Fallout Episode 5 Review
After the series reached a strong halfway point, episode five of ‘Fallout’ continues to move the
show forward, uncovering more of the story as it does.
The episode starts with Maximus still wearing the stolen armor. He tries to reveal his real
identity to Thaddeus, who assumes he must have killed Titus and taken his armor. Once again,
Maximus makes a strange decision, choosing to try and kill Thaddeus rather than attempting to
reason with him. Maybe it’s the way he was brought up by the Brotherhood of Steel that makes
violence his first resort. It doesn’t work for him, though, as Thaddeus steals the armor’s fusion
core, trapping him in the suit, and manages to escape with the head of Dr. Wilzig, hoping to
return it to the Brotherhood and claim the credit for finding it.
Fortunately for Maximus, he’s found by Lucy who makes a deal, telling him she has a tracker on
the head, and will let him have it so long as he convinces the Brotherhood to help rescue her
father.
Lucy is also developing as a character. After managing to get away from the Ghoul in the last
episode, she’s become more assertive and competent, coming to realize the reality of life on the
surface, and that her Vault training isn’t going to be much help there.
There’s a great scene that illustrates this, where Lucy and Maximus meet two strangers on a
narrow bridge and have an intense standoff as neither party is willing to cross first, believing the
other will just try and kill them. She tries to use her conflict management skills to find a solution,
but it all ends in a firefight. It’s a great example of what life is like on the surface and just how
little trust survives there, with people more likely to kill you than trust you.
A big discovery in this episode is the city of Shady Sands. It was built by the Vault Dwellers and
is where Maximus grew up, but Lucy had no idea it even existed, believing that no Vault
Dwellers had returned to the surface yet. What’s more, the entire city has been destroyed by a
bomb blast but there’s no indication of who was responsible.
Back at Vault 33, Norm has been doing some digging into what’s really going on. All the best
overseers come from Vault 31, including his father Hank, and they always seem to get elected
whenever there’s a crisis that needs solving.
Former Vault 31 resident Betty Pearson is elected overseer and decides to revitalize the derelict
Vault 32, sending a group of dwellers over to start a repopulation program. Not only that, but all
evidence of the disaster that occurred there has been cleaned up and, quite literally, painted
over, leaving Norm and Chet as the only ones who know what really happened there.
Episode four was the strongest episode up to that point, and this continues the trend. It
increases the intrigue, with the mysteries of Shady Sands and Vault 32 still needing to be
uncovered. The final scene might provide some answers, as Lucy and Maximus fall into a vault
while exploring the city, leaving plenty for episode six to sink its teeth into.