This article contains spoilers for Fallout episode 3, "The Head". If you're not caught up with the series yet, check out our article explaining how to watch the Fallout TV show instead.
Prime Video's Fallout TV show brings the hit post-apocalyptic video game franchise to life in a new live-action caper. The series tells an original story involving three core survivors whose quests take place in a version of Los Angeles more than 200 years after the world was ravaged by nuclear war.
All three of our Wasteland wanderers tangled up with Wilzig's fate. Lucy needs him to bargain with the Raiders who took her father, The Ghoul needs him to cash in a huge bounty, and Maximus is determined to bring him in to the Brotherhood of Steel. Lucy's got the Doc's head in her pack, but the other two are hot on her heels, and this episode sees the former Vault Dweller losing the head to a horrific creature, and being taken off on a diversion by one of her pursuers. Here's a full recap of Fallout episode 3.
On Wilzig's trail
Fallout's third episode begins with another shot from before the war. Pre-Ghoulification Cooper Howard is shooting a cowboy show, but is perturbed by the new direction the show's gone in (they're making a more "patriotic", new kind of a Western, we're told). Outside, he has a sweet moment with his wife, and is given a box containing a Vault Suit which he's to try on.
We then cut to the present day, with The Ghoul and CX404 coming across the remains of Wilzig's body in the Wasteland. Whilst the dog picks up his trail, the gunslinger starts to cough, and is forced to ingest some sort of drug from his bags. Elsewhere Lucy's sen starting a fire at nightime; she unwraps Wilzig's head and tries to figure out what's so important about it. Eventually, she finds the chip in his neck (which gives her a jolt of electricity when she presses on it). Crucially (for this episode, at least), she also embeds a tracker from her Pip-Boy computer in the head's nose.
Meanwhile, Maximus trusses up his damaged Power Armor outside of Filly. Brotherhood of Steel Petty Officer Shortsight comes over the Comms and asks why "Titus" didn't make his previous transmission. Maximus keeps up his ruse, explaining that his Squire has died. When Shortsight insists on sending a replacement, he panics and rips out the module, before heading into Filly with another broken part of the suit.
Since he's a few caps short, he pays a quick visit to a barber-surgeon to sell off a tooth, gets a trader to fix the module, and returns to his Armor... finding a group of scavengers have decided the suit's theirs for the taking. Naturally, a gory scrap ensues; this is the Wasteland, after all.
Maximus takes a beating at first, but manages to pick himself up and eventually comes out on top. A Vertibird flies overheard and deposits Squire Thaddeus in the center of Filly. Maximus rushes to suit up so he can keep pretending to be Knight Titus, and gets inside just as Thaddeus drops to his knee before him. The new squire relays fresh intel from the Elder Cleric: whoever gets to the target (Dr. Wilzig) will apparently 'control the Wasteland'... meaning Titus has full permission to kill whoever stands between him and the Doc.
Gulper attack
Lucy finds her way to the edge of a lake that's swallowed Hollywood Boulevard. At the water's edge, she takes a moment to try and feed a fawn... which is promptly snatched up by something from the grass. That something soon circles around and grabs Lucy by her backpack. She gets dragged away, but manages to fire a dart into the creature, forcing it to let her go. Unfortunately, Wilzig's head fell off her bag, and the thing that attacked her snatches it up and dashes into the water.
Lucy prepares to dive in after Wilzig's head... but the sound of The Ghoul's pistol being cocked behind her makes her stop. He pistol-whips her and begins demanding to know where the head is; Lucy says she lost it. Recognizing some animal poop nearby, he realizes a Gulper got it... whatever that is.
At this point, we head back inside Vault 33. Chet and Norman are being reassigned to new stations within the Vault as punishment for helping Lucy get out to the surface world. With Overseer Hank out of action, three Vault Dwellers have decided to become de facto leaders (Reg McPhee, Woody Thomas and Betty Pearson, respectively). Norm's apparently been a lackluster employee in every one of his posts, and when he hints that he hopes someone's also going to punish the Raiders, the new leaders decide to assign him to tending to the Raiders that have been imprisoned in one of the Vault's rooms.
