Walton Goggins’ Fallout character is revealed as someone who lived through the original nuclear holocaust 200 years before the series begins. On the other hand, Ella Purnell’s Lucy was born in the safety of a Vault long after the bombs dropped, though is forced to the surface after a group of raiders kidnaps her father. Maximus starts the series as a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel – one of Fallout‘s primary factions – but becomes more independent, with all three characters’ eventually storylines overlapping in an explosive ending to Fallout season 1.
Where Hank Goes At The End Of Fallout Season 1
Hank Travels To New Vegas
After learning the truth about her father in Fallout season 1’s ending, Lucy is naturally distraught. Hank then steals a suit of power armor from Maximus before using it to fly away, begging the question of where he ended up. The location of Hank’s exodus is shown as the final shot of Fallout season 1, hinting that the city has massive implications on the world of the Fallout games, as well as the potential story of Fallout season 2.
The city that Hank overlooks in Fallout season 1’s ending is none other than New Vegas. New Vegas is a location that will be familiar to those who have played the Fallout games, as the city was the titular focal point in one the franchise’s most popular games – Fallout: New Vegas. The show’s New Vegas connection seems to be a huge setup for season 2, with the story likely taking place in this fresh location, adding new scenery and factions to the show. Most importantly, New Vegas’ inclusion in Prime Video’s Fallout is a massive part of the show’s – and Hank’s – season 1 ending.
What Is New Vegas In Fallout?
While the Fallout show’s connection to New Vegas is minimal, the video game franchise offers a lot of information about the location. In Fallout: New Vegas, a man named Robert House begins safeguarding Las Vegas from the possibility of nuclear warfare before the bombs drop. He uses various sentient robots and defense systems to protect the primary parts of Vegas, though is reliant on a piece of technology called the Platinum Chip to bolster the city’s protection completely. However, Robert House does not receive the chip in time, and the nuclear holocaust of the United States ensues.
Robert House makes a cameo in Fallout season 1, episode 8 as a member of Vault-Tec’s private council, played by Rafi Silver.
Waking up centuries later, House realizes that his primitive defenses managed to safeguard some areas of Vegas, though the city has been claimed by raiders and other denizens of the Wasteland. Eventually, House retakes New Vegas and forms it into a thriving city that retains the best parts of pre-war Las Vegas. This explains why the location remains such a popular tourist spot in the Wasteland, though Hank’s arrival there in Fallout season 1’s ending hints at more sinister forces at work in the city.
Hank MacLean’s Identity Twist In Fallout Explained
Hank MacLean Is A Vault-Tec Employee
Where Lucy MacLean is concerned, her primary goal throughout Fallout season 1 is finding her father, Hank. At the beginning of the show, Hank is taken from Vault 33 by a woman named Moldaver – known as Fallout‘s Flame Mother. Lucy spends all eight episodes tracking down Moldaver and Hank, leading to a climactic confrontation in Fallout season 1’s ending. In the heart of the New California Republic’s new base at Griffith Observatory, Lucy MacLean discovers that her father is not who he seems.
Hank, along with the other Vault-Tec employees, has been spending centuries working to instill Vault-Tec’s plans on Vaults 31, 32, and 33.
Lucy’s discovery about her father is tied to the investigations of Cooper Howard/The Ghoul from before the Fallout show’s nuclear apocalypse. The show edits together Lucy’s discoveries in the present and Cooper’s in the past, as it is revealed that Hank MacLean is a Vault-Tec employee. Hank, known also as Henry, worked with Cooper’s wife Barb before the nuclear bombs were dropped, and along with the other Vault-Tec employees, he has been spending centuries working to instill Vault-Tec’s plans on Vaults 31, 32, and 33, tying to Norm’s investigation in Fallout season 1’s ending too.
