Fallout Season 1 Ending Explained- The Story Explained, Season 2, What Happens To Lucy And Max, And What The Vaults Really Are

Almost everything works in Prime Video’s Fallout. None of the characters fit into neat boxes. They are gloriously messy and so richly imagined you feel as if you have literally seen the game burst into life. There are very few truly good or bad guys, and everyone does their best to survive. The love letter to the game is an amalgamation of all the games mixed with a dash of something altogether new and arguably great we didn’t even know we needed. The thrilling first season ended with shocking revelations and enough twists to make your head turn. Fallout Season 2 has already been announced, so here is what you need to know about the ending of Fallout Season 1, Hank’s secret, Cooper’s wife, Vault-Tek, Max’s fate, and how it sets up Season 2.

Throughout Fallout Season 1, we have been following Maximus(Aaron Moten), calling himself Titus, Lucy(Ella Purnell), and Cooper(Walton Goggins), a Ghoul, all on a hunt to get what is inside Wilzig’s head. We met many of the characters of the game, albeit some in unexpected ways and iterations, and watched Lucy, Max, and Cooper survive one danger after another. Each has their own motivation to get Wilzig’s(Michael Emerson) head. Lucy wanted to use it as a bargaining chip to save her father. Maximus must return it to the Brotherhood of Steel to keep technology from the masses, and Cooper wants revenge. Their conflicting rationales put them on a collision course with each other, and the truth as more than a few secrets emerge in the final moments. Along the way, Lucy, Maximus, and Cooper learn things they probably wish they could have stayed ignorant of.

In Episode 7, the wheels fall off as Lucy realizes the full extent of the lies she has been told. In Vault 4, she learns that the originally scientifically focused vault was corrupted by unchecked hubris and cruel abuse, and mutations resulted. Now, the vault is dedicated to nonviolence and protection for those who have been so mistreated. Ironically, even this altruistic endeavor is mired in prejudice and mistrust, with vault originals and surface migraters each engaging in passive racism.

By the end of Fallout Episode 7, Lucy and Maximus are separated, Norm is on his own, with his cousin joining Stephanie in Vault 32, and Cooper knows exactly where Molaver is. If that’s not enough, Thaddeus is becoming a Ghoul, and Norm has tricked his way into 31 and is now very exposed. Maximus reunites with his Brotherhood but he now doubts his purpose. He no longer believes in the cause, and despite being desperate to find a home, he worries he would be contributing to the destruction of the world more than the advancement of it.

The ending of Fallout Season 1 explained

Vault-Tec, like most big corporations, is bad. Not only are they power and money-hungry, but they want to consolidate that power within themselves indefinitely. They were already working on extending human life before the bombs. It wasn’t to safeguard humanity or to eliminate suffering. It was to keep their money longer. Lucy finds all this out when she arrives at Moldaver’s commune at the observatory. She trades Wilzig’s head for her father, and Moldaver spills everything she knows. Now, both Lucy and Norm understand what has really been going on inside Vault 31.

Norm is stuck inside Vault 31, having to choose between starvation and preservation. It’s a terrible choice that doesn’t have any good answers. Shortly after Norm and Lucy discover the truth, Moldaver activates her cold fusion core, and the Brotherhood of Steel bears down on them. As the military arm of Vault-tec and the government, their purpose is to squash all enemies. This includes Moldaver and her group, who only want to give people options and let them choose their own path. Sometimes, those paths will be wrong and get people killed, but she and her followers argue that allowing them the freedom to make those choices is better.

Hank, on the other hand, thinks the solution is to eliminate all choices. He believes factions destroy the world, and if everyone were Vault-Tec loyalists, there would be no more violence and fighting. Lucy is devastated by everything she has heard, and because she was raised to be a kind, charitable person, she can’t reconcile the man she knew with the monster in front of her. Maximus unknowingly releases Hank, and Lucy tells Maximus everything. She tells him about Shady Sands, her mother, and Vault-Tec’s real purpose.

While learning all this, Hank puts on the mech suit and hurts Max. He then confronts Lucy, who considers shooting him, but Cooper beats her to it. He walks right into the middle of this family reunion and demands one answer. Where is my f#cking family?” He runs off, leaving Cooper still searching, Lucy mourning her father and potentially Max. Cooper offers to take her with him. He is tracking Hank back to Vault-Tec headquarters in New Vegas. She agrees, but only after putting her mother at peace. With a last goodbye to Max, she sets off to confront her father. Max, having been discovered with Moldalver’s dead body, is treated as a hero and knighted. This directly conflicts with his concern over the Brotherhood’s plight, his love for Lucy, and his allegiance to his former home.

