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notes after rewatching fallout s2 ep6

• [for the opening scene “always” by douglas gamley plays and it's an instrumental] • a nuclear explosion as viewed from an eye begins the episode with talking overheard from one of the vault tec project managers “we'll be increasing our billboard presence which means we need to make some aesthetic choices. so, in actuality, this is what a five megaton blast will look like over los angeles. marketing thinks a ten megaton blast will look better for the billboards.” • it is barb's eye. barb is being shown a simulation video of b ombing possibilities. barb is in a meeting at vault tec. vault tec project managers and investors are discussing with barb more minute details for b omb dropping preparedness the only way capitalism can. and barb... is overwhelmed. • “mm, but it won't be a ten megaton blast. it'll be multiple five megaton blasts.” says the other [femme] vault tec project manager. “obviously, it will be multiple blasts for los angeles, but our design team thinks that it will look too busy. mm. see? just a cacophony of puff clouds.” says the masc vault tec project manager. wonder if the design team made it into the vaults... • food is present in these meetings in this episode and it's incredibly noticeable who is eating and who is not and why • next, barb receives information on water chips from a vault tec engineer “the bad news is our water chips have a 30% fail rate. the good news is we'll know which ones fail before installation. so, we get to choose who runs out of water. any, uh, preferences?” • if you thought the vault tec vault experiment scheme across hundreds of vaults was already insane, there's smaller, more insidious ways people are being experimented on in the vaults. imagine how many vaults had relatively mundane or survivable experiments ran on them but then the water chip fails because they simply were picked to be the shortest straw hundreds of years ago. jesus... • [betty is in this meeting btw!] • in the back of this particular scene, you can see betty staring at barb. i wonder what she was thinking and i wonder during the vault 33 water crisis if she is thinking about this meeting from the past... i wonder how long it takes for the water chips to fail and with it being over two hundred years, i wonder if betty assumed it just wasn't going to happen until it did, hmm... • the water chips failing is a direct reference to the first fallout game and i have just discovered via the wiki there's a promotional site [with so much stuff on it lol] with a terminal entry that provides extra lore on the fact of course vault tec knew of this water chip failure and that they turned this into some type of experimental “learning experience” for the vault dwellers so they could come up with ways to fix it. insanity, truly lmao wow

• “our internal early alert system gives us at minimum 30 minutes from notice to ignition in downtown los angeles. you know, we'd be crazy not to offer specialized freeway lanes for our premium customers. i mean, that's just money on the table right there.” bud askins proposes to barb as he uses his greasy, slimy fingers to eat some french fries. • [just now pondering what happened to bud askins' body. want them to show that for some reason lol] • barb is shifting in her seat, visibly uncomfortable but puts on a front anyways. it is barb's turn to finally have a point of view this episode and fellas! it's fantastic • barb is next shown in a meeting with mr. house's double [i wonder if she knows or ever gets to find out that this man she even went to a meeting with wasn't even the real mr. house] • funnily enough hank enters this meeting and uh barb's micro expressions indicate hank really weasels his way around. “i asked betty if i could take notes on this one. she said yes.” i guess betty doesn't know about the mind control devices but the cold fusion? [and maybe if she would ever know about the mind control devices, perhaps she doesn't know the particulars of this meeting or anything. maybe] • even mr. house's double seems apprehensive but the meeting continues “so... here it is. robco presents the automated man. spent a lot of time trying to make my machines more lifelike, but, hey, works the other way around, too.” this is some shit walt disney wishes he could've done [lmao] • hank literally... gets up from his note taking seat. he's amazed. barb is... perplexed. it's giving nosey! but it's also giving ambition and other plans. what's he thinking? • “mr. house, vault tec and robco have always had a special arrangement. you have multiple vaults to do with as you wish. if this is the research you'd like to pursue in the vaults, you---” mr. house's double interrupts barb. “you must have missed the telegram. you're paying me for this. in exchange, i get cold fusion to power my little project in vegas.” • oh! there's a vault tec project and movement barb doesn't know about. barb's a high ranking executive, why is that? ok so why send mr. house [double] to a meeting with barb, someone who is supposed to be in the know, and not inform her? i guess she's not so in the know as first thought.

• ”and what project is that?” barb asks, containing the rug slipped out from under her with a smile. “might be above your pay grade. you'll find out about it after the bombs drop, i guess.” for what it's worth, mr. house's double has triple the charisma but the same amount of smugness as the regular mr. house. what an excellent actor he is! •the “special arrangement” had so much emphasis, i almost forgot pip boys are made by robco. [and that there was also apparently some direct involvement with individual vault construction as featured in fallout 76 regarding a vault 79] • i am bringing up the food i mentioned earlier because barb had an entire plate of some on her desk and was never shown as casually eating as the other psychos at vault tec were. in fact, they were practically gorging themselves, talking with their mouths full. • mr. house's double was smoking big boss cigarettes. pre war but still many left after the war. according to the wiki, this is a “metal gear” reference lol • [they're calling mr. house's double bobby apartment lmaooo you mfs is too funny lmao please] • very curious about mr. house's double in the grand scheme, too. i wonder if all that money was worth it. hmph • so in exchange for the cold fusion diode that vault tec apparently stole from moldaver, vault tec was going to receive the mind control technology from mr. house. devious. • barb has either reached her capacity for meetings or is done with them because the next scene is showing her closing the blinds to her office and coming back to her seat exasperated. as barb briefly stares at the family photo of her, cooper, and janey, barb is overcome with emotion and begins to cry, the photo of her, cooper, and janey reflecting in her eye as the nuclear b omb blast did earlier. • the food, a bread roll and something resembling tuna salad, left uneaten

