Midnight Viewing presents Vault 702: The Fallout Podcast - S01E02 The Target

I don't want to set the world on high. I just want to start a flame in you. In my heart. I have but warmyi, and that one is you. No the Wild Welcome back Vault Dwellers to Vault seven oh two the Fallout Podcast.

I'm your faithful servant of technology, father Malone, and with me as always guiding me out here in the wasace. I hear she even knows her way to Philly. She's the gul next door, the it Ghul. Is she the final ghoul we'll see? Say hello to Nuka, Coda quantum, Hello.

Coda, howdy Hadre. How are you doing? I'm doing well? How have the ways been since last we talked? Same as always, highly irradiated at plenty for me to kill rad roaches?

Am I right? Sut out here? We've got I think, yagwe yeah, rad roaches. We're gonna get into a few beasts today. So indeed we are, in fact back to discuss the second episode of the Amazon television series Fallout, based on the popular video game series and a fine series of Bobbleheads.

We've got new destinations to explore in plenty of side quests, so let's dive on in Fallout Season one, Episode two, The Target written by Geneva Robertson, Dwart and Graham Wagner, directed by Jonathan Nolan. Boy, he's really setting a tone for the whole series here and starring Ella Pernell, Aaron Moten, Michael Emerson, Rapaport, Dale Dickey, John Day, Michael Abbott Junior, and of course Walton Goggins as the Ghoul. When last we left, our trio of leads, each on their own separate missions, each not having any idea that they're all after the same thing. Lucy had finally escaped the vault in an effort to track down Lucy had finally escaped the vault in an effort to track down her overseer father, Hank Maximus had survived a trial with the Brotherhood of Steel and found himself a squire to Knight Titus and the Ghoul.

He's just doing his thing, Codo, what are your thoughts? Let me pick that irradiated brain of yours. I think where they picked up was perfect for where they left off, not letting us get too distracted. So we're after the target, right, We find our main goal and it opens exactly with that wilt sig I believe is how they refer to him a lot in the show. But I keep wanting to call him Siggy or Sigis.

As that is his character's first name, and it's such a fun name to say, Hey, why would you go for Wolzig? But we basically see him here. I don't believe if you're maybe a viewer who's not super familiar with the game, maybe we don't know this is enclave we're dealing with, But you do see this man and his dog. We know they're the target from the previous episode, and it's a very heartwarmed moment considering what the wasteland is. They have to basically get rid of these dogs that don't meet a weight requirement for whatever needs or experiments they're using them for, and this man just can't.

He saves the puppy, and he trains him. He spends so much time. We see this when his journey with the dog comes to a moment of truly man's best friend, where the dog goes to protect him. A man walks in, sees this hidden creature he's not supposed to have, and the dog fucking kills him right away. So I just think the whole opening in the relationship that it shows between man and dog is really beautiful, and isn't it.

The game itself is based off of like something like a man and his dog. Oh yeah, a boy and his dog. Yes, it's so echoed here, Like whoever wrote this, we know who wrote this one. They kind of picked up that vibe and ran with it, because yeah, having a canine companion in the wasteland only makes sense and it's only kind of a wonderful throwback to one of its inspirations. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Go to tell us about the Enclave. I don't have much to say about the Enclave either. I dislike them just as much as the Brotherhood. Really, Oh, come on, you're too hard on the Brotherhood. I am.

I think I am. I need to give them a little bit more of a chance. But really, the Enclave is they're trying to make America great again. Basically, Now, the Enclave itself is located in Denver, I believe, and this is a new location for us, and this is basically what remains of the United States government. Correct, Yeah, so two hundred years on, it's one little as far as we know, a station somewhere in Denver where none of the bombs fell, so it's still green and lovely there.

But they're up to no good at all. And what's amazing about the sequences, it's never revealed what they're up to. You just know it's fucking terrible because it begins with burning puppies alive. Yeah, pretty much. So.

In the games, the Enclave has a big role, so it would only make sense that we're seeing them in the show. I believe it's the third one, Fallout three, that's basically one of the antagonists you can join or be against, but they do. They have a much larger part, and in the first two games as well, which I haven't played, but I believe they're one of the main factions, and as the games went on we get all these other fun things like the Fiends, which we'll get too eventually. Ziggy here, I'm gonna call them zigge like you're gonna call them zig because fuck everybody else in their wiltzig nonsense. That's Michael Emmer.

I think most people would recognize him as Ben Lionis from Lost. He was the main antagonist on the island there and then he did all. Oh my god, he was Oh yeah, I did not recognize him from that. That's crazy, okay. He also, and I don't know if anyone really knows this, but there was an animated version of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns a few years ago where Peter Weller voiced Batman.

Michael Emerson voiced the Joker, and he did it as a quiet, contemplative Joker and it's one of the scariest performances ever. So I encourage everyone to check out Michael Emerson as the Joker. I know we all love our own particular jokers. And Mark Hamill, yes, he's not scary as the Joker. This motherfucker was scary as the Joker.

That sounds fantastic. So, Lucy, we just got a little glimpse of her and during the Wasteland at the end of the last episode, and now she's wandering alone, and I think they do a great job of her. Her curiosity and her caution and her intellect, and just a lot of things about her personality come out just by seeing her walk through this absolutely destroyed home and the music is playing and it just stops, and she turns and she sees this table with skeletons at it, and one of them's a baby, and I just want to mention this now. It'll come back later. But she picks up a bottle and it's kind of hard to read, but it is the vaultech plan d pill.

