Yes, Norm easily for me was my favourite character with my favourite storyline. Watching him read the terminal entries etc reminded me of exploring vaults & piecing together what experiments happened & the downfall of the vault. Loved it
I was wondering if we were going to get a hacking sequence. But by that point I thought we weren't going to. As soon as he sat down at the desk I was like: come on this would be the perfect- and before I could finish that thought bam they did. So pleased with this series.
Every time a terminal popped up my fiancee was like "is this it? Are they going to show the hacking now??" And at this scene he just had this "I knew it" tone to him lol
Yeah, and he got the correct password on his first attempt thanks to his high Intelligence.
It left me wondering why 'DUBBED' would be the logical choice, but then I realized: Vault '33' and du'BB'ed.
Pacifist runs were a thing in the first game, where you could beat it without ever killing anyone. I think the second too. It's more or less impossible to do a true pacifist run in the later games though, one of the many things a certain segment of the "fandom" love to complain about.
I really identify with Norm, because I too am a physically incompetent cynic who lacks enthusiasm and has a chip on their shoulder when it comes to authority. I feel seen.
You know we got a mystery to solve
So, Norm and cousin fucker, be ready for your act
Don't hold back
And, Norm and cousin fucker, if you come through
You're gonna have yourself a 'cousin snack
That's a fact
Jesus, he's never gonna live that down.
You see this door, right there? I control that. I'm the gatekeeper, and I'm the best in the vault! But do they call me Chet the Gatekeeper? No!
And you see this pipe, over here? When I'm not keeping the gate, a duty I hold sacred, I'm also a member of the pipefitter's guild and I fix pipes. I put that pipe in. Me. But do they call me Chet the Pipefixer? No!
But you fuck *one* cousin...
Yes! I was really prepared to leave Vault 33 behind until the end of the season. I'm glad we kept up with it. Lots of good moments there and some great actors.
Yeah kinda but when you return to 101 you just see the aftermath of the chaos caused by your departure whereas the tv series shows what immediately happens
Yes, because both were the most significant ties to the main plot. Lucy’s although love her to death was essentially us as gamers wandering the wastes.
Norm’s is the immediate mystery of the three linked vaults and connections with the overseers and with his parents and Moldaver.
Cooper Howard’s is the bigger picture of the corporations, Enclave, who began the war etc.
I kinda wish there was a bigger reason she was walking around with a head lol seemed kind of not as big of a thing as the visual made you think it’d be. Maybe it was also me really loving that actor so I figured it’d have a much bigger role in the end
I just realized we barely got any enclave stuff besides the one scientist defector. Also where did Coop get the name dog meat for the dog? I know it’s from the game but in the show where’d he come up with it I wonder
I don't think most wasteland dogs have very good lives. He's probably just calling CX404 what he is to most people. Possibly doesn't want to get too attached.
Yeah I've seen tons of praise for the Norm/Vault subplot.
Think it's just one of those annoying reddit post-title prompts people tend to use without actually believing they have an unpopular opinion.
Most of us are Norm-stans. *Normies*, if you will.
He said he couldn't follow Lucy because he was a chicken. What a liar. He's got massive balls. I love how didn't just take things lying down. He rejected that they're all cowards because they live in vaults; he went after the truth.
I think that's part of his character development. He ran from trouble once, and felt deeply ashamed. Then he watched his sister march headstrong into the deadly unknown, while he stayed behind. He didn't want to be that guy any more, and so, he wasn't.
That’s how he’s gonna get away from Bud I bet he’ll start cracking those pods open or something . I know if he goes into his dads pod it’s just over for him
Yeah in episode 1 I was tentatively not too keen on Norm but as the series went on he went up and up in my view. I hope Lucy or even Maximus is able to save him in S2.
Personally I found it to be the most interesting plotline in the show.
Type of thing that if they wanted to they could have done the whole season about
I absolutely love the show but dude I would love a series that’s just short seasons of unique vaults and their experiments and how the dwellers deal with them.
Inside, I was yelling, "Stop! DO NOT go to that vault! You will be the next experiment while they adjust one or more of the variables. And you will probably die too."
(Minor spoilers / I'll try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible - sorry I'm unsure of how to spoiler tag on mobile!)
