Speaker 1: Morning.
Speaker 2: Today's episode contains spoilers for the second episode of Fallout
Speaker 2: season two.
Speaker 3: You one.
Speaker 1: Hello, my name is Jason Hell.
Speaker 4: I'm Mercy Day.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to ext revision of the podcast where we
Speaker 2: dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture.
Speaker 2: Coming to you from my heart, where we're bringing you
Speaker 2: three episodes a week.
Speaker 3: Last news In today's episode, it's Fallout two two.
Speaker 4: Baby, you thought that that week would go slow.
Speaker 3: No, we're already here season two, episode two, and we
Speaker 3: are going to be talking about it. I hope you
Speaker 3: love Maximus because it's a big Maximus episode.
Speaker 2: Fallout season two, episode two. We open in a flashback
Speaker 2: to the last hours of the Shining City on a
Speaker 2: hill that was the new California Republic, a brief moment
Speaker 2: of cooperation and coexistence in the wasteland known as Shady
Speaker 2: Sands Rip. We meet young Maximus's dad, who has apparently
Speaker 2: discovered a huge aquifer of fresh water. He's just got
Speaker 2: done testing the water. It's completely free, and as Rosie
Speaker 2: said last episode, clean water a huge deal in this
Speaker 2: world and a huge deal in the games.
Speaker 1: You gotta have it.
Speaker 2: A trader is on his way into town repeating in
Speaker 2: a robotic fashion the same kind of the same phrase
Speaker 2: about the desert. And it's clear after seeing episode one
Speaker 2: that he's probably got the neck chip in because he
Speaker 2: doesn't look like he's doing great and he is brainwashed clearly.
Speaker 2: Dad and young Max go over to see what the
Speaker 2: trader has brought in the caravan to town, and they
Speaker 2: get there and then are all around the trader and
Speaker 2: the traders collapsed and it is continuing to mutter, and it's.
Speaker 1: Blood coming from his eyes.
Speaker 2: Dad knows something is wrong immediately and finds the chip
Speaker 2: and then looks in the caravan and there's a nuke there.
Speaker 2: There's a sigular bomb that will destroy the city. Dad
Speaker 2: sends Maximums home and begins to try and to defuse
Speaker 2: a bomb, but he fails, and then runs home and
Speaker 2: is like, Max, get in this refrigerator. Everything's gonna be fine,
Speaker 2: and we know the rest from If.
Speaker 3: It's good enough for Indiana Jones.
Speaker 4: It's kind of right you, and it worked.
Speaker 3: Younger Hank looks at himself in the mirror, having just
Speaker 3: dropped the bomb on Shaty Sands, then goes to read
Speaker 3: the wind in the willows to Lucy.
Speaker 4: He's a real piece of work, this guy.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 3: Then we go back to Maximus today. He and his
Speaker 3: brothers take part in a Ghoul clearance operation during some
Speaker 3: kind of strange industrial facility and they find what they
Speaker 3: came for, the red device.
Speaker 4: Is this the artifact?
Speaker 3: I don't think it's like the real artifact, but clearly
Speaker 3: it's what they're looking for. So they just got up,
Speaker 3: head out and back above the Caswanian Caswanan Caswinete.
Speaker 1: I believe it's I believe that's the name of their ships.
Speaker 3: Well, I like it, No, just include me saying like
Speaker 3: fifty versions of it.
Speaker 4: I don't know the name of every ship.
Speaker 3: The brothers applaud Max's success, and Elder Quintus greets him.
Speaker 3: Max delivers the item, and this is where I feel
Speaker 3: like Max and the Brotherhood need to get it together,
Speaker 3: because Quintus is so fucking shady bro Like, don't just
Speaker 3: give this man like a magical.
Speaker 4: Red button and be like and he's like, oh, are
Speaker 4: you going to you with it?
Speaker 3: And he's like, nothing wrong, only good stuff.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be our new home. You know.
Speaker 3: We're gonna unify the Brothers and the factions and they'll
Speaker 3: all be able to access this huge military arsenal that
Speaker 3: we have hit under the sands. And you know what,
Speaker 3: while I'm planning this definitely bad probably genocide or plan,
Speaker 3: I need you to know Max, you like my son.
Speaker 4: You're a son to me. You are my.
Speaker 2: Sons Christ this guy, Lucy Ghoule and dog Meat are
Speaker 2: continuing their desert excursion. They're bickering in typical fashion, with
Speaker 2: Lucy being nice the Gold being mean. After a while,
Speaker 2: as they're passing by this ruined hospital, Lucy hears someone
Speaker 2: crying out for help, help me, and the goals fucking
Speaker 2: ignore that, ignore that, that empathy ambthies like quicksand it'll
Speaker 2: drag down.
