Fallout - Season 2 (2025)

A nuked world shouldn’t feel this alive. We dive headfirst into Fallout Season 2 and unpack how it turns deep-cut lore into gripping television without leaving newcomers behind. From NCR and Caesar’s Legion to the fractured Brotherhood of Steel and Mr. House’s clockwork vision, we trace the power plays that make New Vegas more than a backdrop—it’s a living argument about who gets to decide the future.

What hooked us most is the character engine driving all that spectacle. Lucy walks out of the vault with rules and runs into moral weather she can’t predict. The Ghoul carries a memory of the old world and the stamina to outlast the new one, shaping the story with hard-earned patience instead of easy violence. Hank’s “minimize” project reframes villainy as research, and one button press turns memory into a weapon. It’s a season obsessed with identity: who you are without your past, what love looks like when trust is gone, and how choice survives after the world ends.

If you’ve played the games, you’ll feel the satisfaction: deathclaws that terrify in numbers, super sledges and power armor that hit like freight trains, a Ron Perlman-voiced super mutant, and small details like sugar bombs and chems that actually matter. But the real trick is how the show uses those pieces to move the plot, not just wink at fans. We also wrestle with big adaptation questions—why this succeeds where Halo stumbled—and map what Colorado might bring next, from cryptids to consequences.

Hit play to join us in the wasteland. If this breakdown sparks your brain, share it with a friend, subscribe for more deep dives, and drop a five star juicy review so other wanderers can find the show. What theory are you betting your caps on?

Twitter handles:
Project Geekology: https://twitter.com/pgeekology
Anthony's Twitter: https://twitter.com/odysseyswow
Dakota's Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekritique_dak

Instagram:
https://instagram.com/projectgeekology?igshid=1v0sits7ipq9y

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@projectgeekology

Geekritique (Dakota):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwciIqOoHwIx_uXtYTSEbA

Transcript

Cold Open And Host Banter

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Vaulty's, ghouls, and deathclaws. Oh my. Welcome back to Prod to Project Ecology, episode 154. Uh today we are covering Fallout Season 2. Uh we covered the original Fallout Season 1 a couple years back. We loved it. And now we're back with uh our discussion of Fallout Season 2, which just finished airing a couple weeks ago as of recording this episode. Uh I am one-fourth of your hosts, Dakota, and I'm joined as always with Anthony.

SPEAKER_03 0:32

Hold on, just give me a moment. I dropped my arm. Let me, you know, let me pick it up and just toss it over my shoulder. You know, but while I'm doing that, I'm gonna pass it over to one of our other hosts.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Rich, and I'm uh I'm over here counting caps. Um you know, just uh trying to amass all that wealth right now because uh I'm I'm I'm finna take over. But uh we do have one more person with us this week, and that is I am Jen.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Just eating a couple of sugar bombs.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Rich, did I did I hear that correctly? You you used to work for a living? Oh yes. I I did, but now I just uh I just pop off caps, baby. I do nothing but I just sit back and have my small minion of cla the classroom of students and they just open bottle caps all day. Forget about essay instruction, it's all about me getting that wealth.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Yeah, I was gonna say, you running a uh a a minor sweatshop over there. You got uh you're you're running some child labor over there?

SPEAKER_04 1:33

At his school, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

He's a teacher, and he's been he's been forcing the children to the track team is literally running to different towns and getting more caps. Like that's that's why I coach track, the fastest kids, you know? You want to make sure they don't get eaten by the death clause.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

This the school board is gonna walk by your classroom a lot more frequently now to make sure that it's not actually happening.

Housekeeping And What We’re Watching

SPEAKER_04 1:59

Guys, we are covering Fallout Season 2. We're excited, obviously. Uh but before we get into any of that, what have we been up to this past week? Let's start with Jen. What have you been up to this past week?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Why do I never know what I've been up to? Your guess is as good as mine, really. Uh we watch X-Files.

SPEAKER_04 2:20

Yeah, we've been we've been on an X X-File kick. Um, you know, now that Jen is uh pregnant, it is very hard to watch more than like one or two episodes at a sitting. But X-Files seems to keep her awake most times, which is uh Really saying something. Really saying something, yeah, because she falls asleep at anything nowadays.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

But uh just got my iron levels checked.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

It seems like a willpower it seems like a willpower issue versus a uh you know ability to stay awake issue. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

Perhaps. Perhaps it's a willpower, perhaps it's uh, you know, uh just fear of the unknown, which uh X-Files seems to elicit. Um but what what what else have you been up to?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

I every day I come home from work, I've taken reading anything. No, I've been sleeping. I come home, I take a nap, I wake up, I eat, and then I go back to sleep. I watch one episode of X-Files while I eat, and then I fall asleep again. I've been watching my own dreams, and they're they're pretty interesting, very vivid.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

You've been watching your okay. How about Disney vlogs? I know you like Disney Vlogs. Yeah, I do. I watch a lot of Disney vlogs. Anything good? Anything good over there?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

You know, Kevin Pin Trades, Mr. Morrow eats. It's you know, pretty standard stuff. I love watching them though. I love I love those those people just walking around being happy all day. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_04 3:40

Anthony, I'm gonna shoot it over to you. Um how many bottle caps have you collected this week?

Games And Lore We’re Playing Again

SPEAKER_03 3:45

You know, I'm I'm always collecting them off of um you know all the raiders that I have to fight off. I've run I I've run into a few groups of uh, you know, Caesar's Legion. And uh, you know the NCR was nowhere it was nowhere to be found, but you know, they I guess they ended up showing in the end. But um I've been man, I've been watching a lot of One Piece, man. Like, I mean just a exorbitant amount of of One Piece. I've been like trucking through uh Fishman Island. I know after that is the Dress Rosa arc where you have that um I don't know if you've ever if you've ever seen the character on Don Quixote do Do Flamingo, he's got this like pink feather thing that goes around his yeah, he's got the crazy sunglasses, right? Right, right. I I I say that I always think that he he looks like he's from Miami. And so yeah, like probably is. Yeah. I'm coming. I have it's like I I call him the Miami guy. But yeah, no, I'm I'm like coming up on that. Like I've I've been trucking through, I'm well over 500 episodes now. I kind of like I I I jumped back onto Fallout New Vegas. The this show got me wanting to play New Vegas again. I mean, I I I love the Fallout games, so the fact that like you know, we've been getting a a a show has you know respected the the material so far. It's it's got me excited to hop back onto that and and play that. So I had started a a new save, you know, might might be like Rich, where you know he does his yearly Red Dead Redemption 2. I'll uh you know do my yearly persona and then you know Fallout New Vegas, you know, and then uh maybe maybe one of these times we can get Dakota into the fold of the of the you know persona and the Fallout, maybe. Have you played Fallout Dakota?

SPEAKER_04 5:50

Yeah, I did. I actually played uh for a couple weeks after the first season. Yeah, I think you did four, right? I started four, yes.

SPEAKER_03 5:57

Okay, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so so Fallout.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

I I falled out of that. So you fall out of that. It's been a I yeah, it's been a minute. So But it was it was fun when I last said.

