Lucy MacLean is one of the protagonists of the Fallout TV series, the other two being The Ghoul and Maximus. She is a dweller of Vault 33 in what was once Los Angeles, who decides to leave the Vault in 2296 on a mission to save her father Hank, the overseer, from a woman named Lee Moldaver.
Quick Answers
What mission does Lucy MacLean embark on in 2296 in the Fallout TV series?
What is the significance of Vault 33 in the Fallout TV series?
What is the backstory of Lucy's father, Hank, in the Fallout TV series?
Background[]
Lucy was born to Rose who was a dweller of Vault 33. Rose suspected the surface world was hospitable and fled Vault 33, angering her husband because he viewed this as dangerous. Rose took Lucy and her young brother Norman to live in Shady Sands, although it would seem the two children were too young to have memories of being on the surface. Despite this, Lucy would vaguely remember her mother taking her to play in a field in Shady Sands under the sun, feeling its warmth.
At some point, Hank finds Rose on the surface, but she refuses to come back with him. Hank took his children back from Rose, moving them back to Vault 33, and he would eventually drop a nuke on the town in the early 2280s. Lucy would later convince herself that her childhood memory in Shady Sands was merely her playing in the Vault 33 farm under an artificial heat lamp. Hank lied to Lucy, telling her that her mother died from a Vault famine in 2277.
Lucy with her best friend Steph Harper
Growing up in Vault 33, Lucy knows nothing about the outside world except for what she has seen in books or been taught by her father, Hank, the Overseer of Vault 33. She has a cousin named Chet, with whom she did "10 years of cousin stuff" in a non-detailed manner. While this casual intimate relationship between cousins is permitted in the community, marriage is not. Lucy's best friend is Steph Harper.
Lucy actively contributes to the well-being of her community. She participates in the Young Pipefitter's Association, gymnastics club, Fencing Team C, intermediate Phys. Ed., and riflery. Her primary passion is teaching American history with a focus on ethics. In her time, she watches movies with her father, gardens with her father, and enjoys family book club with her father.[1]
Fallout TV series[]
Season 1[]
The End[]
Lucy being married to Monty
Lucy gives her marriage application to the Vault 33 governing council (Woody Thomas, Betty Pearson, and Reg McPhee), which they quickly accept. She has an arranged marriage with Monty, a resident of Vault 32. After they consummate, Lucy hears screams outside her room. Alarmed, she scans Monty with her Pip-Boy and realizes he is irradiated and must be a raider from the surface. Lucy survives his attack, eventually stabbing him in the neck, leaving him unconscious. She heals herself with a stimpak and arms herself with a tranquilizer gun during the raider attack. During the fight in the atrium, Lucy hides her brother in a floor storage space and watches her father drown Monty to death in the apple-bobbing tub. Lee Moldaver, who claims to be the overseer of Vault 32, abducts Lucy's father, Hank.
Lucy leaving Vault 33
Later, the Vault's council disapproves of opening the Vault door. Wishing to save her father, Lucy takes the opportunity to leave when the others are not around. She enlists the help of Norm, who acts as a lookout, and Chet, who unlocks the elevator to the Vault door and helps unseal the exterior door from the inside. Chet insists on coming with Lucy since the outside world is dangerous, but she tranquilizes him. She hugs her brother Norm goodbye and leaves the Vault, ignoring Reg and Davey's shouts for her to stop.
The Target[]
Lucy with Wilzig and Ma June in Filly
While sleeping by a campfire, Lucy encounters Siggi Wilzig, who tries to warn her about the dangers of the wasteland and urges her to go home. He then walks away.
Separately, she and Wilzig later go to Filly, where she is laughed at and called a "dipshit" by Ma June, a storekeeper who believed that all the Vault dwellers were dead; they are then confronted by the Ghoul, who is tracking Wilzig for a bounty. There is a brief shootout, after which Lucy unsuccessfully tries to deescalate the situation peacefully. When The Ghoul does not stop, she shoots him with a tranquilizer dart, which proves ineffective, though Maximus soon arrives in power armor, claiming to be "Knight Titus," and keeps the Ghoul at bay while Lucy and Ma June try to save Wilzig.
When the situation with The Ghoul is resolved, Ma June reveals to Lucy that Moldaver is her client. Lucy attempts to take an injured Wilzig across the wasteland, but he succumbs to his leg injury and takes a cyanide pill. At his request, once he dies, Lucy beheads him and takes his head.
