The second season of Prime Video's hit Fallout adaptation is delving deeper into the game's lore, with the latest episode serving up a perfectly preserved treat for long-time fans. The second episode, which landed on the streamer on December 24, 2025, contains a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment that confirms a bizarre part of the franchise's universe has made the jump to live-action.
A Chilly Discovery in the Wasteland
In a scene where soldiers from the Brotherhood of Steel are sifting through pre-war technology, their attention turns to a 1950s-style freezer. Upon opening it, they find the frozen corpse of an alien. In a moment of dry, post-apocalyptic humour, one soldier is utterly unphased by the extraterrestrial, instead marvelling at the appliance itself as a 'real ice box'.
This throwaway joke is, in fact, a significant nod to the expansive world of the Fallout video games. While the show's second season is heavily influenced by Fallout: New Vegas—shifting the action to the Mojave Wasteland and introducing its iconic factions—the creative team is weaving in references from across the entire franchise.
Aliens in the Fallout Games: A Long History
The appearance of aliens, or Zetans, is far from new in the games. Their presence has been a quirky staple since the very beginning:
- In the original Fallout, players could randomly stumble upon a crashed spacecraft with alien skeletons, yielding a unique weapon.
- Fallout 3 expanded this with the Mothership Zeta downloadable content, a full questline involving alien abduction and a spaceship battle.
- Choosing the Wild Wasteland trait in New Vegas could trigger an encounter with a hovering UFO and three non-hostile aliens.
- Fallout 4 featured a random UFO crash site, complete with a garbled radio signal and an alien pilot to defeat for its blaster.
- Even the online Fallout 76 has featured alien corpses and limited-time events like Invaders from Beyond.
More Than Just Aliens: A Dual Reference
The joke in the TV series works on two levels. Firstly, it confirms that aliens exist within the show's canon. Secondly, it continues a running gag from the games about discovering things—and people—inside refrigerators.
This is a clear homage to the infamous Kid in a Fridge side quest from Fallout 4, which itself was a reference to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In that film, Indy survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a lead-lined refrigerator. This iconic scene also seemingly inspired the origin story for the character Maximus in the Fallout series.
The latest season of Fallout is streaming now on Prime Video, continuing its blend of brutal wasteland drama and the dark, referential humour that defines the games.