• back in freeside, it's like later in the afternoon now and uh cooper is still impaled on that pole 😭 people are... walking past cooper. he's bleeding, facing upwards, and in pain. cooper is struggling to reach the anti feral chems on the ground. “come on, come on. fսck.” cooper is inches away from reaching the bottles of chems but he just can't reach them. “uh, little help? little help? son of a bitch.” cooper might as well he talking to himself, there's hundreds of people on the street, outside, quite frankly bustling, and they're ignoring him, it's sickening 😭 🖐️ • saw on twitter where it was mentioned lucy's line about screaming and the “did it ever occur to you that if you helped them, they would stop?” when it comes to helping people in the wasteland... and here cooper is. asking for help for once and being ignored so totally and completely. what goes around really comes around i guess... [😞] • dogmeat suddenly shows up! “dogmeat. fetch me that satchel. come on. go on, now. i, i need my vials.” dogmeat picks up cooper's hat. “i don't need the fսckin' hat.” and cooper begins to. make the most inhuman sound. it's the sound of ferality in ghouls. dogmeat runs off “you stupid fսckin' dog!” cooper shouts to the wind, in pain, still on the pole, with writhing triggering the ferality. “not today” cooper whispers to himself as the trauma of it all knocks him out. • now i know this scene looks a bit silly to a lot of people, what with dogmeat always running away when stuff happens and here seemingly not doing what cooper is saying but i want people to look a little bit closer. i know this is just a [amazing and wonderful] dog actor so there's only so much that can be depicted and/or communicated but i need people to remember that dogmeat is an enclave reject. cx404. the enclave is one of the most prolific big bads in the video games. they experimentally breed and experimentally train the dogs. dogmeat is not a normal dog. dogmeat attacked and k illed a whole guy in season one. she even subdued a radroach. dogmeat knows what she is capable of! and it's not fighting d eathclaws or giving cooper vials to bide his time until he turns completely feral because vials is not going to fix this pickle cooper is in. dogmeat sets off to find somebody to help this man, clear as day [even saw someone say before the episode aired dogmeat would do this! and it was exactly to who they thought it was, dogmeat smart, ok? 😭] • the scene parallels with helpless cooper in the present impaled to past cooper coming down from his drunken stupor on the bed at the las vegas event with the meeting of the big four companies. • ”last night i was thinking about when i proposed to you. catalina. we walked out to that... romantic point.” barb takes off her hat and is disrobing like they're in for the night i guess but she's smiling as cooper recants the story. “the rocks were all covered in seagull shit. i'll never forget the sound it made when i took a knee.” cooper puts his hands to his head. “you know, the thing that i, i can't figure out... is were you a monster back then? or did you become one later?” • “excuse me?” barb says, her flabbers fully gasted. “"war never changes." once again the iconic line reverberating through time. barb's expression changes then. there's no way out of him not knowing exactly now. “i know what you're planning to do, barb.”

• another parallel but this time with lucy, she awakens from all the calamity earlier calmly in a room that resembles one of the vaults. i mean, it is one of vault tec's facility's, not surprised there's so much vault tec vault atmosphere in there. • everything is alternating blue and yellow, there's a toy horse, a yellow dress, a bed, chest of drawers, vanity, a desk. and that dystopian background of a cornfield in middle america. lucy's “home” [in hanks twisted fucking mind] • i think the room lucy's in says “observation”. lucy goes over to a mirror, [and once again paralleling with cooper last episode] she looks at herself in it and probably doesn't recognize herself. a message hank left on a desk says “dial 0 when you're up. - dad” next to some sugar b ombs. • lucy ignores that shit and busses up out of there. she hears and sees some guys dressed as legionnaires walking by and grabs a fire extinguisher just in case. she's about to wack them but one of them says “morning” lucy stops d ead in her tracks lmao. “ beautiful day, isn't it?” the other says before they continue walking down the hall. lucy is utterly confused. like there's no way those guys are acting normal • lucy walks the opposite direction and finds more people behaving strangely and dressed like they're in an office. many of them clearly from the surface if not all of them. two fellows named sherman and gregory exchange pleasantries with each other in white button ups and ties • “coffee?” gregory offers lucy. lucy looks like she almost wants to say yes but knows something fucked up is going on. • the next scene features leroy anderson's “the syncopated clock” as lucy sees just what hank has gotten up to in this vault tec facility • not only has hank managed to gather a bunch of people to mind control but he also seems to have made the mind control happen in such a way as to allow the mind controlled people to manufacture the devices that are controlling them. they're on an assembly line, handing each other device pieces to assemble, so in sync, it's like they're dancing and in rhythm. i think hank has created a hive mind. • [next scene has “song of india” by tommy dorsey & his orchestra] • the direction lucy went was where the elevators were but she ends up near the simulation room where apparently hank is. it's basically a vault dweller room, like their habitat. [complete with an atomic queen oven!] hank comes out in the suit still, with cooked food, waiting on lucy i guess. lucy, naturally, continues to hover between fight or flight. she's concealed some scissors in her right hand.

• on the table is a very interesting book selection, one the maclean family was reading in their book club before everything literally and figuratively blew up. “all quiet on the western front”. • “all quiet on the western front” or translated in german to literally mean “nothing new in the west” is a semi autobiographical book by an author who was conscripted in wwi to fight for germany. it's very anti war and the 1940s german fascists hated this book and the author but! that's a story for someone with more time to tell it in • “we never got to discuss “all quiet,” did we? i guess we were waiting 'til after the wedding. right?” hank is just... like what's his angle? that life is over lmao why would lucy want to discuss any book, let alone this one, knowing what he's done?? •”that end, that was a humdinger, huh?' “i didn't finish it.” “that's okay. you've been busy. what did you think about the parts that you did read?” “i found it very upsetting.” “can't disagree with you there.” • “what aspect upset you most?” hank asks as lucy practically scoffs, barely wanting to patronize him with responses “to me, the most troubling was that everyone seemed to be fighting over nothing. the french and the german, what was the difference between them, really? i mean, other than the uniforms? i saw the same thing up on the surface. people fighting over the most petty things, like bottle caps. is that what you saw when you were there?” hanks take away from this hundreds year old novel is horrible but also reminds me of fandom lmao anyways • lucy says nothing “but, you know, some things just never change. people just wanna ki ll each other, don't they? i think it's the only way for people to feel safe. it's ironic. to feel safe, we have to hurt people. even ki ll them, because the---” before hank can drone on, hank turned his back and lucy points the scissors at his neck • “it's crazy... the war instinct, hm?” hank responds to lucy. “i'm bringing you back to vault 33 to face justice. for mu rdering the citizens of shady sands. you have the right to remain silent until the vault council assigns you a legal counselor.” lucy is citizen arresting hank but seriously, it seems like she knows the protocol for crime or whatever down there, i guess as the overseer's child, she would? “for a second there, i thought the wasteland had changed you.” hank appears to be pleased his and vault tec's indoctrination continues to work but ironic enough i am curious what he was going to do if she was ready to end his ass right then and there

