everyone asks why he gave her a finger. hes a repurposed hospitality robot. A floating butler, handyman and concierge. His program may have been overwritten, but you can't kill the ghost in the machine, he is what he is. Giving her a new finger was the polite hospitable thing to do.

That was the first time Lucy had killed anyone . . . and it was with the classic 10mm pistol which is the starting weapon in many of the games.

Love that moment when movie-Cooper looks straight out of the screen at Ghoul-Coop and (effectively) says he's ugly and strong, but no longer has dignity. It's a great call back to the director in the earlier episode (3?) telling him that he wanted to show how even someone as good as Cooper's character could be turned into a killer. You have to believe that the Ghoul is watching that, and thinking that that's exactly what's happened to him, and that he's calling himself out on it.

"Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every time." May or may not be a Walton's Goggin's line, but it is absolutely a Fallout line.

Remember Titus signed his own death warrant by telling Maximus he would have Maximus killed once the mission was over. Very few people would save him under that threat.

Ghouls are functionally immortal or at least still kicking around after 200+ years and counting. Their brains degrade over time until they lose their identity and become feral. As far as I know the vials they take to stave this off are new to the TV Show. Ghouls are can pretty much walk through radiation and ingest irradiated food & drink with no ill effects, so there is every chance the ghoul is carrying dirty water which would make Lucy very poorly or possibly slightly dead. Because of the scourge of feral ghouls (the wasteland is crawling with them) a lot of non-ghoulified humans are prejudiced against ghouls. They treat them badly, drive them out of settlements and/or shoot them on sight.

It's always funny how we expect the robot to have human logic. It was programmed to treat people before the war and later partially reprogrammed to harvest their organs. It can do both without any problem. It can try to kill you one minute and ask how to make your day better the next. I think they naled it and added a pinch of classical Fallout black humor on top.

"Golden Rule, Mutherfuckrr." "Lucy McLean has Levelled Up."

There's no fudge here

The ghoul seeing his own TV show after the episode is genius. The line Feo fuerte y formal" ("He was ugly, strong, and had dignity) was followed by "I give you two on that count". Not hard to guess which two after Lucy showed him up in dignity. Walton Goggins is great, you can see that the irony really gets to the ghoul, he has become what he hated.

"Sometimes, a fella's gotta eat a fella" and "ass jerky don't make itself" are two of the greatest lines I ever heard in film!

Yes, the extreme radiation does turn people into Ghouls, though it's sort of unclear exactly how. Some people in the government obsessed with surviving nuclear war even turned themselves into ghouls with experimental radiation "therapy." Ghouls are technically living creatures that are healed by radiation, and they generally all go feral eventually, given enough time. The reason why none of them have noses is that any cartilage they have rots away first. In the games, their ears are gone too, but I suspect that would have been too much of a pain in the ass for the costume department. Really love how this show snuck in a 4th main character with Norm. Didn't think what was going on in the vault would be so interesting.

Moisés Arias was so good in this. I don’t think I’ve seen him in anything since Hannah Montana so I didn’t expect him to be such a standout- Norm playing Scooby Gang in the vault ended up being some of my fave parts in the whole show

A bit of trivia for you that I find fascinating: the song "Let's Go Sunning" was written for a 1954 documentary on nudism by Jack Shaindlin (who also wrote "I'm Tickled Pink," another song that appears in the show). It has been used in the Fallout series since Fallout 3 back in 2008, listened to millions of times by millions of players over the past 16 years. And we have no idea who sings it. The identity of the singer is completely lost, and even the people who were involved with the production of the song couldn't even offer up a guess, other than it was a young woman who was approached by the film's producer. It's a song that would have slipped into utter obscurity were it not included in the Fallout games, and instead has featured in AAA video games and now a major television series, and we don't know who sang it and likely never will.

11:01 nice reference with the censor using the "tales of a junktown jerky vendor" magazine there. Whoever does the editing knows fallout pretty well, I'd say.

