Bottling Factory - I
In 2296, Thaddeus has taken control of an old Sunset Sarsaparilla factory while showing off the noticeable progression of his mutation since fleeing from the KPSS radio station.[1] He spends his time as the floor manager of a crew of adolescent children, both humans and ghouls, that he has working the conveyor belts that bring out crates of Sunset Sarsaparilla so they can collect the bottle caps for money. He rouses a tired ghoul boy, Bobby, from napping on the job, the result of Thaddeus making them work 12 hours of a 22-hour shift. After finding a human girl, Trudy, saddened after another girl, Lois, insulted her, Thaddeus gives the crew a speech about how they should be thankful for having shelter, security, plenty of soda to drink, and nobody to make them do harder work. He ends with what is apparently his motto for them: "Most kids are dead by this age!"

Caesar's Legion - I
After her capture the previous night, both Lucy MacLean and the wounded woman she rescued are escorted through the heart of the main camp, giving her a first-hand look at the brutality of Caesar's Legion. She is then brought into the main tent, before the Legion's commander, the Lacerta Legate. The masked man notes that the escaped slave did not return as she was ordered to, then signals a legionary who fatally slashes her throat, to Lucy's horror. In the tent's interior, she is brought before Caesar, lord of the Legion, who is speaking with a senior advisor on military strategy while the legate removes his helmet. Lucy is distracted by questioning the Legion's authenticity, perceiving them as using German titles while emulating Romans. When told that they had been negotiating the rights to have her for prima noctis, she indignantly comments on the outdated "Middle Ages tradition" before protesting that she has long since passed being a virgin.[2]

The legate allows Lucy to follow him under armed escort, with her hands bound, as they walk to a dirt mound forming the boundary of the Legion camp. He states that the Legion has faced several ongoing conflicts against other factions like the New California Republic, the Great Khans, and the Brotherhood of Steel, before showing Lucy their most immediate enemy: the "unrepentant" members of Caesar's Legion. It is then revealed that the dirt mound boundary of the camp is actually a dividing wall, separating them from another opposing camp of legionaries, who are led by another Caesar, a "false" leader in the Lacerta Legate's eyes. The legate elaborates that, ever since the death of the Legion's founder, there has been a war raging to decide who becomes his successor; supposedly, the late Caesar wrote down the name of his heir and kept it close before his passing. Now his decayed bones lay upon the divide, with both Legions violently preventing the other from obtaining the paper, leaving them at a stalemate. The legate declines Lucy's offer to apply her skills at diplomacy to solve their problem, sending her to be crucified and telling Lucy that they find strength to be of greater historical importance than being "good."[3]


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Affordable Al's
Inside the ruins of Affordable Al's Discount Hospital, the Ghoul has managed to crawl into a pool venue, still suffering the effects of the radscorpion sting that incapacitated him.[4] With Dogmeat beside him for company, he takes out a skinning knife intending to extract the stinger tip that was left inside his thigh from the creature's attack. He keeps himself from blacking out from the pain by talking to the dog, using the Ship of Theseus paradox to describe himself, until he is able to dig out the stinger and throw it away. As he recovers, the Ghoul remarks that Dogmeat is the first one in a long time that he feels is worth talking to about his deeper emotions.[5]

Flashback 1
In a flashback to the late 2070s, before the Great War, Cooper hears his wife Barb quietly sniffling and sobbing in their kitchen, where he finds her attempting to put items into a "Keepsake" capsule for when they have to go into a Vault. Despite his unease over Barb's involvement with Vault-Tec's secret plans, Cooper still tries to comfort his wife, remarking that there may not be a need to go into a Vault. He changes the subject and says he has to go to an event with his friend Charles Whiteknife; as soon as he is out of sight, Cooper turns back in thought, conflicted between his love for Barb and knowing who she really is.

At the meeting hall hosting a fundraiser for the American Veteran Entertainment Alliance, Cooper and Charlie privately discuss the mission he was given by Kate Williams about getting close to Robert House; Charlie claims he was not told of this by Williams, but they both acknowledge, to Cooper's reluctance, that she most likely expects Cooper to assassinate House. Charlie tries to assure his friend that their time in the military has adjusted them to taking a life, that Robert House is just "one man," but Cooper remains uneasy.

They then observe Representative Diane Welch's uncharismatic opening speech as Cooper steps away to use the restroom. He is met there by a casual-clothed Robert House himself, whom he does not recognize. House reveals he knows about Cooper's friendship with Charlie, and the latter's reputation as a "pinko" in spite of his decorated service. House turns the subject to Cooper's history, going from a military veteran himself to a star-studded acting career, then implies he is aware of his interactions with Kate Williams' supposed communist organization. He tells Cooper that he sympathizes with the communist point of view and its opposition to "traditional institutions," lamenting that the looming threat of nuclear war has made everyone desperate for a solution while making it difficult for everyone else's solutions that they do not agree with. Cooper taunts the man about his poor attempt to seem like a military veteran and exits the room, with House implying he expects to meet him again.


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Area 51
At Area 51, in the aftermath of Xander Harkness' arrival, Quintus fields a private meeting with his fellow clerics and the Yosemite elder, with Maximus in attendance. The Yosemite elder reveals that the alliance of the four West Coast chapters has been shaken due to renewed fears of reprisal by the Commonwealth Brotherhood. The elder cleric continues to prop up the possibility of organizing against the dominant chapter, but the Yosemite elder refutes him and declares her chapter is abandoning the alliance, citing the Codex and its prohibition of violence between brothers.

In an attempt to convince her to stay, Quintus resorts to invoking the name and story of Roger Maxson, preaching that Maxson founded the Brotherhood out of an act of rebellion when he chose loyalty to "God" over loyalty to his government after discovering they were supporting unethical experiments being conducted on human subjects at a research center in California, and executed the offenders as a result; Quintus tries to equate Maxson's rebellion to his as a righteous one that will bring about a better world. However, the Yosemite elder maintains her stance to stay out of the elder cleric's rebellion, leaving the meeting with a final warning to hand over the cold fusion relic to the Commonwealth. In the silence after, Maximus suggests that they eliminate Xander, but Quintus mocks his shortsightedness since Xander's death would in all likelihood ignite war with the Commonwealth, then furiously dismisses him.

As Maximus walks through the base, angered and conflicted by his thoughts, Xander calls out to him. The paladin remarks on the San Fernando chapter's abundance of clerics, and how his chapter does not use them in a leadership position. He emphasizes to Maximus that Quintus' plans of rebellion will be nothing but chaos, for both the Brotherhood and the wasteland. Xander tries to sway Maximus to his view of things, saying that soldiers like them, who understand the real cost of a battle, are the ones who lead back in the Commonwealth and make an example for the Brotherhood. Maximus expresses his uncertainty, but Xander reassures him, stating that the current situation is not the first time that the Brotherhood has faced civil war and made room for "cooler heads" to step up and take command. Though Maximus remains reserved about his loyalty to his chapter, he agrees to discuss the topic more with Xander.

Camp Golf
From a ridge close to the warring Legion camps, the Ghoul observes through a telescope as Lucy languishes in her torment. He notes with surprise that the Legion has two Caesars and realizes he is going to need help for his plan.

The scene cuts to the bounty hunter standing outside the grounds of the House Resort, formerly occupied by the NCR as Camp Golf. As he doses an inhaler vial, he says to Dogmeat that he is not doing this for Lucy's sake, only because she will be useful for later. He walks through the exterior tents but finds them completely deserted; the resort itself is also abandoned.

In one of the resort's side rooms, a loud noise reveals the presence of Victor, a Securitron whom the Ghoul recognizes, as he calls him by name. Victor has been left with a stuttering speech and difficulty remembering his own name, which he attributes to time and damage to his memory banks, also saying he does not recall why he came to the former military camp. The Ghoul asks him where to find the NCR to help with the Legion, but Victor says they have been absent for a while, remarking that both factions continue to fight each other, and the Legion against themselves, over control of the Mojave. The Ghoul changes topics to Robert House, whom Victor claims is "gone," but the bounty hunter says they both know better than to think that House would not have planned for everything. Victor indicates that some of House's plans, made before the Great War, were impacted when he was unable to acquire the cold fusion technology, further implying that the Ghoul himself was involved in some way.

As the Ghoul turns to leave, Victor mentions that a group of NCR Rangers has been hiding out in the nearby hills, giving the Ghoul his next clue.


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Mojave Wasteland
On the airstrip at Area 51, Maximus and Xander approach Xander's vertibird. Maximus questions why they do not have a pilot, but Xander reveals he flies it himself. He offers to let Maximus use his spare suit of T-60 power armor, surprising Maximus that the Commonwealth chapter can grant its members spare power armor.

During the flight over the wasteland, the two start talking as Xander lightens the mood by offering to let him take the controls of the vertibird, which the inexperienced Maximus declines. The conversation turns to the subject of Quintus' rebellion as Xander admits that if nothing is done to get him to turn over the relic, both of them will most likely be facing each other in battle in the future. He reveals to Maximus that his arrival was two-fold, as he also came to get the relic because it might prevent the Commonwealth chapter's own collapse back on the East Coast, though he does not elaborate on the reason for this. Xander emphasizes to Maximus that he will have to be the one to make a choice, but he trusts Maximus' judgment and assures that Maximus himself must believe that too. They are alerted to the vertibird's sensors picking up the power signature of a nearby complex. Maximus wonders why Xander would care about that when it is happening far outside his home territory, but Xander rallies him by saying they have the obligation as members of the Brotherhood to protect the wasteland, which feeds into Maximus' idealism.

NCR outpost
The Ghoul walks through a stretch of desert, with Primm visible in the distance, to a spot littered with rusted car husks as Dogmeat begins growling at something nearby. It is then revealed that they are being watched by a female sniper wearing old NCR armor who fires a shot over the bounty hunter's shoulder and identifies herself as Captain Rodriguez of the NCR. The Ghoul turns to someone else approaching him before a man wearing NCR Ranger armor bashes him with his rifle butt and threatens to shoot him, with a second Ranger observing far behind. Rodriguez, however, intervenes, having recognized the Ghoul and further claims that he and the NCR "go way back."

At the NCR holdouts' camp, the Ghoul remarks on the dilapidated circumstances of the once great NCR, with Rodriguez responding that by the present, their three-man team is the only active force around that they are aware of. She remarks that time has taken a toll on some more than others, gesturing to one of the Rangers, Biff, as he prods at a caged squirrel. She reveals that around the time of the fall of Shady Sands, they knew about the presence of an NCR Army battalion to the east, but the Ghoul counters that they may no longer be there given how long ago Shady Sands was destroyed. Rodriguez tries to plead for the Ghoul's help to find their lost reinforcements and help fight the Legion, but the bounty hunter mocks their hopes of winning with their low manpower despite Rodriguez' assurances that they have the advantage. Seeing him begin to cough, Rodriguez offers the Ghoul a tin of inhaler vials and tries to convince him to fight for a bigger cause than himself, one she implies he used to share. The Ghoul takes the vials but seemingly rebuffs her plea; he leaves with a remark that, if the NCR's future has really died in the Mojave, it deserved to.