Speaker 4: The on one like that in every episode. Hey hey baby,
Speaker 4: don't be able to do that.
Speaker 2: Don't do And Lucy's like, well, I'm gonna help because
Speaker 2: I can't listen to someone screen for help all the time,
Speaker 2: and goals like, you're fucking stupid. Lucy goes in there,
Speaker 2: and you know it's there, into the ruins of the hospital.
Speaker 2: There's an injured woman. There, there's a man who's even
Speaker 2: in worse shape than she is. They got attacked by
Speaker 2: something unclear what. The ghoul immediately kills the other guy,
Speaker 2: and he's like delicious, starts trying to the flesh is
Speaker 2: like gross like for some reason, the flesh is gross.
Speaker 2: The Gul spits out the flesh and then turns the
Speaker 2: guy over and it turns out that he had been
Speaker 2: stabbed by something infectious or poisonous, toxic or gross or
Speaker 2: whatever it is. They the things that attacked him, and
Speaker 2: the woman now bursts out of the pipes and from
Speaker 2: dark corners of the room and it's baby rad scorpions
Speaker 2: and Lucy in the Ghul begin fighting them, but then
Speaker 2: a big Mama rad scorpion shows up and it stabs the.
Speaker 1: Ghoul after she tries. After he tries to use.
Speaker 2: The woman as a human shield, who she also gets
Speaker 2: stabbed by the rad scorpion singer, and so things are
Speaker 2: looking really bad, but the Goul manages to blow up
Speaker 2: the Mama rad scorpion with some grenades. Unfortunately he is
Speaker 2: now poisoned and Lucy has to choose. Aha, who gets
Speaker 2: her last stem pack?
Speaker 4: Is it? What do you think she should do?
Speaker 2: Here's the thing, I agree with her, So she gives
Speaker 2: it to the woman, with the idea being that the
Speaker 2: gul can live like this like the goal can't really die.
Speaker 2: He's really really hard to kill. You know, you can
Speaker 2: bury him underground, he doesn't have to eat, and you
Speaker 2: can suffer grievous wounds, including a rad scorpion sting probably
Speaker 2: and live though in pain for a long long time.
Speaker 2: Where is this woman's gonna die? So I agree on
Speaker 2: that kind of like logical level. However, this is the Wasteland. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and if you want to give this woman the stem pack, fine,
Speaker 2: But then Lucy makes the really crazy decision of like
Speaker 2: walking her all the way why to wherever she lives
Speaker 2: with whatever weirdo she lives with, And that is where
Speaker 2: I'm like, now you got to listen to the goal,
Speaker 2: because that's stupid as fuck.
Speaker 4: Also, the goal has been keeping you alive.
Speaker 3: You like a team, don't don't don't just abandon that
Speaker 3: in wasteland like I love you know, she says. Also
Speaker 3: there's a great birth foreshadowing where she says, you know,
Speaker 3: helping someone out is never a waste of time, So
Speaker 3: you know that that means or like doing the right
Speaker 3: thing is never a waste of time. So you know
Speaker 3: that means that this is gonna waste a ton of
Speaker 3: her time, which I love and in.
Speaker 4: The butts for Bud's vault.
Speaker 3: All the folks are now thowed and they are freaking
Speaker 3: the fuck out. Why are we awake? Is it reclamation day?
Speaker 3: How long have we been asleep? And Norms like h
Speaker 3: and they're absolutely freaking out. So he comes with a
Speaker 3: plan and he's like, hey, so, uh, terrible news. Bud
Speaker 3: Askins is dead. And that's when we pull back and
Speaker 3: we see that his bud Askins is dead, upside down
Speaker 3: in a bucket, Jude brain in a jar.
Speaker 4: No more.
Speaker 3: Norms like so, basically, you guys are gonna have to
Speaker 3: help me find a way to escape this place. And
Speaker 3: they all start freaking out understandably, and we will tell
Speaker 3: you what else is going on in the vaults the
Speaker 3: bad landes when my back.
Speaker 2: And we're at at Vault Tech HQ deep down deep
Speaker 2: deep deep deep deep deep down in some vault under
Speaker 2: New Vegas. Hank is testing the ever smaller mind control
Speaker 2: mes matron chips on rats and all the rats heads
Speaker 2: are exploding all of the time.
Speaker 1: He's having no success.