• i noticed on this rewatch lucy's eyes were almost teary here, actually confronting hank must've been so tough. lucy is brave • “if you wanna make this official, you should use... these handcuffs.” hank says, taking some surprisingly conveniently placed handcuffs from a drawer and putting them on. “what are you doing?” lucy says, holding the scissors, ready to slice. “surrendering.” “why?” “i did what i did to protect you. but maybe it came at too high a price.” i don't actually think hank is expressing remorse for anything he's done, hank is saying things to get into her head • lucy is not ridiculous for questioning him seeing as he damn near almost ki lled everybody at the griffifth observatory to escape and especially from accountability. he's probably only talking like this because the mind control devices are working, hell • hank continues to say things he probably doesn't mean “and there comes a time in a man's life when he has to take responsibility for what he's done, and for me, that time has come. you have come, sugarb omb. but, please, just let me tell you what i've been doing here.” “no. we're going.” lucy tells hank, trying to resist what he's trying to lure her into. “just give me a chance. i think you'll call what i've been doing redemptive.” “you mean brainwashing those people?” “i wouldn't call it brainwashing. it's a very sophisticated process and we've been having amazing results...” “i don't care! let's go.” “you know how i get with all my little projects. do you remember the field... with the potato batteries when you were five? and you had a little flashlight, and you would run around recharging the batteries with your little red flashlight, do you remember that?” hank briefly distracts lucy with a childhood story before she pushes out a “let's go.” • lucy is probably full of many feelings right now but she knows a lot of hanks tricks, she always seems like she wants to get to a goal and sticks to it anyways too •[but if lucy was on buff out, she probably would've kicked hank's ass and speaking of--- where is that power fist? 👀] • hank is so deluded, would it be too much to call vault tec a cult and at this point? a lot of people in the wasteland and/or vaults have hank's pathos but man, feels like a special brand only vault tec themselves could even dish out

• thaddeus and maximus have ran as far away as they could from the civil war that's basically started within the brotherhood of steel chapters. at first i thought the power armour had ran out of juice but maximus told thaddeus they got tracking devices and that's why thaddeus had to leave it. “you sure we gotta leave it?” “they have trackers in these things. they'll come for it. that armor's more trouble than it's worth.” • 🎵what a diff'rence a day makes🎵 season one maximus wanted to be a knight so bad, he commandeered a d ead knight's power armour and this season two, maximus will leave a fully working power suit in the desert because he's ready to jump ship from the faction who has them. • “you know, if that isn't a sacred remnant, i don't know what is. we gotta sell it, huh?” thaddeus utters to the surprise of maximus gldgld. “wh... no.” “huh.” “absolutely not. why... we are not selling it.” “yeah, right, right, of course. not gonna sell it, sell it. we would, you know... find a buyer and sort of, you know, you put... put out feelers. we just... we do a trade.” “no. trade? no, we're not giving it away, alright?” “a trade, that's not... a trade, you get something.” “ absolutely not.” thaddeus and maximus walk into the ever stretching sand dunes of the mojave in the baking sun • it is night, thaddeus is tending to a campfire of some sort near some buildings. there's all kind of stuff in this fire lol • “we definitely gotta sell it.“ thaddeus brings up again as maximus inspects the cold fusion diode.” “i told you. we'll give it to the right person. a good person.” “name a good person, seriously.” “that girl i met.” “the vault dweller.” “yeah” 😭 • thaddeus bent on selling the cold fusion diode like money will solve his turning into a creature problem. who the hell would they even sell it to? like? but also--- maximus thinking and talking about lucy and other people and thinking she's a good person 🥹 • they are completely different people at this point in their respective journeys and it's crazy they're trending on opposite ends. but despite that, they're both trying to desperately hold onto their morals. even with all the indoctrination and everything the wasteland throws at them, maximus and lucy want for a better world. vaultknight is precious and to me

• lmao ok but thaddeus saying “name a good person, seriously.” like man? this world is fucked, huh--- help them, please • “yeah, y'know, uh, i would be a good person too if i grew up on top of a mountain of food, and supplies, in some cozy little impenetrable home. wouldn't look like this, that's for sure. wouldn't have to steal, and stab, and fib all the goddamn time just to get by. but if we sell it, guess what? then we'll be rich. and then we'll have the means to be one of those good people you're talking about. 'cause i've seen a lot o' things. you know, like, crazy things. but "good people"? no.” • thaddeus might come across in some of his statements as “bitter” to some and you know what? that's understandable when wastelanders discover vault dwellers are ultimately the fruits of the labour of why the world is the way it is even if the vault dwellers themselves never had anything to do with it. he wants to be good, he knows what good can be, but you cannot be what good is supposed to be if you want to survive in the wasteland. he knows that money can be a path to “good” though. i completely empathize with thaddeus on this. like a whole case can be gotten into with class divides and the stratification that continues after the war. even in the post apocalypse, there's haves and have nots. it's mind numbing. • “where were you born again, thaddeus?” “uh, the boneyard. at the shithole side of the boneyard.” “i guess i'm the lucky one. come here from shady sands. i remember good people.” “well, if you're the lucky one, then we're both screwed.” maximus laughs at this admission from thaddeus lgflhfg • ok so the boneyard is literally los angeles. at least four b ombs dropped on that city. it was so much wreckage and bodies, they called it angels boneyard. • that's to say that thaddeus and his family never stood a chance. but nobody hardly does in the post war.

