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Everything You Need to Know Before Watching Fallout Season 2
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Fallout
Everything You Need to Know Before Watching Fallout Season 2
It’s the end of the world as we know it. Also, Fallout is returning. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Season 2.
By Matthew Byrd
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Published on December 12, 2025
Credit: Amazon Prime Video
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Credit: Amazon Prime Video
The first season of Amazon Prime’s Fallout series proved to be one of the most surprising video game TV shows so far. It was never going to be easy to adapt the Fallout games. Known for their deep lore that revolves around the various factions competing for dominance in a post-apocalyptic wasteland built around Americana philosophies and advanced retrofuturistic technology, those games can be… a lot to take in. However, showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner (as well as executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy) have done a remarkable job of adapting that world to a new medium and assembling one of the best casts on television in the process.
Yet, the Fallout TV series remains… a lot to take in. So much so, in fact, that there is a good chance that you’ve already forgotten what exactly happened in the show’s first season, even if you remember many of the broad strokes. With that in mind, here’s a (hopefully) helpful breakdown of nearly everything you need to remember before starting Fallout season two on December 17.
Who Caused the Apocalypse & Why
Credit: Amazon Prime
We all have theories about what will cause the end of the world. My guess? Pigeons. They ain’t strutting over nothing.
But we eventually learn that Fallout’s apocalypse was caused by a group of executives associated with the Vault-Tec corporation. Well, at least they played a significant hand. On October 23, 2077, Vault-Tec executives and other corporate associates (including Hank MacLean, Barb Howard, and Robert House) approved of the bombing of several American cities to prevent a peace deal from ending the environment of fear they profited from. For what it’s worth, some speculate that the Vault-Tec executives only allowed the bombings to occur rather than dropped the nukes themselves. Regardless, the United States seemingly blamed China, the U.S. retaliated, and the world effectively ended.
Interestingly, this revelation represents a bit of a deviation from Fallout’s video game lore. “Who dropped the bombs?” has long been one of the big, intentionally unanswerable questions in the Fallout games. While there were always theories Vault-Tec was one of the culprits (and other theories that suggest Vault-Tec played a less direct role in nuclear attacks we see in the show than what the series implies), the decision to suggest a definitive origin to the apocalypse is one of the show’s biggest and most controversial alterations so far.
The True Purpose of the Vaults
Credit: Amazon Prime
We later learn that the Vault-Tec vaults aren’t primarily intended to save people. Most were designed to be elaborate social experiments. While we’ve seen few of those vaults in the show so far, much of the series revolves around the experiments conducted in Vaults 31, 32, and 33.
Skipping ahead a bit, we eventually learn that Vault 31 is filled with what are referred to as Bud’s Buds: cryogenically frozen Vault-Tec executives and associates hand-chosen by Vault-Tec Vice President Bud Askins to repopulate and rule the world. Vault 32 and 33, meanwhile, are essentially elaborate breeding facilities for those executives. The executives are periodically unfrozen and elected to lead those vaults to create what Bud believes will be a new generation of superior global leaders.
The residents of Vault 32 and 33 were largely unaware of this arrangement for quite some time (save for the aforementioned Vault-Tec employees). They essentially live the life presented in Vault-Tec propaganda. That dynamic changed when the residents of Vault 32 learned the truth and revolted. Their revolution failed, and the vault residents were murdered. The vault fell into a state of ruin when an outsider named Lee Moldaver managed to lead a team of raiders into it, pose as the vault’s residents, and take the place over.
Lucy MacLean Leaves Vault 33
Credit: Amazon Prime
Shortly before the start of the show, Hank MacLean is unfrozen and chosen to lead Vault 33. He eventually marries a Vault 33 resident named Rose and has two kids: a son named Norm and a daughter named Lucy. Hank told the kids that their mother later died during a plague. The show properly begins in the year 2296 (about nine years after the events of the last chronological Fallout game, Fallout 4) with Lucy’s arranged marriage to a Vault 32 resident named Monty.