Speaker 2: We go to the Brotherhood of Steel and apparently the
Speaker 2: thing that they discovered is the key to unlock this
Speaker 2: military facility and this military facility that is now being
Speaker 2: uncovered and is full of stuff they want is Area
Speaker 2: fifty one. The vaunted Area fifty one exists, and it's
Speaker 2: full of things that they want, including weapons, including fridges
Speaker 2: with alien bodies in it. They don't care about the
Speaker 2: alien bodies. They care about the working refrigerators. And it
Speaker 2: also appears that there's lots of like pre war human
Speaker 2: cultural things here. Chinese statues, art from Europe, et cetera,
Speaker 2: from many nations have been like raided and brought here.
Speaker 3: Max talks to a young recruit about like, how do
Speaker 3: you battle on self?
Speaker 4: You've got to do it, It's really important. He's such
Speaker 4: a serious guy.
Speaker 3: He goes to work on his armor and Dane comes
Speaker 3: to see him, and Dane's definitely a little bit jealous
Speaker 3: of Max's rise, and he's like, so, uh, how you
Speaker 3: feeling want to quit the brotherhood and just go after
Speaker 3: that girl Lucy?
Speaker 4: Don't you need to see her? How's she going?
Speaker 3: And and Max is like, yeah, she left, And Dane's like, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I think our boss is kind of rebelling
Speaker 3: against the common well health edom.
Speaker 4: Really no, he's here scavenging the base, and I feel
Speaker 4: like Dane.
Speaker 3: You could have bought up Lucy before that. Sirens go
Speaker 3: off and boom are the ships are arriving. Quintus is
Speaker 3: presiding over the meeting of the Brotherhood of Steel leaders.
Speaker 3: One of them is like, hey, where's the Commonwealth?
Speaker 4: Many where they not represented him?
Speaker 3: Like where's the ruling fucking class, And Quinces is like,
Speaker 3: guess what, guys, great news don't need him, No Commonwealth
Speaker 3: not needed cutting them out, civil war against the Commonwealth.
Speaker 4: I think we're gonna be fine.
Speaker 3: And if you basically unite under me, we can stand
Speaker 3: against the Commonwealth.
Speaker 4: Great plan. Definitely, no problems there.
Speaker 2: Lucy and the woman she had the stimpact too, are
Speaker 2: you know? Walking towards this woman's settlement with Lucy making
Speaker 2: her same kind of like innocent chit chat, and the
Speaker 2: woman is like, by the way, you should turn back
Speaker 2: before you were attacked and sexually assaulted by folks, And
Speaker 2: it seems like she's suggesting the people where she lives.
Speaker 1: Maybe yes.
Speaker 2: And they then come to a canyon with spooky people
Speaker 2: with torches standing on a hillside and the woman.
Speaker 1: Has fucking disappeared.
Speaker 2: We go to the Bud's vault where Norm is trying
Speaker 2: to control of this chaotic situation. He basically lies and
Speaker 2: says like, Hey, I am a supermanager, a product of Buds,
Speaker 2: Buds two hundred years of engineering and breeding, and you.
Speaker 4: Are my staff.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you got to do what I say.
Speaker 2: And in order to figure out which one of you
Speaker 2: has managerial material inside of you, I am putting a
Speaker 2: challenge in front of you. And that challenge is this,
Speaker 2: find a way out of here. How do we get
Speaker 2: out of here? Get it out here?
Speaker 3: He's like, He's like, hey man, this was the last
Speaker 3: thing Bud needed you guys to do.
Speaker 4: That's right. Do an escape from? Do an escape from?
Speaker 4: The universal will inevitably.
Speaker 3: Build soon that you can play in a tech HQ.
Speaker 3: Hank is still there over the plus cryotubes. He's a
Speaker 3: bad guy, thawing out some big heavy hiss. He's already
Speaker 3: in People for Free War. Yeah, they paid crazy money, guys.
Speaker 3: This is like the big budget, first class double bed
Speaker 3: in your cryo chamber experience. And when you come out,
Speaker 3: the vault is gonna be looking beautiful. You're gonna walk
Speaker 3: into reclamation day, You're gonna have a house built for you.
Speaker 4: But guess what, just like.
Speaker 3: Everyone who ever agreed to the terms and conditions on
Speaker 3: Disney Plus. There were terms and conditions that this man
Speaker 3: did not read. And he's like, guess what, bitch, put
Speaker 3: your hands inside this creepy machine, and I'm gonna do.
Speaker 4: A little experiment on you.
Speaker 3: And there's nothing you can do about it, even though
Speaker 3: you prayed for Amazon Prime, Elite Plus, Cryotube.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the IP experience. You didn't know that.
Speaker 3: Now I can do an experiment on you and make
Speaker 3: your head explode. Boom, it explodes.
Speaker 2: Lucy wanders up to that village at nighttime. There are
Speaker 2: people with torches surrounding her. They've got pigs heads on spikes.