it is night in freeside. curiously, nobody is outside walking around. maybe it's early in the morning or something but it looks like there's definitely nobody to help cooper now. people walked around all day ignoring him on that pole and didn't bother to help him at all • cooper continues to be stuck, bleeding, in pain. and the ferality is coming in waves. he snarling and growling. it's the worst he's ever been shown. it's the most vulnerable cooper has ever been. • in one of the lowest if not the lowest moment, in the throes of approaching ferality, he finally does it “my... my name... my name is... cooper. my name is cooper. cooper howard. i have a dau, a daughter. i have a daughter. her-her-her name... is ja... is janey howard. janey... howard. she's alive. she's a... she's alive. my daughter's alive.” • a very emotional scene to watch, cooper is once again alone and grappling with d eath, much like all ghouls who get this far reputedly do. because ferality is d eath. but cooper is fighting through it. it's crazy that literal d ying and injury impacts ferality so much. like instead of just not living anymore, there's another stage of ghoulification. it's tragic. • this is probably the first on screen post war scene cooper actually says his name at all and his full name. one of the reasons i never call him the ghoul personally because i just never thought it was accurate and it seems to be dehumanizing from my point of view. it's kind of like a name he got as a reputation and discrimination and it's more a character than anything. cooper is not a character. cooper is who he is. and deep into the first stages of becoming feral, he knows this is how ghoulified people ground themselves. • ferality is crazy because it can come down to mentality--- if you think as a ghoulified person you'll go feral, you will. it's just that simple. it's not always the case, the games are clear nobody is too sure but yeah. so like, that's an extra layer to cooper's suffering here. like... cooper is almost giving up on some level whether mentally or physically or both. not taking chems and an injury and nobody helping? he's on his last shred of sanity. • after giving himself a pep talk, cooper is motivated with the thought that janey is alive, [and i swear to god, she better be! 😭🖐️] cooper slowly pulls himself up from the pole. blood comes out of his mouth and he uses his strength. any standard human being would have rigor mortis and passed into the spirit realm by now but cooper persists. • cooper almost has his hands at the top of the pole but it's too much and ferality clutches him again and he falls to the bottom of the pole, worse for wear. • a large being, a person it seems, walks into the desolate freeside streets over to cooper. they are very large and very strong and very cloaked. one swipe and the pole is broken. cooper... is being rescued. • i do have to wonder if this tall cloaked person was watching cooper and for a while before intervening. i wonder if this mystery cloaked person heard cooper's monologue and rescued him then. but it's telling a very non standard human person finally helped cooper. • cooper is delirious and in out of consciousness and sees he's being dragged in a stretcher somewhere. to a church. of some sort. while cooper is being dragged, something with a green glow on the mystery cloak person is shown.

• “piano nellie” by bobby brant and the rhythm rockers plays for the next scene in vault 33 • marianne is doorman lmao to reg's products of inbreeding support group “the inbreeding support group is at max capacity. so, i'm sorry, but triple cousins doesn't cut it anymore. see ya.” • the two red headed incest... relatives... are also there 💀 [i'm seeing people say they are twins? either ways, i'm shook every time they're freaky in public gdlgld] • reg's parties i mean club meetings are popping off with the vault dwellers. reg mentions something about twizzlers as a femme vault dweller walks away--- the next scene is the red haired man and red haired woman uh feeding each other strawberries, suggestively gldgld • reg is feeling musical so he hops on a piano [he cannot play] and the aspect ratio changes. reg is having some type of fantasy--- "uranium fever" by elton britt plays and the club members eat and dance to the lyrics like a choreographed performance • [funny that uranium itself as the radioactive rock is featured in this episode and that this song is connected to that but also to fallout 4 because it was used there and also also to fallout 76 as a quest with that name] • this coordinated kind of dancing mirrors the mind controlled captives hank is keeping hostage in the vault tec facility above ground. another parallel • in between reg's fantasies are scenes of betty with vault guards coming to shut reg's whole thing down. for the betterment of the vault tbh. the aspect ratio goes back to normal when it shows the reality versus going back to reg's perspective. it's like switching between real life and television • as reg's fantasy ends, it's shown he was actually playing “mary had a little lamb” amateurishly. whereas in his head, everyone is dancing, eating, what is actually shown is people seeming to only really be showing up to eat and it kind of being awkward and maybe a bit dull for a party. crazy lmao

• a vault guard knocks over a table and hits the group with “by order of overseer betty pearson, the snack budget for the products of the inbreeding support group has been rescinded. and the inbreeding support group has been dissolved.” the vault guard seems pretty happy to deliver the news, i guess there are people willing to side with betty tbh • reg tries to get ahead of the situation “calm down. calm down, everyone. i wanna talk to betty.” betty appears “you've been ignoring my requests to sit down with you, hiding from me. i'm sorry it had to come to this. but for the good of this vault---” “you know what, fine. you can dissolve the inbreeding support group. but you can't take away our snack budget.” betty has clearly reached her limit and as overseer. reg is overstepping but also seriously, being pretty selfish. like? why is this so important him? it's jeopardizing the entire vault. “in my office now.” betty demands after reg implies he's going to still hold onto what are essentially vault rations for a snack club. “no.” reg is not backing down. • before seeing the scene, i was wondering if betty was going to show force just because but truly she hasn't shown herself to utilize power the same way as some other vault tec people have. betty is using vault guards to get reg to stop so he won't help plunge the entire vault into another famine. she's trying to keep the car running and everybody is not realizing the car is running out of gas and people keep driving the car like • “we can have this conversation right here.” “we're running out of water, and you're feeding people salty snacks.” “we're giving the people what they want!” i can only describe reg's behaviour as decadence • we are working very hard on solving the water issue. what we need is time. and i'm sorry, but you don't get extra rations because of who your parents were.” betty as gently as she can but sternly, tells reg's products of inbreeding support group. “actually, this is still america so, yes, you do. we're all down here because of who our parents were. and who their parents were. our ancestors put themselves first. and you know what? that worked out for them. and for us. i'm not ashamed of that anymore.” “i understand.” betty, trying to level with reg barely gets out before reg continues “i don't think you do, betty. you're from vault 31. i know. i know things are different there. you 31ers are just plum different somehow.” • “please, listen to me. during the weevil famine---” but betty's words fall on deaf ears. “we don't wanna hear about the weevil famine anymore!” reg interjects. “it feels good to hear someone finally say that out loud.” marianne for some reason quips lmao. “i see.” is all betty can say at this point. she sees what she's up against. steph claimed the experiment is over and every vault for themselves and it's becoming evident even without the naive and ignorant vault dweller population knowing what the vault tec experiment was that the vault dwellers in 31,32,33 are going to make sure it's over • i'm sure betty cannot believe these spoiled vault dwellers are willing to throw away the experiment she and so many people in the pre war worked so hard to setup and continue humanity with. and for the most selfish and insane reasons. a snack club 😭 • reg, in a display of defiance, takes some of the jello on the centerpiece and shoves it in his mouth. the products of inbreeding support group applaud and clap.

