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Another adventure into the wasteland is over, and while war never changes, Amazon Prime’sFalloutseries has brought new fans and new ideas to post-apocalyptic America. Whether this was your first foray into the universe or just the most recent, you may have some questions about how season one ended.
The Ghoul, Lucy ‘Goosey’ MacLean, and Maximus all had their own goals, and while we might have to wait for later seasons for those goals to come to fruition, their actions have already altered the West Coast. Regardless of who you were rooting for, let’s see how they fared at the end of season one.
Spoilers for the first season of Fallout, and some potential spoilers for the earlier Fallout games as well.
What Happens At The End Of Fallout Season One?
Converging Paths
The last episode focuses heavily on Lucy and her journey;she is separated from everyone but victoriously returns the cold fusion technologyto Moldaver and her raiders.
Revered by those survivors of Shady Sands in Vault 4 as the Flame Mother, the first season’s deadly raider boss wasn’t all that she seemed in the end. She wasmore powerful than anyone imagined.
What was unexpected though, was the reveal thatshe was actually alive long before the bombs dropped. All of this is revealed as Lucy enters the observatory Moldaver uses as a base. Arguably though, the biggest twist was revealed about Lucy’s parents.
A Nuclear Family
Lucy’s father,Hank, is revealed by Moldaver to have also been alive pre-waras part ofthe Vault Tec ideato maintain a steady supply of well-adjusted overseers for the trio of vaults (31, 32, and 33).
All of this is discussed in part by Moldaver as she has Hank held captive in a large cage, and backed up by Norm, who takes it upon himself to go and explore Vault 31.Norm is trapped in Vault 31by the brain-robot of Bud Askins as he can’t let Norm leak the secret of the three vaults.
Lucy, though, gets the opportunity to confront her dad about not only being alive for hundreds of years, but alsoHank dropping the nuke on Shady Sands as retaliation for Lucy’s mother stealing her away from the vault.
Moldaver drives this point home byidentifying the ghoul that is shackled to a table nearby, which so happens to beLucy’s mother, turned feral after the nuclear blast.
She had been a close friend of Moldaver, whose loss also propelled her to attack the Vaults at the beginning of the show.
Moldaver takes a moment for this all to sink in for Lucy, attachingthe cold fusion techto the machinery of the observatory.
Fans of the Fallout universe will know thatit’s no secret that anything the Brotherhood and the Enclave tussle over is usually impressive tech. The cold fusion is definitely no exception.
Downtown Los Angeles lights upas power surges through the long-dormant electric system. They are unfortunately interrupted from there asthe Brotherhood of Steel takes the opportunity to attack the observatory.
It’s a gruesome battle. There is a clearpower difference between the NCR/raider remnants and the BoS.
It shows the theme of the series and universe as a whole — “war never changes” — asboth sides are fighting over their own idealstowards technology that could be used for the better of the survivors.
The Ghoul’s Quick Shooting
The Ghoul shows just how he survived so long after the bombs dropped and how he becameone of the most sought after bounty hunters in the post-apocalyptic southwest.
He effortlessly takes on a handful of Brotherhood combatants, using his history as a veteran of Anchorage to target weak spots in the T-60 power armor the knights wear.
At the end of the final episode, he faces off against Moldaver,realizing she is indeed the Ms. Williams before the war, and instantly questions where his wife and kids are.
This is an interesting, yet subtle twist, as we sawhis strained relationship with his wife in the end, and him potentially saving his daughter in the first episode.
Does this mean thatthe rest of his family did indeed survive the bombs falling?Regardless of if his hopes are founded or not, we are sure to see more of his gunslinging and bad-mouthing style as he teams up with Lucy in the future.
As a ‘communist’ leader, Moldaver sought to uncover the horrible experiments and apocalyptic plans that Vault Tec had for the world.How she survived for so longmay still be a mystery, buther goals were obviously enough to propel her for years.