What’s Next For Lucy After Fallout Season 1’s Ending
Lucy Decided To Follow The Ghoul
In Fallout season 1’s ending, Lucy leaves with The Ghoul rather than staying with Maximus. Throughout Fallout season 1, Lucy and Maximus become closer and make plans to live together in Vault 33. However, after Maximus falls unconscious in the finale, Lucy tries to wake him to no avail. The Ghoul then offers Lucy the chance to travel with him, which Lucy reluctantly takes.
The primary reason for this is her search for answers, as despite having learned a lot about her father, she is still mostly in the dark as of Fallout season 1’s ending, with The Ghoul’s own plans promising answers to her questions.
Why The Ghoul Is Following Hank
The Ghoul’s story takes an unexpected turn towards the finale, as the show reveals he is searching for his family. Fallout season 1 highlighted that The Ghoul used to be Cooper Howard, an actor in 2070s Los Angeles. Cooper’s wife, Barb, worked for Vault-Tec with Hank, which explains The Ghoul’s search in Fallout season 1. At the end of Fallout season 1, The Ghoul/Cooper asked Hank where his family was, but he doesn’tt find out, leading to his search for Hank’s boss and the basis of his quest in Fallout season 2’s story.
What Happened To Lucy’s Mom In Fallout
Rose MacLean Turned Into A Feral Ghoul
While much of Fallout season 1’s story surrounds the mystery of Lucy’s father, its ending includes an equally important reveal about her mother, Rose MacLean. Lucy was told since she was young that her mother died of illness and was buried, though it is unveiled in Fallout season 1’s ending that this was not the case. In reality, Rose discovered that people were living on the surface and took Lucy, along with her infant brother Norm, out of Vault 33. Rose met Moldaver and began living in the city of Shady Sands.
Main Fallout Games
Release Year
Fallout
1997
Fallout 2
1998
Fallout 3
2008
Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout 4
2015
Fallout 76
2018
Another reveal in Fallout season 1 was that Shady Sands was destroyed by a bomb dropped from an unknown source. In the finale of the show, it was uncovered that Rose was affected by the blast, becoming an essentially mindless ghoul. Lucy realizes this by seeing the ghoul in Moldaver’s compound wearing Rose’s necklace, eventually shooting her own mother to put Rose out of her misery.
Why Hank Destroyed Shady Sands
Hank’s involvement in Fallout season 1’s ending does not stop with his Vault-Tec plans, but links to Rose too. Moldaver tells Lucy that it was Hank/Vault-Tec who destroyed Shady Sands, killing Rose and many other people living in the city. Hank destroyed the town due to his devotion to Vault-Tec’s plans. Vault-Tec holds the ideal that surface-dwellers are incapable of peace, and live nothing but a violent lifestyle. Hank did not want that life for his children, thus destroying Shady Sands and returning them to Vault 33.
Maximus’ New Role With The Brotherhood With Steel Explained
Maximus Is Now Known As “Knight Maximus”
As alluded to, Lucy left Maximus behind in the base of the New California Republic. Maximus is found by his comrades in Fallout‘s Brotherhood of Steel, with the dead body of Moldaver beside him. Due to his apparent valor in the battle symbolized by his killing of Moldaver, Maximus is dubbed Knight Maximus, moving him up from the squire he was before. This will seemingly give him more power in the Brotherhood of Steel going forward, hinting at big story potential for Fallout season 2.
Moldaver was injured in the battle at Griffith Observatory and succumbed to her wounds; Maximus did not kill her as the Brotherhood believes.
With Maximus ending the season as a hero in the eyes of the Brotherhood, he will likely spend more time with the group in season 2, although his ultimate goal will be to find Lucy. Given he doesn’t truly want to be a part of the Brotherhood due to his relationship with Ella Purnell’s character, his new role as Knight Maximus creates a lot of potential drama going forward.
Moldaver’s Fallout Plan Explained
Moldaver Needed Dr. Wilzig’s Head
Image via Prime Video
For much of Fallout season 1, Moldaver is presented as the show’s primary villain. She is the subject of all three storylines between Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul, though Fallout season 1’s ending completely reverses her role. In the finale of the show, Moldaver is revealed as more of a compelling hero, one who simply wants what is best for the people of the wasteland. These motivations tie into Dr. Wikzig and the head that Fallout season 1’s characters endlessly search for.