SPEAKER_03 6:09

So, you know, now now it's having to fall back in. So but yeah, no, like for for the most part, I've been playing that. I feel like there's something else that I've been doing, but I always forget. There's always something that I that I forget. I'll probably remember later, well after we're done recording. So, you know, I'll pass it over to Rich.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Let's see. Uh well, uh, you know, finish Knight of the Sun Kingdoms, which I've really been enjoying. Uh hopefully we'll down the road talk about that show. I just absolutely love it. The uh I can't remember the kid's name, but the actor who uh plays egg, he's been on a lot of uh like sh reels, whatever on my feed, and he's just adorable. Uh what it's so funny because he's like 11, and I'm like, this kid is the cutest, right? I'm like, man, I wish I had a kid, you know, like I hung out with a kid like that. And I'm like, oh my son, my son's 11. Um, so I think what I have to do is I have to shave his head, right? Like I think like it increases Charlie's cool quotient. And he just grew his hair out, so that might be a problem. But he did contribute to an amazing moment, ladies and gentlemen, today. Today, I'm not sure if you know this. I know this because when I wake up in the morning, I go ahead and go listen, uh, go check out the new video on Long Live the Timeline, um, obviously, to see what's going on for that day. And you guys at home listening in your ear holes, all right, and you guys looking at me will not believe what I'm about to say. Innocuously, my son goes, Hey, uh, I told mom about a new way that I'm gonna remember where the sun rises and where it sets. Right? And I'm thinking, like, okay, so he's like really, he's trying to learn Japanese, he's really into anime, right? Like he's gonna say something about the land of the rising sun, right? Nope. He goes, So you know how at the this is legitimate. Do you know how at the Battle of the Hornburg beforehand, Gandalf said on the third day, look to the east at dawn? Okay, he goes, So I remember that you look to the east because that's where the sun rises. And I said, Did you know, in fact, sir, that today was that day in the third age of 3019? And he and we just I mean, the love uh that I I've never, I don't think, felt more proud. I it was unbelievable. Kismet, Kismet that he would bring it up on today, all days. And I was like, I know he's on YouTube, so I was like, did you wake up and watch the timeline video? She's like, What are you talking about? I'm like, Dakotas. He's like, Oh no, I did it. He's like, Why? I'm like, you can't possibly have accidentally stumbled on the fact that today is that day. But um, so an exciting day of parenthood. Like I honestly, what if top this is gonna be top seven no matter what. Like, there's no way that this happens again. Uh, I'm my heart is full.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

I I'm very happy that you know that that uh happened to you and that I was uh in some small uh incremental fashion a way to bridge bridge that particular knowledge gap with with your with your child. That was that's pretty cool.

Timeline Nerd-Out And Date Clues

SPEAKER_02 9:32

The only way that that honestly this could be better, right? Is if the only way I could feel better right now is if everyone out there just you know did something something for us, maybe something a little kind, you know. I mean, uh we are officially sponsored by Voodoo Ranger Juice Force IPA, and maybe you guys still not sponsor. Not officially.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

I I I knew uh I just I knew it. Like there was some build up there, and I'm like, hmm, there's something sus about to be said.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

But really, I I do you guys disagree, Anthony? Do you think that there can't be a little juicy gift at the beginning of the show?

SPEAKER_04 10:10

I I I can see it. Um I'm not Anthony, but I can see it. I can I can see a little juicy gift at the start of the show, uh, courtesy of our listeners. So, you know, if you haven't already, uh, which you probably have because we've asked many, many times, but if you haven't, you're one of the the rare few who have yet to go onto your podcast application or platform and click that five star button on our podcast, give it a nice juicy review. It has, you know, you don't even have to say the word juicy, but like if you believe that it's a juicy review, it'll come out that way in your actual review of our podcast. And we we love that. We love you guys, we love all the the reviews we get here. Um that help push the show just a little bit further.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yeah, and if you're new here, you could just stop listening and review the past 12 minutes. How d how do you feel about that conversation? Did did we say enough about our days? Did we say enough about our weeks? Are you satisfied with the information that you have about our lives? Let us know.

SPEAKER_04 11:10

I don't think they are. They haven't even heard what I did last week.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Oh, that's true. Well, too bad. By any there's any chance now.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

By any chance, Dakota, did you bend your arms backward last week?

SPEAKER_04 11:23

Like Laura Palmer? Uh yes, I did. I hurt. No, um, yeah, I I've I've you know being with uh Jen all the time, I'm pretty much doing the same thing as her, save for I'm continuing to reread the Harry Potter books. I'm well into Order the Phoenix now. Really happy that I'm able to map most of the days in Order the Phoenix. It's actually very clear. Starting with Goblet of Fire, it's very, very clear that Rowling has uh decided to start mapping out her story on a calendar. Like she's using a physical calendar, like these are the days of the week that they have this class, this class, and this class, and she follows it throughout the entire book. I it starts in in book four, and I I'm so excited because that makes it so much easier for me to figure out what days of the week and year um each of these events are actually happening. Still some crazy timeline errors. She's she's she's really not good at it. But when she is mapping to a time or to a calendar, it does make it easier. The issue with Rowling and calendars is that she uses the calendar that she would have had easy access to that year. So Order the Phoenix, she wrote it in 2002. It takes place in 1995. You would think, oh, let's get a 1995 calendar for this. No, let's map it to the 2002 calendar. Um, and that's you know, it's better than nothing. Uh, I take it, I accept it. It's kind of it's kind of like cute in a way, you know, it's just like she tried, you know, like like I can't, I'm not that mad, but it's just kind of funny. Um that she used the wrong calendar. Well, I figured it out with Goblet of Fire. Um, because it was so consistently wrong. It was always wrong by two days. Like it was always two days too, I think it was too late, like in the school year. It should have been 1994, 1995 for Goblet of Fire. And I was just like, how is she so consistently two days late? And then I started looking at the, you know, like where her dates correlated with weekdays, and I was just like, oh, she just she used the calendar from the year that she wrote the book. Um, and and that's that's where it's pegged to. So I'm hoping that in Half-Libbed Prince or Deathly Hallows when I get to it, um, she will have either uh figured out like to use a previous year's calendar, or she will land on another year where the dates line up on the same day. I'm hoping that one one or the other. I you know? So anyway, that's that's what I've been up to. Uh more more dates have been imported into Long Live the Timeline. The project is now 476 entries big and growing. And I'm very excited about it. It's it's a really fun project. And yeah, let's jump into oh, I got some dates from Fallout too. Like um, there's a couple dates that from the season I was just like going in, going in birthday, going in. Um uh so yeah, stuff like that is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Anyway, it was like April 16th. Isn't his uh her his daughter's birthday is like originally like April 23rd or 16th or something, and it gets moved like a week.

SPEAKER_04 14:41

I don't know. We we started uh like we started watching season two when it first came out, and then we stopped until this past week. So we we only watched like the past like six episodes.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Because there's a scene with with Mr. House where I think like the date is actually Oh, oh that, yes, yes.

Season Two Focus And Faction Faithfulness

SPEAKER_04 15:02

Oh, so yes, that is that is uh a date that I was able to to put. Um and that's it's actually a really interesting date, and I want to talk about it because I think that it's kind of a very important story beat. He basically says, uh, do you want to know the date of the end of the world? No, it doesn't really interest you, Cooper. And then he goes, Um, what about this date? And he he gives it, and I think it's I think it is April 16th, I don't remember off the top of my head, but um he gives the date of the birth of Cooper's child, and he says that um what's interesting about that date is at this exact moment that's when all the data coalesced and gave me the the end of the world, basically. So the birth of Cooper's daughter was the turning point where he was able to calculate the end of the world, and that's the coolest thing ever. Like, what does that mean? Like what why? And and why does him showing up uh in Vegas push the or like pull pull the timeline forward by a whole month? Like what what exactly is happening and why is he so uh integral to nuclear war? Interesting, interesting stuff. Sorry, I'm I'm going way deep. Um let's pull it back. What are our thoughts on season two? Uh Anthony, what what are what did your you you've been playing a lot more Fallout uh throughout your lifetime than me. Obviously, you thought that the first season was extremely faithful to the source material and added onto it. How do you feel the second season lived up to that or or didn't?

