What Liberty Prime Alpha means for season 3

Fallout season 2 is officially over, but not before ending with a twist that threatens to throw a wrench in the works for pretty much every single faction in the Wasteland.

If you’ve already watched the finale, but didn’t stick around past the credits, pause and go back to see what you missed. For the rest of you, let’s dive into what the Fallout season 2’s post-credits scene reveals, what it means, and how it could affect Fallout season 3.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Fallout season 2’s finale.]

What happens to the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout season 2?

Like almost every faction we’ve met in Fallout season 2, the Brotherhood of Steel is going through a major inter-organizational conflict. After Elder Cleric Quintus (Michael Cristofer) gets his hands on the cold fusion device from Maximus, giving the Brotherhood an effectively unlimited energy source to recharge technology like fusion cores, Quintus pushes forward with a new plan: breaking away from the Commonwealth chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel. As the leader of Saint Fernando’s chapter, Quintus wants to shift the balance of power from the New England-based Commonwealth to the West Coast, but he knows he can’t do that alone, so he reaches out to several other chapters.

Quintus convinces the chapters of Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Coronado to side with him by offering them a renewable supply of cold fusion cores. That is, until a paladin from the Commonwealth chapter, Xander Harkness (Kumail Nanjiani), arrives and reveals the Commonwealth know everything about Quintus’ planned insurrection.

Immediately, the chapters begin to distance themselves from Quintus, not wanting war with the Commonwealth. However, after Maximus kills Harkness to protect a mutated Thaddeus (as well as several ghoul kids), and steals the cold fusion device, total chaos between the chapters (including the Commonwealth) is inevitable.

As we see in the post-credits scene, civil war has engulfed the Brotherhood of Steel. Amid the sounds of fighting, Dane (Xelia Mendes-Jones) brings a rolled-up blueprint to Quintus. Quintus declares, “Quintus the Destroyer is born”, and looks far too eager to enact bloody violence on the rest of the Wasteland. He unveils a blueprint of a giant robot: Liberty Prime Alpha.

What is Liberty Prime in Fallout?

If you thought deathclaws, feral ghouls, and Caesar’s Legion were scary, then sit tight, because the reveal of Liberty Prime is the biggest mic-drop the Brotherhood of Steel could have pulled out by the end of Fallout season 2. However, to understand the importance of this weapon, we’ll have to revisit the events of the games, specifically Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.

Originally developed by the United States Army prior to the Great War as a weapon against the communist nation of China, Liberty Prime is a giant, mechanical robot designed to be the ultimate killing machine. Its purpose? Destroy communism once and for all. Liberty Prime’s hulking size means it could destroy settlements in a matter of seconds, and its overwhelming firepower and heavy armor make it a weapon few can stand against. However, the robot lacked a suitable power source and was never deployed during the pre-Wasteland skirmishes between the US and China.

After the nuclear bombs were dropped, Liberty Prime went unused until it was discovered by Elder Owen Lyons, the leader of the Capital Brotherhood of Steel chapter in Fallout 3. After many years of unsuccessful tinkering, Madison Li’s scientific research helped restore Liberty Prime to full capacity. With the Brotherhood of Steel now in possession of a weapon of mass destruction, the Brotherhood used Liberty Prime against their enemy, the Enclave.

Liberty Prime proved successful against both the Enclave and other Brotherhood of Steel enemies, but the good fortune couldn’t last. Eventually, the Enclave blew up the original Liberty Prime, placing the Brotherhood of Steel forces in a precarious position.

It was only years later, during Fallout 4, that Liberty Prime was once more restored, this time by the Commonwealth Brotherhood of Steel chapter, and given the name Liberty Prime Mark II. Depending on whether the player chooses to side with the Brotherhood of Steel or not, Liberty Prime can be used to take the fight to yet another enemy, the Institute.

However, if the player sides with the Institute, Liberty Prime Mark II is destroyed when the Brotherhood of Steel’s aircraft, the Prydwen, crashes into it. Which raises a rather important question…

What does Liberty Prime Alpha mean for Fallout season 3?

Image: Lorenzo Sisti/Prime Video

With war raging between the Brotherhood’s chapters and Quintus in possession of blueprints for a new Liberty Prime — this time an Alpha — the situation spells big trouble for anyone who gets in his way. As previously established, Liberty Prime isn’t easy to destroy, and considering Quintus has the blueprints, we have to assume his chapter is the only one that knows how to restore or rebuild this superweapon. That is, if Quintus can even find a power source powerful enough to bring Liberty Prime to life. Perhaps that’s where the cold fusion device, currently stored safely in Robert House’s Lucky 38, comes in.

As for what he’ll do with it, we speculate it’ll be used against the other warring chapters. However, considering the zealotry of the Brotherhood of Steel against outsiders — and especially undesirables like ghouls and supermutants — who’s to say where Quintus’s plans will end? There’s a whole lot of Wasteland out there, rich for the taking.

All episodes of Fallout season 2 are now streaming on Prime Video.