The timing of Fallout Season 2 feels impeccable, arriving amid ongoing power struggles in the United States and inviting unavoidable parallels. Also, the series returns without a long gap from its previous outing, reminding us of the times when we didn’t need to wait more than a year for a new installment.
With a meaty storyline spanning centuries, Fallout remains rooted in its core idea: the struggle over who ends up at the top of the human food chain. And this granular trait is what makes the show a standout. Inspired by the Bethesda Game Studios franchise, executive producers Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan preserve Fallout’s tone while expanding its scope, where its characters feel larger than life.
If Season 1 explored the extremes humans will reach for authoritarian control, Season 2 interrogates the systems that made that control predestined. When corporations obsessed with limitless growth go unregulated, Fallout exposes where capitalism leads. Even though the pacing is a bit off, the injection of humour in the writing makes up for it and keeps the plot vivid. The answers and motives leading up to doomsday hit like a train, and the journey each character undergoes post the nuclear explosion reinforces a baseline quote that forms the crux of this season: You become what you think about all day!
This article contains spoilers.
Fallout (Season 2) Recap
Episode 1 “The Innovator”
Set 219 years after the nuclear war of 2077, Season 2 resumes immediately after the events of its predecessor. With Lucy (Ella Purnell) teaming up with the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) to find out about the crew behind this whole fiasco, Season 2 covers more ground, literally. In 2296, scientific advancements have reached their pinnacle but something so cardinal remains unchanged: War. A flashback shows Robert House (Justin Theroux), the CEO of Robco Industries — hinted to be operating through a possible body double played by Rafi Silver in Season 1, emerging as an overly suspicious architect of post-war America.
Lucy and the Ghoul have an encounter with some thugs in their attempt to gather some supplies for their journey. The tussle brings back a strong western energy attached to Cooper Howard that infectiously fills the screen. In the past, after Cooper was flabbergasted by his wife’s pitch to drop the A-Bomb themselves during Vault-Tec’s meeting, Lee Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury) shares with Cooper that Robert is building a privately owned missile system in Las Vegas. She urges him to accompany his wife on her meet with Robert and do what is required to stop him. Considering how things panned out, we can conclude that Cooper failed in that mission.
Meanwhile, Lucy and the Ghoul have retraced Hank Mclean’s (Kyle MacLachlan) steps and arrived at Mojave Wastelands which happens to be in New Vegas. They stand before a cave which the Ghoul instantly recognizes to be Robert House’s playground and steps in to find out why Lucy’s father stumbled upon here. Following their disturbing discovery of what they think could’ve happened in Vault 31, Chet (Dave Register) has been assigned baby duties in Vault 32, where Stephanie Harper (Annabel O’Hagan) is the overseer. When Reg McPhee (Rod Luzzi) shows up asking about Norm (Moisés Arias) to Betty Pearson (Leslie Uggams) she doesn’t seem concerned and brushes him off by telling he’s been sent on a leadership exchange program to Vault 31.
We then shift to Norm, who is trapped inside a cryogenic chamber by Bud Askins’ (Michael Esper) talking robo-brain. Devoid of food, supplies and inter-vault communications disabled, Norm grows exasperated but counteracts the robo-brain’s threats by opening all the cryo-pods to make his stand. Back to the cave, The Ghoul leads the way into it which is typically Vault 24, made up of corpses who have been brainwashed into communists and experimented on by Robert House.
Before leaving, Lucy notices that her father has taken a drive from Vault 24 but is unsure why he stopped here in the first place. We get a long look at Hank Mclean in his stolen power armor, who has travelled to Vault-Tec’s office in New Vegas. Hank leaves a message for an unknown man (presumably House) in the radio stating that Vault 24 has been working on the brain-computer interface and has found a way to miniaturize the device. He vows to continue their work and resume their operations.
Episode 2 “The Golden Rule”
The episode opens with Maximus (or “Max”) surviving the bombing of Vegas, underscoring how fate shaped his childhood. Cut to the post-apocalyptic present day in the dystopian lands, Max, now a hero of the Brotherhood after helping secure the Cold fusion test tube, brings back a diode to the elder cleric Quintus (Michael Cristofer) which he assures will be the key to their new home.
He enlightens Max — who he now calls his son, that brotherhood has become a series of broken chapters and this new home will unite them all, unveiling an abandoned warehouse buried under the sands with the name “Area 51” printed on its doors. In another subplot at an abandoned hospital, Lucy’s decision to save a stranger over the Ghoul reinforces her moral rigidity early in the season but the same venture leads her to getting captured.