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Bottling Factory - II
Xander in power armor battling the  with his 
Xander in power armor battling the extremely broken Securitron with his super sledge

The T-60-outfitted Xander and Maximus break into the complex with the power signature they tracked. As they get deeper, they stop upon hearing the stuttering, crackled voice of an extremely broken Securitron. The malfunctioning robot detects them and fires at them with its SMG arm, forcing the two into cover. Xander excitedly pulls out his super sledge, which Maximus does not recognize, and charges into the storm of bullets to attack it directly. The pair work together to disable the robot's weapons, allowing Maximus to punch his gauntlet through the front screen and extract its fusion core. As the two celebrate their victory and Xander offers the use of his super sledge to Maximus, they are drawn to a sound in a nearby room.

Caesar's Legion - II
Having been stuck on her cross in the Legion camp for what is implied to be at least a day or two, Lucy has already begun to feel the effects of her prolonged torment. Crows have descended to pick over other crucified corpses, with a couple staying close to her as well. She spots the Ghoul walk by but does not fully believe he is real. In truth, the Ghoul is genuinely there and enters the Caesar's tent, where the Lacerta Legate questions him about the information he claimed to offer to them. The Ghoul initially tries to negotiate as the legate threatens him, and the deal works out when the bounty hunter reveals he can tell them where Rodriguez' NCR holdouts are hiding.

Flashback 2
In another flashback to the veterans' film alliance meeting, Charlie is on the podium recalling a war story where he helped save Cooper's life. He laughs off a joke Cooper makes about it and tells the real story about how his comrade, despite being severely injured, asked after the fates of his fellow soldiers first.

Charlie then uses that story to give a speech about doing one's duty for the protection of the ones they love, serving as a subtle message to Cooper directly about fulfilling his role in the plan to take down Robert House. After he finishes his speech, he receives a commemorative lighter as an award from Representative Welch. As the audience leaves, Charlie exits the stage and sits by Cooper. He gives his lighter to Cooper, telling him that he was given the award for saving one man (Cooper), not for having killed three people in order to do so. This sequence is interspersed with the following sequence in the present in the Legion camp.

Caesar's Legion - III
In the present, the Ghoul reflects on Charlie's words as he observes Lucy being freed at his request, part of the deal he made with the Legion, then carries the weakened Vault dweller out of their camp. On the way past the war rally led by Caesar declaring the imminent eradication of the NCR, the Ghoul notices a stash of dynamite nearby and seemingly forms a plan.

As they walk away, they stop on the ridge overlooking the Legion camp. Evidently recollecting his memories of Charlie and the film alliance meeting (as seen in interspersed flashbacks), the Ghoul takes out the lighter Charlie gave him, serving as a reminder of what he could and should do to protect the ones he loved.

As the Ghoul laments his choices, both watch as an explosion rocks the Legion camp, revealing that the Ghoul rigged the dynamite stash to explode. The blast is mistaken for an attack as both Legion factions erupt into fighting, consequently delaying their attack on the NCR outpost, while Lucy and the Ghoul depart.


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Bottling Factory - III
Xander and Maximus follow the sound they heard into another room, revealing they are in the Sunset Sarsaparilla factory used by Thaddeus' cap collecting operation. Xander notices Perry hiding under nearby machinery and demands he come out, then refers to him as a "baby abomination" upon seeing he's a ghoul. Seeing this, Maximus immediately starts to get uneasy, while Xander orders the rest of the children out of hiding. As the knight tries to reassure the scared children, Xander asks all the "smooth skin" humans to move to one side of the room, separating them from the ghouls. Maximus immediately realizes his intentions and tries to tell him to stand down. They are then interrupted by Thaddeus emerging from his hiding place. He tries to plead for the kids' safety, but Xander remains firm in obeying the Codex and eliminating the "abominations," including Thaddeus. Both Maximus and Thaddeus continue to beg Xander not to attack the children until Maximus makes the decision to swing the super sledge into the back of Xander's helmet, crushing it and killing him instantly. Maximus reveals himself to Thaddeus and laments that he just started a war, while a shocked Thaddeus tries to be nonchalant about nearly dying.

The Profligate

Prologue: The End
On October 23, 2077, Cooper Howard, a famous actor frequently typecast to play cowboys, performs stunts on horseback at young Roy Spencer's birthday party in Hollywood Hills while his young daughter Janey assists. The boy's father, Bob Spencer, suggests to his friend Frank that Cooper is working a job beneath his pay grade to pay alimony to his ex-wife. Mr. Spencer asks Cooper to perform his iconic thumbs up for a picture, but he declines. The party moves indoors, with Mrs. Spencer switching a weather newscaster's on-air meltdown about the wartime tensions to an episode of Grognak the Barbarian, not wanting to hear the doom and gloom, while Cooper and Janey clean up outside. Janey questions her father about refusing. He avoids the question and explains that one could measure a mushroom cloud's danger by whether it was larger than their thumbs up; if the cloud was larger, they were already doomed. Cooper attempts to soothe his daughter's fears and tells her, "We take it as it comes." He gets her a slice of birthday cake at her request.

Cooper and Janey trying to escape
Cooper and Janey trying to escape

A nuclear bomb is then dropped on Los Angeles, but the partygoers initially mistake the flash as coming from a camera. Janey sees the mushroom cloud forming and grows fearful as she sticks her thumb out. Cooper is the next to notice, initially telling Janey that it is merely a fire before he sees the cloud continue to grow larger and the blast wave racing toward them. The bomb's shockwave arrives and shatters all the windows of the Spencer home. The Spencer family takes refuge in their private bomb shelter while Bob assaults Frank to prevent him and his daughter from entering. Meanwhile, Cooper and Janey escape on horseback as several more bombs are dropped on the city.

Part 1: Lucy
Lucy during her application
Lucy during her application

219 years later, Vault 33 is successfully functioning under the leadership of Overseer Hank MacLean. His daughter Lucy, a self-described "active contributor to the well-being of [her] community," delivers her application for an approved marriage with a "breeder" from the adjoining Vault 32 to the governing council of Vault 33. The Council is comprised of Woody Thomas, Betty Pearson, and Reg McPhee. Her application is approved, and her pregnant friend Stephanie Harper helps her prepare for her wedding. Hank tells Lucy about leaving his native Vault 31 to marry her now-deceased mother. The gatekeeper, Lucy's cousin Chet, stalls the process as he is in love with Lucy. She reminds him of the negative long-term ramifications of inbreeding, and he reluctantly opens the adjoining Vault door. Lee Moldaver steps forward to introduce herself as the new overseer of Vault 32, also introducing Lucy's husband-to-be, Monty. Seeing Monty, Steph calls Lucy "lucky," causing her husband Bert to give her an appalled expression from behind.

Lucy and Monty's wedding
Lucy and Monty's wedding

Lucy and Monty marry. At the reception, Hank gives a toast and reports that the Vault dwellers will be able to reclaim the surface within the next generation. At the conclusion of the reception, Lucy takes Monty to their suite, and they consummate their marriage. Monty shows signs that he lacks the social refinement and education like the dwellers of Vault 33. Meanwhile, Lucy's brother Norm enters Vault 32 and is alarmed to discover dead crops and a Vault dweller's heavily decayed corpse, causing him to flee back to Vault 33.

Lucy hears yelling outside her suite and puts on her Pip-Boy to discover that her new "husband" contains abnormally high radiation levels, confirming suspicions that he and the other Vault 32 residents are actually raiders from the surface. Monty attacks and overwhelms Lucy, telling her he truly enjoyed their time together as he prepares to end her life. He stabs her in the stomach with a concealed knife and begins to strangle her before she cuts his throat with a broken pitcher. Lucy tends to her injury with a stimpak and arms herself with a tranquilizer gun. A bloody battle has broken out between the raiders and Vault dwellers, claiming many lives on both sides. Woody manages to flee from the chaos, while others are not so lucky. Bert is killed by the raiders, causing Steph to lash out in grief and rage; she is stabbed in the right eye with a fork, but manages to grab a raider's submachine gun and shoot back. Meanwhile, a burly raider returns to Chet at the gate while carrying a Vault 33 guard; he attacks Chet, but the guard grabs his leg and trips him, saving Chet and causing the raider to be bisected by a closing door.

FOTV Lucy hides Norm in the Norm Hole
Lucy saves Norm from the chaos in the crop field and helps him hide in a storage unit. A still-living Monty tries to strangle Lucy again, but is prevented by Hank, who kills Monty by holding his head in a barrel of pickles in vinegar. They then hear an alarm warning them about the inter-vault door remaining open, causing them to run toward Vault 32. At the door between the two Vaults, Moldaver has taken multiple Vault 33 residents hostage, including Chet and Steph, and planted a bomb in the door. She orders Hank to choose between saving them or Lucy. Hank locks Lucy in a janitorial closet and affirms his love for her. A raider tranquilizes Hank, and Moldaver speaks to Lucy through the door, saying she resembles her mother. The raiders drag Hank towards "the real world" and set the other hostages free. They run to safety as the bomb detonates.

Later, the Vault 33 survivors nurse their wounds, compost their dead, and repair damage to the Vault. Over an emergency meeting in the atrium, Lucy proposes sending a search party to the surface to look for Hank. The council rejects the idea and is unwilling to risk opening the vault door. Norm tells Lucy that the council likely don't want Hank to be found because it would mean they'd have to give up the new authority they've now received with him being absent. Lucy resolves to leave alone and recruits Norm and Chet to help her escape undetected. They take an elevator up to the main Vault door, and Chet tries to persuade Lucy to let him leave with her. She sticks him with a tranquilizer to prevent him from following her. Norms admits he is "too chicken" to leave the Vault and shares a goodbye with his sister.

The door opens as Reg and Davey arrive. They beg Lucy not to leave, but she steps into the outside world, and the door closes behind her. Outside, she observes the desert landscape and the skeletal remains of people who died trying to enter the Vault. Around the bend, she sees the ocean and the destroyed Santa Monica Pier in the distance, and she dutifully presses forward.


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Part 2: Maximus
Maximus being beaten up by bullies
Maximus being beaten up by bullies

In a military base on the surface, Maximus, an "aspirant" of the Brotherhood of Steel, is beaten up by his fellow aspirants as part of a routine hazing. Afterward, his friend Dane reminds him that "flesh is weak, but still endures." In a class, Cleric Felix outlines the Brotherhood's mission to salvage and hoard pre-war technology. A massive airship, the Prydwen, arrives, and the class watches knights wearing T-60 power armor stroll into the base.

