Fallout Season 2, Episode 7, “The Handoff” Recap & Review

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Here we are... Episode 7 of Fallout Season 2 and A SINGLE episode off from the season finale. This episode really started to see storylines collide and crash in what has been building over the entire series. It’s tighter, meaner, action-packed, and darkly self-aware, still balancing genuine humanity within calmer moments of the episode.

The episode’s opening sequence is stripped down to sound before image, a panic of yelling, gunfire, and spinning rotors. The scene explains a bit more about the direction of why one of our main characters is the way they are...What makes them tick.... Who is that? Well, I’ll let you watch and find out.

From there, we pivot straight back into Lucy in Hank’s vault. Hank’s cheerfulness has never felt more artificial, particularly in contrast to Lucy’s growing discomfort with agreeing with him on some level. The show’s visual language makes this crystal clear... the sterile mise-en-scène of Vault-Tec’s lab/workshop frames Hank as the smiling embodiment of civilised danger. When Lucy asks what the device actually does, his cheery explanation is that “It wipes memories and implants new ones!” Lucy is left looking and feeling very perturbed by this.

I have to say that I loved their “golf cart” interlude. It provided a moment of relief that doubled as a darkly funny metaphor. Lucy learning to drive feels like the show’s blunt way of telling us she’s finally taking the wheel... figuratively and literally. Her retort, “We did have a normal life, Dad. You wrecked that,” cuts sharper than any gunfire this season. The shot composition in these scenes—the sterile, colourless hallways—all serve a purpose. This place is clearly not heaven. Later in this episode, Lucy drives the golf cart again, and this time she is completely at the wheel.

Meanwhile, touching back in with my new favourite trio, Cooper, Maximus, and Thaddeus continue their wasteland trek. Cooper agreed to take them to Lucy, but knowing Coop, there is definitely some favours to be had. On the walk, Coop’s comparison of Max and Lucy with the line “I can see why you two get along so well...You ask a lot of goddamn questions” definitely gave me an enjoyable giggle. The sass mixed with Maximus’ seriousness actually had me enjoying scenes with Max... A feat that I wasn’t sure could happen. As always, Cooper is up to something. When Cooper finally pulls a gun on Maximus, it’s not tension for tension’s sake... It’s mistrust carved out of survival, and the knowledge Cooper has of the cold fusion vial Max is carrying. But when Max admits the truth (“It’s for Lucy. She’ll do the right thing.”), Cooper lowers his weapon; he understands Max’s motivations. Fallout’s world rarely pauses, and when it does in moments like this, it hits hard.

The episode’s midsection expertly juggles two timelines, cross-cutting between present-day and pre-war Vegas. The flashback in Las Vegas gives us a fun little surprise. We see Steph working as a maid at the Las Vegas Hotel, thus tying a nice little thread to both Cooper and Hank’s web of past sins, giving that world a circular irony. Thematically, it’s brilliant... everyone’s just recycling the same dirty laundry century after century.

Out in the wasteland in the present day, Cooper, Maximus, and Thaddeus scavenge for weapons in an abandoned NCR cache. It’s here we get a classic Cooper transactional attitude... When Max asks why he is helping them, he says, “Nothing in this world is for free”. Cooper makes it clear what he wants, and then when he reveals the NCR power suit, the editing slows, music swelling just enough to make you feel that pulp hero energy without overplaying it. The suit for the cold fusion. Max takes him up on that offer. It’s a pure cinematic release: the soldier back in armour, ready for another lost cause.

In the vault storylines, paranoia reigns. Chet scared of Steph, and Betty bans showers to ration water, and vault politics devolve into hushed conspiracies.

Then we get to a Lucy-Hank dinner scene that totally changes the pacing of the episode. The lighting turns amber and nostalgic. Lucy slipping into the yellow dress her father wanted her to wear mirrors the season’s whole theme: the temptation to return to illusions of safety. “These potatoes, they taste like home,” she says, and we know “home” is poison. There is a line where Lucy mentions that Hank was a great father and raised her to not be a “fudging idiot.” That is where Lucy finally draws her line in the sand. Her final act? Handcuffing Hank to the stove and running off to try to turn off all the mind control devices. It’s here that we see Lucy once again driving, this time by herself, reclaiming agency not through violence, but distance. Lucy is taking Hank’s lessons, but steering toward something better.

Norm’s scenes in this episode are brief but important. His radio message to Lucky and Hank, who are not around to actually hear, is quite memorable. He's reaching out for help - but may only have himself. A cruel reminder that this life is much harsher on the surface than it was back in Vault 33.

Then there’s the set piece no fan will forget... the Deathclaw fight!! The cinematography goes full action epic here, using quick cuts and close-range camera choreography that feel lifted from Aliens or Edge of Tomorrow. Maximus in the NCR-branded power suit becomes the game come to life. Metal grinding, dust flying, score swelling just before each devastating hit. Cooper, watching from the sidelines, gun in hand, was epic to watch. Then, when Maximus narrowly saves him... the mutual nod they share was as the kids say.... Chef's kiss.

The episode's ending arc ricochets between Lucy defying her father, and Cooper infiltration of the old Las Vegas hotel. The episode weaves their arcs together like mirrored threads of regret and resolve. One a daughter trying to bring down her father, while the other is a father willing to bring it all down for his daughter. The cutting between these two stories, father and daughter, past and present, feels very deliberate. It is a rhythm meant to build tension toward an inevitable reckoning... Which we know is the season's last episode.

Episode 7, like most episodes this season, turns absurdity into allegory and chaos into great character. The calm before Season 2’s final Fallout... If this is the setup... next week’s going to be explosive.