Fallout Season 2's Legion Is The Most Terrifying Faction In The Franchise

Fallout: New Vegas is a vast role-playing sandbox. Its emphasis on player freedom yields more than 100 variations in the ending cutscenes, although the game champions four major faction endings. One of these branched narratives ends with Caesar’s Legion taking over the New Vegas Strip after driving the New California Republic (NCR) out of the Mojave Wasteland.

Season 2 of Amazon Prime’s Fallout introduces us to this imperialist faction after Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) stumbles into their encampment while escorting a female survivor. This is an interesting turn of events, considering that Caesar’s Legion leads to one of New Vegas’ harshest endings, as they usher in brutality and chaos no matter what choices you make.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Fallout Season 2, Episode 3.

Once Lucy is taken to the Legion encampment, we learn that Caesar is dead. Unaware that the name of his successor is written on a piece of paper inside his pocket, his men have split into opposing factions with newly appointed Caesars. Neither faction is better than the other, as the Legion unanimously believes in totalitarian dictatorship, basing its values on the worst aspects of the Roman Empire. Macaulay Culkin’s yet-to-be-named Legion centurion nails Lucy to a cross, and she’s saved only after the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) makes a deal with one of the Caesars.

In New Vegas, the player-controlled Courier can choose to work for Caesar by completing the “Render Unto Caesar” quest, which opens up various Legion-related storylines depending on the choices you make. Caesar opposes the NCR because he believes the faction doesn’t care for “the greater good,” but his own barbaric policies are rooted in autocracy. What’s more, Caesar takes advantage of his men’s ignorance by claiming that he’s the son of Mars and executing anyone who dares to suggest otherwise. His second-in-command, Legate Lanius, is somehow worse. Known as the Terror of the East, Lanius leads bloody conquests without remorse, and seems to be loyal only to Caesar, caring little about the hundreds who make up the Legion.

Pursuing the Legion ending means contending with two major outcomes. In “Et Tumor, Brute?,” we learn that Caesar has a deadly brain tumor and is in immediate need of surgery or a cure. There are several ways to go about this, including taking a trip to a ghoul-infested, irradiated Vault 34 to secure an Auto-Doc or performing the surgery yourself. If you save Caesar and complete the Legion’s endgame quest, then New Vegas ends with Caesar pushing the NCR out of their Mojave outpost and enslaving a large chunk of the population. Every major location falls under Legion rule, and political stability is achieved across the Wasteland at a terrible cost.

Considering the bleak nature of Caesar’s victory, his demise can’t lead to a worse outcome, right? Well, New Vegas presents Caesar as the lesser of two evils, and if you allow Legate Lanius to be crowned as his successor, Lanius spearheads a horrific occupation of major locations. He murders indiscriminately, with no regard for diplomacy. Caesar, for example, keeps Arcade Gannon (a scientist and possible companion of the Courier) on hand as a doctor, but Lanius has him crucified as soon as he takes charge. The NCR Rangers are met with the same treatment under Lanius’ rule, as is another faction, the Followers of the Apocalypse, who are exterminated instead of being allowed to leave.

It’s too early to deduce how the Fallout series will tackle the Legion, but the faction will almost certainly play a crucial role in an unavoidable civil struggle. By the end of Episode 3, the Ghoul double-crosses the Legion by pretending to give them the location of the last NCR holdout in the area. Just before they leave, the Ghoul sets off explosives to spark a conflict between the two Caesar factions, which serves as the perfect diversion to resolve an impossible situation. While we don’t know too much about Culkin’s character yet, it’s possible that he’s none other than Lanius, and we could see him don the Legate armor in future episodes. Alternatively, he could be Vulpes, a devout believer of Caesar’s dogma, or a new character altogether.

How Fallout decides to flesh out the Legion remains to be seen, but right now, the Wasteland has bigger fish to fry. Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan) is on the verge of perfecting mind control chips, and Maximus (Aaron Moten) has unwittingly plunged the Brotherhood of Steel into an all-out battle. No matter what happens in Vegas, the future isn’t pretty.

New episodes of Fallout release on Wednesdays on Prime Video.