Introduction
This episode went dialogue and lore heavy. I’m not complaining. Sometimes you need to take a break from the action. After the last two action packed episodes we needed a chance to catch our breath. However, this isn’t it. Even though there isn’t a ton of action, the episode still whips and will require quite a bit of my time and attention in a couple of days when I write the analysis.
BARB
Open on a mushroom cloud. Pull out to an eye while Vault Tec employees explain the plan to drop the bomb. 10 megaton vs 5 megaton vs multiple 5s. Water chips have a 30% fail rate, but we’ll know which fail, so we get to choose who runs out of water. Any preferences? Another pitch. BARB Bobby Apartment! Hank enters. “Hi there. I asked Betty if I could take notes on this one. She said yes.” Bobby: So, here it is. RobCo presents The Automated Man. Spent a lot of time trying to make my machines more lifelike, but, hey, it works the other way around.” “MOrr House. Vault-Tec and RobCo have always had a special arrangement. You have several vaults. If this is the research you wish to pursue– “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.” “And what project is that?” “Might be above your paygrade. You’ll find out about it after the bombs drop, I guess.” Barb closes binds. Ominous music plays. She opens a book and looks at a photo of the family. Back to her eye. TITLE |
The Ghoul/Cooper In Bad Shape
In Vegas. The Ghoul on the post, trying to reach his pack. Not even close. “Come on. Come on. Fuck. Uh, a little help, a little help.” Nope. “Son of a bitch.” Arf. “Dogmeat fetch me that satchel. I need my vials.” Dog fetches hat. “I don’t need the hat. I need the satchel.” Ghoul starts to Ghoul out. Dog takes off “You stupid fucking dog.” Ghouls out some more and lies still.
Nice dissolve to Cooper. “Last night I was thinking about how I porposes to you. Catalina. We walked out to that romantic point. Rocks covered in seagull shit. Never forget the sound when I took a knee. The thing I can’t figure out. Were you a monster back then. Or, did you become one later?”
“Excuse me?!”
“War never changes” He said the thing! “I know what you’re planning to do, Barb.”
I Wouldn’t Call It Brainwashing
| Lucy lying in a bed. She wakes up. Looks around. Confused. She’s in a room made up to look like a bedroom. There’s a yellow dress hanging in front of a mirror. She gets a close look and sees something in the background. “Dial 0 when you’re up. –Dad” Instead she kicks the door open and sees two Legion members walking. Grabs a fire extinguisher. Winds up to hit them. “Morning” “Beautiful Day, isn’t it?” They’re much more cheery than she remembers. They walk through the door. She goes down the hall they came from. There’s others there. “Please after you. No, I insist you go. No, please, after you. Coffee?” The Syncopated Clock plays The office drones work in perfect harmony.Lucy walks through the aisle as they do. She’s quite confused by it all. “I finished another batch. Here you go Shelly.” “Fantastic. Let me take those out of your way.” Lucy leaves the office and walks down another hall to a door that reads “Simulation. She enters. Hank is in there, preparing a meal and humming. She pauses. He places a bowl of nuts on the table. “We never go to discuss All Quiet, did we? I guess we were waiting until after the wedding. That end, that was a humdinger, huh?” She approaches the table. “I didn’t finish it.” “That’s okay, you’ve been busy.” “What did you think about the parts you did read?” “I found it upsetting.” “Can’t blame you there. What aspect upset you most?” She scoff.s “To me, the most troubling was that everyone seemed to be fighting over nothing. French. German. What was the difference, really, except for the uniform. I saw the same thing on the surface. People fighting over the most petty things, like bottle caps. Is that what you saw when you were there?” She looks off to the side. “But you know some things just never change. People just want to kill each other, don’t they? I think it’s because people want to feel safe. Pretty ironic, feel safe by hurting people. Even kill them, because the—” She grabs him. “It’s crazy. The war instinct.” “I’m bringing you back to Vault 33 to face justice. For murdering the people of Shady Sands.” “For a second there, I thought the Wasteland had changed you. If you want to make this official, you should use these handcuffs.” “What are you doing?” “Surrendering.” “Why?” “I did what I did to protect you. But maybe it came at too high a price. And there comes a time in a man’s life where he has to take responsibility for what he’s done. And, for me, that time has come. You have come, Sugar Bomb. But, please, just let me tell you what I’ve been doing here.” “No, we’re going.” “Just give me a chance. I think you’ll find 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 my little projects. Do you remember the field with the potato batteries when you were five? And you had a little flashlight and you’d go around recharging batteries with your little red flashlight. Do you remember that?” |
I Remember Good People
In the desert with Thad and Max. Thad exits the armor.
