The Head (Fallout)

Last updated
"The Head"
Fallout episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 3
Directed by Jonathan Nolan
Written by
Produced by
  • Crystal Whelan
  • Halle Phillips
  • Skye Wathen
  • Gursimran Sandhu
Cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh
Editing by
  • Ali Comperchio
  • Yoni Reiss
Original air dateApril 10, 2024 (2024-04-10)
Running time57 minutes
Guest appearances
  • Johnny Pemberton as Thaddeus
  • Frances Turner as Barb Howard
  • Leslie Uggams as Betty Pearson
  • Zach Cherry as Woody Thomas
  • Dave Register as Chet
  • Annabel O'Hagan as Stephanie Harper
  • Rodrigo Luzzi as Reg McPhee
Episode chronology
← Previous
"The Target"		Next →
"The Ghouls"

"The Head" is the third episode of the first season of the American post-apocalyptic drama television series Fallout . The episode was written by series developers Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner and directed by executive producer Jonathan Nolan. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on April 10, 2024, alongside the rest of the season.

Contents

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 has an unpleasant encounter with the Ghoul, while Maximus takes over Titus' identity.

The episode received very positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances, writing and tension.

Plot

Before the Great War, Cooper Howard films a Western movie and complains to the director about his character killing the villain. In the present day, the Ghoul finds Wilzig's headless corpse and sets out to follow Lucy after giving his scent to CX404. Lucy reaches the underwater remains of Hollywood Boulevard, where a creature known as a gulper swallows Wilzig's head. As she escapes the gulper, she is held at gunpoint by the Ghoul.

Back in Filly, Maximus is forced to sell his teeth to pay to have his armor repaired, but several scavengers then jump him and try to steal it. After initially struggling, Maximus regains control of the armor, kills the leader and chases the others off. Through the camcorder, he pretends to be Titus and claims that Maximus died in battle. The Brotherhood of Steel proceeds to send a new squire, Thaddeus, to assist him in his mission. Maximus hides in the armor and pretends to be Titus. As Thaddeus constantly bullied him at the camp, Maximus takes every opportunity to make his new squire's life difficult, only to change his mind when he learns that Thaddeus's bullying was motivated entirely by peer pressure.

The Ghoul begins drowning Lucy, claiming that he is using her as bait to attract the gulper. The gulper appears but quickly escapes when Lucy struggles and accidentally pulls some vials from the Ghoul's jacket, shattering them. The Ghoul is furious as he no longer has the chems that keep him from turning feral. He angrily sets CX404 loose and leaves with Lucy as his prisoner.

In Vault 33, the new co-overseers have decided to keep several captured raiders alive as they are uncertain whether their new prisoners could be rehabilitated. During a public hearing, Norm argues that rehabilitation is a waste of time and that the Vault should execute the captives while they have the chance. He is rebuked, but news of a water shortage due to the Vault's purification chip failing puts more pressure on the overseers to make a decision.

Sensing a high level of radiation, Maximus and Thaddeus reach Hollywood Boulevard, encountering the gulper. Thaddeus is almost killed, but Maximus intervenes to kill the gulper by slicing its stomach open with his knife, recovering the head. They also run into a starving CX404 and decide to keep the dog.

In the past, Cooper's wife Barb gets him into contact with Vault-Tec, as Cooper is worried about his career declining. Agreeing to work as a spokesman and ambassador for the company, Cooper wears a Vault-Tec jumpsuit and goes to a photoshoot to advertise the Vault, at one point giving a thumbs up for several photos. It is implied that Vault-Tec's new mascot, the Vault Boy, is later modeled after Cooper.

Production

Development

It was the third episode directed by executive producer Jonathan Nolan. [1]

Music

The score is composed by Ramin Djawadi. [2] The episode featured many songs, including "Maybe" by The Ink Spots, "So Doggone Lonesome" by Johnny Cash, "We'll Meet Again" by The Ink Spots, "Tweedlee Dee" by LaVern Baker, "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller, and "Act Naturally" by Buck Owens. [3]

Release

The episode, along with the rest of the season, premiered on April 10, 2024, on Amazon Prime Video. [4] Originally, the season was scheduled to premiere on April 12, 2024. [5]

Critical reception

"The Head" received very positive reviews from critics. William Hughes of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B+" grade and wrote, "It's to Fallout's increasing credit that it can, in its third episode, do some real character work alongside its gleeful urge to gross out viewers. Take the early scene that sees Lucy chatting placidly with Wilzig's severed head, so recently liberated from his neck at his own request. Ella Purnell has a serious knack for projecting Lucy's cheerful acceptance of the horrors around her, curiously chatting with the head while hunting around for whatever MacGuffin is lurking under the skin." [6]

Jack King of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Each glimpse we've been offered of Cooper Howard before the Great War shows him as a completely different entity to the (literal) ghoul he'll become. I mean, he's a virtuous family man who can't even stomach the idea of playing a good-guy sheriff who kills a bandit onscreen. But such is the moral decay of the apocalypse: Filling in the blanks, you can only imagine the heinous shit he has witnessed, and partaken in, since the nuclear firestorm. Still. To get to this level of brutality and barbarism? That's 200 years of real depravity right there." [7]