In Vault 31, Norm’s chaotic plan is underway as he has awakened Vault-Tec’s corporate executives from their cryo sleep. He informs them that it has been 200 years since they went to sleep and the Reclamation day they were all hoping for has finally come. He also mentions that Bud Askins is now dead (who we see crammed inside a trashcan in a corner) and they all need to find a way out of this chamber, claiming that this has been a test given to them by Bud.
When the employees question his identity, he shares that he is the product of 200 years of genetic engineering. Slowly, the executives start to trust him and collectively look for a way out. They climb to the roof of the chamber where a door is sealed which they open. Norm leads the way and moves up as the others follow him, taking them to the surface.
We see Hank Mclean entering the Cryogenic biorepository in the office and finds a colony of mice. He tests the miniaturized brain-controlling chips on the mice but their heads get blown out when he cranks up the device. Hank’s repeated failures to miniaturize mind-control devices highlight his obsession with refining Vault-Tec’s methods.
There is a convention brewing back in Area 51 where Quintus has invited other factions (or chapters) of the brotherhood on the wastelands except the Commonwealth. While the leaders of the other chapters dispute the exclusion of the Commonwealth from this meeting, Quintus shows them the relic (Cold fusion diode which Quintus says he has numerous replicas of it) and proposes that they all can unify under a common banner against the Commonwealth.
Max is turning into a dark shade in this episode where a man picks a fight with him without an armor. Max eventually kills the man in combat by slitting his throat. Just before the commotion settles down, a helicopter lands inside Area 51 and a liaison of the Commonwealth, Paladin Xander Harkness (Kumail Nanjiani) emerges out from the vehicle, sarcastically throwing a line that he didn’t get an invitation when Civil War is being discussed.
Episode 3 “The Profligate”
We see Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton) — who’s now turned into a ghoul after an arrow went through his neck in the previous season, running a warehouse with kids like him collecting bottle caps which is the currency of the wasteland. Lucy is captured by the guards who are members of the Legion — a community that’s essentially at war with everyone, dresses in Roman-style attire and mispronounces their leader’s name, Caesar, as Kai-zar with a “K”.
Lucy and the woman she rescued are taken to a tent where the woman is killed by her own clan for apparently having lost her legionary status. This stuns Lucy as she is dumbfounded. She learns that the community itself is divided into members who are Caesar’s allies and others. When Lucy denies the Legion’s request of prima noctis, she is tied to a crucifix under the scorching sun.
Back at the hospital where the Ghoul is still struggling, he has a tender moment with Dogmeat who’s still by his side, as he mentions that it’s been a long time before he has had someone worthwhile to talk to. When he finds his feet again, he traces Lucy to the Legion’s headquarters. Before he prepares his mind to help her, which he says to Dogmeat is to achieve his intentions in the long run, he spots that the Legion is at dispute with themselves by seeing heaps of bodies stacked in mud near their place.
The Ghoul then goes to a country club where he sees two remaining soldiers of New California Republic (also referred to as the “NCR”). They share what the Ghoul has already guessed about the Legion and asks the former to pass word to their battalion that their members are still alive. The Ghoul mentions that he thought the good guys would win but such is not the status of the NCR currently. He then proceeds to save Lucy.
He strikes a deal with the members of the Legion that if they release Lucy, he will offer them the location of the remaining members of the NCR. They agree to this deal and Lucy is taken down from the crucifix to continue her journey with the Ghoul. A tiny flashback takes us back to when Cooper is at a fundraiser he has organised, when his friend Charlie praises him for his courageous acts in the war. The Ghoul recounts these memories remembering the man he once was, through which the scene beautifully conveys that there is some good left in the Ghoul after all this time.
At Area 51, Quintus has a hard time convincing the other factions to stand with him for waging against the Commonwealth. Max is thrashed by the elder Cleric when he suggests killing of Xander during their discussion and throws him out of the room saying he doesn’t need to hear the opinion of a sword.
Seething with anger, he bumps into the man he suggested to kill just seconds before. Xander invites him to a ride on his chopper Vertibird. Weirdly, they strike a friendship while flying together and Xander tells Max that a battle will only erupt if the Commonwealth is not given the Cold fusion by Quintus to which Max doesn’t reply. They quickly form a bond and land at an abandoned place with their power armor suits.
