Fallout season 2 ending explained: The Enclave, Colorado, and what it means for season 3

Polygon speaks to Fallout's showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet, series star Kyle MacLachlan, and Bethesda boss Todd Howard

Below, Polygon breaks down all the most important details from Fallout season 2 episode 8 with some help from showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet, series star Kyle MacLachlan, and Bethesda boss Todd Howard.

[Ed. note: Spoilers below for the Fallout season 2 finale.]

The Enclave: Fallout’s true villain, revealed?

Fallout season 1 kicked off when a scientist (MIchael Emerson) working for the mysterious Enclave defected, taking a breakthrough “cold fusion” invention with him. At the end of season 2, we finally learn a bit more about where that cold fusion really came from.

As revealed in Fallout season 2 episode 7, Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) managed to get his hands on the cold fusion device in the pre-nuclear wasteland era. Instead of giving it to the billionaire technocrat Mr. House (Justin Theroux), he handed it over to the U.S. president (Clancy Brown) in what he thinks is his best chance to save the world from nuclear war. This however, turns out to be a big mistake, as the president is working with (or perhaps for) a Deep State organization known as The Enclave. In episode 8, we get a similar version of this story told directly by Mr. House, who explains that The Enclave managed to outmaneuver him in the lead-up to the Great War of 2077.

The season finale also shows us a massive Enclave facility after an order is sent out to begin “Phase 2,” hinting that the organization could play a major role in season 3 and beyond.

For Todd Howard, the director of Bethesda Game Studios and executive producer on Fallout, the show offers an opportunity to learn more about one of the video game franchise’s most enigmatic factions.

“When we talk about the sort of world of Fallout — who are the power brokers behind the scenes and really controlling things? Often, not always, but often, particularly in the timeline we're at beforehand too, it's The Enclave,” Howard tells Polygon. “We want to keep them a mysterious group, but the show is a great opportunity because we can jump locations and do so many things with timelines to delve even deeper into The Enclave and what they're about and what they're ultimately up to.”

“They're obviously one of the scariest factions,” says Fallout showrunner Geneva Robertson-Dworet. “It also feels very prescient. When we started working on this adaptation, we were really interested in the corporatization of America, and corporate monopolies as villains. But given what's going on in the world around us, it seems like it is The Enclave, and the idea that people in government might be misusing power for personal gain and for their own ends, that's increasingly interesting.”

The Enclave is generally depicted as ruthless, fascist, and violent in the Fallout games. However, Robertson-Dworet hints that the show may offer up a more nuanced take on the group and its members.

“Is The Enclave going to be purely villainous or are there noble people in there too? Are they ever in the right? These are the questions that make Fallout so rich as you get deeper into the lore,” she says. “There's always more twists and turns and complexity to be uncovered.”

Adds Howard: “What's great about the world of Fallout is that every group is doing something that looks really, really bad for reasons they think are good.”

Will Fallout season 3 take place in Colorado?

Ahead of an early screening of the season 2 finale, Fallout’s showrunner, Geneva Robertson-Dworet, made a surprising announcement to the crowd of journalists and cast members: Season 3 would take place in a location the franchise has never visited before. Where is that exactly? Season 2’s finale may hold the answer.

At the end of Fallout season 2, The Ghoul (aka Cooper Howard) finally finds the secret vault where his wife and daughter were cryogenically frozen before the Great War — except, those cryo chambers are empty. All The Ghoul finds is a postcard from Colorado.

The Fallout games technically have depicted Colorado before. In the 2001 real-time-strategy game Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, players discover Vault 0, a secret base hidden in the mountains of Colorado where humanity’s smartest geniuses had their brains uploaded to a supercomputer known as the Calculator. Of course, because this is Fallout, the Calculator malfunctioned and went on a genocidal killing spree.

So is Fallout season 3 headed to Colorado? Quite possibly yes, but that’s also not necessarily the new location Robertson-Dworet was teasing.

“So there's a little lore in Colorado,” the showrunner says, “but also I want to clarify: The Ghoul is heading to Colorado, but where are Max and Lucy headed? And also The Ghoul has himself said, 'You will always be sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time.' Will he be hit in the face with some side quests and distractions from his main mission that would take him somewhere other than Colorado? It's important to note that the postcard is aiming him towards Colorado, but where we're actually going next season — we're not committing to anything quite yet.”

Asked the same question, Howard offers a much vaguer answer that suggests some aspects of Vault 0 may appear in Fallout season 3.

“We love going to new locations,” the Bethesda director says. “Fallout is so much about geography and what's coming up next season — there's a lot of surprises that are planned as far as geography.”

As for the question of Vault 0, he continues: “Canon is always tricky. We know Fallout Tactics well, and so we have to decide. If there are elements we absolutely want to use that serve the story, then we'll go ahead and use it. And where we don't have to explicitly say something, we won't.”

What happened to Hank’s brain?

Finally, let’s talk about Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan), who spent most of Fallout season 2 developing mind-control technology that could lead to a less violent Wasteland. Hank’s plan gets derailed when his daughter Lucy (Ella Purnell) finds him and objects to the plan. After a bit of debate, Lucy destroys the mind-control device factory. In response, Hank tries to implant his own daughter with a miniaturized version of the device, but with some help from The Ghoul, Lucy gains the upperhand and neutralizes her father instead.

In a final scene, Hank reveals that he’s already implanted these devices in countless test subjects scattered across the Wasteland. Then, he cranks up his own device, which appears to permanently erase his memory.

“He makes a sacrifice for his daughter,” MacLachlan tells Polygon, “and that's as much as I know.”

“He's stepping out into the unknown, in some ways,” he continues. “Hank has accomplished his mission. He set something in motion. Who knows if there are other nefarious things at play, we'll see.”

However, Lucy has bigger concerns at the moment. With both Caesar’s Legion and the New California Republic converging on New Vegas for what’s sure to be a bloody battle, Fallout season 2 leaves the Wasteland in an extremely precarious position. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long for season 3.

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Fallout season 2 is streaming now on Prime Video.

Disclosure: This article is based on a press event held in Las Vegas. Amazon provided Polygon’s travel and accommodations for the event. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.