In the fourth episode of the second season of Fallout, the Ghoul and Lucy finally arrive in Vegas. But the city is in bad shape. One possible reason for this is already mentioned in the game.
In the season 1 finale, the Fallout series already revealed that the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) and Lucy (Ella Purnell) would be heading to New Vegas next. Even then, fans began speculating about what the city would look like 15 years after the events of the game.
After the fourth episode of season 2, we now know at least part of the answer. Why New Vegas is in the state shown in the series has not yet been explained. However, a Fallout YouTuber has an idea that is even hinted at in the game.
Is Mr. House responsible?
While we could already see in the trailer for the second season of Fallout that Freeside, a suburb of New Vegas, is still inhabited, the city center has fared much worse. The big casinos are completely deserted, except for the Deathclaw(s?) that have settled here. The Kings, mutated into wild ghouls, also lurk outside the gates of the Strip.
So the city center is deserted and some of Vegas’ residents have turned into ghouls? At least the mutations can only be explained by radiation. Fallout YouTuber JuiceHead has an idea what exactly could be behind this:
His theory: The Strip was irradiated by the nuclear reactor under Lucky 38, Mr. House’s casino. A first clue is provided by a dialogue between the robot Victor and the ghoul: The former reports that House needed cold fusion technology for his plans but never got it.
The second piece of the puzzle comes from Fallout: New Vegas. Here, House tells the player character that software errors and crashes in his operating system almost led to a meltdown in his reactor. This could have happened again after the events of the game, except that this time House was unable to prevent the reactor from failing.
Given his possible death in the game and the various factions vying for control of New Vegas and the Hoover Dam, it cannot be ruled out that the Legion sabotaged the reactor to gain an advantage. Of course, that still doesn’t explain where the Deathclaw came from.
So much for JuiceHead’s theory. However, it is unlikely that the Fallout series will directly confirm or rule it out. After all, the writers of the series have so far made an effort not to rule out any of the possible endings of New Vegas and have deliberately left many fates and events unclear. At least some secrets remain in season 2, which will probably be revealed.