While Maximus is carrying out his assignment of disposing of sewage, Dane beckons him away. They find the shed where the T-60 armor sets are stored and admire them together. Maximus recalls being rescued by a Brotherhood knight as a child after his hometown's destruction. Presently, Dane is summoned away by the Brotherhood officers. That evening, a group of aspirants are promoted, including Dane, who is assigned to serve as Knight Titus' squire. Maximus privately vents his jealousy. The next morning, Dane suffers a gruesome foot injury after someone places an exposed razor in their boot. Maximus is blamed for the incident and dragged before his commanding officers to be interrogated.

Maximus being interrogated about Dane
Maximus being interrogated about Dane

Elder Cleric Quintus questions Maximus. He sheepishly defends himself but admits to being jealous of Dane's promotion. He affirms his desire to overcome his weakness and commitment to the Brotherhood. Quintus informs Maximus that he will replace Dane as Titus' new squire, who sheds tears of joy at the news. He later visits Dane in the infirmary, and they assert their faith in his innocence. Maximus is anointed as a squire in an initiation ceremony, and has the initial "T" branded on the back of his neck.

Quintus announces the Brotherhood's newest mission to capture Siggi Wilzig, a rogue Enclave "denizen" who carries a valuable artifact in his possession.[1] Maximus and Titus fly away on a vertibird to search for the target, assigned to the area around Filly.

Part 3: The Ghoul
, , and 
Biggie, Slim, and Honcho

Somewhere outside California, a trio of bounty hunters sneak into a fortress owned by Dom Pedro and take out one of the guards. Their leader, Honcho, explains that they are searching for a notorious bounty hunter whom Dom Pedro has held captive for several years. He keeps the hunter buried alive but once a year digs him up, cuts off a few pieces, and buries him again.[2] They find a grave with a pair of IV bags attached and tubes emerging from the dirt. The other two hunters, Biggie and Slim, are shocked to realize the hunter they are looking for is a ghoul. Honcho says that his father once worked with the Ghoul,[3] and Biggie expresses concern that he may be feral. Honcho brings out a chicken and explains that a feral ghoul will instinctively attack it, which will be their cue to kill him.

The Ghoul and the chicken
The Ghoul and the chicken

The hunters dig up the coffin and place the chicken in front of it before opening it up. The Ghoul emerges, revealed as an aged and mutated Cooper Howard. He playfully picks up the chicken, terrifying Biggie and Slim. Honcho proposes they work together to secure a large bounty, the same target the Brotherhood is after, and retire on the profits. He details that the target is seeking out Moldaver in California, specifying that he knows the Ghoul is originally from there. The Ghoul takes offense to the mention of his past and claims that, unlike them, he pursues bounties "for the love of the game." He promptly lassos Honcho to the ground, and disarms Slim as he tries to pull a rifle on him. Biggie tries to shoot a flurry of steak knives at him with his Junk Jet, but the Ghoul maneuvers Slim to use him as a human shield, and then blows Biggie's head off with Slim's rifle. He then turns his attention to Honcho, kicks him into his own grave, and leaves him to die, asserting that his kind (cowpokes) "take it as it comes." The Ghoul spares the chicken and leaves to pursue the bounty alone.

The End

Enclave research colony
In the past, Enclave researcher Dr. Siggi Wilzig helps breed Belgian Malinois dogs. He's disturbed by the facility's policy of incinerating newborn puppies that weigh less than ten ounces, so he falsifies records to spare the life of an underweight female puppy. The dog is given the designation CX404. Over the years, Wilzig has specially trained the dog and cares for her while working on an unauthorized research project. The fruit of the project is a small pulsating blue bead that Wilzig injects into his neck. One day, one of his co-workers discovers the project and reports him, but CX404 mauls and kills him to protect her master. Wilzig and CX404 flee the facility under gunfire from a turret.

Los Angeles ruins
In the present, Lucy wanders through the ocean-side ruins and discovers the long-dead remains of a family. They apparently poisoned themselves with suicide pills from a bottle labeled "Vault-Tec Plan D". As night falls, she sets a campfire and turns in for the night.

Lucy is woken up in the middle of the night by growling, and finds CX404 staring at her. Moments later, CX404 takes notice of a nearby Radroach, and swiftly mauls it to death. Lucy then notices Wilzig sitting in a chair by the fire. He talks about how radroaches evolved to become larger and more predatory when they evolved from cockroaches. Wilzig urges Lucy to go home, doubting her ability to adapt to the dangerous and violent wasteland. Lucy asserts that she is not going back without her father. Wilzig suggests that her desires will change when she becomes a "different animal" and leaves with CX404.

The Wilds
The next day, as a vertibird flies them to Filly, Maximus attempts to bond with Knight Titus to no avail. Titus then orders their pilot to touch down early out of boredom. The two trek through the Wilds while Maximus carries the luggage. Simultaneously, Wilzig and CX404 stop to rest by some discarded chemical waste barrels. CX404 enters a nearby cave and leaves carrying a human hand in her mouth. A horrified Wilzig realizes a dangerous monster is nearby. Later, Titus and Maximus happen upon the cave and find evidence that their targets were there. Titus orders Maximus to investigate inside the cave, before being attacked by a yao guai who destroys his weapon. Titus attempts to flee from the yao guai, but it catches up to him outside the cave and manages to mortally wound him before Maximus is able to shoot it in the head. Maximus removes the helmet off Titus, who orders him to administer a stimpak to him while blaming him for the attack and verbally abusing him. Disgusted by his cowardice and tired of the mistreatment from him, Maximus withholds treatment from Titus. Titus warns his squire that he'll be executed for allowing his charge to die, but Maximus claims he'll be forgiven if he brings back the target.


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Farmer house
Lucy encounters a farmer in a house in the desert, attempting to fix a water filter by putting sand in it. She offers him a sip of her drinking water, and he drinks the entire bottle. He directs her to Filly despite having never been himself; he claims people often get killed there, including several of his relatives. The farmer suggests that Lucy live with him and claims to be dying. She declines and starts heading towards Filly.

Yao guai cave
Maximus dons the dead Titus' T-60 power armor, which grants him incredible strength. In some ruins, he sees a chicken collector beating up a snake oil salesman and intervenes, setting the salesman free. He praises Maximus as a "scholar and a gentleman" and admonishes the farmer for punishing his "scientific curiosity." As the salesman runs off, the chicken collector tells Maximus he was beating the salesman for sexually molesting his chickens. Maximus sheepishly backs off and realizes his suit contains jets in the arms.

Filly
Lucy arrives in Filly, a settlement built in the remnants of an old junkyard in the middle of the woods. As she walks through the marketplace, she is disconcerted by the inhabitants' rudeness and lack of helpful information. Entering the downtown district through a short tunnel, she takes notice of a general store in the middle of the square, Ma June's Sundries, and decides to check it out. Descending into the square, she doesn't notice the Ghoul sitting in a rocking chair, watching the store intently as he fidgets with a small bottle.

Inside the general store, Lucy finds the place is filled with multiple items produced by Vault-Tec. The store owner, an elderly woman named Ma June, realizes Lucy is a Vault Dweller and laughs in her face. Her attitude hardens when Lucy mentions Moldaver and orders her to leave immediately. Lucy asserts the Vaults' mission to save America, but Ma June denounces the Vaults as "a hole in the ground for rich folks to hide in while the rest of the world burned." Lucy leaves, despondent. As she leaves the store, Wilzig and CX404 run into her as they arrive in Filly. His knowledge of her Vault surprises her, and he once more encourages her to go home. Ma June greets Wilzig, having expected him, and once again coldly tells Lucy to get on her way.

At that moment, the Ghoul reveals himself, and Ma June firmly reminds him that ghouls are banned from Filly. He ignores her and reports the large bounty out on Wilzig's head. Ma June reveals she's been paid to transport him out of Filly...prompting the Ghoul to suddenly pull out a gun and shoot Wilzig's left foot off. Ma June takes cover, and loudly offers a thousand bottle caps to whoever can kill the Ghoul.

A shootout breaks out as several Filly residents try to take out the Ghoul to take up Ma June's offer, only for him to promptly dispatch all of them. Amid it, the Ghoul helps himself to a handful of cherry tomatoes from a vendor and "pays" for them by dropping a fistful of caps on the ground. He takes several bullets in the back to little effect and kills the other shooters. Ma June is shot in her right leg and seriously injured as she tries to fire at the Ghoul. CX404 then attacks him in similar fashion to how she killed the Enclave scientist, but the Ghoul fights back and stabs her with a knife, critically wounding her.

While the shootout is ongoing, Lucy runs into Ma June's backroom and inspects her ledger, finding a transaction with Moldaver's name recorded in it. Hearing Wilzig's cries for help, she returns outside, and acting like she's the sheriff in an old Western movie, attempts to non-violently de-escalate the conflict and warns the Ghoul to stand down. The Ghoul, undaunted, steps forward, and Lucy shoots him in the heart with her tranquilizer gun. To her surprise, it doesn't work. He plucks it out of his chest, and calls it "a very small drop in a very, very large bucket of drugs" and aims his gun at her. At that moment, Maximus arrives in his power armor and orders the Ghoul to surrender. He tackles Lucy out of the way and shields her with his body as the Ghoul fires at her. While covering her, he briefly shows his face to her, and asks her to protect Wilzig while he engages the Ghoul. Lucy and Ma June help Wilzig into the shop while Maximus engages the Ghoul.

Inside, Ma June orders her assistant Barv to retrieve a prosthetic replacement foot for Wilzig from a box labeled "Jim's Limbs". Ma June fashions the foot to Wilzig's stump, a process that involves crudely shredding the end of it. Out of options, Ma June asks Lucy to take Wilzig to her client, and she declines until Ma June reveals her client is in fact Moldaver herself. She suggests using Wilzig as a bargaining chip and programs the coordinates into Lucy's Pip-Boy. Lucy escorts Wilzig out of the town as the fight outside grows heated. In the marketplace, they pass the snake oil salesman that Maximus earlier helped, and he claims to have a serum to regenerate Wilzig's lost limb. They ignore him and press forward.

The Ghoul quickly realizes Maximus is not very familiar with how to use power armor, and ultimately exploits this to overwhelm him. When Maximus gets his foot stuck in some floorboards, the Ghoul severs one of his breathing tubes, causing the armor to malfunction and jet him away. He crash lands in a nearby junkyard, ignored by a nearby raider using a toilet. Back in Filly, the Ghoul finds Wilzig missing from the shop. Outside, a dying CX404 whines from her injury. The Ghoul takes pity on the dog and heals her with a stimpak. Revitalized, she begins pursuing her master's scent while the Ghoul follows.


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Crashed satellite
Lucy holding a surgical ripper.
Lucy holding a surgical ripper.

The next day, Lucy and Wilzig stop to rest at a crashed Russian satellite near Los Angeles International Airport. Wilzig's injury has worsened, and he is visibly bleeding from his prosthetic limb; he claims he will die before reaching the destination. Lucy optimistically encourages him to press ahead, but he reveals that he has ingested a Plan D, calling it "the most humane product Vault-Tec ever made." He says he's still valuable to Moldaver if Lucy can bring his head to her and instructs her to decapitate him with his buzz saw. He calls her "Miss MacLean", which shocks Lucy as she hasn't divulged this to him at all, but he dies before he can answer her. Lucy grimly prepares to cut his head off as he requests.