• "draggin' the river" by ferlin husky plays for the next scene and boy! is it on the nose • in vault 31, there seems to be an event being setup. chet is eating a sandwich on a bench, once again wearing the baby. “irv, have you seen woody?” davey asks irv. irv shakes his head. davey checks his watch and says “no, huh?”. the alarm bells in king chet's head have gone off. all chet do is listen and watch now and boy is he putting shit together! • ”hey, what about woody?” chet asks davey now. “i was meant to play checkers this morning.” interesting. • chet keeps forgetting that davey ain't all there because davey asks chet “you wanna know the truth?” and chet thinking it's insight replies with “yes. the truth, please.” and davey is like “i don't even like checkers.” 😭 • [watch davey be a wild card or somethin', there's gotta be an explanation for him acting like this gldfgldf] • “i only play 'cause it seems to make woody happy. but who doesn't want to make woody happy? he's such a great guy!” 😭 some people don't like some of the vault dweller vignettes but i love them! “if woody's missing, we should bring it up with the overseer.” irv in between sweeps throws out there. • “good luck with that.” davey blurts out before realizing it's in front of chet. “uh, s-sorry, chet. i know she's your wife, but sometimes she can...” “excuse me, davey. she's not my wife.” chet is getting like, fed up with being something he's not and to steph like this. “i'm sorry. fiancée.” davey walks off. irv tells chet “i saw the poster. congratulations.” “there's a poster?” what!? • chet passes under a arch decorated with more sunflowers as he finds the poster in the hallways. and y'all. it's a poster for steph and chet's wedding--- “steph and chet are getting married tomorrow atrium 3pm” • a post here was talking about how the show will present a well tread concept but flip it and that's the case for chet--- lot of commentary on him being locked into unpaid domestic servitude against his will by steph. when he is quite literally nothing to her, not even hardly a boyfriend. • her not even attempting to at least tell him he was getting married is probably going to be chet's breaking point. now i wonder how he's going to escape. because he so is. this is strategic of steph and i always thought steph getting with chet was. • [wondering if steph got the idea to go ahead and marry chet because davey is probably coming to her with overseer stuff and keepings talking about how they're together and reinforcing it and hyping the ideas up unintentionally] • if steph did something to woody then she poisoned those raiders who snuck into vault 33 from season one bye • also, the difference betty and steph is interesting! betty is willing to leverage with people threatening her power and steph goes ahead and gets rid of them when even the littlest bit of pressure is applied [crossing my fingers woody is taking a nap in a closet but i have zero high hopes lsgdgld]

• the mystery cloak person straps cooper so he dangles anddd it's not unlike when lucy was being crucified in the caesar's legion camp. only this time, there's help instead of d ying to death hlfhflhl • you can see cooper's stomach [and gaping wound] here so i'm not sure if this qualifies as shirtless for my own bingo but wow! i've speculated about shirtless ghoulified cooper for years • cooper is awake, barely but looking around trying to understand what's going on and it's a lot, dark, lot of stuff hanging from the ceiling, drawings on the walls. • “uranium.” the mystery cloak person says, extricating the spooky rock from the lantern it was in. “bad for them... good for you.” and then incredible camera work where it goes inside of cooper's wound that you can see through to the other side and it shows the mystery cloak person. “there's a war coming. and we need you healthy” the mystery cloak person says as they shove this uranium inside cooper. • [this hurts cooper of course :/ but] • this is a super mutant. i think it's time i acknowledge that. lmao. super mutants are created with fev [forced evolutionary virus] and have many creators over the course of the games. for the millionth time, i want to keep it simple for clarity so i'll say the prevailing theory here is that, because this super mutant can articulate themselves and isn't going on a mu rderous rampage, that they are definitely west coast type of super mutant and maybe even a creation from the master [idk if i have time to explain who this is either omg ok so when i made a joke about a hive mind, i wasn't even kidding in so much that there is a character just like that from the first fallout game] • super mutants... are sad. like everything else in the wasteland. they can probably live as long as ghoulified people but like. at what cost--- they often keep growing in size and can lose their damn minds via radiation, fev, time, the wasteland, etc. most on the east coast and later generation super mutants have lower end intelligence and are not eloquent in speech. a few of them are nonhostile and can be become companions in some games. the master believed super mutants was how humanity should “improve” or move forward, a kind of diabolical trans/post humanism. • a lot of them [through this kind of philosophy and like, discrimination] think other people should be super mutants and/or prefer the company of super mutants or otherwise other beings transformed by radiation, viruses, the wasteland. definitely not all. some of them just want to coexist, live in peace, etc. but a lot of them are so effected by the virus, they turn into violent beings, unfortunately. • but! ron perlman has been brought back to voice this super mutant in the fallout series and it's a pleasure to hear him again, his voice is literally in every game, so this one's for the old headsss • the cloaked super mutant continues “they call us abominations. but they created our kind.” “our kind?” coopers asks in confusion. “i think you and me got bit by a different mοtherfսckin' bug, my friend.” cooper hilariously and deliriously says. • “ghouls. mutants. we're kin. and we should unite against our common enemy. they drove us to the point of extinction and forgot we ever existed.” • [kind of wondering if this cloaked super mutant is insinuating ghoulification is a purposeful creation... but then i almost forgot to remember that pre war ghouls do exist. and some experiments have been tied to... mr. house and robco [[!]] but that's a discussion for later maybe] •”but we didn't forget them. the people who set all this in motion. the enclave.” and there you have it, ladies and gentlemen

