Clever Fallout Theory Explains How [Spoiler] Destroyed Shady Sands Alone

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for Fallout Season 1.

In the finale of Prime Video ’s Fallout, we learn who nuked Shady Sands and why. It was Hank MacLean all along — Vault-Tec’s appointee at the head of Vault 33, he single-handedly destroyed the capital of the New California Republic and killed thousands of people… All because his wife ran away and threatened to expose his secrets, and also the NCR was kind of blocking the sun.

But if we assume that Hank used nuclear bombs, things start falling apart quickly.

Hank Couldn’t Have Gotten Actual Bombs

The obvious option when you want to nuke a major city would be bombs, but that’s where we run into several questions. The biggest and most important one is, how could Hank MacLean, a low-ranking Vault-Tec employee, have gotten access to his corporation’s nuclear weapons? He could have called up his buddy Bud, sure.

But Bud didn’t have access to the bombs, either!

Bud is effectively a brain on a roomba, heavily restricted by his clumsy robotic body and put solely in charge of the Three Vaults experiment. And sure, maybe he could contact more high-ranking Vault-Tec bosses, but let’s be real: if they could bomb anyone they didn’t like, they would have been doing that on a regular basis.

There are just too many things and beings in the Wasteland the Vault-Tec snobs consider “trash,” and the NCR wasn’t the first powerful organization to rise there.

Hank MacLean Used a Different ‘Weapon’

In reality, Hank didn’t even need to have access to his corporation’s nuclear arsenal: he had a potent superweapon right there in his Vault. Most Vaults had G.E.C.K’s (Garden of Eden Creation Kits), special kits developed by Vault-Tec to ease the process of terraforming the Wasteland for the Vault Dwellers. Vault 33 did, too.

Guess what was included in each G.E.C.K? A cold fusion power generator!

By repurposing one of those kits into a weapon, Hank, being adapt in Science, could easily make it go kaboom at the center of Shady Sands. No authorization from the Big Bosses needed, even though Bud could have been in on it. But what this theory explains perfectly is why the destruction of Shady Sands was such a one-of-a-kind event — there were simply not many bastards like Hank hellbent on nuking cities.

Source: Reddit