Fallout ending explained: Does Lucy rescue her father?

Well, Fallout season 1's ending certainly paves the way for another instalment, wrapping up the story with a myriad of twists, turns and shocking reveals.

If the ending of the show has left you scratching your head, read on for everything you need to know about Fallout's epic finale, so that you’re clued up ahead of a potential season 2.

But first, some context.

Much of this first season has revolved around the secrets contained in the head of a Fallout character named Siggi Wilzig. And no, not just the secrets that he knows. There is quite literally something very important embedded in his skull, which was separated from his body all the way back in episode 2.

Various forces have fought over this severed head, including Lucy MacLean, the naive protagonist who left her home in Vault 33 behind to retrieve her father from the Wasteland above. Then there's Maximus, a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel who ends up working alongside - and even falling for - Lucy.

By the end of episode 7, Maximus is forced to return to the Brotherhood, despite growing reservations about their goals, but in doing so, he tries to trick them by giving them the wrong head, buying Lucy time to get away.

Fallout ending explained: Does Lucy find her father?

The Fallout season 1 finale begins with the Brotherhood's leader seeing through Maximus's plan. Knowing he's in danger, the former squire says he can retrieve the real head – "I can lead you to it" – and his friend Dane backs him up. The leader agrees, deciding to team up with Maximus and start a new Brotherhood together using the power contained within Siggi's brain.

Meanwhile, Lucy finally reaches her father, only to find him trapped in a cage by Moldaver, the Vault overseer who snatched him away back in the premiere. Against an apocalyptic backdrop, Moldaver invites Lucy to a lavish dinner where a decaying ghoul is chained up, delirious, and no longer human.

Lucy is tempted to head in guns blazing – "I was going to walk in here and blow everyone up – but then Moldaver catches her off guard with the story of how she met her father and the truth behind who he really is. Lucy's brother Norm is about to uncover some secrets of his own too as he enters the forbidden Vault 31, despite the objections of a talking brain in a jar, but not before we see through flashbacks how Cooper's wife Barb helped orchestrate the apocalypse for Vault-Tec two hundred years prior.

"That's how we win capitalism," she tells a board of trustees from various companies. "Not by defeating our competitors, but by outliving them." As a much younger Cooper reacts to this shocking reveal via flashbacks, Norm finds out that the other interconnected vaults are inhabited by people frozen in capsules. This is the future of humanity, survival outsourced to private companies who don't care what happens to anyone as long as there's profit to be had.

That's not all the flashbacks have in store though, because this is when we also discover that a younger version of Hank, Lucy's father, was also around 200 years ago. He even asked Cooper for his autograph because back then, he was still a famous actor and not just a gunslinging ghoul.

There's no time to discuss Hank's impressive skincare routine though, because Lucy is too busy being shocked and appalled to learn that everything her father told her was a lie. Like, everything.

Moldaver reveals that Lucy's mother, who was once a friend of hers, found out that something was syphoning water away from their vault, which meant that civilisation had most likely returned to the surface. But when she told Hank, her husband just laughed it off. That's when Lucy's mum realised that he was hiding dangerous things from her, so she ran away and took the children to a city above ground which turned out to be everything the vault had promised but failed to deliver. Hank followed, snatched the kids away, and burned the city to the ground.

So that memory Lucy had of her mother, the one where it felt like the sun once shone on her face, was actually real because she really did go above ground, but was too young to fully understand what was happening.

What is Siggi Wilzig's secret in Fallout?

Moldaver then explains how the secret contained in Siggi's head, now in her possession, is actually cold fusion, a limitless energy source she plans to rebuild civilisation with. They could have clean water and even electricity again, which is great for hygiene at the very least, but only if Hank reveals the secret code that's needed to kickstart the process.

Lucy is more concerned with what happened to her mother though, and that's when she realises the truth. Her mother is in fact the rabid ghoul tied up at the dinner table. It's a horrifying moment, one which changes everything for Lucy. Hank relents then, handing over the code while he explains that Lucy's mother stopped being her mother before she became this monster, back when she snatched the kids away and put Lucy in danger.

"I had to make a choice between their violent world and our peaceful one," says Hank, as if that suddenly makes everything OK.

Meanwhile, Norm realises he's trapped in the other vault with all those frozen bodies and the brain in a jar. Looks like he'll have to freeze himself too or die of hunger and dehydration. Which is just as well really, because it's all kicking off on the surface when the Brotherhood suddenly arrive at Moldaver's New California HQ to claim cold fusion for themselves.

A lot happens then in quick succession. The Brotherhood descend with their helicopters, which the Ghoul fends off for a bit with the help of Moldaver's forces. Mid-battle, Maximus releases Hank from his cage, not yet understanding the truth behind what he's done. That is, until Lucy reveals he's the one who destroyed Max's city as a child. Amidst the confusion, Hank steals away the armoured suit and tries to steal Lucy away too, but she pulls Maximus's gun on him instead.

Lucy's frozen, unsure of what to do, but the Ghoul knows exactly what he wants. Firing off bullets of his own, he demands Hank – the guy who used to pick up his wife's dry cleaning – tell him what happened to his family after the bombs went off, all those years ago.

Hank escapes, flying over the side with the battle suit, but Cooper the Ghoul reveals he let Lucy's father go on purpose, "because it's easier to track a stick pig than ask where it's off to". He's hoping that Hank will lead him to the people who kickstarted this whole apocalypse in the first place, including perhaps his wife, but he doesn't want to go alone.

"When tin can soldiers take this place, they’ll kill everybody here," Cooper tells Lucy. "Or you can come meet your makers."

But before she does, Lucy decides to confront her other actual maker, her mother, by putting a bullet through her head. It's an act of mercy, but it's also a deeply painful moment that will undoubtedly change Lucy forever. This isn't the same naive woman who left the vault seven episodes previously.

"I'll find you," Lucy says to Maximus, and with that, she leaves to track her father with the ghoul's aid. Meanwhile, Moldaver kicks off the cold fusion process, lighting up the city before her as she sits dying next to Lucy's already dead mother. It turns out Moldaver was shot in the crossfire, but she managed to complete her mission still and watch the lights flicker on as the lights behind her eyes flickered off for good.

The remaining Brotherhood forces arrive then and assume that Maximus killed Moldaver to snatch victory for them. They cheer him on as their new hero, not realising that Maximus no longer wants to be a part of their sinister cult.

At the end, Fallout jumps ahead a bit to the Hollywood sign at night where Lucy and Cooper and the Ghoul's faithful dog have arrived. They're close now, it seems, and that's confirmed when we jump once more, this time to Hank in his armoured suit, as he stares at his final destination. It's New Vegas, aka Site X, where the people responsible for all of this death and destruction still reside.

It's the end, but not really still. Or at least, as long as Prime Video does the right thing and renews Fallout for at least one more season. To do anything else would be utterly ghoulish at this point.

Fallout is available to stream on Prime Video now. Sign up for a 30-day free trial of Prime Video and pay £8.99 a month after that.

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