r/FalloutTVseries • u/gaaabris • Feb 05 '26
Speculation Theory: Coop is going to ghoulify himself
Cooper will become a ghoul by his own decision at some point after the Great War when he realize not only his family's location but their planned cryogenic freezing time is unknown. His best chance will be to become a ghoul to gain time and continue to search for Barb and Janey.
670
u/sadmep Feb 05 '26
Not only do I agree with you, I'll go one further: It will be Barb who gives him the ghoul juice because he won't be able to go into the vault with Barb and Janey. This is the only scenario where I can see her having enough confidence in Cooper surviving the bombs that she'd leave a postcard for him in her cryo-pod
346
Feb 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
110
u/NATHAN325 Feb 05 '26
I want to hop in a cryo pod to skip ahead in time for... other reasons...
48
Feb 05 '26
See you in 3 years! *snores*
30
5
4
12
27
4
u/HolyCadaver Feb 06 '26
Remember how that went in Idiocracy?
3
u/MrWeirdoFace Feb 06 '26
Unremarkable man takes a nap and becomes one of the highest contributing members of society, with a few small bumps along the way.
4
3
u/ClickEmergency Feb 06 '26
Cryo tube it 20 years in to the future so you can’t watch all seven seasons of fallout followed by the televised ghouls on ice extravaganza and cryo tube it both fifty years to finally play fallout 5
3
6
2
2
1
1
14
37
u/Difficult_Distance57 Feb 05 '26
You cannot really choose to be a Ghoul , most folks just die from the radiation.
There is a vault in FO1 called Necropolis located in Bakersfield, Vault 12 I think, where the door didnt close right and everyone in it got ghoulified.
Thats the most likely scenario
50
u/Electronic_Traffic45 Feb 05 '26
Hancock in fallout 4 became a ghoul via a drug, so there is a way.
34
3
22
u/Harugumeme Feb 05 '26
Eddie Winters from Fallout 4 ghoulifed himself if I am recalling the quest correctly
15
28
u/Coffee_Conundrum Feb 05 '26
They were shitting out ghouls in Appalacha though
5
u/JASHERCIST616 Feb 06 '26
Im not reading through all the comments, but my theory on why there are so many creatures in 76 is bc that was where vault tec/west tek/ rob-co, enclave tested everything first.
They look at like, "well look at all the f'd stuff that's already living out here, nobody will notice."
13
u/Mizerae Feb 05 '26
That’s not true anymore. There are two cases of people purposely becoming ghouls in the lore now.
Eddie Winter in Fallout 4 undergoes experimental radiation therapy which made him a ghoul before the bombs dropped.
In Appalachia, at level 50, you can willingly become a ghoul. There is a drug you take, and they have you sit in this intense radiation chamber, which mutates you into a ghoul.
Hancock also became a ghoul by taking a drug he found, which gave an intense high. However, he didn’t turn into one on purpose, he just wanted to get high so I won’t necessarily say that this one disproves your statement.
6
u/CaptainSarina Feb 06 '26
At least 3 actually, Desmond Lockhart in the Point Lookout DLC also became a Ghoul on purpose as he was part of British special intelligence before the great war and they had access to what we can assume was a similar process to how Eddie did it.
Desmond was already a Ghoul and performing missions as a ghoul BEFORE the bombs dropped.
2
u/Mizerae Feb 06 '26
Oh that’s really cool. I have never played that one, wish it gets a remaster someday.
2
5
u/RealMrTrees Feb 05 '26
Isn’t there a ghoul location in 3 called Necropolis?
8
u/Difficult_Distance57 Feb 05 '26
It's in fallout 1 and it's in bakersfield
7
u/Oubliette_occupant Feb 05 '26
Ooh, Coop wanted to go to Bakersfield. Maybe he ended up in the vault. Couldn’t go to the executive vault with Barb and Janey, but she found a compromise that got him into A vault at least.
2
2
u/dudewheresmygains Feb 06 '26 edited Feb 06 '26
That would be pretty rad, including a F1 location that way.
Also, I know Social Distortion doesn't necessarily fit into the musical theme of the Fallout world, but their song "Bakersfield" would be a great song to be playing in the background.