Credits
The Brotherhood wants you
The Brotherhood wants you

The credits show the ruins of LAX. The sequence begins focused on a vertibird with a picture of Nuka-Girl with a blast mark on the face, with the text "Zap Em" written nearby. The camera zooms out, revealing a skeleton sitting against the vertibird and numerous other vertibirds parked in nearby hangers amidst barbed wire and destroyed barricades. At this point, the main building of the airport and the air control tower are both visible.

 billboard showing a 
Horizon Airlines billboard showing a jetliner

The scene zooms further out to show two dead figures in power armor sitting against a structure with a poster featuring Uncle Sam in power armor, reading, "The Brotherhood wants you." The camera pulls back onto the airport tarmac, showing various crashed or parked planes and briefly crossing over a teddy bear in the middle of the runway. Another billboard is seen, and this one is advertising Horizon Airlines with the tagline "Patriots don't spend their travel dollars abroad! Fly Horizon Airlines." The sequence cuts to black as the camera reaches a nearby highway.

The Target

California Crest Studios - Flashback I
Sometime before the Great War, Cooper Howard is filming the Western movie The Man from Deadhorse at California Crest Studios. He films a scene where his character, a sheriff, declares "Feo fuerte y formal" ("He was ugly, strong, and had dignity") as he confronts the villain Joey Toro, played by Jorge. Cooper objects to his character killing the villain as the script dictates. The film's director, Emil Dale, explains that the scene is meant to show that even a good man can be driven to commit terrible acts. Cooper tries to call in one of the writers, Cadillac Bob, and the director tells him Bob has been fired after he was discovered to have communist ties. The director details that the movie's theme focuses on strong individualism in a lawless world. Cooper cuts the conversation short when he sees his wife Barb nearby. She gives him a piece of lavender taffy, which he finds disgusting. Barb gives Cooper his costume for a photo shoot, and they cheerfully head toward the trailers with their daughter Janey, who races her father there.

Crashed satellite - I
In the present day, the Ghoul inspects Wilzig's headless corpse with CX404. He starts coughing and downs a vial containing an unknown chem to ease his symptoms. They both leave to look for the missing head, following Lucy's footprints.

Los Angeles ruins - I
Lucy wanders through the wasteland carrying Wilzig's head. Inspecting the head by her campfire, she notices a pulsating blue bead in the skin behind the ear, which shocks her when she tries to touch it. She sticks a tracking chip in the head just in case.

Filly
The next day, Maximus assesses his damaged power armor, removing a critical broken module. The voice of Petty Officer Shortsight of the Brotherhood of Steel comes through the armor's radio transmitter and questions "Knight Titus" for missing his scheduled check-in, unaware that Maximus had left Titus to die and taken his armor. Maximus takes advantage of this and the fact that the T-60 has a modulator to disguise his voice. Impersonating Titus, Maximus reports having been attacked by an "abomination" and claims his squire was killed in battle. Shortsight insists on sending a replacement squire, causing Maximus to panic and destroy the transmitter. He leaves behind the armor to search for a mechanic to repair the broken module.

In the Filly market, the residents are recuperating from the Ghoul's shootout. Maximus finds a mechanic who demands five caps to repair the piece; Maximus only has four. Hence, he sells one of his teeth to pay for the rest. The mechanic briefly welds the piece and takes his money.

Returning to the armor, Maximus finds scavengers trying to steal it. They beat him up and manage to open up the armor. Maximus returns for a second round and, this time, sticks his arm in the sleeve of the armor, using it to crush the head of the scavengers' leader, Tom. The others flee while Maximus sees a Vertibird arrive with his new replacement squire. To his shock, his new squire is Thaddeus, his main Brotherhood bully. He hastily reattaches the repaired piece and puts on the armor before Thaddeus greets him. Maximus also contemplates crushing Thaddeus's head, but the latter begs for his life and swears his loyalty to him. Maximus decides to make Thaddeus his personal manservant instead. Thaddeus reports that whoever finds the target will control the wasteland, and they are to kill anyone on their path to find it.


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Hollywood Boulevard - I
The 
The fawn

Lucy navigates Hollywood Boulevard, which has become a flooded lake. She has a tender moment feeding a fawn before it is suddenly dragged into the irradiated lake by a mutated gulper. The gulper also steals the head and swallows it. As Lucy prepares to dive into the water to chase after it, the Ghoul sneaks up behind her and draws a gun on her. He pistol whips her and rifles through her backpack with no success, but quickly realizes from wet mud nearby that the Gulper has the head.

Vault 33
Chet mourns Lucy's departure. He and Norm are punished for helping Lucy escape by being reassigned, with Chet lamenting he has lost his identity without his job as the gatekeeper. The council struggles to decide where to place Norm since he has shown equal apathy in every job he's ever had, but they eventually settle on having him serve food to the imprisoned raiders.

Los Angeles ruins - II & Crashed satellite - II
Maximus enjoys ordering Thaddeus about with difficult and inconsequential chores, such as climbing a tree to pick a (nonexistent) apple. As they travel, Maximus talks about being prevented from following Lucy and Wilzig by the Ghoul. Thaddeus assumes he killed the Ghoul according to the Brotherhood's policy against mutants, but Maximus says the Ghoul is alive. Thaddeus interprets this to mean that Maximus allowed the Ghoul to get a head start to lead them to Wilzig. Thaddeus begins tracking the Ghoul's radiation trail. They later find Wilzig's headless corpse. Maximus deduces that his head is the true target and falsely assumes the Ghoul is responsible for decapitating Wilzig. Thaddeus claims that the Brotherhood will someday "eradicate every last one of those freaks." Thaddeus refills Maximus' water bag and reminisces about his childhood growing up on a fly farm. At "Titus"'s urging, he admits that he used to beat up Maximus because he was also beaten up as a young recruit and regrets that Maximus didn't live long enough to find someone to beat up himself.

Hollywood Boulevard - II
The Ghoul ties Lucy up to a waterside pulley and repeatedly lowers and raises her from the water. She begs him to stop torturing her and he recalls a pre-War study claiming that torture is ineffective, which he agrees with. Lucy questions why he is torturing her if he believes that; he clarifies that he is not torturing her, but using her as bait to lure the gulper back. The "bait" successfully lures the gulper and emerges, but the Ghoul cannot suppress it, and it attempts to swallow Lucy. Lucy beats the gulper with the Ghoul's saddle bag to defend herself, and it eventually retreats. The Ghoul opens his bag and realizes his supply of vials has been destroyed. Furious, he yells expletives at Lucy and she snaps at him for his cruelty, bringing up the golden rule ("Do unto others as you would have done unto you"). The Ghoul lassos Lucy and starts dragging her away, despite her insistence that they retrieve the head. He tells her the wasteland has its own golden rule: "Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time."


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Vault 33 - II
Meeting of Vault 33 dwellers
Meeting of Vault 33 dwellers

A meeting is held in the Vault 33 atrium to decide the fate of the imprisoned raiders. Woody suggests they educate and gradually integrate the raiders into Vault society, which most of the dwellers agree with. In particular, Davey offers to teach the raiders Shakespeare and Marlowe. At the same time, Marianne the Vault scholar insists on teaching them morals first in the form of Kant and Mill, and a third dweller offers to teach calculus. Meanwhile, the suggestion does not sit well with Norm and Steph. Scoffing at the thought of educating the raiders, the council calls out Norm, who suggests they simply execute the prisoners, but the idea is shot down. Just then, an engineer comes in, saying he has bad news to deliver in private. Woody and Reg make him tell the entire assembly despite his reservations. The engineer announces that the Vault's water chip is broken; without it, the Vault's water supply will last less than two months. The residents begin to panic, and the meeting is adjourned. Steph, whose husband Bert was killed by the raiders, quietly tells Norm she agrees with his idea.

Hollywood Boulevard - III
Maximus and Thaddeus track the Ghoul's trail to the lake, which apparently leads into the water. It dawns on Thaddeus that the trail may be mixed up with a different "abomination" as the gulper attacks them. Maximus orders the less protected Thaddeus back to shore while he shoots the gulper, but misses all of his shots. The gulper lunges from the water and attacks Maximus but is wounded by a gunshot from Thaddeus. Angered, it crawls onto shore and attempts to swallow Thaddeus. Maximus pulls him out, causing the gulper to regurgitate its stomach contents. They see CX404 licking the regurgitated head nearby and celebrate their success.

California Crest Studios
The Ghoul marches Lucy through the desert, and they walk through the ruins of California Crest Studios. Lucy begs the Ghoul to share some of his drinking water with her; he ignores her and lets some water spill out for good measure. They pass some filthy and irradiated water, and the Ghoul tells Lucy that nothing stays clean on the surface. She asks if radiation caused his current appearance, and he responds, "Something like that." Lucy sees a billboard showing the Vault Boy giving a thumbs-up, and the Ghoul spitefully shoots a hole through the mascot's head.

California Crest Studios - Flashback II
In the past, Cooper emerges from his trailer at California Crest Studios wearing a Vault jumpsuit, which we now see has a color scheme derived from the cowboy costume he was wearing on the set of The Man from Deadhorse. He arrives on the set for a photo shoot where Barb, who works as a Vault-Tec Corporation executive, has asked him to shoot some advertisements for the company to give them a celebrity endorsement, meeting junior executives George Yaffe and Sarah Clements in the process. Before the shoot begins, Cooper asks the executives whether the Vault jumpsuits are radiation-proof; they shoot glances at each other before hastily saying yes. During the shoot, Cooper decides on a whim to give a thumbs-up for some of the pictures, and one of the Vault-Tec employees agrees, indicating that the Vault Boy will be modeled after Cooper.

The Head

Westside Medical Clinic
The Ghoul, suffering from withdrawal, begins coughing as he marches Lucy through the desert, walking along the mostly buried Hollywood Walk of Fame. They pass the Westside Medical Clinic and hear someone yelling, "My name is Roger!" inside. The Ghoul forces Lucy to enter the clinic first. They find Roger, a nearly-feral ghoul, inside, and the Ghoul greets him as an old friend. Roger says that life has been rough since so many "smoothies" are bigoted against Ghouls but sees Lucy and notes that the Ghoul has seemingly befriended a smoothie. The Ghoul apologizes for not having any vials that can stop his friend from turning feral. Roger warns the two to leave "before things get ugly" and says it's been twenty-eight years since he started showing signs of going feral; the Ghoul himself has staved off the process for even longer by making steady money for vials. The Ghoul begins reminiscing about pre-ghoul life and the food they both enjoyed, getting Roger to think about happy thoughts. Turning to Lucy, Roger happily begins telling her about his mom before the Ghoul suddenly mercy kills him mid-sentence, horrifying Lucy.