The Head[]
Lucy held at gunpoint by the Ghoul
Lucy travels with Wilzig's head and stops along the flooded Hollywood Boulevard. She briefly feeds a fawn, but it is devoured by a gulper. The gulper attacks Lucy, but she manages to free herself by using her gun. The gulper swallows the head and swims away. The Ghoul finds her and deduces what happened. He uses her as bait in the lake to attract the gulper that devoured Wilzig's head. They successfully do so, but the gulper attacks too quickly for them to handle, and Lucy accidentally destroys the Ghoul's vials when she uses his bag to stop the gulper from swallowing her.
Angered by her actions, the Ghoul takes Lucy prisoner and drags her away due to her needing to find new vials, reasoning that they will be able to return before the gulper fully digested the head.
The Ghouls[]
Lucy getting her finger sliced off
For lunch, Lucy and the Ghoul devour some "ass jerky" made from Roger. Lucy then drinks some irradiated water after to wash down the grotesque meal. While the Ghoul is having a coughing fit, she attempts to flee, but he captures her after she unwisely decides to stand in the same spot. She bites his finger off, and he cuts off her finger to make things even. The Ghoul soon drags Lucy to the Super Duper Mart, where he offers her to Snip Snip in exchange for two months' worth of vials, assuring the Mister Handy that she is in pristine condition, apart from her missing finger.
Snip Snip acts courteously to Lucy, and surgically reattaches a finger (not her original) to replace Lucy's missing digit. Lucy tries to beg him for help, saying that she feared the Ghoul was sending her to become a sex slave, to which Snip Snip reacts with shock and disgust; he intends to harvest her organs instead. Before Lucy can do anything, Snip Snip fires a tranquilizer dart at Lucy's chest, knocking her out cold.
Lucy trying to avoid Snip Snip's organ-harvesting surgery
Snip Snip straps Lucy to a gurney and brings her to Huey and Squirrel, informing them of the transaction. They tell him to go through with it. He brings Lucy into the operating room and prepares to use his buzzsaw to cut her open, saying that it will be painless, with only a "snip-snip" to be done. She can escape from the gurney; however, she uses a nearby defibrillator to shock Snip Snip and tries using him as leverage to free herself and the captive ghouls. Huey and Squirrel, however, regarded Snip Snip as nothing more than an oversized air conditioner, but allowed her to go when she threatened them with a makeshift weapon, as well as meeting her demand of freeing the ghouls.
They complied, freeing those who hadn't lost their cognitive functions, but this didn't satisfy Lucy, and she threatened to kill the pair with a poisonous cleanser, which she fired at their couch and began to dissolve the material. They then comply and release the others, but Lucy almost immediately regrets this decision, witnessing their feral nature as they charge toward her and the others. She hides from the ferals, who kill Huey and Squirrel before leaving. Afterward, only one ghoul named Martha remains, but she nearly attacks Lucy, leading her to pick up a 10mm pistol to kill her.
Outside, she finds that the Ghoul is on the ground, needing the vials inside the market. She thinks for a moment, and then drops a handful of vials in front of the Ghoul's face, says angrily, "Golden Rule, motherf*cker," and stalks off, showing how she is learning how to blend her ideals with the demands of reality.
The Past[]
Following her liberation from the Ghoul and nearly having her organs harvested, Lucy comes across Maximus once more, who was imprisoned in his own armor by his squire Thaddeus, who removed his fusion core. Several radroaches crawled upon his armor, leading her to blast them off with her handgun. She can lift his helmet's visor, but suffers from radiation sickness, leading him to offer her his RadAway if she frees him. With that, she frees him and collapses from her illness. True to his word; however, Maximus treats Lucy's radiation sickness, and both decide to work together to find Thaddeus and regain the head the Gulper had coughed up.
Viewing Shady Sands with Maximus
While tracking Thaddeus, Lucy chats with Maximus about the state of affairs on the surface, asking what has happened since the Vault dwellers went underground. Reaching a bridge, they come across two cannibals, Javin and Rink, who attempt to kill them, but Maximus takes Lucy's gun and kills the pair, though he is shot in the process. Sometime later, they come across the ruins of Shady Sands, which Maximus reveals was once his home before the Brotherhood took him in. Lucy is shocked to hear that civilization has returned to the surface without the Vault dwellers and struggles to reconcile this with the stated purpose of Vault 33, which is to come to the surface and rebuild civilization on its own. Soon, Lucy discovers Maximus' wound is more serious than he claims. She takes him looking for medical supplies, eventually coming across Hawthorne Medical Laboratories. While searching for supplies in the building, they both end up falling through a trap door, waking up inside Vault 4.