Speaker 2: They're wearing bear heads as helmets. It's looking bad.
Speaker 4: Folks looking bad.
Speaker 2: And this is I think gonna be one of the
Speaker 2: raider factions. But yeah, one the Legion.
Speaker 1: Perhaps it's unclear, but one of the raider.
Speaker 2: Factions, one of the factions from the New Vegas game. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Norms Butts Crew have done it. They have found high
Speaker 2: up on the in the ceiling a ladder and they said, okay, boss,
Speaker 2: we found it. Make your way up there. And he
Speaker 2: begins climbing towards the surface.
Speaker 3: Which crazy good for your norm. This plan actually worked out.
Speaker 3: Maybe you're not as dumb as I thought you were.
Speaker 3: We then see that the bos factions are watching a
Speaker 3: boxing match between other soldiers and Maximus is kind of
Speaker 3: like she.
Speaker 4: Like, fuck, this is not looking good.
Speaker 3: It's kind of a very homoeroic can hear a lot
Speaker 3: of repression, a lot of people hitting way harder than
Speaker 3: they mean to.
Speaker 4: It's going badly.
Speaker 3: And then a huge skinhead soldier towering over Maximus comes
Speaker 3: up and he's like, so.
Speaker 4: You're the one who killed Lemo Delva. How'd that go?
Speaker 3: And he's like I could take you. Maximus is like,
Speaker 3: probably not. I'm gonna go and like read a comic
Speaker 3: book or something. And the guy's like, nope, don't get
Speaker 3: your armor, don't get your comic books.
Speaker 4: Come back here, no armor.
Speaker 3: War dog fighting is what I think. He calls it
Speaker 3: a bare back outrageous. The guy calls it, okay, it's Jay,
Speaker 3: it's getting gay. He unsheaths his large blade and you
Speaker 3: start to wonder, wait a minute, as this elder quintas
Speaker 3: kind of really the.
Speaker 1: Most power, right, Yeah, That's how I felt about it.
Speaker 2: Because we see in this episode that the Rank and
Speaker 2: File Brotherhood of Steel really look up to Maximus. They're
Speaker 2: cheering him. They're like everything he does, they're like wow.
Speaker 2: And what he tells uh two like Brotherhood of Steel
Speaker 2: soldiers who were horsing around grenades to like cut it out,
Speaker 2: They're like, oh, sorry, sir. They immediately cut it out.
Speaker 2: So he's got the respect of the soldiers. And the
Speaker 2: sense I got was that Elder Quintus had set this
Speaker 2: up to get a rival out of the way.
Speaker 3: That's the way I feel about that. I definitely felt
Speaker 3: like that ought to like challenge him. It was very
Speaker 3: ym coded, you know, very but uh, Max, as you
Speaker 3: know is is his way, just kind of absolutely loses it,
Speaker 3: gets the jump on this guy, starts fucking beating the
Speaker 3: shout of him, opens up his stomach, kills him. Thaddeus
Speaker 3: is like, oh this is so gross. Bro. I thought
Speaker 3: we were like boyfriends and our little heart living a
Speaker 3: peaceful life together.
Speaker 4: Like what the fuck? And incredible moment.
Speaker 3: Maybe one of my favorite character introductions of this TV year.
Speaker 3: As Max is looking beaten and bloody over the dead
Speaker 3: body of this character, a huge helicopter appears and just
Speaker 3: completely starts fucking shit up Like John Hammond in Jurassic Park.
Speaker 3: People are running away, dust is going everywhere. It's terrible,
Speaker 3: and outsteps none other than Paladin Harkness of the Commonwealth
Speaker 3: played by Kamail Nanjoli and guess what, guys, he knows
Speaker 3: about the Civil War and he wants to know why
Speaker 3: wasn't he in his fancy little suit with his expensive
Speaker 3: as helicopter invited.
Speaker 2: Let's seek a quick break and discuss this episode and
Speaker 2: we're back. Okay, who again, these are very dense episodes.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, I think I understand after watching
Speaker 3: both of them why they didn't release them in a chunk,
Speaker 3: because I think it could have felt yeah much, It
Speaker 3: could have felt too much like that whole like, it's
Speaker 3: not a TV show, it's a movie, which is not
Speaker 3: what this is. This is a TV show, it's not
Speaker 3: a six hour movie, even though it has the budget
Speaker 3: of you know, five movies. I'm sure, but I think
Speaker 3: I understand because there's a lot of law in this episode.
Speaker 3: It's a lot of Maximus, it's a lot of kind
Speaker 3: of the differences in the Volt and norm trying to
Speaker 3: work out what's going on.
Speaker 4: You do not necessarily get.
