How Did Moldaver Survive in Fallout Season 1?

Amazon’s Fallout TV series kicks off with the mysterious Moldaver kidnapping vault dweller Lucy’s father. But while the show sheds some light on her origins, it’ll leave you with other questions, questions like how did Moldaver survive in the Fallout series? Here’s what you need to know.

How Did Moldaver Survive for 200 Years in Fallout?

Fallout reveals that Moldaver has been alive since before the beginning of the war, but it doesn’t confirm the reason. Everyone refers to her as Moldaver or Lee Moldaver, but The Ghoul recognises her as Miss Williams, whom he met over 200 years ago.

She’s not the only pre-war character; Vault-Tec’s key employees have actually been held in suspended animation. No similar explanation is given for Moldaver’s status, however, and she’s not seen on Vault 31’s employee list. And she doesn’t look like a ghoul, either.

So, what’s going on? The Fallout games have a few explanations to explain her lack of ageing, and ultimately, we have four main theories to explain why Moldaver is alive after 200 years:

• Moldaver is a synth.
• She’s a clone.
• She’s been in cryo-sleep for at least part of the time.
• She’s a ghoul or, in some other way, immortal.

Synths, androids designed to be indistinguishable from humans, are immortal, but that tech wasn’t available pre-war. Andrew House preserved his body in a special chamber, appearing as an on-screen avatar, but he wasn’t exactly mobile.

It is possible she somehow preserved her brain, then put that into a synth body later. Synths, as seen in Fallout 4 and Fallout 3, are androids that are indistinguishable from humans. She may also be a clone of the original Miss Williams. We know she came up with cold fusion, so she’s got a pretty high level of scientific knowledge. And if she is a clone or synth, we may not have seen the last of her.

The show also indicates she was involved with the NCR, and she was around for the destruction of Shady Sands. Her new NCR appears to be a mishmash of remnants and raiders, but she holds a grudge enough that it’s clear the NCR meant a lot to her.

And, while Todd Howard has confirmed the show’s 2277 date is a little off, Moldaver was active on or around 2281. The show takes place in 2296, so that’s 15 years when she was out and about. So if she was in cryo-sleep somehow, it wasn’t continuous.

It’s possible she was in cryo-sleep for a while and emerged a few years ago. Alternatively, she could have slept intermittently, something that Vault-Tec’s own management may also have been doing.

But nothing has been confirmed, and Amazon will likely wait until at least Season 2 of Fallout to reveal the truth behind Moldaver’s apparently long lifespan. So, the answer to how Miss Williams/Moldaver survived in the Fallout series is that she used some trait or process that the show has yet to reveal.

The above article was updated on May 4, 2024 by Chris McMullen to include new details and theories about Moldaver’s survival in Fallout Season 1.