The Trap[]
After landing in Vault 4, Lucy and Maximus find themselves meeting with Birdie while the Vault's medical staff Dr. Edmundson and Nurse Powell treat Maximus' wound, extracting a rotten tooth and revealing that was what he was shot with. Birdie explains that they will be kept in quarantine for a while longer to protect the Vault from surface contaminants. While staying there, Maximus tells Lucy she smells nice, which she interprets to be an attempt at flirting, responding by inviting him to have sex with her. Maximus, who did not receive any sexual education in the Brotherhood, tells her that it seems weird. Though Lucy assures him that sexual responses are natural, he refuses, saying the Brotherhood discourages sexual relationships.
After leaving quarantine, they meet the overseer Benjamin and learn that the Vault is open to refugees from the destroyed Shady Sands. It's then they learn that all levels of the Vault are open, except for level 12. Maximus feels slightly uncomfortable with the Vault, believing it to be a cult, although Lucy shrugs it off. While there, however, Lucy becomes horrified by the vault's worship of someone called the "Flame Mother," who is revealed to be Lee Moldaver. She then decides to venture to the 12th level of the vault, learning of the vault's genetic experimentation. She is caught, however, and attempts to fight her way out, ultimately getting herself captured and imprisoned.
The Radio[]
Following her capture, Lucy learns more about what transpired in the vault via holo tape and is then brought before the others to receive punishment. Believing she is about to be executed, it's revealed she is merely expelled from the vault and released with some supplies. Then, Maximus, who had adjusted to life in the vault, swipes their fusion core, powers up his recently retrieved armor, and uses it to free Lucy. Lucy then explains they were letting her go, leaving Maximus to feel embarrassed about the whole thing. They then leave the vault, but not before Lucy convinces Maximus to leave the fusion core with them. Reluctantly, Maximus complies and tosses it down the trap door, where they fell into prior. After returning to the fusion core, Lucy invites Maximus to live with her in her vault after she rescues her father. Maximus then reveals his name isn't Titus, but Maximus, and that Knight Titus was a person he let die for threatening him and took his power armor afterward. Lucy admits that she has done some horrible things during her journey through the wasteland, so she doesn't hold Maximus' past against him. Lucy and Maximus remain together, continuing on their journey.
Lucy and Maximus' farewell kiss
They finally meet up with Thaddeus, who's called for reinforcements and extraction. It's then that he gets defensive when the pair approach him, causing him to trigger a nearby booby trap, leaving Thaddeus with a hole in his neck, but not killed. After Thaddeus is instantaneously healed of his wound, Maximus suspects that Thaddeus may be turning into a ghoul. Thaddeus becomes in distress as the Brotherhood will surely kill him now. Maximus offers to return to the Brotherhood to prevent them from finding Thaddeus if he gives them Wilzig's head. Thaddeus agrees and thanks Maximus for his help, then leaves. Maximus and Lucy share a kiss before going in separate directions. Maximus creates a fake decoy head to pass off to the Brotherhood, while Lucy goes to Moldaver with the real head and rescues her father. Lucy tells Maximus to find her in Vault 33 someday.
The Beginning[]
Separated from Maximus, Lucy makes her way to the Griffith Observatory, Moldaver's base of operations. Arriving in the main operating room, she finds Moldaver waiting for her at a table next to a restrained feral ghoul, with her father caged nearby. She hands over the head and demands the release of her father, to which Moldaver agrees, but not before revealing why she kidnapped him. Moldaver reveals the truth about Vaults 31-33 and that Hank was an executive at Vault-Tec who was cryogenically frozen for two centuries. When Lucy's mother, Rose, found out, she escaped Vault 33 with Lucy and Norm, and they settled in Shady Sands with Moldaver. But when Hank found out, he orchestrated the destruction of Shady Sands, killing thousands of innocent people and taking Lucy and Norm back to Vault 33. Moldaver reveals the head contains a concealed capsule of cold fusion technology, part of research that Moldaver herself was working on, which allows for endless power. Hank was needed because he knew the access code to unlock it. Realizing Hank was responsible for her mother's fate—not death by starvation as she once believed, but the radiation from the bomb on Shady Sands had turned her into the very ghoul sitting at Moldaver's table—Lucy forces Hank to give Moldaver the code.
