This article contains spoilers for Fallout episode 5, "The Past". If you're not caught up with the series yet, check out our article explaining how to watch the Fallout TV show instead.
Prime Video's Fallout TV show brings Bethesda's post-apocalyptic video game franchise to life in a new story that takes place within the Wasteland. The series tells an original story involving three core survivors whose quests take place in a version of Los Angeles more than 200 years after the world was ravaged by nuclear war.
Episode 5 sees Maximus' ruse as Knight Titus coming to an abrupt end. Luckily, Lucy comes to his aid, and the pair decide to travel together, seeing as they're both after Dr. Wilzig's head... though the new allies find themselves waylaid after a run-in with some fellow wanderers. Meanwhile, big changes come to the Vault after they elect a new Overseer who seems to be onto Norman's investigation into their community's darker truths. Here's a full recap of Fallout episode 5.
Teaming up
The episode begins with Thaddeus and "Knight Titus" celebrating their triumph over the Gulper. Thaddeus asks the Knight to brand him, so he can officially become Titus' Squire. Reluctantly, the Knight does so. And sensing a potential friendship, before they return to base, Maximus decides to reveal that he's the one who has been piloting the Power Armor all this time.
Immediately, the good feeling between them is gone. Thaddeus resolves to return the head and report news of the real Knight Titus' death (and Maximus' transgressions) to the Brotherhood of Steel. Maximus, knowing what fate awaits him, tries to stop him and steps on him. Despite his new leg injury, Thaddeus deftly removes the Nuclear Core that powers Maximus' suit, immobilizing it and trapping him inside, before picking up the head and heading off into the Wasteland.
The following morning, Maximus's suit is swarmed by radroaches. Luckily, someone rescues him from the bugs: Lucy! Maximus begs her to let him out of the suit, and offers RadAway medication in exchange; Lucy reluctantly takes the offer, seeing as she's suffering from radiation poisoning. She's seen the T-60 Power Armor models in engineering manuals within the Vault, so knows how to get him out.
Lucy passes out shortly after doing so; when she wakes up, Lucy's hooked up to an IV drip. Maximus tells Lucy that his Squire stole something vital to the Brotherhood and he prepares to go after Thaddeus; since practically everyone seems to want Wilzig's head, she reasons that's what he's after. She's still got the tracking beacon linked to the head; in exchange for leading him to it and then taking the head to the Brotherhood of Steel, she asks him if they would lend her weapons and perhaps some help to rescue her father from Moldaver. Maximus agrees, and they head off together.
Meanwhile, Chet and Norm continue to explore Vault 32. They find that the Dwellers were trying to get into Vault 31, but aren't sure why. When they return home to Vault 33, it's election time! They have to choose between Reg, Woody, or Betty. And since Betty's been Overseer in the past, she ends up winning the vote. Norm digs through the Vault records and learns that Overseers have always come from Vault 31, including Betty... but he doesn't know why.
Hitting the road
Whilst traveling, Lucy asks Maximus for a rundown of what's happened in the last 200 years, since the Great War when the bombs dropped: Maximus says that the bombs dropped when he was a kid... how can that be possible? During their walk, they enter a tense stand-off with two fellow survivors, standing at the other end of a bridge.
Maximus takes the lead, lying to say they are unarmed (seeing as he knows the other pair will be doing the same thing). Lucy tries to defuse the tension, suggesting they cross paths with their arms held up in the air. The other travelers agree but as our protagonists draw closer, they grab weapons and open fire.
Maximus grabs Lucy's pistol and takes them both out, recognizing the survivors as "Fiends" (cannibals). He takes a bullet in the progress, but brushes it off as something that happens all the time in the Wasteland. Lucy is still upset that this is the way the world works on the surface.
In the vault, Norm seeks out Chet and mentions the pattern of Overseer selection. Chet is unfazed: he says Vault 31 has better education systems, and the Vault even has a cutesy slogan for tougher times: "When things look glum, vote 31!" Norm asks why he's keeping his voice down: Chet says it's because Steph came from Vault 31 too. Steph walks into the room at that moment, and Norm asks her how Vault 33 differs from her previous home. Cryptically, Steph says very little... what could she be hiding?!
Maximus and Lucy reach Shady Sands, the New California Republic's first Capital, a Post-War settlement that sprung up in 2142. It was once home to thousands, much to Lucy's dismay. After all, the thing that motivates Vault Dwellers to keep going is the idea of "Reclamation Day", when they'll be allowed to leave the Vault and repopulate. She is rocked by the idea that this might have already happened, but Maximus explains Shady Sands didn't last; they walk inside and find only a huge, bombed-out crater remains.
It's at this point we learn that Maximus is a survivor of that attack; he was hiding inside a fridge, and this is where the Brotherhood Knight he's been remembering found him as young boy. The emotions well up and he tries to push them on, but Lucy notes that he's losing a lot of blood and says they can find the head after finding him some help.
Falling forward
Lucy and Maximus pick their way through to Hawthorne Medical Laboratories (A Vault-Tec facility). Maximus urges caution, but Lucy goes in first, seeking a first-aid kit for her new comrade. Maximus waits outside, but when Lucy doesn't show, he heads in after her.
Following pulsing neon strip lights down a corridor, Maximus opens a door marked "Medical Supplies". The door seals behind him, and he sees the handle on the door in front of him is painted on. Then, the lights go out, and he drops down a chute.
Back in Vault 33, the newly-elected Overseer holds an assembly. She tells the other Vault Dwellers that she has liaised with Vault 31's Overseer and organized a "resettling campaign" which will see some people moving into Vault 32. Shockingly, the group are led in for a tour, and we see the place has been restored, repaired and repainted... with all the signs of violence that Chet and Norm saw removed.
Norm finds his way to the Overseer's office and sees that the computer terminal has been smashed up. Betty appears behind him and asks if Norm 'found anything'. Pointedly, Lucy's brother congratulates her on the clean-up. Then, he plucks up the courage to ask after his mother's Pip-Boy. Betty explains that it was buried with her; when he asks how she can be so sure, Betty lets slip that she and Hank buried Rose MacLean together.
The episode then ends with Lucy and Maximus waking up, lying on gurneys in some instantly recognizable (to Lucy, at least) surroundings. Maximus gets up next and immediately asks where they are. He walks up and looks out a window, seeing tons of people in telltale blue suits wandering around In Lucy's words, "You're in the best place in the world... we're in a Vault!"
All eight episodes of the Fallout TV show are now streaming on Prime Video.
