Oct 22 2025 | Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor
In 2024, the season finale of Amazon Prime’s “Fallout” — adapted from Bethesda Softworks’ video game series “Fallout” — left fans with plenty to speculate about. The last time we saw this nuclear wasteland, Hank — father to protagonist Lucy MacLean and played by actor Kyle MacLachlan — was headed for what appeared to be New Vegas, the titular setting for the sixth installment of the franchise.
The excitement surrounding this closing scene was immense. After all, in a recent poll by Bethesda, “Fallout: New Vegas” had an overwhelming response as participants’ favorite installment — 52.6% responded that “New Vegas” was their favorite, while “Fallout 4,” one of the more recent games in the series, came in second with 25.5% of responses.
Since the show’s release, the last year and a half has been full of speculation and fan theories, but an Oct. 12 post on IGN’s official Instagram, @igndotcom, only reignited these discussions.
In a reel, IGN shared stills from Season 2, which wrapped filming in May of this year. Among these stills, fans saw the Lucky 38 Casino, Dinky the T-Rex and other notable characters and locations from “New Vegas.”
I think, as a fan of the games myself, that the most important thing to note is the canonization of a specific faction ending of “Fallout: New Vegas.” In the game, the player’s character, known as “The Courier,” travels the Mojave interacting with various factions attempting to control the wasteland — most notably the New California Republic, Caesar’s Legion, Yes Man and the New Vegas Libertopia. As the game progresses, The Courier must side with one of these major factions, which decides the game’s ending at the Second Battle of the Hoover Dam.
Since the gameplay is open world and has a variable story, the developers never confirmed which ending was the correct one; however, the show “Fallout” confirms specifically the New Vegas Libertopia ending.
The show itself is set 15 years after the events of “Fallout: New Vegas,” and stills from the second season feature Mr. House, the enigmatic leader of the New Vegas Libertopia.
Dialogue from the game also supports the pairing of this ending with the stills. In “New Vegas,” the character Chief Hanlon, the commanding officer of the New California Republic’s ranger unit, states that “Even if we hold this dam, what then? Are we going to send the NCR’s men and women to die here for another five years? Ten? Patrol the whole length of the Colorado for hundreds of miles? Holding this dam. It’ll be the death of us.”
This dialogue, along with the facts that Caesar’s Legion is too brutal and authoritarian to retain control over the Mojave and that the Strip in New Vegas is still standing, supports the New Vegas Libertopia ending, which we should then see in the show.
Whatever ending the show confirms, we will just have to wait until Dec. 17 to actually see what happens. After all, fan theories are just theories until the show either confirms or denies them.
Season 1 of “Fallout” is streaming on Amazon Prime, where Season 2 will also launch this winter. I, for one, am anxiously awaiting the season’s debut.
And for other fans of the “Fallout” franchise, remember, the House always wins.
Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu
