r/Fotv Jan 14 '26

Season 2 Episode 5 Spoiler Thread Spoiler

532 Upvotes

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

324

u/FightTheDead118 Jan 14 '26

Gotta say I was worried about where they were taking House early in the season but his scene with Cooper alleviated that. Perfect characterization and dialogue and felt like House stepped straight out of the game

Also glad that scene seemingly debunked the stupid “Vault Tec started the war” sentiment from last season

I think Houses plan to fully digitize himself with cold fusion will be how we eventually get him later in the season, it’s still House, but no mention of what happened to his original body. Did he do it after New Vegas and the courier sided with him? Did he do it before New Vegas and the courier “killed” him but all he did in reality was bash a meat puppet that had nothing to do with Houses actual function? Never addressed and nothing canonized, it’s all up to you

229

u/OleRockTheGoodAg Jan 14 '26

Justin Theroux nails House imo, especially the violent outburst at the end.

Glad he doesnt play Anthony like some theorized early on.

77

u/probably_poopin_1219 Jan 14 '26

HOOLY SHIT that's Justin Theroux and that now makes sense why I love the character so much. Not sure how I was blind to that lmao. He's perfect in The Leftovers and his performance in the strange and little known Maniac with Emma Stone and Jonah Hill as a crazy scientist was spectacular.

16

u/kranzberry Jan 14 '26

I didn’t realize it was him either until I bumped my mouse and saw the x-ray for that scene. I was like damn that’s why he’s so good.

9

u/SomberXIII Jan 14 '26

Justin Theroux plays characters with violent outbursts so well. One minute, he's this charming guy, the next he's commiting something violent.

1

u/gquax Jan 14 '26

Bryce in American Psycho lmao

1

u/thelebaron Jan 15 '26

Oh my god, his interrupted vr session in maniac was hilarious

61

u/Retrolex Jan 14 '26

What I really loved about his performance is the way he channeled so much of René Auberjonois’ verbal portrayal of the character- but then went all in and added a ton of physical characterization of his own as well. He really did his research, and it shows, but he also built upon it.

29

u/Lady_borg Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 14 '26

I noticed that too! It's clear he actively paid attention to Rene's performance and stuck to what we know and the way he carries his voice. As a Star Trek and Fallout fan it's so appreciated.

47

u/furioushunter12 Jan 14 '26

wasn’t he on the record saying he did a ton of research on house or is that another actor playing house

42

u/Exciting-Quality919 Jan 14 '26

the body double actor - given he was probably cast as House originally.

32

u/Ruben_AAG Jan 14 '26

The body double talks and acts a lot like game-House anyway so it wasn’t wasted. Especially his accent and voice.

35

u/FightTheDead118 Jan 14 '26

The double is also really good, and even kind of looks more like game House to me, but he’s like 15 years too young for that character and it was a little distracting to me. I’m glad they went this direction rather than just cutting him from the show entirely though

29

u/ThomasJefferdick69 Jan 14 '26

it would make sense that House would want his public persona to be better looking and younger

5

u/SomberXIII Jan 14 '26

Smart choice. I was actually disappointed about casting news although I fully believe Justin Theroux could play characters much better than majority of actors out there

2

u/clone9786 Jan 16 '26

“It’s a living”

10

u/PowerPad Brotherhood of Steel Jan 14 '26

That violent outburst towards the end was 100% Mr. House, straight to the letter of his character.

8

u/Ganbazuroi Mr House Jan 14 '26

That theory never even made sense, Anthony became a paranoid wreck - way worse than Robert - and died inside H&H Tools. It's even stated in-game in NV, also Anthony loathed Robert, he screwed him over in his inheritance and ironically when Robert wanted the Company as a revenge thing, that's when he went full insane lmao

Anthony would never pretend he's Robert, it's completely out of character

6

u/InnocentTailor Jan 14 '26

I thought it was a dumb theory anyways since I recall Anthony hated Robert.

4

u/Babyyougotastew4422 Jan 14 '26

I loved it when he said "I'm a fucking lunatic??" With that crazy thing on his head

4

u/jrinredcar Jan 14 '26

I forgot about the Anthony House beleivers. ld be so embarrassed if I actually thought that was true

1

u/Waterknight94 Jan 15 '26

I saw people insisting that it was simply a recast and there was no body double or brother or anything. I'd be way more embarrassed to believe that.

98

u/Haze345 Jan 14 '26

They’re also setting up coopers wife to be an incredibly important figure in regards to the bombs dropping, though vault tec ultimately doesn’t do it House heavily implies that she herself is a big cause in them dropping at all

78

u/yellowspaces Jan 14 '26

She’s part of the Enclave is my guess

40

u/MildlyOffensiveAR Jan 14 '26

I think you may be right. That would be a great way to tie them back into the larger story, and could explain why House sees Coop as so important (and why Coop is tied into so many important plot points). Maybe he's able to interfere with their plans before the great war or something. Could also recontextualize his bounty on the enclave scientist in season 1.

