Fallout Season 2 took fans of the beloved sci-fi series where they had never been before: Canada. Season 2, Episode 7 of Amazon Prime Video's hit live-action video game adaptation went north of the 49th parallel for a brief respite to show the origins of Annabel O'Hagan's Vault 32 Overseer Steph Harper.
In the episode-opening flashback, audiences were treated to a look at the tense US-Canada relations in the Fallout universe. Steph's origin story saw her as a young girl escaping from an internment camp outside Uranium City, Saskatchewan, along with her mother.
After a tense confrontation with a Power Armor-clad American soldier, Steph is forced to leave her mother behind, making a break for the American border, where she would cross and start her journey to becoming the head of Vault 32 as fans see her in the series.
The relationship between Canada and the US in the Fallout world has always been a topic of fascination among longtime fans; however, the ever-so-brief flashback sequence prompted questions for those unfamiliar with how the two countries ended up where they did in the sprawling post-apocalyptic canon.
Breaking Down Fallout's Annexation of Canada
While in the real world, America and its neighbor to the north have always had a relatively jovial relationship (the War of 1812 notwithstanding), that is not necessarily the case in the Fallout universe.
In fact, the two countries wind up harboring a profound distaste for one another in the years preceding the bombs dropping. Fans see the result of this hate during Season 2, Episode 7's Canada flashback, but there are decades of conflict that led up to that moment.
It all starts in 2059, during what would come to be known in the Fallout universe as the Resource Wars. These were a series of conflicts during the nuclear revolution in which countries frantically sought to harvest as many resources as possible, whether on their own territory or elsewhere.
One of the biggest fights to arise from this period was the Sino-American War, which saw the US go to war with the People's Republic of China in the northern reaches of Alaska over the region's oil stores.
During this time, the US constructed a massive pipeline that ran from its northernmost state, through parts of Canada, and then eventually into American soil. As war erupted, America was forced to increase its military presence not only on the Alaskan front but along the pipeline as well (read more about the Alaskan front in the Fallout here), which drew the ire of many everyday Canadians.
As the US fought China to the north, anti-American sentiment began to grow amongst many Canadians, as they bristled with the fact that US troops were now stationed as a 'protective measure' directly in their backyard.
With the war ongoing and US resource reserves growing thin thanks to the conflict, the American government turned its eyes to the north. Thanks to widespread anti-Canadian propaganda spread through the States, the idea of a potential invasion of Canada itself grew in popularity over the years.
This would eventually boil over in 2072, when a group of Canadian protestors attempted to attack the pipeline itself, seeking to sabotage the valuable American asset. American military leaders took this act, along with ongoing riots across the Canadian provinces, to bring up the idea of annexation, something that was met with cheers by the American people at the time.
So, by 2077, Canada was officially annexed by the US, ceasing to exist as a sovereign nation. The Canadians did not go quietly. As hate continued to spread across the country, even more violent acts began to occur between Canadian citizens and their new American rulers.
So, internment camps, such as the one Steph and her mother escaped from in Amazon Prime Video's Fallout TV show, were set up to keep the Canadian population at bay.
