One of the showrunners of the Fallout TV series has discussed the fate of Mr. House as we approach the Season 2 finale, and explained how the show has still managed to avoid making a New Vegas ending canon.
Warning! Spoilers for Fallout Season 2 follow:
Last month, the creators of the Fallout TV show told IGN that Season 2 avoids making any New Vegas ending canon by taking what they call “the fog of war approach.” Fans of the Fallout video games had wondered how Season 2 might reflect the various endings of Obsidian’s much-loved Fallout New Vegas, given the show is canon and is set 15 years after the game.
A quick reminder of where we’re at in the Fallout timeline: the Fallout TV show is set in 2296, nine years after the events of Fallout 4 and 15 years after the events of Fallout: New Vegas. We’ve already seen a debate about which Fallout 4 ending should be considered canon, if any. But what about New Vegas?
Depending on the choices the player, aka The Courier, makes throughout the course of the game, New Vegas can end with victory for the player during the Battle of Hoover Dam, which drives out all factions including Mr. House himself, a victory for Mr. House in which he remains in control of New Vegas and takes over Hoover Dam, a victory for Caesar’s Legion, or a victory for the New California Republic.
In Episode 7 of Season 2, The Ghoul meets Maximus, and he uses the Cold Fusion diode that Maximus stole from the Brotherhood to power up the machine we saw back when Cooper met House in a flashback on the top floor of Lucky 38. The big terminal boots up, House appears on screen and says: “Well hello, old chum.”
This led to a theory that New Vegas’ “The House Always Wins” ending was canon because that’s the only ending House survives. But in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet said that’s not the case because what we’re seeing here is yet another version of House that needed the diode to exist.
“It did seem to us like a version of himself powered by cold fusion would be sort of the ultimate possible incarnation of Robert House,” Robertson-Dworet explained. “And as someone who is interested in robotics and artificial non-biological versions of selves, it made a lot of sense to us that this would’ve been something that he would’ve developed and sort of be the ultimate version of him. I’ve always seen it as something that allows for many players’ experiences to have happened, but still Robert House had this other version of himself, that he was always ready to create and what he needed was the diode.”
Entertainment Weekly then asked if this is in fact House’s final final form, and Robertson-Dworet declined to properly answer. “That’s an interesting question,” she said, keeping her cards close to her chest. “I’m not answering that, but I’m very intrigued by the question.”
Robertson-Dworet did go on to tease The Ghoul’s bargain with House, which Episode 7 sets up, and its impact on the much-loved character’s future. “He’s just given House what he wanted after 200 years,” she said. “He’s finally given him the thing that he’s most desired. And the question, of course, is what will he get in exchange? He obviously is looking for his wife and daughter, and what will he find?”
Meanwhile, Walton Goggins teased that Episode 8 will finally resolve one of the burning questions fans have had since Season 1, Episode 1: how did his pre-war character, Cooper Howard, come to be at that birthday party with his daughter, right as the bombs fell?
“I mean, the whole first seven minutes of this experience in Season 1 was about [Cooper being] a guy at a birthday party,” he said. “Well, how did he get to that birthday party? What happened? It’s all leading somewhere.”
All eyes are now on the final episode of Fallout Season 2, which, given Season 3 is already confirmed, will no doubt pose just as many questions as it answers. While you wait, be sure to check out IGN’s Fallout Season 2, Episode 7 review.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
