Everything Lucy believed about her father shattered in Vault 24.
The surgical records. The preserved specimens. The documentation of experiments performed on living subjects. And at the center of it all: neural control chips capable of turning humans into puppets.
Her father Hank didn't just know about this technology. He perfected it. He's bringing the improved version to Mr. House.
And Lucy may be the only one who can stop him.
Connection to Mr. House
The chips tie directly to House's vision for New Vegas.
The History: House funded pre-war research into neural control. Vault-Tec conducted the experiments. The technology was nearly ready when the bombs fell.
The Setback: Nuclear war interrupted development. House survived in his life-support pod. The research was scattered across the wasteland.
Hank's Role: Lucy's father recovered the research. He continued development in secret, finally creating chips small enough to implant without detection.
House's Plan: With Hank's perfected technology, House can control New Vegas completely. Workers who never resist. Citizens who always obey.
The Trade: What does Hank get in return? Security for Vault 33? Power in House's new order? His motivations remain unclear.
Implications for New Vegas
The chips threaten everything the wasteland might become.
The Strip: New Vegas operates through commerce, entertainment, and violence. Controlled workers would replace that messy freedom.
The Workers: Imagine casino dealers, maintenance crews, and security forces who never steal, never rebel, never think for themselves.
Expansion: Once House perfects the system in Vegas, what stops him from spreading it? The NCR? Caesar's Legion? Every power in the wasteland?
The Economy: Controlled labor undercuts every free worker. The economic implications are devastating.
The Philosophy: House genuinely believes he's humanity's best hope. Controlled workers are more efficient. Less wasteful. Better.
This is what makes him terrifying.
Will Lucy Be Controlled?
The most disturbing possibility: Lucy herself becoming a chip subject.
The Threat: Her father has the technology. She's a vault dweller—exactly the kind of healthy subject the chips work best on.
The Horror: Imagine Lucy's personality intact but unable to resist. Watching herself serve House's agenda while screaming internally.
Narrative Power: This would be devastatingly effective storytelling. Ella Purnell playing controlled-Lucy would be heartbreaking.
The Counter-Arguments: Lucy's the protagonist. Making her a puppet for extended periods would be narratively risky.
The Ghoul Factor: Cooper wouldn't let this happen. He's seen what the chips do to people he loves. He'd tear New Vegas apart first.
Fan Theories About What's Next
The Fallout community has ideas about where this leads.
Theory 1: Lucy Destroys the Chips: She finds the central production facility and ends the technology forever. Classic hero narrative.
Theory 2: Ghoul Immunity: Ghouls can't be controlled due to their altered physiology. Cooper becomes essential to the resistance.
Theory 3: House's Own Technology Betrays Him: The chips have a flaw. House gets controlled by his own creation. Poetic justice.
Theory 4: Hank's Redemption: Lucy's father realizes what he's done and sabotages the technology himself. Father-daughter reconciliation through sacrifice.
Theory 5: No Clean Victory: The chips can't be fully destroyed. The wasteland must live with the threat permanently. Very Fallout.
The Most Likely: Some combination. Lucy disrupts House's immediate plans while the technology remains a future threat.