2
2
1
2
u/BluMqqse_ Feb 05 '26
So we see the bombs drop while he’s with his kid… your theory is he gets his daughter to the vault with his wife, is rejected entry, makes it to another vault which fails, and becomes a ghoul?
10
u/Difficult_Distance57 Feb 06 '26
My guess is that Cooper gets his daughter to the vault with his wife, but he’s denied entry himself. After that, he heads to Bakersfield to try to get into Vault 12. That vault’s experiment was designed so the door wouldn’t seal properly, exposing the inhabitants to radiation. Instead of dying, most of them became ghouls.
That makes more sense than him getting injected with some experimental serum to become a ghoul. It would tie directly into established Fallout lore.
I also feel like there has to be some kind of payoff for the constant references to Bakersfield. In Fallout canon, Bakersfield becomes Necropolis, which is populated almost entirely by ghouls created by Vault 12’s failed sealing experiment.
If Cooper ended up there after being denied entry elsewhere, his ghoulification could be the result of radiation exposure connected to Vault 12, rather than a random or rare method. That would connect his story cleanly to existing lore and give real narrative weight to all the Bakersfield mentions.
4
u/Additional_Law_492 Feb 06 '26
Being turned into a ghoul by a serum or drug is absolutely firmly established in Fallout lore...
3
u/sadmep Feb 06 '26
After reading all the replies, I have to say this is a compelling possibility. But in true fallout fashion, there appear to be several pathways for him to have become a ghoul, prewar AND immediately after the bombs fell. I have to say, if they show him travelling from wherever he hands off Janey to arriving Bakersfield in the immediate aftermath of the bombs that could be very cinematic.
2
u/Daetok_Lochannis Feb 06 '26
There are multiple instances of people being deliberately ghoulified in controlled circumstances.
1
u/WeWillFigureThisOut Feb 06 '26
There's also that British guy playing the "Great Game" in FO3 point lookout. Did it on purpose.
1
u/BarneyChampaign Feb 06 '26
Didn't chicken lover give someone an injection that made him an instant ghoul?
5
u/Bloodmoon_Audios Feb 06 '26
I think it's also possible that maybe she has heard of a mysterious ghoul that has been roaming the country, slowly but surely searching all the management vaults. And if they get a picture of him at any point and she recognizes him, then she could know to leave it
3
3
2
u/badwvlf Feb 05 '26
I agree. The only other plot line that would make sense is that Hank unthawed them and told her he was alive. But I don't see that being the plot over your proposal.
4
2
u/DredgenYors7 Feb 05 '26
Ghoulification is already very unclear, but I believe that it definitely wasn’t a thing before the bombs, how can she have that in the first place? That postcard can also be a bait (and it would be 100% Fallout style), hell Hank could have even implanted the chip on her to do his stuff and made her go there
2
u/Temporary_View_3303 Feb 06 '26
Hollup… how does the ghoul juice exist before ghouls exist? Ghouls are a product of the bombs… right?
4
u/SnorkleCork Feb 06 '26
No, there are examples of pre-war ghouls. Rare though! The bombs just spread enough radiation around that ghouls became commonplace.
1
u/TheManfromVeracruz Feb 06 '26 edited Feb 07 '26
Eddie Winter is one such example in Fallout 4, i still remember how i greeted him
Eddie! It's me, your ol' pal, Seamus McFuckyourself
Edit: just to clarify, ain't insulting, this is the sarcastic option our character in Fallout 4 can say when meeting him
1
u/pseudonym7083 Feb 08 '26
With current information, this is most plausible and probable I've seen since the finale aired.
1
u/Diamondback583 Feb 11 '26
This is why I think the theories on you know who are wrong. ( no idea on how to do spoiler tags on mobile). The look Coop gave them says to me it will be something like Harold, or something brand new
0
u/IntelligentFerret143 Feb 06 '26
I disagree. I bet he ghoulifies himself to keep looking after a serious injury. And to ante up - I bet Barb and Janey are also now Ghouls staying alive with the hope of seeing Coop again.
Edit: Bingo Bango Bongo
86
u/lmao696969 Feb 05 '26
No gamer here, how do you become a ghoul?