Wilzig’s head contains a small capsule that can create cold fusion when activated by a Vault-Tec employee.
Wilzig’s head contains a small capsule that can create cold fusion when activated by a Vault-Tec employee. In the world of Fallout‘s more advanced nuclear science, cold fusion is a form of near-limitless energy, and Moldaver required Wilzig’s head to active it, whuch would allow her to provide power back to the New California Republic. The New California Republic is the faction of Fallout run by Moldaver that inhabits much of the state and opposes those at Vault-Tec who wish to rule the wasteland themselves. By restoring power, Moldaver hoped to help the NCR by making the wasteland more hospitable for everyone.
What Is In Vault 31? Vault-Tec’s Secrets & Management Plan Explained
Vault-Tec Embraced Bud’s Buds Plan
Regarding Vault-Tec, the organization’s plans are also shown during Fallout season 1’s ending. Through a triple-pronged reveal, Vault-Tec’s sinister goals come to the forefront thanks to Lucy’s discoveries, the investigation of Norm back in Vault 31, and the history of Cooper’s life before the bombs dropped. The latter storyline reveals that Vault-Tec management had plans to create a so-called “true monopoly” by embracing a plan called Bud’s Buds, created by Bud Askins – a high-ranking member of Vault-Tec management.
Bud’s Buds refers to Vault-Tec management being frozen in Vault 31 with Bud’s robot brain overseeing operations.
Bud Askins was shown at length in Fallout season 1’s flashbacks, often dumping a lot of corporate talk on Cooper, who remains uninterested. However, his words hold the keys to the plans of Vault-Tec management. Bud mentions that time is the one true way any organization can overcome its rivals and that Bud’s Buds will allow Vault-Tec management to continue their work centuries into the future. As Norm discovers, Bud’s Buds refers to Vault-Tec management being frozen in Vault 31 with Bud’s robot brain overseeing operations.
How Vault 31 Connected To Vault 32 & 33
Bud’s Buds and the plans of Vault-Tec management explain how Vaults 31, 32, and 33 are connected. The Fallout show has many Vaults, as do the video games, though Vault-Tec management was only concerned about the aforementioned three. As per the plans of Vault-Tec management explored in Fallout season 1’s ending, Vault 31 was filled with employees of Vault-Tec who are preserved in life pods. Every so often, these employees would be awakened and sent to Vaults 32 and 33 to breed with their inhabitants, building a community that company management could shape themselves.
In committing to these plans, Vault-Tec management would create a utopia in their own image, filled with seemingly peace-loving optimists. Eventually, the plan was to have these communities go up to the surface once everyone above ground had died to rebuild a society shaped entirely by the organization. This explains why Hank destroyed Shady Sands, and why Barb wanted Vault-Tec to spark a nuclear war.
It is still unclear what became of Barb, though Cooper continues to search for her as The Ghoul regardless.
In destroying the world above ground, Vault-Tec management constructed communities that they hoped would be the sole power of the world, which Norm’s investigation helps uncover. Norm enters Vault 31 in Fallout season 1’s ending and discovers the pods filled with Vault-Tec management, just as Lucy also learns the truth from Hank and Moldaver. As it turns out, Vault-Tec’s plans serve as the villainous presence in Fallout season 1 due to their murderous, tyrannical methods of assuring Vault-Tec management controls a so-called peaceful world.
Matt Berry’s Mr. Handy Robot In Fallout Explained
How Mr. Handy Compares To The Fallout Video Game Version
One cameo hidden in Fallout season 1 comes from Matt Berry of What We Do in the Shadows. In the show, Berry is shown to be an actor friend of Cooper Howard, who took a job voicing Mr. Handy robots. In the world of Fallout, Mr. Handy robots are mainstays in most homes, designed to do menial tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and other household-related chores. A version of a Mr. Handy robot – named Snip Snip – appears in Fallout episode 4 as a servant of two surface-dwellers who sell drugs and other things that can help people survive the wasteland in return for organs.