“Sure we gotta leave it?”
“They got trackers in those things. They’ll come for it. The armors more trouble that it’s worth.”
Max looks at cold fusion.
“If that’s not a relic, I don’t know what is. We’re going to sell it, right?”
“No, absolutely not. We’re not going to sell it.”
“Yeah, right, right, of course. Not gonna sell it, sell it. We would find a buyer, put out feelers and trade it.”
“No, we’re not giving it away.”
“A trade, that’s not..a trade you get something.”
“Absolutely not.”
by the fire. “We definitely gotta sell it.” “I told you we’ll give it to a good person.” “Name a good person.” “The girl I met.” “The Vault Dweller.” “Yeah.” “Yeah, you know, I’d be a good person too if I grew up on top of a mountain of food and supplies in some cozy little home. I wouldn’t look like this. That’s for sure. I wouldn’t have to steal and stab and fid all the goddamn time just to get by. Ut if we sell it, guess what, we’ll be rich. Then we’ll have the means to be one of those good people you’re talking about. I’ve seen a lot of things. Crazy things. But good people. Nah.” “Where were you born again, Thaddeus?” “The bone yard. The shit side of the bone yard.” “I guess I’m the lucky one. Come here from Shady Sands. I remember good people.” “Well if you’re the lucky one, we’re both screwed.” They laugh. “No offense.”
My Name is Cooper Howard
The Ghoul is in bad shape. Snarling and grunting. Goes through the ritual of “My name. My name is Cooper. My name is Cooper. Cooper Howard.” Snarls. “I have a dau…a daughter. Her-her-her name is Ja. Is Janey. Janey Howard. She’s alive. She’s a…she’s alive. My daughter is alive.” He starts climbing by pulling himself up the pole. He makes it and reaches the top. Can’t pull himself anmore and falls back down. Creature growls. Death claw? Nope. It knocks off the top of the pole and grabs Cooper. Drags him on a stretcher to somewhere.
Uranium Fever
Back in the vault 33. Piano Nellie bobby Brandt plays.
The In Breeding group is full. Triple cousins don’t cut it anymore. Reg strikes out while trying to talk to someone. He sits at the piano and starts playing. Busts out Uranium Fever by Elton Britt. Everyone is dancing and eating and having a grand time. Everything is happening in sync.
Uh oh, Betty’s on her way. And she’s got some brutes with her.
Back to reality. Reg is playing Mary had a little lamb and it’s just as lame as ever. Betty is rescinding the snack budget and dissolving the support group. “I want to talk to Betty.” “You’ve been ignoring myrequests to sit down with me. Hiding from me.” “You can dissolve the group, but not cut my snack budget.” “In my office, now.” “No.” “We are running out of water and you’re giving people salty snacks.” Reggie gives an impassioned speech. They go back and forth. “I see” Betty says after he shit talks the Weevil famine. He then takes a giant mouthful of Jello. “You showed her, Reg.”
I Don’t Even Like Checkers
Chet and the baby
They’re looking for Woody. Meant to play chekcers this morning. Want to know the truth? Yes, the truth. I don’t even like checkers. I only play because it seems to make Woody happy. Who doesn’t want to make Woody happy? He’s such a great guy. If Woody’s missing, we should take it up with the overseer. Well, I know she’s your wife, but—She’s not my wife. Oh, I’m sorry, fiance. I saw the poster. There’s a poster? Oh yea, there’s a poster. Stephanie and Chet are getting married!
There’s A War Coming
The Ghoul gets lifted in the stretcher by whoever has him. He can’t see too good. Super mutant: Uranium. Bad for them. Good for you. “Oh fuck.” “There’s a war coming and we need you healthy.” Jams the uranium in the Ghouls chest. “Be still. You’ll slow the healing. They call us abominations, but they created our kind.” “I think we got bit by a different motherfucking bug, my friend.” “Ghouls, mutants, we’re kin. And we should join forces against our common enemy. They drove us to the point of extinction and forgot we ever existed. But we didn’t forge them. The people who set all this in motion. The Enclave.” “I’ve been wastelanding for 200 years. Whatever I got to do, I do it alone.” “Uh huh, and how’s that been working out for you.” I kept myself alive for one…reason. To find my family.” “Well then you’re going to need friends. But if you’re going to join our kind, you can’t know where we live.” Blasts him on the head
SM is Ron Perlman (the VA from the first game)
Dropping the Bomb Ourselves
“Don’t walk away from me Coop. I know more than you do. There are over 12,000 nuclear warheads.” “I’m not a board member. I am your husband. I don’t care about your fucking statistics. “Statistics. This is about Janey.” “For our daughter you would kill millions of people. Other mothers like you. Other daughters just like our daughter.” “Wouldn’t you? For Janey? Wouldn’t you? There are worse people out there than me, Coop.” “Who? Who could possibly be worse than you?”