While rummaging through the area, they bump into Thaddeus. He confides that he’s running this warehouse with kids suffering from the same condition like him, all who line up behind him. Xander doesn’t have any pity for them as he calls them “abominations” and picks out his gun. When he is just on the verge of pulling the trigger, Maximus lands a hammer in Xander’s head which instantly kills him. He then takes out his mask, through which Thaddeus recognizes him.
Episode 4 “The Demon in the Snow”
Episode four starts with a chiller giving horror vibes in Cooper’s flashback. During pre-war times when Cooper was posted on the Alaskan front while serving the military, he is seen struggling inside a malfunctioning power suit. When he decides to retreat, a flaming wreckage catches his eye. He accidentally loses balance and falls down near a rock, unable to move. A group of enemy soldiers approach him as he’s stuck in his armor and mock his current state. Suddenly, a monster (Deathclaw) lurks behind the soldiers and just rips their bodies apart. Cooper lies there, almost frozen, trying to come to terms with what he has just witnessed.
After the debacle that has happened, Maximus calms down Thaddeus and requests his company while going back to Area 51, asking him to don Xander’s power suit and pretend to be him. Upon arriving, Max’s compadre Dane (Xelia Mendes-Jones) notices something is off. Max says to Dane that he did the right thing but Xander is dead.
Max then confesses to Dane that he is going to kill Quintus and end all this hate between factions. Max barges into Quintus’s room and admits that he’s killed Xander. It doesn’t take long for Quintus to realize that he might be the next. Max points a gun at Quintus and a shooting breaks out. Max runs out and seals the door with Quintus inside.
Thaddeus has a panic attack concealing his identity when three elder leaders of other factions share a conversation with him about their ploy to kill Quintus for disrespecting the Commonwealth. When another elder comes in and points out that the Cold fusion is taken, chaos ensues. Dane finds Max and hands over the Cold fusion. Thaddeus comes running and with Maximus, they both exit their turf and make it to the desert, away from the brotherhood.
Having successfully made their way to the surface, Norm and the Vault-Tec executives stop for gathering supplies. Norm has a brief talk with Ronnie (Adam Faison) who boasts that he was Bud’s personal assistant back then and he knows everything about plans for Vaults 32 and 33, blurting out something known as “Future Enterprise Ventures” and that phase 2 of the plan is very important. Unsure whether Ronnie is telling the truth, Norm asks him to lead the way.
In the vaults where Betty and Stephanie are having a discourse, Betty explains that Vault 33 is under a severe water scarcity and requests Stephanie to provide them access to Vault 32’s water. As a trade-off, Stephanie demands that Betty bring her a keepsakes box which Hank brought with him to Vault 31.
The duo mention that the Vault-Tec experiment is over and they must take their own decisions now. All this conversation is overheard by Woody (Zach Cherry) which he innocently reports to Stephanie thinking he’s playing by the rules, only to not be seen later. Chet, who is in the other room, finds a wallet hidden in a baby’s dresser table where his eyes lock in on Stephanie’s ID where it’s evident that she’s a Canadian.
Lucy wakes up in the new NCR camp and sets off with the Ghoul, having more firepower at their arsenal, provided by the NCR. As they reach Las Vegas, the Ghoul notices that something doesn’t feel right. They hear crackling sounds coming from a nearby building and it is a Deathclaw ripping off the doors.
Episode 5 “The Wrangler”
Episode five starts exactly where we left off, with Lucy and the Ghoul appearing dazed upon seeing the monster. The Ghoul throws a grenade as a way of distraction and the duo make it past a gate, onto the Freeside and out of danger. The next day, the Ghoul says to Lucy that he knows Vault-Tec made multiple Vaults for its management personnel and that’s where he thinks his wife and daughter are. Lucy figures out that the location of her father might be the same place where the Ghoul’s family can also be.
Shuttling back to the past, we see Cooper attend a summit in Vegas where various tech companies, including Vault-Tec and Rob-Co are present, to decide the future of the free world. Note that it is in this summit that Barbara wishes to sell the Cold fusion to Robert House. Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury) instructs Cooper to stop the exchange by whatever means necessary, hinting even if it requires killing House.
Cooper assures that he’ll bring back the Cold fusion but will not commit a murder for it. Cooper and Barbara enter Lucky 38, a resort and casino in Vegas where the summit takes place, we see a young Hank Mclean with a Vault-Tec briefcase chained to his wrist. The young Robert House (Rafi Silver) approaches Cooper and takes him to the older version of Robert House we’ve been seeing this season so far.