SPEAKER_03 16:41

Uh I feel like it it was definitely a can continuation of that faithfulness because you get the the two factions that are like very prominent in Fallout New Vegas. Um the NCR, the New California Republic, and Caesar's Legion. Like that's an actual like faction in Fallout New Vegas, and they dress up as um as like Roman as as like you know Roman centurions and stuff. Yeah. It's it's so wild like seeing how like I mean you see how like crazy the world of like Fallout is in this show. It's literally like how it is in a game. They even have like the scorpions that are in Fallout New Vegas where they fight the scorpions. This is the game that you get those in. So I'm like, oh my gosh, they they have the scorpions and everything. Um the there's some backing track that they use that is mostly from Fallout 4, like the the menu music, which the which I'm like I'm I'm c completely fine with because um the the utilization of it is like really good and like you know where you know it it is Fallout, so the fact that Dog Meat, which is and you get dog meat in the the first season, which is literally a companion that you get in uh Fallout 4. So it's it's just dude, it's it's insane. Like it blows my mind how well that they've done what they did. Like Robert House was in uh Fallout New Vegas. There was a lot of um and then yeah, dude, we got the death claws in this one, and death claws are like I mean, like facing up against one is tough. Several of them, I'd be like, oh yeah, no, I'm out. Even in power armor, yeah, I'm out.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:42

So yeah, no, my I I I was definitely like enjoying myself over this like rewatch. So yeah, yeah, no, it's it it's I I think it's just fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 18:56

Um Rich, do you agree in terms of the adherence to the source material? And like do you did you find anything that like leapt out to you as like, huh, that doesn't feel very fallouty?

Kyle MacLachlan’s Villain Turn

SPEAKER_02 19:10

I don't think I have ever seen or will ever see a better video game adaptation than this. I I think that the reason why, like, Last of Us, you know, for example, uh, maybe garnered some negative praise is because those were stories being told that we played as a character. The Resident Evil movies, you know, like they generally get panned. And a lot of that's because you're playing as certain characters with certain stories and certain beats that we expect. I think the real advantage that Fallout has is that essentially you are the main character. So I came into the series with, you know, like uh I want to see Pip Boys and I want to see the uh you know, the I'm sorry, I can't remember his name, but the bobbleheads that you collect. Um I wanted to see like those things, right? Sugar bombs being in it. Amazing, right? Like the the attention to detail of the little tiny background things, just the the caked on dirt everywhere. I remember when I played New Vegas, I had gone to uh my wife's family lives in New Mexico and Arizona on her father's side, so we went down there, and I I remember driving around going, like, whoa! Like this is New Vegas, like red rocks, man, like this is vast and empty and dry for miles. And and I remember how I hated mountains. Like, mountains are my biggest enemy in Fallout New Vegas because you'd get somewhere and you'd be so close, but no, there's a mountain range there. This series is just the bee's knees. I don't know if it can do anything wrong. I don't I really don't. I I accept it all as canon. I love it. It's I Coop's in it. Like, I mean, it's it this is just just a delight.

SPEAKER_04 21:14

It's a delight. Jen, was it nice seeing uh Coop uh in something again?

SPEAKER_00 21:21

I mean I love that man. He's fantastic, he's uh really fun to watch on the screen. He's really like endearing, and I love seeing him as like a villain.

SPEAKER_04 21:32

We're talking Kyle McLaughlin here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Um I love seeing him as a villain. I love I I liked when he was like when he got microchiped. I I don't know what the professional term is that they use for those.

SPEAKER_04 21:45

The professional term.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

I don't know what their phrases is when he got a microchip. And then I thought he was gonna go into like duckie mode. He just kind of sat there for a while.

SPEAKER_05 21:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

But seeing him as a villain is really fun. I think the last time that we saw him in like A somewhat I mean, at least for me, when I say we, I mean me, a somewhat villainous role is kind of in like Sex in the City. Was the last time we saw him having Mr.

SPEAKER_04 22:10

C, what about what about his villainous role in Twin Peaks of Return? Are you not gonna do it? But no, I I think it's not show.

SPEAKER_03 22:17

He is Mr. C. You know? Wait, I don't know Hank McClain with that. I don't know who that is, only Mr. C.

SPEAKER_04 22:24

Yeah, well the the issue with like comparing him to Mr. C is that their personalities are so very different. Like he's like Hank is kind isn't the right word because it's it's fake kindness. But he's like a saccharine sweets type of, you know, like he kind of falls into the same category as like a Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter, where like outwardly extremely kind but rotten to the case. He's nice but not kind. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Um I think I think like in Sex in the City he plays a character named Trey McDougal, where he like is doing all the right things, but there's something wrong. I don't want to go into like the details, but there's like something wrong with him, and it takes a while to figure out what. And I feel like that's to me, his character, he his like his catchphrase too in Sex in the City is all righty. And then in this they always say okie dokie. So I kept right. That's what they say, Okie dokie.

SPEAKER_04 23:25

Yes, that's Lucifer's cash ranger.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

So it's kind of it's like the campiness, but there's also something seriously psychologically wrong with you that I I don't know. I am I'm happy seeing him play in a in a role like this.

SPEAKER_04 23:38

Yeah, he's such a great actor, too. I think he has a lot of range, um, and he has a a serious on-screen gravity, you know. Like he could and he was a movie star at some point, but like recently, the past couple decades, he's been mostly TV. And I think most of his career he's been mostly TV.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

But wasn't he in like a Marvel show too?

SPEAKER_04 23:59

He was in Agents of Shields, yeah. He was um Daisy's dad.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Oh okay. You just didn't know him as Coop then, so you don't know.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Yeah, I know, yeah, you're right. I didn't know who he was.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

But I feel like that that show didn't really shine like his I don't know, talent as much.

Enclave, House, And Hidden Puppeteers

SPEAKER_04 24:17

Yeah, I I have to re-watch Agents of Shields uh n having a better grasp on uh Kyle McLaughlin as an actor. Um but yeah, I I I love him. I I think he's such a uh a great draw for something like this because in a world where everything is nitty-gritty, he happens to be the one guy who's always somehow clean and like well put together. It's just such a a nice uh it's a bizarre contrast. Um one thing that I want to talk about, uh, because we're talking a little bit about um the like the adherence to can to canon, like the the idea that this can happen in this world. It's uh it's a term called verisimilitude, where it it feels uh like it totally fits within this world. So one thing that I thought was really cool, and you know, going back into the first season, is that they show management um in such a huge way. Like the big players in the Fallout universe are kind of all maybe not at the forefront, but orbiting the characters in the past and the future. You know, we still have Robert House in the future, we had Robert House in the past, we had other characters uh within Vault Tech uh management and stuff that I think is really fascinating because I don't have a huge I never really played the games all that much besides fall a little bit of Fallout 4. So I don't have uh like the grasp on these characters, but I've done the research and I feel like this is probably the most that we've gotten for uh like from like these these big wigs. And I think that it's cool that we're getting not only what's happening past a certain point, because this is the latest thing on the on the Fallout timeline, but prior to the actual Fallout as well and the flashbacks. I I just I f I correct me if I'm wrong there. Um I I I might be totally off, but um I I do think that them telling uh the full story um in in its own way is without stepping on the toes of any of the other games, is some is really impressive.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

Well I feel like it fills in a good bit of uh a lot of holes that um well the the games don't have holes, I guess. It it just it visualizes stuff in the past because a lot a lot of the the exposure of stuff from the past is experienced through notes, holotapes, and maybe ghouls like that lived back then. A lot a lot of the times, you know, like the the games they don't have cut scenes and stuff, they don't cut to the past. They everything is like experienced within the game. And I mean sure there's some there's some like Fallout 4 will will start like when the when the bombs are dropped and then you go into the vault and then you c you fast forward into the into the future, right? Because because you're cryo sleeping. And then um you know you you you get and then you get bits and pieces of of um each game, like you're getting out of the vault at like different part different times, you know. Fallout 76 is earlier in the timeline, and then uh Fallout 4 is like further in the timeline. So I I definitely do appreciate that we're learning a lot more about the past and like what's happening, you know, and then and then we we really, really got a lot of Cooper's story in this one, and I like that a lot.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Like that we're just calling him Cooper now.

SPEAKER_03 28:04

No, we're not talking, we're not we're actually talking about Cooper. Yeah, yeah. The actual yeah, the the act the actual Cooper.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

I mean, I got confused. I was like, did you just call him Cooper?