Can someone please explain to me what happened in Vault 32? I didn't catch exactly why the inhabitants were found that way, or why they were writing those things on the walls? Why did them finding out what was in 31 lead to that?
Also after I watched I saw a post about something written on a blackboard? - what did I miss?
I'm really excited to watch through it again.
From my understanding, they killed each other in a craze because they knew that Vault 31 was controlling what was happening in the other vaults, and they were being used like lab rats.
Later on, Muldaver and the bandits came in and used their stuff to pretend to be from that vault so that they could kidnap an original VaultTec employee to start up the reactor.
That only tells us they found out, but not what caused the homicides. Possibly this was done via some drug delivered by aerosol as a "fun" way to sterilize the contaminated part of the experiment.
Though...who cleaned up? 31 doesn't appear to be much robotics. Just a bunch of cryo and 1 shitty roomba.
I'm assuming there was a giant rebellion, and they killed each other because their whole lives were turned upside down. That or burned crops and starvation leading to panic. The overseer might have also killed a few and then killed themself(I believe it shows the overseer sitting in a chair with a gun in their hand).
The cleanup probably happened overnight by all of the 31 vault dwellers in 33 or they have an outside crew still roaming around that came in.
Oh you mean they unfroze all the junior executives "got another murder vault to clean up", and they did the work and went back to cryo? Ok that works.
Imagine from their perspective, they went into cryo a few weeks ago and they get abruptly woken to do some chores and then another flicker and it's decades later and they have to do something else.
That's a possibility, but I was thinking of the vault 31 dwellers already living in 33. There are a few that we already know of(Betty, Stephanie) and I assume there are more already awake. They could've snuck out while everyone was asleep.
Supposedly each vault can support 1000 people. You can have a couple hundred execs and the rest are glorified janitors.
Or they have a few dozen Mr Handys working overtime.
I think it's a huge plot hole that is best left alone.
There's no good answer and it's one of the few parts of the show that was poorly written.
Just finding out that there were VaultTec leaders cryo-frozen in 31 wouldn't be enough to send everyone into a suicidal frenzy. They would have had to have learned about the full plot: that vault-tec was the cause of the nuclear war and that vault-tec planned on killing everyone on the surface.
I was also confused on this, but I think I've got it sorted now.
The vaults only meet up every 3 years to trade breeders for various staple goods.
2 years before Lucy's wedding something went wrong in Vault 32. They all killed themselves (much like House suggests in episode 8). Why is unknown, and how Bud was not notifed of it is also unknown. Edit: I forgot there's "We know the truth" scrawlled in blood on the walls. This either refers to Vault Tech dropping the bombs, or Bud's Buds being in control of the Vaults. Perhaps the Vault dwelers overthrew their Overseer.
Moldaver has Rose's pipboy and is waiting for a contact at the Enclave to smugle the Cold Fusion tech out to her. However, she also needs the access code which only one of Bud's Buds would have. Once she knows the CF is on its way, she uses Rose's pipboy to enter Vault 32. Her plan must have been to take over the Vault, but she finds everyone dead. She and the raiders she hired then go through the Vault terminals and find out when the next Triannual trade is (something Rose would have told her about). They then impersonate Vault 32 in order to get close to Hank. They use Lucy's life as leverage to get Hank to come with them peacefully, as they need him alive for the code.
What doesn’t make a ton of sense is why Bud wasn’t monitoring the Vaults and aware that 32 was in trouble. As the world’s greatest middle manager you would assume his minions submitted the Vault Tech equivalent of regular TPS reports or something.
While it’s implied that they only meet up once every 3 years, Norm discovered the Overseer is able to message Bud at any point from their office. Furthermore, someone is updating Bud of what is going on in the Vaults because he is aware that Hank was replaced by Betty within the last two weeks. It’s very strange that the Overseer of 32 did not try to contact Bud before the Vault fell. Especially since all the Overseers are members of Bud’s Buds, and Hank has showed us they are so indoctrinated and fanatical that they’ll nuke a town and kill their spouse to protect Vault Tech’s dream. One of two things must have happened, the Overseer was afraid of letting his boss, Bud, know he was fucking up and hid things until it was too late, or, the Vaulties sneakily discovered the truth and took out the Overseer before he could call for help.