Speaker 3: All the big action that you would want in this
Speaker 3: episode from Lucy and the Gordo, I will say that
Speaker 3: fucking episode where they're working through the hospital and that moment,
Speaker 3: that sequence is so scary. It was giving Last of
Speaker 3: Us vibes. I thought like they really ramped up the
Speaker 3: kind of horror stealth aspects there. But yeah, I thought
Speaker 3: it was a really good episode. I loved the Kamel
Speaker 3: It was just kind of out there enough. It was
Speaker 3: giving me foundation, you know where, like something feels real.
Speaker 3: I know this is not exactly a serious show. There's
Speaker 3: lots of comedy. I love the looney Tunes nature of
Speaker 3: the action, like Lucy's inherent kindness with her killer instinct
Speaker 3: is obviously going to lead to humor, but the show
Speaker 3: is very serious. And in that moment with Maximus like
Speaker 3: killing this guy, there was this severity, this darkness, and
Speaker 3: the Paladin partner's character just kind of emerged as if
Speaker 3: he was, you know, the random DJ influencer in Foundation
Speaker 3: who you could never have imagined would fit in but
Speaker 3: became such an important part of the show.
Speaker 4: So I loved that arrival.
Speaker 3: I'm really excited to see what he brings because this
Speaker 3: is a character who's only previously been in like the
Speaker 3: Fallout Shelter in universe game like free to Play on
Speaker 3: the phone like, and he is from the East Coast,
Speaker 3: basically kind of section of the Brotherhood of Steel. So
Speaker 3: I love the idea that he's kind of running like
Speaker 3: a West Coast Avengers style situation, or he's the real
Speaker 3: one and Quintus is running the West Coast Avengers coalition.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I'm I'm very excited to see because also
Speaker 3: seems to me like Camo's going to be having a
Speaker 3: lot of fun with this, and I am very interested
Speaker 3: to kind of see where this character goes, what it means,
Speaker 3: and what it changes about the Brotherhood of Steel, because
Speaker 3: we have only really seen this very devout, like you know,
Speaker 3: religious inspired version, but I kind of am interested to
Speaker 3: see his like fun stylely uniform version. You know, probably
Speaker 3: also means he's evil because he's stressed.
Speaker 4: Well, so I'm very excited.
Speaker 1: So here's what's interesting. I think that.
Speaker 2: First of all, we get a window into the kind
Speaker 2: of different ways that different Brotherhood of Steel groups have
Speaker 2: like splintered into their own like little warring factions. I
Speaker 2: think what's interesting is like the Commonwealth which appeared, which
Speaker 2: I perceive at least because of have played the games,
Speaker 2: and the way that they are treating Palette and Harkness
Speaker 2: is that they are like the more legitimate, the more
Speaker 2: centralized and authoritative Brotherhood of Steel group that is supposed
Speaker 2: to be kind of overseeing these other gaps. It certainly
Speaker 2: seems that that's what's you know, with Elder Quintesses, kind
Speaker 2: of attempting to pull a fast one and not inviting
Speaker 2: them like he was, you know, trying to cut them
Speaker 2: out so that these Brotherhood of Faction Brotherhood of Steel
Speaker 2: factions could arm themselves and get strong enough to take
Speaker 2: on the Commonwealth faction, who it certainly appears that none
Speaker 2: of them are strong enough on their own and potentially
Speaker 2: even united without this new weaponry, or strong enough to
Speaker 2: take on So that's very interesting.
Speaker 1: My sense is that.
Speaker 2: There's no way Harkness came here alone because at this point.
Speaker 1: If he did, you have to kill him. So my
Speaker 1: sense is that.
Speaker 2: Right outside are going to be several Brotherhood of Steel motherships.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say that are gonna wipe out, either
Speaker 2: wipe out or otherwise punish this group that is trying
Speaker 2: to break away from them.
Speaker 1: That is my feeling.
Speaker 2: Like you might see Maximus immediately level up into like
Speaker 2: a leader, because I think Quintus Will is potentially not
Speaker 2: long for this show after this, Yeah.
Speaker 4: I could definitely see that.
Speaker 3: I also would be really interested to see if the
Speaker 3: fact that they have the helicopter and everything is like,
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I'm interested to see if they.
Speaker 3: If he has a different vision of how to combine
Speaker 3: modern technology and old world technology together, and that kind
Speaker 3: of makes him an outlier because he doesn't seem as
Speaker 3: archaic as the other Brotherhood of Steel members. I'm also
Speaker 3: wondering if he was sent there as kind of an intermediary,
Speaker 3: or if he himself has been planning something like this
Speaker 3: so we'll present himself as an ally. I'm also really
Speaker 3: interested because this kind of ties into the whole influences
Speaker 3: of New Vegas and why the game kind of came
Speaker 3: to be. Was this mixture of like the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 3: which they love to use in Fallout, and also the
Speaker 3: like history of Vegas organized crime and the notions of
Speaker 3: like resources in the desert, and that's why the Hoover
Speaker 3: Dam is such an important part of the world building.
