Since Fallout: New Vegas launched in 2010, fans have wondered about the vaults mentioned but never explored. Vault 24 was one of those mysteries—referenced in terminals, hinted at in dialogue, but never actually visited.
Fallout Season 2 finally takes us inside. And what Lucy and The Ghoul find there is among the franchise's most disturbing revelations.
Warning: Full spoilers for Fallout Season 2 ahead.
What Lucy and The Ghoul Found
Their journey to Vault 24 wasn't accidental. Intelligence suggested Hank McLean—Lucy's father—had visited the vault before reaching New Vegas.
The Initial Discovery: Unlike other vaults, 24 appeared abandoned. No dwellers, no bodies, no signs of the usual vault experiments gone wrong.
The Laboratory: Deep in the vault, they found surgical suites. Medical equipment. Documentation of procedures performed on human subjects.
The Subjects: What made this vault unique: its subjects weren't vault dwellers. They were Chinese prisoners of war, captured before the bombs fell and brought here for experimentation.
The Purpose: Vault-Tec wasn't just conducting experiments. They were developing mind control technology—and using "enemy combatants" as test subjects.
The Mind Control Connection to Mr. House
This is where Vault 24's history intersects with the present.
The Technology: The experiments in Vault 24 developed neural implants capable of controlling human behavior. Crude at first, but eventually refined into something terrifying.
Robert House's Interest: Mr. House—the pre-war billionaire who now controls New Vegas—funded the research. His money, his technology, his vision.
The Goal: House wanted controllable workers. A population that would obey without question. The perfect servants for rebuilding civilization under his control.
The Connection to Hank: Lucy's father visited Vault 24 because he's continuing the work. The miniaturized chip implanted in Cooper's wife 200 years ago? It came from research that started here.
The Horror: Generations of Vault-Tec experiments led to technology that strips away free will. And House is using it.
Communist Brainwashing Program Explained
The vault's official purpose adds another layer of darkness.
The Cover Story: Officially, Vault 24 studied "communist propaganda techniques" to develop counter-measures for American soldiers captured in the future.
The Reality: They weren't studying enemy techniques. They were developing their own—more sophisticated, more complete, more invasive than anything the Chinese supposedly developed.
Cold War Paranoia: The pre-war government so feared communist brainwashing that they created something far worse. Classic Fallout irony.
The Subjects: POWs had no rights under Vault-Tec's ethics committee. They were experimented on without limitation, many dying in the process.
The Survivors: Those who survived the experiments became the first test subjects for the control chips. What happened to them afterward remains unknown.
How This Ties to Season 2's Plot
Vault 24 isn't just backstory. It's central to everything.
Lucy's Transformation: Seeing Vault 24 changes Lucy fundamentally. She grew up believing vaults were safety. Now she understands they were laboratories.
The Ghoul's Recognition: Cooper Howard remembers the pre-war whispers about "special projects." He knew Vault-Tec was corrupt. He didn't know how deep it went.
Hank's Mission: Lucy's father is bringing the perfected technology to House. The research that started in Vault 24 is about to be deployed on a massive scale.
The Stakes: If House gets what Hank is delivering, he can control New Vegas completely. Every human in the city could become a puppet.
Why It Matters: Vault 24 represents Fallout's core theme: the pre-war world destroyed itself not through foreign enemies, but through its own corruption. The monsters were always inside.
Connections to Fallout: New Vegas
The show rewards game players with deep cuts.
Terminal Entries: New Vegas contained fragmentary references to Vault 24. Terminals in other locations mentioned it as a "secure research facility."
The Platinum Chip: The games featured House's Platinum Chip—a data storage device. The show's mind control chip may be an evolution of related technology.
Big MT: Fallout: New Vegas's Old World Blues DLC explored pre-war science gone wrong. Vault 24 fits perfectly into that tradition.
The Institute: Fallout 4's synths raised similar questions about consciousness and control. Vault 24's technology is the ancestor of those themes.
For New Viewers: You don't need game knowledge to understand Vault 24. The show explains everything. But long-time fans will appreciate the connections.