Fallout – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

The Past

Episode 5 of Fallout picks up with Maximus and Thaddeus together in an abandoned train station. Whilst there, and after branding Thaddeus with a T on the back of his neck, Maximus reveals himself behind the armour. Thaddeus immediately turns on his former comrade, believing the Brotherhood will kill him for this.

Maximus knows he can’t trust Thaddeus, so he decides to kill him. However, Thaddeus subdues the armour by taking the fusion core, leaving him stranded alone and stuck inside the armour. With Maximus unable to move, Thaddeus leaves with CX 404 and Wilzig’s head.

Thankfully, Maximus is saved by Lucy, who shows up and kills the Rad Roaches that try to get in the armour. She eventually opens up the faceplate but Lucy is in a rough way. She’s got radiation sickness and needs the vials to help her. Max introduces himself to her as Knight Titus, rather than Maximus, but he’s true to his word. Which is just as well, because Lucy passes out right after.

When she regains consciousness, they agree to work together. As they walk, Lucy runs down just how naïve she’s been with the other Vault dwellers and how its very different to life on the surface. As they walk, they pass a couple of travellers and despite playing it cool, quickly realize that they’re actually fiends. Fiends are Fallout’s version of cannibals, and Maximus manages to think fast and kill them both. He does get shot but only on his arm, thankfully.

Maximus and Lucy arrive at Shady Sands and the latter is shocked to find out the population of this place was over 34k. After all, Reclamation Day is what the Vault Dwellers were raised to believe in and strive toward. Only… its already happened and there are far more people on the surface than she expected. Her whole existence has been a lie.

Maximus does temper her expectations though, showing that the entire city has been blown off the map following a massive explosion. Now, this is a nice way of referencing Fallout 3 and the nuke you’re allowed to detonate or leave as is, and even if it’s a coincidence, it’s still a neat inclusion all the same. 

Lucy realizes that Maximus is bleeding quite badly and his “graze” is anything but. The pair walk quickly and make it to the Hawthorne Medical Labratories. Lucy is determined to find a first aid kit, but of course anything could be inside. Lucy rushes on ahead, while Maximus follows soon after. Unfortunately, they both end up captured and end up in an unlikely place – a Vault!

Meanwhile, Norman and Chet continues to search through Vault 32 for answers. They believe that Lucy’s Pip-Boy was stolen by the raiders. However, it does look like the Vault dwellers here were trying to get to Vault 31… but why? Well, that’s a mystery for another day, as they decide to head back home.

As they do, it’s voting day for the Overseer Election day. Betty wins by a landslide, but it would appear that there’s more of a mystery going on here. Norman notices that each of the Overseers elected in their history have all come from Vault 31. They did the exact same thing for Vault 32 as well. Norman believes that there’s something far more sinister and he’s determined to figure out what it is.

An emergency meeting at Vault 32 takes place, with Betty deciding that they need to resettle Vault 32 and start building up the resources again and move in to start anew. Alone, Norman speaks to Betty, who explains that Lucy was buried with her Pip-Boy by her and Hank. However, we know that’s not true and it reinforces that all is not right in this vault.

The Episode Review

With Lucy and Maximus now teaming up, and the story essentially cut in half between the mystery inside the Vault and the adventures on the surface, Fallout is taking the best parts of the game and bringing them together in an interesting and rather clever way.

There’s actually a lot to like with this story, and the way everything seems to be coming together is gearing up for this mystery inside the Vault revealing itself to be more sinister than we first realized.

Fallout has been a compelling watch and the ending does hint that we’ve got lots more drama to come.