Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Fallout Season 2 Episode 7.
The penultimate episode of Fallout Season 2, “The Handoff,” reiterates the points of good versus evil and the gray space in between that the story has really been leaning into. This is especially true for the show’s two main storylines, as the good Maximus (Aaron Moten) is now working with the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) while Lucy (Ella Purnell) is still reckoning with the choices that her father Hank (Kyle MacLachlan) has made in the name of bettering society. The Ghoul has moved more towards good (and we’ve seen his beginnings as a good man in the past), while Lucy begins to question whether her father is right as the season nears next week’s finale.
‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 7 Reveals the Truth About Stephanie
“The Handoff” begins with Stephanie Harper (Annabel O’Hagan) and a woman known as Joan (Natasha Henstridge) fleeing a restricted area for the Uranium City internment camp in Canada, being chased by a group of people. They escape gunshots, but find themselves under an airship and in front of a soldier in power armor, who tells them to return to the camp. But before the soldier can shoot the pair, another person runs up and suicide bombs the suited soldier. At this moment, Stephanie wakes up from this nightmare back in the Vault, with Chet (Dave Register) sleeping beside her.
As she recalls the rest of this memory, it reveals the person she’s escaping with was shot, and told Stephanie to go south of the Canadian border and find somewhere warm. The other woman says that there’s a flood coming, and that Stephanie needs to cling to the highest branch she can find and survive. The woman says that if she has to hurt people, God won’t judge her, and that Stephanie shouldn’t think of the people she hurts as people, but as Americans. As Stephanie makes her way south, she slices a man’s throat open for a can of pork and beans. When she gets to the border, the customs guard calls her beautiful, and soon after, that guard is dead as she makes her way into the U.S.
Do Stephanie and Chet Make It to the Altar in ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 7?
Later on in the Vault, it’s the day before Chet and Stephanie’s wedding. Chet asks Stephanie why they’re getting married, and Stephanie angrily replies that she’s working. Chet continues to silently do the dishes, but finds that the sink is clogged by what looks to be Woody’s glasses (Zach Cherry). Chet asks Stephanie if she’s seen Woody lately, and she states that he’s been sent to a leadership exchange program in Vault 31. Chet snaps the glasses in two, then dumps them back down the sink.
When the episode pivots to Overseer Betty Pearson (Leslie Uggams), it’s revealed that water rationing is still in effect, and the situation has gotten so bad that taking showers and flushing the toilet are outlawed. In her office, Betty opens a safe hidden behind a painting and takes out a box of keepsakes, lamenting Hank and his secrets. As Stephanie requested, Betty leaves the box for Stephanie between Vaults 32 and 33. Betty says that she has spies watching Stephanie and mentions that she learned so much when Stephanie was “still under.” Betty reiterates that Stephanie said she’d revert 50% of water production to Vault 33, and Stephanie says she’ll get her water, as she takes the case to Vault 32. Betty doesn’t want any part of what Stephanie is doing, to which Stephanie states the deal was for the water. She can’t promise anything about the future; that’s bigger than them.
The next day, Stephanie and Chet are at their wedding, and while Stephanie says, “I do,” Chet says, “I don’t!” Stephanie warns Chet not to decline, but Chet wants to have witnesses when he voices his own suspicions about Stephanie’s plan to hurt them and his discovery of Woody’s glasses in their disposal. Chet also reveals that Stephanie wasn’t born in the Vault; she’s 200 years old, and she’s Canadian, showing her ID as proof. The Vault 32 witnesses turn on Stephanie, and she runs away from her wedding, locking herself in her office, with the others knocking on the door, chanting for her to open up.
