Season 1 of Fallout is set in the same continuity as the popular game franchise but introduces a new set of characters forced to survive the Wasteland. The story mostly centers around the characters trying to get their hands on a disembodied head and its potential to change the future. I’ve compiled the events of all eight episodes of Fallout into this handy recap, just in case you missed anything.
Fallout Season 1 Recap
Episode 1 – “The End”
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The series opens minutes before the end of the world. Movie star Cooper Howard is performing at a kid’s birthday party in a futuristic 1950-style suburban Los Angeles when nuclear Armageddon hits. He makes a run for it with his child on his horse.
A couple of centuries later, Lucy is a young woman who lives in the undergrown safety of Vault 33. Her father, the vault Overseer, struck a deal for Lucy to marry a suitable gentleman from neighboring vault 32.
After consummating the marriage, Lucy learns that her new husband and the rest of his people led by Moldaver are raiders attacking from the surface. A fight ensues and many of the vault 33 denizens are tragically massacred. Before she leaves, Lady Villain sedades Lucy’s dad and kidnaps him. Left with no other choice, Lucy defies the remaining elder’s orders and leaves the safety of her bunker to go rescue her dad.
Maximus is an ambitious member of The Brotherhood of Steel. He’s deeply disappointed when his friend, Dane, is promoted to be a squire to the Brotherhood’s armored Knights. An unfortunate incident renders Dane unable to take up the promotion, so Maximus gets the position instead.
His mission involves searching for an escapee who’s carrying an important artifact for the Brotherhood.
The final scene has a team of three bounty hunters, also after the escaped man, unearths a legendary Ghoul from his coffin prison. The Ghoul is none other than Cooper from the opening scene, minus his nose. After hearing that the bounty hunters want his help to find an escaped man, The Ghoul kills all three of them before setting off by himself.
Episode 2 – “The Target”
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We’re introduced to Wilzig, who worked at the conclave and had to unexpectedly make a run for it when his pet pooch killed a colleague to defend him. Wilzig injected something he’s been working on into his head.
Maximus is far from happy in his new squire position. His knight is foul-mouthed, rude, and flat-out abusive. So we don’t feel too bad when he gets mauled by a radioactive bear and Maximus decides against administering life-saving treatment. The young man gets to finally fulfill his lifelong dream of wearing a Knight’s armor.
Lucy makes her way into the city of Filly and is shocked about how much contempt people on the surface have for vault dwellers such as herself. She runs into Wilzig for a second time, who keeps advising her to go back home.
A local shopkeeper was supposed to take Wilzig to Moldaver, but The Ghoul overhears her calling his name. He shoots Wilzig’s foot off and tries capturing him.
Lucy is caught in the crossfire, but Maximus arrives in time to rescue her. While the Ghoul and Maximus fight outside, the shopkeeper places a robotic foot on Wilzig and asks for Lucy’s help.
During the fight, The Ghoul stabs Wilzig’s dog but afterward injects her with the miracle medicine and claims her as his pet. He may not have a nose, but there’s still a semblance of a heart in there.
After learning that Wilzig was headed to meet Moldaver, Lucy agrees to escort him hoping it will help rescue her father. While traversing the wasteland, Wilzig reveals he took a cyanide pill as he’s too injured to make for the journey. Not to worry though, all Lucy needs to do is chop off his head post-mortem as that’s what Moldaver is interested in.
Episode 3 – “The Head”
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Episode 3 shows more of The Ghoul’s backstory. Before the war, he was a famous actor starring in iconic westerns. When VaultTec was a new company working on building giant bunkers, it hired him as the face of its brand.
Lucy loses the head when it’s taken by a mutated sea creature. Even worse, The Ghoul catches up with her and when he’s unable to retrieve Wilzig’s head from the creature’s stomach, he takes Lucy hostage and makes her walk with him across the Wasteland.
At the vault, Norm and Chet get demoted by the current council for helping her leave. The council agrees to try and integrate their raider prisoners into the community, but Lucy’s brother suggests a more permanent punishment for the attackers.
Maximus declares himself dead and the Brotherhood sends him a new squire. To his surprise, the new squire is Thaddeus, one of the boys who used to beat him up back at base. From underneath his armor’s safety, Maximus gives Thaddeus a bit of a hard time but eventually warms up to him. The pair come across the creature that swallowed Wilzig’s head and accidentally made it vomit.
Episode 4 – “The Ghouls”
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After a failed escape attempt and the loss of a finger, Lucy and The Ghoul arrive at a market where he sells her. Inside the building, Lucy meets a robot and two men who want to harvest her organs. Imprisoned at the facility are several people who share the same mutation as The Ghoul. She fights her way out and in the struggle finds out that without his vials, The Ghoul will also turn into a mindless monster. Lucy inadvertently releases the zombified creatures who kill the two men.
Before walking away, Lucy leaves the Ghoul with some vials. With everyone inside the building dead, The Ghoul helps himself to a healthy supply of drugs before sitting down to watch one his old movies.
At the Vault, Lucy’s brother and cousin take a closer look inside Vault 32. They find that the denizens have been dead for more than two years before the raider attack. The people in Vault 32 seemingly lost their minds before killing each other. Disturbingly, Brother figures out the raiders opened the vault from the outside using his mom’s credentials.