What was Hank MacLean’s secret?

Lucy and Norm’s father was an executive assistant of Vault-Tec in the very beginning. H and the other exec knew he needed to create a disaster and allow nature to take its course. Time is the biggest enemy of humanity. All they need to do is survive them. They were behind the initial bombs, which made some people go inside the vaults, allowed others to perish on the surface, and created a fractured society living above ground.

Vault 31 wanted to preserve their power by using Vaults 32 and 33 as breeding centers. Everyone inside those vaults was considered excellent breeding stock for the executives, allowing them to maintain a race of super managers. It would be funny if it weren’t so depressingly mundane. Everything was carefully orchestrated to keep the facade going.

The slogan has been used for decades. It was a way to ensure that the implants from 31 would always win the elections and become the next Overseer. Vault 31 was less a vault than an incubator or cryo vault that housed all of the executives from Vault-Tec, who had developed the vaults hundreds of years ago. They were not so much concerned with saving the world as controlling it. Control seems to be the primary motivator for most factions in Fallout. Vault Tec wants power and money. The Brotherhood of Steel originally wanted to save the world from itself. Still, paternalism got in the way, and now they are an authoritarian gatekeeper who rules with an iron fist. Even Moldaver, to some extent, wants control. She at least wants to give power back to the masses through cold fusion and choice.

Hank was an executive assistant working for Cooper’s wife years ago. He bought into the company’s philosophy so much that he killed his own wife when she left. Heartbreakingly, Lucy finds her mother living as a Ghoul in the observatory. Hank destroyed all of Shady Sands, including her, because they competed directly with Vault-Tec. Competition can not be accepted, and Vault-Tec did what it had done before. They destroy everything in their way.

Hank knew all this because he worked intimately with Cooper’s wife, who was as culpable, if not more so, than anyone else. She first presented the idea of using the vaults for experimentation and, ultimately, entertainment, all under the guise of competition and advancement. It was her idea to drop the bomb, in fact. She was a cold-hearted monster and had been hiding who she was all along. Poor Cooper learned the truth minutes before meeting Hank for the first time. Cooper broke a little that day and continued to break when she followed through and dropped the bombs.

Corporate greed and fear that they would lose control over their consumer base caused them to start a fake war. Not only did they not care about the general population, they didn’t even care about most consumers who bought their snake oil buried can houses. Someone should tell them the law of diminishing returns dictates that if they keep killing off all their customers, there won’t be anyone left to purchase their vaults.

Vault-Tec has been destroying the world under the guise of safeguarding it since the beginning. Some may actually believe they are making the world safer, but most only care about protecting their power. A tantalizing glimpse of Mr. House and New Vegas leaves no doubt that Fallout Season 2 should feature both prominently.

What was Cooper’s story In Fallout Season 1?

Poor Cooper was a movie star and dupe before the first bombs. His wife was an upper-level executive with Vault-Tek, and he spent the majority of his time doting on his sweet daughter, playing trophy husband to his wife, and trying to maintain his gentle nature. Before the bombs, he was a decent person. Little by little, he had to make decisions that compromised his soul. After the bombs, he became very good at survival at all costs. His only purpose is to find his family and probably get revenge on his wife.

Cooper’s wife admitted to him that not all of the vaults are “good,” and everything she is doing is to ensure they get into one of those. She also explains no dogs are allowed in the vaults as they are an “avoidable inefficiency”. That phrase alerts him that his wife isn’t as nice as she appears, but he chooses to believe her. Cooper is concerned with the freedoms he fought for. As a war veteran, he wants to believe in order, government, and country but has serious doubts. Likely, he is as angry with himself for believing her as he is with her for doing what she did.

Think of Lucy, Maximus, and Cooper’s journeys as hero arcs complete with epic battles of will and might. They faced the obligatory Island of the Lotus Eaters in Vault 4, and Lucy had to make hard choices regarding her mother and father. Cooper has been making tough decisions since before the bombs dropped and is well-versed in compartmentalism. Everyone is headed to New Vegas for Fallout Season 2, and a major showdown with Mr. House is all but guaranteed. As much as I love our brave girl, I’m reminded that the House always wins. Viva New Vegas.