Amazon’s Fallout season 2 delivered a generous helping of fan service. There were , callbacks to the , and Power Armor power fantasies in various forms. The season also boasted some truly spectacular television moments. Lucy and Maximus reuniting in the penthouse ruins of Mr. House, along with Macaulay Culkin’s legionnaire ascending to the rank of Caesar, hint at much of what we can expect from the New Vegas strip and beyond. But what about The Ghoul? What lies ahead on his journey to Colorado? If we turn to the Fallout: New Vegas games, there’s plenty to look forward to.
You don’t need a cartography degree to know Las Vegas, Nevada, and Colorado aren’t what most people would consider “walking distance.” The Ghoul faces a roughly 800-mile trek—uphill, with an elevation change of around 35,000 feet. Given the typically slow pace of streaming TV plot progression, we shouldn’t expect The Ghoul to step past a “Welcome to Colorado” sign in Fallout season 3’s premiere. That’s a good thing, though, because those hills hold loads of story potential.
The state of Utah sits between Nevada and Colorado, and the Fallout: New Vegas games have already explored this area. The 2011 Honest Hearts DLC is set in the Beehive State and follows Joshua Graham, also known as The Burned Man. This disgraced legionnaire survived a fiery execution attempt by Caesar and returned home to find refuge with Mormon settlers in New Canaan, a town near Zion Canyon. Like most Fallout games, Graham is caught in conflicts between warring factions, and it’s the player’s job to step in and choose to side with him or against him.
The events of Honest Hearts take place in 2281—only 15 years before the show’s timeline. So it’s likely The Ghoul will pass through some of the same territory players explored in the DLC. If that’s the case, expect a visual treat. Zion Canyon (known to us as Zion National Park) is one of the most stunning natural wonders in the U.S., and it remains one of the best settings in any Fallout game.
But there’s more excitement than just the scenery. New Canaan was a formidable outpost famous for producing tough survivalists capable of thriving in some of the harshest climates. It served as a beacon of law and order in a wasteland otherwise ruled by roving tribal raider bands. Eventually, New Canaan was destroyed by Caesar’s Legion, but its survivors spread out across Zion Canyon, adding even more factions to the mix. In short, The Ghoul won’t be making his trip to Colorado alone.
Who might The Ghoul encounter besides the scattered New Canaanites? There could be Vault Dwellers in the mix. Vault 22 was a failed agricultural experiment northwest of New Vegas that collapsed after a mind-eating fungus outbreak. Survivors fled north to Zion Canyon and turned to cannibalism to stay alive—though this ultimately led to their downfall, some may still be around. The Vault 22 experiments also escaped, most notably giant praying mantises.
Then there are the Sorrows. This group of survivors is one of the wasteland’s biggest mysteries; their origin story is unknown. They were founded by a group of children who were abandoned in Zion with little memory of where they came from—only referring to it as “The School.” They survived thanks to Randall Clark, a Mojave legend: a former soldier and survivalist who kept the kids safe by watching over them and giving them food, medicine, books, and more. They called him the “Father in the Caves.” He’s also the one who hunted down the Vault 22 cannibals after they killed a Mexican tribe that was friendly to Clark.
The long walk to Colorado isn’t endless. While 800 miles sounds daunting to us, it’s more like a casual stroll to The Ghoul. After all, official canon states he’s walked across the U.S. at least once—so there’s no reason to doubt he can do it again. Utah offers a fascinating detour, but it’s still just a detour. There’s a high chance of praying mantis jump scares and an episode or two tangled up in intertribal warfare, but ultimately, The Ghoul needs to reach Colorado. What awaits him there? We’ll have to wait and see.