Sean T. Collins of Decider wrote, "The pattern for Fallout after three episodes is that any given 50-minute installment will feature disgusting violence, sick jokes, and a monster of the week, based on the premise that America ain't shit because its ruling class would rather live in holes in the ground than improve the world we live in. Sure, I'll eat it." [8] Ross Bonaime of Collider wrote, "For all the goofy, absurdist craziness of this Fallout universe, Episode 3 proves that the calmer, more character-focused installments are just as interesting, and can expand both the game's lore and the show's story in ways that demonstrate a love and appreciation for the larger universe." [9]

Joshua Kristian McCoy of Game Rant gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Fallout has some sluggish moments, but it's a refreshingly straightforward series. Despite adapting decades of games, blending several genres, and telling such a broad story, it's a breezy ride through the wasteland. Fallout is everything fans hoped it would be. Its flaws barely shadow its successes. Video game adaptations rarely capture the spirit of their source material. Fallout had several challenges, but it's arguably one of the best of its kind. The show continues to impress as it delves deeper into the wasteland." [10] Greg Wheeler of The Review Geek gave the episode a 3.5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "As we approach the midway point of the show, this cat and mouse game has just started to get interesting. Quite what Wilzig's significance to the plot is, alongside the various characters who need his head (and how Moldaver ties into it) remains a mystery but it's an enticing one and certainly helps to keep things ticking over." [11]

Related Research Articles

<i>Fallout</i> (franchise) Video game series

Fallout is a media franchise of post-apocalyptic role-playing video games—and later action role-playing games—created by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, at Interplay Entertainment. The series is set during the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd centuries, and its atomicpunk retrofuturistic setting and art work are influenced by the post-war culture of 1950s United States, with its combination of hope for the promises of technology and the lurking fear of nuclear annihilation. A forerunner of Fallout is Wasteland, a 1988 game developed by Interplay Productions. Fallout is regarded as a spiritual successor to Wasteland.

<i>Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel</i> 2001 video game

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, also called Fallout Tactics, is a turn-based real-time tactical role-playing game set in the post-apocalyptic Fallout universe. Developed by Micro Forté and published by 14 Degrees East, Fallout Tactics was released on 14 March 2001 for Microsoft Windows. It had sold over 300,000 units worldwide by 2008.

<i>Fallout</i> (video game) 1997 video game

Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game is a 1997 role-playing video game developed and published by Interplay Productions, set in a mid-22nd century post-apocalyptic and retro-futuristic world, decades after a nuclear war between the United States and China. Fallout's protagonist, the Vault Dweller, inhabits an underground nuclear shelter. The player must scour the surrounding wasteland for a computer chip that can fix the Vault's failed water supply system. They interact with other survivors, some of whom give them missions, and engage in turn-based combat.

<i>Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel</i> 2004 video game

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel is an action role-playing game developed and published by Interplay Entertainment, and distributed in Europe by Avalon Interactive for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. Released on January 13, 2004, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel was the fourth video game to be set in the Fallout universe. It was also the first to be made for consoles, and the last to be made during Interplay's initial run on the series, before the rights passed to Bethesda Softworks. The game chronicles the adventures of an initiate in the fictional Brotherhood of Steel, a militant quasi-religious organization that has come to power in a post-apocalyptic world.

The Brotherhood of Steel is a fictional organization from the post-apocalyptic Fallout video game franchise. The Brotherhood collects and preserves technology, but they are not known for sharing their knowledge, even if doing so would improve the quality of life among the people of the wasteland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vault Boy</span> Mascot of the Fallout series

Vault Boy is the mascot of the Fallout media franchise. Created by staff at Interplay Entertainment, the original owners of the Fallout intellectual property, Vault Boy was introduced in 1997's Fallout as an advertising character representing Vault-Tec, a fictional megacorporation that built a series of specialized fallout shelters throughout the United States prior to the nuclear holocaust that sets up the world state of the Fallout universe. Within the video game series, Vault Boy serves as a representation of the player character's statistical information within user interface (UI) menus, and is a recurring element in Vault-Tec products found throughout the fictional Fallout universe. In the 2024 Fallout television series, Vault Boy is depicted as having been portrayed in Vault-Tec advertisements by actor Cooper Howard.

<i>Fallout: Nuka Break</i> American fan-made TV series

Fallout: Nuka Break is a live-action fan-made web series made by Wayside Creations and set in the Fallout video game universe. Its direct setting is derived from both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. Nuka Break features three main characters, a "Vault dweller, his ghoul companion, and a slave they freed from New Vegas". Along with the sets, puppets are used for some of the scenes, while CGI is used for the gun battles and other scenes. The series features actor Doug Jones as a guest star, playing Mayor Conners, and voice actor Vic Mignogna as the merchant/narrator.

