The seventh episode of Fallout Season 2 has arrived, delivering major plot twists and a moment that has the entire fan community talking. The episode, titled “The Handoff,” brings key characters to New Vegas and reveals the disturbing truth behind a pre-war politician. Most notably, a final scene has ignited a fierce debate among fans about the canonical fate of Mr. House and, by extension, the mysterious Courier from Fallout: New Vegas .
Major Revelations and the Head in the Jar
The episode provided answers while setting up the season finale. Lucy MacLean, determined to stop her father Hank’s plan to use a brain chip to control Wastelanders, discovers the core of his operation . To her horror, she finds the mainframe is powered by the preserved head of U.S. Representative Diane Welch, played by Martha Kelly . Welch was last seen in pre-war flashbacks arranging a meeting between Cooper Howard and the President .
This grotesque discovery suggests Welch was likely betrayed. Her anti-corporate ideals appear to have been used by Vault-Tec to “train” the mind-control technology, turning her into a tool to pacify the populace she once wanted to help . The episode also reveals the backstory of Steph, the overseer of Vault 32, showing her traumatic escape from an occupied Canada, which fuels her present-day desire for revenge .
The Ghoul’s Mission and Mr. House’s Return
Meanwhile, The Ghoul, teamed with Maximus and Thaddeus, fights through Deathclaws on the Vegas Strip to reach Lucy . His real goal, however, lies at the top of the Lucky 38 casino. Using the Cold Fusion diode, he powers up a large terminal in Mr. House’s old office .
The screen flickers to life, and the digitally preserved face of Mr. House appears, greeting the Ghoul with, “Well hello, old chum” . This moment confirms that the billionaire overseer of New Vegas has survived into the show’s timeline in some form. For players of the 2010 game Fallout: New Vegas, this is a monumental reveal, as House’s fate was directly in the player’s hands .
Did the Show Just Confirm a Canon Ending?
In Fallout: New Vegas, players control a protagonist known as The Courier. The game’s ending is not set; it depends on which faction the player sides with during the Battle of Hoover Dam . One of the possible conclusions is “The House Always Wins,” where Mr. House survives and secures control of New Vegas .
The show depicting Mr. House as active has led many fans to believe this specific ending is now official canon for the overall Fallout story. This implies that, in the show’s timeline, The Courier made choices that allowed House to live .
โSome Fallout fans believe the latest episode of Season 2โฆ confirms a New Vegas ending is canon,โ while others argue the showrunners have kept their word about not picking a definitive ending .
This has sparked passionate discussion online. Some fans express frustration, feeling it negates the purpose of player choice in the beloved game. โWhat was the point of playing the game if none of the decisions would have mattered anyway?โ asked one fan online .
Others offer different explanations, suggesting the figure on screen could be an advanced AI copy of House, not his living consciousness, which would leave the true fate of his physical bodyโand The Courier’s roleโambiguous .
What the Showrunners Said About Game Endings
Prior to the season, the show’s creators were aware of this delicate issue. Showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet explained the team’s approach was to honor the multiple endings of New Vegas without invalidating any player’s experience.
โWe approached it like โHey, we need to honor all of those endingsโ andโฆ came up with some great ways to sort of do thatโฆ with this idea of this fog of war in terms of what happened and what didnโt happen,โ she said .
Executive producer Todd Howard from Bethesda Game Studios echoed this, stating the show would “honor” all the conclusions from the game . This suggests the writers may have found a clever narrative workaround that acknowledges House’s existence without explicitly detailing how he survived or what happened to The Courier.
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Other Lingering Questions for the Finale
Beyond the debate over Mr. House, Episode 7 left several other threads hanging for the final episode. Norm MacLean is still trapped in a Vault-Tec facility, having discovered references to a “Forced Evolutionary Virus,” which may be connected to his vault’s dark experiments . Thaddeus’s worsening physical condition suggests his transformation into a Ghoul is not proceeding normally .
The episode also featured the first full appearance of the President of the United States, played by Clancy Brown, in any Fallout media . Set before the war, the scene shows him as deeply involved with the shadowy Enclave, raising questions about his potential role in the impending apocalypse . All these elements will converge as the characters’ paths finally cross in New Vegas for the Season 2 finale.
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