Fallout Season 2 Avoided Making Any New Vegas Ending Canon By Disproving This Fan Theory

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Lucy Looking Out Over the Wasteland in Fallout

Published Feb 9, 2026, 10:01 AM EST

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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Fallout season 2, episode 8, "The Strip".

Fan theories began to swirl about the potential directions the Fallout series could be heading as Fallout season 2 came to an end. From Thaddeus turning into something definitively worse than a Ghoul to Hank still having more tricks up his sleeve, the show could have a few exciting reversals in its future.

One fan theory in particular focuses on the NCR sniper who saved Maximus from the Deathclaws in the season finale, "The Strip." This would be especially exciting for players of the game Fallout: New Vegas, but there's one problem: pretty much everything about the show's New Vegas story has Fallout season 3 heading in the complete opposite direction.

Fallout Season 2 Avoided Making Any New Vegas Ending Canon

Lucy and the Ghoul Looking Off Screen in Freeside in Fallout season 2

Players of the 15-year-old video game embody a Courier who finds themselves in the center of the Legion, NCR, and Robert House's battle for control over the Mojave Wasteland and New Vegas strip via the Hoover Dam. The Courier can opt to aid any of those factions on their path to victory, or go rogue and seize the power for themselves.

The Fallout: New Vegas conflict is significant and suspenseful as each faction carries its own nuance, and all the Courier's potential choices have a major, long-lasting impact on the future of the Mojave Wasteland.

Given the weight of the Courier's decisions, and the fact that the Fallout TV series is set a mere 15 years after the events of New Vegas, it seemed likely that the state of the TV show's Mojave would cement the outcome of Fallout: New Vegas and expand on its long-term ramifications.

But instead, the Prime Video series made a point to depict a Mojave that offers very little insight into the outcome of what's known as the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. The Wasteland has experienced an overall regression in the 15 years since New Vegas, with every faction seemingly worse off than they were before.

In a major climax of "The Strip," Legion and NCR troops descend on New Vegas with no acknowledgment that they've fought each other for this territory before. The computerized entity of Robert House still exists in the Lucky 38, an outcome unlikely in any event other than a New Vegas victory for him, though there's no other evidence of his success.

Ultimately, Fallout season 2 opted to largely ignore the impact of the Courier's actions in New Vegas, instead pointing to the Enclave as the entity that has been secretly responsible for the state of the Wasteland all along.

The Fallout TV Series Has Featured Very Few Characters From The Games

Other than Robert House, the only named video game characters who have made a significant appearance on the show are robots (New Vegas' Victor and Fisto). Even in moments where their absence is more conspicuous than their presence, the series has, by and large, avoided featuring characters who could very plausibly be in the show's timeline.

The Garret twins run the Atomic Wrangler in New Vegas, even spearheading the quest that brings Fisto into the picture, yet the show's Wrangler is run by an unknown face without comment. Season 2's opening scene takes place in Novac, home to fan favorite New Vegas character Craig Boone, yet the show's Novac has been taken over by the Great Khans, with no mention of its previous residents.

The series has even neglected to mention key New Vegas players in dialogue. Given all of this, it's highly unlikely that the Fallout TV show chose to feature the Courier themself in one of its most climactic scenes.

Featuring The Courier As The NCR Sniper Would Be A Major Statement From The Fallout Show

An NCR sniper firing their rifle from an elevated spot in Fallout season 2

Some fans are convinced that the NCR sniper who saved Maximus from the Deathclaws in "The Strip" is, in fact, New Vegas' Courier 6 (PC Gamer). But the biggest reason that's almost certainly not the case? It would undo Fallout season 2's consistent effort to divulge as little concrete aftermath of New Vegas as possible.

The show was reluctant to feature characters as comparatively insignificant as the Garrets. Revealing the Courier alive and well — and aligned with the NCR — would provide several instant answers to questions the Fallout series has pointedly evaded.

Nonetheless, that moment in "The Strip" was a satisfying recreation of the Fallout: New Vegas opening cinematic. Fans of the Fallout show may find peace accepting it as that and nothing more as we look towards season 3.