#fallout meta

Cooper Howard is in a state of crisis in the show in those pre-war flashbacks; he's distraught, acting erratically, doesn't know what to do, how to reconcile the love he holds for his beautiful beloved wife who always tries to do the right thing and the reality of her being the one from Vault-tec to say in order to ensure the viability of nuclear fallout vaults, they drop the bombs themselves.

We see him freak out and try to run to the countryside with Janey, see him drink himself into a barely conscious stupor, see him not know what to do when we know that generally he's a pretty can-do fella. We know, from the very first scene we see Cooper and Janey in, that he and Barb get divorced. We know that this divorce is very public and catastrophic for Cooper's career; that's why you have an A-list celebrity doing cowboy-themed birthday parties. What would have to happen for Chris Hemsworth to be doing Thor birthday parties, even for the rich and famous?

But the Ghoul? When he talks about what's kept him alive for 200 years, what's kept him on the move and working what must be almost constantly to have an unbroken supply of the chems that keep him from turning feral, he always says "Finding my family" or finding his "wife and daughter." It's never just "finding my daughter." He's never resentful or glib about his wife. He plays the details of his search close to his chest, but if it was only about Janey, why would he mention Barb at all? And he doesn't use her name, he doesn't say "My daughter and her mother", or anything else that would put distance between the two of them. He says "my wife and daughter." "My family."

And it made me wonder, because the Ghoul isn't sentimental. All of Cooper Howard's soft edges have been weathered away by the wasteland, what remains of his humanity and heart buried deep under calloused scar tissue. What reason would he have to speak of Barb as his wife if their divorce was that terrible? After all this time, all that's happened to him; after all, if we are to interpret what happens on screen literally, the blame for his being a ghoul at all could be placed on her shoulders. So if their relationship was truly done before the bombs fell, where is the resentment? Where, at least, is the apathy?

So. Back to Barb. It's true that in the few scenes we have with her, she can seem distant and less than enamoured with Cooper, who by contrast seems utterly besotted. Her colleagues at Vault-tec praise her for using her connection with Cooper to get him to advertise the vaults. At times she seems annoyed. She organises a wrap party for the advertisement at their house without warning Coop before the day of, knowing he didn't like such events. It does paint her, or at least her regard for her husband, in an unflattering light.

But then there's the fact that Cooper says of her she "always tries to do the right thing," -- and at the moment, we know him to be a reliable narrator-- and the scene where Barb, in tears, can't figure out how to fit Janey's teddy into the keepsake box. The box she knows beyond doubt they will in fact need to use. Because not only will the bombs fall, not only has she secured her family positions in one of the good vaults, she knows that one of the good vaults involves stasis until all the nuclear fallout is gone from the atmosphere. Until the world is set to rights again.

Yes, she could be crying over guilt, in this moment. But in combination with the idea that she always tries to do the right thing, couldn't it be that she'd climbed the ladder in Valut-tec with the honest intention of trying to do the right thing, trying to change it from inside?

Couldn't it be that she failed in that task?

See, once she realised she couldn't change Vault-tec for the better, it would be too late to pull out. She knows the bombs will fall. She knows most of the vaults are truly horrible. She knows she absolutely must secure positions in one of the good vaults for her family, because the alternatives are awful.

"We drop the bombs ourselves." Thinking of corporations, this isn't necessarily her words, but even if they are, she could so easily be saying them because at this point, she knows there's no stopping it. Because at this point, she's either a high-ranking Vault-tec executive taking on the murder of the planet, or she's condemning her family to a violent death. She could not refuse to take part in this and continue to have save lodging in one of the good vaults, could she?

Then there's the divorce. Because of course Barb never told Cooper any of this; she's ashamed, she's certainly not allowed to, she fears he would see her differently, she could fear so much. It isn't right for her to lock him out of all this, but it does make sense. And because she never brought Coop into the fold, he's had to learn of all this in the worst possible way. He can't see how or if her hands are tied, isn't thinking about the absolute necessity she sees of that good vault. He doesn't have the whole picture, and then he goes and gets mixed up with the Reds. The pinkos. The enemy of America and Vault-tec.

