Fallout 2x05 Full Reaction!
Added 2026-01-14 21:08:42 +0000 UTC
Comments
Bless you Jess for sacrificing your throat for our reaction needs.
Faction Paradox
2026-01-15 17:37:42 +0000 UTCFigured we’d both wince with the screams. Never have fully lost my voice. One time it damn near hit James Earl Jones level, like I said. Can understand the Carrie response. I am hearing this episode is being ranked high with the fans. The young Hank effect is aided this time by not having as big a close up. It is looking better. Took a second in looking up Ebra before the Richie and subsequent Bear mention helped tighten focus. Still behind on that show. I have seen some of the Seven Fishes episode, and found what I saw hilarious, particularly as it feels reasonably like your average Christmas Eve gatherings. Would be nice if the show has even just a little bit more Rob Reiner. Those words are good ones to go out on. Still cherish the at home Princess Bride thing that ended with Rob and Carl in the latter’s final screen appearance. Heard about the casting of House, then you see the episode, and you’re just confused, and wait to see what’s up. Yeah, it doesn’t work the way they wanted it to. Maybe this ties into the games, I don’t know. Justin does sell the fear rather well. He probably hopes that he can dismiss the unknown variables as a figment of his imagination. You can see why Tim Burton hired him for that part. Great to see Dale again. Chomping at the bit to see more Erik. Is sweet how Lucy made an impression on Ma June. The comment on the Spooge treatment gets a huge laugh. The one lady does endear audience sympathy very quickly, complete with the Blinkin reference that I couldn’t quite figure out how to work in myself, nicely done. I think the disc one dude is Ronnie, but I’m not sure. Though I’ve not played The Last of Us, there are a few gaming memories with the “I need to craft a weapon.” line. They did a good job of suckering us with the Scanners. Good words on the camera work. Good to see Jon back as the chicken fucker, and he does kick it up a notch, creepiness-wise. The Bruce Wayne moment is also something I couldn’t quite phrase properly to work in. See you had the same thought with that scene too. Ella played it well, doing Michael Keaton proud. Never done a killer ipecac, but there are the times when I’ve over done it with the drinking, and you do switch to coffee or juice to help balance, flush out the booze. The killer ipecac is a more dramatic way of achieving the same effect. Walton did absurdly good work with the regret in the Ghoul’s expression. Of course, we were both going to catch the Slim Pickins of it all, and good nod to the wire he was making out to the chicken fucker as Hank would be relieved that he didn’t lose the four hundred dollar hand cart. Shared hopes with the father and daughter material, which you’re probably right about it taking a back seat to Maximus and his arc next week. We are greatly looking forward to the Ghoul tapping into the Cecil energy with Barb. Should be lots of fun.
Thomas Corp
2026-01-15 02:50:16 +0000 UTCI still haven't seen Casino, which I assume is the Scorsese movie, so oddly enough I associate the song most with I Accuse My Parents. My big issue is how are they going to reveal the "real" person or group behind everything in a way that has any meaning to people who don't know the games? I keep thinking of the Interview with a Vampire show, where if you know the books, the big twist at the end of the first season is a major "Holy shit" moment, but if you haven't you're just left thinking "So...this random guy who's popped up in the background a few times is also a vampire? That's really the huge reveal you're ending the season with?"