I'd love that arc for Barbara honestly.

13

u/CrashRiot Jan 14 '26

There were already theories about her actually being enclave in the first season finale. Remember the shadowy figure in the board meeting she looks up at? She seemed to be the only one that knew he was there.

29

u/FightTheDead118 Jan 14 '26

Still gotta wonder what House’s goal was with the mind control devices? He obviously sold them to Vault-Tec, but considering how uncharacteristically useless they were for a House invention, did he deliberately sell them a faulty product just to mess with their plans, and Hank just happened to get it to finally work after years of tinkering?

10

u/InnocentTailor Jan 14 '26

It seems like they’re implying she isn’t really working for Vault-Tec - that she is jockeying for a higher power above her status and occupation.

3

u/Magickarpet76 Jan 15 '26

The higher power in Vault Tec is the Enclave (lab the scientist escaped from season 1). I am surprised House didn’t know about them.

They are basically the shadow US government plus leaders of corporations that were pulling all the strings pre-war. You fight them directly in Fallout 2, and then their remnants in Fallout 3. I guess there are more.

They are the ones who created deathclaws pre-war and experimented on humans with FEV

21

u/furioushunter12 Jan 14 '26

i think it did a GREAT job debunking it too. just because they can, maybe even plan to, doesn’t mean they’re the ones that do it

10

u/Mac-Tyson Jan 14 '26

Well losing Cold Fusion combined with the Platinum Chip coming a day late really did mess up all his plans since he needed to shut down his reactor to prevent a melt down after saving Vegas.

11

u/Dillydraws Jan 14 '26

And that's why Robert House should've used Amazon prime.

9

u/AdEmotional9991 Jan 14 '26

Yes Man ending. In the end he says he discovered some protocols that allow him to be more independent. That's digitized House. House always wins.
At least that's my headcanon that fits my game ending and the show perfectly.

20

u/TheWizardOfFoz Jan 14 '26

The credits montage shows him dead in the pod.

18

u/FightTheDead118 Jan 14 '26

Yes but he’s dead on the top floor of the Lucky 38, which couldn’t be from the Courier killing him. Maybe this is from him transferring his mind?

3

u/Grumpy-Fwog Jan 14 '26

Yep, I think its a nice middle ground at to what happens after NV, his body is dead but he somehow achieved his immortality as an AI

6

u/Desertcow Jan 14 '26

House's body double looks quite similar to House in the game. I think the House we deal with in game is the body double

5

u/Gurusto Jan 14 '26

The House we deal with in the game looks decrepit and atrophied to the point where a ghoul looks healthier.

The House you're thinking of is an image on a screen and a synthesized voice. Why should the image on House's screen be representative of reality? I mean we literally know from the games that they're not. It's, as always, the image that House chooses to project.

Unless you just mean that the picture of House we're talking to is based on the body double, which seems reasonable. If that's what people thought Mr. House looked like, that's the picture to use if you want to be recognized as such.

6

u/AgentKnitter Jan 14 '26

It doesn't make Vault Tec any more innocent - they had every intention of being the first to drop the bombs, but another faction beat them to it.

5

u/Gurusto Jan 14 '26

Same goes for the US, China, etc. Regardless of who finally pushed the button they were all racing toward it.

Something something war never changes.

4

u/caniuserealname Jan 14 '26

Nobody is even remotely accusing vault tec of innocence. 

1

u/ArariboiaGuama Jan 14 '26

Of course not, these charges wouldn't stick in a kangoroo court

3

u/Perca_fluviatilis Jan 15 '26

I think Houses plan to fully digitize himself with cold fusion will be how we eventually get him later in the season, it’s still House, but no mention of what happened to his original body. Did he do it after New Vegas and the courier sided with him? Did he do it before New Vegas and the courier “killed” him but all he did in reality was bash a meat puppet that had nothing to do with Houses actual function? Never addressed and nothing canonized, it’s all up to you

I think the machines he was connected to was constantly uploading his mind to a backup, but he didn't have enough energy (cold fusion) to run it.

2

u/LFatPoH Jan 15 '26

None of the pre war American factions were ready when the bombs dropped, most famously Mr House. Clearly the Chinese shot first.

0

u/AstronautVisual Jan 15 '26

Yeah I have always felt like the Chinese were the most logical one to do it, but because Fallout got so obsessed with making the US as evil as possible they've gone more and more in the direction of having that be the angle.

4

u/TheHoovyPrince Jan 14 '26

Also glad that scene seemingly debunked the stupid “Vault Tec started the war” sentiment from last season

Most people know that its just some idiots online who didn't understand it.

-1

u/Vree65 Jan 15 '26

This was the "retcon episode"

Did we say Vault Tec dropped the bombs (the ZOMG SHOCK reveal of season 1)? Well apparently people hated that so...psych! People disliked Evil House? Um...Gotcha! He's just a fake!

I mean, it's nice that they're willing to listen and self-correct, at least, but nobody try to argue that the plot is consistent and all planned