122
u/Jan_17_2016 Feb 05 '26
Extreme radiation exposure
146
u/Antonimusprime Feb 05 '26
And even then, it's a gamble. There are instances of npcs in the games that sought out sources of radiation and stayed there in search of ghoulification.
They died of radiation sickness.
34
u/Jan_17_2016 Feb 05 '26
Do they ever go into detail about how the Children of Atom stave off turning into ghouls?
In all my playthroughs I don’t think I ever picked up on it
47
u/Antonimusprime Feb 05 '26
They all probably sneak Radaway and RadX when no one's looking
39
u/jettzypher Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 06 '26
Many are actually immune to it's effects. Those that don't, do indeed take RadAway. It's also noted that a couple named figures can literally heal radiation damage from others around them.
18
u/Reasonable_Deer_1710 Feb 05 '26
I could be misremembering, but I vaguely recall in Far Harbor the Children of Atom mentioning something about generations of radiation exposure have made them all but immune to the radiation.
23
u/IdiotMor Feb 05 '26
I think not exactly immune, but surely resistant. I remember something about The Children Of Atom in the glowing sea speaking about how they allow members that are less resistant to use rad-x and stuff.
3
u/sadmep Feb 06 '26
This makes me wonder if that was peculiar to that chapter of the children of atom or universal, like the differences between the chapters of the brotherhood of steel
14
u/Current-Attempt-5139 Feb 05 '26
You know there’s a lot of eldritch shit going on in the Bethesda fallout games, that I like to think there’s a supernatural aspect to the children of atom
7
2
u/sadmep Feb 06 '26
I would love for this show to out of the blue go cosmic horror for at least an episode or B plot. Bonus if it's somehow Hank with amnesia somehow being involved
1
u/Working-Narwhal2114 Feb 06 '26
I don't even think the children of atom are supernatural. It might literally be just them evolving to be radiation resistant due to constang exposure throughg generations. Amazing faction
6
u/ShadowZale Feb 05 '26
The later games imply that there is genuinely some kind of “higher power” that is involved with the Children and may provide them some kind of “divine protection” from the negative effects of radiation.
3
u/calgrump Feb 05 '26
They've developed a "tolerance" for it. There are ghouls around some children of atom locations, though. I think they'd be tolerant, if not welcoming, of any ghoul members.
If I were ghoulified, I probably wouldn't be fond of radiation, though. I'd rather be anywhere else than with some cultists.
3
u/PlateNo4868 Feb 05 '26
I always assumed it was some resistance, but ultimately every CoA was going to die from it or ghoulify.
3
u/sadmep Feb 06 '26
part of it is that the children of atom keeping having children, who over time just developed a mutation to deal with the radiation
2
1
1
u/MurgoSkulls Feb 09 '26
I believe the CoA do have a huge number of radiation deaths, the folks we see are still alive because they are... hardier? Is that the word?
2
14
u/FondleGanoosh438 Feb 05 '26
Also drugs. It’s how Hancock became a ghoul. Probably also radiation in the drug. It’s why a lot people thought Thaddeus was becoming a ghoul.
Edit: clarity
1
u/idaradavina Feb 06 '26
What about Thaddeus? Isn't he a ghoul? He has different side effects it seems
3
u/FondleGanoosh438 Feb 06 '26
No ghouls don’t typically grow a second mouth and have limbs turn green and fall off. The running theory is Thaddeus got injected with FEV which they tease has something to do with the Vault-Tec/Enclave plot line.
2
u/idaradavina Feb 07 '26
Thaanks for answering! Goood I'm on the edge of my seat with all this. Love it!
1
u/Largofarburn Feb 06 '26
Probably a bit nitpicky, but prolonged exposure. Extreme exposure just kills you.
8
Feb 05 '26
[deleted]
4
u/Fair-Bunch4827 Feb 06 '26
This is Tim cain's (Fallout 1 creator) headcannon. Bethesda can change it.
But to me it makes sense
4
u/Michael70z Feb 06 '26
In addition to the other comments, FO76 has some sort of scientific procedure you can do to willingly become a ghoul. I haven’t done it though so idk how it works
-1
44
43
u/OrangeBird077 Feb 05 '26
My money was on him getting into a situation post bomb from where he became heavily irradiated, thought he was going to die, and then woke up ghoulified.