Oh so that family killed themselves. That's the assumption, right. Oh, I didn't even pick that. Up, was it? In that moment they knew they maybe they had the news on like that birthday party did, and they see bombs drop it and they're like, they have to make a decision.

They couldn't afford tickets into a vault. Can you imagine. Ooof No, let's all eat poison together, everybody, because we don't want to get her radiated. Yeah ah no, I hadn't even considered that. Now when I rewatched it, my heart is gonna break when she goes into that house.

That's why it's so it's such a good seat. Here's how late I am. I thought, isn't it funny that she finds a tumble a tumbleweed frightening? I thought, oh, maybe the vault they don't have any records of tumbleweeds. Because she's completely flummixed by it, exactly.

She has such a startled expression. Her reaction it's great to me. That'd be like if she was turning and seeing the creature she had never seen before. But that's the thing. Did she think maybe is that some mutant I'm not familiar with.

It could be such a cute moment. I really liked it. The whole seed is great. It's ruined now that I know the fucking family all committed suicide. You know what, that's the waste.

Man. You might find hope in little things like the innocence of being startled at a tumbleweed, but then you're gonna turn the next corner to murder, death, mutilation. Listen. I spend all my days of unclanking metal and fucking blessing technology, so I don't get out there much. It's good to know it's frightening for everyone.

Different strokes. I guess we kind of died down this scene a little bit by Lucy finding a camp site for night Right. She's a vault dweller. What's she going to do? She needs her rest.

She lights a fire. Now for me, and I'm sure for many people first time seeing that, I'm like, what are you doing? Why are you lighting a fire? What are you doing? It's like survivalist one oh one.

Don't let everyone know where you are. Don't invite heat and other creatures to come gather. Yeah, it doesn't matter if you're a Fallout fan or not. That is just a kind of a common knowledge thing, right, But maybe that's not something you learned in the vault. No, if tumbleweeds are terrifying, then proper etiquette when it comes to campfires is not part of your Actually that's not true.

Even boys scouts know that. Shit. Yeah, so I don't know how I feel about that, But no, you know. What, it's a fucking it's a flaw. That's not cool.

They Lucy would have known that. Lucy as naive and as innocent as she is, she's entirely capable. She went out there fully knowing full well what she was going to have to do. So you're right that that didn't make any sense other than it's a nice little teaching moment and a kind of a shock moment. It does help with the next part of the scene when she wakes up to the dog, who we know as c X four zero four.

But I'm calling him dog meat for just so you're aware, I'm calling dog meat. I'm with you. So she wakes up to this dog browling and he's attacking a rad roach and then turns and sees Singy there. So I'm assuming that's how he found her in the first place. Was he saw the fire?

Most likely? Yeah, because because she has luck, I swear her luck percentage and her special has to be so damn high for her to be found by one of the nicest people in the lake. Right, Oh my god, that's what he'd be. The last person who would fucking stumble on me. I wouldn't wake up, somebody just stab me in the head.

Yeah, exactly. So that's still lucky shit, I'm telling you. But yeah, So we get to this point and again, such a beautiful scene. What was the. Actor's name, Michael Emerson.

He is fantastic. He is captivating when he speaks, and I'm very happy with the role they put him in the show. But he gives this beautiful speech to her exactly about what we're talking about. You should know better, you're a vaulty, you don't belong up here, things of that nature. Go home.

We get this warning a few times for Lucy in this episode. Just go home. So I thought this was an awesome scene as well, and this I want to don't want to forget the dog, just like the tumbleweed. Is she aware of dogs, because I'm sure they had literature and things like that from the past, so I think she would have an understanding of basic animals. Yeah, I think she knows what a dog is.

But waking up with one growling at you having never actually encountered one must be quite a sight. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, I can't. Yeah. Oh, that's so interesting to think from that perspective of being a full grown adult.

And never experiencing any of this stuff. Yeah, oh it's so crazy. But yeah, so I think that wraps. I just want to say one thing that they give us a pretty detailed biological description of a rad roach, and now that they hunt in packs and they have new incisors to take down larger prey and yikes, And it seems kind of easily handled here because the dog goes off and does it. But listen, I don't like them.

I played the game. They're awful. That's such a funny perspective for me, because I rad roaches don't bother me one bit. I'm like, I got it. It's cool.

Well, my gun skills are terrible, that's fair. I use a lot of vas Oh okay, yeah, but I think that the description. You're right, it's fantastic and it goes back into that element of horror that the game has that we were talking about. So, and it addresses something that everyone thinks when they hear nuclear war, that only the roaches will survive. So it's yeah, they did, and it's fucking so much worse than you could imagine.

Yeah, yeah, that's great. Oh did you played New Vegas? Yeah? Did you ever get Rex as a companion from the Kings? No?

No? Okay, So in New Vegas there's a little faction of the Kings, which are basically Elvis impersonators, right, yeah, And you go to the main one, the King, and he has this dog with a robobraid goes by Rex and the brain is deteriorating, so you have to go get them a new one, and when you complete the quest, in return, you get to keep the dog as a companion. Nice. There's three options, and the one I've gone with recently that I love so much is I Believe. I believe it's the Fiends.

They have a dog that you have to steal the brain from in order to put it into Rex, and he is by far one of the best companions. The way you see the dog in the show attack the rad roach, You're off playing the game, and that dog is attacking something and killing it and giving you experience points before you even know there's something over there. I'm due for a replay here, because evidently there's tons I have not experienced, and that sounds like something I would really enjoy in the game. Yeah, no, it's I am partial to Gules, of course, but I'd have to say dog Me is the best companion. So a Gules best friend.