Lucy questions the murder, and the Ghoul asks her name for the first time; he is surprised to learn her last name is "MacLean." Lucy is further revolted when the Ghoul begins eating Roger's corpse. She claims the people of Vault 33 have never resorted to cannibalism even during a "Great Plague of '77," during which her mother starved and her father "dropped to 128 pounds;" the Ghoul doubts her story. Lucy asks how he can go on living this way. He appears briefly shaken by the question, but dodges answering and demands her help cutting up Roger. She somberly complies.

Vault 33 - I
Woody's election poster
Woody's election poster

The residents of Vault 33 decide to elect a new overseer with Reg, Woody and Betty as the candidates. Woody tells Reg he tried interrogating an imprisoned raider to no effect. The same raider attempts to break free from his confines, and Woody decides to sedate him. Betty confronts Norm about his suggestion at the assembly, and Norm remembers hiding when the raiders attacked. Betty advises him to "tread lightly" as he wrestles with his anger, stating that as the last MacLean, his words carry more weight among the population than he realizes.

Santa Monica ruins
Near Santa Monica Boulevard, Lucy and the Ghoul stumble upon a trough of water that the former's Pip-Boy indicates is irradiated. Nonetheless, the Ghoul refills his flask from the trough, and a parched Lucy cannot stop herself from drinking, too. The Ghoul seems to take pleasure in watching Lucy be broken down by the realities of the wasteland. She asks, "What are you?" and he says, "I'm you, sweetie. You just give it a little time." He's overcome by a sudden coughing fit, and Lucy uses the opportunity to try to make a break for it. She is caught off guard by a crater in the middle of the city when the Ghoul uses a lasso to drag her back to him. In the ensuing struggle, Lucy bites off one of his fingers. He, in turn, cuts off one of hers with a knife and calls the interaction "the closest thing we've had to an honest exchange so far."


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Vault 33 - II
Chet and Steph kissing
Chet and Steph kissing

Back in Vault 33, Chet is visited by Steph in his suite, and they bond over their shared trauma. She gives him some clothes that belonged to her dead husband, Bert. Seeing Chet wear Bert's scarf and sweater, Steph starts crying and calling him "Bert." She starts kissing him, and they impulsively decide to have sex. Before they can, Steph's water breaks, and she goes into labor.

Super Duper Mart - I
The Ghoul takes Lucy to the Super Duper Mart seen across the crater near Santa Monica Boulevard. Using a squak box outside to communicate, the Ghoul sells Lucy to an unidentified male voice in exchange for two months' worth of chems. He forces her through the door before collapsing. Inside, Lucy is amiably greeted by Snip-Snip, a Mister Handy robot. Snip-Snip guides Lucy to a gurney where he laser attaches a new finger to her hand from a drawer of detached human fingers. Lucy begins to relax and admits that she feared she had just been sold as a sex slave. Snip-Snip is appalled at the idea and cheerfully explains that he merely plans on harvesting her organs. He shoots her with a tranquilizer, and she passes out on the gurney.

Vault 33 - III
Dervin, one of the raiders
Dervin, one of the raiders

Norm brings dessert to the prisoners. He judges a raider for killing the people of Vault 32, but the raider insinuates that they were already dead when they arrived. When Norm refers to the vault-dwellers as "innocent," the raider says that they were anything but. Suspicious, Norm tries to access the Vault 32 record from his computer but is denied. In Chet's suite, Steph is giving birth on his couch, assisted by doctors, when Norm invites him on an excursion. Chet and Norm sneak into Vault 32 to find their crop field, which has seemingly been dead for years. Investigating further, they find multiple Vault dwellers dead from either suicide or violent murders. The Pip-Boy on one corpse indicates that its wearer has been dead for two years. One resident, dead from sticking a fork in a toaster, sits in front of a looping television program about mice in an experiment who begin killing each other after their environment is overpopulated, suggesting that the Vault shared the same fate. Norm discovers the words "WE KNOW THE TRUTH" written on the wall in blood.

Super Duper Mart - II
Lucy dreams of her mother as she begins to come to. Snip-Snip wheels her past a refrigerator aisle of captive ghouls, their organs on sale for 500 bottle caps apiece. One female ghoul repeats, "My name is Martha," in a similar manner as Roger. The human captors, Huey and Squirrel, instruct the robot to cut Lucy up immediately. In a separate room, as Snip-Snip preps for the surgery, Lucy kicks Snip-Snip's buzz saw into her left restraint, which is cut but her Pip-Boy stops the buzz saw from going further, and then overloads the robot's circuits with a defibrillator. Lucy confronts Huey and Squirrel, threatening to destroy Snip-Snip; they are apathetic since he is a robot. Lucy reveals she loaded the robot's dart shooter with toxic drain cleaner and threatens to inject them with it; they set most of the ghouls free by her demands. Lucy orders them to free the remaining four ghouls, and they reluctantly do so. When they emerge, she realizes they are feral. Huey and Squirrel kill three of the ghouls and are killed themselves in the process. Martha alone remains and desperately repeats her name while going feral. Lucy tries to break through to her but is forced to shoot and kill Martha after she attacks.


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Vault 33 - IV
Chet and Norm find more dead Vault 32 dwellers. In the overseer's office, they find the dead overseer tied to his chair and the words "DEATH TO MANAGEMENT" graffitied on the wall. Norm accesses the overseer's computer to look up Vault door records. He discovers the door was opened from the outside with a Pip-Boy registered to his mother, Rose MacLean.

Super Duper Mart - III
Lucy leaves the facility clad in protective leather pads. She finds the Ghoul supine on the ground and deduces that he will soon go feral if he does not have access to vials. She firmly says that she will never be like him and gives him the supply of vials he needs. She says, "Golden rule, motherfucker." and departs. Later, the revitalized Ghoul enters the building and gorges himself on chems and vials left by the dead inhabitants. He sees a tape of The Man from Deadhorse on the TV and pops it in. He nostalgically watches his younger self kill the movie's villain as he sits on the couch in silence.

The Ghouls

LA underpass - I
Maximus, posing as Knight Titus, and Thaddeus celebrates their successful retrieval of the head of Siggi Wilzig. Thaddeus requests that Maximus brands him with Knight Titus' power armor to signify his squire-hood to him. Afterward, Maximus reveals his true identity to Thaddeus; this results in a scuffle where Maximus crushes Thaddeus's foot, and Thaddeus disables Maximus's power armor by taking its fusion core. Thaddeus then leaves Maximus stuck in the armor and flees with Wilzig's head. The next morning, Lucy, who just left the Ghoul at the Super Duper Mart, discovers Maximus and saves him from radroaches. When Lucy begins to feel faint as a result of radiation sickness from the irradiated water the Ghoul made her drink, Maximus convinces her to open the power armor and set him free in exchange for the RadAway on him. After setting Maximus free, Lucy collapses.

Vault 32
In Vault 32, Norm questions how the raider got hold of his mom's Pip-Boy that's necessary to open the Vault, Chet persuades him to return to 33 but Norm insists on checking the 32-31 inter-vault door. At the door, the two discover the corpses of the Vault 32 dwellers and the words "WE KNOW WHAT'S IN THERE" written in blood, Norm and Chet deduces that the dwellers must have been trying to open the door. Horrified by what they have seen, the two return to Vault 33.

LA underpass - II
Maximus uses an IV drip to administer RadAway to Lucy. When Lucy regains consciousness, she sees him covering up the power armor and preparing to follow Thaddeus's trail and re-retrieve Wilzig's head. Lucy makes a deal with Maximus to let him help her track down the head with her Pip-Boy tracker, and in return, Maximus promises to bring Brotherhood reinforcements to save Lucy's dad.

Vault 33 - I
Vault 33 overseer election
Vault 33 overseer election

Back in Vault 33, the overseer election is commencing. While in line to vote, Davey apologizes to Reg while insinuating that he plans to vote for Betty. Reg takes no offense and ends up voting for her himself. Betty later wins the election with a 98% majority. Norm analyses the Inter-Vault trade records and discovers that all of Vault 33's former overseers, including Betty and Hank, had been from Vault 31 as part of the trades. After the reveal of the election's result, Betty winning in a landslide, Norm meets up with Chet and discusses his suspicion, which Chet dismisses by saying that Vault 31 had a better education system, more resources, and a tradition of voting for Overseers from Vault 31 exists in Vault 33, plus a snappy rhyming slogan of "When things look glum, vote for 31!" Norm visits Steph's suite, where Chet has begun a relationship with her and helps care for her newborn, albeit without enthusiasm. Norm asks Steph, who is a former Vault 31 dweller, what was different between the two Vaults, she responds that Vault 31 had better mashed potatoes to which Norm replied that it was the same response Hank had said.


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Bridge & Shady Sands crater
Rink crossing the bridge
Rink crossing the bridge

Lucy and Maximus pursue Thaddeus and Wilzig's head. Along the way, the pair bond, with Lucy asking what has happened in the past 200 years after the bombs dropped, and Maximus replies that the bombs dropped when he was a child. Lucy also questioned the Brotherhood's motive, and of the general education on the surface. At a bridge crossing, the duo meets with Javin and Rink, another pair of traveling wastelanders. Lucy attempts to broker a peaceful crossing by making both pairs raise up their arms in a show of peace. After Javin notices Lucy's Pip-Boy, he and Rink shoot at Lucy and Maximus, wounding him in his left shoulder. Maximus quickly grabs Lucy's gun and downs the two travelers. Upon searching them, he declares that they are "fiends," another name for "people who eat people."

The traveling pair then arrives at Shady Sands, where Lucy is shocked to learn from a billboard that over 34,000 people had lived there after the war, and Maximus tells her of the existence of the New California Republic. Learning this, she questions the Vault's Reclamation Day and of the purpose of the Vault to which Maximus says that the NCR didn't succeed in their mission of rebuilding society. Maximus shows Lucy the crater that is the remnant of Shady Sands. When Lucy asks Maximus what happened, he replies that it is the same thing that always happens: "Everyone wants to save the world, they just disagree on how." Lucy then wonders if anyone had survived, and Maximus reveals that he is a survivor of the destruction.

Hawthorne Medical Laboratories
When Maximus abruptly clutches his gunshot wound with his right arm in pain, Lucy realizes that his wound might be worse than he lets on. She leads them in search of aid, leading them to the Research & Development building of the nearby Hawthorne Medical Laboratories. As they approach the building, Lucy nor Maximus notice that the sign for the facility notes that the facility is "a division of Vault-Tec," nor do they notice a Vault-Tec logo printed on the asphalt of a parking lot that's too small for a hospital. Lucy enters the building first, gun drawn. When Lucy doesn't emerge after a few minutes, Maximus enters, and finds himself in a dimly lit office full of pristine-looking desks and still-functioning terminals. The only light in the room is from a pulsating light in the ceiling that guides Maximus down the hall to a door helpfully labeled "Medical Supplies". But upon opening the door, he finds that the door on the other side is a painted wall. It's a trap, and before he can leave, the door he entered through locks behind him, gas from the ceiling incapacitates him, and he's dropped through a trapdoor.

