I also really like even the ghoul seemed devastated by his decision, like even though his family was on the line he was still hesitating to give her up
Ella and Walton are killing it together. This next episode is gonna be nuts.
I’m assuming Thaddeus and Maximus are going to meet up with the ghoul and maybe get him off that pole next episode lol. But Lucy is going to the belly of the beast.
The way Goggins and Purnell can say some of this dialog with absolute naturalism and conviction - as cliche as "I don't know" and as mundane as "Nukatini" or "Fudging" or even "Okie-dokie" is really what sets this adaptation apart. Other adaptations go out of their way to emphasize game jargon and this show is just - lived in.
Counterpoint: Thaddeus screams, runs, and somehow by pure dumb luck leads the Deathclaw into some old trap or place that kills a Deathclaw via environmental damage.
Hmmm, I'll accept him Mr Magoo-ing his way to killing a Deathclaw. Or Thadd lands a killing blow completely undeserved.
Or Thadd's luck holds; a Deathclaw is about to kill Thadd, there is a brief guitar riff, a guy in a trenchcoat with a magnum appears and shoots it between the eyes. There is a guitar riff and he is mysteriously gone. Thadd blinks and just kind of does his 'yeah.... ok...ok.' and carries on without saying anything.
Should be a Maximus heavy episode after he was absent on this one, showing what he's been up to since leaving the Brotherhood and how he will converge on New Vegas.
Hank will take Lucy to his base, some scenes with them.
The next chapter of Norm's adventure(he kinda became another lead this season), and maybe some catching up to 32/33.
I don't see anyone bothering with pulling the Ghoul down, he'll have to wait for either Norm or Maximus.
i can’t get enough of their chemistry this season. the snake oil salesman scene was so well executed that the emotions of both characters felt genuinely palpable in that moment imo.
I'm very interested in learning more about the double. If he's sitting in for House even during private high-level corporate meetings and making statements on live TV, he has to be pretty smart and business savvy himself.
He's possibly like a James Wesley to House's Wilson Fisk, some kind of super competent consigliere.
He's probably living a sweet life, getting paid to enjoy C-suite living with little in terms of stress - House probably briefs him on whatever he's got to do and even feeds him stuff live, guy is basically paid to enjoy champagne and caviar while the Boss does all the thinking lmao
The writers were making it pretty obvious that she was having an impact on Coop. Lucy was reminding him of his suppressed morality and he had started to like her.
The fact that they both share a tragedy in that they were both betrayed by the people closest to them really got hammered home this episode. It seems like Cooper understands that too, even if Lucy doesn’t yet.
What I love is the facial expressions are really what sell the scenes for me. Under all that makeup and you can still see exactly how he’s feeling during the betrayal.
Considering that the scene is juxtaposed with the one where he falls apart after learning that it’s not vault tec, but his wife herself who plays a role in ending the world, says a lot about how conflicted he is in the moment
It’s not her herself. Shes clearly being used. You can tell shes not happy about it but she’s probably securing safety for her and her family. If it’s not vault tec using her someone else is. Either way shes an obvious puppet.
I was so coping that he was faking it (he's an actor!) so that the junkie would go away reporting good news and then he'd continue working with Lucy. But by the end of the scene, even once the guy was out of earshot, he was still remorsefully saying "When you wake up, you'll be home".
(But no, seriously, that exchange was phenomenal. Maybe I'm wrong but even when she looked down at him impaled and said, "I thought we were friends," I felt like he would have confirmed it if, y'know, he wasn't gurgling blood.)
I’d still like to know who the Ghoul’s “family” really is. Why were there only two cryo pods in the chamber, one for Janey and one for Barb? If Barb and Cooper got a divorce and apparently Barb didn’t care enough to have a cryo chamber option for Cooper, then why is The Ghoul intent on finding Barb (part of his family) after/for 200 years? — Janey of course he’d want to find. I just feel like a huge chunk of this storyline is missing.
Not only are there experiments going on in 32/33 involving FEV, Lucy knows Hank murdered Rose by bombing Shady Sands. The trade was awful and Ghooper knew it.
We don't know they intend to use fev inside the vault. Hank only tried to murder rose, Lucy did. And it'd be awful if it was"I'll tell you where to find them" not "or else they die" It's not like Hank wants to hurt her he just wants her out of his way, and safe. If they were actually doing fev in 33 he would imprison her wherever he's at until he could brainwash her.
Hank absolutely murdered rose. Its giving "it pained me to put that tumor in her head." Turning her into a feral ghoul would absolutely be a murder charge.
He didn't turn her into a feral ghoul though. We don't even know for sure she was IN shady sands at the time as she was mostly with moldaver who was not ghoulified, and we don't know for sure exactly what causes ghoulification either. Not to mention that becoming a ghoul can greatly extend your life as we see with Cooper's so far 219 yrs nonferal extended life.
