ONE
Two women running, chased through a snowy pine forest. One of them is Steph, the other her mother. A marine in power armor stops them. A bomb goes off.
Cut to Overseer Steph, either waking from a dream or remembering. She turns toward the camera, showing her ruined eye socket. When she rises, we see Chet asleep in bed beside her.
As Steph brushes her teeth, she remembers the moment when the explosion injured her mother. Dying, the mother sends Steph south, over the border.
Crosscut Overseer Steph vigorously brushing her teeth with younger Steph slicing a man’s throat so she can have his can of beans. From Canada, Steph is stopped at the American border by a guard. She kills him and walks through.
Roll title credits.
(I wasn’t aware of the Canada lore in Fallout prior to this episode. The quick summary: America took over their country and the Canadians hate the U.S. for colonizing them.)
TWO
In Vault-Tec’s Vegas bunker, happy, mind-controlled workers continue to make more devices. Hank, smiling, sits on a desk corner. He’s still handcuffed, holding the remote dial. Lucy isn’t pleased with the situation. Hank explains: The dial controls how much amnesia the devices render, and new thoughts replace the horrific memories that have been removed. Snake Man smiles at her with his creepy beatific face, and Lucy declares she’ll shut it all down. When she asks Hank how to do that, he volunteers the information, continuing with his fatherly gentleness. They’ll need to go to the basement in order to shut down the mainframe, but it’s quite a hike — Hank gets a mischievous grin.
THREE
Cut to Hank teaching Lucy how to drive the golf cart.
(I can’t even do justice to how amazing MacLachlan is in this whole season. His mix of post-war insanity with his memories of pre-war normality is genius.)
FOUR
The basement has more workers at desks. At the mainframe door, Lucy waffles: The Legion is still out there and they’ll hurt a lot of people. Hank watches her closely. Fade to black.
Our team of Ghoul Coop, Max, Thaddeus, and Dogmeat wander through an abandoned NCR camp. They’re headed to the Lucky 38, but first they need to prepare. Coop suddenly turns, pointing a gun at Max. How do you have that cold fusion diode? Max stands his ground and insists the diode is for Lucy, a good person. Coop smirks and continues on.
Back to the pre-war Lucky 38. Cooper in his hotel room gives the maid a tip. Reverse angle reveals that the maid is Steph. She wants to know how she can get into a vault or get a job at Vault-Tec. (Remember, Cooper Howard is the face of their advertising.) He directs her toward Young Hank, who’s passed out in a laundry cart. Steph wheels him away.
Later, Coop meets Representative Welch in a bar. She’s a good person but a terrible saleswoman. Welch agrees. Coop informs her that Vault-Tec will give House the diode in exchange for the bombs. “What would you do with infinite energy?” Coop asks her. The President of the United States is in Vegas, she answers. Would you give the diode to him?
Cut to Ghoul Coop breaking into the NCR weapons warehouse. Access for Max is in exchange for the diode. He may want to give it to Lucy, a good person, but to get to her he must give the diode to a bad person. (Coop’s lifespan, from the moment when he was like Max, trying to do the right thing, to now when he’s not, is all over Goggins’ face.) He uncovers a beautiful set of NCR power armor. Max can’t help himself — he caresses it and gives up the diode. Fade to black.
SWITCH
From the blackness we hear Ronnie’s nasty voice as Norm comes to consciousness. He claims to the others that the Vault-Tec handbook says they can kill someone who impersonated a manager. Well, if those are the rules . . . One of the middle managers conks Norm on the head with a heavy object. Fade to black.
FIVE
Vault 32. Chet cleans up after dinner and Steph studies paperwork at the table. The disposal in the kitchen sink is clogged. Reaching in, Chet pulls out Woody’s eyeglasses. Chet is upset. He breaks the frames in half and successfully grinds them through the disposal.
Vault 33. Betty sits at the Overseer desk while the intercom announces that, because of water rationing, residents can’t shower or flush the toilet. With a sigh, Betty unlocks the office safe and takes out Hank’s keepsake box. She gives it to Steph in the inter-vault junction and demands the water processing. Fade to black.
(What’s interesting is that older Betty, played by the marvelous Leslie Uggams, remembers Steph from when they were contemporaries pre-war, yet, because Betty has been out of the cryopod for decades, she has a more holistic, less corporate-ordered perspective. Steph, looking the same — except for her pointy eye patch — hasn’t matured and still carries her pre-war grudge and viciousness.)
Freeside. Street life freezes and turns to watch our team, Max striding in the glorious NCR power armor, approach the blockade to the Strip. They doff hats and cheer him on. Max sees a young Black boy who looks up at him with amazement, an echo of Max’s boyhood memory. Ghoul Coop lays out the plan: he’ll dash for the steps, Max will handle the deathclaws, and Thaddeus will take up a sniper position on the roof.
