The first episode of season 2 of Fallout dug into the mystery of a lost vault.
Vault 24 was supposed to be in Fallout: New Vegas but was cut from the game. Fans only learned about it from finding a Vault 24 jumpsuit in the game files, which are only accessible via the console commands. Now it’s been made canon with some dark secrets.
What’s inside Vault 24?
In the season 2 premiere, “The Innovator,” Lucy and The Ghoul are heading to New Vegas. Lucy is looking for her father, Hank MacLean. The Ghoul is still searching for answers on what happened to his family. Their journey takes them into the Nevada desert, where they discover Vault 24 hidden behind the screen of a Starlight Theaters drive-in.
As they investigate the abandoned Vault they make a horrifying discovery.
Skeletal remains of the residents are strapped to metal chairs. Communist propaganda is still playing on the monitors in front of the bodies. Each resident has a Brain-Computer Interface Implant Chip or Black Box attached to the back of their necks. To her horror, Lucy realizes these residents were converted into communists. Vault 24 was a large-scale brainwashing experiment.
The connection to Robert House
The technology used in Vault 24 actually originated from the pre-war company RobCo. The Black Box was invented by billionaire/mastermind Robert House.
Before the Great War, House was developing mind control technology capable of influencing a person’s behavior. At some point, Vault 24 got their hands on the Black Box and even managed to make some improvements. Though they never fixed that little bug when the device makes the victim’s head explode.
We still don’t know if Vault 24 is the result of a mutual partnership between Mr. House and Vault-Tec. Or if Vault-Tec stole the Black Box sometime after the Great War.
It’s cool to see the writers include cut content like Vault 24 into the show’s story. Since the TV series is canon, we get to learn more about the experiments Vault-Tec subjected their residents to. With the Black Box shaping up to be the Macguffin for season 2, it’ll be interesting to see where Fallout is going to take this “mind control” arc in the near future.