To put it lightly, Lucy’s arranged marriage to Monty does not go well. The Vault 32 raiders reveal their deception during an attack shortly after Lucy’s wedding. The attack results in the deaths of various vault dwellers and raiders as well as the abduction of Lucy’s father. Lucy’s training helps her survive the attack. Unaware of her father’s true nature, Lucy ignores the Vault leaders’ orders and leaves Vault 33 to track her father across the wasteland.
Lucy soon learns that the outside world isn’t quite as desolate as she envisioned, though the pockets of civilization that remain largely consist of desperate survivors, monsters, and humans turned into “ghouls” by years of radiation exposure. Lucy interacts with several of those wasteland wanderers during her travels, though there are three worth highlighting.
The first is a scientist named Siggi Wilzig who tries to convince Lucy to return to Vault 33. Ignoring his warnings, Lucy later encounters Wilzig in a settlement called Filly, where he is attacked by a bounty hunter known simply as The Ghoul. With the help of a Brotherhood of Steel soldier named Maximus, Lucy survives the Ghoul’s attack and escorts Wilzig out of town.
However, Wilzig has been mortally wounded and makes a rather odd dying request to Lucy. He wants her to cut off his head. Why? Well, Wilzig was a scientist for The Enclave: a formerly powerful group that used ancient technology to tighten its grip on the wanderers of the wasteland. We later learn that Wilzig escaped an Enclave facility with research into a kind of cold fusion technology that could, among other things, power the wasteland once more. His head contains a device that could enable the use of that technology. Wilzig wants his head (and the device) delivered to Lee Moldaver. Yes, the same Lee Moldaver who kidnapped Lucy’s father.
Before we get to that, you need to know a bit more about the other two figures Lucy encountered in Filly: The Ghoul and Maximus.
A Ghoul By Any Other Name
Credit: Amazon Prime
Through a series of flashbacks and exposition sequences that make up quite a bit of the show, we eventually learn that The Ghoul’s real name is Cooper Howard. Before the nuclear bombs went off, Howard was a famous actor primarily known for his work in westerns. His life took an unexpected (though lucrative) turn when he began appearing in Vault-Tec propaganda promotional pieces. Why the shift? Well, it was largely orchestrated at the behest of his wife, Barb. Yes, the same Barb Howard who helped arrange the attack on the United States.
Cooper only learned the truth about Barb (or some of it) shortly before the bombs dropped. During that attack, Howard lost track of both Barb and their daughter, Janey. Afterwards, he turned into a ghoul. Cooper begins taking on work as a bounty hunter to acquire rare doses of a serum that will prevent him from turning feral and losing all sense of himself. He gradually earns a reputation as one of the most feared figures in the wasteland.
Eventually, The Ghoul is tasked with hunting down Siggi Wilzig. That job, and subsequent encounter with Lucy, begin a new chapter for The Ghoul’s life (or what remains of it).
Maximus & the Brotherhood of Steel
Credit: Amazon Prime
As for Maximus, he’s a squire in the Brotherhood of Steel: a paramilitary group that utilizes advanced technology to operate as morally ambiguous peacekeepers in the wasteland. They will help other, non-mutated humans, though they tend to keep most of the real power to themselves. Maximus (his real name is unknown) joined the Brotherhood when his hometown of Shady Sands was destroyed by a nuclear explosion when he was just a child.
Things didn’t get much better for Maximus from there. He’s regularly mistreated by the other members of the Brotherhood and only becomes a squire through suspicious circumstances involving the injury of another Brotherhood member.
Maximus undergoes various humiliations while squiring for a Brotherhood Knight named Titus on a mission to find and retrieve the runaway scientist Siggi Wilzig. However, fate takes a strange turn when Titus is killed by a mutated bear known as a Yao Guai. Opting to further his deception, Maximus steals Titus’ power armor, effectively assumes his identity, and continues the mission to find Wilzig in the hopes that retrieving him will win the favor of the Brotherhood.