The truth about House’s identity becomes clear that he has been manipulating everyone with a body double who will face the public while the real House (the older one) keeps his identity hidden. This comes as little surprise to Cooper and the real House now spills the beans that he is aware about Cooper’s plan to kill him.
Meanwhile in the present, Ronnie has led Norm and the team to one of Vault-Tec’s abandoned offices which looks trashed with corpses all around it. Norm has a brief talk with Claudia (Rachel Marsh) where she enlightens him that in the short time she’s worked in Vault-Tec, she remembers Barbara being in charge of Vault proposals.
The pair find her cabin and as Norm searches for Future Enterprise Ventures on her computer, the results point to something called “Forced Evolutionary Virus (F.E.V).” Claudia decodes that Norm might not be Bud’s successor, which the latter doesn’t deny. Claudia promises not to tell the others but that won’t be necessary since Ronnie has overheard them this entire time and confronts Norm straightaway. Ronnie alerts the other members saying Norm’s a liar and he has betrayed them. The quarrel leads to a tiff where Ronnie strangles Norm with an electric cord, knocking him out.
Hank’s research is going at full swing in the office as he’s been abducting surface-dwellers and conducting experiments on them, treating them as test subjects. A couple of cryo-pods are shown with the names Barbara Howard and Jane Howard although it is not made clear if they’re still alive inside. One of Hank’s lab rats is the Snake Oil Salesman (Jon Daly) who we last saw in Season 1. When Hank connects the wires to the Salesman’s head and cranks up the device, it doesn’t cause his head to explode unlike the other five times, which puts Hank in a happy mood.
Resuming Cooper and House’s stand-off, House says that his goal has always been to acquire lucrative technology, an attempt of which only has interested him to obtain Cold fusion from Vault-Tec. He commandingly says that the Cold fusion energy will ensure his immortality in a robotic form. When Cooper discloses to House that his wife Barbara has suggested Vault-Tec to drop the bomb, House dismisses it.
House reveals that he uses mathematical paradigms to predict future events and his data said that the world will end on April 14, 2065 at 5:17 A.M., which Cooper realises it to be his daughter’s birthday. This date has jumped forward a month since Cooper has also joined Barbara when initially the plan was to deliver it to House by herself alone.
An intriguing divulgence is made by House when he says that none of the entities which were in the meeting that discussed the idea of dropping the bombs will actually drop one but the entity responsible for the demon in the snow would only call the shots. He further believes that Cooper will play a major part in this but somehow can’t deduce his role in this exactly. Cooper has heard enough and leaves the room in frustration. He arrives in his room and faces Barbara to talk.
The screen cuts to Cooper now identified as the Ghoul, sitting in a sunken state in a room, haunted by the past, which has obviously left its scars. The Oil Salesman arrives saying he’s come to deliver a message from Hank which catches Lucy’s attention. The Salesman offers a bargain, where for keeping the Ghoul’s family safe, he needs to give up Lucy.
The Ghoul shoots Lucy with a tranquilizer. With tears running down her cheeks and falling down, Lucy weakly says she thought they were only beginning to get along. The Ghoul asks her to consider this as a nap before reaching home and sighs telling that family is a fucked-up thing. As the Ghoul is standing by the window side, Lucy quickly gets up, grabs her powerfist and delivers a stone-cold punch to his gut. This sends him flying outside, shattering the glasses and lands him on a pole.
Episode 6 “The Other Player”
Taken back in time, we see Barbara reviewing presentations about Vault-Tec’s plans. One of them explains that Vault-Tec will get to decide which Vault runs out of water. The fake Robert House meets Barbara for a meeting afterwards where he says that Rob-Co has been designing chips called the “Automated Man”, a sample of which he shows to Barb which pretty much looks like what Hank has been using on his test subjects in the present.
Barbara tells House he can use this device which they’ve developed in one of their many vaults but House corrects Barbara by saying that Vault-Tec has been funding this device in a deal where Rob-Co gets Cold fusion in exchange. The meeting ends and Barbara is worried now, questioning whether she made the right choices.
In New Vegas, the Ghoul is lying impaled on the pole and despite his attempts to get to its top, he can’t seem to lift his weight. After some time, a creature cuts the pole and gets him off it, dragging him to its den. Waking up, the Ghoul realises the creature has Uranium which it uses to heal the wounds on his stomach, where the pole has left a hollow.
