Fallout Recap With Spoilers: Episodes 1 and 2

WARNING: This article contains FULL SPOILERS for the first two episodes of Fallout… The series kicks off with a look into both the future and the past, beginning with the infamous year 2077. Cooper, a former Western actor played by Walton Goggins, performs at a kids birthday party in Los Angeles. As the cake is being cut, the Los Angeles skyline behind them erupts and nuclear bombs land throughout the city. Cooper pulls his daughter onto his horse and rides up the hill, away from the blasts.

After the title screen, Fallout cuts to 219 years later, the year 2296. In Vault 33, Lucy MacLean describes herself to the leadership council of the vault in order to be approved for a “trade” with the neighboring Vault 32. She lives there with her father, Hank (the Overseeer), and her brother, Norm. She wants to participate in the trade with 32 so she can find a suitable mate, as there are no real options in 33 outside of her own family. Lucy’s friend, Stephanie, is already pregnant, and the two hope they can one day raise their kids together.

Lucy is approved for the trade program, and 33 gets ready for a wedding. A husband from 32 will be sent to 33 to marry Lucy. The only member of the Vault community not exactly thrilled about it seems to be Lucy’s cousin, Chet, who admits he’s in love with her. We learn that Lucy’s mom has passed on already, and that Hank came from Vault 31 originally. Vaults 31, 32, and 33 are all connected through tunnels, but they only come together for trade occasions. Hank informs everyone at the wedding that their mission of reclamation of the surface world, will be able to happen in the next generation.

The folks from 32 come through the gate and Lucy meets her new husband, though something seems off about them. As Lucy and her husband consummate their marriage in their new vault home, Norm wanders into Vault 32 to find it abandoned, all of its crops dead. As he realizes that the members of that Vault have long been dead, he realizes the group that arrived for the wedding are actually raiders from the surface world, led by a mysterious woman named Muldaver. Lucy’s husband attacks and stabs her, but she’s able to fight him off long enough to get away. The raiders carry out a whole coordinated attack on 33, killing many and taking what they can. Lucy sets out to help her fellow Vault Dwellers fight back. Stephanie loses an eye in the process, and her husband is one of those who are killed. Muldaver takes the remaining hostages to the gate, forcing Hank to choose between them and Lucy. He picks Lucy and Muldaver throws her into a secure closet, telling her as she closes the door, “You look like your mother.” She takes Hank away with her group of raiders and tosses a bomb into the gateway with everyone else. They all manage to get to safety before the bomb goes off.

The show cuts to the surface world, where a young recruit in the Brotherhood of Steel, Maximus, is being beaten by several of his peers. His one friend in the camp, Dane, arrives to offer him a helping hand, but the others scatter. Everyone in camp is training to be a Squire in the Brotherhood of Steel, the assistants who travel with and aide the power armor-wearing Knights. Several of these Knights arrive at the camp as the Brotherhood prepares for a new mission. Dane is informed that they’ve been promoted to the role of Squire and will be assigned a Knight for the mission and Max is clearly devastated that he has yet to be selected. The next morning, Dane wakes everyone with their screams and reveal that razor blades have been lodged in one of their boots, causing the nasty injuries to their foot. It’s enough to keep them from taking part in their Squire duties and everyone seems to think Max is responsible, largely because of how upset he’d been when he didn’t get the job. He’s taken in to see an Elder Cleric for questioning.

The dwellers of Vault 33 clean up from the massacre at the hands of the raiders and attempt to move on with life below the surface. Lucy proposes going to the surface to find her dad but nearly everyone thinks opening the gates is a terrible idea. Betty, the senior ranking member of the council, shuts down the conversation and says the focus needs to be on keeping everyone safe and rebuilding what they’ve lost. Lucy, Norm, and Chet concoct a plan to get Lucy outside without anyone knowing until it’s too late. With Chet being the Vault’s gatekeeper, they have an opportunity. Lucy immobilizes Chet with a temporary drug so that he won’t follow her out to the surface. She tells Norm goodbye and heads out to the surface for the very first time. A couple of others arrive at the gate to try and stop her but they’re too late. The bright and sandy surface world outside Vault 33 is unlike anything Lucy has seen before, and the human bones scattered near the Vault’s entrance promise danger all around. The Vault, as it turns out, is just beside the Santa Monica beach in California, and she begins her trek down the coast.

