Fallout: S1, Episode 8 (The Beginning) - Patreon Version

As for how Moldaver survived for 200 years: Obviously, they don't really address it directly on the show, but we know that: (1) She was a scientist (it was her labs and her cold fusion research that Vault-Tec bought and shelved); (2) Before the test subjects took it over, Vault 4 was a vault full of scientists; (3) Vault 4 had cryo-pods which we saw when Lucy snuck onto Level 12; (4) Although Vault 4's pods are now being used to hold the vault's former test subjects in stasis until they can be treated, those pods would've originally been installed for the use of the vault's original scientist inhabitants (likely the same way the pods in 31 were being used to always keep some percentage of Bud's Buds/"Management" frozen); and (5) The refugees from Shady Sands who lived in Vault 4 knew and worshipped Moldaver as "the Flame Mother," which means she was connected to Vault 4 at some point. Putting it all together, it's reasonable to assume that Moldaver went into Vault 4 (or a vault like it) before the nuclear war and was kept in stasis until sometime before Shady Sands was founded. This is how she could be alive 219 years later but not be a ghoul. Also, did y'all notice that, in the past, the assistant (or receptionist or whatever) at Vault-Tec who was chatting with Coop when he was listening in on the big, shadowy meeting (and who brought in young Hank to meet him) was young Betty? As in Betty Pearson, the new Overseer of Vault 33? And speaking of Betty: Once you know Hank's role in the nuking of Shady Sands (which he did because his wife wouldn't leave Shady Sands to go back to the vault), it brings a whole new meaning to the moment when Betty tells Norm that she helped Hank "bury" Lucy and Norm's mother. It also adds a little something to the part where she tells Norm that he's lucky not to have seen what "clever boys do" when they get mad. E.g. what Hank did to his wife when she defied his control.

Funk McPuke