The fourth episode of Fallout Season 2 has arrived, and it delivers major revelations about the fate of New Vegas and introduces one of the wasteland’s most terrifying creatures. Titled “The Demon in the Snow,” the episode released globally on January 7, 2026, on Prime Video. After a long journey, Lucy and the Ghoul finally reach the infamous New Vegas Strip, only to find it a deserted, monster-infested ruin. Meanwhile, Maximus’s actions spark a Brotherhood of Steel civil war, and new secrets threaten to tear the Vaults apart from within.
The Shocking State of the New Vegas Strip
For fans of the Fallout: New Vegas game, the depiction of the Strip in this episode is a major development. When Lucy and the Ghoul arrive, the bustling oasis of sin and civilization is gone. The entrance is littered with the wreckage of Securitron robots, and the iconic city is eerily silent and completely abandoned.
The brightly lit tower at the city’s heart stands as a lonely beacon in a otherwise dead zone. The Ghoul immediately senses something is wrong and repeatedly suggests they detour to the nearby community of Freeside to find out what happened. Lucy, however, is impatient and under the influence of Buffout, a powerful and addictive chem.
Walton Goggins brings a new level of tension to the Ghoul, who eyes the empty Strip with deep suspicion. The terror in his eyes at the episode’s end is a first for the normally unflappable character.
The only “residents” they find at the gate are the ghoulified remains of the Kings, the gang of Elvis impersonators from the game. They have turned feral. Lucy, fueled by her drug addiction, dispatches them in a violent, gleeful rampage that both impresses and unsettles her companion.
This ruined state of New Vegas appears to confirm a specific, controversial ending from the Fallout: New Vegas video game as canonical for the TV series. Evidence suggests that Mr. House, the ancient, machine-sustained ruler of the city, maintained his grip on power. A previously released trailer showed the Ghoul confronting House’s electronic face, hinting at his survival a decade after the game’s events. His continued rule is considered by many fans to be the “worst” possible outcome for the Mojave Wasteland.
A Pre-War Flashback and the First Deathclaw
The episode opens with a revealing flashback to Cooper Howard’s time serving on the Alaskan Front during the Sino-American War. He and his friend Charlie are equipped with early-model T-45 power armor, which is plagued with critical malfunctions. When Cooper’s armor fails during a Chinese ambush, leaving him helpless, a giant, horned creature attacks and slaughters the soldiers.
This monster is a deathclaw, and this scene marks its first live-action appearance in the series. The flashback establishes that these creatures were not created by post-war radiation but were instead engineered by the U.S. government as pre-war bioweapons. The deathclaw spares Cooper, a moment that haunts him and directly connects to the episode’s final, terrifying cliffhanger.
Lucy’s Dangerous Addiction and Changing Morals
Following her rescue from crucifixion, Lucy wakes up in a camp of New California Republic (NCR) holdouts. Unbeknownst to her, the medicine that saved her life was Buffout, a highly addictive performance-enhancing drug. As she and the Ghoul travel, she begins to suffer withdrawal symptoms: itching, heavy breathing, and erratic behavior.
Faced with a choice between a painful five-day detox or continuing to use, Lucy chooses the latter. This drug-induced state leads to a stark change in her personality. Her cheerful, optimistic demeanor is replaced by a “killcrazy” bloodlust. The Ghoul, while amused by her newfound ruthlessness, is visibly troubled when she dismisses the feral ghouls as “just ghouls” while murdering them. This shift signals a significant blurring of her moral lines, influenced by both the harsh wasteland and her dangerous companion.
Brotherhood of Steel Civil War Erupts
The episode picks up immediately after Maximus killed the Commonwealth emissary, Paladin Xander, to protect a group of ghoul children. To cover up the act and prevent the Brotherhood from attacking the children’s factory, Maximus convinces the ghoul Thaddeus to don Xander’s power armor and impersonate him.
The plan quickly spirals out of control. Thaddeus is a terrible actor, bumping into doors and mumbling through the armor’s speaker system. Back at the Brotherhood’s Area 51 base, various chapter leaders approach “Xander” to cut secret deals, creating a tinderbox of political intrigue.
Maximus confesses his plan to kill his adoptive father and leader, Elder Quintus, but when faced with the moment, he cannot do it. He instead confesses to killing Xander, explaining it was to save children. Quintus seems understanding until Maximus reveals the children were ghouls.
“Abominations! To be exterminated!” Quintus roars before a firefight erupts. Maximus’s friend Dane steals the valuable cold fusion relic during the chaos, and the different Brotherhood chapters, each believing another has betrayed them, open fire on one another. Maximus and Thaddeus escape into the desert with the relic as a full-scale civil war crashes a Brotherhood airship around them.
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mounting Crises and Secrets in the Vaults
Below the surface, tensions in Vault 33 reach a boiling point. A broken water chip has caused a severe drought, but Reg’s “Products of Inbreeding” support club still has access to water and snacks due to a clause in the Vault charter. Overseer Betty sees this as a political power play.
She meets covertly with Steph, the Overseer of Vault 32, in the forbidden space between their vaults. Betty begs for help, but Steph refuses unless Betty retrieves a mysterious keepsake box that belongs to Hank MacLean. Their meeting is witnessed by Woody, who naively reports the security breach directly to Steph herself.
Meanwhile, Steph’s husband, Chet, discovers her hidden pre-war wallet, containing a Canadian ID that proves she is over 250 years old, another Vault-Tec manager from before the bombs fell. The episode ends with Lucy and the Ghoul standing frozen on the empty Strip, staring down the gigantic, horned deathclaw that emerges from the Gomorrah casino. The creature’s roar echoes the one from Cooper’s flashback, confirming that New Vegas has fallen to the wasteland’s most iconic and deadly predator.
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