Fallout Season 2 Sets Up A Shadowy Faction As The Big Bad Of The Show

Spoilers ahead for "Fallout" season 2, episode 6.

In "Fallout" season 1, Lucy (Ella Purnell) had a life-changing run-in with scientist Siggi Wilzig (Michael Emerson). Wilzig had defected from the Enclave and absconded with the highly-coveted Cold Fusion, which was lodged deep inside his skull for safekeeping. Lucy was forced to saw Wilzig's head off at his request upon his untimely demise, as he entrusted her with delivering Cold Fusion to his associate, Lee Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury). But while Wilzig's death was the catalyst for Lucy's journey in season 1, his associations with the Enclave weren't explored beyond the Cold Fusion storyline. This made sense at the time, as the show was focused on Vault-Tec's crimes, and that has remained the case in "Fallout" season 2.

Season 2, episode 6, "The Other Player," features Wilzig's surprising return in the form of a flashback involving Barb Howard (Frances Turner), who is seen grappling with the volatile nature of Cold Fusion after meeting the fake Robert House (Rafi Silver). House's body double gives his mind control prototype to Barb in exchange for Cold Fusion, which raises questions about the future and what it might look like. As soon as Barb asks her secretary to discover where Vault-Tec is storing Cold Fusion, she is approached in an elevator by Wilzig, who threatens her. Wilzig states that he's simply the messenger for a powerful organization that will hurt Barb's loved ones if she oversteps her bounds. He then reveals that the only way Barb can prevent this tragic outcome would be to declare that Vault-Tec intends to drop the bombs that will initiate the apocalypse during her big meeting with other industry hotshots.

In other words, it's clear now that the Enclave is the show's true big bad. But what does it want?

In the "Fallout" video games, the Enclave's noxious ideology co-opted pre-War patriotic slogans to justify its racist vision for humanity's future. Its bigoted worldview only became more extreme after the bombs fell, with the faction dedicating its efforts to eradicating hordes of non-Enclave survivors, including super mutants and ghouls. Meanwhile, "Fallout" season 2, episode 5's big Forced Evolutionary Virus reveal teased the most dangerous bio-weapon from the games, which is directly linked to the Enclave's horrific experiments before and during the apocalypse. But while it's not the only faction to conduct inhumane experimentation or toy with the lives of innocents, the Enclave is irredeemably evil, as demonstrated through its attempts to commit global genocide in "Fallout 2."

Vault-Tec is still guilty for causing a lot of harm, but it now seems that the end of the world wasn't orchestrated by Barb or her higher-ups. Rather, it's the Enclave that's been pulling the strings from the shadows. This paints Wilzig's eventual defection (and trust in Lucy's sense of morality) in a different light and complicates our understanding of Vault-Tec and its influence on world events. However, such a powerful faction cannot survive without a strong leader, so a new player may be introduced in future episodes.

The Enclave is also name-dropped in "The Other Player" after Ron Perlman's super mutant rescues the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) and tries to recruit him. "[The Enclave] call us abominations, but they created our kind," the character notes, as it seems the Enclave will be the pair's "common enemy" in the impending civil war. Indeed, this shadowy faction now appears determined to actualize its decidedly heinous vision of the future.

"Fallout" is streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping Wednesdays.