Episode 8, the finale, of the Fallout TV series . . .
ONE
Maximus rides in a vertibird crossing the Wasteland. Two Knights in full battle armor stare at him with their inscrutable helmets.
He remembers his pleasant goodbye from Lucy. His hand rests on the mangled fake head.
They approach Filly, where an airship hovers above the town. The vertibird lands and Maximus exits, escorted by the Knights. The Brotherhood flag flies. The town has been taken over. Every member of the BoS lines the square; the Elder Cleric waits for Maximus.
Maximus kneels and presents the head. His old friend Dane takes it from him. Admitting that his Knight is dead, Maximus is chastised by the Elder. We’re reminded that Dane also was injured and that some blamed Maximus for it. An assistant verifies that the fake head holds no artifact.
Knights prepare to execute Maximus on the spot. Clerics recite prayers and sprinkle him with hyssop branches. Desperate, Maximus admits he can lead them to the real head. Dane, becoming more upset, kneels and claims that the razor in their boot was self-inflicted. Allowed to rise and live, Maximus again has a thousand thoughts cross his face as he looks at the Cleric and Dane.
TWO
In a dimly lit room, the Elder questions Maximus. How did Titus die? “He died running,” Maximus says. The Cleric admires this answer. Power is to be taken and the Brotherhood has lost its way. The two of them, the Cleric as the head and Maximus as the sword, will rebuild. (Again, Moten gives Maximus one facial expression with so much behind it.)
THREE
Flashback to young Maximus smiling at his Knight rescuer. Cut to Lucy.
FOUR
She has arrived at a raider fortress. Armed guards escort her and Wilzig’s head in as the gate opens. Reveal Griffith Observatory, now with 200 years’ worth of decay and damage. It’s a happy community with abundant fresh food. Lucy smiles. Quietly, some of the people notice and recognize her. (Why?)
Transition to Ghoul Coop walking with Dogmeat. He passes a destroyed Sunset Sarsparilla billboard. (YAY!) Their destination is unclear, but we assume that Dogmeat tracks Wilzig’s head. As they walk, Coop thinks.
Flashback to pre-apocalypse times and the exterior of Vault-Tec’s corporate high rise. Coop, driving his beautiful banana-yellow convertible, brings Barb to work. After kissing her goodbye, he places the bug in his ear. Bud Askins parks next to him in a tiny car with a bubble top. Barb has stopped on the sidewalk because her Pip Boy is acting up. (Coop looks guilty.) Bud leans in to talk to Coop, speaking of his program to extend human life. Barb comes to save him, redirecting Bud into the building. When they leave, we can still hear their conversation through Coop’s earpiece. She’s worried about her Pip Boy. Getting only static, Coop follows them.
Roll title.
Lucy is escorted into the headquarters at the Observatory. One side of the dome is blown open to the world. Her father, Hank, is locked in a cage. Moldaver eats a meal at the table, a snarling, skinless ghoul sitting next to her. Lucy will keep things civil: she hands over the head. Hank watches as Moldaver extracts Wilzig’s chip and Lucy side-eyes the creepy ghoul.
Moldaver claims to be willing to release Hank, but first she’ll tell Lucy how she knows him. Hank protests.
Crossfade to Vault 31. Norm enters, continuing his story from the last episode. A voice repeatedly says the same thing. Norm gets close enough to see a robobrain (YAY!) attached to a motorized vacuum disc, stuck behind a fallen broomstick. Completely confused, Norm removes the obstacle. The robobrain scans him, recognizing he is Not Betty. He does have Hank’s DNA. The robobrain will “initiate protocol 53”. It extends an arm with a syringe and doggedly pursues Norm, who easily steps out of its way. Hilariously, it commands him to hold still, then tells him not to dare to go into the control room and access the computer. Norm, gobsmacked by the surreal insanity of this place, opens the command doors.
Transition back to pre-apocalypse Coop waiting for his wife in a Vault-Tec lounge. Posters of his movies are on the wall. The secretary mentions that someone named Henry is a big fan. Can she bring him by? Coop, a smile pasted on, says yes. While he waits, Coop puts the bug back in. He can overhear a meeting.
Multiple corporate heads are gathered in a star chamber. Bud and Barb chair the meeting. Among the nameplates, we see Rob-Co. (YAY!) Vault-Tec’s sales are lagging. (Crosscut Coop listening in.) Bud tells his worried co-conspirators that his vaults will be fine because everyone on the surface will be dead. “Time is the weapon with which we’ll defeat our enemies,” Bud says. (Coop remembers Bud’s interest in “time”.) As the meeting devolves into chatter, Barb interrupts to refocus them. (Coop waits for her to “set them straight”.) How do we make sure our children have a better future?