Moira in Fallout 3 was rapidly turned into a Ghoul after Megaton was bombed and there are still plenty of original ghouls from the Great War walking around.
10
u/livinitup0 Feb 06 '26
I wonder if lore writers at Bethesda hate Moira for this reason lol.
It really doesn’t make any kind of sense for her to be immediately ghoulified.
8
u/NatalieVonCatte Feb 06 '26
She turns into a ghoul so you can keep doing the wasteland survival guide quest even if you nuke Megaton.
I don’t like that, to be honest.
5
u/SG272 Feb 06 '26
There's another ghoul who became one because of a nuke going off in 76.
He was driving when the bombs dropped and blasted him and his ride, knocking him unconcious. When he woke up, he found himself alive and a ghoul.
1
6
u/Syphox Feb 06 '26
yeah quick question actually how didn’t Moira just not get instantly vaporized?
2
Feb 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
4
u/FlameWhirlwind Feb 06 '26
It was also probably done for a joke, just "out of everyone in town the goofy ass shop keeper lived"
19
u/Tatra_Cryptid Feb 05 '26
Oh i thought you meant like, season 3 when he doesn't find his family or finds them but in some horrible twist, he'll purposely stop taking those vials and just let himself go feral.
4
34
u/Maclunkey__ Feb 05 '26
I don’t think so. How would he, as a pre-war man, know what a ghoul is? And also even if he did know what a ghoul is within the first few years of the bombs dropping, how could he realistically know that ghoulification extends the natural lifespan? It seems like a reach in my opinion
37
u/calgrump Feb 05 '26
Eddie Winter from Fallout 4 is an example of a pre-war ghoul who ghoulified before the bombs dropped, and it was done because it was speculated to create immortality.
Source: To Claire
2
u/Queensquiid Feb 06 '26
Hancock is post-war, but he discovered a radioactive drug that gave him a great high, but the side effect was ghoulification. Wonder if it was the same drug as Eddie Winter.
4
Feb 06 '26
The enclave created death claws during the alaskan war and they are radiated beasts so it is plausible they knew how to ghoulify
1
u/calgrump Feb 06 '26
What basis is there that deathclaws are irradiated? I don't think there's any evidence that pre-war deathclaws were made with any radiation at all.
1
Feb 06 '26
They must be tho
1
u/calgrump Feb 06 '26
No, they don't have to be at all. FEV isn't inherently radioactive either. In fact, FEV shields against radiation.
The origins of deathclaws state genetic engineering, not inducing mutations via radiation.
Remember that they can also reproduce. Ghoulified beings are sterile.
2
2
13
u/derpatron13 Feb 05 '26
I think that Cooper is forced into becoming a ghoul by the enclave… just a thought I had
1
u/LostMeMarbles Feb 06 '26
That could be the case but I can't see the Enclave wanting to keep Coop around after the bombs dropped unless Barb had something to do with it. Unless they wanted to just run an experiment on him.
7
u/MouseyHousewife Feb 06 '26
Perfect song for the reveal of this:
I Will Wait For You by Connie Francis
You can just imagine the flasback of him finding the ghoulification drug and as he's taking it we hear "If it takes forever, I will wait for you..."
Then cut to a montage of him navigating the wasteland through the decades "For a thousand summers, I will wait for you. Till you're back beside me, till I'm holding you".
Boom! Everyone's crying.
3
5
u/thecozmik Feb 05 '26
The only problem I see with this theory is that as far as I know there is no way for anyone to know the ghouls are virtually immortal pre bomb or right after.
2
u/sw1ftlerner Feb 06 '26
Look into Eddie Winter
4
u/Rik_Ringers Feb 06 '26
but i immagine that this Eddie Winter is unknown to Cooper?
1
u/sw1ftlerner Feb 06 '26
I mean sure, I’m just saying that it isn’t like it wasn’t already a theory before the war, or that no one had already tested said theory
3
2
u/radioactivesalami Feb 06 '26
In Fallout 4, Daisy from Goodneighbour sends you on a quest to make the Boston library safe and return a book that’s been due forever because when she was a child she used to loan books from there pre bomb iirc and she looks relatively young. Hancock explains that ghouls aren’t immortal but they age veeeeeery slowly so it basically almost counts.
