Fallout Season 2 Episode 7 Makes The Biggest Reference To The Games Yet

This article contains spoilers for "Fallout" season 2, episode 7 — "The Handoff."

The penultimate episode of "Fallout" season 2 takes the action very literally to New Vegas. As the Ghoul (Walton Goggins), Maximus (Aaron Moten), and Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton) team up to reach the Lucky 38, the former introduces some serious firepower to get through the Deathclaws everyone's so afraid of. While he's introducing the goods, the Ghoul also makes the most direct and interesting reference to the "Fallout" games the show has introduced so far: He all but name-drops the Courier, aka the main character of Bethesda's "Fallout: New Vegas."  

The New California Republic power armor that the Ghoul introduces looks like a version of the NCR salvaged power armor, which is a type of armored suit the Courier can wear in the game. what's more, the Ghoul makes an allusion to a very specific person who was able to rig the game and come on top of New Vegas. Immediately after this, the games' iconic theme music swells up. What Ghoul describes is more or less the elevator pitch version of the Courier's adventures during "Fallout: New Vegas," and the very pointed way the scene is set up sure seems like the show is doing its level best to nod at the Courier without actually naming the Courier. 

"Fallout" season 2 captures the original games more closely than season 1, but even so, throwing in such an obvious reference to the "New Vegas" player character is a step above and beyond. Granted, the power armor is different enough from the game version, which handily means that fans aren't immediately able to assume it's the exact same one that Courier wore and start forming theories about his fate. Still, there's very little chance that the mystery character the Ghoul seems to have known is anyone else. As if to underline this, there's another nifty little Courier reference later in the episode. 

When the Ghoul reaches his destination and reboots Mr. House's (Justin Theroux) system, an attentive viewer can glimpse a snow globe just beside the big red button. This is a reference to a series of seven snow globe artifacts that the Courier can collect in the game — and the globes he finds end up on display at the Lucky 38. It remains to be seen whether the "Fallout" season 2 finale continues to add to the pile of Courier references, but it already seems pretty clear that the show isn't shying away from the pivotal "Fallout: New Vegas" figure.

"Fallout" season 2 is streaming on Prime Video.