Yep, they did such a good job. Yeah, okay, so we go into Oh we're back to the Brotherhood of Steel. So we see Maximus and night Titus on their little vertebird plane or whatever. The vertebird. Yeah, I love that thing.

Yeah, and right away again, I this time watching this show around, I have such a new found appreciation for Maximus. I'm really enjoying his character when at first I hated him so much. So I'm looking at him through a new set of eyes, and this scene is just adorable, the way he is. What can I do for you? Can I let me help you?

And Night Titus is just a dick and has him clean basically what's his jack piece? Right, Yeah, the cod piece there wipe this down. Yeah, he's an absolute Throughout that scene, the way he goes to put it on him is so awkward. It's I don't even know how to describe it. If it's like a night Titus is having a no homo moment because he's kind of pushing Maximus away while still adjust that shit for me, you know what I mean, it's he's such an awkward.

It's all humiliation, it's all hazing, it's all fraternity bullshit. Right and if again, if that is the Brotherhood of Steel, more reason to hate him. I don't like. But this is this becomes a pretty exciting scene. Oh you know what, there's a foreshadowing moment really quick, because we have this moment with them on the plane and somewhere in between here there's a foreshadowing moment of Ziggy and the dog out by a cave, right, and oh yes, they find a hand and he looks distressed, and they just give us that for a brief moment because the next thing wants Maximus and Knight Titus kind of spontane exit the aircraft and just wander off into the wasteland.

We obviously because he's bored. Night Titus is now bored. He just wants to go shoot something, because that's the kind of human he is. Yes, yeah, and that's great foreshadowing for what's going to happen his character, I think. But we'll get there in a minute.

So they land and they're wandering, and they happen to come upon this exact spot where this cave is right and Maximus almost instantly figures it out and is, hey, I think we're on track with the target. There's evidence here for a man and a dog, and night Titus, being the deuche she is, wanders off into the cave and it's very suspicious. There's like barrels of radiation all over the place. I don't even know what this cave would have been used for at some point, but it was a very strange place to just wandering. It is a hazardous waiste dump.

There are signs posted. Like oh okay. They hear bellowing from in inside and he's, well, let me go check this out. What the fuck, man, why are you starting shit? The target is right here, You're supposed to be a knight.

Yeah, and so that point exactly, he wanders off into this cave because he's bored, and then immediately backs out. Oh, he orders Maximus to go wander into this fucking dangerous place no armor. You were the one who wanted this adventure, and now you're ordering this fucking kid to go do it for you. It feels like a setup to get his squire killed. It's total bait to bring out whatever creature's in there so that he can waste it.

Yeah. And then when he gets the opportunity, when the yabweh, this irradiated bear shows up right behind him, he throws a few punches and he runs. He fucking runs man's armor. Yeah, And I wanted to say to that when Maximus tries to deny the request him, Man, you're the one in the arm or not me, Knight Titus says to him, you get the armor through acts of bravery. That's an act of bravery.

And I think that is absolute bullshit, and that shows all of his cowardice in that moment. One night, Titus is the worst. We've seen some terrible characters so far, and at this point I hate him the most. And I will be fair I don't think he fully represents how the Brotherhood of Steel are. I can say that with some authority.

Okay, look, he's an outlier. I don't vouch for that guy. I never fucked with him. But they are there. They're still there.

We are a problem, but we're also a solution. So after he gets his ass kicked by this Yaguay, which okay, so fun fact, I believe that in one of the games, the Yaguay was named by Oh, it was like some Chinese immigrants or servants or somebody that they had captive that had gotten out and witnessed Yaguay. It means demon or monster. Same thing now. In this and I don't know what the main antagonist between the US was in Fallout the television series, but in the games it's China, right, So it's after World War Two.

The Cold War is not between the Soviets in America. It's between China and America. So it makes sense that we would be finding sort of Chinese things in Chinese technology on American soil if there was a big old war, you. Know, yeah, absolutely, But yeah, So he gets his ass kicked by this bear, which is I think the bears adorable but I think all of the irradiated creatures are adorable. Kindred kind Yeah, that's true.

We see more of Titus being a piece of garbage as he belittles the only person who can save him. In this moment, he seems to be stuck in his power armor and yelling at Maximus, get me a stimpack. What did you do standing there doing nothing? They're gonna hang you up by your lungs. That's a common practice with the Brotherhood.

If you do anything wrong, they will hang you up by your lungs, which is yeah, it's not Look, we're constantly evolving. I want to point out Knight Titus is played by Michael Rappaport, who used to be kind of adorable in his dunderheadedness in these days is a maga cocksucker. So fuck that guy. He is the perfect playerson to be playing Knight Titus. All the privilege, all of the wealth, all of the fucking superiority, and and boy doesn't this scene just sing once Maximus takes out the stem pack.

Yeah, it's a beautiful moment. And I completely side with Maximus in this scene. I would do I would have done the same thing. Fuck that guy. Yeah, and we get another flashback to young Maximus and at the worst moment of his life seeing a bit of divine intervention in the form of a Brotherhood of Steel Knight, and now he's measuring that against this fucking human garbage who's just the everything that the Brotherhood stands for.

This guy, doesn't he stands in opposition to all of it. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely don't meet your heroes kind of thing, so unless. You can withhold life giving medicine to them after they've been a cocksucker to you. But unfortunately we don't actually get to see him die.

