I’m confused as to why some people think this episode discredits or sets back ghoulcy at all because we learn more about Barb. I think this episode is setting a lot of things up and here’s some reasoning or ghoulcy cope, if you will:
*disclaimer, I love barbs character especially as villian who genuinely believes they’re doing the right thing. This isn’t any dislike of her existence or her actress, just disproving some of the “cooper is still in love with her” line of thinking.
The parallels: Lucy and past cooper are going through the same things in this episode. A loved one they have been convinced is evil is getting in their head because the fact is humanity is complex. Hank tries to show Lucy why the mind control is moral and how his hands were “forced” because of the evils of the wasteland. Barb is doing the same thing, claiming her hands were forced because the evil of Vaultec. I think her character is quite interesting, and I don’t doubt she’s against dropping the bombs, but at the same time you don’t rise the corporate ladder in a company like Vaultec unless you’re willing to do some heinous shit. Just like Lucy we see Cooper being bought in, because who wants to believe their loved one is evil? Of course it’s more complicated, but what Barb and Hank are definitely more complicated than that, it doesn’t mean they’re free of guilt.
Of course Cooper still loves his wife present day, but he is not in love with her: as I see it, Cooper wants to find Barb for 2 reasons, to find Janey and to get closure. Of course he still loves his wife, family, as he put it, is a fucked up thing, and despite everything they’ve both done at this point, he still wants to know why and where she is, to get closure.
No the divorce is not faked: this is more from an understanding of narrative, but doing that twist would be very cheap and actually make both cooper and barb less interesting. Part of the allure of their storyline is understanding how to good loving people not only became what they are now, but why they fell out of love. That is far more interesting than pretending to be divorced.
Just like Lucy, returning to Barb, aka what’s familiar, would be going backwards for cooper: again, from a narrative perspective, Lucy and Cooper are trying to move forward and discover who they are as people now in this world, both Max and Barb are safe, familiar. To go back to those relationships is to stagnate and go backwards. Especially for Cooper, he can’t keep living in the past, and while finding Janey is different cuz his relationship with his daughter is cut short, his relationship with Barb has run its course
He doesn’t call out for her when trying to not go feral just Janey: seen this said before but yeah, if you’re married and love someone, even if you have a kid, I feel like your spouse should come up, and if the writers wanted to start hinting he’s still in love with Barb, they would have included her
Deleted scene: it’s Lucy and Janey that come to him in the deleted vision scene, not Barb. Nuff said
Barb is not being completely honest: similar to my first point. There is more to the story than, my hand was forced, and if there isn’t, Barb is much less interesting than I thought. In season one we see Barb gaslight Cooper multiple times so no I don’t buy this “I’m a victim” act. Of course she would say that. You saw the panic on her face when Cooper reveals what he knows. She would have said anything to convince him otherwise, that she’s not a monster
Anyway I hoped that eased some fears. This is my thoughts on the episode (even tho no one asked smh). If I’m coping I’m coping but I don’t think I am
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