Four main characters in Season One of Fallout have their own separate Story Enneagrams. Lucy is the first post-apocalypse character we meet in the series.
ONE
Lucy is selected to breed. Let’s not sugarcoat her opening situation. Although she’s cheerful and spunky, she, like every other person of a certain age in the Vault 31-32-33 triangle, is forced to marry a stranger. The show encourages us to gloss over those details.
TWO
Continuing Episode One, Moldaver kidnaps Hank. Not until the final episode do we learn why. This is such very clear Trouble for Lucy. Even her violent raider husband wouldn’t prompt her to leave the vault. It’s only her beloved father who jump-starts her journey. Also, Moldaver tells her, “You look like your mother.” This is another mystery unsolved until the finale. Although it hides in the background, this comment is part of the Trouble.
THREE
Lucy exits the vault. The opening of the door to Vault 33 is the Three. Interestingly, it’s also Norm’s Three (which we’ll see in a later post). The Sixes for each character are very different. I really like that their stories lead them in different directions after they share this beat.
FOUR
Episode Two begins Lucy’s Four. Immediately she meets Wilzig, who is so critical to multiple storylines. Although, ostensibly, Lucy is looking for her father, she’s basically wandering. In her Four, she wanders alone. (I refuse to count Wilzig’s head as a companion, lol.) In Episode Three she plants the tracker up his nose. Looking back over the episodes I was surprised by what comes next: Through this episode and part of Episode Four, Lucy is tormented by Ghoul Coop. These beats aren’t for Lucy; they belong to Coop. We watch his character develop while Lucy is left to react. Lucy rides through one and a half episodes, tortured along the way, so that we can see that her perpetual perkiness is undaunted. I didn’t enjoy watching this section or writing about it. I think the showrunners could’ve presented Coop’s critical information in a way that gave Lucy an arc. The gulper bait is funny; the ass jerky isn’t.
SWITCH
However, in Episode Four Lucy has her first memory of her mother, Rose. It happens while she’s semi-conscious on Snip Snip’s gurney. This doesn’t necessarily change Lucy’s arc or her journey. It changes her theme, though. By the end of the season we know that Lucy must find her mother — in reality and in her memories — as much as she needs to find Hank. This Switch, which is mostly conceptual, starts that process.
FIVE
As her last beat in Episode Four, Lucy gives a desperate Coop some of the vials that will keep him from turning feral. He’s helpless on the ground and she chooses to be generous. “The Golden Rule.” Lucy is no longer isolated; she begins to form connections, even with someone as repugnant as Ghoul Coop. In Episode Five she finds and helps Maximus. After that, they are a team. Even more, they become a couple. Lucy now wanders with a partner. In Episode Six, which takes place in Vault 4, Lucy acts independently, but Maximus is ready to have her back when things turn ugly.
SIX
In Episode Seven, Lucy learns she was wrong about Vault 4 as it operates now. She and Maximus are expelled from the vault. At the Three she left Vault 33 of her own volition. It’s the same image, though, of Lucy stepping out into the Wasteland on the far side of a vault door. This time she’s not alone.
SEVEN
After a brief traveling interlude, Lucy and Maximus find Thaddeus and Wilzig’s head at the end of Episode Seven. Sharing a first kiss with Maximus, Lucy sets out on her own with the head. The decision to break up the team is Lucy’s Seven.
EIGHT
All of Lucy’s Eight is in Episode Eight. She arrives at the Observatory, finds her father, unexpectedly finds her mother, and learns the truth of everything from Moldaver. She remembers leaving Vault 33 as a child with her mother. She learns that her father nuked innocent people. Although she’s reluctant to leave an unconscious Maximus, she must avoid the Brotherhood. She shoots the snarling ghoul that used to be her mother.
NINE
She chooses to travel with Coop and Dogmeat. We have a trio, primed for next season, following Hank.
ENNEAGRAM
Lucy ended up being the most difficult main character for me. She was forced to represent the vault dweller’s naivete, which can become annoying. That’s not her fault; that’s a requirement of the story. However, Lucy will become tedious because of it. Also, the director of Episode Eight decided to linger in close-up on Purnell’s face during all the gut-wrenching reveals she confronts. I didn’t approve; she seemed to have only one weepy expression. This is someone who’s been shown horror after horror throughout Season One, and we’ve seen how she reacts. Her best moments are when she takes action, such as freeing the Super Duper Mart prisoners or saving Maximus from his radroach-infested armor. Sitting around like a helpless waterworks doesn’t suit her.
Does this mean Lucy is a Body Type? She’s established in the vault as being physically competent. We don’t see much of that in the Wasteland, but when called upon she can still bring it.
Is this a One? She likes her rules, that’s for sure. If we take the idea that the residents of Vault 33 have been bred over the past 200 years to be middle-managers, a One isn’t a bad choice. Also, this reinforces my dislike of her climactic scenes. You don’t ask a One to emote. They walk about the room, taking physical actions and dropping witty retorts. Like gunslinger Sundance in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Lucy is better when she’s allowed to move. Her character doesn’t lend itself to a static close-up.
If Coop is a Three, Lucy as a One makes for a very solid dynamic. These are both no-nonsense people who will pursue their goal. It’s a good idea.