SPEAKER_04 28:13

No, we got very little of his story.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

That's why I was confused too.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

I I need to know more about uh Kama Glaklin's whole plan because um he's gonna minimize what he keeps saying, right, because he's he's part of a of a group that in the in the show we don't know a lot of um the enclave, which the enclave, they're like a big antagonist in three and New Vegas. So like you experience them a lot in those games. So I mean it's really exciting, like I'm telling you, like they're they are knocking it out of the park with these like different factions. Um the Brotherhood of Steel, the fact that there's different factions of the Brotherhood of Steel is really awesome, and then they talk about the the the Commonwealth Brotherhood of Steel, which is the the ones that you experience in um Fallout 4.

SPEAKER_04 29:09

Yeah, I mean does it does it make sense? Sorry, so I cut you off, Rich. Uh, does it make sense? I'll I'll throw this over to you, Rich. Does it make sense for Robert House to not know about the ha about the enclave? Because like he kept saying, like, there's another party that's doing this, and I don't know who they are, when he seems to be keeping track of everyone.

The Surface As The Real Experiment

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Well, they see I mean that's what the enclave does best. Uh even House. House the House always wins in Vegas. It doesn't necessarily have to win everywhere else. Uh the Enclave is far more expansive than just one region and kind of far more insidious. Uh I see what you're saying. You know, I I think what I mean what I thought was like a really interesting idea because uh Anthony, you've played enough games, you know that there's just a history of really weird vaults where experiments are being done and it's always felt like Vault Tech or whoever always intended for the experiments to be in the vaults, and then that kind of big reveal that Hank, you know, shares that the the experiment is actually the surface, and that blew my mind. Like I I mean it is it completely turns the franchise, I think, in a whole new direction. And I see it in a different light now. I mean, now that that also means that what Hank did in blowing up uh Shady Sands was scientific. You know, it it it wasn't it wasn't to to thwart mankind, it was you guys are screwing up my experiment. Like oh, it's I don't know, everything to me is different after that revelation.

SPEAKER_04 31:03

Did did you catch Jen like the what the experiment was? Or do you have like any idea like what is going on with the experiment? Because obviously, like there's the experiment in the vaults, but there's a supposedly a larger experiment on the surface. Like what what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00 31:21

I thought that like if I'm I don't know if I'm right or not, but I interpreted it as they microchipped everybody and they're planning on making them docile at some point. Am I what am I missing?

SPEAKER_04 31:34

Yeah, I was a little bit confused about what Hank meant by the surface being the real experiment.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Because it seemed like they were like building those little microchips now.

SPEAKER_04 31:47

But they weren't building small ones, they were building the large large ones.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

And then he kept saying minimize.

SPEAKER_04 31:54

Yeah, and then all of a sudden he had really tiny ones after he had just perfected the large ones. So I was very confused. Um the the timeline truncation when Lucy finally gets to see her father is really, in my opinion, at least from a first viewing, really egregious. Like I I felt like so much happens within a one-hour period, roughly. You would assume it's about a one-hour period, where she, you know, they they between like her being upstairs um and pressing the button so that that legionnaire was able to, you know, be be given the implant, whatever. And then she was just like, Alright, I'm gonna go downstairs to to see where the mainframe is. And then that guy was already downstairs mopping after, like, I was like, okay. And then like right after she gets out, after you know, she kills um that one senator lady who was uh being kept alive for centuries. Then all of a sudden he has meanwhile, like upstairs, they're they're mass-producing the large scale, like the large size implants for the back of the neck. And then when they go downstairs, Hank says that he's minimized them somehow in that short span. And not only that, he sent it out into the the you know into the wilderness, like into the world. And I'm like, how? What when? This has been in 30 30 minutes, maybe, Max? How'd you do that? I I was I was very confused by the timeline truncation of that last episode.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Um it all comes down to timelines in the end if he doesn't.

SPEAKER_04 33:39

I mean, it it does, because that's how I think. But like if if it do you guys see it differently? Am I missing something? Did I I again I started watching the season when it first came out, then I paused for like two months. So after episode three, we jumped into episode four, and you know, we watched the last five episodes within this past week. I don't know, I forget what happens in the first three, and if that answers the question. I know he was like practicing on mice, but the mice were exploding too.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

It just he got good really quick off screen, kind of. Yeah. I mean he practiced on the mice and then he got it right. You know, it's like a quick uh building montage, buddy. It wasn't uh yeah, we didn't I I don't think I've am I am I seeing it differently?

SPEAKER_04 34:24

Like am I seeing it incorrectly? Am I am I understanding it wrong?

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Okay, because because think about it. I mean, he there was a lot of people in there that he had under his control. That was a lot of people. So at some point after after him perfecting that larger chip, they must have been working on that you know, at some point he he must have worked on that smaller chip, sent some of the and then sent some of the people out, but then there's also people out there in the world that have that might have the larger chips because he said that like I mean it it's like they're coded from centuries ago, you know?

Chips, Memory Wipe, And Finale Pacing

SPEAKER_04 35:08

Yeah, I was personally I was very confused about that revelation. Um and that that has like tripped me up ever since the finale. I was I've been very confused about he ended up clicking the button, he became uh docile for a second and forgot who Lucy was. Did anyone else in in I was expecting like the people in the in the town, um, like near all the uh death clause, I was expecting them to be like, who am I? You know, what are you doing here? That's when when that button got clicked, but I that didn't happen, obviously. So I I'm just trying to understand, did that happen to anyone else?

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Or I think that's like something that will be answered next season, though.

SPEAKER_03 35:49

Yeah, I think I think that that was just him. I think that that was essentially his version of like a cyanide capsule. Like he just because they like you know, we knew that it was going to, you know, kind of erase their mind. And like, I mean that's essentially what he was like trying to do with Lucy, right? Like he he was trying to put one of those on her so that she kind of forgot everything that um you know he kind of did. I won't I'm not too sure if there's a level of if he can control how much is like erased, or if it's just like a complete blank slate that, you know, I just don't know this person anymore, I don't know anybody anymore.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

It seems like blank slate. I mean, if you see what happens to uh the guy from the NCR, right? Like he he doesn't remember anything, and like she starts asking him uh questions, and Hank's kind of like, yeah, ix nay on the questions a you know like don't make him think too hard about this stuff. He's and also it doesn't seem like he had answers. Like they're docile enough that their their memories are erased, but also when like directly questioned, they don't seem to have an irritation that they don't remember anything.

SPEAKER_04 37:10

You know what my favorite line read of the entire uh series was when Hank is asking that one random guy whether or not he would like his memory wiped, all the good memories, all the bad memories, your entire life, and then there's like a quick pause, and the guy goes, please, yes. It's the funniest line read of that, please, yes, like all your good memories will be gone.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

But that guy gets like violated by like a cockroach. Like he I I know, I know.

SPEAKER_04 37:45

It's just stuff. But he he's been through stuff like happily, like he's got a smile on his face at all times, like during the show. Like he's he's obviously sketchy, he's a sketchy dude.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

He's so high, he's su he's on a cocktail of drugs, all right. It's the only thing that keeps him going. And let's you know what? Great trick, great, great that you brought him up because he gave our pal, uh, who I'm blanking on his name, I don't know what. Uh our former brotherhood pal, who who thinks he's a ghoul, uh, but he is indeed not a ghoul, I don't believe. Uh, if you notice, he The armless man? Yes, the arm his arm fell off. Uh Thaddeus. So Thaddeus, he's got the mouth, his arm fell off. Uh Anthony, you've been playing this series for a long time. So have I. I don't think he's a ghoul at all, man.

SPEAKER_03 38:45

I don't like that that is just like insane. That that looks like um, you know in the game how like when you become irradiated, like you can grow like an extra limb or something. That's what it makes me think of. He he's just like severely irra he's irradiated, and he has like a mouth on his shoulder now. That that that was just like even even Cooper, like when he shows him, Cooper's just like uh he's like Yeah, that's I mean, like look, if a ghoul is looking at you like, okay, that's weird, then you know that okay, that this dude is not a ghoul.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

So I think it's one of two things. I think it's either that really creepy, like pink creature that's just like head, almost like a centaur, I think it's called in the game. Um I believe it's in Fallout 3 mostly. And then the other idea is that I wonder if he is see I so we got to see super mutants, right? We got to see a super mutant. Yes, dude, voiced by Ron Perlman. So I don't think it's FEV. Oh, I didn't know that. The the super mutants were uh caused by a mutation by the FEV virus, I believe. I think the Enclave was involved in that in the games. So that super mutant to me, like it establishes that Thaddeus is not a supermutant and he's not a ghoul, it's something else, and I think it's this pink centaur creature that's really gross looking and not human at all. So I don't know how they're gonna do this, you know.