Speaker 4: In the game.
Speaker 3: I wonder if meeting these different factions is also going
Speaker 3: to be part of that, Like, is the reason that
Speaker 3: he looks so good, he's got the world, he's got
Speaker 3: the suit?
Speaker 4: Well, is it because he's already a criminal?
Speaker 2: Let me So there's another level of this. So I
Speaker 2: think there's been some talk about whether Palette and Harkness
Speaker 2: is Palatine Harkness for the game or is this and
Speaker 2: in for a more notable character from Fallout four Paladin
Speaker 2: Dance Now, Paladin Dance of the Commonwealth is spoiler for
Speaker 2: those of you who have not yet played Fallout four,
Speaker 2: and I guess potential spoiler for the show though this
Speaker 2: is now we're just getting into theory world, so.
Speaker 4: You don't want to have the theory.
Speaker 2: Paladin Dance is a synth. So the synthetics and I'm
Speaker 2: not going to go to this is just like a
Speaker 2: thirty thousand foot view. Since are synthetic are robot humans
Speaker 2: that you know, we're used to replace people in the
Speaker 2: Wasteland of the Commonwealth, and this has caused a lot
Speaker 2: of stir out in the Wasteland with a lot of
Speaker 2: rumors and different settlements that people were being kidnapped and
Speaker 2: replaced by people that look just like them but didn't
Speaker 2: act like them. And then so these synths are created
Speaker 2: by the Institute, which is a faction centered around the
Speaker 2: the former Ruins of Mit that's highly engaged in science.
Speaker 2: And the Institute had been having a problem where some
Speaker 2: of their synths had been because the Sins have free will,
Speaker 2: some of their since had been like I don't want
Speaker 2: to do this and had escaped and had been and
Speaker 2: their escape had been aided by a group of humans
Speaker 2: called the Railroad that was helping them go to freedom.
Speaker 2: And in the game, Paladin Harkness, who is I believe
Speaker 2: a woman in the game, is what is called a courser,
Speaker 2: and a courser is basically a synth cop that has
Speaker 2: been created that is, you know, very sophisticated, very adept
Speaker 2: at infiltration, and basically has been created to hunt down
Speaker 2: escaped since and bring them back to the Institute. So
Speaker 2: I do wonder if Paladin Harkness is not a synth
Speaker 2: or possibly a courser, or in any case, not a
Speaker 2: human being. And if we are just beginning now to
Speaker 2: be introduced to characters who are gonna learn are actually
Speaker 2: not people. So my and so you know, we talked
Speaker 2: about the fact in episode one that House doesn't look
Speaker 2: like himself on the TV, And so I wonder if
Speaker 2: what's happening is we're starting to get the threads of
Speaker 2: the Institute conspiracy, the Institute's role in this overall corporate conspiracy,
Speaker 2: and if we are starting to meet characters who are
Speaker 2: not who are actually synthetic robot human beings and not
Speaker 2: flesh and blood human beings.
Speaker 1: And I love.
Speaker 2: More to that point, are we going to actually see
Speaker 2: Harkness like solo a bunch of brother tote of steel
Speaker 2: people because he's not a person, he's aye body.
Speaker 3: Did wonder if the as soon as you've said that,
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, episode three, cold open, it's just
Speaker 3: him like soloing everyone. Also, this makes a lot of
Speaker 3: sense because something I really love about Fallout and especially
Speaker 3: like Robert House and the New Vegas stuff, is it
Speaker 3: is inherently tied into kind of the myth of like
Speaker 3: Walt Disney and the idea of this like soul Innovator,
Speaker 3: you know, something that is created as a mythology around
Speaker 3: a singular person rather than like a reality of collaboration,
Speaker 3: same that Disney did with stan Lee. You know, with
Speaker 3: someone like Walt Disney, it was people like up Eyeworks
Speaker 3: who were cut out of that legacy, you know. So
Speaker 3: what I love is how all of those threads are
Speaker 3: coming together here because obviously you have the notion that
Speaker 3: Walt Disney was the reason he was creating these animatronics
Speaker 3: was so he could put his own brain in one
Speaker 3: and replace himself. And we see, you know, Bud has
Speaker 3: the brain in the bucket. They're having so much fun
Speaker 3: with our cultural understanding of these different ideas of masculinity
Speaker 3: and male leadership. And I think with Robert House, they're
Speaker 3: onto something that is so vagacy and so intriguing, and
Speaker 3: I love the idea that he has been able to
Speaker 3: make these different people. And you know what the interesting
Speaker 3: thing is, if you think about the technology of the
Speaker 3: mesmetron and the way that we see House using it,
Speaker 3: the first version of that can just be taking over
Speaker 3: somebody else's body and controlling it. That is what happens
Speaker 3: when you are alive. And then the question is what
Speaker 3: do you do when you die to continue that immortality.