Vault 33 - II
Norm in the cleaned up Vault 32
Norm in the cleaned up Vault 32

In Vault 33, Betty makes her first edict to transfer a number of the Vault's population to Vault 32 as a means of a resettling campaign. Betty leads the Vault 33 Residents on a tour through the refurbished Vault 32. Norm has flashbacks showing the stark contrast between the current condition and the dystopian conditions of 24 hours ago. Norm commends Betty on the clean-up and asks what happened to his mom's Pip-Boy after her death; Betty replies that it was buried with her and that she and Hank were the ones who buried her themselves.


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Vault 4
Elsewhere, Lucy and Maximus wake up in Vault 4.

The Past

Vault 4/Howard residence - Flashback I
Sometime before the Great War, Cooper Howard films a commercial for the Vault-Tec Corporation. In the commercial, he shows the camera inside Vault 4, a "veritable Camelot of the nuclear age" governed entirely by scientists. He introduces the Hawthorne family, headed by Lloyd and Cassandra, who are scientists studying radiation's effects on human DNA. Lloyd explains that their family and eighty others will participate in a five-year trial period living in Vault 4. Filming wraps and Cooper is introduced to Bud Askins, who runs Vault-Tec's Southern California division. He formerly worked at West Tek and helped design the T-45 power armor, which he admits had numerous design flaws. Cooper, who served in the United States Marine Corps, bluntly informs him those design flaws got many people killed. Bud changes the subject to business. He tells Cooper the ultimate weapon to crush competition is "time", and the future of humanity is dependent on one word: "Management." A displeased Cooper quickly leaves the conversation to join Barb. She tells him they will all be attending a wrap party; he is further disappointed to learn he and Barb will be hosting it at their home. Cooper muses about the things he's willing to do for his wife and kisses her.

At the party, Cooper is uncomfortable among the Vault-Tec employees present, including Bud Askins. Outside, he meets with his personal friend and fellow actor Sebastian Leslie, known for playing a butler named "Bartholomew Codsworth". Sebastian is the only one of Cooper's actor friends to attend the party, as the others have distanced themselves from "the pitchman for the end of the world." Cooper confides that he lost a movie role over the advertisements. Sebastian tells Cooper his friend Charlie Whiteknife has become associated with known communists. Sebastian acknowledges that Vault-Tec will soon run the world while badmouthing a group of guests who have come to the party wearing Pip-Boys. He also admits to having recently sold his vocal likeness to RobCo Industries to use for Mister Handy robots; in return, he was paid $186,000 (pre-tax) and given his own Mister Handy robot. Sebastian decries everything as a "product", including the apocalypse; nonetheless, he is at peace with that reality. The two uneasily toast to the future.

Super Duper Mart
In the present, the Ghoul wakes up on the Super Duper Mart floor following a drug trip. A group of men dressed as sheriffs enter the building, and one removes the fusion core from the malfunctioning Snip Snip. Sheriff Troy falsely assumes the Ghoul is responsible for destroying a legitimate business and killing the owners. The Ghoul does not defend himself but asks who says it is illegal; Troy says, "The Govermint," before knocking him out.

Vault 4 - I
In Vault 4, a doctor removes a human tooth from the site of Maximus's gunshot injury. While in quarantine, Lucy speaks to Birdie through the glass, thanking her for taking them in. Birdie reports having recovered Maximus's T-60 power armor and suggests they stay for a few days to recover. Birdie says that she and many other Vault 4 residents are refugees from Shady Sands. While Lucy and Maximus wait for their quarantine period to expire, the former suggests they have sex. Maximus appears to be unfamiliar with how sex works and suggests that it is against Brotherhood of Steel rules. The camera pans out to reveal they're in the "Test Subjects" room that Cooper walked past in his commercial.

Once out of quarantine, Lucy and Maximus eat in the atrium. Lucy is relieved to be among Vault Dwellers again, while Maximus is suspicious of their cult-like behavior, always smiling. Birdie introduces them to Overseer Benjamin, who they are alarmed to see has a single eye in the middle of his face. He brightly welcomes them to the Vault and outlines the rules, including that Level 12 is off-limits. Lucy suddenly notices that many of the other residents also display bizarre physical mutations.


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Howard residence/Bar - Flashback II
In the past, Cooper entertains the idea of him and his wife quitting their jobs and moving to a ranch; Barb laughs off the idea. Cooper is dismayed when she puts on a Pip-Boy around the house and again suggests she quit Vault-Tec. He points out that they have the money for a spot in a Vault even without her job, and she says the job assures them that they'll be placed in one of the "good" Vaults, confusing Cooper. Barb avoids explaining and simply asks him to trust her.

Cooper meets Charlie Whiteknife in a bar and voices his disgust at Charlie attending communist meetings after they both fought in the Sino-American War. Charlie claims that Vault-Tec is evil and points out that they sell Vaults to satisfy their investors; if peace is achieved, the Vaults will be obsolete. Charlie recalls a movie they both starred in where cattle ranchers own more property than the Sheriff, and "the whole town burns down." He compares Vault-Tec to the ranchers and the government to the Sheriff. Charlie gives Cooper the business card of a funeral home where his meetings are held and encourages him to come.

A few days later, Cooper receives a phone call at home from Barb's new assistant, Henry, and refuses the call. At dinner, Barb says that Janey is reading a book to their dog Roosevelt and reflects she will be saddened that pets are not allowed in the Vaults. Cooper becomes suspicious, and questions who is responsible for Vault-Tec's arbitrary rules. The couple argue; Cooper protests that he did not fight in Alaska to surrender his freedom to Vault-Tec, while Barb claims she does everything to protect their family. She specifies that they will be entering a special vault that oversees the others. Cooper apologizes to his wife, but his concerns are left unresolved.

Vault 4 - II
Presently, Lucy meets Overseer Benjamin in his office and learns that despite his mutated appearance, he was born in a Vault. He also shows a number of eccentricities, like thinking her name is "Goosey" and letting cups of coffee grow mold on his desk. He complains about the refugees in Vault 4 and is surprised when Lucy tells him Vault 33 never takes in people from the surface. Lucy asks about Level 12, and Benjamin suddenly snaps and orders her out of his office.

In the room containing the Vault's reactors, Maximus attempts to steal the fusion core for his armor when Birdie catches him. She assigns him to a suite and gives him a Pip-Boy of his own. In his suite, Maximus is wowed by the Vault's amenities and indulges in their luxuries.

Lucy enters the Vault 4 schoolroom. On a chalkboard, a timeline is drawn depicting Shady Sands' founding in 2142, the creation of the New California Republic in 2189, Shady Sands becoming the capital of the Republic in 2198, the NCR peaking in power in 2241, and finally "the fall of Shady Sands" in 2277 followed by an image of a nuclear explosion. The last date visibly intrigues Lucy, as she recalls that being the year her mother died. She also finds an NCR flag in the classroom, which resembles the old California state flag, but with a two-headed bear. The refugees head toward the atrium for a "Surface Dweller tradition" and invite Lucy to join.


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Govermint Headquarters
The Ghoul, taken captive by the self-proclaimed "Govermint," is escorted to a former BBQ Shack with the words "The Govermint" on a sign outside. Inside, he meets the "president," his former associate Sorrel Booker. At the Ghoul's request, the other men remove a bundle from his bag containing a needle, thread, and Lucy’s finger. The Ghoul gets to work sewing the finger onto his hand. Sorrel speculates that his old friend continues living to look for "her." The Ghoul changes the subject and brings up the topic of Lee Moldaver. Sorrel claims that he and his gang are trying to bring order to the wasteland and points out that the Super Duper Mart he was found in was under their protection. The Ghoul claims to be responsible for killing the owners and also brags about the shootout in Filly, where he killed "nine or ten" people. Troy says his father lives in Filly, and the Ghoul implies that he probably killed him. Troy points a gun at him before Sorrel deescalates the conflict and orders his men to take the Ghoul out back and "feed him to the hogs." The Ghoul overpowers and kills Sheriffs Troy and Rex, annoying Sorrel. He removes a "Wanted" poster of Moldaver from the wall and asks Sorrel why he has it. The Ghoul notes that Moldaver has changed since he knew her.

Hollywood Forever - Flashback III
In another flashback, Cooper drives to the scheduled meeting at the Hollywood Forever funeral home despite his discomfort with the group's politics. Charlie welcomes him to the meeting and acquaints Cooper with the main speaker who is revealed to be Moldaver, then known as Miss Williams, who introduces herself as a "big fan."

Vault 4 - III
In Vault 4's atrium, the surface refugees remove their Pip-Boys as the ritual begins. They light candles on a table in the center of the room and make hushing noises, confusing Lucy. She mimics their actions. However, when they begin strip half-naked, she does not continue. They begin chanting about a "Flame Mother," and smear the ashes of Shady Sands on their skin. A portrait of Moldaver, the Flame Mother, is unveiled before the group, and they bow down to her.

Lucy and Maximus have reversed their opinions on the Vault; Maximus wants to stay, while Lucy is suspicious. With the intent on proving her position, she takes an elevator to the forbidden Level 12, which houses a laboratory. She sees jars of organic material and a video of a human woman giving birth to a spawn of gulpers which immediately consume their mother. Venturing further, she finds several cryo pods containing pregnant women. The lights illuminate, causing Lucy to hide from the doctor who treated Maximus. While she hides, the doctor hears her, activates an alarm, and retrieves a spear gun from a glass cabinet. Just as he catches her, and she throws a beaker of acid in his face. Several residents flow in and restrain Lucy as she yells that they're all crazy; Birdie responds that she'd likely say the same thing if she went into Lucy's home.

Meanwhile, Maximus happily enjoys a bowl of popcorn while watching a video of a waterfall.

The Trap

Adam's farm
Adam and his son Tommy work as lead farmers, wearing a helmet and overcoat similar to that of the NCR Ranger combat armor. After a long day of work, they return home, and Adam goes into his house calling for his daughter Sandra. He is horrified to find the Ghoul sitting at his dinner table eating a strange meat. To his relief, Sandra appears to bring the Ghoul a drink. The Ghoul laughs as he realizes Adam thought he was eating Sandra. Adam orders Sandra to step outside while the Ghoul asks for information. He brings out a letter saying Adam has three children, but he only sees two; Adam admits that his older son Roofus left to join Lee Moldaver's forces two years earlier. The Ghoul identifies the other boy as Tommy and reveals that Roofus had also recruited his brother, which Tommy had kept secret from his father. The letter indicates that Roofus sent Tommy money to pay a courier to transport Wilzig out of Filly to Moldaver. The letter was damaged when the Ghoul killed Roofus and now omits Moldaver's location. Adam demands that his son give up the location for the safety of their family; he reluctantly tells the Ghoul that Moldaver is in the ruins of the Griffith Observatory. As he prepares to leave, the Ghouls asks Tommy if he plans on taking revenge on him as he leaves, or perhaps hunting him down later. Tommy reaches for his gun first, but the Ghoul outdraws and kills him. He leaves the grieving Adam and Sandra behind and downs a vial of anti-feral chems.

