Contrary to what the Fallout showrunners were saying before release, it appears the Prime Video series' second season has made a New Vegas ending choice canon.
Spoilers for Fallout season 2, episode 7 follow.
During the closing minutes of Fallout's most recent episode, Walton Goggins' Ghoul makes his way up to the top floor of Lucky 38. There, he places the cold fusion diode in House's dormant machine and discovers something altogether more sinister.
As the monitors begin to whir back to life, a familiar face flashes on the screen: Robert House (Justin Theroux).
"Well hello, old chum," House says while greeting the Ghoul.
Viewer responses should mirror the Ghoul's own surprise. After all, House dies in all but one path of Fallout: New Vegas, with the player character opting to side with Caesar's Legion, the New California Republic, or instigating an independent state with Yes Man.
So, that leaves one? In the ending path laid out by New Vegas' 'The House Always Wins' quest chain, House survives and, crucially, becomes complete overseer of New Vegas, either eradicating rival factions or forcing them to remove themselves from the Strip.
For reference, co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet told us pre-premiere that the show would "outright avoid" making any major ending path canon, so as to not de-legitimize any player's experience with the Obsidian RPG classic.
"The discussions [Bethesda's] Todd [Howard], [executive producer Jonathan Nolan], and [co-showrunner Graham Wagner] and the whole creative team had was that we wanted to avoid making one particular ending correct [from] any of the games," Robertson-Dworet said in December.
The co-showrunner added, "We wanted, wherever possible, to basically say that any player's experiences and the choices they made might have happened leading up to the show," the showrunner said. "Of course, there might be moments that contradict that."
Perhaps the signs were always there. As we've already glimpsed, the Legion and New California Republic aren't exactly in a position of strength some 15 years after the events of Fallout: New Vegas, while House was probably always content to be the silent man behind the curtain just as long as it keeps him off the Enclave's radar.
Of course, there are some inconsistencies and vague plot points that mean there's still a chance of a muddled grab bag of ending choices to be carried over in Fallout season 2. House, despite 'dying', could always have a backup plan in place on the chance he gets betrayed. His algorithm tells him many things, and the casino owner is all too familiar with tricksy sleights of hand to gain an advantage.
The Fallout season 2 finale, then, has several questions to answer – including whether it's just made one of the more intriguing Fallout: New Vegas endings the canon option.
For more from the show, read our Fallout season 2 review and check out the Fallout season 2 release schedule.
