Fallout, the best-selling role-playing video game, comes to life in Prime Video’s large-scale live-action adaptation. Helmed by Westworld creator Jonathan Nolan and writers Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, the series explores a future United States ravaged by nuclear war from three very different perspectives. These individuals’ worlds collide as they all attempt to not lose their heads.
Episode four centers on Lucy and The Ghoul as viewers learn how the Wasteland changes those on the surface. Below ground Norm and Chet venture on a mission to find out what happened to Vault 32.
The Ghoul and Lucy, having walked for hours, arrive at a dilapidated apartment building. Both are pretty malnourished; the Ghoul without his vials and Lucy with no food nor water. Inside, they happen upon a man named Roger. It appears he’s suffered the same transformation as the Ghoul from years of radiation exposure. However, something is different. He has violent growling fits that interrupt him from talking. He tells them he’s survived 28 years, which is nothing compared to the Ghoul’s longevity. He then asks if the Ghoul has any vials, to which he replies he’s fresh out. As Roger goes on ranting, the Ghoul kills him with a headshot. Lucy is dumbfounded. Cooper proceeds to cut the skin from Roger’s corpse for food.
Moments later down in Vault 33, Norm and Reggie have spearheaded their campaigns for Overseer. They are still mystified by the lack of answers behind the raiders’ actions. And they aren’t the only ones. Looking to punish them in any way he can, Norm withholds prisoners their jello cake. This action sparks a random conversation with a raider, who tells him Vault 32 wasn’t innocent. Puzzled by this revelation, Norm sets out to investigate. Unable to access the vault’s records, Norm recruits Chet to accompany him on a mission to Vault 32.
Up on the surface, a failed escape attempt leaves Lucy without a finger as the Ghoul brings her to a Super Duper Mart. After a discussion with an unknown teller via speakerphone, he instructs Lucy to walk inside the building as he faints from exhaustion. Once inside, Lucy finds herself talking to a robotic pharmacy tech named Snip Snip. She details how her captor cut her finger off and made her drink contaminated water. Snip Snip reassures he can fix her and attaches a new index finger to her hand. Thinking she’s found a friend, Lucy lets her guard down only to discover Snip Snip plans on harvesting her organs for 60 vials.
Back in Vault 32, Norm and Chet make a harrowing discovery. The people of Vault 32 were indeed dead but records show no sign of life for at least two years. This dispels the notion that the raiders were responsible for their deaths. This leaves two very big questions unanswered: who or what killed the inhabitants of Vault 32 and how did the raiders make it inside the vault in the first place?
Back at the Super Duper Mart, Lucy returns bloodied after escaping Snip Snip’s impromptu surgery. Through the ordeal, Lucy learns the Ghoul isn’t an anomaly: all those exposed to the surface’s elements are violently transformed until they become cannibalistic zombies or Ghouls. The vials Cooper takes prevent him from turning. In a defiant feat to separate her moral code from his, Lucy leaves Cooper with a wealth of vials before leaving him outside the mart.
This episode was another solid entry in the series. The first episode not directed by Nolan balances the themes pretty well. While the main narrative delivers the action, the mysteries inside the Vault are becoming more intriguing. A standout moment included a scene between Norm and Councilwoman Betty, as she eerily forwarns the lone MacLean to steady his anger. It would seem she knows what evil exists beneath the surface of vault life, which is much more interesting than Lucy and the Ghoul’s trek at the moment.
Rating: 8/10