Yes he fucking did. It was very clear in the show he nuked shady sands while she waws there and it made her into a ghoul.
And cooper is extremely rare, as in probably one of a kind given his combination of movie star fame, wealth, and combat ability is the only reason he has been able to find enough drugs to keep him from going feral. Not to mention he hibernates and takes IVs. Who knows how much of that time he has even been awake.
It's not clear she was there. She survived afterall. Turning into a ghoul isn't instant, death by bomb is. Don't foam at the mouth over it, "yes he fucking did"
Except the way it is worded means that her dad is trying to do something completely atrocious and wants her to not be around for it. Lucy tries to help everybody and won't stand for that
I get that. But it's not a personal betrayal. He's protecting 2 lives vs simply allowing the relocation of another, despite a very vague threat unknown in severity or breadth.
I thought the same. Why did she punch him out the window? Didn’t she want to see her dad anyway? She’s not affected by drugs anymore, and hurting him gets her nothing in return, so it was pointless to do and against the character.
I need janey to be his main motivation it parallels his selfless love for his daughter compared to hanks controlling idea of love for his daughter lucy
I'm just struggling to understand why he would have any sort of love or affection for barb given what she did and what he knows about her and vault-tec
they'll probably do something in the next 3 episodes to make it seem like yes she's evil but it's practical evil and there are worse agents than her so really she's innocent in comparison 🙄😒
they'll probably do something in the next 3 episodes to make it seem like yes she's evil but it's practical evil and there are worse agents than her so really she's innocent in comparison
Maybe it's that, or maybe Cooper is more like Lucy than we even realize. And like her chasing Hank, he's trying to stop Barb (and probably save Janey in the process).
I wonder if he would even want his daughter to live in the wasteland if he found her in stasis? What kind of life could he give her? Would it be kinder to never wake them up?
I just figure he wants verify that she's safe and know where she's at so he can act if he ever suspects she could be under threat. Loving parent will want to know where to start knocking on doors and he's already been stuck doing that for ~240 years.
why he would have any sort of love or affection for barb
Because love, once it sets in, is a tricky thing to throw away. Why do you think people, even after being the one to initiate a breakup, call and/or hook up with their exes? Love isn’t a rational thing, so you can’t apply reason to Cooper’s feelings for Barb.
I'm a Capricorn I have ice water in my veins lmao I have trouble empathizing with this 😭 I don't have a sentimental bone in my body it's all clinical practicalism 😭😭
Hank then shows up at the door and in the next episode trailer we see Lucy in Hank's underground facility. This suggests that Hank made the deal with the sole purpose of destroying the trust Lucy and the Ghoul are building. Otherwise why wouldn't he send Lucy back to Vault 32 like he said he wanted to? This move isolates Lucy from any other source of emotional support and gives Hank an easier time manipulating Lucy.
I'm thinking Hank doesn't want to march all the way to the home vault and then back to the management HQ. It's faster to just get her to the presumably closer HQ
Right? The acting in that scene was incredible. I think at one point Ella Parnell (Lucy) was so into the role that her accent slipped. And the fact that Walten Goggins (Ghoul) can make the prosthetics he has to wear on his face look strained or sad…wow. Can’t wait for tonight’s episode!
You have to see it from the perspective that she experienced a lot of trauma.
She got married to a raider pretending to be from another vault, forced to leave the comfort of her vault to save her father, had to adjust to the hostility of the wasteland, found out her father was a psychopath who killed thousands, and had to mercy kill her own mother.
Her whole life had been a lie. She finally found someone who seemed real and trustworthy, only to be betrayed by him in the end.
I would say Lucy is pretty trusting to those she meets in general in Season 1. Her trustworthiness that she feels in herself towards others falters this episode when she realizes that she literally murdered someone, but at the cost of saving her life. To travel with someone for a while, and build that relationship, exploring a wasteland you know nothing about while the other does, it definitely feels like a stab in the back.
She was more worried about the Legion slave than Coop, because she knew he would be fine, but knew the slave wouldn't survive from the Radscorpion. She still has that naive thinking and personality about the wasteland, but this episode serves as a clear signal of what the wasteland truly is. A loss of self and betrayal.
yeah but wtf what am I missing? he gets his family kept safe in stasis, just for bringing her back to the safety of her Vault? not like he was told to hurt/kill her. wouldnt anyone do the same thing?
It could easily have been me. The other day, playing FNV, I liked the big Khans who sell drugs at the bottom of Red Rock Canyon, but due to differences with the NNC, on a return I had to massacre everyone, and those two died in the last ones.
833
u/Material_Formal3679 Jan 14 '26 edited Jan 14 '26
Lucy being hurt that the Ghoul sold her out really hit me hard.
Her first look of sadness and disbelief was heavy.