Fallout's Shocking Cliffhanger Ending Perfectly Sets Up Season 2
Everything you need to know about where the series is going next, and the new villain hiding in plain sight.
Calling the ending of Fallout shocking is an understatement. Because the series is so separate from the games, there was no telling where it would end up, but not even the wildest speculation could truly reveal the secret of Vault 31, Vault-Tec’s true purpose of the vaults altogether, and where the series will go in Season 2. Believe it or not, we may have already met the big villain of the next season — but only briefly.
Here’s everything you need to know about the many reveals in the show’s finale.
Warning! Major spoilers for Fallout Episode 8 ahead!
Fallout’s Ending, Explained
Lucy turns against her own father.
Fallout follows Lucy (Ella Purnell) as she embarks on this massive adventure to find her father (Kyle MacLachlan) after he was captured by Lee Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury). But once she arrives at the Griffith Observatory, she learns the truth about who he really is. Before he was a vault overseer, Hank was Henry, a young executive assistant at Vault-Tec. In flashbacks, we see him nervously ask Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) for his autograph.
He was held in cryogenic suspension within Vault 31 and only brought back to life to take over Vault 33 and ensure the vault’s survival no matter what — even if that meant blowing up Shady Sands, the idyllic community where Lucy’s mother briefly brought her as a child.
By the end of the series, Lucy can’t even see Hank as her father anymore. Now, he’s a representative of Vault-Tec’s evil she’s had to come to terms with over the show. Vault-Tec’s ultimate goal is to create an entire civilization overseen by a corporation, and he’s the result of that. He’s the reason her mother is now a decomposing ghoul, he’s the reason Maximus had his entire life destroyed as a child, and he’s the reason she was brainwashed.
Thankfully, Hank acquiesces enough to activate the cold fusion for Moldaver, securing power for the New California Republic, but he also manages to steal Maximus’ power armor and jet off into the distance. But where is he headed next?
What Is New Vegas?
Mr. House as briefly seen in Fallout Episode 8’s flashbacks.
When Hank flies off into the sunset, we do eventually see where he ends up — a town called New Vegas, the setting of the 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas. However, it’s worth remembering that this show is set after New Vegas, so the likely second season won’t be a full adaptation of the game. Instead, we’ll see what happened to the city in the years afterward.
New Vegas followed a fight for control between the New California Republic, a Romanesque army called Caesar’s Legion, and Mr. House, the CEO of RobCo, one of Vault-Tec’s competitors-turned-allies. All three were seeking the power source of the Hoover Dam, but who won out is dependent on player choice.
Considering how the NCR is on the hunt for the cold fusion secret to gain power, and how Caesar’s Legion isn’t even mentioned, it looks like in this continuity, the House always wins.
This is all-but-confirmed by the fact we actually get a glimpse of Mr. House in the finale. In the flashback sequence between Cooper’s wife Barb and representatives from all the other big tech companies, Mr. House is shown with his trademark cigar. “You can hide rats in a nest for a long time,” he says of the Vault proposal, “they’ll just end up eating each other.”
He’s the only other one of these executives who is given any semblance of personality, so it’s likely he will return in Season 2.
Where Do Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul End Up?
Cooper Howard, now known as The Ghoul, is looking to talk to the people behind the vaults he helped sell.
Fallout follows the same three characters throughout the entire show in different combinations, but by the end of the show, all three of them are in the Griffith Observatory, although Hank quickly knocks out Maximus (Aaron Moten) using the power armor. The Ghoul (Goggins) tells Lucy that her entire worldview was a lie told to her by her father, and offers her a choice: stay there with the Brotherhood of Steel and probably be offed, or follow him and “meet her makers” in New Vegas.
Lucy says goodbye to the unconscious Maximus, promising to find him, and leaves with The Ghoul. Maximus wakes up, and when the Brotherhood finds him with Molvander, hails him as a hero. However, the victory is empty for him, as he’s now torn from the woman he grew to love.
So heading into the probable second season, the main trio is split up once again. But with the action moving across state lines to New Vegas, that’s sure to change soon.
