10 Game Questions Fallout Season 2 Could Answer

Summary Find out the answers to long-standing questions in the Fallout series in season 2 of the TV show.

Uncover the mysteries of Vault 21, the Mysterious Stranger, and the fate of the world outside the U.S.

Discover the truth behind the mysterious factions like the Desert Rangers and Talon Company in the Fallout universe.

Warning! This article contains spoilers for the Fallout TV show and the game series.

The second season of Fallout could reveal the answers to some pertinent long-standing questions from the games. Releasing early in 2024, Amazon's Fallout TV show expanded the lore of the beloved video game series like never before, being set in the same continuity as the mainline entries themselves. Season 1 of Fallout answered game mysteries that might've otherwise been left up in the air, forever the source of speculation only.

The release of Fallout's second season could come with a whole new crop of bombshells revealing the fate of lingering plot threads that never got a resolution in the games themselves. As the ending of Fallout season 1 implied that the oasis city of New Vegas could be the next locale explored by Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul, answers to questions posed by Fallout: New Vegas in particular could finally be followed up on. Upon revisiting the games, several notable mysteries spring to mind as being in need of explanation.

10 Why Did Mr. House Fill Vault 21 With Concrete?

What is Mr. House hiding access to in Vegas' vault?

Of all the Fallout series' most wild vaults, Vault 21 is perhaps one of the most likely to be seen in the upcoming second season. Nestled under the heart of the Vegas strip itself, Vault 21 was populated by gambling addicts, who used games of chance to resolve any and all quarrels and disputes. Surprisingly, the conditions inside Vault 21 were among the most pleasant of any non-control vault, forming an egalitarian society kept humble by chance.

Unfortunately, this all ended when Mr. House won ownership of the vault, intending to seal it off with concrete forever. House was persuaded into keeping parts of the vault open, turning it into a high-class novelty resort New Vegas' patrons could book nights in, but still filled the lower half of the vault with concrete. What exactly was in Vault 21 that Mr. House was so eager to block access to remains a mystery, but considering the Fallout show confirmed house had insider knowledge of Vault-Tec's dealings, it couldn't be anything good.

9 Who Is The Mysterious Stranger?

By far the biggest question mark in the entire series

With "mystery" in his very name, the Mysterious Stranger is by far one of the biggest unknown quantities in the entire Fallout universe. Appearing in every Fallout game in some form or another, the Mysterious Stranger can be accessed via a special perk. When entering combat with this perk, the Mysterious Stranger will have a low chance of appearing, instantly gunning down an enemy before vanishing just as quickly to the sound of an intriguing guitar riff.

The closest the Mysterious Stranger ever comes to appearing outside of combat is in Fallout: New Vegas, in which the player character can have a conversation with a man named the Lonesome Drifter. Heavily implied to be the son of the Mysterious Stranger, the Lonesome Drifter is a guitar player on a quest to find his absentee father and get some answers. Season 2 of Fallout just might provide some explanation or hint at the seemingly supernatural figure's origins or identity.

8 Which New Vegas Ending Is Canon?

Deciding on a single canon ending is a tricky prospect

Custom image by Ben Brosofsky.

As in every Fallout game, the player character of Fallout: New Vegas, known as The Courier, is capable of making some world-altering decisions that affect thousands of lives. In Fallout: New Vegas, who controls the titular city and, more importantly, the power of the Hoover Dam, is up to individual choice. The possible major winners are the NCR, Caesar's Legion, Mr. House, or a new, independent faction headed by the player themselves.

The cast of Fallout have had to somewhat skirt around the issue of which endings to the Fallout games were canon, the showrunners clearly not wanting to diminish the experience of any one player. However, with the NCR all but destroyed and the series headed to New Vegas, it's clear that season 2 will have to take a stance on a definitive ending for the game. With the NCR all but destroyed and the Caesar's Legion nowhere to be seen, it seems that either Mr. House or the Courier themselves were the most likely victors.

7 What Do The Zetans Want With Earth?

One of the most controversial elements in Fallout's lore

The Fallout series isn't afraid to get humorous, bizarre, and sometimes downright silly with its otherwise bleak post-apocalyptic world. This isn't proven better anywhere with the mysterious Zetans, classic sci-fi aliens that seem to have some kind of interest in Fallout's Earth. Though their canon status has been debated, the Zetans are indeed real in the Fallout storyline, their technology having been confirmed to be experimented on by Enclave scientists in order to produce the plasma pistol.

Fallout 3's DLC side story Mothership Zeta focused on the Zetans the most, abducting the player character and bringing them aboard their mothership. The aliens have been known to experiment with abducted specimens from Earth, even creating horrific hybrids by fusing human and Zetan DNA, but their ultimate goals remain unknown. It's unlikely, but possible, that season 2 of Fallout gives a glimpse of these aliens, possibly even unveiling what their plans are for Earth.