Lucy, The Ghoul, and Maximus Unite Over a MacGuffin
Credit: Amazon Prime
Lucy, The Ghoul, and Maximus’ roads all wind in, out, and around each other after Lucy acquires Wilzig’s head. Quite a few things happen to each and all of them after that moment, buy here’s a brief breakdown of the need-to-know events:
Lucy and the Ghoul travel together briefly and learn a little more about each other. They slowly develop a begrudging respect for one another, despite some hostilities (such as The Ghoul cutting off one of Lucy’s fingers). Yet, Lucy decides to leave The Ghoul with doses of the serum he requires to let him know she will never become the monster he is.
The head goes on a bit of a journey at this point. It gets eaten by a lake monster, only to be “rescued” by Maximus and his newly dispatched squire, Thaddeus. Thaddeus ends up stealing the head from Maximus when he learns that Maximus is posing as a Brotherhood Knight. From there, Thaddeus goes on a series of misadventures that result in him slowly turning into a ghoul. Maximus ends up stealing the head back from Thaddeus further down the road when Thaddeus contracts a debilitating radiation disease. Maximus gives the head back to Lucy. Lucy and Maximus also kiss, which could be significant later.
The Ghoul goes on a bit of a bender, with many of his scenes coming via flashbacks to his pre-apocalypse life. He eventually takes a wandering dog (which he refers to as Dogmeat, though it’s actually CX404: an Enclave experiment who served as Siggi Wilzig’s secret pet) as a companion. He also learns that Moldaver is held up at Griffith Observatory.
The biggest event during this stretch of the show sees Lucy and Maximus team-up to find the head after Thaddeus steals it. They end in a different vault (Vault 4), which is largely populated by mutants. Maximus quickly adapts to the vault lifestyle, though Lucy is suspicious of the vault’s inhabitants. While snooping around, she finds images of the raider Moldaver. Through a series of reveals, we learn that Moldaver was actually a Vault-Tec employee before the apocalypse. She is the one who convinced Howard Cooper to spy on the company and his wife by telling him about Vault-Tec’s attempts to suppress her research into cold fusion.
Moldaver manages to survive the nuclear weapon attacks and live until the modern age. She helps to form the settlement of Shady Sands: a relatively peaceful place in the wasteland. There, she meets an escapee from Vault 33 named Rose MacLean. Yes, Lucy’s mother. After the nuclear attack on Shady Sands, some of the settlement’s survivors help populate Vault 4, which is now being run by the mutant hybrids who used to be part of the vault’s secret experiment but now simply want a peaceful lifestyle.
Eventually, Lucy and Maximus are gently banished from Vault 4 and make their way to Griffith Observatory. Before we join them, there is another group of vault dwellers you need to know about.
Oh Yeah, What’s Going on In Vault 33?
Credit: Amazon Prime
Much of the time we spend with the remaining inhabitants of Vault 33, which includes Lucy’s brother, Norm, is spent learning about the vault’s secret history and its relation to Vaults 31 and 32. However, a few other significant developments do occur.
Following Hank’s capture and Lucy’s disappearance, Vault 33 is left leaderless. The role of vault overseer eventually goes to Betty Pearson, another former Vault-Tec executive from Vault 31. Among other things, Pearson decides to hold a “lottery” to determine which residents will stay in Vault 33 and which will be sent to repopulate and resettle the cleaned-up Vault 32. Betty’s motivations and methods aren’t entirely explained (though we can assume they are nefarious, given the absolute everything else we’ve seen in the show).
Norm, meanwhile, ends up uncovering most of Vault 33’s secrets via some snooping. He ends the season trapped in Vault 31’s cryogenic freezing chamber by the preserved brain of Bud Askins. Askins tells Norm that the only way to survive is to enter one of the cryogenic tubes. However, we don’t know if he decides to do so.
The other Vault 33 resident of note is Steph Harper. Steph lost an eye during the raider attack and gradually takes on a leadership role. She is eventually named overseer of Vault 32 during the migration period, though it’s not clear what her motivations are, how much she knows, or what kind of leader she will be.
