Fallout Season 2 properly introduces Mr. House, played by Justin Theroux, but a new theory suggests that all is not what it seems with the nefarious billionaire and, if true, it would change everything that we know about the character. Spoilers ahead…
Fans will already know that Mr. House is the owner of the Lucky 38 casino in New Vegas, where Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) and The Ghoul/Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) are trekking towards in search of Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan). In Fallout: New Vegas, Mr. House appears to players on a giant video screen, and it’s later revealed that he’s actually being kept alive in a cryopod beneath the casino.
The first episode of Fallout Season 2 saw Mr. House experimenting with a strange mind-control device outside of a bar (before the world was decimated in the nuclear apocalypse). He uses the device to force a construction worker to beat his friends to death.
But eagle-eyed fans have a theory about Theroux’s version of Mr. House in Fallout Season 2, and if they’re correct, it might recontextualize everything we know about him.
Is Mr. House using a body double?
It seems like Mr. House is using a body double so he can conduct more controversial business away from the public eye. But fans on Reddit think the show might retcon 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas to reveal that the body double is the one who players interacted with and/or killed.
At the end of Season 1 fans briefly saw Mr. House during the Vault-Tec meeting where he was played by Rafi Silver. Silver then reprises the role at the start of Season 2 during a TV interview that’s playing in the bar. Theroux’s version of Mr. House appears to be far more devious than Silver’s version, judging by his nonchalant reaction to the worker’s head blowing up.
The theory suggests: “The Season 1 Mr House who looks more like the Mr House on the screen from New Vegas, was the one in the machine from the game that may or may not have been killed.”
This would mean that technically the show doesn’t alter whichever ending of the game players chose, since the real Mr. House might still be alive. Another user pointed to Hank’s broadcast to the unknown individual from inside Vault-Tec’s HQ as evidence to the theory.
They wrote: “It felt incredibly intentional that they made him say ‘I’m sure you’re still alive’ then spoke clearly about his incredible capacity for contingencies.”
All of this obviously sparked some debate in the thread about whether or not that would disrespect the legacy of the game, with some people calling the idea stupid. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. This guy is clearly an actor in the pre war times that house sends to meetings. That’s it, he won’t be alive in the present times,” another person chimed in.
It seems more likely that the show will simply use the Silver-House as an acting body double, instead of trying to change the lore of the games quite heavily (or add to it, depending on your viewpoint). But some fans also suggested that the body double might be Mr. House’s brother, Anthony.
Here’s why that wouldn’t make sense.
Anthony House was much older than Robert House in the games
Various comments on Reddit suggested that the body double could be House’s older brother, Anthony, but that wouldn’t work since the brothers did not have a good relationship. According to various terminals and holotapes found in 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas, the older House sibling ran H&H Tools, but cut Robert out of his inheritance when their parents died.
Anthony’s mental health declined in the years after, convinced that his own employees were staging a coup against him so that Robert could take over. To be fair, Robert did use his company, RobCo, to start buying up H&H Tools stock, as a way of getting back what was rightfully his as a member of the House family.
But in a last ditch attempt to gain control, Anthony weaponized the entire H&H Tools factory and sealed it off so no one could get in. All of this is to say, it’s clear that Anthony then wouldn’t be convinced to play Robert as his body double, just so Robert can stay out of the public eye.
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