<i>Fallout 4</i> 2015 video game

Fallout 4 is a 2015 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fourth main game in the Fallout series and was released worldwide on November 10, 2015, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. The game is set within an open world post-apocalyptic environment that encompasses the city of Boston and the surrounding Massachusetts region known as "The Commonwealth".

There are six pieces of downloadable content (DLC) for Bethesda Game Studios' action role-playing video game Fallout 4. Released once a month from March to August 2016, each expansion pack adds a variety of different content, with Far Harbor being the largest in terms of additional gameplay and Nuka-World being the largest in terms of file size. The season pass contains all six expansion packs, and due to the size of Far Harbor, the price was increased after its release.

Ghoul (<i>Fallout</i>) Fictional species in the Fallout franchise

Ghouls are a fictional race of posthuman beings from the post-apocalyptic Fallout video game franchise. Within series lore, ghouls are originally humans, many of them survivors of a global nuclear holocaust, who have been severely mutated by the residual radiation, which greatly extends their lifespans but deforms their physical appearance into a zombie-like presentation. Many ghouls live alongside humans in settlements across the post-apocalyptic wasteland, while others mentally degenerate into a violently feral and antisocial state.

<i>Fallout</i> (American TV series) 2024 American television series

Fallout is an American post-apocalyptic drama television series created by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the role-playing video game franchise created by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the series stars Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, Xelia Mendes-Jones, and Walton Goggins.

"The End" is the series premiere of the American post-apocalyptic drama television series Fallout. The episode was written by series developers Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner and directed by executive producer Jonathan Nolan. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on April 10, 2024, alongside the rest of the season.

"The Ghouls" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American post-apocalyptic drama television series Fallout. The episode was written by co-executive producer Kieran Fitzgerald and directed by co-executive producer Daniel Gray Longino. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on April 10, 2024, alongside the rest of the season.

"The Past" is the fifth episode of the first season of the American post-apocalyptic drama television series Fallout. The episode was written by co-executive producer Carson Mell and directed by Clare Kilner. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on April 10, 2024, alongside the rest of the season.

"The Trap" is the sixth episode of the first season of the American post-apocalyptic drama television series Fallout. The episode was written by co-executive producer Karey Dornetto and directed by Frederick E. O. Toye. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on April 10, 2024, alongside the rest of the season.

"The Radio" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American post-apocalyptic drama television series Fallout. The episode was written by Chaz Hawkins and directed by Frederick E. O. Toye and Clare Kilner. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on April 10, 2024, alongside the rest of the season.

"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 Target" is the second episode of the first season of the American post-apocalyptic drama television series Fallout. The episode was written by series developers Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner and directed by executive producer Jonathan Nolan. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on April 10, 2024, alongside the rest of the season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New California Republic</span> Fictional republic

The New California Republic (NCR) is a fictional post-War republic from the post-apocalyptic Fallout franchise. Operating primarily out of Southern California, it serves as an attempted governing body for the wasteland, including some portions of Oregon and Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vault-Tec</span> Fictional corporation in the Fallout franchise

Vault-Tec Corporation, otherwise known as Vault-Tec and sometimes called Vault-Tec Industries, is a fictional defense megacorporation from the post-apocalyptic Fallout franchise. Throughout the United States, Vault-Tec created government-funded vaults, large fallout shelters that would serve to shelter civilians and allow for the continuation of human life in the threat of a nuclear attack. Within most of these Overseer-governed vaults, Vault-Tec carried out human experiments on its residents without their consent or knowledge, ranging from being mostly harmless to disturbing and inhumane.

References

  1. ↑ Hibberd, James (April 3, 2024). "Jonathan Nolan Is Ready to Unleash 'Fallout' and Finish 'Westworld'". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  2. ↑ "Ramin Djawadi Scoring Prime Video's 'Fallout' TV Series". Film Music Reporter. January 3, 2024. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  3. ↑ Berry, Alex (April 11, 2024). "Here's every song on the 'Fallout' soundtrack". NME . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  4. ↑ Petski, Denise; Andreeva, Nellie (April 8, 2024). "'Fallout' TV Series Based On Games Gets New, Earlier Premiere Date On Prime Video". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  5. ↑ Thompson, Jaden (October 23, 2023). "'Fallout' Video Game Adaptation Gets 2024 Release Date on Prime Video". Variety . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  6. ↑ Hughes, William (April 12, 2024). "Fallout recap: Welp, that's one of the grossest things we've ever seen". The A.V. Club . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  7. ↑ King, Jack (April 11, 2024). "Fallout Recap: Thumbs-up". Vulture . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  8. ↑ Collins, Sean (April 11, 2024). "'Fallout' Episode 3 Recap: Head, Swallowing". Decider . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  9. ↑ Bonaime, Ross (April 11, 2024). "'Fallout' Episode 3 Recap: It's Hard to Get a Head in the Wasteland". Collider . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  10. ↑ McCoy, Joshua Kristian (April 11, 2024). "Fallout Episode 3 Review". Game Rant . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  11. ↑ Wheeler, Greg (April 11, 2024). "Fallout – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review". The Review Geek. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.