It's implied it would have been. You know what, I think the knowledge was enough. Okay, Okay, knowledge is power. So we do have a quick moment back to Lucy right as she's still wandering the wastelands. Was this we get our first NPC?

Yeah, I believe. So that's. Oh, that's a great name for him. I wasn't sure what to call him except the random wastelander in a diaper every. Every character we run into.

That's just a little brief vignette in PC's as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, that you make a good point. Okay, So yeah, random house in the middle of the wasteland makes sense for fallout. Yeah, she meets this man, this poor guy. If this is what most of the people are like in the wasteland, it's got to be a hard place, because I have a hard time dealing with the McDonald's drive through.

So, yeah, this fella in his basically a diaper and a shirt and a terrible little pork pie hat out there in a sandy wasteland banging on pipes hoping for water. That's your existence, man, Come. On now, it's beautiful When he says, I keep putting sand in it, and I just keep getting more sand, And Lucy says, have you tried water for the water filter? Hadn't thought of that. But then we're dealing with a man who never walked over the hill to Philly, which is a settled region where he might have been able to, I don't know, trade things and get some water.

Right. It's again, they do such a good job in these scenes and summing up what life in the wasteland would be like in moments. Such a good job. That seems said so much, and. You're right, you know, Lucy does have a fuck ton of luck because so far she meant a super nice guy who had advice for her, and she meets a totally helpless couldn't hurt a fly, fucking wastelander before she meets anybody else.

What the hell? Man? Yeah, I'd be swarmed the moment I stepped out of a vault. She might not have full luck because he does drink all of her water, but I'm sure she finds some more in the next fucking countin over, you know what I mean? What she can know she's learned a lesson there.

Yeah, absolutely least she did. Yeah, because she would be naturally very trusting, and I think she doesn't know not to trust people like that. That's all. That's got to be so hard. I'm feeling for Lucy.

I really feel it right now. I know it's weird rewatching these and putting yourself in everyone's perspective. It becomes deeper, and it's just this seemingly mindless television show, but it's so densely plotted and in thematic I get. More emotional every time. So now, finally with this scene and Lucy has some direction, she knows there's a town over the hill.

Cool, let's go there quick. Right back to Maxidis. Now we see that he has the power armor and it's empty, there's no body in it, implying he had to take the dead body out, which I find fun. I do too. Why didn't we get a happy montage to the inkspots of him pulling out that body and then just casting it aside?

Yeah, some like a blooper or something that would be great. But so he finds finally gets to put on power armor for the first time. And I can't imagine the rush of endorphins and adrenaline that is going through this kid's body. And I like that he is unfamiliar with he's familiar and not everything is a surprise. Every little dude and switch in there, I'm sure does something and he doesn't know any of them.

Yes, you, I love the way you do. See these ups and downs of him finding something fun and then he accidentally kicks a rock and knocks down an entire building, right, so these oh this is fun? Ooh fuck, be careful of that. So he's also having these learning moments with it. Yeah, and the song choice for this scene it's a man Betty Hutton.

Yeah, it's so good. It's oh god, it's so good. I don't even know how else to describe it other than it's beautiful. It's it's crazy parallel action. It's like it's describing this man as he's doing these things in a giant metal suit from a song from the nineteen fifties, which is just about grabbing a man, and somehow it fucking works like gang boasters.

Yeah, it's crazy. It's just aw by the way, my favorite scene at rewatching it. This was my favorite scene seeing Maximus after everything in these past two episodes we've watched him go through, just get to kick back and have fun in that suit, just like he's so jazzed by it. And yes, he does accidentally knock a bunch of shit down and fucking realize the destructive nature of it. But it's such a beautiful little moment of joy.

Yeah, that's such a beautiful point to make because of the fact that we do keep seeing this flashback of him as a trial that we so we assume he went into this brotherhood of Steel mode at a very young age, So that is Yeah. I mean, I wondered if this is the first time he's ever smiled in his life. He just actually seems to be having a good time. Yeah, that's really nice. What's not so nice is this next moment, where, again the power of the power Armor, he hears some man crying for help and assumes he's helping and by nearly scalping a guy by grabbing his hair with the hand of the power Armor.

I can't imagine what that would feel like, and I'm honestly shocked they didn't add blood to the effects after that, because I think there would have been a little bit of blood. Yeah, we get a different lesson, but that also would have been one lesson because I wouldn't trust a fully accredited Knight in his power armor to grab me by my noggin, never mind this kid who doesn't know what he's doing in there. Yeah, very scary moment, But this is one of the first times we really get a little more introduction to the Snake oil salesman. I believe is the only name we really have for him. Yes, he's not an NPC because we're gonna get him a lot.

Oh yeah, Oh yeah, he's a fun one. Fun thought. It'd be cool if he becomes almost like a companion character at some point. But we'll see, we'll see, we will then. Yeah, Okay, the Snake Oil Salesman.

By the way, he played my comedic actor named John Daly, who I've always found really hilarious. He's from Chicago, And if you watch, there's a film on Netflix about the early days of the National Lampoon and at one point they cut to the making of Caddyshack and he's playing Bill Murray and he's fucking perfect. Oh wow, I feel like I've seen that, but I don't remember it. I'm gonna have to check that out again. Did you know they're also doing I think it might have been just a prime offshoot show, but they did a little short talk show with the snake oil Salesman.