Maximus meets with the Elder Cleric to be questioned for his actions. He explains that he joined the Brotherhood “to hurt the people that hurt me.” Another flashback shows Max as a young boy hiding out amidst the rubble of a freshly bombed town. He’s asked who put the razor in Dane’s boot. While he confirms he hoped for some kind of injury so that he could get the desired promotion, it wasn’t him that caused the injury. When asked if he’s weak, Max replies, “I don’t wanna be.” After a long speech where he fights off tears and says he’d gladly give his life for the Brotherhood, Max is told that he’ll be receiving the Squire promotion to replace Dane. There still isn’t any real clarity on who placed the razors in the first place, but Dane told the Elder that Max wasn’t capable of such a thing. Max is sworn in as a Squire and branded as part of the Brotherhood. His “sacred duty” is protecting Knight Titus, the Knight that he’s assigned to serve. The Knights at the camp receive their new mission, this one coming from the elder-most Cleric in the Brotherhood. They’re told that a “denizen of the Enclave” has escaped and that “he has an object of profound potential to harm our nation, or to save it.” Every Knight receives a picture of the Enclave runaway (and his dog) before being sent out into the Wild to find him.

Somewhere else in the Wasteland, late at night, a trio of thieves led by a man named Honcho arrive at a hidden grave to dig up the mutated gunslinger being kept alive beneath the ground. Cooper, now living as a Ghoul 200 years after the bombs fell, is woken from his slumber. It’s clear this isn’t the first time he’s been brought back to do some kind of nasty work for the highest bidder. Honcho tells the Ghoul about a massive bounty that could set them all up comfortably for the rest of their lives. He assumes the Ghoul will be interested in the Enclave runaway (the same one the Brotherhood are chasing) because he’s reportedly headed to California to find Muldaver. There’s some kind of history between Muldaver and the Ghoul but we don’t learn more just yet. The Ghoul quickly takes out both of Honcho’s men and tosses him down into the hole with the casket. 

Fallout Episode 2

The second episode begins with a montage of a scientist, Dr. Wilzig, working in a lab that tests on dogs. The runt of a litter is supposed to be killed for being too small, but he fudges the numbers and raises the dog as his own, training her and keeping her as his own. His work leads him to a very small, powerful substance that glows bright blue. He takes the tiny substance, no bigger than a grain of rice, and injects it into the back of his neck, below his ear. He’s clearly working to hide it. When another scientist discovers Wilzig’s secret dog, he sounds an alarm to let others know. The dog attacks the man and saves Wilzig, and the two of them escape the Enclave facility together.

Lucy walks alone through the Wasteland, off on the search for her father. In an abandoned home, she finds the bodies of an entire family who killed themselves with rat poison, cluing her in on how just devastating the surface world can be. She sets up camp for the night and starts herself a fire, but is woken up in the middle of the night to the sounds of a dog growling. Dr. Wilzig is sitting across the fire and his dog attacks a nearby radroach. He talks about how creatures like roaches didn’t just survive the fallout, but found a way to take forward steps in their evolution.

“You should know better than to light a fire after dark.”

Lucy asks about her father and Wilzig pleads with her to return to Vault 33. He explains the dangers of the world and that she may not be willing to become the person she needs to be in order to survive. He asks if she will want the same things when she “becomes a different animal altogether.” After that ominous message, Wilzig walks away into the night.

Maximus and his Knight, Titus, were sent to look for Wilzig in a town called Filly, but Titus commands the helicopter pilot to drop them off miles outside of the town because he’s bored and “wants to shoot something.” As a Squire, Max has to carry a massive bag of equipment around behind the Knight. The big is at least as big as he is.

Wilzig and his dog stop to eat in a small clearing in the woods near a cave. By the mouth of the cave, the dog finds a human hand and Wilzig notices more human remains scattered around nearby. Maximus and Titus come up on the same clearing, though Wilzig and the dog are already gone. Max notices the shirt and food left behind by the scientist and thinks they may be hot on the trail. Investigating the cave, Titus sends Max into the darkness ahead of him, even though Max isn’t wearing any armor. He sees Squires as dispensable. A yaogui bear appears from behind Titus and attacks him. The two get into a massive brawl and Titus ends up trying to run away. The Yaogui attacks Titus and Maximus waits to do something about it, allowing the Knight to suffer fatal wounds before finally shooting and killing the animal. He neglects to give Titus the medicine he needs, paying him back for the way Titus treated his life like it wasn’t important. As he dies, he rambles on about how much he hates his job and he alludes to the fact that a lot of missions from the Brotherhood of Steel are ultimately meaningless.