Hollywood Forever - Flashback I
Back before the Great War, Moldaver, then going by "Miss Williams," commences a meeting in the Hollywood Forever funeral home. She claims that the people in power are the real enemy, and Cooper, scoffing, starts to walk out. She stops him and suggests he has sold out to Vault-Tec; he volleys the same criticism at her and her ideology. She claims she knows his wife and a side of her he doesn't. After the meeting, Moldaver privately meets with Cooper to tell him that her research division, which is working towards developing unlimited energy via cold fusion, was acquired by Barb's division. Since then, Vault-Tec has done nothing to further the project despite the fact that it could end the Sino-American War. Moldaver asks Cooper for his help getting the project back and gives him a listening device. He is repulsed by the idea of spying on his own wife, but she insists he keep it. Moldaver claims that she does not sincerely hold communist sentiments, but has been labeled as a communist for not buying into propaganda.

Vault 4 - I
Maximus eating popcorn before seeing Lucy
Maximus eating popcorn before seeing Lucy

In the present, Birdie and Overseer Benjamin admonish Lucy, who is handcuffed to a desk, for trespassing on Level 12 and injuring a fellow Vault dweller. They play a holotape showing Vault 4's origins: Given unlimited control of the Vault, Lloyd and Cassandra Hawthorne and their subordinates experimented on hybridizing human test subjects (refugees from the surface tricked inside by promises of sanctuary) with radiation-resistant species. The test subjects eventually fought back against the scientists. In the tape, a gulper breaks through Lloyd and Cassandra's barricade and eats them; they nonetheless assert that their research still has merit moments before their demise. The laboratory is now used to treat patients still suffering from the original experiments (explaining the pregnant women seen lying in cryo-chambers in Level 12). Benjamin and Birdie ask Lucy what the experiment in Vault 33 was; she insists that there was none. Despite her apology, Birdie tells her that she still must be punished for bringing violence into their community. They place a bag over her head and drag her outside. Maximus sees Lucy being dragged past his suite and resolves to help her.


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Red Rocket service station - I
As CX404 pursues him, Thaddeus arrives at an abandoned Red Rocket gas station and rests to look over his mangled foot, complete with protruding bones. He locks the dog in a Nuka-Cola dispenser to prevent her from following him, still making sure she can breathe, and leaves to search for a radio station.

Vault 4 - II
The fight in Vault 4
The fight in Vault 4

Lucy is dragged before the chanting Vault 4 residents in the atrium with her wrists tied to a post while Benjamin pulls out a scimitar and sentences her to her death ... by means of exile to the surface, cutting the rope around Lucy's wrists while the crowd cheers. She is additionally gifted two weeks of supplies to give her a fighting chance for survival. Lucy asks Maximus to be allowed to stay. At the same time, Maximus steals the Vault's fusion core in order to power his T-60 power armor and briefly causes a blackout. The backup generator kicks in as Maximus suits up. In the atrium, he begins attacking the residents before Lucy explains that they're letting her go.

They return to the surface, and Lucy entreats Maximus to return the fusion core, as without it, the Vault will only last a few days on backup power. He is resistant to the idea, but ultimately agrees, and they drop it down the chute they came through. Maximus confesses his real name to Lucy and that he acquired the armor by allowing the real Knight Titus to die through inaction. She forgives him, admitting to her own crimes and invites him to live in Vault 33 after they rescue her father. He agrees.

Wasteland
Thaddeus continues trekking through the desert as his injury worsens. He follows a signal from DJ Carl, a wasteland disc jockey who exclusively broadcasts pre-War fiddle music. In the midst of a suicide attempt, the snake oil salesman sees him and runs after him, offering to treat his wound. At the salesman's "pharmacy," Thaddeus contemplates killing him and taking all of his drugs, but the salesman points out that he wouldn't know the difference between helpful and harmful drugs. Thaddeus agrees to exchange Maximus's fusion core for the treatment. The salesman gives him a serum that tastes foul, but, against all odds, fully heals his deformed foot in a matter of seconds. He provides directions to a radio station near Shady Sands. Thaddeus is hesitant as the town is "radioactive as hell," but the salesman claims he won't have to worry about radiation poisoning anymore and leaves in a hurry.


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Vault 33 - I
New assignments
New assignments

Norm continues serving food to the imprisoned raiders. One day, the raiders all die from an apparent poisoning, and Veronica is blamed. Overseer Betty sends out the new Vault assignments; Norm and Reg are to stay in Vault 33 while Woody, Davey, Chet, Steph, and her baby are among those re-assigned to Vault 32. Norm visits Chet, wanting to continue investigating the conspiracy, but the latter has lost interest and is more eager to start a life with his new family. Norm calls Chet a coward. Chet responds, "We all are, Norm. That's why we live in a Vault."

Red Rocket service station - II / Howard Residence - Flashback II
The Ghoul tracks the head to the Red Rocket station and hears CX404 whining inside the Nuka-Cola dispenser. He frees the dog and begrudgingly adopts her.

Cooper wrestles with his thoughts
Cooper wrestles with his thoughts

Back before the Great War, Cooper wrestles with the idea of bugging Barb's Pip-Boy. He pairs the listening device before Barb enters the room and puts on the Pip-Boy. Cooper briefly eavesdrops on Barb having a pleasant conversation with their daughter before throwing the device in the garbage out of guilt. That night, he watches his Vault-Tec commercial on TV and goes rifling through the trash to recover the device. He affectionately scratches his dog Roosevelt as he recalls the Vaults' ban on pets.

In the present, CX404, now renamed "Dogmeat", cozies up to the Ghoul by a campfire. Her new master sadly remarks, "You ain't him."

KPSS Radio Station
Meanwhile, Thaddeus reached the KPSS radio station and used DJ Carl's radio to call for assistance from the Brotherhood of Steel. Thaddeus feigns appreciation for Carl's music while noting the booby traps scattered around the area, used by Carl to kill people who come to the station to complain about his music choices. When Lucy and Maximus arrive on the scene, Thaddeus shoots at them, unloading his entire ammunition supply, but his shots hit nothing. Lucy attempts to negotiate for the head, but Thaddeus steps backward into one of the traps, causing a crossbow to fire an arrow through his neck. Surprising everyone, he does not die. He pulls the arrow out, and the holes in his neck heal up. Maximus posits that Thaddeus is becoming a ghoul, a side-effect of the healing serum that the salesman neglected to mention. Three vertibirds approach the location, and Thaddeus realizes that the Brotherhood will kill him if his condition is discovered. Lucy is confused as she believes the Brotherhood are "the good guys." Thaddeus and Maximus quickly summarize that it's a complicated group. Maximus takes the head and allows Thaddeus to run away. Maximus then disfigures the severed head of one of DJ Carl's critics. He instructs Lucy to take the real head while he uses the other one as a decoy for the Brotherhood. They kiss, and Lucy promises to wait for him in Vault 33 as she leaves.


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Vault 33 - II
New Vault 32 dwellers
New Vault 32 dwellers

A going-away ceremony is held for the new transfers to Vault 32. Woody panics about leaving and tries to bail, but the Vault 33 guards intimidate him into going through with the move. Betty names Steph as acting overseer of Vault 32, and the transfers officially move out. Chet experiences a moment of regret when he sees his cousin as the inter-Vault door closes. While Betty is distracted, Norm uses her computer to communicate with the overseer of Vault 31. He reports that the "mission" is failing, and the other overseer instructs "Betty" to return to Vault 31 immediately. After a short wait, the inter-Vault door opens and he enters. Inside, Vault 31 is apparently deserted. Norm follows a mechanical whirring sound and is stunned by what he sees.

The Radio

Filly
Having been rediscovered by the Brotherhood of Steel at the KPSS radio station, Maximus is flown under heavy guard to Filly, which has now fallen under occupation by the Brotherhood. He is presented before Elder Cleric Quintus, who quickly discovers that the head Maximus brought back does not contain the artifact. Maximus is promptly sentenced to death. He is spared after Dane pleads for his life, admitting that they injured themselves (as seen in "The End"). Maximus agrees to lead the Brotherhood to the artifact.

In private, Quintus confides in Maximus about his own displeasure towards the Brotherhood, believing the organization to have lost its way (with the details of Titus' death only reinforcing this). He sees the artifact as an opportunity to reshape the Brotherhood in his own vision and invites Maximus to personally join him at his side.

Griffith Observatory - I
Hank in a cage
Hank in a cage

Meanwhile, Lucy reaches the Griffith Observatory with Wilzig's real head, and is escorted to Moldaver by her elite guards. Along the way, she finds the observatory courtyard to be filled with NCR civilians and notices one of the ghouls that she freed from the Super Duper Mart among them. In Moldaver's control room, Hank is imprisoned in a birdcage as Moldaver awaits Lucy at a dinner table alongside a female feral ghoul. Having finally received the head, Moldaver uses a tool to extract the artifact from it. Lucy demands that her father be released. Moldaver instead reveals the truth about her father's past; Hank is not really someone who grew up in a vault. He's one of numerous pre-War Vault-Tec junior executives that have been cryogenically frozen in Vault 31, each one periodically unfrozen to oversee and indoctrinate Vault 32 and Vault 33 in a bid to preserve Vault-Tec's authority and eventually recolonize the surface by force.

Vault 31
Simultaneously, Norm ventures deeper into Vault 31 and discovers it is controlled by Bud Askins, who is now little more than a "brain-in-a-Roomba." Ignoring Bud's attempts to stop him, Norm discovers the cryonically frozen Vault-Tec executives. Among the pods are Hank's and Betty's, having already been opened. He also finds a list of Vault 31's residents on a nearby monitor, including many other names, including Steph.


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Vault-Tec headquarters - Flashback
Elsewhere, the Ghoul continues toward the observatory. Meanwhile, in flashback, Cooper drives Barb to the Vault-Tec headquarters, having bugged her Pip-Boy with the audio transmitter he received from Moldaver earlier. They meet Bud outside, and Cooper momentarily panics when Barb complains to him about her Pip-Boy acting up as a result of the bug, but Bud convinces her that they can have it looked into later, and Cooper makes a thinly veiled excuse to head out to further distract her. Cooper's mention of Janey leads Bud to take a brief moment to tell him about his managerial program, which he calls "Bud's Buds," before heading inside with Barb. Cooper prepares to drive off, but realizes he'll have to stick around when he finds that the transmitter has a limit on how far it'll broadcast from.

