Fallout season 2 just confirmed the worst New Vegas ending is canon

This isn't the New Vegas we wanted or deserved.

The first season of Fallout was about as good as it could have been. The series managed to adapt the world of the beloved, post-apocalyptic video game franchise, while telling a new story in a new region, filled with new characters. It existed within canon, but didn't step on it to tell an original story. Then the season one finale teased a trip to New Vegas on the horizon.

As an ardent Fallout: New Vegas fan, I was of two minds. On the one hand, getting to actually see New Vegas and the entire Mojave Wasteland brought to life was an awesome prospect. On the other, the series is set 10 years after the events of New Vegas. Revisiting the Mojave Wasteland would most likely establish a single canonical ending to a game that was never supposed to have one.

[Ed. note: The following contains spoilers for Fallout season 2 episode 4.]

There are several possible endings to Fallout: New Vegas. None of them are the happier ever after you might be hoping for, but some are far worse than others. And unfortunately, it looks like the Prime Video series has chosen the worst.

As seen in the fourth episode ofFallout, "The Demon in the Snow," the New Vegas strip is dead, abandoned, and seemingly infested with deathclaws. We already knew the Legion had devolved into civil war and the NCR had been reduced to two members in the region. Most disappointing of all, we now know what became of the Elvis-worshipping Kings. They were turned into ghouls and used as fodder for a drugged out Lucy (Ella Purnell) on a killing spree. (Pour one out for our beloved pompadour-topped heroes.)

And yet, Mr. House remains alive. While we know him as the ultra-rich and powerful man that's part of the larger atomic bomb plot, he's also a formidable foe in Fallout: New Vegas. By that time, centuries after the bombs, House's body had aged and withered over the centuries since the bombs dropped, with his life now supplied by a machine he's plugged into, allowing him to remain in control of New Vegas.

In all but one of the Fallout: New Vegas endings, Mr. House is removed from power, whether that means you shoot him, remove his life support, or lock him away disconnected from the world outside of his small chamber. In the one where he lives, he uses his army of Securitron robots to rid New Vegas of the NCR and Legion, while ruling the strip with an iron fist, keeping New Vegas as close to what it was before the bombs as he can.

So you can imagine my concern that a previously released trailer for the season showed The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) coming face-to-face with Mr. House's electronic visage, hinting at his survival after the events of New Vegas. There's obviously more of the story to be revealed, but the New Vegas fan in me is annoyed that House is still plaguing the Mojave Wasteland a decade later. More than that, though, it's frustrating that if House survived the events of the game, it picks the game's worst ending as the one that happened.

Bethesda's Fallout titles all have multiple endings, but still manage to not step on each other in the franchise's overall timeline or geographical map. Fallout started that way and is now seemingly stepping on the franchise's best game and establishing a punishing ending as canon, allowing Mr. House to once again come out on top, at the expense of everyone else (like our beloved Kings).

The House really does always win.