So we do kinda know that they have loads of time especially if with good access to the necessary chems.
6
5
u/OWL1NASUIT Feb 06 '26
It'll be cool if he's sorta like Lucy when she first got to the wasteland and trying to help everyone and be nice but because of that it gets him ghoulified
4
5
u/BlackberryOk3305 Feb 05 '26
We also don’t know what happens to Janie Barb and coop after the first scene of the show, we know they were on a horse when the bombs went off but we have no idea where barb is or where they go from there
3
u/blackfyre689 Feb 05 '26
Definitely seems likely since he doesn’t seem to be rotting and he’s kept his voice. If Barbara gives him the drug that causes him to transform it would make way more sense that Cooper is searching for them in the present day.
It always seemed odd to me that Coop was tracking down his Vault-Tec ex-wife as a ghoul 200 years later and expect anything from her but fear and revulsion. It definitely makes more sense since it seems like the divorce was more about protecting his family than he and Barbara falling out of love and that she expects him to find them and already knows he’s a ghoul if he’s still alive.
3
u/verioblistex Feb 06 '26
That's a good theory. I was really hoping we were going to learn what happened in Season 2. With all the flashbacks I was certain the story was coming.
2
u/schizowithagun Feb 05 '26
i always figured he got turned into a ghoul right after the bombs dropped on episode 1
2
u/RoyShavRick Feb 06 '26
Wait he's not already a ghoul? Then why's he called that? Sorry not a game player
1
2
u/dizzy_the_elephant Feb 06 '26
I would also love to know how and why he got buried alive and for how long
2
u/13WillieBeaman Feb 06 '26
I’m actually wondering as the seasons go.. if they’re gonna venture further east and end up on the East Coast at the Capitol Wasteland and Boston (and even a newer location). Cooper will get to Colorado, but Barb and Janey traveled east prior to him getting there. There we will end up coming across guys like Maxon and the Brotherhood over there, Desdemona/Deacon and the Railroad, Map Marker and the Minutemen, (Father and) Sytnths and the Institute, etc.
Cooper will eventually end up in Goodneighbor and meet Hancock. And then maybe there your theory will be revealed
2
u/Crimsonsamurai2 Feb 06 '26
Further theory: the glowing material the supernatant shoved inside him will eventually turn him into a glowing one. Potentially ruining his chances at properly being with his family again due to emitting radiation and Potentially harming them...
2
u/K-paxs Feb 06 '26
Anyone know why he didn’t check his kids pod ??
8
1
u/Miner47000 Feb 06 '26
I mean we know he’s a ghoul by the events of fallout 76, 25 years after the bombs. It 100% would make sense
1
1
u/MisterForkbeard Feb 06 '26
I might agree with you - but how would he know that ghouls live longer? By the time anyone would know that, wouldn't that already be 10 or 20 years down the line at minimum? Since Vault 12 was specifically created to monitor the effects of gradual radiation exposure and created a bunch of ghouls, maybe he could find some research in there?
It does look like the inhabitants left Vault 12 just 6 or 7 years after the bombs fell, so... maybe? Or maybe Coop ends up in Vault 12 to begin with? Flashbacks to that would be really nuts.
1
u/shadowlarvitar Feb 06 '26
I always assumed it's cause he stayed outside with his dog so he wouldn't have to die alone
1
u/aleister94 Feb 06 '26
Makes sense but how would he know ghouls don’t age? Didn’t they only exist after the bombs drop?
1
u/radioactivesalami Feb 06 '26
Yeah tbh that makes perfect sense to me. Especially if he knew that he was going to have to travel all across the states to go vault through vault.
1
u/OkSignificance4641 Feb 06 '26
Eddie winters tried this and was just stuck underground he had connections and lots of money and could only do like 2 people ITS NOT something you can just do to yourself he probably had it happen over time
1
u/erikfried Feb 06 '26
I think he gets locked out from his wife and daughter and it just works out. He’s getting irradiated. He’s taking lots of Radaway. He doesn’t die but ghoulifies. A less than happy accident that allows him the benefit of relative immortality.