Yes, I don't know that I've watched any of them yet. I'm just I don't know why. But oh no, wait, I have seen I've seen some of that. They're really brief, right, they're just like. Yeah, yeah, viewing the actors and well, yeah, it's fucking great.

Yeah, he's really funny. That guy one of my favorites so far. But so in this moment he gets to run free, he thanks Maximus and is I think he calls him a gentleman and a scholar or something like that, and Maximus lets this poor man go and he I'm sorry, but he was fucking my chicken. Cut the closeup of Chicken, our second chicken closeup of the series, but now with a whole different context. Yeah, and I, oh god, I can't with this scene.

It's so funny every single time. And in the first episode we get a lot of cousin fucking talking about right, and this one it's chicken fucking And it makes you wonder what other creatures in the Wasteland people are trying to. Fuck the track record of men in general, all of them. Yeah, but I think this, I think this also goes to show there's absolutely anything could happen around any corner in the Wasteland or the Fallout universe. Almost nothing as off limits.

Yeah, and don't ever judge a situation until you know what's going on, because you don't know, and you won't until you're engaged. Yeah, you know what, that's just a good life lesson in. General, figure the shit out before you jump in, dummies. Yeah. So again, fun learning moment for him.

But now I think we finally get to Philly. We're about there with Lucy Coda. This is when the run up to the series was happening, and we started getting our first images, like set images. Philly was featured kind of heavily, and I remember thinking, because whoever took the pictures did a shitty job. Oh my god, we're in trouble.

And then when we got there and I saw, oh, professionals have lit it and shot it, and they've decorated it better. I think it's a fantastic set, as good as any post apocalyptic set of a new village. Oh interesting, Okay, I don't recall seeing any terrible photos that upset me. I remember just the moment when she walks through the tunnels into the downtown of Philly and you see the front of the airplane. My heart filled with joy because it is so reminiscent of Megatun from Fallout three, which is where that concept came from.

For the junk town where everything's just built off of carts and train cards. It's one of the main towns in the game where you know. What, I just realized I played Fallout three. Oh my god, yes, because I recognize the town now that you mentioned it like that. Yes, yeah, I really barely did got out of that town, honestly, and that's why I stopped playing Falla for so long, So that's hilarious.

I thank you for the memory. Yeah, you're right, it looks great. No, that's awesome. So megaton Is has such a special place in my heart. It's one of the towns where you can have like a home for your character to store all your shit.

So it's just from me, such a special place. And in the game you can choose to blow it up. I have done it once, but I saved prior and I blew it up just for the experience, and then I went back and played the game without blowing it up because I don't have it in me to not have that town exist. It's such a part of Fallout for me. But yeah, it's where you begin your journey and really learn the ins and outs of the wasteland.

And for me, it was the first game I played, so I didn't even have any context from the first two games, so really special moment for me made me very happy. I think it was super well done. Totally, and oh man, this continues a long tradition of fantasy movies and other post apocalyptic movies of Lizard on a Stick. When she's walking through the first part, which is very I believe the inspiration for that was more taken from Diamond City in Fallout four, which is in I want to say Wriggly. It's not Wriggly, it's beenway thank you.

I'm thinking Chicago. Yeah, the old Fenway Park. So it's this commerce city. It's like an open air bizaar. Yeah, it's supposed to be like a trade center kind of thing.

So they that's where the idea of Philly came from. It's not in any of the games, but they kind of mesh those two ideas from those towns to create this one. Again, the balance, I think is great. And every interaction Lucy has from the beginning where she's just walking through the abandoned cars and she says hello to people and they just ignore her. Oh's that, I know, it's great.

And she's walking through all these shops and stuff and the man's you want to buy a lizard on a stick and she's, oh, no, have you seen this person? And then he just ignores her about business. Lady, are you going to give him caps or not? So she's just second after second having all of these new lessons thrown at her. She really is learning a new world.

So we get to that moment where she goes through the tunnels and sees the top the tip of the airplane, and there's another interaction I think in there too, where she hello to somebody and. They just fucking breeze right past. It's again, she's so lucky because it's a matter of time before someone just fucking punches her in the face because you can because it's the waistland. Yeah, she's really unprepared for literally everything. It's kind of wonderful to watch and makes her a great proxy for us if you haven't experienced the game at all.

Like absolutely, Yeah. So we do, for a brief moment catch a glimpse of the Ghoul, so we know he is also here at Philly. And anytime a character has a yodel as their theme song in such an elation fashion, there's going to be trouble. Oh yeah, everything about him says trouble, from the hat to the tatter trench. Coat to the many weapons.

Yeah, she's my favorite. I love him all right. So we're still on Lucy and she enters ma June's Sundry's shop. Right. This is also reminiscent of probably quite a few shops throughout the Fallout Games, and I just think they did such a good job right off the bat.

She looks into a display case and sees a pit Boy bobblehead, so this is another Easter Egg moment we have with that. And she meets Majune, this fucking leathered old woman who does not have time for her shit. Right, Okay, let me just polse here for a s Because Dale Dickey is her name. She is a character actor extraordinaire. Didn't start until ninety one as far as television and films go, because she was a theater animal for many years before that.

The thing I saw her in most recently was that television series Clause about the nail salon in South Florida, and she played the wife of a big criminal in that. She was fucking fantastic throughout the entire series. But if you ever pull up her IMDb and just think, I wonder if she was on this show, she was. She's been on everything. I'm shocked she's not a huge fucking star.