The creature says that they are “abominations” to surface-dwellers but he and the Ghoul, since they’re kin, should unite against theirs common enemy. It calls out the Enclave and points out that they are the reason behind the fate of this world now. The Ghoul clarifies that he’s done whatever he’s got to do hitherto alone and that will be the case in the future too. The creature shows his face and it happens to be a supermutant with a green face under its hood.
Also Read: Fallout (Season 1) Review, Recap & Ending Explained: What’s the Truth about Vault 31?
Back in the past at Lucky 38, Cooper confronts his wife by saying he knows about her part in Vault-Tec’s plan and asks whether she will be willing to kill millions for saving him and her daughter. Barb retaliates by throwing back the same question to Cooper, softly reassuring that he knows her. Cooper says he doesn’t know her now and storms out saying he’s going to do something.
We are shown a scene further before in time where Barb, after her meeting with Robert House, asks her assistant to gather all information about Cold fusion. When asked by her assistant whether it is a good idea, Barb replies none of this is a good idea.
At the elevator, Barb meets Siggi Wilzig (Michael Emerson) who played a significant role in Season 1, with his head being on a bounty and him being the starting point of Lucy’s character arc in a way. He tells Barb that she’s just a cog in a machine and if she doesn’t comply, she and her family will die and the same applies for him as well.
To survive, he says she should suggest Vault-Tec will drop the bomb in the meeting with other corporations, when the screen cuts to the scene where she does exactly that. In the hotel hallway, Cooper meets Hank and invites him for a drink in his room where he mixes the latter’s wine with a pill. Hank is knocked out and in comes Barb, shocked by what Cooper has done. Confused but having no other way, she opens the safe chained to Hank’s hand and finds an injector inside. Making up her mind, she puts it in Hank’s neck where it turns out that’s where the Cold fusion has been lying all along.
Lucy wakes up in a room inside one of Vault-Tec’s offices where Hank has been conducting experiments. She comes out and sees a bunch of happy, kind and patient workers, creating more mind-controlling devices. As she keeps walking, she finds her father. Hank mentions that people fighting over nothing really upset him and adds a comment that people will never change. Hank turns away and when he isn’t looking, Lucy holds a knife to his neck and demands to free the workers she saw outside. She also says she’s going to take him back to Vault 33 to face justice for murdering the citizens of Shady Sands. Hank is amused and remains composed.
When Lucy questions where he found all these people, he replies that he took them from the surface. Suddenly, two large workers who aren’t controlled by the device yet, start fighting, throwing each other in alternate directions with other workers stopping to stare. Hank glances at Lucy proudly signalling this is what he was talking about and suggests pressing a button in a machine nearby to activate the devices in their brain. While Lucy hesitates initially, when one of the men lifts her by grabbing her neck, she has no other option other than to press the button and when she does so, it transforms them into docile, compliant individuals in a jiffy.
Cut to the Vault, Chet is shocked when he sees a poster of him marrying Stephanie the next day. Betty arrives with guards to stop a gleeful event where all the Vault 33 members are enjoying their snacks and having a great time. Betty says that Reg was not listening to her and it’s highly irresponsible that he’s fixated on delivering snacks when the Vault itself is in a huge water crisis. Reg plucks out a piece of cake and eats it out of spite. After having walked out of Area 51, Maximus and Thaddeus are sitting in front of a fireplace when they are woken up by Dogmeat that has the Ghoul’s hat in its mouth. They follow it, which takes them to the location of the Ghoul.
Episode 7 “The Handoff”
The penultimate episode of this season restores some hope in humanity in ways the characters go about their decisions. The episode opens in a past time with Stephanie and another woman fleeing an area which is apparently an internment camp in Canada. They are being chased by a group, with a soldier in a power armor stopping them and asking them to fall back to camp.
At this moment, another person bombs the soldier and Stephanie wakes up from this nightmare in the vault in the present. As she recollects the rest of her memory, the scene shifts back to the past when Stephanie realises that the other woman whom she was travelling with has been shot. Stephanie is advised by her friend to think of the people who stop her as Americans and urges her to go south of the Canadian Border.
When Stephanie gets to the border, a custom guard calls her beautiful and he’s seen lying dead later, as we watch Stephanie make her way to the U.S. This subplot leans heavily into border mythology surrounding immigration, raising questions about whether it exists for shock value or ideological signalling.
In the present, Chet and Stephanie are preparing for their wedding, with Chet having no other choice than to comply. When Chet is doing the dishes, he finds that the sink is clogged. While looking into it, he finds eye glasses which he quickly recognises to be of Woody’s. Chet snaps the glasses into two and dumps them back in the sink. In Vault 33, the water problem still persists and Betty brings the keepsakes box to Stephanie as requested. When Stephanie understands that Betty is interested in the contents of the keepsakes, she simply reiterates that the deal was for the water, which she’ll honour.
