Dr. Robert House is an innovative man, and Justin Theroux expertly plays him on Fallout Season 2.
Now, when we first learned that Theroux would play Dr. House, I questioned everything. After all, the man had already been spotted in the first season, so why was a recast happening?
Well, it’s not quite a recast; instead, it highlights the real dangers of technology and the world we could end up living in.
(Lorenzo Sisti / Prime)
The Creators of Technology
Technology itself isn’t the danger, and it never really has been.
Sure, we see it with AI and robots taking over the world in sci-fi all the time. Just look at The Terminator!
However, given the realities of technology, there are far too many limitations in AI and robots for them to pose a real danger.
Fallout Season 2 highlights that the danger is the people behind the technology, and if we’re honest with ourselves, we can see that in the real world today.
(Screenshot from Fallout Season 2 Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECI3eCAxRGw))
Innovators need to test their products, and Dr. Robert House is not afraid to test those products on people. He doesn’t care what happens to them.
On the Fallout Season 2 premiere, he offers a man a whopping $31 million just to test a product, even though he knows it probably won’t work.
When the man’s head explodes, House isn’t all that bothered about it. All he cares about is the fact that he’s back at the drawing board with his brain-computer interface.
Technology is only as good as its creators, and when it doesn’t work as expected, it’s up to them to figure out why.
That’s exactly what House is doing in this first episode, but it’s not just about him.
(Prime Video)
The Dangers of the Following
Later on, during the Fallout Season 2 premiere, we catch up with Hank MacLean, who has made it to New Vegas.
Now, given that he has picked up on the brain-computer interface research, he is trying to connect with House via the radio.
He knows that House likely wouldn’t have survived for 200+ years, but he also knows that House is a wise man and would have figured something out. Sure, his body won’t have survived, but what about his mind?
That doesn’t really matter, though, as Hank could potentially become the far more dangerous villain of the two.
(Lorenzo Sisti / Prime © Amazon Content Services LLC)
This is a man who wants to succeed where House could not, and we know what that means. He’s going to continue with the testing.
Now, it’s likely going to be harder to test this on the people in the post-apocalyptic world, but there are clearly some options.
He’s already used the device on one guy — flea soup woman isn’t going to get her money! — and there are plenty more people just trying to survive out there.
When you get a loyal follower with the same lack of morals, you end up with a more dangerous villain, as there’s no telling how far he will go to prove himself.
We see that in the trailer for Fallout Season 2!
House Remains the Threat
This takes us all the way back to House, who is a threat and a reminder that the real danger is the man behind the machine.
House is engaging and charismatic enough to gain a following, and he knows it.
The way he holds himself and the way he speaks, he knows that he is smart and above people, and he treats others like cannon fodder.
At the same time, he can inspire people to be like him. Those who are looking for praise and acceptance are going to turn to him for that, because they view him as better than they are.
(Prime Video)
It’s toxicity at its finest, but it’s happening in the world we live in.
Look at how many people look up to the likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and so many more in the tech industry.
There’s this view that they are superior, and even if they do wrong, people will defend them.
Some people would have defended House for his experiments, especially given the type of man House tested his brain-computer interface on, and we see it in the world today.
The man behind the machine is far more dangerous than anything technology can give us, and Fallout Season 2 has highlighted that in one marvelous scene.
Fallout Season 2 airs on Wednesdays at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT on Prime Video.
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While it’s clear that Dr. House is one of the big Fallout Season 2 villains, his arc highlights the real dangers of technology.
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Fallout Season 2 Episode 1 opens with the New Vegas and Vault storylines, making sure we know there is a bigger threat out there.
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