Back in Barb’s Office. “Not much of a appetite.” “Betty, I want you to get meeverything about the cold fusion diode. Who monitors it. Everything.” Is that a good idea?” “none of this is a good idea.”
She leaves and enters the elevator. “You’re just a very replacable part in this machine.” It’s the guy who owned Dogmeat! “But if you forget your place in this company, you’ll die and so will your family. The same will happen to me if I don’t deliver this message. We’re all in the same. You know that. We all know it. 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 *cut to Barb* by dropping the bomb ourselves. Holy shit.
Coop “Who threatened you?”
“Please, Coop, you don’t have to get involved in any of this.”
“Who controls Vault Tec?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, let’s find out.”
“nononononon. This isn’t one of your movies with a happy ending. If there was something to know, I’d know it. Believe me. I am your wife. You know me.”
“I don’t. I don’t know you.”
“Where are you going?”
“To fucking do something.”
He’s back on the floor of the Lucky 38
Kum By Yah
Back in Hank’s office. People still working in tandem. Lucy leads Hank through the office. People notice. Someone drops something.
Hank “Nothing to worry about here, folks. My daughter is here to pursue justice and we like justice, right?” “Where did you find them all?” “All over. So many people need our help.” “Take Marjorie. She used to be a murderer. But now she’s a pencil sharpener. These two guys were in warring tribes. A month ago, they’d kill each other. And Rita used to cook people for the Legion. Now she makes trail mix and it’s delicious. You should try some.” “No, I’m good.”
Lucy wants to free them all. “Do we have to?” “It’s dangerous out there.” “We like it down here.” “But my daughter’s moral code demands it. We will leave the doors open.” SOS comes in with another and the two legionairres from earlier.
“Uh boss, sorry to derail the conversation. Just to flag. What are we doing with these two males. They haven’t been fixed yet. Should I just go ahead and do it now?” Great question. Should we? “No.” “Okie dokie. She says no. Send them off as is.” “Okie dokie.” No, wait! Wait, no! The release the guys and they start beating the shit out of each other. Lucy tries to prevent them. “This is just the kind of violence that I’m trying to prevent. I wish we could all just get along. Don’t you Sugar Bomb?” The guys are still trying to kill each other. One grabs Lucy by the throat. Marjorie gives her a pencil. She stabs the guy. He grabs a stapler and starts stapling the other dude. “Stop them.” “Press the button, it’s the only way.” “Dammit.” She presses the button. “Hey buddy. Are you okay?” “I seem to have found myself in a bit of a jam. Can you help me out?” They chuckle. “Sure What are you doing here?” “Why thank you.” Sure. Let’s get you some help. That looks like it stinks. “Kum by yah.” Hank says. Lucy looks disgusted.
Hope You Like it Strong, Cowboy
The Super Mutant drags The Ghouls back.
Cooper: You just need to sit down for a bit. Hank: Okay. Cooper leads him to a nice comfortable chair and helps him sit down. “Thanks. Thanks for having me over, Coop. You know for some reason I didn’t think you liked me very much.” “I hope you like it strong, Cowboy” He drugs Han and opens the case on his wrist. It’s the needle gun. “What is this? Hank? Hank. Hey. What is this? Hank!”
Barb walks in. She slowly approaches, then faster. She takes the needle gun points it at Hank and jabs him with it. He had the cold fusion inside of his neck. Cooper is shocked. She’s quite frankly, scared it looks like.
Fuck. Fuck
At the fire with Max and Thad. Dogmeat comes with the hat and barks to wake them up. Thad: Is that? They follow Dogmeat. He takes them to an abandoned town and into a garage. “Fuck” There’s The Ghoul. He sighs. Fuck. Thad: Hey. Dogmeat barks.