Fallout 2x06 Full Reaction!
Added 2026-01-22 21:27:11 +0000 UTC
Comments
Knew you were going to gush about the Oscar noms. First takeaway is that with best picture: I’m zero for six for this decade thus far. Then again, that’s sort of a repeat for the 2000s where there wasn’t any complete agreement until 2006, generally happy with most of the wins though I am. Or the longest dry spell of agreements is the thirties where it wasn’t until ‘37 for the sole complete agreement of the decade. Still ironing out the ranking for 2025. Have four of the nominees tentatively in the top ten, with Hamnet, Sentimental Value, and Sinners likely settling in the top five, so I’d be happy with any of those three winning. Not seen One Battle After Another, and it’s looking likely to not make my top ten, though maybe an honorable mention/it makes it on a top fifteen or top twenty for the year. Still need to give it thought, but I’d say No Other Choice and The Life of Chuck are my top two of 2025, and nothing for either at the Oscars. (I would have settled for the screenplay nomination for The Life of Chuck, if nothing else.) Second takeaway is The Silence of the Lambs is still the last to win the top five. Which I am pretty happy about that one. The disagreement of what category for Hailee makes sense as to why she’s not nominated. Still depressed that no one ever seems to remember True Grit anymore, or the older one, for that matter. If the tradeoff is Delroy getting a long overdue nomination, then that more than makes up for it. Genuinely very impressive to see it shatter the record. You say that your parents didn’t like Sinners. I’m left with the pondering of what Dad would have made of Sinners. It could have gone either way, though I could see that maybe he would have liked it some. Maybe not so much the vampire of it all, but overall, I could see Dad liking Sinners well enough. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Mom would hate it or even dislike it, rather it’s just not her preferred type of film. (Then again, she is curious about Weapons for Amy Madigan.) My brother admits to needing to see it again as he’s on the “It was good.” response. He notes I have the point of it’ll be a different experience when you go into it knowing who and what the film is really about. You know, it feels like a film that you need to watch a few times to really let it wash over you and grow on you. Lucy is thrown by Hank’s set up. Not helping is she doesn’t have the Ghoul with her to yell, “No, if anybody orders Merlot, I’m leaving! I am NOT DRINKING ANY FUCKING MERLOT!!!!” (Not yet started Starfleet Academy, so I went with my favorite of Paul’s characters. And because google helped with that quote that you used, it also tells me that I’m going to adore Paul’s Star Trek villain. Aren’t I?) Same here that I’ve not read All Quiet. It is good that even if one is unfamiliar with the material, you can tell Hank is leaving something out with the book, like the thing you mention. He was good at weaponizing the anxiety. Should be interesting if this place reaches a point where Hank smells the revolting stench of self esteem. (Probably inevitable we both thought of that musical/film; was saving references for later, but you bringing the film up was too good to pass up including one here.) Shared feelings on not feeling sorry for Betty when the karma is poetic. (I noticed that too about the younger actress and not the deaging like with Hank.) I am looking forward to any theoretical scenes between Hank and Betty. That may be about Ron being part of the experiments Norm stumbled on. We are both so here for more Ron, and damn good reference to that film, which though Ramius is my favorite of Sean’s characters, William of Baskerville is up there as well. F. Murray Abraham is terrific in that one too. Again, just hearing Ron’s voice got me pumped. Still want to see him as live action Deathstroke as he had the PERFECT voice for the character, and he looks just like Deathstroke too. It would be perfect. We agree on liking that the Ghoul just unloaded on Barb about what he knew. I also am wary about how the one revelation seems to undo the meaning of the Ghoul’s big emotional climax last season and am playing the waiting game to see how it goes. Ralph did go full Monty in Red Dragon as I recall, albeit that was in shadows, so fair on the big surprise. I’m particularly interested in Michael Emerson as Brainiac. I still have a dream of a live action The Dark Knight Returns with Michael Keaton and Mark Hamill. That is one of the better scenes with Thaddeus. Yeah, though not the brightest bulb, he is right that he and Maximus both would probably have a much easier time being good people if they grew up with all the privileges that Lucy had. Similar waiting game to see how that goes. Good ending with the Ghoul having that sort of look as if he just heard John Turturro say that John Goodman said that he likes Jack Oakie pictures. (At least I’m assuming that’s the reference that you were going with there.)