SPEAKER_03 40:26

Uh dude, when when uh when Cooper was getting dragged like by some like huge like hulking creature, I was like, oh, that's gotta be a super mutant. And then I saw that meat bag that they usually have hanging around.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

Yeah, the meat bag, I got so excited.

SPEAKER_03 40:39

I was just like, oh yeah, that's a super mutant. Yeah, it was so that super mutant was voiced by Ron Perlman. He's he's the best. I mean, hellboy. I was like, I was like, man, that that sounds like him. Let me and I looked it up and sure enough it was him.

Thaddeus, Mutants, And Ron Perlman

SPEAKER_02 40:56

I wish it would have been that super mutant that's got like a flower dress and a straw hat, I think, in Fallout 4. Uh I I he's he can be one of your companions. I just would have been I mean, I you know, the shroud and stuff is great, I get it.

SPEAKER_03 41:11

But I Oh, I forgot about the super mutant that you can like be friend, yeah. Um like I know you you bu I I like um was it Nick Valentine or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 41:23

Yeah, the synth, baby.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

Yeah, yeah. Like you you get a goal in Fallout 4, like as a companion, and he's like a detective.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Whoa, whoa, whoa. We're gonna get so much hate mail right now, okay? Nick Valentine is a synth, alright?

SPEAKER_03 41:38

You're right, you're right, he is a synth.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

We almost got kicked out.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Oh my gosh, dude, we haven't even gotten those yet. Bro, I'm telling like there's so much like lore in the game.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

We're going too deep. Yeah, and what's what's cool is that there is so much lore that they can pull from, and they're still adding lore on top of it. And this is, you know, uh that they're still adding more to the story. Like, like Rich said, they are changing up what the idea of the experiment as a whole is.

SPEAKER_03 42:07

Um it works because like it's it's not super some of the stuff is not super detailed in the game, right? Um, I mean the game it like does a really good job at covering stuff, but there's still stuff that is not a hundred percent explained, and you know, kind of kind of back to to what Rich was saying about these games and and how what makes it a really good adaptation is that you are the main character, and that everything that is experienced is you, you know, you create your character, you make the decision for everything uh, you know, of this character, what they say, how they look, you know, and and then as long as you you're faithful with, you know, I mean, obviously you needed that the that like that retro futuristic vibe, right? You needed that those oldie the oldies music that that is like very prominent. You need to see the Pit Boys and all the you know and then like the weapons, like the the pipe weapons, um the dude the the was it the the power gauntlet that uh Lucy gets in this. I was like, bro, I'm uh oh oh the the uh the super sledge too that um that the that the um was it that like uh the ambassador from from the uh Commonwealth, he had that sledgehammer with the rocket on the end of it. Yeah, dude, I mean straight up straight up from the game, super sledge. It's something that you get. It's crazy, I'm telling you. Like, I mean, there was a lot of fan service, but it was done so well.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

Yeah, I didn't even know it was fan service because I've never played this game.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

What do you think about Jen? How do you feel about a one eyed uh an A woman, an evil woman with an eye patch from Canada.

SPEAKER_00 44:03

I like how she just like her her mom. I'm assuming the person was her mom, was like, don't view them as people, view them as Americans.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

Was it Nadine?

SPEAKER_00 44:14

Like, we didn't dehumanize us.

SPEAKER_03 44:17

Nadine.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

Nadine! Yeah, whenever Yeah, we we've got a Cooper, we've got a one-armed man, we've got a Nadine.

SPEAKER_04 44:27

Oh man. We do have an armed man. What's going on here?

SPEAKER_00 44:34

This is just a twin piece remake.

SPEAKER_04 44:37

You brought up the Supermutant played by Ron Perlman. Um, I don't want to linger too much on that, but in my head, like when when he was dragging him to his, you know, like den or whatever, it looked like Frankenstein in Van Helsing. Yeah. You know, like the the the big Frankenstein in uh a hood, like dragging something from behind. I know it probably wasn't, you know, referencing that. I think it's just like my mind is working like that because we just watched it, but I I thought that that was kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

Do you guys so obviously like Anthony and I, this is almost like a love letter to us. Uh do You know, I think that a lot of the enjoyment that Anthony and I are getting uh from it is like things like sugar bombs, things like this, you know, the small things and the big things. Uh obviously that doesn't hit for you guys the same way. Does that change how you see the show? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

Yeah, I'm sure it does. I mean, to me, it's just like I'm in a totally new world. It's like I'm just watching a completely new show that I know nothing about. The world, like, there's a lot going on, which confuses me because you're just kind of thrown in and not a lot is explained. Like, for example, with the Legion, I don't get where they got their outfits from. Like, I don't know why they have this stuff. Oh, you're not.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

Um Yeah, that's not I don't they just do.

SPEAKER_00 46:02

You guys don't have like an answer to that? They just do? Did they make them? Was there like a like a Roman themed play I mean there in Vegas that they just took the outfits from?

SPEAKER_02 46:11

I don't I mean, old jokes aside, if it's canonical or not, but you know, you have Caesar's Palace, right, in uh in Las Vegas. You know? Yeah. So I mean it could even be like props. I mean, there's there's the Elvis dudes, right? So like some of it's Vegas.

SPEAKER_00 46:27

The Elvis dudes I loved. I love them so much.

SPEAKER_04 46:30

So uh to to jump onto what's Jen, what Jen's saying, this was my first foray into Fallout. Obviously, I've I've known about Fallout my entire life. I've um been around people playing it. I just never personally you know sat down to play it. But this was my first true maybe not this season, but the show in general, it was my first true foray into this world. And the only reason I started playing the game after uh the first season was because it was such a realized world, if that makes sense. Um, I didn't need to know every little facet of how things worked, I just knew that this worked this way, that worked that way, and these are the the physical laws of reality in this system of you know, this this this universe. And that was so well realized in the show, uh in both season one and season two, that I never question, you know, this is something that can or cannot happen in this story, you know, even though some things are a little bit goofier, campier, um uh more grotesque, more sterile in some ways. Like there are certain aspects of this world that, you know, with each individual part, totally make sense within the frap the fabric of the story. And that that's why I like it so much, just because it's um I'm only getting one uh one piece to this puzzle, but it's a very um easy to understand piece of the puzzle, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 48:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 48:05

Yeah, I think for me too, like um, I don't need to know everything. The world is really grotesque and interesting, but for me the standout is the characters, the character development and um just the overall theme of like the themes of like love and hate, like you could still love someone even though you hate what they've done. Like with with with um Lucy and her father, and then the same with Cooper and his wife, where it's like you like they hate them, they hate what they've done, but you can't help but love your family. And we have just like like like what is human nature, what is a good person? Like Max is looking for a good person, and I don't know, I like Lucy, I think, is questioning that about herself because she still clearly like had that moment where she was crying with her dad, even though she knew that he was a pretty big piece of crap.

SPEAKER_04 49:01

Right one thing that I one thing that you know, jumping back onto what I was I was just saying about like how the world felt complete, even though I was only seeing a small part of it, I think of the first Star Wars movie. You know, uh in that movie, you learn that there was a clone war back in the day. You learn that there was plenty of Jedi back in the day. You learn that Luke's father um was killed by someone named Darth Vader. You learn um about droids and aliens and uh the this big empire that you don't know how s how it started, but you know that it's uh recent, you know that it's oppressive, and you know that it needs to be stopped. You know, you need to know everything uh or you learn more than what you need to know in that movie, and same with Fallout, you you're learning more about this world than is necessary for the plot. But when it comes to what you need to know for the plot, you're given plenty of uh information. And I think that that's kind of a sign of good storytelling and good world building.