Speaker 3: And obviously the idea of living forever and cryo is
Speaker 3: a huge part of Fallout, and this notion of being
Speaker 3: alive for the future while being able to remember this
Speaker 3: idealized version of the past. Is this really interesting exploration
Speaker 3: of human want. And I just think that this season,
Speaker 3: and now that you've kind of put that into my
Speaker 3: mind about Harkness, I just think there's so much interesting
Speaker 3: stuff that suits the Vaga setting too, because think about like,
Speaker 3: that's the first place that they had like holographic performers,
Speaker 3: and it's also where people would stay for years, and
Speaker 3: it's where you know, when you watch something like Blade
Speaker 3: Around of twenty forty nine, they have holographic Elvis, or
Speaker 3: you watch an old movie they have an animatronic version
Speaker 3: of Frank Sinatra. I think there's so many interesting ways
Speaker 3: that this can tie in to the Vegas setting, which
Speaker 3: I think is why New Vegas is so beloved, is
Speaker 3: because they didn't just set it there because they thought
Speaker 3: it would look cool. They tied it in to the
Speaker 3: history and cultural conflicts that have shaped it. And I guess, Jason,
Speaker 3: do you think we're going to see any kind of
Speaker 3: similar water conflict or Hoover Dam showdown in this iteration
Speaker 3: because we know that they're going to branch out and
Speaker 3: this is more of a setting. But I could imagine
Speaker 3: an incredible like gang war showdown on the dam or something.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 2: I think we're going to get that towards the end
Speaker 2: of this season. And I think the end of this
Speaker 2: season is going to keep drawing us east. I think
Speaker 2: we've you know, we've done the West Coast and the
Speaker 2: ruins around the California Republic. We were in New Vegas
Speaker 2: kind of world right now, and I think we simply
Speaker 2: must move east towards the Commonwealth and see what stories are.
Speaker 1: There for us.
Speaker 2: And I think I'm theorizing that it will have a
Speaker 2: lot to do with the Institute and the possibility that
Speaker 2: the Institute has replaced some of the people that are
Speaker 2: involved in the conspiracy currently, like what if some of
Speaker 2: you know, I think we're gonna find out some maybe
Speaker 2: some vaut people are since tofine find out that the
Speaker 2: Robert House that exists in this world is a synthetic,
Speaker 2: and so I think that that's where we're.
Speaker 3: Going, Okay, Jason, Another thing I wanted to speak to
Speaker 3: about that I thought was really interesting about this episode,
Speaker 3: and I would love to know your thoughts on this
Speaker 3: because we talked a lot about, like, you know, the
Speaker 3: way that Asian American people and Asian people in general
Speaker 3: are represented in media something the show here. I think
Speaker 3: that is doing is really interesting And obviously this is
Speaker 3: like tenemount part of the game too, but like, how
Speaker 3: does it feel to see the way that they are
Speaker 3: upending these kind of notions of like the Chinese American
Speaker 3: nuclear war and China is this anti American thing? And
Speaker 3: how kind of more exploring it as oh America used
Speaker 3: that as a sy up in these corporations used as
Speaker 3: a sioup to fuck with people. How does that feelization, Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think it's quite interesting, and I think it makes
Speaker 2: it it's an important I think it's a very interesting
Speaker 2: decision in the context of a game that is set
Speaker 2: in this retro future Cold war setting, this idea that
Speaker 2: corporations so concerned by growing progressivism, socialism, and possibly communism
Speaker 2: that they must take control of, you know, the world
Speaker 2: governments and the United States of America by any means
Speaker 2: necessary in order to preserve some form of capitalism and
Speaker 2: bureaucratic corporate control structures. And I mean it's also very
Speaker 2: interesting that like, despite all that, the Vault system is
Speaker 2: like quasi socialist in the way like everybody has a
Speaker 2: job and like has given a job and has a
Speaker 2: role within the structure and is also has to like
Speaker 2: apply for a license to like marry a certain person
Speaker 2: because of like the very pressing genetic.
Speaker 1: Issues down there.
Speaker 2: It's all I think, it's all very interesting, and certainly
Speaker 2: to learn as in the game that.
