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What we want to see in Fallout season 2: Deathclaw fights, aliens and a lot more Norm

April 19, 2024

🚩🚩 NOTE: Watch out for Fallout season one spoilers! 🚩🚩

Fallout season two has been confirmed—as if there was any doubt. The first season packed lots of post-apocalyptic goodness into its eight episodes, but the games are vast and one season just wasn’t enough for all our faves to get their time in the spotlight. The climax also left a lot of story threads hanging in the irradiated air, leaving us as hungry as a gulper for more.

The finale gave us a glimpse of New Vegas, so we know at least part of the show will be set in the gambler’s paradise, and showrunner Graham Wagner has already confirmed we’ll be seeing deathclaws—hinted at by a deathclaw skull at the end of season one—but here’s what else we’re hoping for.

Deathclaws vs power armour

(Image credit: Prime TV)

Fraser Brown, Online Editor: The brief scrap between Knight Titus and a yao guai in the first season might have been short lived, but it was still one of the best brawls in the show. Up until that point Titus seemed like a stoic, indomitable tank of a man, but the mutant bear shredded his power armour and quickly revealed him to be a big ol’ coward. In fairness, who wouldn’t run? Still, the seconds before his cowardice took over were badass, and watching a yao guai and a dude in power armour essentially box really got the blood pumping. Now I want to see how power armour handles a deathclaw.

Honestly? My money’s on the deathclaw. Power armour is slow, and we’re yet to see anyone using it who’s actually competent—sorry Maximus, I love ya, but you can’t fight for shit. Even Thaddeus beat you! Regardless, it’s bound to be a brawl worth watching. Or maybe it’ll just be like watching a tin opener making short work of some tinned peaches. Either way, I want a front row seat.

Return of the Enclave

Siggi Zilwig

(Image credit: Prime TV)

Fraser: Despite Wilzig being an Enclave defector, and the former US shadow government probably being keen to get back the secrets of cold fusion, it never crops up again after the first episode. It’s a weird omission. In the first season, much of what the organisation is all about is instead attributed to Vault-Tec, its one-time partner, but as the architect of the plan to make Vaults nightmarish social experiments, I’m hoping it’ll have more of a presence in season two.

Maybe Amazon can even give us some Enclave deathclaw soldiers. The Enclave wasn’t responsible for creating deathclaws, but it did try to weaponise them, the results of which we end up seeing quite a bit in Fallout 3, where Enclave bases feature domesticated deathclaws who don’t attack Enclave troops, but will gladly slice players up.

Rich Stanton, Senior Editor: Yeah, I found it weird that the show gave us a glimpse of a faction that really seems to have its shit together, with facilities, assets and knowledge no other group has, then it just disappears.

It’s the one surface location that’s actually clean, orderly (OK fascist orderly, but orderly), and looks like something resembling a society rather than a shanty town. I guess it’s just being saved for season two but I’d love to see a lot more of how the Enclave works, its doomed attempts to hold onto some remnants of the old order, and how it intersects with other factions. The one nugget we got in season one was Wilzig’s extensive knowledge of Lucy and the vault experiments, so we know the Enclave is in deep cahoots with Vault-Tec.

The House always wins

Sean Martin, Guides Writer: Did luck finally run out for New Vegas? There’s been a lot of debate about New Vegas canon and what actually happened in the post-apocalyptic gambling strip, but for better or worse, season two is likely going to lay out the city’s fate in definitive terms. We’ve already seen the decline of the NCR in the show with Shady Sands and the trashed streets of New Vegas itself in the final episode’s credit sequence.

At the same time, there aren’t legion banners hanging from the Lucky 38, so it’s likely that neither the NCR or Caesar’s Legion won at the battle of Hoover Dam. Does that mean an independent New Vegas? Or perhaps that even Mr. House is still kicking around? After all, the eponymous head of RobCo Industries did get a cameo in the TV show during a meeting with Vault-Tec.

While it feels a little out of character for him to collude with another faction, I would love it if we got to see the mouldering magnate again. Sadly, Robert House’s incredible voice actor from the game, René Auberjonois, passed away in 2019, so wouldn’t be able to reprise his role. I suppose there’s just as much chance that we could roll up to the Lucky 38 and be greeted by Yes Man—now Yes Man would make for an incredible TV character.

Norm, Norm, Norm!

Norm

(Image credit: Prime TV)

Mollie Taylor, Features Producer: I found Norm to be kinda twerpy in the first episode, and expected his presence to end past those first 75 minutes. I’m so happy I was wrong though, because Norm is the secret fourth protagonist, and the best one in the entire show. His poking around the Vaults, noseying around in places he shouldn’t and bringing his dim cousin Chet along for the ride is the most interesting—and Fallout-esque—story arc this season has to offer.

