The Fallout show was full of easter eggs and hidden references for keen-eyed viewers. There were so many, in fact, that you probably missed quite a few. Some are less obvious than others, whereas some might take some familiarity with the games to understand. Here are 7 easter eggs you probably missed in the Fallout show.
Episode 1: Atomic Command
Early in the first episode, when Lucy introduces her family, we see her brother Norm playing on his Pip-boy. It’s an easy-to-miss moment, but if you look closely you’ll see he’s playing Atomic Command, one of the in-game minigames that was added in Fallout 4.
I spent way too much time playing Atomic Command when Fallout 4 was released, far more than any parent who has been cryogenically frozen for 200 years and is searching the Wasteland for their lost son should have. It was just too damn addictive. Shaun can wait.
Episode 2: Assaultrons
Anyone who’s played Fallout 4 will know that Assaultrons can be a real pain in the backside. These super agile robots fire laser beams from their eyes and can also mince you up with their claw-like hands. And on top of that, if you cripple their arms, they’ll activate their self-destruct and kamikaze you in a last-ditch effort to blow your face off.
The one that Lucy comes across in the desert is broken and deactivated. Assaultrons debuted in Fallout 4, so this is the first time we’re seeing one on the West Coast wasteland.
Episode 7: NCR Ranger Armour
The seventh episode begins with two lead farmers, Adam and his son Tommy, getting confronted by Walton Goggins’ ghoul at their homestead. Both of them are seen wearing what appears to be NCR Ranger combat armour, arguably the coolest-looking armour in the game and what appears on the front cover of Fallout: New Vegas.
Adam and his son likely scavenged this armour from the remains of two NCR Rangers. We don’t fully understand yet what’s happened to the New California Republic in the Fallout show, though by looking at Shady Sands, we can assume that it’s not currently in its best shape. Are the Rangers even still a thing? In Fallout: New Vegas these elite soldiers are among the best in the NCR, so some may have survived.
Episode 7: Hacking Minigame
When Norm hacks the Overseer’s computer in episode seven, he actually uses the hacking minigame from the game – meaning he must have a relatively high science skill. I’ve never been a fan of hacking in Fallout; I’ve always found it’s based more on luck than anything else, and usually find myself saving and re-loading until I get it right. And yes, I know that it’s save-scumming but I don’t care because it’s a viable way to play and nobody can tell me any different…
Episode 8: Mr House
As a New Vegas superfan, I pointed at my TV screen à la Leonardo DiCaprio when Mr House turned up at the Vault-Tec meeting.
For those not in the know, Robert House is one of the major players in Fallout: New Vegas. Using an army of security robots, House’s goal is to keep Vegas and the Strip independent of NCR and Legion rule. Think of him as kinda Ayn Rand’s libertarian philosophy of Objectivism come to life – satirizing the likes of real-life business magnates Howard Hughes and Walt Disney. By 2281, he’s in much worse shape than in the show, having lived on life-support for over 200 hundred years.
Remind you of anyone else? That’s right, House is extremely similar to Bioshock’s Andrew Ryan. He’s so similar to Rapture’s creator that there’s even a reference to him through an achievement you get for doing a certain thing with a certain golfing implement.
Episode 8: Frederick Sinclair
Frederick Sinclair is also a character from the game that’s crossed over into the show – from the aforementioned Dead Money expansion – though he’s only mentioned by other characters and seen as a rotten skeleton in his casino’s vault, he’s still important to the add-on’s plot. Sinclair founded and owned the Sierra Madre, a casino situated near the Grand Canyon that is surrounded by a cloud of poisonous mist.
Maybe not as important a character as Mr House, but this was still a cool moment for Fallout: New Vegas Dead Money fans.
Episode 8: OG Fallout Release Date
When Hank enters the code for the fusion tech in the final episode, keen-eyed viewers will notice that the numbers entered are the release date of the original Fallout – October 10, 1997.
I probably would’ve missed this if I hadn’t been on the original game’s Wikipedia page literally a few minutes earlier catching up on the lore. It’s strange to think that Fallout is so old. It’s probably older than most people currently watching the show (me included). It just goes to show you how long the franchise has been going.
Episode 8: Deathclaw Skull
Right at the end of the last episode, we get a look a one of the most iconic creatures in the Fallout universe, or the skull of one of the most iconic creatures in the Fallout universe – the Deathclaw. These genetically-engineered chameleons are the baddest of the bad when it comes to the creatures of the Wasteland; an apex predator that will absolutely shred anyone unlucky enough to wander into its territory.
I’d been hoping we’d see a live Deathclaw in the show. Sadly that wasn’t the case, though luckily it’s been confirmed that they will make an appearance in season 2 (yay!). Seeing as the show ends with Kyle MacLachlan’s Hank in the Mojave Wasteland, we might even see a Deathclaw mother.
For more Fallout, check out our review of the show, and read our ranking of the show’s overseers.