Cooper is brought to Barb's office by Betty Pearson, Barb's secretary, who makes small talk with Cooper and mentions that Barb's new assistant Henry is a big fan of Cooper's movies. She offers to bring Henry down and introduce the two of them, which Cooper accepts. After Betty leaves, Cooper sits down in a chair, puts the earpiece into his ear and listens.

In a dimly lit room, Barb and Bud are chairing a roundtable summit of several corporate leaders, including RobCo Industries CEO Robert House, West Tek researcher Leon Von Felden, business magnate and casino owner Frederick Sinclair representing Big MT, and REPCONN Aerospace CFO Julia Masters, in discussion of potential collaboration with Vault-Tec. The meeting descends into bickering over Vault-Tec's methods. Barb, on directions from a shadowy man observing the meeting from the alcove, mediates by proposing that of the more than 100 vaults across the country, each corporation be given its own vaults for experimentation. When House asks how Vault-Tec plans to guarantee a return on their investment, Barb explains that they'll do so by staging a nuclear conflict themselves. Cooper is horrified by this revelation, and is on the verge of having a panic attack when Betty returns to the office with Barb's new assistant...who we see is a young Hank MacLean. Hank is a big fan of Cooper's scene from The Man From Deadhorse where he shoots Joey Toro dead, and asks him for an autograph.

Griffith Observatory - II
In the present, Moldaver reveals to Lucy that she had worked closely with Lucy's mother, Rose. Rose escaped Vault 33 with Norm and Lucy after growing suspicious of Hank's past and believing that civilization could rebuild itself on the surface, especially after having discovered evidence of Vault 33's water supply being siphoned from somewhere on the surface, suggesting the surface had been inhabited, contrary to Hank's claims. The MacLeans discovered Shady Sands, where Rose raised her children before Hank caught her, took Lucy and Norm back, and destroyed Shady Sands using a nuclear warhead. Rose survived, becoming the feral ghoul currently sitting at the table, while Moldaver has continued her research on cold fusion and became fixated on the artifact. With Wilzig's artifact now in her possession, she only needs the proprietary authorization codes from a Vault-Tec executive. No longer able to hold back her tears, Lucy begs her father to cooperate and give Moldaver the codes, to which Hank hesitantly obliges. Moldaver uses the now-unlocked artifact to begin priming a makeshift cold fusion reactor.

In Filly, the Brotherhood prepares to move on the observatory. As they're gearing up, Dane apologizes to Maximus, who wishes to live alongside Lucy in Vault 33 once the artifact is found, although Dane doesn't find his dream feasible. The Brotherhood mounts an all-out aerial offensive against the observatory, overwhelming the NCR defenders and moving towards the observatory building despite taking some casualties. Maximus and Dane part ways, with Maximus' squad (including Petty Officer Shortsight) heading into the observatory.

Maximus' squad doesn't make too far into the building before they're ambushed by the Ghoul, who has infiltrated through a hidden back entrance. He overwhelms them by exploiting structural weak points in the armor that have been present since he served in the Marines, as well as killing the lights to disorient the team. Shortsight's entire team is killed save for Maximus, who narrowly escapes. Maximus makes it to the control room, and shoots the lock off of Hank's cage to let him out. Lucy is too shell shocked by the revelations about her father, and by the time she's able to warn Maximus, it's too late. Hank uses this brief window of opportunity to fit himself into a suit of power armor stolen from a Brotherhood soldier whose head had been blown up by the Ghoul with a grenade. As Hank advances on Lucy and prepares to grab her, Maximus steps in between them and tries to pull his gun on him, only for Hank to punch him in the face, knocking him unconscious. Lucy runs to his side, but he is unresponsive.

Lucy aims at Hank
Lucy aims at Hank

Enraged, Lucy grabs Maximus' gun and points it at her dad's head as he tries to talk her down. As she's on the verge of pulling the trigger, a shot rings out... as the Ghoul emerges from the shadows and fires a bullet that cuts a deep gash across Hank's left cheek. Seething with rage, the Ghoul advances on Hank, waxing nostalgic about meeting the man whose most notable work pre-War involved picking up Barb's dry-cleaning. He points a gun at Hank and demands to know where Barb and Janey are. Rather than answer the Ghoul, Hank immediately turns around and jets off into the evening sky.

The Ghoul reflects that "war never changes" and tells Lucy someone is always controlling the wasteland despite the apparent chaos, and that person is likely who Hank is on his way to (and he's letting Hank go for now because that'll make it easier to find him). Noticing the Brotherhood's reinforcements in the distance, the Ghoul offers Lucy a choice: she can stay with the fallen Maximus and be killed by the Brotherhood when their reinforcements arrive, or travel with him to "meet [her] makers." Lucy makes the decision that her dad needs to be brought to justice for his crimes, and elects to leave with the Ghoul, leaving Maximus behind. Before she does so, she picks up Maximus' gun and shoots her mom in the head, putting her out of her misery.

Sometime after Lucy's departure, Maximus regains consciousness. A mortally wounded Moldaver returns and activates the reactor, returning power back to the ruins of Los Angeles. Moldaver asks Maximus to think about what the Brotherhood will do with such power, if he can even stop them, before succumbing to her wounds. Dane enters shortly after, believing Maximus to have killed her. Maximus feebly denies it, yet Dane raises his fist into the air and proclaims him a knight to a cheering crowd of Brotherhood soldiers.

The Ghoul reunites with Dogmeat outside the mausoleum, with the Hollywood Sign visible in the distance. Lucy emerges from the building soon after, now carrying several more guns, and the trio set off on foot in pursuit of Hank.


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New Vegas
As the sun rises on the Mojave Wasteland, Hank passes the skeletal remains of a deathclaw and stops on the summit of a mountain overlooking the city of New Vegas.

The Beginning

Fallout

House orchestrated that restroom meeting knowing Cooper was there to kill him, turning the hunter into the hunted.

House Names Charlie's Communist Ties

House Catalogs Cooper's Full Background

Charlie Confirms Assassination Assignment

House's Parting Words Signal Foreknowledge

Cooper's Unease After the Meeting

House Sympathizes With Communist Opposition

Robert House approached Cooper Howard already knowing he had been sent to kill him, which means the encounter was not a chance meeting but a controlled demonstration of intelligence superiority designed to neutralize an assassin without violence. House's decision to let Cooper walk away, paired with his strategic sympathy disclosure to a man he knew was recruited by the communist opposition, points to a deliberate conversion rather than a warning. Cooper never controlled that encounter, and he likely left it as a managed variable rather than a free agent.

House Already Knew Cooper Was Coming

Maximus murders Harkness to prevent war, but triggers the catastrophe his father dreaded, collapsing his moral awakening into his greatest failure.

Harkness's Own Weapon Used Against Him

Quintus's Civil War Warning Ignored

Ghoul Children as the Moral Trigger

Maximus Registers the Ramifications

Legion Civil War Structural Parallel

Father's Moral Legacy Inherited

Brotherhood Instrument Turned Inward

Maximus's killing of Harkness is not the arrival of the good man his father hoped for. It is the act that ignites the Brotherhood civil war Quintus warned him about, making his moral emergence and his greatest catastrophic failure the same event. The children he refused to let Harkness execute will be caught inside the war zone his refusal created, which means his father's inherited value survives the killing and annihilates itself in the aftermath.

Maximus Starts a War to Save Children

The Ghoul opens his guarded heart to Dogmeat because a dog cannot judge or abandon him like humans have.

The Ghoul's Admission to Dogmeat

Ship of Theseus Self-Examination

Isolation from Human Witnesses

Physical Vulnerability as Emotional Trigger

The Ghoul's Ship of Theseus monologue is not a man searching for himself but a man announcing, in the only setting where announcement is safe, that he has already stopped searching. By choosing Dogmeat as his confessor, the Ghoul ensures the most important thing he has ever said about his own identity is heard by the one being in the wasteland constitutionally incapable of holding it against him. The show is building toward the revelation that this was not an act of vulnerability — it was an act of disposal.

Dogmeat Unlocks What Lucy Could Not

The Ghoul Confesses to Dogmeat Because Dogmeat Cannot Be a Witness

The Ghoul's cruelty is performance, and his involuntary kindnesses reveal a moral conscience he spent years burying beneath calculated indifference.

Ghoul Frames Lucy as Resource

Supply Line Destruction Beyond Self-Interest

Rescue by the Man Who Abandoned Her

Cold Practicality Masking Genuine Care

The Ghoul still has a working moral framework. He has simply built an entire self-concept around pretending he does not, and Lucy is the evidence that the pretense is failing. The supply line destruction, the rescue, the utility language that arrives too quickly and too cold to be genuine indifference: all of it points toward a man whose instincts are outrunning his ideology.

The Ghoul's Good Deeds Are Not Accidents

The Ghoul's explosion to save Lucy shatters the Legion's deadlock, potentially uniting their fractured forces into an unstoppable army.

Legate's Stalemate Explanation to Lucy

Ghoul Detonating the Barrier

Charlie's Lighter Used for Detonation

Pre-War Moral Conflict Over Killing

Rescue and Destruction as a Single Act

The Ghoul's destruction of the barrier between the two Legion factions likely ended the stalemate that kept both sides neutralized, giving whichever Legion controls the succession paper the conditions to consolidate into a unified force. The act was inseparable from rescuing Lucy, meaning the show has structured the season's most personal moment of loyalty as a potential strategic catastrophe. The lighter tracing back to an unresolved pre-war question about killing for love is the show's clearest signal that the moral cost has not been paid yet.

The Ghoul's Rescue May Have United the Legion

Thaddeus is transforming through FEV into something beyond ghoulification, a change the Brotherhood cannot recognize in one of their own.

Visible Mutation Since Radio Station

FEV Reference in Episode Details

Symptoms Matching FEV Exposure

Factory Leadership as Adaptation

Prior Season FEV Dosing Hints

Thaddeus is not undergoing ghoulification but FEV-driven transformation toward something the Brotherhood is institutionally incapable of processing in one of their own. If the prior season's hints about pre-existing FEV dosing are confirmed, the serum did not cause his mutation but accelerated a process already underway, meaning the Brotherhood's own intake failures produced the enemy they most fear. His factory operation suggests he has already concluded the transformation is permanent and is building around it rather than against it.

Thaddeus Is Not Turning Into a Ghoul

Cooper sabotaged House's cold fusion technology before the bombs fell, making his centuries of survival a monument to the world he deliberately prevented.

Victor's 'Gone' Not 'Dead'

Cooper's Pre-War Mission Scope

Cooper's Reluctance to Kill

Cold Fusion as Persistent Prize

Barb's Cold Fusion Suppression Role

Cooper Howard actively sabotaged Robert House's acquisition of cold fusion technology before the Great War, an intervention that may have served Vault-Tec's control agenda whether Cooper intended it or not. Victor's careful distinction that House is 'gone' rather than dead keeps open the question of what Cooper actually destroyed and what House has been doing in the centuries since. If Cooper is responsible for the cold fusion vacuum that now drives the present conflict, then the Ghoul is still paying the cost of his own pre-war action.