The robot, voiced by Mat Berry from IT Crowd, What we do in the shadows etc, was a Med Bot first and had his programming added too for snip snip,. So his first programming is to heal still.

“Taking his teeth doesn’t bother me because I do that all the time” freaked me out until I realize you’re probably a dentist.

One thing I love about this show is the ability to juggle and have genuinely interesting plot going on in multiple areas with multiple characters. I NEVER expected Norm and Chet to end up as developed and as engaging as they are.

Keep asking your questions and keep on with the theories. Answers and more questions are coming. 😀

mr handy robots are usually pretty weird so even though it's going to harvest her organs it's programmed for medical work and is going to take care of her before doing so.

19:27 Back in Episode 1, Lucy's dad and Moldaver seemed to be following some formal protocal or ritual, Overseer MacLean stated it was a triennial (every three years) meeting. Depending on how much these Vaults stay in contact with each other (in the game they don't much do so), Hank might not have known as the slaughter took place two years ago.

The Ghoul didn’t take the med box bc in the games when looting boxes, you can’t take the box, just the meds themselves. ♥️

I loved you tried to cope with the things happening. "that is for mercy, that is money" but it suddenly stopped when he started to munch on the other guy

Ghoul: "best you try your luck behind that door" Lucy: "OK BET" I really love her character.

'False' teeth used to be made with 'real' teeth. It stands to reason that in a post-apocalyptic world, the same might be true.

Every single reaction video "Why did he give her a finger then?!". If there's one thing I have learned from the games it's that you just dont question the motives of the crazy robots.

Matt Berry as the robot. That got me extra excited for this series.

Aside from the bloody mess perk, the ghoul also has the cannibalism activated

I think the “oh I’m you, honey. Just give it some time” line Cooper says to Lucy doesn’t refer to becoming a ghoul, but instead to the fact that the longer she spends out in the Wasteland, the more she’s going to become like him personality-wise. That’s why her “golden rule, motherf*cker” line is so powerful - she’s showing him that she doesn’t need to be like him to survive.

The music written for the scene in the movie, where Cooper pulls the trigger, is a nod to the spaghetti westerns of the 60s and 70s where there was no 'good guy in the white hat', there was the antihero, the conflicted character whose family had probably been murdered or kidnapped and whose 'quest' was to bring the perpetrators to justice or, if need be, to meet their maker. The attention to detail, especially with the music, is nothing less than perfect.

Fun fact: The name of John McClane´s Daughter is Lucy :)

Getting to the meat of the story here (no pun intended). Roger is undergoing a process that happens to ghouls eventually, though we never know the exact reason for it. It's called going Feral. Ghouls come in two varieties, normal ones like Cooper who lose their skin (hence the lack of nose) and gain radiation immunity (it actually heals them) but otherwise retain their sense of identity. Then there's the Ferals, who have lost their minds and become zombie-like, becoming little more than creatures driven to consume. The risk of going feral is why ghouls are shunned by the human survivors of the wasteland. The medicine thing that this show gives us is unique, we've never seen that before but then again the games have been very vague about the whole ghoulification thing already, all we know is that radiation turns some humans into them and that sometimes they go feral while sometimes they stay sane. The process has never been clear. Cannibalism is a common skill you can unlock in the games, allowing you to take a bite out of any fresh corpse you come across for a bit of healing (at the risk of pissing off anyone that witnesses it). "The Great War" is the nuclear exchange that destroyed the world. The show doesn't really mention who we're fighting with but the games make loads of references to it. It was a war between the US and China. Tensions were still very high after China invaded Alaska and the US sent troops to liberate it (the power armor the Brotherhood uses was actually originally designed by the US Army for this conflict) and after they were booted out of Anchorage tensions remained extremely high between the two countries. While it isn't clear who fired the first shot, someone did and the US and China nuked the crap out of each other, resulting in the end of the world. The two adventures in this episode, Lucy in the Super Duper Mart and Norm exploring the ruins of Vault 32 are both major activities we do in the games. Lucy exploring a structure that survived the war and dealing with the insane people that have set up shop there while Norm is exploring a destroyed Vault and investigating the secrets of what happened there. We do both all the time, exploring ruins and finding other Vaults that have had bad things happen with us investigating them to unlock their secrets. Lucy has her first kill now, using the classic 10mm pistol which is the starting weapon we get in the games. Lucy is an official Wanderer now instead of being a simple Vault Dweller, she's discovering what it takes to survive in this world but is choosing to remain true to her own ideals.

