Season 1 of Fallout had a clear objective: to introduce live-action viewers to the Ghoul, Lucy MacLean, and Maximus, along with the post-apocalyptic setting they inhabited. It drew obvious inspiration from Fallout: New Vegas. Now, moving forward, all bets are off — there’s no clear path ahead, and Lucy and the Ghoul, once travel companions, have split apart.
That said, Season 2 included multiple subtle nods to another Fallout game, and Season 3 is ideally positioned to mirror that game’s most significant plot twist.
Spoilers for Fallout Season 2 and Fallout 4 follow.
Though Season 2 of Fallout was heavily rooted in Fallout: New Vegas, it also featured various references to Fallout 4—such as the Starlight Drive-In Theater, a visitor from its Commonwealth (post-apocalyptic Massachusetts) region, and a cameo by the Vault-Tec salesman who helps players create their Fallout 4 character.
Fallout 4 centers on the player’s character, who evacuates to a Vault when nuclear bombs detonate. Alongside their young son, they’re placed in cryogenic sleep—only to wake briefly and witness their son being thawed and abducted. Later, the player is unfrozen and embarks on a quest to find their child, only to discover that decades have passed since both awakenings, and their son is now an elderly man.
While this exact storyline can’t be duplicated with any of Amazon’s Fallout characters, the Ghoul is on a comparable journey to reconnect with his wife and daughter. He initially hoped to find them in New Vegas, but instead found a postcard from Colorado hinting that his family might be there.
“For the first time in 200 long-ass years… I know my family is alive,” the Ghoul tells Mr. House before heading to the Rocky Mountain State. But what if he doesn’t find what he expects there? A major plot twist—one that would also serve as a perfect nod to Fallout 4—would be revealing his daughter Janey as a fully grown adult, who was awakened from her vault and lived an entire life without her father. This would be heartbreaking for the Ghoul, robbing him of his chance at fatherhood, but it would also create an intriguing dynamic.
And if Fallout wanted to take it a step further, they could turn Janey into a villain. The shocking reveal in Fallout 4 is when the player discovers their son is not only an adult but also the leader of the Institute—a scientific collective dedicated to rebuilding and advancing humanity’s tech capabilities… using synthetic humans they treat as slaves. Janey could easily be on the wrong side of wasteland history, leaving Cooper to win her over both as a father and a survivor.