Thomas Corp
2026-01-23 02:19:20 +0000 UTCNever got to whatever part of The Walking Dead that is, so my mind instead went to Steve Martin trying to get out of El Guapo's chains. I gave Sons of Anarchy a whole three seasons and a half of gradually waning interest, then finally quit after a certain development halfway through Season 4 that I can't even really remember at this point made me think "If the writers are willing to pull something that makes this little sense for this character out of their ass, why should I be invested in anything?" I had the same experience just last week with The Night Manager. Never heard of the movie, and just a brief description doesn't make it seem appealing at all. We've even had other dramatic Nathan Lane roles so that doesn't have any novelty anymore. I'd pitch in, "We need to work as a team, which means you do everything I say." And just leave everyone guessing if I'm quoting The Italian Job or Chicken Run. Now that we're bringing George C. Scott into this, if the whole thing ends with Barb being convinced not to go along with this by a bunch of '80s cartoon characters, it will all be worth it.
Ryan
2026-01-23 00:42:20 +0000 UTCOne perk of waiting this long to talk about the episode is now I can also gush about Sinners smashing the three way record for the most Oscar nominations. Which I've been insufferable about all day after my parents didn't like it. "I guess now we officially know who has better taste, huh?" And it would still have the new record even if a whole new category for this year wasn't part of it. And nice as it would be to have Hailee Steinfeld be part of it too, I imagine there was just too much disagreement about whether she should be in lead or supporting after they got mocked so hard over her True Grit nomination. Must really take the wind out of Lucy's sails after expecting for so long she'd tell her father something like "Time, with its infinite sense of humor, will always fold upon itself like an origami chicken. And this moment is that chicken. In other words, payback's a bitch," but instead she's met with this. I've never read All Quiet, but I've seen the 1930 and 2022 movies, and that ending is indeed a humdinger. Though a big thing Hank leaves out is the differences between the two sides get a lot less esoteric when you're talking about the next world war, which is a lot closer to what he's proposing. He absolutely knows what he's doing bringing Lucy's Anxiety out to play and asking how much better it would be for her to just be permanently in the massage chair. It all might seem okay now, but let's see how he reacts when someone starts singing I Want To Be A Producer. I'm guessing the guy who was okay with nuking Shady Sands would show up again real quick. And of course you have to wonder what happened to that woman with the NCR with only the old man here. Betty tries to bring in Big Bird to wreck the forced perspective, but it turns out she let people get a bit too comfortable first. And I can't even feel that bad for her after seeing her happily sitting in on the meeting discussing exactly this issue (actually kind of weird that they go to the trouble to de-age Kyle while young Betty is a separate actress). I hope we somehow get a scene of her and Hank discussing their respective issues; they'd probably have some interesting thoughts about each other's problems. I'm sure it'll be fine as long as this is leading to her storming the place with heavy machinery and saying "Is there any more confusion about the supper situation?" I imagine mutant Ron Pearlman is tied into that experiment Norm found out about last time. And I already want to know so much more about him, and this alliance of mutants and ghouls. Scratch the heresy and you will find the leper. Every battle against heresy wants only to keep the leper as he is. And this comes along with Cooper finally confronting Barb with everything, where I'm very thankful there's zero beating around the bush and he just hits her with everything he knows, which lets her also come even further clean. I may have an issue later on with how this reveal seems to undo the meaning of Cooper's big emotional climax last season, but for now I'm willing to see where it goes. I'd call the appearance of Michael Emerson my biggest surprise of the day, except that night I went to the movies and saw Ralph Fiennes do the full monty, but it's still firmly in second place. And I too immediately recognized his voice; you'd get a real kick out of him voicing the Joker in The Dark Knight Returns and Brainiac in My Adventures with Superman. We get just a bit more with Maximus and Thaddeus, but it's also the place with the most resonant dialogue, as dumb as Thaddeus often is, it's hard not to agree they both would probably have a much easier time being good people if they grew up with all the privileges that Lucy had. Maybe that could be going somewhere interesting, but it'll probably have to wait until next season, as there's plenty to wrap up here already. So I'll just enjoy Walton's face of "You know how people say anything can be helpful? This is not helpful."