"Eating people, that's not my vibe." @funnylilgalreacts out here taking a stand!

12:43 We all love to make fun of Chet. But let's face it, except for the "cousins stuff", we'd all probably be Chet in this Fallout world. 😁😁

One thing I really love about Lucy is that she's never seen a ghoul before, yet she immediately treats them just like any other person.

I'm under the impression the vaults are connected but are only supposed to contact each other once every 3 years. Lucy called the trade a triennial trade with vault 32. They are still supposed to be completely isolated apart from this - only in an emergency should they contact each other (Betty tells us she has contacted 31 to make sure they are safe) so the Overseer of vault 32 may not have had time to advise of the uprising in his vault.

The finger was attached for marketing purposes “organs from one mint female”

It’s probably already been said, but Coops conversation with Roger about food, it’s like he gave him a nice memory and last meal to think about before taking him out awrcy killing, before he went feral, losing his humanity as helped through the drugs.

I love Lucy, man. It is honestly amazing how they managed to make her both work incredibly well as a character in a show, while also checking all the boxes that would make her perfect as an actual Fallout game protagonist. She goes through all the same rites of passage that you typically gotta do in the games and every dilemma she faces, every choice she must make, is exactly the kind of stuff that the player has to go through in the games as well. I watched this whole show with my partner, who is an even bigger FO fan than myself, and both of us were just howling with delight at every episode over just how fucking hard they nailed EVERYTHING in this show. There's not a single thing out of place and yet it works SO WELL as a TV show. an absolute masterclass in how to adapt a video game.

1:55 I will not stand by this Ma June slander!! Ma June (and Barb) was/were amazing and hilarious!! 😂😂

In the games the ghouls have some of the most interesting characters with the most emotional story lines. I got sort of teary playing through one of the ghouls plots in the game and that only had to do with a kids toy. 😥

"I want more of The Ghoul" (gets more of The Ghoul) **shocked and disgusted face** 🤣🤣🤣

The easter egg "thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit" is a reference to how in Fallout (and all Bethesda games, and RPG's in general) you can't go 5 minutes without some kind of side quest.

I think its interesting what they did with maximus, hes an ok guy, definately went trough some shit in the wasteland, not too bright but perceptive, good with guns, and he has a bit of darkness in him which they make you think about by not explicitly stating wether he did or didnt put the razor in dane's boot, leaving you conflicted. it makes him interesting, and makes the viewer curious as to what choices hes going to make and if hes gonna be an asset to lucy or not

12:56 It's called Cram in this alternate reality. 😆 But I still enjoy watching your reaction, and hearing your commentary. Bit thumbs up!!👍👍

I imagine they use the teeth for dentures. Not a lot of dental hygienists in the wasteland, y'know? Lucy's a great example of how you have to be tough to survive in the wasteland, and you have to be even tougher to be KIND in the wasteland.

non fallout players wondering why mr handy gave lucy a fnger is just one of those things. i think its because mr hand's are programmed to be super helpful to humans ,but that also has a caste system for whos orders they follow. plus its just a wacky moment that i could see happening in new vegas.

"How horrible. No, I just want to..."