Lucy contemplates killing her father
Once Moldaver gets the code, she attempts to activate her machine, only to realize the Brotherhood of Steel is coming into force. Lucy remains inside the observatory, where Maximus finds her and frees her father. She then reveals to him her father's involvement in destroying Shady Sands. This leads Maximus to attack Hank, only for him to knock Max unconscious. Lucy then picks up his gun and aims it at Hank, heartbroken and angered at his actions, but hesitates to pull the trigger. The Ghoul arrives and grazes Hank with a bullet, demanding to know where his wife and daughter are located, leading Hank to flee before he can be killed. The Ghoul extends an olive branch to Lucy, inviting her to join him in tracking down Hank and, hopefully, his family; if she stays with Maximus, she will likely be killed by the Brotherhood of Steel. Lucy chooses to shoot her mother to end her suffering before following the Ghoul, leaving Maximus with the Brotherhood. Before leaving, Lucy tells an unconscious Maximus that she'll find him again.
Personality[]
Lucy looking forward to her future
Lucy is an active contributor to the well-being of her community, such as doing Vault maintenance using her repair skills, or gardening. She relishes being challenged, such as shooting with rifles, doing wrestling, fencing and gymnastics. However, she acknowledges her aim with guns is not always the best. She enjoys reading, watching movies and learning about history.
She has been described as being kind, charming, plucky, and strong. However, she still displays the symptoms of someone who has been programmed by the Vault-Tec Corporation, such as when she bluntly asks Monty about his sperm count. Due to her bubbly personality, she says "Okie-dokie" in many situations, such as when she approves something, when she does not get what she wants, or even when doing something mentally challenging, such as being to behead a corpse. While this shows her optimism, it may also hint at Lucy instinctively suppressing her true emotions or her method of coping. Lucy strongly believes in the Golden Rule, which is to treat others as one wishes to be treated.
Lucy has also lived a privileged life without needing to deal with the roughness of the wasteland. She is also said to be naive due to her upbringing, as her only experience with the outside world has been through what she learned in the Vault and read in books.[2]
Lucy weeps after learning what her father taught her was a lie
Lucy is confident that she can improve things, fueled by her optimism of the retro-America she was raised to admire. An optimistic, hard-working person, Lucy has an inherent belief that humanity is generally good and that there is goodness in the world that can prevail over evil. However, she struggles to maintain this belief the more she explores the wasteland, becoming more cynical as she becomes aware of suffering, violence and death.[3] Her personality goes through a transformation when she finds herself betrayed and attacked by humanity, making her tougher and wiser, even if she becomes emotionally overwhelmed sometimes.
Her breaking point takes place when she learns the truth about her father, his involvement with Vault-Tec and being responsible of the destruction of an entire city killing thousands of innocent people. And this only is worsened after realizing her mother was transformed into a ghoul. Her entire world shatters and now is unable to look her father as the same person she loved and wanted to rescue, feeling disgusted with his actions. Nevertheless, Lucy still retains her kindness and cares for those who are close to her, being worried for Maximus when her father hit him leaving him unconscious, going as far as pointing Hank with her gun. She later doubts on leaving Maximus to go with The Ghoul, however at the last moment she chooses to follow him to meet the people of Vault-Tec and before leaving, she ultimately kills her mother out of mercy and compassion.
Inventory[]
- Fallout TV series
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items |
|---|---|---|
| Vault 33 jumpsuit Vault 33 backpack |
Tranq gun |
- Fallout Shelter
- Fallout: Wasteland Warfare
| Apparel | Weapon | Other items |
|---|---|---|
| Vault 33 jumpsuit | Tranquilizer pistol Improvised weapon |
Notable quotes[]
- "Okey dokey."
- "I know that I've lived... a relatively comfortable life."
- "Well, I know that it can't have been easy for you up here, what with all the murder and-and the dirt. But the mission of the vaults should be important to everyone."
- "We Vault Dwellers... recognize, uh, and are grateful for the privileged position we were born into. and--"
- "I'm going to have to ask you to leave him alone. Now, I acknowledge that I am unfamiliar with your circumstances, but at first glance, your treatment of this man appears unfair and I'm obliged to intervene. Now, if your instinct is to harm me, as a person simply trying to deescalate a conflict, then I'll have to assume of the two of you, you are likely the primary aggressor, in which case, I think everyone in this town would agree that force is justified... unless, you willingly stand down now."
- "Oh, I'm sorry, I should have just let you use me as bait in a poison river?!"
- "What the fudge?"
- "I've had a rough week. Practically every person I've met out here has tried to kill me!"
- "Sir, you can't do this. Please, I need my organs!"
- "That's right. Your name is Martha. No. No. Please, please. Come on, I know there's someone in there. Talk to me. Please!"
- "I may end up looking like you... ...but I'll never be like you. Golden rule, motherfucker."
- "Can you tell me what's happened in the last 200 years?"