Honestly, I yeah, I had no idea. I love her characters. While I wish we would get more of her, but we don't. Really, I think this is about all we get is. She's fantastic, And there's another fun character we just get a few moments of in this sequence.

I think it's. Barv barv Yes, yeah, bar So you're like, Okay, who is barv Is? That's not a good name. But I do have questions exactly what their relationship is. I'm a little curious, but I guess at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.

Listen, they're just lovers. It's fine. Barv Is a is a woman, but she also has basically a Larry Fine from the Three Stooges type hairstyle, where she's entirely bald on the top, but it's puffing out on the sides. It's a look, man, and I'm not anyone to judge because I've had some myself. I don't know if you noticed, but the barber is also the dentist in Philly.

You see a sign, so maybe that's where she gets her hair d Yeah. They barber in the traditional sense where he's going to also pull your teeth. So we get this beautiful interaction between ma June and Lucy where ma June's basically look vaulty. You don't belong here, go home, she says, at one point. You know what people up here say about the vaults, Fuck the vaults.

She's just a beautiful character. I love that this is the way she tells her to leave and just like looks at the doves. Yeah, after flipping her the birds. Yeah, it's beautiful. So Lucy kind of I don't know if this is maybe a rude awakening for her, because you're not going to be talked to this down in the vault.

But she's denied, she's denied any help she needs. She hasn't gotten anywhere. Is our first direct negative interaction. People have been ignoring her maybe, but now it's we don't want you, and we don't want any of you. Yeah.

So she's really I think lost for a moment here as she walks out of the store. And I believe that's when we run into Cigy and the dog again, right, And this is this is where it all starts to come together. They have a nice little brief interaction, and I believe it's here. It is here, Yeah, where he really lets us know that he has an understanding of who Lucy is. This is how I knew that the video that would show in their vault was the Nebraskan countryside, because this is where he says it rights, what their theme is.

He knows the their main agriculture is for corn, things like that, So these little details. So it's scary how much knowledge he has. It's scary to think that you've been in a place that other people are intimately aware of. Yeah, especially people up above, because who are you? How do you know these things?

So during this brief interaction, I believe, is when the Ghoul just proudly interrupts and Siggy gets his leg shot off. Yeah, he pulled a handgun and fired, and Zi's foot just obliterates, and I thought, what kind of a gun? And then they panned back to him and it's basically like a fucking hand canon. I was like, oh, okay, that makes sense. Now that tracks for fallout weapons.

Absolutely. Yeah, So his foot's just completely blown out. And this is when the climax of our episode really happens, and the shootout's going to start. Mad June's I got a thousand caps for whoever could kill this bastard, and you don't get him if I kill him first, and we really get these nice, like classic cowboy moments for the Ghoul where they slow down and just really give him a moment to be aware and in control of the surroundings as people start to shoot him and he's just blasting and everybody left and right body parts are flying again, done so well in Fallout fashion. Effects here are fucking spectacular.

There is no limit to the amount of bloodshed they're willing to spill here, and you can do all of that while enjoying some nice cherry tomatoes. I love cherry tomatoes, how about you, Kota. They're not everyone's favorite. You know what, I would eat cherry tomatoes, except I have this hole at my neck, so it's a little hard. Don't do that, Yeah, don't do that?

Then all right. The gul does pay for his cherry tomatoes, which I think said something about his character, So that's nice. He may have killed the shop owner, he doesn't know, but he paid for the damned tomato settling bits. Sorry. Yeah, I was gonna pay for the tomatoes.

The bullet was free. Yeah, we get okay. So this becomes a very sad moment as c X four zero four, the dog goes to defend his owner and jumps on the gooul and ghoul without hesitation. Stabs it. He stabs it, he kills it, and my heart broke in the sid I only said good things about the ghoul up until now.

I have loved him from the moment we met him, and now I don't know what's the thing. Now. I'm very sad. If we hadn't met Ziggy before this moment, you wouldn't have thought that. You're probably right, But we know who this.

Dog is and we know their relationship. Don't hurt that dog. Oh my god. Yeah. We have a quick moment too with Lucy letting them do their thing.

Man, she doesn't want to be involved. She is doing something that I think might be considered morally wrong, and I think she knows that. As she's looking through ma June's her book of all her transactions, and we're seeing mal Daver's name in there, and she's hearing the chaos, I think she hears the dog died. And she looks up and there's another Vault Tech bobblehead and it's such a beautiful moment, not as it not only is it a great Easter egg, but it really brings her back to her core character and she's I have to go do something. So we get this silly moment, this insanely silly speech from her from the eyes of a wastelander.

Girl, I'm laughing at you. Be like talking to the ghoul, like she can reason him out of this, not knowing anything about his situation. The target, the bounty hunter, it's just beautiful. And then she tries to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart. When she looked at that bibblehead, she looked up and there was a giant weapon she could have grabbed a muse.

So there was a moment where she made a choice to stick with the tranquilizer dart as her weapon. Just an interesting choice, that's all I'm saying for it. She's a vaul dweller through and through. The bobblehead was there to remind her exactly like you said, of her core beliefs. I'm on a mission.

What I'm doing is morally right, and I don't need to kill anybody if I can't help it. Yeah, you're right. With that being said again, I'm gonna keep coming back to it. Her luck is gotta be high, it's gotta be I'm gonna get an exact number, because in this moment, you're kidding me. Maximus just flies in right after she shoots the Ghoul with the train and he goes what does he say?