Betty replies that she has people spying on Stephanie to which Stephanie responds that the future is something bigger than them. During the day of the wedding, as the vows are being pronounced, Chet doesn’t agree to marry Stephanie, to everybody’s surprise. Stephanie warns him under her tone about his choices but Chet doesn’t back down.
He announces in front of everyone gathered, about Stephanie’s plans to hurt them and he suspects her involvement in Woody’s vanishing, revealing the glasses he found at the sink. He goes on to expose her identity as Canadian which sparks an outrage. Stephanie runs away and locks her in her room, as people pound on her door to open up.
After waking up, Norm calls Lucy in the radio, asking her to help him. He also questions his dad asking why the truth about the vaults was kept in the dark. While his call comes through where Hank and Lucy are, they don’t hear it. Teaming up, the Ghoul, Maximus, Thaddeus and Dogmeat make their way into the NCR’s camp.
The Ghoul says that they need to kit up to reach an impenetrable vault in Vegas and the only way to reach there is by going around the strip which has Deathclaws guarding it. When Maximus is asked by the Ghoul about the Cold fusion in his possession, he says that he will only submit it to Lucy who he believes will do good with it. The Ghoul mockingly looks at him and walks forward.
Inter-cut to the past where Cooper and Barbara are at House’s summit, we see Cooper meeting a woman called as representative Welch (Martha Kelly) in a bar. Cooper knows her as a politician who wishes to do good for the people. When Cooper explains to her about Vault-Tec’s futuristic plans, she asks him how much does he know about the company that put him on their billboards.
He answers that he is aware his wife is behind all this and she is going to surrender the Cold fusion to Robert House. When Cooper asks Welch what she’ll do with the Cold fusion, she says that she’ll give it to the public. Cooper knows how it’s being transported but as he is not confident about giving the Cold fusion to Welch, she promises to set him up a meeting with the president which Cooper agrees. Later in the episode, we see Cooper handing over the Cold fusion to the president after serious thought, believing he’s doing the right thing.
Having decided their destination, the Ghoul, Maximus and Thaddeus reach a warehouse which is filled with weaponry. The Ghoul shares some wisdom that he has long seen who comes out of top in Vegas and it is the people who have rigged the game. To defeat them, he says that they need to play it like them. He unveils a power armor and strikes a bargain with Maximus which ends in Max handing over the Cold fusion to the Ghoul and smiles, looking at the power armor.
Arriving at the Freeside, the three hatch a plan to fight off the Deathclaws. The Ghoul asks Thaddeus to take position of a sniper on a roof. With the creatures approaching them, the plan is for Max to get between the Ghoul and the Deathclaws. As he fights them, the Ghoul gets inside the now abandoned building where he met the real Robert House for the first time.
Taking blows initially, Max sneaks up on the creature and eventually decapitates it. The Ghoul enters Robert’s office where his consciousness spawns on the screen. The Ghoul stands there, remembering the moment he handed over the Cold fusion to the president which now fills him with regret.
In the Vault-Tec office where currently Lucy is, Hank’s brain-controlled workers are happily working on the devices. When Lucy asks what the devices do to people’s brains, Hank says that it erases their horrific memories and higher the intensity of the device goes, it strengthens a person’s amnesia and plants positive thoughts in their mind.
Lucy disapproves her father’s methods and says it should be stopped but Hank says the process is irreversible once it has begun and the only way to stop producing more devices is by destroying the mainframe which is in the basement. As Lucy and Hank visit the mainframe, Lucy runs into a worker who not long before tried to kill her, now obediently mopping the floor. Lucy is grappling with all these methods yet she can’t pull herself mentally to entirely dispute them. When she mentions that the Legion will try to kill all, Hank firmly says that he and Lucy can stop them together.
Later during that night, Lucy puts on a bright yellow dress and meets her father for dinner. As they are having dinner together, with Hank still handcuffed, a worker named as Biff who Lucy has met before arriving here, serves them water. When Lucy asks him if he remembers her, he says he does from this morning and not before, which makes Lucy realise that her father’s words about the devices erasing people’s bad memories may not be completely true.