Episode 5 – “The Past”
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Feeling a bit too friendly towards Thaddeus, Maximus reveals his true identity. Unsurprisingly, the squire steals the head and traps Maximus inside his armor so he can’t give chase.
Before Maximus is eaten alive by giant cockroaches inside his knightly armor, Lucy shows us and rescues him. The two agree to team up to find the runaway squire (and poor Wilzig’s head). In return for her help, Lucy wants the Brotherhood to help rescue her dad. Maximus, still pretending to be Knight Titus, agrees.
The two don’t get far before they come across two drifters who attack them and shoot Maximus in the arm. Lucy convinces her travel companion to go inside an old medical facility and look for a first aid kit. Instead, they’re both knocked out and when they wake up they realize they’ve somehow ended up inside a Vault.
Meanwhile, Norm keeps finding more disturbing things about his family. It turns out every single Overseer Vault 33 ever had was originally from Vault 31. After Betty, also from 31, is elected for the position, she decides that part of 33’s population will move to 32. During a tour of Vault 32, Norm and Chet are shocked to see the place cleared of all traces of the bodies they saw only a day prior.
Episode 6 – “The Trap”
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Lucy and Maximus are welcomed with open arms by the denizens of Vault 4, many of whom are refugees from the Wastelands. At first, Maximus is apprehensive about how nice everyone seems, but the supposed safety, hot running water, and an array of available snacks soon win him over.
The more time Lucy spends in Vault 4, the more suspicious she gets of the seemingly perfect community. For starters, most people there have at least one mutation, including the one-eyed Overseer. They also have strange religious rituals where they worship a giant poster of Moldaver.
Flashbacks show details of pre-war Cooper’s close association with VaultTec. Not only is his wife employed by the company, but he’s also been recording several commercials encouraging Americans to buy their spot in a fallout shelter. According to Cooper’s wife, not all Vaults are built equally and she’s been working hard to ensure her family gets a good one.
Cooper is coaxed by an actor friend into attending a left-leaning meeting criticizing VaultTec and their influence in the war. The meeting is led by none other than Moldaver.
Back in the present, The Ghoul is awakened from his drunken stupor by two Sherrif’s Deputies who take him to see the President of Government, an old friend of his. It seems the Super Duper Organ Harvesting Mart was under the President’s protection and he wants to execute The Ghoul for eradicating it. Instead, The Ghoul kills both deputies before noticing a drawing of Moldaver on the President’s wall.
Meanwhile, Lucy goes snooping in Vault 4’s off-limits lab where she finds some disturbing human experiments. The scientists catch Lucy snooping before she can tell Maximus of her findings.
Episode 7 – “The Radio”
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Lucy misjudged the people in Vault 4 and it led to ber her and Maximus’s banishment from the community. After walking away from Vault 4 (and returning their stolen fusion core), Lucy invites Maximus to go live with her in Vault 33 after she rescues her dad. Riddled with guilt, Maximus confesses the truth about himself, but Lucy is unphased in her resolve.
Meanwhile, Thaddeus is struggling to continue his journey with his severe foot injury. He sells the fusion core he stole from Maximus in exchange for a ‘miracle cure.’ The cure fixes his foot and turns him into a ghoul.
In the present-day flashback, Cooper reluctantly agrees to spy on his wife with a listening device from Moldaver. Present-day Ghoul reunites with Wilzig’s poor pup after Thaddeus abandoned her inside a Nuka Cola fridge.
Lucy and Maximus catch up with Thaddeus who is waiting by a radio station to be picked up by the Brotherhood, still unaware of his newfound Ghoul status. When Thaddeus realizes what he’s been turned into, he runs. Maximus gives Lucy the head to take to Moldaver, while he stays behind with a decoy head for the Brotherhood. The two kiss before parting ways.
Back at Vault 33, Norm takes his investigation to the next level after several of his friends, including Chet, are selected to move into 32. He hacks into Betty’s computer and initiates a chat with Vault 31’s Oversees. Pretending to be Betty, Norm secures himself an invite to Vault 31.
Episode 8 – “The Beginning”
The season finale is full of heartbreaking revelations for all our characters. I broke it down in more depth in this Fallout Season 1 Ending Explained.
In the flashback scenes, Cooper listens in on his wife planning for VaultTec to be the one dropping the bombs that destroy the world. VaultTec did so because they wanted a clean slate to build their society inside the vaults.
Inside vault 31, Norm finds a preserved brain that’s been running the shots in the neighboring vaults. All former Vault overseers were VaultTec executives who have been sleeping in cryogenic pods, including Hank.
Lucy learns that her mother ran away from the Vault many years ago and moved to Shady Sands. In retaliation, Hank had the city nuked.
Maximus leads the brotherhood to Moldaver’s village and they massacre most of the residents. He’s reunited with Lucy briefly, but Hank knocks him out after stealing a Knight’s armor. Hank makes a run for it when confronted by The Ghoul. When Max wakes up, he unwittingly takes credit for Moldaver’s death and becomes a knight.
The Ghoul reveals he placed a tracker on Hank knowing it will lead him to VaultTec higher-ups, possibly his wife. Lucy decides to join him.
That was our full recap of Fallout Season 1 (Episodes 1-8). Did we miss anything? What are your thoughts on the season overall? You can find ours in our review, but let us know yours in the comments.