Ryan
2026-01-23 00:28:33 +0000 UTCStart by saying that I am happy to hear you are feeling wildly better this week. I get it about the lingering effects. I remember when I had covid, and how said lingering effects lingered for some time. Hope what you have will pass soon. Now to the episode. Not much with the brotherhood. Love your delight of our good girl going to them for help. The Ghoul needs some help to be sure. Loved everything about your reaction to the Ghoul doing the Rick Grimes move of trying to pull himself off the pole. He got so close, too. He does get taken off the pole, and patched up. With that, there is such glee upon seeing that the great Ron Perlman is in this. Clocked him from his voice and had a gleeful “No!” type of response. Now I know that I am unfamiliar with the games, the lore. I am aware of Ron having been part of the games, up to and including how he has said the famous “War never changes.” line, and I’ve heard the soundbite of that. Incidentally, I heard that neither Walton nor Frances were aware of the significance of the famous line when they delivered it in season one, and by the time of the press tours, they said that they had been informed afterwards. You ponder how friendly Ron’s character is. I mean his track record is villains more often than not like in Blade II. You, of course, know him as Clay. I hold a special place in my heart for his portrayal of Deathstroke, and he is to the character what Mark Hamill is to the Joker. On the other hand, he is Hellboy, and before that, Vincent, which is my mom’s default image of him. I’m just saying that there are options. Betty tried to bring the hammer down on the snack budget, but to little avail. Was a humdinger of a shindig. Rather nice that Reg got a big musical number. Shame that said big musical number was only all in Reg's head like when Fred Gwynne lets Meryl Streep sing, and she envisioned it differently complete with Jack Nicholson giving her the winning compliment. (As I write that one, is that too obscure a reference?) Sounds ominous that no one has seen Woody after Steph had Tony Jack set up a meeting for him. And now Stephanie arranges for Chet to marry her horrifying everyone. I saw the poster, and yelled, “FUCK THAT!!!”, which is what Chet should say to Stephanie, yell at her, “Fuck that, ya cycloptic bitch!!” Share your encouragement that Chet embraces his inner Norm. We got more Hank this week, and we hate to love, like you said. I get it, how you say you hate to love how Kyle is playing Hank who is really embracing the Lynchian by being very much more of Frank than Hank. Here he’s pushing the Vault-Tech way of everyone being normal. And by “normal” he means everybody doing the same thing. “What about individuality?” you may ask, well, Hank would channel a different Frank by responding, “Individuality’s fine, so long as we all do it together.” We both say fuck his kumbaya horseshit. And I really do not give a dead moose’s last shit about any of Hank’s literary assessments and critiques in his sick little book club. I will shoot shit if he talks about The Great Gatsby, and I have to hear him spout out an even more fundamental misunderstanding of that book than most people already have with that goddamn book. Sick mind game he pulled on Lucy. Very good words you had to say about what a monster he is. Paralleling Barb being considered a monster, like how the Ghoul outright calls her such in the flashbacks. The whole theme of that is well explored. Bringing us to Barb, who yes, Frances is excellent in this. Hell of an opening of Barb having to sit through the bomb presentations. And obviously, the sales pitch isn’t saying that we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But they do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks. Thought Barb was marked for death when her plate showed what looked like an orange at first, but then I realized it was a dinner roll. Horrifying to learn Wilzig threatened her, and made her deliver the big sales pitch of dropping the bombs themselves. Love the scene of the argument between the Ghoul and Barbara. Your reactions to it were excellent. We get more of younger Hank. The cgi on young Hank still looks a bit waxy. We both were not enthused with the needle thing, though it could have been worse. Barb does the damn thing with that. Though you apologize for harping on it, I do love how it’s such a big thing that you love about post-apocalyptic stories: the nature of humanity and monstrosity, how that intertwines, how one loses oneself with that, and the myriad of ways to tackle that. This show is doing well with that, and your words on all of it are terrific. Good episode. Shame there was no Norm update, especially after last we saw him. I knew you were going to say something like that. Like you say, you know how we know that you love Norm. That one was a given that you’d be dismayed about the lack of a Norm update, and with only two episodes left for the season. Maybe next week. Thanks for the great reaction, and again, glad to hear you feeling better, Jess, take care.
Thomas Corp
2026-01-22 22:33:23 +0000 UTC