Back on the surface, Titus appears to be enjoying having Thaddeus run around after him, seeing as he was one of the guys who beat him up at base. Thaddeus suggests trying to fix his radio; Maximus insists he do the mission without help. Talk turns to Wilzig's whereabouts, and Maximus explains what happened between him, The Ghoul and Lucy back in Filly.
Thaddeus is initially surprised he let The Ghoul live (the Brotherhood clearly have no respect for their kind), but pulls out a device which can track his radiation trail. This brings them to the grim site of Wilzig's body. After Maximus assures his Squire The Ghoul did it (and not Lucy), they traipse off in The Ghoul and CX404's footsteps.
Getting sidetracked
Back at the waterfront, The Ghoul has Lucy bound up and keeps dunking her in and out of the water, whilst she tries to convince him to stop torturing her. Eventually, he explains he's doing no such thing... he's using her as bait, to draw the creature back to shore.
His plan works, and the Gulper is revealed in full - a hideous, axolotl-like creature, but one with human-looking limbs, and a horrifying gullet lined with grasping fingers. The thing immediately tries to swallow Lucy and nearly succeeds, but Lucy uses The Ghoul's bag to smack it over the head, and then the creature flees back below the surf when CX404 bites on of its harms.
The Ghoul flies into a rage when he realizes Lucy has smashed the stash of drugs in his pack. Knowing that the Gulper "digests real slow", he ties a rope around the Vault Dweller and leads her off on some sort of side quest (presumably, to replace his stash of vials), planning to come back later, leaving CX404 barking at the water.
Elsewhere, Maximus and Thaddeus stop for a break. His Squire opens up about life at the Brotherhood of Steel base; it turns out Thaddeus used to be the one getting beat up, and he only suggested the other Aspirants turn their sights on Maximus to fit in.
There's more trouble in Vault 33, too. At an assembly, the new leaders proclaim they want to rehabilitate the 16 Raiders penned in their temporary prison, especially since their numbers have dwindled. Norman stirs up trouble in the meeting when he suggests they should kill them, instead.
Things take a worse turn whenever a Vault engineer informs the group that their Water Chip has been destroyed, meaning they've only got clean water for two more months... and that's without considering their extra guests. Most Dwellers seem to be on the Overseers' side, offering to help tutor the inmates. Well, except Steph, Lucy's best friend. She lost her husband (and an eye) in the Raider attack and tells Norm that he's right to feel how he does. Moreover, she says Norm's father would 'do the right thing' if he were present.
Back in the Wasteland, Maximus and Thaddeus arrive at the lake. The radiation trail leads them into the water... right into the path of the hungry Gulper. Maximus sends Thaddeus to shore and prepares for a brawl. Thaddeus takes a potshot at the creature from shore, and it zooms over and tries to swallow him. Maximus manages to pull his new Squire free, and this ends up killing the creature as it throws up everything its swallowed, including Wilzig's head... and one of Lucy's boots.
Lucy begs The Ghoul for some clean water as they traipse across the sand, but he refuses and taunts her about life being so dangerous up her. She asks how he ended up the way he did, and whether it was radiation. The Ghoul simply says "something like that", and shoots out the face of a Vault-Boy billboard advertising the Vaults that's still standing nearby.
The episode then ends with a return to Cooper Howard on-set. He steps out of his trailer in his new Vault suit and meets with representatives from Vault-Tec. As it turns out, he's shooting a commercial for them. Cooper passes on his thanks for Vault-Tec's hard work before proceeding to shoot some promo shots for them, flicking them a smile, and a thumbs up.
All eight episodes of the Fallout TV show are now streaming on Prime Video.
