It’s only been a year since Fallout’s first season took the world by storm. But remembering everything that went down across those eight episodes feels strangely difficult. That’s partially because Fallout told a sprawling story chock full of shifting allegiances, untrustworthy characters, and last-minute plot twists. Its final episode in particular rewrote the status quo in a dozen different ways, setting up a new conspiracy for its characters to lose themselves in. But how much of all that will play a role in Season 2?
With our hapless heroes scattered to the winds, and the show’s surprise villain on the run, there’s plenty to keep in mind as we head into Season 2. Here’s everything you need to remember before Fallout returns on Prime Video.
The truth behind Vault-Tec
Fallout Season 1 follows Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) on a quest to rescue her father Hank (Kyle MacLachlan) after he is abducted by bandits. She ventures out of the vault she calls home, where she and dozens of others have sheltered from a nuclear apocalypse that destroyed the nation decades prior. When she finally catches up with Hank in the Season 1 finale, she learns that her dad is not the helpless vault-dweller she’s known her whole life. Not only are the vaults spread across the country a front for social and scientific experiments, but they were created by people like Hank — executives of the corporation known as Vault-Tec.
Vault-Tec’s leaders orchestrated a nuclear conflict to drive high-paying clients into their fallout shelters. Hank, along with so many others, was cryogenically preserved for centuries, and awoken to conduct an experiment of his own: breeding ideal vault-dwellers. Eventually, he and other Vault-Tec execs would have led this new society to the surface — but that plan is complicated by Lee Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury), who snatches Hank from Vault 33 for her own purposes. With his true identity revealed at the end of Season 1, Hank elects not to return to his Vault. Instead, he heads for New Vegas in a stolen suit of Power Armor, searching for the person who’s really “behind the wheel.”
Lee Moldaver, cold fusion, and Shady Sands
As Fallout progresses, a major conflict for resources will emerge. There are a handful of interested parties to keep track of, all of which will play a role in Season 2. There’s the New California Republic, a group led by Moldaver. Moldaver is a crucial figure in Fallout, another citizen of pre-fallout America who reemerged 200 years after the first bombs dropped. In the past, she worked in the shadows to suss out Vault-Tec’s evil plans; in the present, she strives to rebuild society. Her efforts culminated in the creation of Shady Sands, a community for above-ground survivors. Lucy, her brother Norm (Moises Arias), and her mother Rose (Elle Vertes) briefly lived there — as did Maximus (Aaron Moten), one of Lucy’s present-day allies. Hank, however, destroyed the town and left his wife for dead to raise his children alone.
The NCR briefly solved the crisis for limited, renewable energy by creating a cold fusion device at the end of Season 1 — but when Hank murdered Moldaver, the device fell into the hands of the Brotherhood of Steel. A neo-feudal society of knights, squires, and clerics, they’re coming into Season 2 with more power and influence than ever. That might also paint a target on their backs, either from factions like Caesar’s Legion (who are exactly what they sound like) or Mr. House, the most influential executive from Vault-Tec.
What happens in New Vegas
Speaking of Mr. House — we’re about to see a lot more of him in Season 2. With Hank headed to New Vegas, Lucy and the Ghoul are reteaming to chase after him and thwart the next stage of his plan... whatever it is. Fallout will also show us Vegas in its heyday, before nuclear apocalypse razed the city to the ground. We’ll follow the Ghoul before he was the Ghoul, but big-time actor Cooper Howard. In the past, he helped Moldaver uncover the secrets of Vault-Tec — a major conflict of interest for him, as his wife Barb (Frances Turner) works for Vault-Tec and kinda came up with the idea to blow up the world for profit.
In Season 2, Cooper and Barb travel to New Vegas, where Mr. House (played in this season by Justin Theroux) reigns supreme. Whatever secrets Coop uncovers there will likely inform his present quest with Lucy — and his efforts to find out what happened to Barb and their daughter.