Speaker 1: The that the war was a psyop is pretty fascinating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm excited to see them explode that more.
Speaker 4: And I love the kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: You were pointing out that just about like the realities
Speaker 3: of this really being about control, And I kind of
Speaker 3: love the show that is this wacky way You're getting
Speaker 3: giant scorpions poisoning people and a cool Western guy who's
Speaker 3: like a Freddy Krueger anti hero, and a cutesy kind
Speaker 3: of English actor who's like super bubbly and all.
Speaker 4: These genre trappings.
Speaker 3: There is something very interesting at the center of these stories,
Speaker 3: and I kind of love, just like it was with
Speaker 3: Starship Troopers, you know, with these kind of big, bombastic
Speaker 3: storytelling adventures that happen within these more obviously like militarized
Speaker 3: or first person shooter or action spaces, you can get
Speaker 3: away with a lot of subversive conversation and communication within them,
Speaker 3: and I love that the show is continuing that and
Speaker 3: understanding that, like, yeah, is somebody going to be educated
Speaker 3: about like the entire history of capitalism by the show
Speaker 3: on Amazon Prime. No, but could it start somebody thinking
Speaker 3: about the different ways that these systems work and maybe
Speaker 3: why they aren't always so great? Yes, And I think
Speaker 3: that is really cool. And I still do think this
Speaker 3: show succeeds in that.
Speaker 1: I will say, I do.
Speaker 2: Think it's one of the most ingenious details of capitalism.
Speaker 2: Absolutely in a sense, it's a regime, right, but the
Speaker 2: philosophy allows for space for criticism and for messages and
Speaker 2: content that directly criticize and even call for the overthrow
Speaker 2: of the system, as long as that message finds its
Speaker 2: monetary value within the system itself.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: Yes, So basically it's saying, okay, creating this kind of
Speaker 2: like appy anti capitalist, anti corporate story is very interesting.
Speaker 2: But it's only interesting if it's not interesting for the content.
Speaker 1: Of its message.
Speaker 2: It's interesting for the monetary value of its message to
Speaker 2: the consumers who find it interesting. And therefore that is
Speaker 2: why it has a place in the overall structure of capitalism.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's kind of why capitalism is so formidable,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Truly, And you actually a blowing my mind because when
Speaker 3: you think about it. Isn't that like the constant critique
Speaker 3: where people will be like, how can people watch Star
Speaker 3: Wars and not realize they're the bad guys? It's like,
Speaker 3: because the entire system is made so that if you
Speaker 3: don't want to think about it, you don't don't have
Speaker 3: to think about it, and if you do want to
Speaker 3: get that reading from it, you can. And you're right,
Speaker 3: that's such an interesting kind of wrinkle of capitalism or actually,
Speaker 3: like you know, perfectly ironed out plan of capitalism is like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you can critique it, you can say it's bad, but
Speaker 3: you know what, you still need to feed your family.
Speaker 3: So if you're going to put that show on about
Speaker 3: how it's bad, you better put it on the and
Speaker 3: by the corporation that you're critiquing, you know it's And
Speaker 3: that's before we even get into the idea of like,
Speaker 3: you know, video games and the company that made this
Speaker 3: and the issues that all video games companies have had.
Speaker 3: It's it's intentionally very complicated, and I think actually, as
Speaker 3: we move forward, this is going to become more of
Speaker 3: a thing because this was one of my base issues
Speaker 3: with The Running Man. I feel like this is going
Speaker 3: to become as our world of dystopian fiction collides with
Speaker 3: our real world and our kind of understanding of what
Speaker 3: has been going on for a long time in America
Speaker 3: and other countries. Is like, these shows stop being as
Speaker 3: easy to just go like, oh yeah, I'm on the ride, man,
Speaker 3: I ride for these people. You start going, Okay, well,
Speaker 3: who's making them and what's the intention? And where do
Speaker 3: they go? And how do I watch them? And it's
Speaker 3: deeply intriguing time to be somebody who cares about and
Speaker 3: likes this stuff.
Speaker 2: Well, we're going to continue covering Fallout, among other things.
Speaker 1: On the next episode of Extra Vision. We're celebrating the.
Speaker 2: Holidays with our list of best Santas in film.
Speaker 1: You wost it for this episode.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, Bye x ray Vision is hosted by
Speaker 2: Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight and as a production of
Speaker 2: iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 3: Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 1: Our supervising producer is Abusafar.
Speaker 3: Our producers are Common Dean Jonathan and Bay Wack.
Speaker 2: A theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
Speaker 2: songs by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 3: Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord Kenny Goodman and
Speaker 3: Heidi our discord moderator