Maybe the price of Janey's getting a spot in one of the good vaults after the company discovers Cooper's little indescretion is that she divorces him. Publicly. That he is shamed and ruined and cast out, as other actors who have spoken out against all this have been. It certainly seems plausible. That she gets to stay with their daughter, on a leash but safe from the bombs, and he doesn't. It doesn't feel implausible to me, that the divorce was orchestrated by Vault-tec more than Barb and Cooper. It would explain why the Ghoul is still hunting for her as his wife, and not just Janey and Janey's mother.

What if she's at the Enclave? With Janey? And when Hank was saying:

"Your old stomping grounds actually..."

It's because it was Vault 38 where her and Janey were put into Cryo, and a vault where she helped to "manage" all the other vaults up to a point?

She's the one being named as the executive for putting certain vault experiments forward. She's the one House names as an "unknown" and is tied to FEV in the vaults and the creation of the deathclaws.

"You always spent so much time calculating how to survive all possible contingencies."

See the word used there would immediately point to House - as the human calculator - being the culprit. But who else was also planning for all contingencies so she could try and find a way for her family to survive? Specifically Janey? And not just that, but thrive? Barb.

Also I won't spoil it but I know something about House from the games that makes that comment seem redundant/incorrect. It never rang right in my head, some puzzle piece just wasn't fitting.

Guys I think it's Barb. I think it's all Barb. She's the other player.

She's already linked to Moldaver and the cold fusion, but what if she was Wilzigs boss? Wilzigs who knew everything about all the vaults, who was involved in FEV and the mind control devices in season 1. What if she's the head of the entire operation that both ended the world and is now mutating it forward?

I think those cryo pods are empty.

(The cryo pods seemed active when we saw them in episode 5, but it just feels so quick? Really? We find them already? I don't know guys somethings not adding up).

Hank was her assistant, if anyone's giving him a 219 years late promotion through puppeteering Vault-Tec it's her. She's his BOSS.

What if the mind control devices that House was trying to implement were taken by Barb in exchange for the cold fusion (which he never got) and furthered through the Vault 38 experiment which she oversaw. And Hank taking over it is carrying on her work.

But it's not just the mind control devices.

It's the 31, 32, 33 experiment too. It's the implementation of FEV. Hank isn't just carrying on with the 38 experiment, he's also put into motion what Barb created; phase 2 for Vaults 32 and 33. Her work, that's Hank's picked up, and wants to "bring it all home."

Mind control, and mutants, and the world without borders controlled by one entity... Vault-Tec? Or perhaps something else, something worse thats managing it all. Something Barb's affiliated with that even made House shit pant. Because War never changes, and Barb was pulling all the strings from the start. I think she still is.

If this is the case what a fucking insane character they've made. What a badass evil complex fucking goated spectacularly sadistic yet righteously sympathetic antagonist they've written. Who is connected to all our heroes in ways I can't even begin to write down. But especially Cooper like holy shit.

HOLY SHIT.

I think Ella said in an international interview something about her being "geographically lost" at the end of season 2. Take it with a big pinch of salt I need to find it. But what if that's because somehow by the end of the season she gets abducted and taken to the Enclave? What if that's where she meets Barb and Janey?

Barb kidnaps Lucy because Lucy is part of her experiment. What if the Enclave take Lucy because of something to do with 33 and the FEV and so Lucy is technically a specimen? Something they need to lock down and study.

And Cooper and Max end up having to go on a roadtrip of their own, one that leads them to the Enclave. To Lucy, Janey and Barb.

Oh the ANGST of it all, what will Cooper do huh? His ex-wife and his wasteland wife? And what will Lucy and Barbs conversation be like as two badass woman on the opposing ends of morality that blur through the middle. Oh god Lucy and Janey interacting my heart 🥺 I wonder if she's still a kid or all grown up if they are out of the pods.

I think I'm wrong, I'm probably wrong and it's gonna be so funny when I am.

Watch them just be in those pods and the reveal is something like "the other player was the friends me made along the way" lmao. But I would love it if I'm not. There was a shining glorious moment where all the dots connected in my head, and it's gone again.

I suppose we shall see.

Oh god what if Barbs tied to Cooper becoming a Ghoul? Usually it's just via radiation, but the US government were actively experimenting on humans and turning them into ghouls. This is crack at this point but it's fun thinking of all the potentialities. Guys I love Barb what the actual fuck of a character have they made she's so cool and I also agree with Goggins. If this is true, in many ways she is the devil.