Fallout season 2's premiere, "The Innovator," wastes no time giving Mr. Robert House (Justin Theroux) his live-action debut, but in introducing the video game character to Amazon's branch of the franchise, the show also implies a stealthy retcon has taken place. If not, then there's some serious theorizing to be done about how two things can be true at once.
Originally voiced by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Rene Auberjonois, Mr. House played a major role in 2010's Fallout: New Vegas. Thanks to Amazon's decision for the Fallout show to be set within the same continuity as the games, Theroux's version of the character is the exact same iteration as his video game counterpart. So, any new reveals in the show also retroactively flesh out the canon of New Vegas and the franchise at large. With that in mind, let's delve into how Fallout season 2's first scene allows Mr. House to perhaps break the universe's canon.
FULL SPOILERS ahead for Fallout season 2, episode 1, "The Innovator."
Fallout's new Brain-Computer Interface Chip is just Fallout 3's Mesmetron by a different name
In "The Innovator," Mr. House demonstrates that his company, RobCo Industries, has apparently invented a device that can hijack a person's consciousness and force them into a state of obedience. Attaching the Brain-Computer Interface Chip to the back of a man's neck makes him attack his friends, and Mr. House watches in pleased satisfaction as the device carries out its function without issue. Well...until it inadvertently causes the man's head to explode.
In the games, RobCo is responsible for a great many inventions, but the device shown during this sequence isn't one of them. It's original to the show, but as a result, does now technically exist in the games. However, another in-universe company, Implied Hypnotics Inc., did invent a weapon called the Mesmetron. Like the Brain-Computer Interface Chip, it allows someone to give another person orders that they can't help but follow. There is even the unfortunate chance of something called "spontaneous cranial eruption." For those who don't speak Fallout corporate, that means it can also explode heads.
Why Fallout's decision to replace the Mesmetron is a weird creative choice for the Amazon show
As mentioned earlier, Fallout isn't like other video game adaptations. In fact, it's barely an adaptation at all. It's more of a spinoff or sequel, because it doesn't mark the start of an alternate version of the story like so many of its peers. While other video game shows can freely make big alterations like this, Fallout is a little more restricted in this sense. Everything that exists in the games also exists in the show, and vice versa.
So, in Fallout canon, the Mesmetron and Mr. House's mind-control chip were both developed to do the exact same thing, and they each have the potential for the same macabre side effect — exploding heads. If the two arms of the franchise didn't share a continuity, this would be fine. In the Fallout universe, it sort of toys with the fourth wall that doesn't seem particularly playful. It just comes across as a rewrite, and that doesn't fit the adaptation's formula.
Replacing the Mesmetron is strange, but understandable for storytelling reasons
The Americans being brainwashed to become communists in Vault 24 ultimately turn out to have a strong connection to Mr. House's Mesmetron replacement. The device fit in nicely in "The Innovator" because it can be replicated thanks to RobCo's vast resources. In theory, the Mesmetron could have been used to achieve said brainwashing, but the game canon does actually restrict that.
In Fallout 3, the Mesmetron is categorized as a unique item, which means there is only one in the entire game. It also never shows up in any other installment. So, by the rules of the games, which the show also abides by, there can't really be another. Implied Hypnotics had already folded after the war, so there'd be no way to locate another or have one assembled. Therefore, for the task of brainwashing Americans, RobCo needed to build something very similar from the ground up. Little do they know, they weren't being as innovative as they thought.
There is room in Fallout canon for the Mesmetron and Mr. House's mind-control chip to exist in harmony
Later episodes of Fallout season 2 may very well explain why Mr. House has a new form of mind control rather than the franchise allowing him to use the Mesmetron. Unfortunately, it doesn't explore this in the premiere, so we're left to come up with our own theories. There are plenty that work, though, despite the fact that it very much seems like a production/writing decision rather than a purely artistic one.
It's canonically true that both RobCo and Implied Hypnotics were in operation before the war that reduced the Earth's surface to a nuclear wasteland. So, it's very possible that one stole an early concept from the other and arrived at a different device that ultimately did the same thing. If so, then it's only the fact that Implied Hypnotics folded in the war that means RobCo's version continued to be developed and refined. There, I fixed it. Even if this turns out not to be true as Fallout progresses, I think we can all agree that this makes sense.
Fallout season 2 is streaming now Prime Video.