• “i've been wastelanding for 200 years. whatever it is i got to do, i do it alone.” responds cooper, physically weakened and probably quite tired. “uh huh. and how's that workin' out for you?” the cloaked super mutant counters. “i've kept myself alive for one... reason. to find my family.” cooper in his most vulnerable yet reveals to the cloaked super mutant. “well, then, you're gonna need friends.” the cloaked super mutant turns to reveal their face to cooper. “but, if you won't join our kind... then you can't know where we live.” the cloaked super mutant delivers a blow to cooper knocking him out but sparing his life • one thing about this scene is how illuminated and expressive walton's eyes are and conveying emotion was on point for it. • it's a pretty dark scene and if you're not looking closely, you'll almost miss a single tear stumbling down cooper's cheek in between him saying “i've been wastelanding for 200 years. whatever it is i got to do, i do it alone.” which makes my next point so salient • from what is gathered, an executive producer [and director of this episode] posted a set of pictures and where one could almost assume is a spoiler of behind the scenes of lucy and janey in the same super mutant church. walton previously mentioned a scene that was filmed but ultimately was cut that he said was filmed while he was missing his own child and was having a hard time dealing with it and i guess it got expressed in the scene and walton felt he made the crew uncomfortable. i've talked to a few people about this and had guessed maybe this scene walton spoke of is what the executive producer posted pictures of. it's really hard to guess and maybe it will be revealed later and of course i could be wrong about this but occam's razor says it's not a spoiler and probably at this point a deleted scene. • cooper was probably going to hallucinate seeing lucy and janey--- firstly, of course i hate being robbed like the next person but ultimately understand for various reasons why it may have been cut besides the reasons walton gave. on one hand, i thought it would've made for insane ghoulcy fodder. but then there are people who keep saying [despite what walton has said!] they see cooper and lucy as parent and child coded and this scene probably would've reinforced that. [which is not what anybody in production wants]. it also could lean into various theories about janey. like even if this isn't the scene that was cut because of walton's circumstances, narratively i could see it being scrapped too • but i do think it's incredible there may have been a scene that almost mirrored the one where lucy was in the caesar's legion camp thinking she hallucinated cooper coming there [and to save her]. they haven't even known each other that long and cooper was going to hallucinate lucy and janey, someone he has been searching for for two hundred years and someone else he has known barely for a month. that he was thinking of and/or caring about lucy just as much as he was with janey. that lucy meant something to him and effected him to his core like that. i think even in a nonshipping way, it would've been quite compelling material. • saw some ideas about how “a christmas carol” being brought up in the show would tie into this with perhaps lucy and janey being one of the ghosts of christmas past, present, and/or future. i think some people [including myself] was thinking when he was poisoned by the rad scorpion in the hospital that he was going to hallucinate there. so it's pretty ironic those theories weren't even wrong in the original storyline. it was basically supposed to happen, just a little differently than first thought • the way this cloaked super mutant character clocked cooper's whole deal immediately lmao 💀 alone for cooper is not exactly working out for him as he wishes 😭 • crossing my fingers this cloaked super mutant character gets a name--- i expect to see them again real soon

• “don't walk away from me, coop!” barb says, frantically trying to get through to cooper on her side of the situation “i know more than you know, okay? there are over 12,000 nuclear warheads set.---” “i'm not a board member. i am your husband. i don't care about your fսckin' statistics.” cooper probably can't believe he even has to confront barb on this. “statistics? this is about janey.” “so... for our daughter, you would k ill millions of people.” “don't do that.” we are back at the hotel at the big four defensive contractor event. • whew! ok, people point out cooper's uh apparent hypocrisy with being a soldier and going to war and all that and yeah. no, i get the argument. he thought he was k illing people for the greater good and definitely to protect someone like his daughter, janey. i guess the only counter to that is that whoever dropped the b ombs were indirect combatants because if the battle of anchorage is anything to go by, it's self defense in cooper's military case since china was invading but i digress. i think it's of relevance to [also] focus on the hypocrisy argument from the perspective of how cooper is after the bo mbs fell. now that is where i feel it is strongest, because cooper in what we've seen in some cases doesn't have to k ill anyone in the name of searching for his family but he does. of course, we still haven't seen how cooper got this way so this pathos isn't fully clear. • ”billions of people. other, other mothers just like you.” “don't do that, coop, do not do that.” “other daughters just like our daughter!” “wouldn't you? for janey. wouldn't you?” his inability to answer brings this part of the argument to a close • “there are worse people out there than me, coop.” barb says through teary ears. “who? who could possibly be worse than you.” • personally, i find this is where the marriage was officially over for some reason, idk what it is about cooper telling barb he thinks she's the worst but it feels like a severing. point of no return. but what's really chilling is barb saying there are people out there worse than her. because she's right. and this episode really nails that home. • we are greeted to barb in her office again, still unsettled. betty comes in and mentions how barb hasn't touched her food. “betty... i want you to get me every bit of information you can about how the cold fusion diode is stored at vault tec.” barb quickly approaches betty. “how is it secured? who monitors it? everything.” “is that a good idea?” “none of this is a good idea.” • this scene is directly after the meeting with mr. house's double and on some level, could imply that barb was trying at least here to start doing something to stop the situation escalating with the b ombs dropping • i wonder if vault dweller betty wonders about what happened with the cold fusion diode after the b ombs fell. • [bar is deep in hell but shout out to having two blk and femme characters share a scene, more, please]

