Lucy and Maximus cross paths again, with some truths and some lies told as they go on the road together. I am taking deep breaths.

Let’s discuss Fallout.

Following her parting of ways with The Ghoul in the previous episode, Lucy strikes out on her own in her effort to track down Wilzig’s head – and runs back into Maximus, who has been effectively paralyzed inside his mech suit and abandoned by Thaddeus after the revelation that he is not, in fact, Knight Titus.

And I’m going to unpack my thoughts on THAT development first of all, because.

Oh, Maximus.

First of all, the best time to come clean with Thaddeus was any time before you branded him as the squire of Titus. Second, his reaction to learning the truth was entirely understandable and, strictly speaking, he only turned on you AFTER you decided to try and kill him for not immediately accepting this turn of events. When he pointed out that trying to deceive the Brotherhood wouldn’t last long, HE WAS CORRECT.

All this considered, his choice to introduce himself to Lucy as “Knight Titus” is both frustrating and heartbreaking. Maximus, honey, it’s really OK to be yourself out here. That’s the one thing no one’s going to judge you for! So long as you don’t go back to the Brotherhood like this.

Dear sweet complicated relationship Christ, what is this show doing to me.

Anyway! Lucy.

Oh, Lucy.

So. Upon learning a little more about each other, Lucy proposes to Maximus that they join forces to recover Wilzig’s head and take it back to the Brotherhood, in exchange for some of their services in Lucy’s quest to rescue her father. Maximus agrees to this, despite having no real say in the Brotherhood’s mandate or their decision-making, presumably because he sees the just cause Lucy is proposing and (more importantly) doesn’t see why the Brotherhood might disagree. Unless he does see why and is choosing to agree anyway, in which case. Oh, MAXIMUS.

Learn a lesson, boy. A hard one is coming either way, but COME ON.

Speaking of learning lessons, I was very fascinated by Lucy and Maximus interacting along their way to tracking down the head. Namely because it seems there are some truly wild tales floating around on the surface about Vault-dwellers. Maximus is under the impression that the Vaults are full of monsters, which Lucy scoffs at. They’re full of regular people like her!

Oh, Lucy. If only you knew.

But a valuable lesson for Lucy to learn, if only she’ll open her eyes, begins with Maximus reacting like a ‘first to die’ girlfriend in a horror movie when she takes him to a Vault-Tec medical facility to get patched up after a shoot-out with a pair of fiends (cannibals, and isn’t that a lovely encounter for any surface newbie to have).

Dear god, Lucy, learn to read the proverbial room.

And it’s entirely fair for Maximus to react that way, because no sooner does he suck it up and follow Lucy into the facility than his life turns into a scene from a survival horror game (excellent touch there, re: production!). Upon Lucy’s swift disappearance, Maximus’s attempt to follow her trail results in him being gassed and dropped through a trapdoor…

… and they wake up in a Vault. Where Lucy has apparently forgotten all the hard-learned lessons she was taught by The Ghoul, because suddenly everything’s copacetic to her. Even though Maximus wakes up instantly wary and on high alert – rightly so, given everything we’ve learned as watchers of all this madness.

Lucy, this is not the best place on Earth. In fact it might be the worst?

Speaking of the Vaults.

Betty Pearson is elected Overseer in Hank McLean’s absence, and the more I see of developments down there, the less I trust her. Much like Norm, who undoubtedly knows something is screwy by now but at least has the sense to try to be circumspect and cautious, unlike … everyone else around him, basically.

But as it becomes apparent that whatever happened in Vault 32 has something to do with whatever’s going on in Vault 31, at least it seems that Norm’s not the only one starting to suspect that something isn’t right – when he asks Steph a seemingly innocuous question about life in 31 (where she’s from) and she gives an utterly innocuous answer, to which he replied “my dad said the same thing” and she agrees that, well, it must be true, Chet gives her A Look. A Suspicious Look.

YES, CHET. START TO QUESTION THE WAY OF THINGS HERE.

Something is most definitely not right in these Vaults, and that’s even without the sudden miraculous cleanup effort that Betty makes upon becoming Overseer.

WE SAW THE TRUTH, BETTY. Sort of. But WE KNOW THE TRUTH.

… Sort of.

WHAT’S THE TRUTH, BETTY?!

What’s going on in Vault 31?

And which Vault did Lucy and Maximus end up in??