SPEAKER_03 50:02

Right. Um I think that this is a case of one of those This is one of those pieces of media that you can watch and in and enjoy it without knowing anything from the games, but if you do, it pays off like a lot, you know.

SPEAKER_04 50:18

Yeah, I I could see that.

SPEAKER_03 50:19

You I I mean you see Rich and I we're geeking out about stuff. Something even minor. Uh you saw how Lucy she she got um addicted to buff out. That's literally something in the game. You can get if you take too many meds, you can get addicted to the medicine, and then the um, and then there's a way to get rid of it, you know, like uh it's either overtime or the um uh addictol, the the like inhaler thing. So it it's it's crazy that they even have like that little like that minor little thing like that, you know?

SPEAKER_00 50:54

Yeah, that's just like my uh my Benadryl arc or in Bur Dakota when I couldn't sleep, so I started taking Benadryl right regularly, and then you're like, hey, you can't keep taking Benadryl every night, and then I got afraid of the Shadow Man.

SPEAKER_04 51:05

The Hat Man.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

The Hat Man, that's it. And then I was super scared of the Hat Man every night, and then I didn't want to take Benadryl because I was scared of the Hat Man, and then when I took the Benadryl, I was scared of the Hat Man.

Vault Culture, Identity, And Naivety

SPEAKER_04 51:15

Uh, if anyone doesn't know what the hat man is, it's a phenomenon that happens to people who take too much Benadryl at one time. So you were never really gonna visit the hat man, and the hat man was never gonna visit you. But I was so scared. There's a uh nobody really understands why, but there's a like you you go into a psychosis where a man in a hat, like a dark figure.

SPEAKER_00 51:36

Well, I don't want to talk about the hat man. I'm scared.

SPEAKER_04 51:38

Anyway, yeah, it's it's uh it's a bad thing. Is this a big dude?

SPEAKER_00 51:43

No, no, no, this is a legitimate thing. He's scary.

SPEAKER_04 51:46

If you if you it's been like well documented, if you take too much Benadryl, um, you will be visited by the hat man in your sleep. Um and it'll be like a figure like sitting by your bedside, very ominous, very dark. You don't want to talk to him.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

Um I really don't want to talk about this. I don't know why I've got this up because it's gonna be bedtime after this, and I can't talk about the hat man.

SPEAKER_03 52:08

This sounds like sleep paralysis. Like things that people see from that. See, like it's like the skin.

SPEAKER_02 52:17

You know?

SPEAKER_04 52:18

Yeah. Look it up on your own.

SPEAKER_00 52:19

Uh and we're not talking about it after this. We're actually don't start bringing the head.

SPEAKER_03 52:25

Dakota get get Jen some um addictol. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:29

Yeah, I was I was basically Lucy in that moment. I like how she's just like, I'm addicted to drugs. She's like, why am I so itchy?

SPEAKER_03 52:37

Like, what's going on? And then Cooper's like, yeah, you're addicted.

SPEAKER_04 52:44

My I I love Cooper's advice. Uh, what I would do is just take more drugs.

SPEAKER_03 52:50

Um isn't it isn't it crazy how he goes from playing a cowboy on TV to like pretty much becoming a cowboy like 200 years later?

SPEAKER_04 53:00

I love his two characters and how they're slowly merging into one because they are two very different roles, uh, essentially, that have the same background. And um, by the end of this season, we see uh the like his um original Cooper Howard role blending into the the ghoul like very uh succinctly when he finally finds the the vaults that um his wife and child were supposed to be in. Um I I love that scene because he's no longer the ghoul in that scene. You know, he's not he's not acting as the ghoul in that scene. But yeah, I I thought I I I I love that I love that character. Uh I think such a fantastic character uh to make a show around. Um if if you guys were to pitch a Fallout story, would you revolve it around a ghoul? I I think most people wouldn't, but I it makes for such a great like century-long storytelling.

SPEAKER_03 54:07

I feel like a goal is definitely essential for Fallout, like you definitely need a goal, you know, uh I mean they have the feral goals in there, which is important, and then the ones that that like kind of maintain their sanity with um you know those cocktails that they take. I'm pretty sure that there's a isn't there a goal in one of the games that is very similar, like he's kind of like a cowboy.

SPEAKER_02 54:36

Yeah. Yeah, there's like a I don't know if he's a sheriff or something, but there is Yeah, I think he's like a sheriff. A very there is a similar kind of character to the ghoul. I guess you I mean the the the upside of picking a ghoul is that they can live for so long. Right? So like that does make the most sense. I don't know if we really ever had a sense for the lifespan of super mutants. I don't think that we've ever kind of gotten documented proof that they've lived they've lived like, you know, eighty or a hundred years where we have had evidence that ghouls have lived a very long time. So I guess from a plot device, kind of like Wolverine being able to go back and forth in the days of future past type thing, I think that the ghoul is the access point in terms of creatures because I mean the only other thing you can have is is cryogenically frozen humans, right? That's the only thing they can that can jump the time the time gap.

SPEAKER_00 55:44

I have a question. Those like little kid ghouls, are they gonna grow like are they gonna age? Or do they just stay as little kid ghouls forever? And are they like they kind of just like abandoned all those kids? Are they gonna like go feral? Or like do they have medicine?

SPEAKER_02 56:00

They've never really had ghoul kids that I can remember too much. I they don't really have that, and I also think that the cocktail of meds is something that is show specific because I don't remember any ghoul. Like it seemed in the game that it was like kind of divine providence. Like whoever like some ghouls didn't go full feral and some did. Like I don't remember in the game.

Lore Drops: Anchorage, Cryptids, And What’s Next

SPEAKER_03 56:39

Um yeah, I think that just some some got the the short end of the stick and they they they went full feral, and then some were able to keep their faculties.

SPEAKER_02 56:48

Yeah, it's kind of like a like like a disease almost, and like who can take it more than other people can, you know?

SPEAKER_04 56:56

Jen, what did you think of the vault dwellers this season? They they were going through very different Targaryen parties. Oh my gosh, yeah. What was going on there?

SPEAKER_00 57:08

Like it was like people will victimize themselves in order to achieve an end. Like, I thought that was absolutely hilarious. It's like whatever is like we say, like this will get you attention if you're like this. People like, that's me. Sign me up, it's me now. And then they have like a support group. It's just human nature, especially in the vault where it's like I think their sense of identity is so thin because there's so little life experience. They they all were just like, Yes, we're gonna identify with being byproducts of incest.

SPEAKER_04 57:43

It's also interesting to me with the vault dwellers, how you can tell which ones were born in the vaults and which ones um were uh originally, you know, pri part of the the pre-war world, you know.

SPEAKER_00 58:01

Um I should I should like go to Greg and report Greg to himself and see what he does. I would like to report um somebody's for some bad activities, and it's just me reporting Greg to Greg.

SPEAKER_04 58:16

Greg is a coworker.

SPEAKER_00 58:17

Uh he's our like department chair.

SPEAKER_04 58:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 58:20

I have a I would like to file a complaint um against you, actually. Like only a vaulty who was born in the vaults would do that. It's so like if you had any experience in the outside world, you would literally never do that. Like it's so stupid. You'd have to be like five years old.

SPEAKER_03 58:37

Yeah. Yeah, like um, like how Lucy was like when she first left the vault. She was very vaulty-like.

unknown 58:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:46

And even and even there's I think they're still holding a bit, she's holding on to a bit of that, right? She's still trying to like hold on to, you know, like the the sense of of justice that just doesn't seem to exist at all in the surface world, right?

