the larger Fallout timeline, but audiences could be in for a little less world-building in the show’s sophomore outing. With many of the pieces now set on the board and with Lucy now largely accustomed to the state of the world, season 2 could end up exploring Purnell’s character on an even deeper level. It remains to be seen what’s next for Lucy in Fallout, but it’s clear that the events of the finale will have big repurcussions in the episodes ahead.