“It is a Knight’s duty to better this fallen world,” Maximus says. “You don’t deserve this armor.”

Maximus is warned of how he’ll be punished if he returns to the Brotherhood without Titus, but he thinks it won’t matter if he brings Wilzig back himself.

Lucy comes upon a man in an empty home and she gets a taste of what living on the surface looks like for most. There’s no water and she offers him “a sip” of her canteen. He drinks every drop. He gives her directions to Filly so she can look for her dad, and tries to convince her to stay and marry him instead. She politely declines and he says she’s a good person for not shooting him or trying to take his things.

With Titus dead, Maximus puts on the power armor and runs around the wasteland, testing his powers. He sees a man attacking a snake oil salesman and puts a stop to the attack. As the freed salesman runs away, however, Max learns that he was defiling the other man’s chickens. He felt good about helping someone but only for a moment, as he got a harsh lesson in things not being as they seem.

Lucy gets to Filly and walks through the bustling market outside the city gates, filled with street vendors and shady merchants. She enters the ramshackle town and begins looking for clues about her dad. The Ghoul sits nearby, observing the goings on while he waits to intercept Wilzig. Lucy starts asking questions to a shopkeeper who carries several pieces of Vault-Tec equipment. The shopkeeper doesn’t believe she’s seeing an actual Vault dweller, having thought all of them had died already. When Lucy asks about Muldaver, the shopkeeper shuts down almost immediately and tells Lucy to leave. When Lucy talks about the Vault’s mission of bringing “civilized” life back to the surface and “Save America,” the shopkeeper throws it back at her.

“The Vaults were nothing more than holes in the ground for rich folks to hide in while the rest of the world burned.”

As she starts to leave the shop, Wilzig and his dog wander into Filly. She notices him from the fireside the night before. He again encourages her to go home. Wilzig starts telling her all about Vault 33, making her wonder how he knows so much about where she comes from. The shopkeeper was waiting for Wilzig, but they’re all interrupted by the Ghoul. He announces top everyone that there’s a massive bounty for Wilzig and he intends to claim it. The shopkeeper was paid a large sum to transport Wilzig to safety and she offers a massive cap bonus to whoever in Filly kills the Ghoul after he shoots one of Wilzig’s feet clean off. The attack comes in from virtually all sides but the Ghoul takes each and every one of them out. Lucy tries to get information about Muldaver from the shopkeeper’s books while everyone is distracted outside. She could leave but opts to help Wilzig. A shot from her tranquilizer gun does nothing to the Ghoul, and he tells her that bullet was just a small drop in a “very large bucket of drugs.” She is only saved when Maximus flies in with his power armor, trying to play the hero. He fights with the Ghoul while Lucy tries to get Wilzig out of town (though it’s worth noting the two of them share a moment inside the shop where she sees his face and he explains that Wilzig is very important).

The shopkeeper uses a tool to give Wilzig a metal foot, replacing the one he just lost. It doesn’t do a lot to help his injury, though, just allows him to walk a little better. There’s no one left for them to trust to escort Wilzig to the client that paid the shopkeeper: Muldaver. They decide Lucy should take him the rest of the way since they know she can be trusted. The shopkeeper puts Muldaver’s location in Lucy’s Pip-Boy and sends them on their way. Ghoul, having worn power armor in The Great War, knows how to render it useless and sends Maximus flying out of town.

Realizing Wilzig and Lucy are gone, the Ghoul find the dog (who he stabbed during the fight) and uses a Stimpack to heal her wounds. The dog accompanies him as he leaves town to search for her owner.

Wilzig and Lucy trek through the open desert on their way to find Muldaver but are forced to stop when Wilzig’s foot can’t carry him any longer. He stops and tells her he has no chance of making it. Her pep talks don’t do any good as he informs her he took a cyanide pill to end things peacefully. He tells her she needs to move quickly and that she can “change the future” if she can get him to Muldaver. He gets out a ripper saw and tells her to cut off his head after he dies from taking the pill. What Muldaver needs to potentially save humanity is in the back of his head. Just before he dies, Wilzig calls Lucy “Miss MacClean, revealing that he has somehow known her identity this whole time. She prepares to cut his head off as the most iconic song from the Fallout franchise begins to play and the credits roll.

“I don’t want to set the world on fire. I just want to start a flame in your heart.”