I think you'll agree, "Ass jerky doesn't make itself" has to be a top 3 Walton Goggins line lol One thing that kept me wary of Thaddeus is when he described Maximus, he said how before Maximus showed up, Thaddeus got beat up. He transferred that abuse to Maximus and just shrugged about it because "it's just what you do." Huge red flag for not a good person, the coward that lets others be hurt for their convenience. The relationship between Lucy and the Ghoul has to be one of the most fascinating i've seen. Cooper, seeing in her who he used to be and knowing how much she has to change, all while trying not to care. Lucy, trying to stay true to who she was raised to be, seeing in the Ghoul, a certain level of practicality she would have previously called cruelty, but accepts a level of necessity. A little blurb about ghouls I found: Nose has rapidly dividing epithelial tissue inside and skin on the outside - ears are skin on both sides, bone/joint has much less turnover. Their extended life does end up having ears also deteriorate, due to direct exposure to the elements. Matt Berry was the voice of the medical robot. You may recognize him from What we do in the Shadows or The IT Crowd. Both would make excellent reaction shows for you if you haven't watched :)

It's funny that you mentioned John McClane. 9:07 In Die Hard, John McClane did have a daughter named "Lucy". Like you also said, they spell the name McClane different in in Fallout.

Pretty sure I have a snapshot of a fork in the toaster moment from Fallout 4 or Fallout 76. It was a skeleton hugging the toaster (with fork) in a bathtub. Wooden blocks on the floor beside it spelled out "PWEASE".

In the first episode they said the exchange with the other vault was triennial, so we can infer that they only open those inter-vault doors every 3 years, making it plausible based on the info so far that something could have happened 2 years ago and 33 wouldn't have known. (Again, assuming that they don't open the inter-vault doors very often - and only for official sanctioned business.)

At first I thought your t-shirt was a nod to Dr. Creep, but the festival looks fun too.

Episode 4 is when I got hooked and couldn't stop watching. Hope you're enjoying the show!

How was vault 32 empty for 2 years without anyone knowing? It's all there in the first scene with Lucy - there is a triennial trade between vaults, so every three years. They're cut off in the in-between times - except possibly communication between the overseers.

Ghouls are still one of the great mysteries of Fallout even after 6 games. We're not sure how they're made beyond exposure to radiation. We know of one that turned himself into a ghoul with a mix of chems and drugs, Hancock from Fallout 4. There's no evidence of what turns a ghoul "feral" as opposed to keeping their human side. Some like Roger are turned after the war while others like Coop are Prewar ghouls. The serum introduced in the show is brand new and as of yet we have no clue what it is or how it functions. Even in a feral state ghouls recognize one another and won't attack a fellow ghoul but anything else is fair game for them.

There was a "triannual" vault exchange - so I assume the vaults are own their own mostly, but once every three years they contact each other and it just happened that it was that time - or maybe the Raiders knew when the next exchange would take place. Oh, as for the noses - I assume it reflects the fact that as a body decays, the nose seems to be the first thing to go, long before the ears [not actually sure of that, but it is as things are portrayed most often]

So fun fact IRL when most of being a doctor was hanging up a sign that said "doctor" dentists would buy teeth to display them on their front window, the reason why was to shot off that they could pull teeth out whole without shattering them in the process. And you gotta imagine how many teeth you gotta pull in the wasteland.

9:00 "No that's money!" This girl gets it XD

Remember in the first episode it was mentioned vault 32 and 33 were coming up on their triannual trade which Lucy was applying for a marriage license for. I think they were only communicating every three years.

Remember the guy in the first episode said Coop was famous for the thumb. He didn’t mention his acting 😢

Kinda tied between "ass jerky don't make itself" and "I am burt" as the best quote of the episode

It still makes me laugh that the Snip-Snip robot replaced her finger when it intended to harvest her organs. 😁

The physiologist in me really appreciates that you're curious about the underlying explanation for loss of noses without loss of cartilage elsewhere in the body. We could nerd out a lot over this kind of stuff and which bits do and don't have deep explanations in the lore. Loving it :)

Epsidoe 1 they mentioned the triennial trade. Every three years vaults 32 and 33 trade resources and potentially some residents.

Lucy was, in fact, the name of John McClane's daughter in Die Hard. a reference with spelling changes, I am sure.