Things Aren’t Looking So Good for Norm in ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 7
After being choked unconscious, Norm (Moises Arias) wakes up to find the other recently-escaped Vault Dwellers trying to decide what to do with him. Ronnie says that the Vault-Tec handbook says impersonating higher management is punishable by death, and if the handbook says it, the rest of the team seems fine with it. When they notice Norm has come to, they knock him out yet again. Later on, Claudia (Rachel Marsh) tells Norm they have to escape, but Norm tries to call Lucy on the radio, telling her he needs help. While his call comes through at Vault-Tec, she doesn’t hear it, as she’s on the way to destroy the mainframe. Norm also calls out to his dad, asking what will happen to their Vault and questioning why his father didn’t tell them the truth. After this, the Vault 31 team comes to get Norm.
Having teamed up, the Ghoul, Maximus, Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton), and Dogmeat make their way into the New California Republic’s camp. Maximus reveals that the Ghoul said he’d take them to Lucy, and the Ghoul says they’re going to Lucky 38, but they’re going the wrong way. They’ll have to get into an impenetrable Vault — which is also the same one the Ghoul’s family is in — and they’ll have to go across the strip, which is occupied by Deathclaws, so they need to kit up. As they keep walking, the Ghoul pulls a gun on Maximus, asking about the cold fusion in his possession. Maximus reiterates that he’s going to give it to Lucy because she’s a good person who will do the right thing with it. The Ghoul accepts this answer, puts his gun down, and they continue.
In a flashback to the past at the Lucky 38, Cooper Howard (Goggins) is in his hotel with another woman, while his wife Barb (Frances Turner) hides. It’s Stephanie, working at the hotel, and she mentions she’s seen Cooper’s face in the ads for Vaults — and she wants to know how to get into one. Cooper says the Vaults aren’t what they’re cracked up to be, and maybe they should just hope people do the right thing so that the Vaults aren’t necessary. Stephanie asks if he knows how she can get a job at Vault-Tec, and Cooper points to the still-unconscious Hank lying in a laundry hamper. Stephanie smiles and takes the hamper out of Cooper’s hotel room as Barb returns to her husband.
Later, Cooper is in the same Vegas bar he visited in the present day. There, he joins Representative Welch (Martha Kelly), thanking her for meeting him, as she thanks him for bailing her out of jail. Cooper knows she’s a good person who wants to do the right thing, and he wants to believe in people like her. Welch asks how much Cooper actually knows about the company that put him on their billboards, and he tells Welch what she already knows about Barb: that his wife is giving the most powerful weapon to the most powerful man in the world, Robert House (Justin Theroux), so he can live forever, in exchange for bombs from Vault-Tec. When they do that, they’ll be the only ones left, and that’s what they want. Cooper asks Welch what she’d do with infinite energy, and Welch reveals she’d give it away to the public. Cooper knows how it’s transported, but he isn’t sure about giving the cold fusion to Welch. However, Welch can get him a meeting with the president, who’s just landed in Vegas, and Cooper can hand it off directly to him. If Cooper succeeds, he can end 25 years of resource wars tonight.
The Ghoul Brings Back the New California Republic (Sort of) in ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 7
In the present again, the Ghoul breaks into an old warehouse full of weaponry while Thaddeus tries to bond with him over his recent transformation, even pointing out a disgusting mouth-like thing, complete with teeth, growing on his neck. Maximus doesn’t understand why the Ghoul is helping them, but the Ghoul says this is a transaction, and if Maximus wants the weaponry, he has to give the Ghoul the cold fusion. While the Ghoul understands Maximus wants to give it to a good person, he’s going to have to give it to a really bad person first. The Ghoul has only seen one person come out on top in Vegas, so they need to do it like he did — by rigging the game, at which point the Ghoul unveils some NCR power armor. In response, Maximus hands the cold fusion over to the Ghoul.
As The Ghoul returns to Freeside with his crew, including an armored-up Maximus, the people of the town are left stunned and start to follow this ragtag group, welcoming the supposed return of the NCR to their town. The Ghoul says they’ll have to act fast to get to Lucky 38, telling their sniper Thaddeus to get off the roof — but Thaddeus’ arm falls off out of nowhere. Understandably, they tell Thaddeus to wait behind as they continue moving forward.