Ryan
2026-01-15 02:01:30 +0000 UTCI winced extremely hard during both the big screams, as I'm also just getting past a bad cold that wiped out my voice for a few days (the first time that's ever happened to me in 41 years, and my initial reaction was pretty much like Carrie's to her period). Though within just one day the general fan response is this is the show's best episode so far, and it's certainly a high one once I get some more thought into it, so that's a nice consolation. Lovely cameo by young unassuming Hank, with the effect much improved from last season and able to track a lot more movement. I also much appreciated the cameo from Ebra, basically as the same guy while the Ghoul has the exact same reaction as Richie usually does. Which does bring up, much as I kind of wish my mind wouldn't work this way, I keep wondering if Season 5 of The Bear was able to shoot anything with Rob Reiner, not knowing anything about their schedule. But if not, it's a bit beautiful that his final words onscreen are "He made you a great offer. Go suck his balls." It would have been nice if all the marketing hadn't openly stated Justin Theroux was playing Robert House, so this twist could have a chance of actually getting some people. I imagine I'd have figured it out anyway just from how you don't hire some no name day player for this kind of role when someone as big as him is right there too. And up to now I'd kind of been wondering what the big deal with him was supposed to be, when we've seen this kind of character a million times before. But then he starts talking about how scared he is of the unknown variable Cooper represents, Justin perfectly letting that fear slip through the mask more and more until I can remember I first took notice of him singing opera during a cavity search, and it all clicked so I now want so much more. Dale Dickey was one of last season's guest stars I was most hoping we'd see again, behind just Erik Estrada. And major props for bringing her back in a way that advances a whole other subplot while still making perfect sense she'd be in a position to do it. Lovely to see how the brief time she spent with Lucy drove her to try to be a better person, however much she tries to resist it. Now I'm kind of hoping she gets some kind of update on what Lucy's currently up to, leading to a rant that she should have just given her the Spooge treatment. And I'm surprisingly invested in Claudia already, especially with her realization that her cat choked on the goldfish. Not so much the other guy whose name I haven't bothered to learn, who has "disc one boss" written all over him. And while I haven't played any of these games, I did go through both of The Last of Us, so I still got a real kick out of "I need to craft a weapon." I was a bit confused at the pan away from the first head explosion, thinking "Seriously, after everything else you think seeing this would be too much for us?" But now it makes perfect sense as a setup for the exact same camera movement to reveal this time it worked. And the SOS is the perfect character to use for this role, just established enough that we can be disturbed by the loss of the real him, but still without much to him that it doesn't upset the general tone. It also helps that Jon Daly gets to really ratchet up the creep factor of his new personality. And as far as that painful scream goes, you really know a villain is working when his just appearing onscreen provokes that. Lucy's Bruce Wayne moment about not knowing who she is anymore could have come off unbearably cheesy, but Ella knows exactly how to play it so we feel the full weight. And I was wondering how they'd handle addictum after how people talked about it last week, one of those things that only makes sense in video games. Turning it into a killer ipecac is certainly a pretty effective way around that. And then the big finish, where after Walton's material as the Ghoul rather than Cooper has been pretty limited so far, but now he finally gets to pull out all the stops with the regret all over his face that can't overcome his determination to keep his family safe even if he'll never see them again. Cooper on the rocket naturally gets everyone to think of Slim Pickens, so it's quite fitting that it's intercut with him telling SOS "Go back to Hank and tell him I said ow." Lucy and Hank's reunion is happening a bit earlier than I was expecting, so I really hope we get a substantial bit of material between them, even if the next episode is probably going to turn away from this whole thing to give us more of the vaults and the Brotherhood again. But even more I want to see Cooper finally talk with his wife for real, probably starting with "I'm a good liar. I'm a very good liar. But you, you're better."