SPEAKER_00 59:05

Yeah, it's like they have such a implicit trust in the system and like the process that you know if you live in the real world, we see how quickly everything can kind of just get messed up and fall apart, and you don't you don't put all that much faith in stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 59:21

And then oh yeah, and then we do get a little bit of and and uh and Cooper was a part of this, um it's uh mentioned in the games the Battle of Anchorage, where they they fight against the the like communists, and it's kind of crazy, uh like you get your first kind of glimpse of the death claw, and I mean you you learn like what the death claws are, that there were like created weapons, like you learn this in the games. It's I'm telling you, the the the the games are there's a lot, there's a lot to the games, and like this really like enhances the lore for those games and it it validates a lot and it gives you a visual component to certain things that you only experience through, like I said, visual or uh auditory like media, right? Like holotapes, notes, um, you know, memos or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:23

I you know it it almost feels like you know, if you like the show, you like the show, but there's almost a part of it that's like I think they're just like, you know what? This is for the fallout peeps. There's so much of it, it's just yeah, it just feels like this is for the fallout peeps. It's almost unabashedly, I don't care, figure it out. You know, like the death claws, man. One death claw. I remember spending like there's a rock quarry in one of the games, and I remember spending like God, and Anthony, you might remember this. The rock quarry, I think it's in the new Vegas.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:57

Oh my god. That is crazy, yeah. 45 minutes with a there's a mother death claw in what New Vegas, and if you shoot like one of the baby ones, like oh, she she will explode.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:11

You're sweating. So when you when I saw all those death claws on the strip, it was like, oh my goodness, how could you even handle that?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:21

Like they're hard to fight in the game, even with power armor. You would literally need like a fully stocked like mini gun to take down that many in the game. I mean, like I would be running, I'd be like, Yeah, I know I'm out of here.

Adaptation Done Right Vs. Halo’s Missteps

SPEAKER_02 1:01:34

I was swing, I was swinging my scope around, and Lauren was in the room. All right, my wife's in the room. I'm swinging my scope around looking for other death claws, and one of them just came out from the side, and I screamed like a little rich. I just went, ah, and like tossed the controller in the air, and he's just smacking with his giant claws. I I don't, you know, obviously not everyone can go and play these games, man, but this just feels like such a payoff for being such a huge geek for a while, you know. Like the I love these games. I love the idea of, you know, apocalyptic, you know. I'm telling you, I keep things like in my house because I'm like, you know what? This is an item that in Fallout I could use to like make something or or fashion something. Like I literally keep things and I justify it in my head by when the apocalypse comes, this will be a good item to have.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:32

Just make sure that you just rip out all the plumbing and use it to uh build weapons. You know, and there's a lot of like different creatures that that you know in the future that we can experience. It looks like Cooper is headed off to Colorado, right? Because, you know, his his wife leaves, you know, he finally gets the vault. His wife and his daughter, they're not in there. Um, she leaves a little a little message about you know Colorado. You know, that's something that they had spoken about, you know, years ago, and like he remembers it. Um you know, I'm thinking that like he heads out to he heads out to Color Colorado and we might be getting one of those uh Yao Guai bears. Remember those things? Um We also need uh and and uh you get this in in uh 76, but Mothman.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:25

Yes, Mothman! Mothman is real, ladies and gentlemen, and he's in the game, the cryptids, the cryptids of Fallout.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:33

I'm telling you, there there's there's so much to to build on, and they they've you know the and they've really like they've dug up a lot, but there's still a lot that they could tap into. Um what what did you think about your boy uh Macaulay Culkin um being in uh the show? Because I mean from from what I read, he's a pretty big Fallout fan.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:57

Um I don't know who you're talking to, Anthony, but I'm gonna jump in here. Uh so I really like putting it out there in general. Oh, okay. I wasn't sure whose boy Macaulay Culkin was.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:08

Yeah, I was like, who's really into Macaulay Culkin?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:10

Me and Macaulay Culkin go way back, but I'll let you take this one back. It's it's all boys because of uh Dakota. I'm sorry. That was so disrespectful. Dakota, I'm sorry.

unknown 1:04:20

What'd you call me?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:22

Dakota. I thought it was Dakota. What? Yeah, from Purder of Badlands, Dakota. Uh I was just trying to say it quickly, Anthony.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:29

Uh jumping back onto what you guys were talking about, um, with uh it feels like it was written or made for you guys. Like it it it feels um it belongs so closely to the game, and there's so many uh little things that are from the games that you appreciate it more. Um it's very clear to me that the entire writer's room was immersed in the lore of this world. Like they were constantly playing these games when they were working on these this series, you know, at least when they were writing it. And sometimes you watch an adaptation of a book or um a game. It's more often games, but sometimes you watch an adaptation and they'll take creative liberties for the sake of whatever story they want to tell. Uh, you know, recently they Halo. Halo, yep, the Halo series, which uh took some uh pretty dramatic literally broke all of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:30

Broke all of our hearts.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:32

Like that's like the angriest I've ever seen, Anthony.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:35

Uh my gosh, yeah, I know. And and that that show has been dangling, like that show has been dangled in front of your face for decades, you know.

Characters Over Gore: Love, Hate, And Choice

SPEAKER_03 1:05:41

Like I think originally, like Steven Spielberg wanted to do an adaptation of um I know that uh Peter Jackson was working on some stuff and there was some uh test footage that he that had leaked out from like Wingnut. Oh really? Yeah. And it looked good too. It was like really, really good. So but yeah, no, that we Ended up getting a show. They took this, took Master Chief's helmet off, never in the games. And then um you know it's just the thing is is that I don't mind creative liberties, but there's it has to be within reason, right? You don't, yeah, maybe you don't want a one-to-one, but you want at least it to make sense within the universe. Master Chief never takes off his helmet in front of people. You're not gonna be seeing it like that. I don't care what kind of like story you're trying to tell, there's certain things that you just do not do.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:34

But that's the thing. These it was written by people who clearly weren't engrossed in the lore to a to a point where they they didn't want to disappoint certain people or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:44

Which is crazy with the fallout because then you get people like Tony Gilroy that writes Andor. And he, you know, remember, he's not like somebody that's super like a giant Star Wars fan, but then somehow he knows how to write a story that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:59

Yeah, I think he probably like listens to the fans, like he probably talks to people that are super into it and is like, hey, can I do this?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:06

So what you guys are saying is like just being into like the franchise is not enough. Like, like, are you guys saying that like love might not be enough? Because that scares me.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:19

That does scare. Yeah, yeah. Thanks, thanks, uh Major Briggs. Um, what a great character, too. Like, I love Major Briggs anyway.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:28

I love okay. Can we say like Rich hated Twin Peaks the whole time we were covering it, but he's the one who keeps bringing it back and referencing it the most.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:38

He he loves it.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:39

He secretly I think he has the bug. Yeah, I think you have it in your part.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:43

Once sends me stuff. Once you've seen once you've seen me stuff, he said stuff. That sounds so how dare you break that. Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:58

Um, yeah, no, it's it's so funny because like it's once you watch Twin Peaks, it kind of like codes your brain a little different. Like every now and then Anthony will be like, Do you think this character was uh inspired by this character from Twin Peaks? I'm like, yeah, probably.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:14

It's so it's so funny because like when you watch Twin Peaks, you feel like you you're a part of a group that like there's a lot of people, but then also not a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:26

Yeah, the community is large, but you don't meet a Twin Peaks fan on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:32

There are dozens of us. As Tobias says, there are dozens of us.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:36

They're all in the Black Lodger in therapy. What are the two? Yeah, that there's four of us, you know, in this one uh Zoom meeting alone.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:45

Oh god. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:47

Um let's let's bring this to a close. Final thoughts. Uh I'll throw it over to Jen first. What did you think of Fallout Season 2? Uh did you did you enjoy it overall?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:59

Yeah, I enjoyed it. Um, I I know that this is like a part of because Rich and I talked about this earlier, actually. Like it was extremely grotesque, and typically lately I've only been watching TV while I'm eating. So there was a lot of times I'm like, damn man, like they gotta show me that. Why do I have to hear this squelching right now? Um such a great word. I understand. I understand why I had to be exposed to the harsh realities of the apocalypse. Um, but like I said, I really actually enjoyed the direction that the characters have all taken and how fleshed out they feel. So I enjoyed it. I I thought it was good. I I had known nothing about the game, and I still had a lot of fun watching it, and I feel like immersed in a very, very unique and complex world.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:48