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On the strip, the plan is for Maximus to get between the Ghoul and any Deathclaws, which leads to what looks like an old Western standoff. While Maximus holds his own at first, his armor gets stuck on a car, and the Deathclaw focuses its attention on the Ghoul. He shoots electric rounds at the Deathclaw, but they’re just shaken off. At the last moment, Maximus sneaks up on the creature and decapitates it. The Ghoul gets access to Lucky 38, while Maximus fights off other Deathclaws outside until they knock him back to Freeside. Once there, the people gather around him as a Deathclaw gets ready to attack.
Inside, the Ghoul enters House’s old penthouse office, but he doesn’t find anyone inside. The Ghoul hits a big red button on House’s computer setup, which opens a secret room in the penthouse. The Ghoul puts the cold fusion into a lab there, and House’s computer reboots. When it loads, House’s consciousness is revealed to exist on the computer. The episode flashes back to Cooper and Barb, as she points out that the only way to save their family is to save the world. The pair kiss as Cooper heads off on his mission, getting into a car with Welch and the president (played by Clancy Brown), whom Cooper hands the cold fusion over to.
Vault-Tec Has a Big Surprise in ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 7
At the Vault-Tec offices, the workers are still joyously working away on the mind-control devices as Hank joyfully watches on. Lucy tells her father that this is one way to save the world, but it’s wrong. When Lucy asks what it does to their brains, Hank says it cleans the memories of the horrors they’ve experienced. The higher the control dial goes, the stronger the person’s amnesia, and the mainframe plants new ideas into their heads, turning them into good people. Lucy insists on shutting this down and bringing Hank home, but Hank says that once the process has begun, it’s irreversible. In order to stop more being made, they’d have to destroy the mainframe that controls the boxes, but it’s in the basement. Hank and Lucy take a golf cart there, with Hank teaching Lucy how to drive. He also points out that he wishes they had a normal life — to which Lucy counters that they did have one, before Hank wrecked it.
The basement reveals more workers outside the mainframe. Lucy mentions she needs water and potassium for an explosive before running into the same Legion soldier who almost killed her last episode, now mopping the floor obediently. Lucy’s still wrestling with the fact that even though what her father is doing is wrong, it strangely does work. Lucy mentions that the Legion is still out there and that they’re going to hurt a lot of people, and with what Hank has created, he could stop them, but Hank points out that they could stop them together.
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The most unsettling idea in the series finally takes center stage.
Back in the recreation of her bedroom, Lucy puts on a yellow dress and makes her way to dinner with Hank in his fake Vault. As they share a meal, with Hank still handcuffed, Biff (Jon Gries) refreshes their waters. Lucy asks Biff if he remembers her, and he says he remembers her from this morning, not from when she and the Ghoul met him earlier at his lookout for the NCR. Hank says that the NCR and the Legion are all the same, and when Hank burns himself in the kitchen, Lucy unlocks his handcuffs. Lucy says she understands: one side is murdering, and the other is just vaguely problematic. It’s ultimately a trick, because she then handcuffs Hank to the oven and takes away his Pip-Boy. Hank was a good father, Lucy admits, because she’s not a fudging idiot, and heads to shut down the mainframe. As Lucy enters the Vault where the mainframe is hidden, she discovers Representative Welch’s head on a table, connected to computers.
“The Handoff” puts Fallout in an exciting place for Season 2 to wrap up. Heading toward the finale, it looks as though we’re going to see just how high the corruption in the government goes, both in the past and in the present, as well as some of the major power players in the Wasteland. “The Handoff” not only raises some great questions before the end of Season 2, but fleshes out the show’s characters (especially Stephanie) in important and key ways.
- Release Date
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April 10, 2024
- Network
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Amazon Prime Video
- Showrunner
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Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan
Pros & Cons
- The team-up of Maximus, the Ghoul, and Thaddeus is pretty fun.
- Ella Purnell and Kyle MacLachlan are always a great duo to watch.
- The exploration of good trusting evil and vice versa is particularly interesting this episode.
- The story in the Vaults is getting better, but is still the weakest part of this story.