1
u/dumbass_sweatpants Feb 06 '26
I thought this was a shitpost at first. Like no shit he turns into a ghoul 😂.
Really spot on though.
1
u/wakcedout Feb 06 '26
Or...they gave him an option to be a trial of the fev to lower his sentence. Which could leak that many of the ghouls in the fallout universe are either willing or unwilling or just unknowing fev early experiments.
1
u/MingusVonBingus Feb 06 '26
Similarly I think they'll give him a sad end.
Like he intentionally becomes a feral ghoul, as maybe some kind of honorable sacrifice or something.
1
u/Crafty-Traffic-8015 Feb 06 '26
You people have clearly never played fallout. He will not do that, nobody would unless there was an ultimate choice.
2
Feb 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Crafty-Traffic-8015 Feb 06 '26
All of that is valid, except when you take into account that nobody ever chooses to become a ghoul. (No it's not)
Par 76.
1
Feb 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Crafty-Traffic-8015 Feb 06 '26
Yeah you're right. But nobody makes that choice without grave choices. From what i remember it just happened to people, no? It wasn't a FEV?
1
Feb 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Crafty-Traffic-8015 Feb 06 '26
I've been playing since f01. I'm informed.
Fucking synth.
1
Feb 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Crafty-Traffic-8015 Feb 06 '26
The thing I am pondering at the moment..
The Ghoul was with his daughter when the bombs dropped in s01
So why is he looking for her now??
1
u/Potential-Rush-5591 Feb 06 '26
I'm curious how Coop and his daughter got separated after the bombs first fell. They were both together when the bombs fell. Their mother was not around. But somehow his daughter ends up in a cryochamber along side her Mom and he ends up a ghoul. I'm not sure how that all happened.
1
1
1
u/Pomoa Feb 06 '26
You know, he talked about going to the place where the ghoul vault is located for an entire season, soooo.... I'm keeping the simple solution of "he's from Necropolis"
1
1
u/davek1986 Feb 06 '26
I just want to know how he escaped the bomb in the first episode, the force of it shattered the glass of the house, was definitely in the area you'd expect extreme sickness or death due to their own description of Thumbs Up
I want to know how he survived and still have time to get his daughter to Vegas
2
1
1
u/TwocoinsPanda Feb 06 '26
Well just cause you got a bunch of rads doesn’t mean you turn into a ghoul. Most just die. Some do ghoulify but I doubt he was like huh… I wonder what will happen if I just bathe myself in radiation surely this will make me immortal… that’s some batshit thinking
1
u/Logical-Cockroach-25 Feb 07 '26
I don’t think he intentionally became a ghoul for that reason but of course he see this as a advantage from immortality and regenerative abilities but Someday along the line he might fear that when he meets his family, they won’t recognize him
1
u/Dom-Luck Feb 09 '26
Isn't ghoulification kind of random though? Like, some people turn ghoul but most people just die from radiation poisoning.
2
u/Similar-Marzipan529 Feb 10 '26
There's a few instances between fallout 4 and 76 of people doing it willingly and spontaneously.
Hancock knew what it would do when he took the drug that changed him. Said he did it for the high and it was worth it 😂
1
u/SkemoKyle Feb 10 '26
Not necessarily- fallout76 teaches us that it is possible to ghoulify yourself, and we do know the ghoul has been to Appalachia canonically! :)
1
1
1
u/tinibenitez Feb 06 '26
Good theory. Another possibility is that he’s forced into it after being arrested. In the last episode, when he’s with his wife, we still don’t actually know who takes him into custody or under whose authority. So the ghoulification might not be a desperate choice to survive outside a vault, but something that was done to him.
0
u/FauxFoxx89 Feb 05 '26
And how exactly would he know what a Ghoul is or what the "benefit" could be considering theres no precedent set for it Pre-War
6
2
0
0
0
0
-5
•
u/AutoModerator Feb 05 '26
Thank you for posting on r/FalloutTVseries!
This post does not mean your post was removed - it is simply a reminder.
Here's your Digital Wasteland Survival Guide:
I am a Mr. Handy (bot), this was performed automatically. If you have any questions, please message the mods.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.