‘Fallout’ Season 2 Star Justin Theroux On the Violent Scene That Welcomes His Character to the Show: “It’s Such a Delicious Way to Introduce Robert House”

Justin Theroux says his mind was blown reading the very first scene of Fallout Season 2 and that just feels right.

**Spoilers for Season 2 Episode 1 of Fallout, “The Innovator,” now streaming on Prime Video**

After a lengthy recap of Season 1, the second season of the video game adaptation opens on a small bar where Robert House, the enigmatic tech CEO played by Theroux in the series, prods three patrons into a fight out back, only to implant a device into the spinal cord of one of them, taking control over the man and prompting him to beat his other friends with a bat.

“I think it’s such a delicious way to introduce Robert House,” he told DECIDER in an interview for Season 2. “It basically throws out a bunch of threads with the device, with his motivations, and it’s all obviously in the past.”

The opening scene ends with House, realizing the monster he has created is about to turn on him, turning up a dial on a remote that blows the man’s head clean off and leaves Theroux’s character standing in a back alley alone. For Theroux — who joins the cast as a newcomer for Season 2 — it’s an excellent way to preserve the element of surprise for those going in blind.

“I love it just because it presents a forward-facing [version] as what we and fans of the show know as Robert House, but it keeps him mysterious enough to know how he figures into all of this and how he figures into the end of the world,” the actor explained of his first scene.

He added, “I thought it was such a great scene. And the fact that he would sort of put himself in that position at the beginning of the show to do some real sort of market research, some on the ground did market research with his device was kind of great, so, I loved it.”

It’s going to be a waiting game for fans who are desperate to find out how and why Robert House it behind it all, especially after his role in the nuclear apocalypse was first teased in an early Season 2 trailer. In that first look, Cooper/The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) can be heard saying that they are going back to where it all started with one man, followed by a voiceover from Theroux’s character, foreshadowing a meeting between the two men.

“Cooper Howard, star of the silver screen. Like yourself, I am the very best at what I do. And what I do is I know everything, ” House says in the trailer as he and Cooper come face to face in his Las Vegas penthouse. “My concern is that you would do just about anything to save your family. I think you are actually quite a violent man. You just don’t want to kill me… yet.”

Just one episode in, the meeting between House and Cooper has not happened yet, but it’s clear that fans are going to be on the edge of their seat when it does down the line. In the meantime, Theroux told DECIDER he is focused on not spoiling anything and celebrating his winning, albeit violent, entrance into the Fallout universe.

“Fallout‘s very deft at bringing people into the world in a really sort of stunning way,” he said.

The first episode of Fallout Season 2 is now streaming on Prime Video. You can also catch up on the entire first season right now.

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