Norm keeps walking while the robobrain follows, telling him to stop. (The credits call it Brain-on-a-Roomba, which is perfect. Robobrains are bossy and self-important and ridiculous in the game. That it’s installed on a small, slow vacuum is so comically clever) Norm wonders where the rest of the vault is, and he hits the lights. Stretching before him is a hallway of cryopods. The camera pushes in on Norm, who is shocked. The robobrain proudly explains that these are Bud’s Buds. They saved the Vault-Tec employees. Each cryopod has a nameplate and job title, including Hank MacLean, Executive Assistant. All the low-level workers were rescued so that management could continue.
Back to a smiling Bud as Barb explains the plan. Keep capitalistic competition alive, even in the vaults. Each company will take charge of several of the hundred vaults spread across America. There they can play with ideas for the best way to perfect humanity. No one needs know what they do. May the best company win.
Norm questions the robobrain. What are Vaults 32 and 33? The breeding pool, it answers. People chosen who tend to make lemonade out of lemons. People who will survive when the Earth is wiped clean.
Back to the meeting, where the corporate heads toss around vault ideas. They’re all excited, and all of their ideas are inhuman. (Coop, listening, moans.) The head of Rob-Co sees the moneymaking potential, but what guarantee do they have? Extreme close-up on Barb as she says, “We drop the bomb ourselves.” (The same of Coop listening. The secretary — Betty! — interrupts his horror to introduce him to . . . Hank.)
Cut from Hank’s enthusiastic young face from the past to his current, roughed-up face in the cage. Moldaver has been explaining to Lucy all that we’ve just learned. (But . . . how is Moldaver here? Shh.)
Back to Coop, still listening to his nightmare. Barb explains they intend to make war obsolete. In a close-up, Barb says, “And war, well . . . “ (At the pause, every gamer yells her next line at the TV.) “War never changes.”
Young autograph-seeking Hank becomes current Hank who looks heartbroken that Lucy will hear this about him. Moldaver continues. She’s taken the Wilzig chip and inserted it into a computer array. As she works, she talks about Lucy’s mother and how great she was, and Lucy’s own curiosity about it all.
And now we have Maximus as the Brotherhood prepares to go to war. Dane limps up to him and explains the injury: it’s a shame Maximus was blamed. The self-sabotage was only about fear. After this honesty, Maximus smiles and confesses that he’s only here to rescue Lucy so he can be with her. He has that blissful and confident face again. Dane’s reaction is straightforward: There’s nowhere safe and there’s no leaving. Maximus has one of his thousand-thought reactions as the company moves out.
SWITCH
Vertibirds aloft. (My God, they did such a beautiful job with the aircraft. YAY!) Fade to black.
FIVE
An aerial shot of the Observatory. Inside, Lucy continues to listen as Moldaver explains how her mother, Rose, deduced that civilization had returned to the surface. When she told her husband, Hank, she realized he’d been lying. We see shiny footage of Rose leaving the vault with her children. Lucy’s memory of her mother in the sunlight plays again.) Rose made it to Shady Sands, but Hank followed and took back their children.
Cut to the moment when Lucy and Maximus discovered the crater in the middle of the city.
Lucy remembers meeting a younger Moldaver. She remembers Shady Sands. Moldaver continues with her persuasion: You’ve brought me cold fusion. Limitless energy. She and Hank bombard her with arguments while Lucy only remembers her mother. It’s all overwhelming for her. Moldaver needs Hank, the Vault-Tec employee, to give her the activation code. Lucy asks what happened to her mother. She knows, though. She looks at the monstrous, gasping ghoul at the table. Seared into its neck sinews is her mother’s pendant. Lucy weeps. She tells Hank: Give her the code. When Moldaver brings him the keyboard, he does. The cold fusion device begins to download. Fade to black.
Norm, who’s seen enough, prepares to leave Vault 31. The robobrain has made it to its docking station. It closes the doors on Norm, locking him in. Because it has no intention to let Norm out, it suggests that he take his dad’s cryopod. Go to sleep. Crying, Norm walks toward the human storage.
The cold fusion is ready. When Moldaver reaches for the test button, though, sirens go off. Aircraft incoming. The Brotherhood has arrived. Everyone runs out to defend the base, leaving Lucy alone with Hank. He tries to explain that he loved Rose, but when she left with the children and took them into danger, she stopped being their mother.
Here come the vertibirds, limned by the setting sun. (I expect Wagner to start playing.) From the broken Observatory domes anti-aircraft guns emerge. Maximus and Dane hold on together as the vertibirds dodge incoming missiles.
Crosscut with Hank in the cage, still justifying himself.
A vertibird goes down in flames, crashing on the compound. (They always explode in game. YAY!) A Knight helms one of the mounted miniguns (YAY!) and fires on the crowd. Citizens scatter while Moldaver and her army step outside.
Hank believes he had no choice and did the right thing. The vault world is peaceful; the outside world is violent. Factions fight against factions. (The current situation reinforces his perspective.)
Battle on the ground. A shell hits near Maximus, deafening him. Brutal violence is intercut with Lucy’s face, overwhelmed and trying to cope with her father. Maximus follows the charge of Knights into the building. Everyone inside is dead.
