The Beginning (Fallout)

"The Beginning"
Fallout episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 8
Directed by	Wayne Yip
Written by	Gursimran Sandhu
Produced by	Skye Wathen Crystal Whelan Halle Phillips Gursimran Sandhu Jake Bender Zach Dunn
Cinematography by	Dan Stoloff
Editing by	Daniel Raj Koobir Ali Comperchio
Original air date	April 10, 2024 (2024-04-10)
Running time	61 minutes
Guest appearances
Sarita Choudhury as Lee Moldaver Frances Turner as Barb Howard Michael Esper as Bud Askins / Brain-on-a-Roomba Michael Cristofer as Elder Cleric Quintus Michael Mulheren as Frederick Sinclair Anthony Misiano as Robert House James Yaegashi as Leon Von Felden Rebecca Watson as Julia Masters

"The Beginning" is the eighth and final episode of the first season of the American post-apocalyptic drama television series Fallout. The episode was written by producer Gursimran Sandhu and directed by Wayne Yip. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on April 10, 2024, alongside the rest of the season.

The series depicts the aftermath of an apocalyptic nuclear exchange in an alternate history of Earth where advances in nuclear technology after World War II led to the emergence of a retrofuturistic society and a subsequent resource war. The survivors took refuge in fallout shelters known as Vaults, built to preserve humanity in the event of nuclear annihilation. In the episode, Lucy reunites with Hank, while Maximus sets out to find Moldaver.

The episode received extremely positive reviews from critics, who praised its resolution, writing and performances.

Plot

The Brotherhood picks up Maximus and takes him to the base. Unsatisfied as he didn't deliver Wilzig's head, the Elder demands that Maximus lead him to Moldaver or face consequences for his actions. Meanwhile, Lucy reaches Moldaver's base, finding Hank locked in a cage.

Moldaver reveals that Hank was not born in Vault 31, and he is not even in his right time. In the pre-war times, Hank worked at Vault-Tec, where Barb was managing Vault-Tec's plans to start a nuclear war to delete its competitors, ensuring peace-by-monopoly over the vault humans. This plan would involve in creating Vaults across the country, with the 31, 32 and 33 interconnected. Hank and his wife Rose were selected to be put in cryogenic sleep, but Rose was unhappy with Hank's plans. She took the infants Lucy and Norm outside the Vault, settling in Shady Sands. Hank found them, and after getting the kids back to Vault 33, nuclear bombed Shady Sands, which in turn caused Rose to turn into a feral ghoul, who is actually at the table across from Lucy.

Shaken by the revelations, Lucy gets Hank to hand over the code to Moldaver, as Wilzig's head is a key to activate the fusion reactor. As the process begins, the Brotherhood arrives to capture Moldaver. However, Howard also arrives and fights the Brotherhood. Maximus seizes the opportunity to reach Lucy and release Hank. However, Hank knocks Maximus out, takes over his armor and tells Lucy to accompany him. Lucy refuses, and when confronted by Howard over his family, he decides to flee. In Vault 31, Norm is horrified to discover a cyborg brain-on-wheels version of Bud Askins, who oversees the cryogenically stored Junior executives of Vault-Tec. Bud traps him in Vault 31, leaving him the choice of entering one of the pods.

Hoping to find answers, Howard invites Lucy to join him. She accepts, and she kills Rose to end her suffering. As they depart, Maximus awakens and witnesses Moldaver activating the reactor and returning electricity to the city. However, Moldaver dies from her wounds, just as more Brotherhood soldiers arrive. Believing that he killed Moldaver, Maximus is proclaimed as a Knight. In the outskirts, Hank runs off and stares amazed at a city: New Vegas.

Production

Writing

On Lucy's decision to leave with Howard, Geneva Robertson-Dworet explained, "The Ghoul seems to know a hell of a lot more about this world than she does. There's a certain amount of ‘I want to understand, I want to leave the cave again.’ In a way, it's a mirror image to the pilot."

Goggins was not familiar with the phrase "War never changes" taken from the video game franchise. Despite that, he was glad to not know it beforehand, as "I would have been so intimidated by it." The showrunners wanted to avoid telling the stars about references to the game, as they felt this would distract them. Wagner said, "we really did want to express it through Barb's point of view first, and then see the A-side and the B-side of it, and the gap between the two."

Filming

Originally, the scene where Lucy kills Rose involved Purnell crying. But the team felt that it wasn't genuine, with Purnell saying "if she's gonna get up and go into the wasteland, she needs to be a changed woman, and maybe her grief needs to give way to something harder." This led to the scene being reshot.

Music

The score is composed by Ramin Djawadi. The episode featured many songs, including "I Don't Want to See Tomorrow" by Nat King Cole, and "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)" by The Ink Spots.

Release

The episode, along with the rest of the season, premiered on April 10, 2024, on Amazon Prime Video. Originally, the season was scheduled to premiere on April 12, 2024.

Critical reception

"The Beginning" received extremely positive reviews from critics. William Hughes of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A–" grade and wrote, "Like the games it pulls from, it has big, weird ideas about humanity, hope, and humor, and it expresses them through a point of view like pretty much nothing much else on TV, ragingly cynical in a way that never quite curdles into despair. It's not only a good adaptation, but a great story in its own right — and it's all enough to make us sincerely hope this world won't be ending any time soon."

Jack King of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "This is Fallout's most poignant episode, as tragedies in the present collide with greater tragedies of the past, personal, and civilizational. It's about a man who became a monster, haunted for 200 years by a betrayal that, quite literally, ripped the world apart; it's about a father who committed a monstrous act for what he thought was the greater good; it's about a daughter whose entire world view is shattered by revelations too painful to countenance. It's about the cycles of violence and conflict we are doomed to repeat by human greed."

Sean T. Collins of Decider wrote, "Making no effort, and showing no desire, to conceal its roots in an entertainment-first art form, Fallout is that rarest of beasts: a post-apocalyptic romp with a sense of humor too black to be cute about it. In the process provides a real star turn for Ella Purnell in particular, the one lead whose face is on display for all to read at all times and who thus has to carry so much weight on her shoulders. I want Lucy to beat this game, and I'll be happy to watch her try." Ross Bonaime of Collider gave the episode a 9 out of 10 and wrote, "Even as the series seems ready to head to New Vegas, giving fans of the game a familiar locale that they love and recognize, Fallout has found a fascinating way to adapt this story for television. As one mission ends, another begins, and while that's the normal nature of Fallout, this next journey feels like Fallout as a property exploring this universe in an entirely new way, and we can't wait to see where this story picks up in Season 2."

Joshua Kristian McCoy of Game Rant gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "With a sharp wit, some fun set pieces, and a solid creative vision, Amazon published a shockingly solid adaptation of something that seemed impossible. Fallout is a blast from beginning to end." Greg Wheeler of The Review Geek gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "This finale, and the show as a whole really, has done an excellent job in capturing the moral ambiguity of the games and the different choices you get to make."

Accolades

TVLine named Walton Goggins and Ella Purnell as the "Performers of the Week" for the week of April 20, 2024, for their performances in the episode. The site wrote, "Both Walton Goggins and Ella Purnell clearly had tons of fun with their respective Fallout roles, as the ruthless Ghoul and do-right Lucy. But the finale found each of their characters (or a pre-apocalyptic version thereof) confronted with very serious, horrible truths, paving the way for outstanding performances."

External links

• "The Beginning" at IMDb