The final episode of Fallout season 2 finally answers the big question of the saga: who caused the nuclear war?

With the premiere of the eighth and final episode of season 2 of Fallout, this new stage of the popular Prime Video series adapted from Bethesda’s video games has come to an end. As usual, this episode has featured numerous juicy revelations, especially regarding the narrative background of the games. For the first time in the franchise, clear indications are given about the true identity of the instigator of the global nuclear conflict that devastated the planet.

Author’s note: for obvious reasons, this article contains spoilers for Fallout. You have been warned!

It was an open secret: Fallout season 2 reveals who started the nuclear war

The second season of Fallout has partially adapted the video game Fallout New Vegas, so the action has moved to the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. The flashbacks in the new episodes, also set in Sin City, focused on the political intrigues and machinations in the days leading up to the fateful day when the first bomb fell.

In episode 5, Cooper Howard came face to face with Robert House, who concluded that if neither he nor Vault-Tec had any interest in starting a world war, there must be a third “mysterious player” pulling the strings behind the scenes. In the seventh episode, it was revealed who this was: the President of the United States himself. Believing that this would prevent the impending war, Howard handed over the cold fusion technology, completely unaware that his actions would condemn the planet.

The character, played by Clancy Brown, is not credited with a name—nor is he relevant to the plot—but the most disturbing revelation comes in the eighth and final episode. In it, in the present, the Ghoul tries to find his wife and daughter with the help of House, who has transcended corporeal existence after digitizing his consciousness. As they wander through the miles of corridors of the Vault-Tec underground bunker, House confirms that Howard did indeed become another cog in the catastrophe by delivering cold fusion to the president.

“The Enclave has eyes everywhere. You should know that, Mr. Howard. Two hundred years ago, you yourself gave them that diode, making possible the greatest threat to the Wasteland. You were their unwitting servant,” House remarked. This establishes that the last president before the war was part of the Enclave, a secret organization that has been operating in the shadows for more than two centuries. The chapter also reveals that Hank MacLean and Stephanie Harper were husband and wife—the parents of Lucy and Norm—and also belonged to the Enclave.

Ultimately, Fallout still does not reveal who physically pressed the launch button for the first nuclear missile, but it makes it clear that the Enclave was the real instigator of the Great War, using its political, technological, and strategic influence to precipitate a conflict that was already considered inevitable. The “how” becomes irrelevant compared to the ‘who’ and even the “why”: the series points directly to this organization as the main culprit responsible for the end of the world as we knew it. With this revelation, Fallout not only clarifies one of the biggest mysteries of the saga, but also positions the Enclave as the main antagonists of its third season, which has been confirmed but does not yet have a release date.

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