• barb walks out of her office and shows a myriad of feelings and facial expressions before getting on an elevator with a man who begins to speak to her. “you're just a very replaceable part in this machine.” “i'm sorry, who are you?” “but if you forget your place in the company... you'll d ie. and so will your family.” the man says as barb tears her attention away from him in fright. barb... is being threatened. “the same will happen to me if i don't communicate this message. we're all in the same boat. and not one of us can stop it. you know that. you wake up knowing it. the leaders of the most powerful corporations will be gathering here. and when they do... you tell them... “the only way to guarantee results is...” and it cuts to barb saying “by dropping the bomb ourselves.” the man in the elevator with barb is wilzig from the enclave. • i speculate even pre war wilzig was disillusioned and trapped within the enclave after seeing the conversation in this scene. i also speculate somebody [else]was listening in and monitoring barb and her little vault tec meetings too--- doesn't have to necessarily be mr. house and robco. • if was obvious in the big secret corporate meeting with vault tec barb went to in season one that she was being directed to say and do things, that much was obvious. barb is not a big bad [yet] and these cataclysmic ideas did not originate with her. she, like wilzig, is but a cog in the machine. • noticed wilzig's hair pre b omb drop is salt and pepper and in the wasteland, it's dark brown, like... did wilzing... conceal his age? it's probably nothing but • barb must've wanted to throw up asking betty to get info on the cold fusion diode only to be told moments later by presumably a powerful organization to imply vault tec should drop the bom bs. i wonder if barb was first enclave and then got into vault tec and the enclave was there to remind her what she's actually there to do. if not this scenario, then i wonder if this whole conversation would be the moment the enclave decided barb is their puppet and that she should stay in line at vault tec. or else • now, big question: who sent wilzig? • “who threatened you?” questions cooper to barb as they are sitting in the hotel room at the las vegas event. “please, coop. you don't need to get involved in any of this.” barb begs. “who controls vault tec?” “i don't know.” barb's voice almost cracks as she replies back to cooper's question. if barbara howard, a high ranking executive at vault tec doesn't know who controls vault tec, then how far does the rabbit hole go? • i love rewatches because i'm always thinking a mile a minute on first watch--- it's occurring to me now that the enclave could simply control vault tec. and some people at vault tec haven't a clue. • “well, let's find out.” [cooper mirroring lucy with the chipper can do attitude despite the odds stacked against real bad 😭] “no, no, no, no, no. this is not one of your movies with a happy ending. there is nothing we can do. if there was, i would have done it. i tried to do it. this deal is going forward whether we like it or not.” • yeah, barb probably did do everything she could think of before this moment to stop the inevitable. but there's many moving pieces at play. barb couldn't save the world when it's already in motion to end. “please, look at me. i am your wife. you know me. you know me.” barb pleads with cooper. “i don't. i don't know you, barbara.” and he doesn't. barb has completely lost cooper. • “where are you going?” “to fսckin' do something.” and that “something” involves hanks. • “this is not one of your movies with a happy ending. ” hurts sooo bad 😭 please no foreshadowing, please let cooper have a happy ending. for once.

• back at the vault tec facility's where many mind controlled people are being held hostage in, they are at the desks performing their manufacturing tasks in rhythm. automating the process to make all these mind control devices. hey. why isn't hank using robots for this? hmm lol • lucy leads hank at scissor point down to the elevator trying to leave this vault tec facility when one of the mind controlled people, shelley, notices and drops some metal and it makes everyone focus their attention on lucy and hank suddenly. • hank is like “nothing to worry about, folks. my daughter is here to pursue the cause of justice. and we like justice, don't we?” lmao ok • [there's a brief shot of a cleaned up nick the prick lmao] • ”where did you find them all?” lucy inquires. “oh, all over. so many people need our help.” hank might be crazier than mr. house, i think [this confirms the idea i was thinking that hank doesn't care where he sources his victims from, he almost certainly wants to control the entire mojave and any vault dweller with these mind control devices] • hank continues on “like marjorie.” “hi.” “you used to be kind of a mu rderer, right?” “i guess.” “now, she's a pencil sharpener, and a darn good one.” “oh, sherman and gregory were from opposing tribes. if they'd met each other a month ago, they'd have ki lled each other.” “and rita. she used to cook people for the legion. now, she makes trail mix, and, boy, is it tasty.” hank is nuts 😭 • [tribals? mention? caesar's legion cannibalism confirmed? trail mix is a consumable in fallout: new vegas lol i also noticed the character of marjorie's actor is samoan and a kiwi! there's also some actors with missing limbs in this scene, i love spotting representation in case anyone was curious where to find it] • it's pretty crazy these people can still keep a resemblance of who they are while under mind control. they seem “off” but that's about it, they function and a little too well • at first i was trying to figure out why would lucy fall into his trap but like. hank is unfortunately making a good [manipulative] case to her. almost every person he's describing was well, pretty terrible before he mind controlled them. [presumably! i don't trust hanks' assessments of these people] seems like he's picking up caesar's legion and raiders. • as lucy continues to escort hank out of this vault tec facility, lucy demands that hank free his captives. “when we leave, we're leaving all of the doors open so they can go home, understood?” “you're the boss.” hank patronizes. “hi, everyone. i just wanna let you know that you're free now, okay? you can all go back to the surface now.” lucy doesn't seem to realize what kind of spell these people are under. “uh, do we have to?” rita asks. “it's dangerous out there.” nick the fucking prick adds. “i agree. but my daughter's moral code demands it.” hank, insufferably. “but we like it down here.” nick the prick insists--- why do they have nick the prick sounding like that, his voice is now nerdy and nasally, who is this guy and what has he done with one of the great khan members 😭 • “tell you what, you can stay here as long as you like, but when we leave, we're gonna open all the doors.” hank decides to undermine lucy. • “hey, boss! uh, sorry to derail the conversation. just to flag, what are we doing with these two males? uh, they haven't been fixed yet.” and it's the snake oil salesman with biff and a character credited as massive legionary strapped to some chairs. lucy notices it's biff and becomes horrified.