Hank says that the NCR and Legion are all the same, fighting for power. When he burns himself in the kitchen while washing his hands, Lucy uncuffs him saying she finally understands him. When Hank starts to beam hearing this, Lucy puts the cuffs on him and spits out that she’s not an idiot to believe him anymore and takes his pip-boy, leaving him there. She proceeds to head down to the mainframe to put an end to all this. While she enters it, Representative Welch’s head is on a table, almost in a vegetative state, connected to the computers.
Episode 8 “The Strip”
The final episode of this season opens with two sides of the Legion battling against each other as Lacerta Legate (Macaulay Culkin) pulls a corpse into a tent and picks up a note in its hand. The note says, “I’m Caesar. I’m the Legion. It ends with me.” As he’s reading this, a soldier who’s standing beside him in the tent asks what the note contains.
Legate stabs him and eats the note to hide the evidence. He then leaves the tent with Caesar’s crown in his hand, with all the members chanting for him and claiming him as their new leader. Legate vows that his first order of business is to reclaim Vegas where they’ll build a palace for their empire which will be called as Caesar’s palace.
Cut to Vegas where the Ghoul is standing before House’s consciousness, the latter reminds him that even though he’s dead, the technology has kept him alive in this computer. Hearing this, the Ghoul loses his patience and points his gun at a diode of Cold fusion in his office, threatening to shoot at it. When he asks House about its repercussions, House says he’s unclear but warns him that its destructive force might extend to other planets as well.
The Ghoul strikes a deal that if he shows him the location of his family, he will not make the diode explode, which House agrees and advises the Ghoul to wear his pip-boy for showing him the way. As the Ghoul is walking the corridors, with the pip-boy version of House assisting him, House states that he rigged every part of the city to protect it but when it came to controlling the future, he himself was outclassed by an invisible adversary — the person who sent the Deathclaws to Vegas, and adds that one of their servants is still in this building.
After handing over the diode to the president, Cooper and his wife are celebrating at the airport on their way out of Vegas. They meet a young Hank and Stephanie (the same Stephanie who we see in the present as the overseer of Vault 32), who admit they are in love. Calls start ringing at multiple nearby telephone booths all at the same time suddenly.
As Cooper cautiously approaches a phone booth and picks up the receiver, Robert House speaks to him and says that he wants Cooper to know that it wasn’t him and there’s a bigger player at the table. Before Cooper could clarify further, he is surrounded by House Un-American Activities Committee waiting to arrest him. As Barbara stands helpless, Cooper is cuffed and he whispers to Barbara that he will take the fall, as he’s escorted away.
Back at the Vault-Tec office where Lucy is determined to put an end to her father’s endeavours, she is puzzled by seeing the head of Welch connected to the mainframe. When she nears it, the head starts to talk and Lucy realises that it’s alive. Welch’s head begs Lucy to kill it but Lucy is confused about honouring its demands.
She makes up her mind and hits it with a crowbar. Hank escapes from his clutches and discovers Lucy. He asks her why she did it and goes on to reveal that House wanted a world of machines and robots by erasing people’s memories to make them follow his orders.
Hank mentions that it lacks finesse and he’s trying to add his touch to House’s dreams. When Lucy asks him what that is, he says miniaturization is his end-game, which will enable a world where it will be hard to distinguish between who’s controlled and who’s not. Hearing this, Lucy calls him reckless. Hank has a finger-nail sized miniscule brain-controlling device on his hand and one of his workers emerges and holds down Lucy to inject her with the device.
Out of nowhere, a knife hits the back of Hank’s helper which kills him and Hank is also shot in the leg. It is none other than the Ghoul who has come searching for his family, following House’s pip-boy. The Ghoul doesn’t take another shot at Hank but instead slides the gun to Lucy, allowing her to make her own choice. He then takes off to find his family on his own, almost signalling bid adieu with his gestures.
Cut to Maximus battling Deathclaws, people in the Freeside start betting on the fight’s outcomes rather than helping him. As he defeats one creature, another one charges at him and after a while, he comes out of his damaged armor which can only take so much hits. When he’s standing without an armored vest, another creature runs at him. It is shot mid-way and Max realises that Thaddeus has landed a bullet from the sniper.
When couple more of the monsters arrive, they are shot when they start marching forward. This time, it wasn’t Thaddeus. As Maximus looks over the area, soldiers of the new NCR have arrived, where one member approaches Maximus and says they’ll take it from here which Maximus is happy to accept. Maximus’ survival is less a victory than a reminder of how spectacle replaces solidarity in the wasteland.