I thought it was cool that the armor Lucy was wearing after leaving the SD Mart was not only very close to the common raider/leather armor in the games, but also the shot of her in it was very similar to the classic shots of the wanderer in FO3 and FO4.

Hey there! Almost 100.000! 😄 I had a lot of fun watching Fallout! I had never played the games but after the show I really tought that it would be a very nice experience!

they mentioned in episode one That the trade between 32 and 33 Is Tri annual, so the last time they communicated with 32 they were all alive and then this time, the raiders were there to intercept.

Spam is called Cram in the fallout universe if I remember correctly.

25:08 Same!

I love this episode because I really like how badass Lucy was from short circuiting Snip snip, forcing the organ harvesting stoners to release the prisoners and her saving The Ghoul to prove she still willing to help people despite what she’s seen in the wasteland. Plus it was satisfying the feral ghouls killing the stoners

Ghouls don't have a nose (and some of the time no ears as well) pretty universally since during the process of Ghoulification they lose most cartilage and in some cases a LOT of skin decays and falls off.

"Sometimes a fella's gotta eat a fella." been playing Fallout 3 lately, found a human flesh steak, and since I was well stocked, I thought I'd sell it. later I ended up in a shootout having to heal myself, ran out of juice, and instantly thought of this line. I didn't get to sell that steak, if you were wondering.

Teeth were definitely something that went for sale back in the 18th century, for dentures. Famous example is Fantine selling her front to teeth in Les Miserables (I assume it happens in the musical and movie as well? It's certainly pretty important in the book). I imagine that radiation has caused people to lose their teeth as well (though I don't know what high levels of radiation do to human teeth) so the purpose might be the same. Or it could be that he was just looking for a tooth with a filling? The former seems more likely than the latter. One my students has actually done some academic writing related to spam. The connection between things like canned meats and colonialism is actually pretty weird/interesting/sad/horrible. "Reckoning with the Oceanic Territoriality of 'Uncle SPAM': Processed Meats and Resurgent Seeds in Craig Santos Perez's Poetics of the Militarized Pacific"

I felt so bad for Lucy this episode. losing her finger, and almost getting her vital organs cut out by a robot.

My head canon for the ghouls is that when someone is turned into a ghoul, they are able to regenerate and exist by being healed by radiation.... however, the more radiation they absorbe, the more their minds deteriorate and develope aggressive dementia. The only determing factor on when a ghoul goes feral is the strength of will/intelligence of the person but eventually it happens, so ghouls who are aware of what's happening to them use RadAway to balance the amount of radation in their bodies so they don't go feral.

Turning mean Roger was becoming Feral. Basically, it's full on zombie mode. The Great War is what the day the bombs fell is called in the wasteland.

Being in the dental industry yourself, at least you know you will always have dental work in the apocalypse

Episode 4 is my favorite out of the first half of the season. Some of both Lucy and the Ghoul's outlooks are justified during this episode; there is no one whose ways are "right". The Ghoul's actions/decisions are justified in Lucy having to kill Martha, like he did to Roger. Also, we don't know what Cooper has had to endure. Cannibalism is looked down upon even in Fallout, but survival can make people develop some pretty messed up habits. Lucy's actions/decisions are justified in that she did what was necessary, didn't sacrifice her values to do so, and even went the extra mile to help others while she had the upper hand. So survival will force your hand (Cooper's), but you also don't always have to go the most brutal route first in order to survive (Lucy). And a side note- exploring dead, still, dark vaults whose residents fell victim to one horror or another is a huge part of the Fallout games. Each Fallout game has a score of vaults for you to stumble across in the wasteland. From hauntingly silent, dead vaults, to a vault of clones, to a vault with a mad scientist trapping people in a virtual reality nightmare in order to torture them for his own amusement... you never quite know what to expect when you discover more of Vault Tec's bullsh*t.

Funny you should bring up John McClane - he does have a daughter called Lucy. Also, the line 'you seem to be be a woman' is so on point for some of the characters Matt Berry played.