Yeah, I I'm gonna jump forward and and say like I I too really enjoyed it. Um I do think not a lot happened over the course of the season. You know, overall, like if you if you really boil it down, like that's it's it's kind of jam-packed, it's action-packed, but all the characters, they only kind of get from point A to point B by the end of this season, you know? Like Lucy finally gets to her father. Um Coop finally gets to New Vegas and finds his family. Actually, so alright, I'm I'm I'm being too simplistic. There is a lot that does happen. And I'm not I'm not saying that that is a bad thing, that not a lot happens because I did enjoy it, you know. Like there was it was the journey, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:28

But I think even Lucy, like she went from putting her faith in like her dad and the system, and then she was kind of relatively trusting of Cooper, and then when he betrayed her, like she has like these values of like friendship and goodness that she thought she could instill in him, but instead I think he kind of changed her perspective even more.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:50

I think they changed each other uh in a way, because uh when we first see Coop in the first season, he's really quite jaded about the world in general, and he probably still I mean he definitely still is, but um, he has true purpose by the end of season two, you know, like we we see like a fire is lit within him, right? I like that. I think that that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:14

And then he remember, he he could have easily had he could have easily killed Hank, right? And he was like, you know, that's not my decision to make. You know, he kind of like paid that forward, like he kind of did something that she did earlier in the season, right? Like she shot somebody in the butt or their like leg or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:34

So that's true, yeah.

Final Takes And What We’re Covering Next

SPEAKER_03 1:11:36

Yeah, yeah. So so I really liked him a lot. Um, I think Walt Walton just he's magic with this as this character. He's such a good actor. I mean I like seeing him on screen in general, but like I really do think that he's leaning into some sort of like artistry that is just it's crazy. And then the fact that he's playing two characters and he does them both very well, he's he's good.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:02

Yeah, incredible performance.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:03

And his taste and interior design is phenomenal. You could actually find his house in the Hudson Valley online. Beautiful home. The guy's got great taste all around, good skills.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:14

All right, we we kind of derailed that a little bit. Uh uh, Anthony, final thoughts on the season.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:19

Absolutely love it. Uh Fallout New Vegas is one of my favorites, and the fact that we got pretty much so much from it in in a an eight episode season, like really just like blew me away. I mean, if you're a Fallout fan and haven't seen it or are skeptical of seeing you know the show in general, go in and watch it. Especially if you love uh Fallout New Vegas, this this second season will will um blow you away. First one too.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:51

Blow you away, pun intended.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:54

Rich, uh Rip Roaring Good Time, highly recommend. I mean, listen, I this is like Lord of the Rings Star Wars level, and and as if if the eagle-eye or eagle-eared listener would know, I was furious about Lord of uh Rings of Power season one until I watched season two. This is fantastic. I have no complaints. I mean, look, I guess the only thing is if I'm you know standing in Dakota and Gen shoes, sorry, Dakota and Gen Shoes, I don't I understand why you guys aren't as excited as we are, right? Like, you know, you're you're absorbing the world, you're trying to understand it, you're trying to navigate it. We've been living in it for such a long time that I think this is fan service-y, but you know what? I'm gonna say something kind of controversial and maybe against making money. Sometimes not everything needs to be like you know, sometimes things can just be for the people who like that thing. Like it doesn't have to be for everybody, and I I think you can watch this and enjoy it, but I think, man, if you've played these games, it is a different experience. It is it I it is what I assume what going to Disney's like and being able to go to Galaxy's Edge, right? Like, like like being in the world that you've been imagining for years. I've spent like you guys laugh about Red Dead Redemption, right? But man, before Red Dead, there was you know Fallout 4, Fallout 3, and Fallout New Vegas. Like those were my games. Like I I dedicated I before Charlie was born, forget it. Forget it. I just went everywhere. I love and that's it. It was a video game that allowed me to cheat. If I worked hard enough to build one skill, I could freeze the game, and as Jen said earlier, grotesquely shoot open someone's brains, and it was so satisfying to do that. Highly recommended. I think that explores so many interesting themes about what it means to be a parent, what it means to uh be a human. Uh there are so many layers to this show. I it's one of my favorite things that we've watched as a group. We're veterans of the wasteland.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:33

Yeah, I'm like, I enjoyed this, and and Anthony and Rich are like, well, we enjoyed it harder. So I'm well that was I just wanted to, but like, you know like I liked this.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:43

We've seen things that that like you know, where we're like if you you can watch it without knowing much about the the source material and still enjoy it, but it pays off when you do know the source material.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:58

No, I get it. I think what he said about Galaxy Sedge helped me under- I didn't really understand until you said that on my own. Because my brother goes, but he doesn't watch Star Wars and he's like, oh, this is cool, that's cool, but if you know the characters and stuff, it's way cooler.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:11

What I will say about Fallout the series, um you you said that uh you know it doesn't have to not everything like has to like shy away from uh like member berries and Easter eggs and just fan service in general. I never once felt like I was being fed Easter eggs and member berries and and fan service. Like this all just felt like this is something that exists in this world. This is gonna this is what we're gonna use. Um and it it never felt like suddenly Thor's hammer got picked up. You know, like I I never got that moment where like I was taken out of the story because of some mythical item that I should have probably known, if that makes any sense. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:58

It's like a show that kind of does this.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:01

No, it absolutely doesn't. I don't I never felt like I was missing out on anything. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:05

I guess a show that does it where they make you feel kind of bad for not knowing is like the Star Wars TV shows, where they all started kind of compiling on themselves, and then it I feel like if you didn't know, it was just like zoom in on a character and they would like be there and you're like, I guess this person's important.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:20

Except for Kenobi. That was probably the tightest of all the series that they made. Right. Dakota.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:26

Yep. Yep. Uh speaking of tight, I don't know where I'm gonna go with this one.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:33

Disturbed.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:34

No, I don't know where I was gonna uh segue into that, but we we are coming tight on time because we this is a longer podcast now. We need to figure out what we're doing for the next week. Uh you don't like my segues.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:51

I never want to hear you say that again.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:53

I think uh we haven't given Rich an opportunity to choose something. Yes. Um, and I think that we're still not gonna do that. Uh but I do recommend uh because baseball season's coming up, we should throw Rich a bone, throw Rich a ball, rather, and and do uh a baseball movie like Major League with Charlie Sheen. And then no more baseball talk for the rest of the baseball.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:24

I can't find it right now, but I just want you to know that I actually own it on DVD and it's covered in Astroturf, right? So that it has like a it like looks like a baseball field. Um also as a sneak preview. Um his name is Joe Boo. He is uh a really important character in the movie, and I received him as a birthday gift a couple of years ago. So, ladies and gentlemen, I if you thought I saw Back to the Future a lot, this is actually the number one movie that I've seen. I hope I want all of you, I implore you, go watch it. Go watch it so that you can join us next week on our journey because it's gonna be so much fun. Anthony, are you are you cool with Major League?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:13

Yeah, yeah, we can do that. And then Rich is gonna, you know, then then like on top of this, he's gonna have um a weekly baseball podcast that he's gonna do with uh with Dakota where they they they talk about the Mets and uh the Yankees.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:30

It's gonna be a podcast. You know what? The side podcast is is gonna be uh, I don't know, like long live the drive home. And it's gonna be me, my wife, and my son coming home from Met games and just the complaints that we have about that day. So it won't even be really about the Mets. It might be my wife's angry that like the sausage and peppers was a little soggy, you know? Like, so uh stay tuned. That sounds riveting. It's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:56

All right, guys, thank you so much for listening to us here for our 154th episode of Project Ecology. We had a lot of fun talking Fallout Season 2. Uh, next week for 155, we are covering Major League, um, which is a uh baseball comedy. So let's let's let's do it, guys. Don't forget that five star juicy review. If you want to check out any of our socials, be sure to click down into the so the show notes below uh to find more of what we've been up to. Thanks, guys. Bye. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:27

Bye. The Wolverine.