Fallout‘s first season on Prime Video raised the nightmare possibility that one of Vault-Tec’s most powerful enemies was actually an ally. The Enclave, the most despicable organization from the Fallout video games, had somehow acquired Vault-Tec’s most powerful technology, cold fusion. That wasn’t the only evidence of crossover between the two factions, but that fact alone hinted that they may have always been working together without most (or even all?) members on both sides ever knowing. Now, in Fallout season two, Robert House has revealed Vault-Tec probably didn’t drop the bombs that ended the world. At least not directly. Because the unknown player at the proverbial table, the powerful mysterious figure Mr. House can’t identify, the person he believes will drop the bombs and start The Great War, might be the leader of both The Enclave and Vault-Tec on Fallout.
In Fallout season two’s fifth episode, we learned we still don’t know who dropped the bombs. In a pre-Great War flashback, Mr. House told Cooper Howard that despite all of his knowledge and calculations, he still can’t figure out who will initiate nuclear war. House just said he knows it won’t be Vault-Tec. He does have a candidate, though. He believes the same person/entity responsible for Deathclaws is also responsible for beginning the Great War. That accusation inevitably leads us away from Vault-Tec to one main Fallout suspect: The Enclave.
Scientists for the United States government made Deathclaws. It’s unconfirmed, but it’s thought they used Enclave research in the creatures’ creation. Now it seems it’s possible someone from The Enclave, a person pulling many strings from the shadows, wanted them to have it.
Despite being the main villain of the video games, The Enclave has thus far had a surprisingly minor presence on Prime Video’s Fallout series. In season one, its role was mostly limited to Enclave Doctor Siggi Wilzig’s successful efforts to get cold fusion away from the organization. The fact that it ever had that world-changing tech in the first place was weird enough. How, out of all the many groups who would want the most powerful tech in the world, did The Enclave get cold fusion from an organization as influential and connected as Vault-Tec? What The Enclave didn’t do with cold fusion once they had it might explain that.
The Enclave always had access to the Vaults on Fallout. They did experiments on Vault dwellers and monitored what was happening in them. (That’s how Wilzig knew everything about Lucy.) Yet, despite that always curious accessibility, The Enclave never did the one thing it could have to actually use cold fusion on Fallout. It never woke up a Vault-Tec executive from cryogenic sleep to turn it on like Hank MacLean did in season one’s finale.
It’s not just a question of how The Enclave got cold fusion from Vault-Tec; it’s a question of why they didn’t employ it. But if one person—someone powerful, smart, and cunning enough to both initiate nuclear war and remain hidden from even Robert House— was in charge of both Vault-Tec and The Encalve, those questions and many others suddenly have an easy answer
Before The Great War, The Enclave was a powerful deep state within the U.S. government. It consisted of high-ranking officials, politicians, and generals. The group certainly prepared for nuclear war. Many members of The Enclave even wanted this disaster to happen on Fallout, same as many Vault-Tec execs. Some Enclave members also seemed to know when the bombs were coming. The group then considered itself the rightful heir to the United States government after the bombs fell. If anyone had both the ability and desire drop the bombs and kick off nuclear war in Fallout‘s world, it was a government official secretly in service to The Enclave. But that wouldn’t fully explain why someone as smart and connected as Mr. House wouldn’t be able to identify them.
How could Robert House not know about this person? For the same reason, although The Enclave and Vault-Tec always seemed like enemies on Fallout, no one ever knew one person controlled both.
If Mr. House is right (and he almost always is), the person who pushed the button and dropped Fallout‘s bombs had the ability to make Deathclaws. They also had access to nuclear codes and used both The Enclave and Vault-Tec to achieve their nefarious goals on Fallout. A person like that would need to be very smart, cunning, and ruthless. They’d also have to hide their true intentions and power from everyone, even those who served under them.
That person would be even more powerful than Robert House, a truly terrifying prospect. Even scarier? That player might still be sitting at the table. For all the reasons House might still be alive in Fallout‘s Wasteland timeline, the true leader of both The Enclave and Vault-Tec might also still be sitting at the table of this dystopia. The very person who created Fallout‘s dystopian wasteland might still be overseeing it. That would explain why this individual then spent two centuries waiting to use cold fusion. They were slowly learning, experimenting, and preparing to rule over a world they reshaped. And they continued to use both Vault-Tec and The Enclave, which have endured for centuries, as part of that mission.
The individual who controls both Vault-Tec and The Enclave might even be who Hank MacLean called when he reached New Vegas in Fallout season two. In season one, The Ghoul told Lucy, “There’s always somebody behind the wheel.” That person might never have given it up.
Fallout season 2 airs Wednesdays on Prime Video.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He’s also a Justin Theroux superfan now rooting for Mr. House. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.