6 What Happened To The Rest Of The World?

Life outside the U.S. is something of a question mark in Fallout

The Fallout game series focuses on the continental United States, and is unlikely to ever venture much further beyond these boundaries. The fate of the world outside the U.S. largely remains a mystery, with only small details like Fallout 3's Allistair Tenpenny being a migrant from the United Kingdom or Fallout: New Vegas' Raul Tejada's immigration from Mexico sprinkled here and there. Some measure of civilization outside the U.S. does seem to exist, but how bad they were hit by nuclear blasts, if at all, remains to be seen.

One of Amazon's most controversial Fallout lore changes was the clarification that it was Vault-Tec, not China, that launched the first nuclear bombs. The truth of this false-flag operation could've had drastic consequences on the international community of Fallout's world if it weren't already beyond saving. At the very least, it's likely that the United States' retaliatory strike against China left the Asian continent looking just as bad as the wastelands of America.

5 Who Were The "Ghosts" The NCR Were Chasing In Mexico?

And how badly did they contribute to the NCR's fall?

Though the New California Republic may have been a mighty post-war government going into Fallout: New Vegas, the TV show has made it clear that the once prestigious nation has all but fallen. This may be thanks in no small part to a misuse of resources, with the NCR sending a valuable retinue of soldiers on a wild goose chase in Mexico. This is mentioned in Fallout: New Vegas NCR ranger leader Hanlon, stationed in the Mojave wasteland.

Hanlon expresses a desire for the then-president of the NCR, President Kimball, to send much-needed reinforcements to the Mojave in the wake of the increased aggression of Caesar's Legion. However, his request is rebuked, with Kimball opting to instead chase "ghosts" down in Baja, Mexico. Hanlon's words imply some red herring threat in Mexico the NCR saw as worth allocating resources on, prompting the question as to what had the NCR so scared that they'd divert forces away from fighting Caesar's Legion.

4 Did The Tunnelers Ever Make It To The Mojave?

One of the most terrifying mutant threats might be close to overrunning Vegas

As bad as the human factions of the series can be, the mutated wildlife of the Fallout series is a terrifying and ubiquitous threat. That goes double for the numerous Tunnelers, a new species of mutant encountered in the DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, Lonesome Road. Once human beings, the Tunnelers grew into a new species altogether after longform exposure to the Forced Evolutionary Virus, which turned them into feral, lizardlike creatures that lived in underground tunnels.

According to the primary antagonist of Lonesome Road, Ulysses, the Tunnelers might pose a significant threat to the Mojave wasteland. Forming vast networks of underground tunnels, Ulysses estimates that the creatures could utterly overrun the area by 2281, far before the year the TV show is set in, 2296. When the second season of Fallout enters the Mojave, it very well could be teeming with the terrifying burrowing monsters.

3 Who Were The Desert Rangers?

The mysterious faction that eventually became the NCR's most elite soldiers

One important location in Fallout: New Vegas is the unification monument, a massive set of scrap metal statues standing above the NCR's Mojave Outpost. The statue depicts two soldiers shaking hands, one from the NCR, and one from the mysterious Desert Rangers faction, symbolizing the former absorbing the latter to become the NCR Rangers. Though the rangers were seemingly always famous for their distinctive armor, how the group operated before coming into the NCR is a big blank space.

From what little information is given about the old Desert Rangers before they unified with the NCR, it's known that they were descended from the Texas Rangers. Their goals, motives, and organizational structure remain a big mystery, and it's possible that they could've survived the near-dissolution of the NCR following the events of the Fallout TV show. In any case, a history lesson on the Desert Rangers in season 2 would go a long way to clearing things up.

2 What Happened To The People Of Vault 19?

One of the most eerily empty vaults in the entire series

Most vaults in the Fallout universe end up being subject to some horrible fate, being either empty hollow shells filled with bodies or tombs of undiscovered horrors waiting to be discovered. Like many vaults, Vault 19 had an experiment, not unlike Fallout's Vault 32 and 33. The residents of Vault 19 were split into two groups, labeled red and blue, with two different overseers attempting to sow seeds of paranoia and distrust between the two with psychological means.

The end result of Vault 19's experiment is unknown. The vault was described to be already abandoned by the time it was discovered in Fallout: New Vegas, with none of the environmental storytelling skeletons typical of the series lying around to paint a picture of what happened. Where the residents of Vault 19 ended up before the convicts squatting in it by the time of the fourth game took over remains a mystery that the second season of Amazon's show could finally solve.

1 Who Is Behind The Talon Company?

The heartless mercenary organization has a mysterious benefactor

One of the most mysterious factions in Fallout lore the oft-forgotten Talon Company still needs an explanation after 16 years. Introduced in Fallout 3, the Talon Company is a ruthless cadre of mercenaries with no morals to speak of, fostering a reputation as heartless killers willing to do anything and kill anyone for the right price. In 2277, they were hired by an unknown entity to keep the Capital Wasteland of the DC area chaotic and lawless as best they could.

The Talon Company's mercenaries will go after the player character if they have good karma, insinuating that their employer simply wants the world to stay a worse place. Who would have the resources to do such a thing and what their motives could've been still remains to be seen, the series never giving a conclusive answer. If the Talon Company migrated further West in the 20 years since Fallout 3, Amazon's Fallout might finally shed some insight into this long-standing question.