Her final fight at the Griffith Observatory definitely raised more questions than it answered, andher NCR remnants made for quite an imposing force with their machine guns and anti-air rockets, but they were still no match for the Brotherhood of Steel’s power armored knights and paladins.
This was a shock for fans of Fallout: New Vegas, consideringhow imposing of an army the NCR was, and how often it felt like the Brotherhood’s grip on the West Coast and Mojave was weakening.
Final Goodbyes?
We don’t get a lot about Maximus in the end, as the focus shifts towards Lucy and her family, but the end of his season one plot does mark a big change for the fledgling knight.
He stands around the rest of the Brotherhood assault crew as theyshower him with praise for being the one to bring the cold fusion tech into BoS hands.
At the end of the fight,the Brotherhood ultimately gains control of the observatory and the reactor. Will they use it for the betterment of LA and humanity? Doubtful.
Meanwhile, Lucy and The Ghoul team up once again,this time aligned against the same people, and are left alone to travel the wastes hunting down those who have altered their lives forever.
What Will Maximus Do?
The series shows time and time againhow much the Brotherhood focuses on the containment of technology like the cold fusion drive, often high above other personal flaws.
Surely the technology that effortlessly powered-up LA would be more than enough to propel Maximus' career in the Brotherhood?
His work for the cause has already beenmore than enough to have the elders forget about any previous issues that they had with him. Is he looking at a promotion in season two? Maybe even well above Knight?
Regardless, he does seemsullen about being separated from Lucy. How these changes will affect him is yet to be seen, but his development from scheming Scribe all the way to a key member of the West Coast Brotherhood has been an interesting one, in spite of the connections he’s made with other people outside the militaristic group.
Is Thaddeus A Ghoul?
Another lingering question isthat of Thaddeus. Maximus' scribe somehowhad his foot healed by the Snakeoil Salesman’s concoction, and alsosurvived an arrow to the neck with no serious problems.
There are some hints as to what this could be, with some guesses leading to the FEV or some sort of ghoulification serum. Regardless, itkept Thaddeus alive despite wounds that would have been easily fatal.
Whether or not he will still be accepted by the Brotherhood is uncertain, but regardless, he may bethe key to a new advancement in post-war ‘medicine.’
Where Is Hank Going?
Hank has been a pretty dynamic character in the first season despite not having a lot of screen time.
At the very end of the last episode, having stolen some Brotherhood power armor andsurviving a grazing pistol shot to the face, he walks towards the wastelandstill intent on achieving whatever goals he still has for himselfafter his capture and resulting defeat at the observatory.
Returning to the vaults doesn’t seem his goal though, there is a brief scene ofhim at the top of a hill with the infamous New Vegas in the backgroundand a deathclaw skull in the sands nearby.
This meanshe is moving east away from the coast. There are a handful of vaults in and around the New Vegas Strip, but whether that’s his goal is still a mystery.
What Does The Credits Scene Mean?
The credits scene in the last episode shows the camera slowly moving throughsome sepia-tinted scenery. Interestingly, though, the final episode’s credits scene was not of LA or the surrounding wasteland, butinstead of the New Vegas Strip.
Surprisingly, it was not the bustle and debauchery that fans of the series would have expected of the Strip. Instead,it looks like a battle had occurred across New Vegasproper with a crashed vertibird and the Strip in a sense of disarray.
This doesn’t bode well for the rest of the protagonists' journey, withhints of power once again shifting in the Mojave, and confirmation thatdeathclaws will be an issuein the next season.
New Vegas fans have voiced their concerns, as they’re wonderinghow much of their choices in the game really mattered if New Vegas has been destroyed or abandoned.
Todd Howard has said thatSeason Two won’t make any of the New Vegas endings canon or non-canon, but how they plan to do that, even indefinitely, is unknown.
Unfortunately, we will have to wait and see how the Mojave treats the show’s cast, but withthe NCR all but gone, the Brotherhood gaining power, and the potential of Caeser’s Legion or any of the other factions of New Vegas still hanging around, it will be sure to be a wild ride as the show continues.