You sayin "so yum so yum" made me think of yo gabba gabba "theres a party in my tummy, so yummy so yummy" 😂😂😂

Some of the plot points in this series are sketchy, but the producers have created something very rare in this age: a universe that I am eager to explore. I am enjoying reruns and looking forward to future seasons. I haven't felt that way in a while.

your theories on why the raiders got in/lucy’s mom are pretty damn good, not completely there (not gonna spoil ofc) but you are picking up on a lot of hints they give you, props

"Golden rule motherfraker" is one of my favorite lines in this show. And for the first time isn't watching her language, a nice little node to her adapting out there IMO.

In the games the ghouls lose nose and ears, they kept the ears for the show probably for pratical reasons, Walton's make-up must take awhile to put on and to hide the ears and probably make him deaf wouldn't be much pratical and more expensive to remove digitaly, also the eyes are different cause in the games the white of the eye can be redder or darker and the iris almost looks like it has cataracts and be very cloudy but I doubt that would very confortable for the actors to have to walk around set with.

everybody asks "why did he give her a finger then?" - I believe the reason is that while he was repurposed, his original programming is not erased so it comes through when it doesn't conflict with his new programming. So fixing the finger was old programming. Oh, and I have seen quite a few think the finger had gone bad based on the colour - I don't think so, I think it is within the range of natural skin colour, I have seen people who are older who have that shade, just doesn't seem to be a common colour.

FLG is gonna be SO rich in the Apocalypse. She gone be taking EVERYONE's teeth.

"Why do they lose their nose? If they lose cartilage..." Remember, video game logic/rule of cool. Don't over think it. 😉 The "vials" for the ghouls is actually new to the TV show. The games don't ever mention a medication that keeps ghouls from going feral. The lore of the games was always a bit vague on why that happens. One theory prior to this was their brains decayed to a point they no longer had any control and would attack any living thing they saw (much like a traditional zombie). Non-feral ghouls in game don't generally eat other people, but there is a "cannibal" perk in the game and we can presume The Ghoul has taken that perk.

“…give her some big combat boots and long blue hair and you’d get Jinx!” I see what you did there…

Not much can be said without spoilers. People like me who played the games just act like that Leonardo DeCaprio meme where he starts pointing at the tv when he spots something such as the spam. The game renamed lots of stuff for fun (and probably copyright issues) so the spam is called Cram.

I'm not entirely sure, so don't quote me, but i think the Radiation can slowly rot their brain away. That is why they turn "Feral" and that is also why, once they turn, their is no going back. They pretty much turn into fast zombies.

Love the way you deconstruct the episodes and go over your thoughts of characters, I look forward more to your thoughts rather than the reaction itself .BTW "Thaddeus" has a double "D" after the "a" so is pronounced "Thad" as in "had"

I 💚 your reactions. I like it when the reactor talks about the content instead of just jumping in and back out.

Thad rhymes with Chad. I'm so excited to watch your questions get answers. Fun edits, X!

The world of Fallout is a place where nuclear power was used everywhere for a full century before the great war. They never discovered microprocessors(which is why they have a pipboy instead of an apple watch for example) and they lacked oversight on various chemical industries leading to very advanced drugs with terrible side effects. These combined with a genetic mutation in some people is why those people turn into ghouls rather than their insides melting like the real world. The drug Cooper takes is a hot debate in the community because it could be a retcon, depending on how they play it moving forward.

in the games you can choose a perk to eat humanoid meat, the goul seems to be very high level, so...... Also, the indirect story telling is so well done, like in the games

"Golden rule, mother f*****." The line of the episode. LOL

The Ghoul is teaching Lucy valuable lessons and he is not being nice to her but he's not cruel to her. And I think he knows something that we don't know at this point.

Idk, but in a world where bottle caps are legal tender I wonder if teeth are a commodity worth enough to confiscate from the dead. I know Maximus got caps for a tooth. It really is a primitive barter-style economy. Very fascinating universe.