A whistle stops them. Leaning against a bannister, cool as a cucumber, is Coop. He speaks of his time in the power armor. There used to be a flaw, a vulnerability just under the chest plate. Did they fix that? He shoots a Knight, killing him. “I guess not.” Taking the power core from the reactor system and darkening the room, Coop runs. In the strobed flare of gunfire, we see Maximus duck while Coop wipes out the Knights.
Hank still tries to persuade Lucy to let him out so they can go home. (Lucy emotes in close-up, her one expression unchanging..) She looks over at the wheezing ghoul who is her mother. A Knight with its head missing bursts through the door. Maximus follows. He runs up to Lucy and caresses her cheek. When Hank asks to be released, Maximus shoots off the lock. Lucy won’t go with Hank, though. It was him, she explains to Maximus. “Shady Sands.” Cut to little Maximus coming out of the milk refrigerator. We see the burning crater and the smoking bodies. Adult Maximus has a thousand thoughts.
Meanwhile, behind them, Hank has stepped into the dead Knight’s armor. When Maximus charges him, Hank punches him with the metal gauntlet. Maximus goes down. Lucy pulls his gun and aims it at her father. “You’re not gonna hurt me,” he pleads. (Lucy, still emoting her one expression in close-up, hesitates.) Entering, Coop shoots Hank, winging his cheek. “Another autograph, young Henry?” Ever since hearing Lucy’s last name, Coop says, he’s wondered. He aims his gun at Hank and demands, “Where’s my family?” Bleeding, Hank turns and runs, jetting off the edge of the open Observatory dome. Lucy tries to wake Maximus.
A shot of the carnage in the Observatory yard. Dead Knights mix with dead citizens.
Coop, in close-up, says, “War never changes.” He intends to find whoever’s in charge. That’s where Hank went. Lucy can come with him and learn how he knows her father. Or she can stay with Maximus and probably get shot when the rest of the Brotherhood arrives.
SIX
More vertibirds incoming.
SEVEN
Coop offers for Lucy to “come meet her makers”. Lucy turns toward Coop, cocking her gun. Coop pauses. She fires, but not at him. She kills Rose as an act of mercy.
Maximus is still unconscious. “I’ll find you,” Lucy says, kissing him. After emoting for a few more seconds, Lucy answers Coop’s question if she’s coming: “Okey dokey.” Fade to black.
EIGHT
The cold fusion is ready. Maximus wakes. The sun has set and Lucy’s gone. Moldaver stumbles through the door and activates the energy core. Sitting next to dead Rose she takes the ghoul’s hand. “We did it.” Maximus, unseen, watches. Outside the dome, lights start to come on. Electricity reaches through the entire Los Angeles basin. Not looking at Maximus, she asks him, “What would your Brotherhood do with infinite power?” Her gut wound gushes blood and she dies.
In comes Dane and the rest of the BoS to stare at the lights. Seeing Moldaver’s body, Dane raises Maximus’ arm and proclaims him her killer. All hail Knight Maximus! Everyone cheers while Maximus looks ill. Fade to black.
Coop and Dogmeat come out of a bunker. After a beat, Lucy joins them. In the distance the iconic Hollywood sign says, underneath, “sponsored by Nuka-Cola”. Fade to black.
NINE
A Knight walks with the sun rising behind him. It’s Hank. He approaches the skull of a Deathclaw. (YAY!!) Reverse angle, and we see his view. It’s New Vegas in the distance. (YAYAY!!)
Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
It’s tricky to discern this episode’s Eight from the overall season’s Eight. The Two is the key. Surprisingly, the Elder Cleric is ready to throw in with Maximus and ditch a lot of the current Brotherhood. At the Eight, this idea is given weight by the lauding of Maximus by everyone else. He will be very influential in the Brotherhood. They’ve coopted Moldaver’s miraculous cold fusion process. And Maximus has no idea what happened to Lucy, which could drive him in a reckless Romeo-and-Juliet direction. His arc is open-ended for next season.
All indications from that Nine are a New Vegas-themed season. (YAY!) Some consider Fallout New Vegas the best of the gaming series. It has so much storytelling potential. Anyone who’s played the game all the way through to the end will have some ideas about where next season could go. (No spoilers.)
One thing I’d like to address about this episode is my snarky commentary about Lucy’s moments in the Five. A director should recognize when an actor can carry a close-up and when they can’t. You can point a camera at Moten or Goggins for days. Purnell isn’t up to the task. A director’s job is to tell the best story possible, but also to make the actors look as good as possible. An actor playing a vulnerable moment must trust the director to watch out for them. This falls squarely on Wayne Yip’s shoulders. He failed Purnell by designing repetitive shots that didn’t do justice to her character or her ability. This is the entire season’s Eight. Yip is responsible for bringing it all home. I’ll discuss this more when I review the Enneagram of Season One in my next post.
One more structural comment for this episode: if the Switch has the same imagery as the Six — vertibirds — then the Three really needs to match. Young Maximus meeting the Brotherhood for the first time is thematically close, so I won’t raise a huge stink. However, if the Three had chosen an aircraft shot, I would’ve been happier.