TAGGED AS: Prime Video, Sci-Fi, streaming, TV, Video Games
[Warning: Spoilers for Fallout: Season 2 Follow]
The first season of Fallout introduced a unique post apocalyptic world with a retrofuturistic aesthetic and a dark sense of humor, a world that didn’t follow any particular game but rather told a brand new story set in the world of the games. Season 2 took a slightly different approach, diving deep into the specific setting of the game Fallout: New Vegas. We saw the major factions of that game, its villains, and its locations.
The season focused on three storylines. Lucy (Ella Purnell) continued her quest to bring her father to justice, Maximus (Aaron Moten) struggled with the Brotherhood of Steel’s ideals, and the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) searched for his wife and daughter. The storylines intersected when all three ultimately met in New Vegas, where Lucy put a stop to her dad’s mind control chip operation, Maximus saved the town of Freeside from a bunch of monsters, and the Ghoul discovered the location of his family. We ended the season with a war about to break out between Caesar’s Legion and the New California Republic for control of New Vegas, while the Ghoul headed to Colorado to find his wife and daughter.
While we wait for the confirmed return of Fallout in a third season, we have a few thoughts on where the show could go, based on the finale and the games. Granted, the series isn’t exactly adapting any one particular game in the franchise, but we have enough hints to know what locations, and what giant robots, may appear. Get your power armor ready and beware the deathclaws, because we’ll explore what we can expect from Fallout: Season 2.
The first season took place in the greater Los Angeles area, while the second took us to the Mojave desert and New Vegas. In the finale, however, Ghoul learns his family is in Colorado and begins heading east. Based on the fact that we leave the season with New Vegas about to be engulfed in a war between the New California Republic and Caesar’s Legion, it is safe to assume we’ll see more of the city in the next season.
Colorado, however, is an interesting choice. None of the Fallout games brings us to Colorado, but we know that the state is overrun by Caesar’s Legion forces. That being said, there are non-canon Fallout games that prominently feature Colorado, which the TV adaptation could bring onto the screen.
Season 2 ended with the New California Republic about to start a war with Caesar’s Legion for control of New Vegas, so it’s likely this will play a big role in season 3. Then there’s the Brotherhood of Steel, which seems to be enmbroiled in a civil war between its West Coast chapter and its East Coast counterpart, which will allow the show to explore the faction in more depth.
Then there’s the Enclave, the enigmatic faction that’s becoming more and more prominent in the show’s story. The Enclave are the remnants of the pre-war deep state government, who continue to have nefarious plans even after the nuclear apocalypse. With the Ghoul heading on a journey to find his family at the Enclave’s secret vault, we can expect to see more of this villainous faction and all the horrors they’ve kept hidden for centuries.
Season 2 showed another of the most iconic creatures in the games. No, not the deathclaw, but the super mutant. These are humans who were exposed to the Forced Evolutionary Virus, resulting in hulking mutants with incredible strength and various degrees of intelligence.
In season 2 of Fallout, we meet a super mutant played by Ron Perlman who warns The Ghoul of an upcoming war between the Enclave and ghouls and mutants. “They drove us to the point of extinction and forgot we even existed,” he says. The mutant also says that the Enclave are responsible for everything. We don’t know exactly what this means, but that’s for season 3 to explore.
The first season of Fallout ended with a tease of its most dangerous nuclear wasteland creature, the deathclaw. We finally saw this terrifying mutant monster in season 2, and it was spectacular. Then, the season ended with yet another tease for a huge element of the games; this time it was Liberty Prime.
Liberty Prime is a giant robot created before the Great War that can only speak in anti-communist propaganda lines. He is incredibly strong and absolutely hilarious, but tends to break easily in the games. Interestingly, the games show the East Coast branch of the Brotherhood of Steel have previously activated Liberty Prime, so it remains to be seen whether the one teased in season 2 is that same one rebuilt or another.
The show doesn’t really adapt any of the games 1-to-1, but it does pull inspiration from them. With at least the Ghoul storyline going to the East Coast, we could see Fallout: Season 3 pull from Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, but there is another option — Van Buren.
This is the codename Black Isle Studios assigned to their second attempt at making what would eventually become Fallout 3. Van Buren was supposed to take place in Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. There is also the possibility that Fallout: Season 3 might canonize some events from Fallout Tactics, a turn-based tactical game from 2001 that is technically not considered canon. In that game we see Vault 0, the nucleus of the Vault network, which is located in the Cheyenne Mountains. It’s possible that Vault will be retconned as part of the Enclave in the show, and the place where the Ghoul’s family is located. In any case, it is clear there’s still a lot of Fallout to see.
Fallout: Season 2 is currently available to stream on Prime Video.
Thumbnail image by Prime Video
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