Something like, Oh, that's a small drop in a big sea of in a big bucket of poison or something like that. Yeah, a small drop and a big bucket of drugs. Absolutely beautiful line, great delivery. He's gonna shoot her, he's the Gul. He does not give a thought who you are.

And then she just gets saved. That a perfect timing. I know it's a show, I know it's entertainer, but I'm telling you her luck is up there. Yeah. So it gets more intense with Maximus arriving, and it also, oh, this is where too, I believe the Ghoul and we start getting a little more text if you're paying attention to the lines that are delivered by him, because he first off, he says twelve piece cast iron skillet to Maximus in the power armor, which is just fun.

It's just a fun line. But he says, you drive that thing like a shopping cart. And I thought that was an interesting choice of words, because in the last two hundred and nineteen or two hundred and ninety years, where ever we're at, we're a little bit higher than that thing. But these people do they know what shopping carts are? You know what I'm saying, No normal sentence that would come out of an actual born and raised in the waste kind of person.

So I think, just we keep getting more and more context with him and his lines, but it does give us a moment here as well, where the Ghoul and Maximus are fighting for Lucy and Mad June to rescue Ciggy and get him inside right. And what I want to mention about this scene is Jim's limbs. I love a good pun too, but this scene is hard to fucking watch man. What hurt more getting the legs shot off or that contraption. The contraption.

It's a horror show. God, that was terrifying to watch. Yeah, so great. It's a sleeve. If you haven't seen the show and you're listening to this because you're fucking demented, it is this metal sleeve with nothing but blades rotating, and it chews onto your limb until it's made a fresh wound and gotten rid of the old one, and then you can touch robot foot.

It's gonna be so comfortable. Yeah, it's hey technology, and I'm pretty sure it was Valtech too. I think it was. I don't know, maybe not, but yeah, got off topic with that one a little bit when I was talking about Lucy's luck after Maximus comes in and saves her and blocks her from getting shot the Ghules gun. Also Jams.

I think he runs out of Ammo or at Jams one of the two. So that just is another thing to prove my point that I didn't want to leave out. We do have a moment here too where Maximus gets to speak to Lucy and be like, hey, that guy is important, help me say them, and then that's what leads us into them taking him in getting this foot on. I think this is also where where Lucy finds out and we find out as well that Ma June is working for Moldaver and that is who they're trying to deliver city to right. And it's so fun when she's hey, Daddy's girl, I need you to deliver this man for me, and she says my client's Moldaver, and Lucy goes she steals Dad's great line.

Great line. Oh, it's so funny. There's a fun point or fun moment here too, when mad June puts the coordinates in the Lucy's pit boy for her, which is just fun as a player of the games because that is a common thing. You pick up quests from someone and it's oh cord and it's have been added to your map. So I just thought that was a fun moment to see the real life action of using the pit boy.

How dare this show be so good and then on top of it be able to be as deep as it is for the players. It's kind of a marvel. Yeah, it is. I feel like Fallout fans are super lucky to have the people working on this that are working on this, because there have been so many adaptions that have just absolutely failed and fans have wanted the riot and this is just so well done the right people are doing it, so yeah, they lose. Oh you know what, I'd like to point out one thing.

When Lucy first catches sight of Maximus in his armor behaving heroically, it is a wonderful little epiphany for her that there is potential out here, that there is hope and there might be good people fighting the good fight. And I thought that was an important moment. And it's also the first moment where they just even though they're not seeing each other. There's the attraction. I'm out here on my own, you're out there on your own.

It was just a nice moment. I thought. No, absolutely, I'm happy you brought that up. That theme is definitely going to come back in to play in future episodes. And it's they They basically parallel each other, Maximus and Lucy.

I think we'll see through some stuff, he says later on the same viewpoint, come from him towards her. Oh okay, I can't talk about that too much because I don't want to give away things, but that is an excellent point and theme to remember. So we now know that Lucy is trying to help deliver Wiltzig somewhere. Right, they have to wander through the wasteland. We're not quite there yet.

We still have a Maximus and the power Armor fighting the Ghoul, and this is when we see a lot of Maximus fumbling in the power armor, not fully knowing how to use it. His foot gets caught in a floorboard, giving the Goual an awesome opportunity to gain the advantage of the fight. I love that the guls just went upstairs and went you're not going to be able. To follow me, Yeah, no, that's hilarious. And this is again where those contexts, the context for his character comes in, because he says, read the manual to Maximus.

What a weird thing for a gul to say to a guy in a machine. I just like, if you don't know anything about the background of the characters, it's interesting read the manual as he cuts one of the fucking like a fuel tube or an air tube or some kind of important tube by his helmet that. He knows about. Clearly, the Gul is not letting us know that he knows way more about these people than we do. Yeah, he's familiar with power armor, we don't know how, but he is more than Maximus.

So he basically what's the word I'm looking for? He just foo bars the fucking power and Maximus is flying all over the place and he flings them. And it's funny too, how as he's getting flung through the sky, we know that Lucy looks up and happens to see him, thinking he's just flying majestically through the wasteland sky. We get another heartwarming moment here towards the end, but I'm on the fence about it. So the Ghule sees the dog when Feren right he's not fully dead, and he says he gives him a st impact he pets him.

So there's moments here that make you think, is this the humanity coming out of the Ghoul? But the more I've watched the show, the more I think about it, I think this was just a survival tactic. I think dog equals tool, must get target, must finish goal. I don't think there was actually any humanity in this moment. I'm going to argue against that, okay, because here's what I think.

