Major spoilers for the season finale of Fallout, “The Strip,” lie ahead, so read on at your own discretion.
Fallout Season 2 has reached its end amid the 2026 TV schedule, and there’s a lot to digest. Tragedy, catharsis and violence are present within this latest installment as well as a couple of interesting twists, with one involving the always slippery Hank MacLean. Interestingly, Hank had a closer relationship with a fellow vault dweller than some may have realized. And that new twist now might call a diminutive character’s parentage into question. With that, CinemaBlend got thoughts from Kyle MacLachlan on this development.
A flashback in the penultimate episode of Season 2 reveals that Stephanie “Steph” Harper (Annabel O'Hagan) of Vault 33 initially worked as a maid in the Lucky 38 hotel 200 years prior. It was during a shift that assisted Cooper and Barb Howard in moving an unconscious Hank after getting the cold fusion relic from him. Wildly enough, a flashback shown in “The Strip,” reveals that Hank and Steph hit it off over the course of a night and got engaged.
Yet, around the time Steph is awakened in her vault around 2294, she marries Bert, and she eventually becomes pregnant. So the initial thinking had to be that the now-deceased Bert was the father of the baby, who was named Chet Jr. upon birth since Steph linked up with Chet by that time. But, now, it’s hard not to wonder if Steph and Hank rekindled that old spark at some point, and one thing led to another. When CinemaBlend spoke to MacLachlan and O’Hagan, the former shared thoughts on this wild family tree in general:
Well, it's almost like [Lucy] is. Is, your sister, my daughter, your daughter's stepdaughter, maybe.
O’Hagan also humorously asked if she’s now, by definition, a “wicked stepmother” (which would actually be fitting for Steph). That aside, though, CB’s own Jeff McCobb pushed a bit more on the notion of Hank being the true father of Steph’s baby. Faced with that, McLachlan shared the following assessment:
When the storyline was introduced, we were like, ‘Okay, this sort of puts a different spin on everything, and you have to go back and readjust all the dials and the knobs. But that's part of the fun too. I think the development of the characters is so well thought through with the writers, and it's really fun to, you know, open a script every week and it's wonderful things to discover. But they all link up. They all make sense. You know, you just have to go back and sort of slightly adjust the picture on your television.
Both MacLachlan and O’Hagan are definitely playing coy here, but I don’t think the notion of Chet Jr. being Hank Jr. is out of the realm of possibility. I’m hoping Fallout Season 3 contains a more definitive answer to that question. Of course, if that parentage is confirmed, Hank won’t be cognizant of it, because he wiped his memories with the control chip Lucy slipped on him during the finale.
That bittersweet moment aside, the episode also saw Lucy have a sweet reunion with Maximus ahead of the Legion’s attack on New Vegas. Meanwhile, the Ghoul seemingly heads to Colorado in search of his wife and daughter, who he believes are alive there. And as for Norm MacLean, he survived his ordeal with those Vault-Tec employees (thanks to giant roaches) and is seemingly headed back to his vault with an injured Claudia.
This truly is a super-sized finale and one that presents more questions than answers. Of course, fans are just going to have to wait to find out what happens next for these characters, including Chet Jr. (or Hank Jr.). In the meantime, stream all episodes of Fallout Season 2 now using a Prime Video subscription.