Ryan
2026-01-15 01:50:19 +0000 UTCNo problem with the delay for next week; maybe I’ll get some better sleep in next week, or maybe I’ll keep the habit going of staying up for the episode when it drops. Deal with that later. Your voice does sound on the shakier side. I’m hesitant to say it sounds “weak”, rather it’s not as strong as it usually is. For that reason, you hoped to be sans yelling and screaming. You say that, and I remember the Norm scene, and it’s just one of those “...SHIT.” types of reactions that I have. Plenty to ponder in this one. Start with the Norm plotline. Nice to see Ma June again. Norm showed a kind heart talking with the one lady who’s reeling from the idea that her parents, her friends, and her cat are all dead. Feel sorriest about the cat. We both about matched in reactions about Puppy the cat. Norm doth continues his proclivity to live his best Jessica Fletcher life with the snooping. KNEW the one guy would cause trouble and I most CERTAINLY KNEW that he’d jump to numero uno on your shit list for this show. Again, forgone conclusion with the screaming there. Apologies for your throat. Stinks for Norm who was going to have his first drink. You wanted it to be a good one. First real one I had was a rum and coke about a month before I was twenty-one; the small test by my dad, my brother, and I to see how bad it’d go if I drank whilst I was still on medication. Norm’s still breathing, so that’s good. Plenty of the Ghoul scenes stole the show. Moldaver proves again that she’s full of shit, or at least not as noble as she claims to be, for instance saying that the Ghoul’s killed before as he was a marine, I snapped, “Fuck off with that horseshit.” in response to that one. Nice that the Ghoul calls her out on the “the end justifies the means” rationalization. They establish Vegas of old with Tony Bennett’s Rags to Riches, and it made me chime in, “Wrong Scorsese picture, but thanks for playing.” We now clarify who House is. Confirming that the other House in the commercials was a Ben Kingsley style smokescreen. Heard people mention the idea, and I was just waiting to see. Shared uncertainty of what to make of House’s big scene. We both need more pieces for the puzzle. Which barring internet scuttlebutt, I’m in roughly the same boat as you are, Jess. This isn’t say Star Wars or the Pennywise show where yes, I would have more knowledge. Here, not so much. House expresses horror over the terrifying creatures. Don’t think all of them are that bad. For instance, I think he’d find sandworms very nice if he ever got up close and personal with them. House is chilling in the scene. Reaches the point where you half expect House to inform the Ghoul that hundreds of senators are now under the influence of a Sith Lord called Darth Sidious. His ramblings about how it’s irksome not seeing things when he self proclaims to know everything made me deadpan, “Yes, a puzzling conundrum ya got there, Nostradamus.” And he reveals that this whole end of the world shebang is anticipated to be the two hundredth anniversary of the day that Abraham Lincoln got shot; that’s a pretty sick thing to do. We had similar reactions to the Ghoul’s bender. Few flashbacks I had there as I feel his pain. Bit distracting the image of the Ghoul riding the missile, Slim Pickens style. You made that comparison yourself, as I figured you would. Damn good timing getting the reaction in last summer, yes? Goddamn was Walton amazing in all those scenes. Then there’s the follow up to last week’s cliffhanger. Lucy is unimpressed by the name “deathclaw”, and I responded, “It’s not, I don’t name them!” I ended up saying “Run” at about the same time as the Ghoul did, and I beat the closed captioning by a second. I also matched the Ghoul with a similar line about the drinking strategy. Funny your response to seeing the chicken fucker again. Good words on the spotlight on how people cope in this universe. Likewise, shared thoughts on the bait-and-switch of the head going Scanners. Lucy goes on the quest to flush out the drugs. Leads to a moral conundrum: Is it really stealing if the proprietor of the establishment is dead? That was my assessment as well. The imposter guy tried to claim that lots of people rob stores naked, and you don’t disagree in this world of that being a thing. In the real world... there was one dude years ago who showed up to the store only in his underwear from the look of it, so the guy here wins on that one. And now Lucy has killed after trying very hard to avoid that. You take in how Ella sells the silent guilt, and observe, “Well, you sure killed the hell outta that fella, Lucy.” She gets back to the room where the chicken fucker is waiting, and apparently has gone from chicken fucker to looking like a door-to-door Mormon salesman. Neither of us were tremendously surprised by the Ghoul’s decision. Again, Walton delivering absurdly good fucking acting with the reassuring himself. Lucy got irate and punched him out the window. Saw the image of the Ghoul going out the window before the episode as they liked showing that on the tv during the football games. And now Hank stops by. You’re on the edge of your seat. He got there pretty quickly. Implying the mind control things have a short range. We end on Lucy with the family reunion as the Ghoul sticks around until next week where we see what happens next. Which to reiterate, no problem with the delay. One more thing: the Ghoul’s family. The pods. The names are on the pods, but we did not actually see his family in the pods, as you pointed out. I noticed that too, Jess. Very interesting. Thanks for the reaction, and I hope you continue to get better. Take care of yourself, Jess.
Thomas Corp
2026-01-14 21:15:51 +0000 UTC