I think the most necessary motivation is this is that guy's dog and I need to follow him, and the dog is going to lead me there. So yes, there is a practical reason for it. But without revealing stuff in future episodes, I can't really defend it right now. But I'm going to tell you. I'll just say this in general, for Cooper Howard, his moral conviction is based on a dog, and I will prove it as we go further in the series.

I'm telling you dogs equal his own morality and you're going to see that later. Okay, Okay, interesting, I'm not gonna say anything but interesting. Stay tuned. Everyone at least. In this moment, the dog's alive, and I'm happy again, right, the dog's alive.

We do get another quick moment from the snake oil salesman here as Lucy is walking out of Philly with Siggy, and he sees them with his machine foot and his metal foot and as serums to heal your feet, seerums to grow you a whole new foot. So we just a little bit more of a taste of his character. So that's fun, I think here now too, we're at the conclusion of the episode as they walk through the wasteland trying to get to moldaver and as. A past resident of Los Angeles. They're walking along the route of the four h five South so that they've gotten just past Lax and they're passing Randy's Donuts, which we now here have here in Las Vegas.

We've got our own Randy's Donuts here. In fact, a lot of Los Angeles has made its way here. We've got canters, now, we've got the hat. The greatest pastrami sandwich place on earth just opened here in Las Vegas. Anyway, I got excited when I saw Randy's Donuts because I used to go there a lot when I was when I lived there.

That's awesome. I'm not familiar with any of that, but yeah, so is it the rundown roof of a Randy's Donuts that they stop at? Is that what it is? Basically they need a. Moment of rest because his stump is just gushy and blood.

Man, this guy is done. That thing doesn't even fucking staunch the wound, It just lets you bleed out. What's the point? Yeah, I'm wondering what the whole point of the grinding was in the first place. Was that just to get the right shape so it fits in there?

Because it seemed to do nothing helpful. But here we are, and we find out that the doctor has just taken Valtec's Plan D pill, which he tells Lucy about back to the beginning of the episode. We see it on the table where that family took it, and we find out it's a Cyan nine pill. It tastes like banana. I'm surprised it wasn't more popular.

Yeah, it was, what did he say, the most humane invention Valtech ever made? Yeah? That says something. Right, Pretty fucking ominous coming from this guy who knows everything about Valtech, and. Here he pretty much drops on Lucy that I need you to chop off my head and take it to Maldaver And I think this isn't what he necessarily meant originally when he told her, you're gonna have to learn to do things out here to survive, to adapt.

But here we are at the conclusion of that. It takes her a minute. Of course, as a vault dweller, she's gonna have to sit on it. But it is interesting how fast here she really decides that I am here to find my dad. This man just died in front of me, and I have to chop off his head to do so.

Oki to Okie, I'm gonna do it. And that's where we are. We're left with Lucy, the once innocent vault dweller, now decapitating a corpse with a surgical ripper I believe it's called. At the end of the episode. Again, we don't get to see it, which is a little sad.

I would appreciate a little more more, but it is very much implied. The surgical ripper tool. When he pulled it out, I thought, well, that's a nasty advice. And more than that, it is so well manufactured that a factory somewhere making those. That's how in need this personal chainsaw is out in the Wasteland.

I believe I thought it was supposed to be a medical tool, but maybe I'm just thinking that because it's called the surgical ripper. Maybe it wasn't ever supposed to be intended as a medical tool. Oh no, I believe it was, but there these are different times, and that's the kind of surgical equipment you're you have on hand now. Yeah, yeah, so she doesn't she decapitates this corpse, and again, it was very kind of him to kill himself with Cyani and prior to doing so, one of the best nicest characters we're ever going to find in the Wasteland and he's dead. Yeah.

That's one of the things that I kind of hate and kind of love about the show is that they will give us a mad June who is a rich, interesting character who we could easily follow for the rest of the series if we wanted to, or somebody like Ziggy here who had such when he looked when he took the fucking cyanide pill, I was like, no, not Michael Emerson, I want more. But it's that's life, man, you meet somebody, they fucking die here. It's just that easy. Yeah, It's that's exactly what the Wasteland is. So yeah, but all together, great second episode.

The first one, there was a lot of character introduction, and I think with the second episode they went right into it, especially with this this shootout, all of our characters coming together and Philly understanding what the main objective is, everybody coming at it from a different viewpoint. Yeah, I think they got it. Kind of remarkable that they set up so much in the first episode that lesser series would have held off the meeting of our leads for at least three or four more episodes, as if that's more dramatic and that's somehow going to pay off for us as an audience. No, we want them to get together and separate and get together, and that's I'm in love with the show, you gotta say. Yeah, it's reminiscent of how you would maybe work with choosing companions in the game.

So I think that's awesome. Yeah, I can't wait to get into episode three. It's gonna be great. Episode three. That one's called the Head and that is going to be our next episode here at the vault Cody.

You want to think about it. Everybody, I sure do, and I want to remind you smell that air. Couldn't you drink it like booze? Good God? Okay, thank you everyone, all you patrons for your patronage here on this Patreon only exclusive show.

It is much appreciated. You know me. If you want to get in touch with me, it's all in those show notes. It always is until next time. Thanks for joining us.

And I don't have a catchphrase yet either, but try to enjoy the daylight everybody, but you get it because it's irradiated. Because I'm a ghoul, I've lost all ambition, a worldly acclaim. I just want to be the one you love, and with your admission that you feel the same. I'll have reached the gold mine dreaming all. Believe me.

I don't want to set. The world all pie, I just want to start. A flame in you. Har