While most Mr. Handy versions in the Fallout games are benevolent, there is one variant called Mister Torturer that does exactly what the name implies. This appears to be the type of Mr. Handy that Lucy encounters in Fallout episode 4, who attempts to harvest her organs. For the most part, the still-polite nature of Berry’s Mr. Handy robot in the Fallout TV show matches what is seen of them in the games, making it a fairly accurate representation.
How Bartholomew Codsworth Connects To Mr. Handy
The basis of most Mr. Handy robots, including Fallout 4 ‘s Codsworth, was a character from Matt Berry’s Sebastian Leslie.
Based on the dialog between Cooper and Sebastian, it seems as though Bartholomew Codsworth was a character the latter played in a movie. Sebastian mentions that RobCo, the company owned by Fallout: New Vegas’ Robert House, bought the studio he made that film under. As such, the basis of most Mr. Handy robots, including Fallout 4‘s Codsworth, was a character from Matt Berry’s Sebastian Leslie.
How Fallout Season 1’s Ending Sets Up Season 2
What To Expect In Fallout Season 2
The foundation for a continuation has been laid out now that Fallout season 2 is officially confirmed, and the three main characters each have their future stories set up. Beginning with Maximus, he is now a knight of the Brotherhood of Steel, which has access to the NCR’s cold fusion. Moldaver’s death and the invasion of the Brotherhood means the latter organization has access to the power they desired throughout season 1, potentially positioning them as a major threat in Fallout season 2 with Maximus on the inside.
Norm was told that the only way for him to survive in Vault 31 is to enter his father’s stasis pod.
Lucy and The Ghoul’s Fallout season 2 story has also been established. Both are seeking out the leaders of Vault-Tec, who are heavily implied to be linked to the Fallout location of New Vegas, as evidenced by Hank’s whereabouts at the end of Fallout season 1. These elements, combined with Norm being seemingly trapped in Vault 31 amid Vault-Tec’s continuing plans, mean Fallout season 1’s ending established a variety of compelling plot points for a continuation of the show.
What Fallout Creators Have Said About Season 1’s Ending
The Creator’s Have Offered Plenty Of Insight About The Meaning Of Fallout Season 1’s Finale
With Fallout season 2 officially in the works, the show’s producers are already focusing on the next installment, but they have also offered an insight into season 1’s ending. While there are a lot of talking points to unpack regarding season 1, showrunners, Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet commented specifically on Lucy’s decision to go with The Ghoul during Fallout season 1’s finale. The duo mentioned that the scene was very much open to audience interpretation, but Robertson-Dworet claimed:
What exactly her precise motive is is something we’re very excited to dive into more in season two, but I wouldn’t ever underestimate Lucy’s curiosity as something that’s motivating her deep down.
Although neither showrunner revealed Lucy’s exact motive, they all but confirmed it would be explored in season 2 and alluded to Lucy’s curiosity being a big factor in finding out more about the Wasteland. The duo also commented on Fallout‘s New Vegas tease for season 2, with Wagner claiming:
With that post-credits stuff, we really wanted to imply, Guys, the world has progressed, and the idea that the wasteland stays as it is decade-to-decade is preposterous to us. It’s just a place [of] constant tragedy, events, horrors — there’s a constant churn of trauma. We’re definitely implying more has occurred.
Wagner’s comments indicate that Fallout‘s world may change significantly in season 2, especially if the show is heading to the New Vegas setting. Even though season 2 is likely to take place shortly after the first season’s finale, the landscape, environments, and people are always changing, making the next installment even more intriguing. Naturally, Wagner and Robertson-Dworet haven’t given much away about what season 1’s ending all means, but every little tease and bit of insight makes Fallout season 2 that much more exciting.