Like, I know that Lucy, Maximus and the Ghoul get up to a lot of stuff on the surface, but I can’t help but feel like Norm made more progress in uncovering the dark and shady goings-on than anyone else. I could have happily watched an entire season of him hacking, sneaking and questioning his way through Vaults 31, 32, and 33, and I sincerely hope he gets more screen time in season two. If he’s not too busy snoozing away in Vault 31’s cryo pod, that is.

Rich: Norm ended up my favourite character in the show, and they managed to make his gradual discovery of Vault 31’s purpose feel like a high-stakes thriller. I also adored the ending reveal of Bud Askins as a brain-in-a-Roomba and the concept of Bud’s Buds, but mainly because I instantly thought of Cooper’s wife.

Season one ends with Lucy and the Ghoul wandering off into the wasteland for their next adventure, and now we know his purpose: find his family. Well, one idea would be that Barb and Janey are chilling out in Vault 31, where all the Vault-Tec higher-ups we see in the final episode appear to have come from (Hank, Betty and Steph).

So I reckon there are two possibilities. One is that Hank is going back to Vault 31 at some point, because that man now needs allies, and Vault-Tec certainly seem to stick together. The other would be that, at some point, Lucy and Ghoulggins find out about Bud’s Buds or Vault 31, and go there to get his wife and kid, and incidentally bust out Norm. Hell, both could happen at once.

Ghoul times with Thaddeus

Fallout TV series - Squire Thaddeus wears a sopey grin in the wasteland

(Image credit: Amazon Studios)

Fraser: I’m a big Norm stan too, but there’s another character who I started off hating but who became a fave: Thaddeus the unlucky squire. The last we see of him, he’s trying to put some distance between himself and the Brotherhood, upon realising that he’s transforming into a ghoul. Never trust a snake oil salesman—especially when they shag chickens. We haven’t really had a chance to see this transformation before—we usually just see the end result—but now we’re gonna get to watch a dude’s nose fall off. Exciting!

I’m looking forward to seeing how he’ll adapt to this new situation, and what scrapes he’ll get into as he tries to get his hands on the drugs that will keep his humanity intact. While Cooper’s story is a tragedy that turned him into a gritty bounty hunter, I think it’s a safe bet that Thaddeus’s is going to keep being a comedy of errors.

Let Lucy be good

A person smiling and using a wrist computer

(Image credit: Prime TV)

Lauren Morton, Associate Editor: At the end of season one, Lucy is at a crossroads, alignment-wise. For the full first season she’s a relentless bright spot in a screwed up wasteland, constantly doing right by others in any way she can. In the final moments of the season we watch her mirror a decision that parallels one the Ghoul made earlier, and of course we’ve heard him tell her that “I’m you, just give it time,” or some such. But watching yet another naive character turn “morally grey” in the wasteland after realizing the ends justify the means would be so boring. I mean that’s already the Ghoul’s entire thing in his own backstory, right? (And the thing of way too many other characters in gritty made-for-streaming shows right now.)

Now that she’s officially teaming up with the Ghoul, I just want Lucy to stay as good as she was in the first season. Characters shouldn’t stay static, and that’s not what I’m asking for. But I’d rather see Lucy’s goodness challenged and solidified by new experiences. So please let Lucy stay a good person who learns to reject even the things she thinks she loves—the vaults? Maybe Maximus?—when they’re shown to be in the wrong. It makes for a much more interesting story if her proximity to the Ghoul continues to show how they’re different, not the same.

Rich: Okey-dokie! The writing team did such a tremendous job on Lucy’s dialogue, which has an almost uncanny quality at times: almost like it’s machine-programmed. And of course in a sense Lucy has been programmed, not just by Vault 33 but by her father, who by the looks of things is now going to be a main antagonist.

For me that’s where Lucy’s character and the question of morality in the wasteland could get interesting, as she pursues the man who raised her, loves her, and committed an atrocity for her. The best thing about Hank is that he’s not a baddie by his own lights. I think the question of what he’s going on to do, desperate and exposed as he is, is going to surprise Lucy, and you know that at some point the confrontation is coming.

Alien encounters

Alien invaders in Fallout 76

(Image credit: Bethesda)

Chris Livingston, Senior Editor: Aliens appear, in some fashion, in Fallouts 1-4, New Vegas, Fallout 76, and Fallout Shelter. I’m not asking for an alien character or even a storyline, but I wouldn’t object to a crashed ship showing up somewhere in season two, maybe a quick glimpse of a flying saucer, or even just one of their cool blasters. It’s tradition.

Fraser: Seconded! While they don’t have a huge presence in the games, aliens, and in particular the Zetans, have had a big enough impact so that we can consider them more than funny little easter eggs. Alien tech is responsible for a lot of Enclave advancements, it’s the basis for the Skynet AI, and alien weaponry is featured in nearly every game. A proper alien encounter might be just a smidge too wacky for the TV show, but like Chris says it would be wonderful for this Fallout tradition to just get a nod.