The Showdown at Griffith Observatory
Credit: Amazon Prime
The showdown at Griffith Observatory is visually highlighted by a massive battle between the Brotherhood of Steel and members of the New California Republic: a group that has tried to rebuild civilization but have had their efforts thwarted (to say the least) by Vault-Tec and other factions. Now led by Moldaver, they fight to preserve her vision for a better wasteland run by some semblance of democracy.
What happens inside the Observatory is far more interesting. Unaware of much of what has occurred, Lucy offers Moldaver the head (and the technology it contains) in exchange for her captured father. Moldaver accepts but first tells Lucy who Hank really is. She reveals that Hank is not only a Vault-Tec executive but that he was the one who ordered the nuclear strike on Shady Sands. In the process, he made Maximus an orphan, murdered thousands, and revealed his desire to rule the world in his (and Vault-Tec’s) image. Lucy’s mother technically survived the attack, though the nuclear blast turned Rose into a feral ghoul that Moldaver has chained up near her at the observatory.
Hank escapes his imprisonment but runs into The Ghoul. The Ghoul wants Hank to tell him where his wife and daughter are. Before he can find out, though, Hank steals some Brotherhood of Steel’s armor and flees. The Ghoul asks Lucy to help him find her father, and Lucy agrees. First, though, she kills the feral ghoul that was her mother.
Maximus arrives just in time to be knocked out by Hank and, more importantly, to see Moldaver use the cold fusion tech to activate a new power source. It works, and the power source lights up some of the nearby areas. Other Brotherhood members arrive to find Maximus at the controls of the power station and in control of the powerful technology. They assume he’s the hero responsible for all their newfound fortune.
We end the season with Lucy and The Ghoul chasing Hank across the wasteland. A post-credits scene reveals Hank’s destination: the ruins of New Vegas. What he intends to do there remains a mystery. However, we know from the games that New Vegas was the domain of Robert House: the RobCo Industries founder who was also at least partially responsible for the first nuclear bombs being dropped.
The Most Important Things to Remember Before You Watch Fallout Season 2
Credit: Amazon Prime
Like I said, that is a lot to remember. However, here are the key plot threads to consider ahead of Fallout season 2:
The Ghoul, Lucy, and Dogmeat are chasing Hank across the wasteland and into New Vegas. The Ghoul is searching for his family, and Lucy is looking for revenge and answers. Dogmeat is down for whatever.
Hank’s motivations are murkier. It’s likely that he wants something that Robert House had, though it’s not yet clear what that may be.
Maximus is now one of the leaders of the Brotherhood of Steel. He seems interested in using the Brotherhood’s newfound power to do some good, though the circumstances of his ascent put him in a delicate position.
The power source and cold fusion technology the Brotherhood controls is now one of the most important things in the wasteland. It will undoubtedly become the centerpiece of future faction conflicts.
The New California Republic remain players in the Wasteland, though they are at odds with the Brotherhood despite Maximus’ rise. They have a long road ahead if they’re going to try to make the wasteland a better place.
Thaddeus is seemingly still alive, though he is clearly turning into a ghoul and will not be welcomed back by the Brotherhood. Still, he has a story to tell and secrets to share.
The residents of Vault 33 and Vault 32 remain largely docile and unaware of what has been happening in the world outside. They’re clearly being set up for something unsavory (especially the Vault 32 dwellers), though it’s not clear what the grand plans are.
We don’t know what’s left of The Enclave, though they’ve clearly fallen out of power since their heyday years before the start of the show. Still, remnants of their faction could play a part in future events.
Norm MacLean is trapped in Vault 31. We are left to assume he enters one of the cryogenic chambers, we have not seen him do so yet.
The Vault 4 residents are seemingly safe and sound once more. It’s not clear what, if any, role they will play next season.
Got all of that? Good. Would you be so kind as to explain it to me?[end-mark]
The post Everything You Need to Know Before Watching <i>Fallout </i>Season 2 appeared first on Reactor.