Returning to Norm’s subplot, he is forcefully dragged across the floor by the other members as Claudia tries to fight them off. She is thrown aside hits a wall. But crackling sounds can be heard and it grows near an elevator in their floor. When the elevator door opens, there is nothing initially but as they are heaving a sigh, a giant roach pounces on one of the members.
A swarm of roaches bombard the floor, causing panic and wreaking havoc. Norm hides under a table but the other members get crowded into a room. Just when they are closing the door, a roach sneaks in which paves way for the herd. Later in the episode, when the dust has settled, Norm comes out from his hiding spot and enters the room where he witnesses all of the members lying dead except Claudia, who’s still holding on to life. Norm picks her up and together they leave the building.
At the Vaults where everyone is banging on Stephanie’s room, she picks up Hank’s old keepsakes and wears a pip-boy she finds inside. She turns it on, activating Enclave’s emergency frequency. She calls on the frequency and says that she’s Hank’s wife. Aware that they are always listening, she finally asks them to initiate “Phase two”. We cut to a faraway place which resembles to be the Enclave’s new headquarters. We can see people in coats walking the building, hinting they must be part of Vault-Tec’s secret vault for management. The camera lingers to a computer in a room where Stephanie’s request is received.
Lucy is still searching for closure with her father as she leads a limping Hank outside, having planted one of his miniature devices in his neck but not activated it yet. As Lucy feels emotional seeing her father like this, Hank states that this was Vault-Tec’s plan all along and shares that the Vaults were never the experiment but the surface was.
He further mentions that he’s already sent his own R&D department into the Wasteland with the newest model of the device. When he finishes his sentence, he pulls out a controller from his own pocket and presses a button, wiping his memory to a point where he can’t recognise Lucy anymore. He is hugged by his daughter with teary eyes.
After a while, she spots a familiar face from the Freeside. It is Maximus and they both hug, each restoring their sanities. Later during the episode, they visit House’s office where the Ghoul stood just a while before. The duo look out the window at Vegas, with Lucy saying to Maximus she could’ve prevented this. As Maximus takes her hand, the screen zooms out with House’s face resurfacing on the screen in his office.
The final closing moments involve the Ghoul having reached the destination of cryo-pods where his wife and daughter should be. As he asks House to open the containers, he finds that they are empty. House says to him that once again he has bet on hope and lost but the Ghoul finds a note under Barbara’s container, which reads “Colorado was a good idea.”
The Ghoul takes this as a sign of his hope not faded out completely and says that after a long period of 200 years, he knows now that his family is alive. He takes out the pip-boy and puts it down, remarking he doesn’t need it anymore. The Ghoul and Dogmeat head out once more, but this time to Colorado, as the credits roll behind them. All is not over still as during a post-credit scene showing Area 51, Quintus is sitting in agitation and lets out a statement that unifier Quintus is dead and destroyer Quintus is born.
Fallout (Season 2) Ending Explained
What does Phase two mean?
With a packed storyline coupled with thicker subplots, Fallout is undoubtedly one of the shows that has plenty of stuff it carries in each episode. But as far as this season is concerned, it doesn’t provide all the solutions nor ties the subplots neatly. Rather it just sets the stage for Season 3 which will pan out in a different geographical setting not explored in the first two seasons. The massive character arc of the Ghoul which is almost like a character study of a human who suffers the consequences of his choices, showcases the show’s bigger themes centred around hope, survival and love.
With tensions rising higher, truth about Vault-Tec’s masterplan should spill beyond the people in the Vaults. While Phase one was building Vaults and testing the radiation in the surface for repopulating the earth and creating civilization again, Phase two might be controlling the humans still alive, with Hank’s mind controlling devices on everyone’s neck. The season strongly suggests that Enclave may have been behind the wheel all along and they may already have a plan ahead figuring out ways to achieve their objectives.
Even when slowly pacing the narrative, Fallout Season 2 packs the punches, diving deep into each character’s backstories, showing us the moments which has led them to where they are now. With House not being the biggest player, the season clearly shows proof that the world is admittedly run by bureaucrats as monarchs, secretly carrying out their operations in almost a shadow form. An infatuation with brilliant scientists and ultra-wealthy businessmen has always been to remain immortal.
That the extreme end of science is denying what makes us human. Fallout takes that holy grail and effortlessly makes a mountain out of it. What could you possibly buy after you literally have the money to buy the world? This thought fuels the elite to go one step further and pick the impossible. The horror of Fallout isn’t nuclear fire — it’s management. The realization that the world didn’t end because no one was in charge, but because too many people were.