• so hank is running a sophisticated kidnapping ring too, looks like he's getting snake oil salesman to help trap people. • also? wondering how biff got caught up in this and with a legionary. did cooper giving the ncr remnant's location to caesar's legion kinda backfire? or did biff somehow search some of them out? where is captain rodriguez? • the legionary wants to harm biff real bad and biff is scared 😭 • “should i just go ahead and do it now?” the snake oil salesman asks hank. “great question. all he needs to do is push a button.” “no.” lucy says. “okie dokie” says the snake oil salesman. “send them off as is. it's what she wants.” hank pulls a manipulative trick instantly “okie dokie!” the snake oil salesman complies. “no, wait! wait, no!” lucy shouts! • ”ncr hostis!” [noctis means like enemy in latin] the massive legionary exclaims towards biff as biff kicks this mf as he is still strapped to his chair. “this is exactly the kind of violence i'm trying to prevent. i wish we could all just get along, don't you, sugarb omb?” hank is standing in the back, watching lucy react while lucy frantically moves biff out of the way. • briefly hank shows a modicum of concern as the massive legionary attempts to one hand choke lucy. for whatever reason marjorie offers lucy a pencil and lucy stabs the shit out of this massive legionary and he throws lucy aside to get to biff. the massive legionary picks up a stapler [??] and tries to hit biff over the head with it 😭 lucy asks hank to literally stop them and his response is no surprise. “press the button, it's the only way.” lucy shouts “damn it!” as she presses the button and instantly the violence stops. • “hey there, buddy. you okay?” “well, i seem to have found myself in a bit of a jam.” the legionary and biff are effected by the mind control device at the same. “could you help me out?” “sure.” “what are you doing here?” it's like the scuffle didn't even happen. this mind control device is getting spookier and spookier. • the legionary makes sense to be mind controlled but not biff! hank is targeting anyone, he's mad with power and it won't end here. • hank has tricked lucy. and she realizes it a little too late.

• while in the present cooper is being dragged on a makeshift stretcher out of the church by the cloaked super mutant, another flashback happens. hank has gotten pretty drunk already and is being half carried back to cooper and barb's hotel room by cooper. [how did vault tec or whoever let this man get so drunk with the cold fusion diode that he could be dragged around??] • cooper is about to give this asshole some night night juice to see what's in this metal box he's handcuffed to [parallel lucy handcuffing hank to hank being handcuffed here] “thanks for having me over, coop. you know, for some reason, i didn't think you liked me very much.” barb don't even like you, king gdlfgldfl • “i hope you like 'em strong, cowboy.” cooper says before eventually standing watch over passed out hank. • cooper opens the metal case and finds the same injector wilzig was using for the cold fusion diode. cooper is confused and is about to wake up hank to ask him about it but then barb comes in and reveals its purpose. • wasn't sure what barb was going to do when she found cooper trying to figure out the cold fusion setup, her expression is hard to read but she was apparently trying to help cooper • this is probably the first time cooper has laid eyes on moldaver's cold fusion asset. • it's night and thaddeus and maximus are asleep by the fire. dogmeat runs right on up with cooper's hat and barks them awake. it ends up being day by the time dogmeat leads thaddeus and maximus to a very out of commission cooper slumped over like a chair or somethin' in a new location called mojave mission school. wonder if this place has a connection to something in particular... • “fuck...” maximus whispers in shock. “fuck.” cooper also says annoyed as hell, eyes almost rolling out his head. boy's trip! lmao • thank you, dogmeat <3

• ”luther played the boogie” by johnny cash ends this episode and they show bud askins' office and it's full of cooper howard rotf • i asked earlier how bud askins even did the brain on a roomba thing and oh my god there's a pamphlet right there “so you're thinking of having your brain removed... a guide to transcending mortality”. a vault tec innovation, apparently lol • “senior junior vice president” they just be makin' shit uppp • a grognak the barbarian comic book and action figure easter egg is on bud askin's desk too • mutual mentioned how barb and other vault tec staff have on pip boys in the meeting scenes, making it easier to track when this flashback occurred [and i suspect that mr. house might be tracking and listening in during these meetings] • very emotional and morally complex expressions in the hotel room scene with cooper and barb--- what would anyone with kids do in this situation? it's unthinkable. impossible. almost everything in this universe feels like “lose-lose” • [excuse me, brainwashed people saying “okie dokie” uhhh] • was thinking perhaps humans avoided cooper because ferality is dangerous and wanted nothing to do with cooper in case he turned even if someone cared enough to rescue him. on some level, i was wondering if it was anti ghoul stigma of why cooper wasn't helped. maybe a bit of both. sigh • [there's like a few posters with the wedding announcement that are easter eggs but one of them is for davey and him losing a copy of “dean's electronics” which is a skill book you can get in fallout 3] • going back to something i was thinking back to episode one of season two, is that i firmly believe hank was talking to mr. house in the message he sent out before [seemingly] perfecting the mind control device. because who else is hank talking to if mr. house was the one who created it? “i’m gonna complete the work you started” the work was started by mr. house. • and i also realized in looking up casts for some characters again--- i am realizing just how early hank was testing these mind control devices on people because idk why i thought the man hank bisected in episode one of season two was her son [never could find credit on who that was or the character's name and knowing now, i guess it's a cameo] when it was the sunburned man they found in vault 24. idk if the wiki made the connection last time i looked but the discussion with old woman gretch, cooper, and lucy about how old woman gretch thought her son was d ead was a misdirect to me i guess because i assumed they meant the literal d ead guy cooper and lucy saw bright before was her son. sad tidbit about this was that the sunburned man wasn't even d ead yet when the conversation was happening oof ok • starting to speculate with the mutuals what part bobby apartment is playing in all this and if it's much bigger than we realize [also rafi silver knows about bobby apartment lmao goodbye!]

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