Augury

Hopefully that means actual shirtless Cooper won't be as emaciated as this. Lowkey I was worried ngl 😅

Prosthetic photos below the cut, tw: fantasy body horror, spider mutation

Cooper tempting Lucy by appealing to her curiosity, just as Moldaver did in 1.08. I love the characterization of Lucy as being insatiably curious and what that will mean for her relationship with Cooper going forward as well as how she navigates the wasteland. I just know Lucy has A MILLION questions for Cooper and she won't be able to leave well enough alone. She has to go after him and won't be satisfied until she gets what she wants.

"...but this is still Lucy, so she has to try to find a peaceful path forward."

Lucy's moral resilience and steadfastness in who she is, despite the cruelty around her.

Cooper's flashbacks are set three years before the bombs drop. That's very interesting for the timeline. A lot can happen in three years... (also a little continuity issue with Janey being shown as a similar age in both the flashbacks and in the cold open of 1.01 when the bombs drop—she should have been older.)

[The Ghoul] "RECOGNIZING THE OBJECT"

The funeral in question:

We know the writers love to tease us with not-so-covert instances of indirect foreshadowing, such as:

When Ma June says to Lucy: "[...] I can tell by looking at you, clean hair, nice teeth, and all ten fingers. Must be nice. " → And then Lucy proceeds to loose a finger.

While on set for The Man from Deadhorse, Emil says to Cooper: "The audience Coop, they already know you're a good man. They wanna see that even a good man as yourself can be driven too far. [...] It's a new kind of western, the power of the individual when the chips are down, [...] 'cause out here, it's just you, your gun, and your personal code bringing order to the wild wild west." → Literally foreshadowing Cooper's own trauma, descent into chaos, and moral journey.

Cooper discussing the power armor design flaws with Bud Askins → later using those design flaws to take out an entire company of BoS knights.

Max selling his own teeth for money → later getting shot with teeth.

While Lucy and Wilzig flee Filly, the chicken fucker calls out "[...] serums for pain, foot-healing serums! Serums that will make you grow an entire new foot... maybe." → Thaddeus literally heals/regenerates his foot with his serums.

So, with this writing and production style in mind

When characters say very pointed things and the art direction is done very consciously to include certain elements, which otherwise do not affect the plot and could have been omitted entirely, it is clear that these things were included for a reason and serve a larger function in the narrative. They were a choice. Otherwise, why include them at all? For example:

Norm speculating that Lucy's future husband will be a cannibal full of tumors → narrative proceeds to introduce Cooper and make a plot point showcasing that he is an irradiated cannibal. HELLLOOOOO!!

Cooper reminiscing with Roger about missing ice cream and apple pie → Lucy's track in Ramin Djawadi's score is titled "Ice Cream and Apple Pie"

In scenes of Barb, such as in Barb's office, during a shot of Barb in the Howard home, and during the diode exchange scene, the posters for Cooper's movies Under the Covers and The Revenge of Brutus are featured prominently in the background. Under the Covers is a detective noir, which notoriously feature femme fatale characters and double-cross betrayals by the female love interest. Revenge of Brutus implies Marcus Brutus, who betrayed Julius Caesar and orchestrated his assassination → Barb is repeatedly situated in relation to the these symbols, foreshadowing her double-cross, deception, and betrayal.

In multiple shots of Lucy and Cooper in the wasteland, the background features love themed graffiti such as hearts and "I love you"

In the scene of Cooper sewing Lucy's finger onto his hand, the stitches form a heart as the thread is pulled taught. I'm fairly confident the threads are comped in, so this was a choice that someone intentionally animated. (also a ghoulcy fan favorite lmao)

Roger looking at Lucy and saying to Cooper, "You got a smoothie of your own." GET YOUR GIRL COOP

The overseer of Vault 4 calling Lucy, "Goosey" MacLean → is, as we all know, a portmanteau for Lucy and the Ghoul (and is also just a cute play on the loosey-goosey idiom, of course).