‘Fallout’ Boss Teases the War to Come and Bringing a Major Power From the Games Into Season 3

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Fallout” Season 2, Episode 8.

The “Fallout” Season 2 finale went out with a bang as the stage was set for a new war for control over New Vegas.

The episode, titled “The Strip,” sees Lucy (Ella Purnell) successfully take down the mainframe, which is being held together by the severed head of Representative Diane Welch (Martha Kelly). After stopping her father Hank (Kyle MacLachlan) with an assist from The Ghoul/Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins), Lucy starts to confront him about Welch and what his ultimate plans are. He reveals that the true experiment is already in the Wasteland before wiping his own memory.

She proceeds to reunite with Maximus (Aaron Moten), who is rescued by the New California Republic after nearly dying from fending off a horde of Deathclaws, and the pair head inside the Lucky 38, where they watch from Robert House’s (Justin Theroux) room as the Legion marches toward New Vegas.

“New Vegas has always been one of the flowers of civilization in the ‘Fallout’ world, obviously, because House’s missiles largely protected it from the worst of the bombs and allowed it to be a relatively undestroyed city in the Wasteland, which was an incredibly rare thing,” showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet told TheWrap. “So it is really a crown jewel and many factions want it accordingly. So we were excited to leave the Legion, the NCR and Robert House — which in the New Vegas game are three of the major factions — warring for territory in that area once again. War never changes.”

Robertson-Dworet added that she would love to explore “more civilization on the surface” in Season 3.

“I think that fans very rightly pointed out that we see a bit more flourishing civilizations in the games than we have thus far been been able to show in the show,” she said. “What we should be asking ourselves is whose version of civilization will we see flourish? Is it going to be The Legion, is it going to be Robert House or is it going to be the NCR?”

Beyond the impending war for New Vegas, it also remains to be seen what’s next for the Ghoul, who sets out for Colorado where his wife Barb and daughter Janey may or may not be alive.

There’s also several questions around Stephanie, who is revealed to not only be Hank’s wife but an Enclave operative who triggers Phase 2 of the organization’s plan; as well as what’s next for the Brotherhood of Steel, who are looking to build a robot from the video game source material: Liberty Prime Alpha.

Robertson-Dworet remained mostly tight-lipped when it came to what to expect in Season 3, but confirmed that plans for the next chapter of the Prime Video series are well underway.

“It’s hard to answer questions about what happens without giving spoilers, but we’re working with the writers’ room right now and with Jonathan [Nolan] and Todd [Howard] in story discussions,” she said. “We’re expected to be filming this summer, so we’re excited.”

Check out the conversation with Robertson-Dworet below. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TheWrap: In the finale, Lucy shuts down the mainframe, but before she can get answers from Hank about his plans, he resets himself. How much will their dynamic change in Season 3?

Robertson-Dworet: Lucy has lost her father, but Lucy is someone who always tries to make the best of things, so I don’t want to say more than that. The possibility that she wouldn’t abandon him leads to interesting new story possibilities.

We find out that Cooper Howard accidentally accelerated the timeline for the end of the world by giving cold fusion to the Enclave. When did you land on that decision in the development of Season 2?

We were always fascinated by House’s projection algorithms and how both events and single people might influence the math in terms of what’s going to happen and what he’s seeing in the future. I think a larger narrative question that I hope the audience is asking themselves is, ‘If Coop could make the clock leap forward, is there any chance that he might be able to make the clock leap back? What influence does he have on both the end of the world and the future?’

There are interesting questions with Coop always given that he’s essentially a layperson, but he has incredible proximity to the most powerful people in the world, between his wife’s job at Vault-Tec and now Robert House and other players on the table.

Speaking of Cooper’s wife, we also find out that Barb and their daughter Janey may or may not be alive and in Colorado. What can you tease about what’s next for his journey in Season 3?

I hope the audience is asking themselves, “Why Colorado? Was she here and then did she move? Why would she be moved?” Those are things that I hope the audience is asking themselves that we’re excited to answer in the next season.

I also want to ask about Stephanie, who in addition to being an Enclave operative, is married to Hank. What does their newly revealed dynamic mean for both Lucy and Chet?

Lucy was best friends with her dad’s wife. So her family history is very messy. We like it that way. Chet, I think, is certainly on a journey of discovery in the vaults. I’m very excited to get to do more with that in Season 3 and go back to Steph and find out what other secrets she might be keeping, and how she feels about what she has brought upon the vaults.

What can you tease about bringing in the Enclave in Season 3? What happens in Phase 2 now that it’s been triggered by Steph, and does it have anything to do with the Forced Evolutionary Virus that Norm discovered during Season 2?

We are excited to show all of that in Season 3. I can certainly say that one of my favorite elements of the games has always been FEV, the forced evolutionary virus. I think it is so juicy and fascinating.

If you dig into the history of the lore about it and how it started, it’s actually kind of a positive attempt at scientific innovation that went fundamentally awry, but that was noble hearted, seemingly, to begin with. So I don’t want to give too many spoilers away, because these are major parts of Season 3, but this is what we’re very excited to explore in the next season.

What we should also be asking ourselves then is, ‘How is what happens in the vault caught up with what’s happening on the surface?’ Because, of course, we do see FEV-made creatures on the surface and how can they possibly be connected to what’s happening in the Vault?

At the end of the finale in a post-credit scene we see blueprints for Liberty Prime Alpha? Will it actually make an appearance in Season 3?

Elder Quintus has certainly made it clear that his intention to either find or build Liberty Prime Alpha, whatever state it is in at this point is to be shown in Season 3. I think he’s not a character to be underestimated, but first he’s got to win his war.

Lastly, there’s been a lot of debate over which ending from the New Vegas game is canon in the show. How did the game’s various endings influence your decision-making in Season 2. Is there a specific ending that Season 2 is meant to lean closer to or is it a mix?

We’ve tried as much as possible to have as much of an open-armed approach as we can with with the question of the game endings and gamers’ very differing experiences of playing the games. We try as much as we can not to throw out anyone’s gameplay experience as somehow illegitimate or contradictory to the show. We would like as much as possible for them to live in the same universe. Of course, fans have pointed out some details where maybe it implies that we were sort of making official one ending or another.

We largely hoped to introduce something a little different to the canon with the idea that Robert House had this plan that he was always pursuing with the cold fusion diode, which is why he wanted it 200 years ago. It was a means of true immortality for himself, where he wouldn’t have to be reliant on his biological body being that husk in his semi-mummification box. That there was some version of him uploaded if only he had cold fusion to power with that, we thought, felt very true to the character of Robert House as something he would envision as the ultimate form of living forever or the ideal form. So we did try to find a version that we hoped would embrace as many players experience of playing the games as possible.

“Fallout” Seasons 1-2 are now streaming on Prime Video. The series was already renewed for Season 3.

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