- "Up until I was 6, I really thought that the big light in our farm was the sun."
- "We're in the best place in the world. We're in a vault."
- "You want to have sex?"
- "If my dad found out that I destroyed an entire community to save him... that'd break his heart."
- "I've had a lot of time to think about this moment. You wouldn't believe the things that went through my head. One night, I actually tried to stuff an old grenade into the neck hole. Guess I was gonna walk in here and blow everybody up... but it's not really how I was raised."
Appearances[]
Lucy appears in the Fallout TV series and in Fallout Shelter.
Behind the scenes[]
Lucy on a poster
- Lucy being a female protagonist with two other male protagonists is similar to Natalia Dubrovhsky from Fallout, Chitsa from Fallout 2 and Nadia from Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.
- In an interview with Refinery29, Ella Purnell specifically criticized notions of the series being "woke" due to its focus on a female protagonist, saying the Fallout games are inherently political and that analyzing society and its different groups is part of the DNA of Fallout. Purnell said she loves seeing women in survival dramas and seeing the brutality and violence women are capable of when they are hungry and in survival mode, and that it breaks stereotypes of what women have to be portrayed as in media, commenting, "You're not this together, pretty picture that films originally depicted women as."[4] The Fallout series has portrayed this idea with characters such as Madame in Fallout 3, Dixie from Fallout 4, and Dagger from Fallout 76.
- Lucy appears to be the first character in the entire Fallout series shown to visually shed tears while crying, as opposed to a text description or an animation without tears.
- According to Ella Purnell's talent agency, she was going to portray a character called Jean in the TV series.[5] It is unclear if this was an error or if Jean was renamed Lucy.
- Lucy's character was pitched to Purnell before she had a chance to read the script. According to Purnell, Lucy was described to her as "Leslie Knope meets Ned Flanders."[6]
- Lucy's actress, Ella Purnell, plays video games and played some of Fallout 4 to prepare for her role. She said that she did not get very far and struggled with trying to dismiss Dogmeat and leaving him at the Red Rocket truck stop. However, she did also watch gameplay footage of the video games, though she did not specify how much and which games. Purnell said that she only had "a couple months maybe" to prepare for the role.[7] She also spent some time on the Fallout subreddit to increase her understanding of the lore of the series.[8]
- Lucy is the only character appearing in all episodes of the series, as Maximus is absent in "The Ghouls" and the Ghoul is absent in "The Past".
Lucy's backpack in Fallout 76
- Lucy's backpack was available as an in-game item in Fallout 76 which increases carry weight. It was available between April 11 and June 16 for Game Pass Ultimate members. It was also available for those who subscribed to anyone streaming Fallout 76 on Twitch between April 12-23. It is unclear if it will become available again in the future.
- The Fallout social media account recommend a Fallout 76 perk loadout for Lucy:
- Strength: Arms Keeper, Strong Back
- Perception: Commando, Rifleman, Crack Shot, Exterminator, Long Shot
- Endurance: Rejuvenated, Life Giver
- Charisma: Inspirational, Magnetic Personality
- Intelligence: First Aid, Stable Tools, Robotics Expert
- Agility: Gun Runner, Packin' Light
- Luck: Good with Salt, Pharma Farma, Starched Genes, Mysterious Savior
- Lucy shares similarities to Audrey Stolz from Fallout 76. For example, they both lived in Vaults for much of their lives. Their fathers worked for Vault-Tec and have four-letter names beginning with H (Hugo, Hank). Their fathers betrayed communities by leaving them to die by nukes. Audrey and Lucy later grow desires to kill their fathers. Both Audrey and Lucy were separated from their lovers (Maximus and Alex), have mothers who became ghouls, and have cousins who live in their Vaults. Audrey and Lucy are both shown to be interested in science, even if Lucy downplays her science skills.
Gallery[]
TV series[]
.jpg "FOTV S01E01.The.End. (8).jpg (983 KB)")
Tabletop games[]
.webp "Fallout Miniatures - Hollywood Heroes (Amazon TV Show Tie-In).webp (34 KB)")
References[]
- ↑ Amazon show description
- ↑ Moviefone: 10 Things We Learned at the ‘Fallout’ Press Conference with Cast and Crew (archived)
- ↑ Fandom: Prime’s ‘Fallout’ Series Explores the Satirical Side of the End of the World (archived)
- ↑ Refinery29 interview
- ↑ Ella Purnell at the Curtis Brown Group (archived)
- ↑ IGN: "Fallout: A Wasteland Survival Guide to the New TV Series" (Archived)
- ↑ Looper interview
- ↑ IGN interview
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