Fallout is full of little nods to the games, some of which went over the head of series creator Tim Cain himself. With that many deep cuts squirreled away in the show, we’re still talking about potential references a week later, and one of the more perplexing involves the Snake Oil Salesman that Lucy and Maximus run into in the show’s second episode.
Heads up, we’re getting a little spoiler heavy from here on out, so don’t say we didn’t warn you.
If you’ve watched all of Fallout, you’ll know that the Snake Oil Salesman plays a pretty key role in the story. After fighting with Maximus and breaking his foot in the process, Thaddeus comes across the man and is given some medicine in exchange for a Power Core. When Thaddeus takes this medicine, his foot is instantly healed, but he is then told that the serum he took has turned him into a Ghoul.
From what we know of the games, being turned into a ghoul doesn’t give you magical regenerative properties, so Fallout fans have sat down and put their detective caps on to try and figure out exactly what the serum that Thaddeus takes actually is. There are a couple of interesting theories floating around at the moment (thanks IGN), including a fairly strong one that points at a potential reference to Fallout 4.
Thaddeus Injected Himself With The Blood Of Lorenzo Cabot
Our first theory comes from Twitter user TKs-Mantis, who reckons Thaddeus injected himself with the Mysterious Serum from Fallout 4, a serum derived from the blood of the immortal Lorenzo Cabot. For those that don’t know, Cabot achieved immortality after finding and wearing an artifact from the Rub’ al Khali desert in the Middle East, granting anyone who took the Mysterious Serum derived from his blood immortality.
Unfortunately, the serum doesn’t cause Ghoulification in the game, which Thaddeus contracts, but that’s where a theory from Twitter user Wasteland Medic comes in. Instead of the Mysterious Serum, they believe Thaddeus actually took the Healing Factor Serum that players can craft in Fallout 76. Similar to the Mysterious Serum, this serum also grants the user regenerative properties, but via a mutation instead, and you don’t get much more mutated than turning into a Ghoul.
A couple of other theories include the serum being a form of FEV and Thaddeus is actually turning into a Super Mutant, or that it was simply the same experimental drug that John Hancock used to turn himself into a Ghoul. Whatever the case, hopefully we’ll get an answer in Season 2, which was recently ordered by Amazon Prime.
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