Fallout Season 1 Finale Preps Fans for More
A season finale needs to give fans a reason for another season, and the creators behind the hit Prime Video series delivered
It’s amazing how one episode can put so many pieces of a puzzle together, and that’s exactly what happens with Fallout episode 8. The Fallout season 1 finale, “The Beginning,” gives viewers a wide-eyed look at how the wastelands began and who was responsible for much of its destruction.
The season 1 finale talks about the origins of who dropped the nuclear bombs, while also highlighting who was hoping for this outcome. Vault-Tec, with the help of Barb Howard, negotiated a contract with its vault competitors to ensure humanity’s survival beyond any war. Not only did they want to make a profit and ensure the need for a vault lifestyle, these “higher ups” only wanted to ensure they could control the outcome of those vaults after destroying the world.
I guess it’s a “good” thing they knew how to compromise to ensure each mega-corporation had a fighting chance of survival – even if it meant the end of civilization as they knew it.
Lucy’s Understanding in Fallout Episode 8
The Fallout series started with confusion as Lucy’s father was taken captive after Vault 33 was invaded by outsiders. At that point, it was clear there was a definitive mission for Lucy: Find her father and bring him back home. Fallout episode 8 altered that mission by explaining what happened in the past and how that impacted her reality with the life she’d lived to that point.
Living in Vault 33 gave her the comforts of life she had grown to know, with the understanding that bringing life back to the surface was a special gift. Lucy has learned how life already started anew despite her false upbringing, while also realizing her mother did not “starve to death.” In fact, her mother has become a hapless zombie-like creature, which took place after she discovered how his influence crafted the wastelands.
Not only was Lucy’s father an instrument of death, he could not allow his children to live beyond the vaults, which meant leaving his mother to a horrific, non-communicative lifestyle other than screeching and groaning. This outrageous understanding of who her father is, and what he’s capable of, clearly left her scarred and unwilling to leave with him. Despite his calls to leave together, she could only muster the strength to ask questions of what he’d done and ignore any attempts to leave with him.
Maximus Gains Power
After nearly being executed for what was perceived as abandoning the Brotherhood, Maximus was given an opportunity to use his knowledge of power and rebuild the Brotherhood. On top of being offered second in power, he was also given credit for killing Moldaver. Although Maximus wants to join Lucy and live in her vault, there are many questions surrounding his future with or without her.
Is it possible to leave the Brotherhood? Does he want to stay to keep a position of power and control? Will he and Lucy get reunited in a happily ever after kind of way?
Unfortunately, Maximus was knocked out by Lucy’s father and she couldn’t wake him up as the Brotherhood infiltrated Moldaver’s complex. In an unexpected twist, the Ghoul offers her to follow him as he tries to determine what happened to his family. In the end, I can only imagine the Ghoul’s quest will end with the most twisted kind of “dish that is best served cold.” Whatever type of revenge plays out, it is clear Lucy’s father knows about Cooper and what might’ve happened to his wife and daughter.
This upcoming second season is filled with more questions and uncertainty as Maximus goes back with the Brotherhood, while Lucy and the Ghoul must find a way to work together. I’m not sure what this means for Lucy’s vision of her future, and if going back to a vault, let alone Vault 33, will have meaning like it used to.