Thaddeus’ right arm falls onto the ground. (He’s in the process of becoming a ghoul, which involves losing nose cartilage. The arm loss is a complete — and funny — mystery.) He juggles his arm and the rifle, committed to doing his part.
An unhappy Lucy, cleaned up, looks in the mirror at herself in the sunny yellow dress. Okey-dokey. She and Hank, still handcuffed, eat dinner at the simulated vault apartment. The former NCR officer waits table and refills their water. Lucy asks him if he remembers her. Yes — from this morning. Hank says that Lucy will learn: the NCR and its ambitions are no different from the Legion. When he can’t remove the pie from the oven because of his handcuffs, Lucy unlocks them. She sees the comparison: one side crucifies people, the other is “vaguely problematic”. She cuffs Hank to the oven door and heads out to shut down the mainframe.
Cut to Claudia as she unties Norm’s restraints. Before they leave, Norm broadcasts over the comm system: Lucy, I’m on the surface and I need help. In the Vault-Tec comm room, no one hears.
SIX
Lucy drives the golf cart down through the levels. Norm also calls out to his dad: Why didn’t you tell me? In come Ronnie and his goons. Fade to black.
SEVEN
It’s wedding day. Steph and Chet hold hands in front of the vault residents while Davey officiates the ceremony. It takes Chet a minute to muster his courage, but he declares, “I don’t.” Steph’s one eye burns him while she grips his hands. Taking the chance to speak in front of witnesses, Chet declares that Steph wants to hurt them. He found Woody’s glasses . . . and them ground them up, destroying any proof he had. Steph smirks, but Chet continues. From his suit he pulls out Steph’s ID and displays it to the crowd. Steph is . . . CANADIAN! Gasps.
Crosscut Steph in her wedding veil running from the vault room with pre-war Steph running in the woods. She locks herself in the Overseer’s office. Fade to black.
EIGHT
Max and Ghoul Coop, inside the barricade, confront the deathclaws. Max fights while Coop heads into the Lucky 38. A swipe from a deathclaw tail launches Max through the fence and out into the Freeside street. They’re now loose.
Meanwhile, Coop enters House’s penthouse. A Securitron lies defunct to one side and the monitor display says “No Signal”.
Flashback to Barb and Coop walking along the pre-war Strip. A limousine parks next to them. He kisses her and enters the car.
Back to Ghoul Coop. (By the way, he carries a beautiful Gauss rifle. YAY!) He touches the empty console chair.
Cut to Lucy heading into the mainframe. She opens her door while Coop pushes the red button to open House’s secret under stair door. The machine powered by cold fusion lies dormant.
In the limousine, Cooper greets Welch and the President, played by Clancy Brown.
Crosscut the cold fusion diode. In one scene, Coop gives it to the President. In the other, Coop places it in House’s machine.
Lucy enters the mainframe, tire iron at the ready, and freezes. On a table, wires coming from it, is the head of Welch in a jar.
In the limousine, Cooper and Welch smile at each other. Crosscut between Welch’s pleased face and her frightful, pickled head.
NINE
Ghoul Coop places the diode and the cold fusion machine immediately powers up. The monitor display comes online. Robert House’s green-tinged face appears and says hello.
Roll credits.
CRITICAL NOTES
Hello, hello! Look at that Three/Six Mirror. Finally. Excellent. We have visual resonance because both beats center around the golf cart. Lucy’s driving instruction in the Three develops into independent driving in the Six, showing progression. It’s everything I want. Meaningful, charming, and with story/character advancement.
The Eight is also wonderful. Great editing. The two Coops — innocent and cynical — perform the same action with the diode but their intentions are opposed. The two Welches — head intact and head removed — have a huge impact. It’s shocking to see that she powers the mainframe. The Two only sets up Lucy (without Coop or Max), but that’s okay. Coop is in the Eight to facilitate Lucy’s horrific discovery, and Max is there to get Coop through the Lucky 38 door. We’ll see more about their stories in the next episode, hinted at in the Nine. This Eight is about the Welch reveal via Coop’s plot perspective.
The Seven is the structurally interesting choice. If you look at the Enneagram diagram, you’ll see that the One and Seven are connected. I’ve reviewed stories that relate the One with the Seven. It’s not common, but it’s possible and legitimate. Steph’s backstory uses this technique. In her role as Overseer, she sets the wedding in motion. However, in a delicious irony, the Seven’s decision moment isn’t hers. It’s Chet’s, and it’s a strong move.
Solid episode, structurally. Well done, guys.