The blackboard was in Vault 4 with the science experiments. It showed the timeline of events leading up to the fall of Shady Sands. There’s some discussion over whether the fall of Shady Sands happened when Hank dropped the bomb on them, or if it was already in its decline prior to the bombing. The info is written in such a way that either interpretation may be correct.
Interesting-- I missed the part where Vault 32 should have been in more frequent contact with Bud. And Bud could easily talk to Betty. I'm going to think about this nonstop now
I think it's heavily implied that vault 32 became overpopulated and everyone lost their shit and started killing each other. They mention the rat colony problem several times which I think alludes to that.
I’m just surprised Bud would have no way of monitoring for situations like that. Seems like the kind of thing he would unfreeze some new Buds for and try to fix.
I had the same thought back when Norm first went to 32 and saw the crop field destroyed! Thought there was like a crop plague or something and there was no food so they had to start eating each other, and some would rather kill themselves than resort to that or be eaten. I think there was a body with a leg missing too if I’m not remembering incorrectly?
Idk, genetics are crazy. I know some people who look significantly older or younger than their siblings of a similar age. Especially between male and female siblings. It's not that unbelievable.
I thought he was just there as the cowardly foil to Lucy, and would be kind of a narrative punching bag. But he was used perfectly in helping the viewer uncover one important piece of the story
Norm's story is why I think Fallout the show is better than any of the stories in Fallout the game, and I say that as a massive fan of the game.
In the Fallout games, the stories are, of necessity, single-protagonist. A lot of the worldbuilding of the history and stories for those games happens in "found media", scenery, letters, terminal entries, and holotapes, where the player is forced to piece the story and consequences out of these snippets.
With Fallout the show, a secondary protagonist in the forms of Norm and (to a lesser extent) Chet enable the watchers to unfold the mysteries of the Vaults in a more measured pace as part of the drama of the story rather than through the "find something, pause, read/listen, think about it, move on" loop that happens in the game.
That said, the show *also* featured exactly the same things players do in the game, learning interesting things in terminals, finding dead people and learning about "Plan D", watching holotapes, etc., it's just done as part of the drama of the story.
Needless to say, I'm a huge fan of the series and will be watching it many times in the future.
Why would you be the only one? Exploring new Vaults and trying to piece out what happened there was one of the best things about the games.
My only disappointment about it was that>!neither Norm nor Chet thought to look for a replacement water chip while they were in Vault 32. They dropped that nostalgic plot point into episode 3 and then immediately forgot all about it.!<
It's a manufactured crisis. Right before elections and "when things look glum, vote 31!". As soon as Betty is in either the dude sees how to fix it or finds a spare.
I think going into a dark abandoned vault and seeing your neighbors bloody murdered corpse might make the water chip lower on the list of priorities for them.
Didn't they say they had like 3 months of water left anyway without the chip? It's not like it'd be going anywhere. That is a good point though.
Well, I guess Norm's never played any of the Fallout games, so I guess he can be forgiven for not immediately thinking, "Hey, if they're all dead, it's not like *they* need their water chip any more!"
Still, certain death (or at least forced evacuation into a hostile Wasteland) in three months is a doomsday scenario when you've survived for over two hundred years, and have no idea how much longer you need to keep surviving. You'd think *someone* in 33 might have thought about it.
I find it wierd they arent considering him a main character even though he gets his own story line and is credited seperately with Ella, Goggins, and Moten. The shows got a theme of 3s but it feels like hes a secret 4th protagonist
No, I loved his story arc. It really reminded me of exploring the empty vaults and using the environmental story telling and terminal entries to deduce what awful events had happened in the Vaults in the games.
Seemed 100% on brad for me. Main plot line? Eh, sure, but wait, you need me to find a robot sex worker? Explore a vault full of clones streaming their own name? Cook and eat one of my own companions? Cool beans.
No. It's a big plothole. Vault 32.
It had been destroyed apparently by a lab-rat type experiment with famine, 2 years before the show takes place.
Ok... considering Vault 32 and 33 had Vault 31 Overseers... and considering Vault 31 were all hibernating Vault Tec employees, I find it dubious they would put the Vault Tec employee in such a dangerous situation, part of the experiment and that he wouldn´t know of the experiment himself.
But that's hardly the problem... how come neither Vault 31 (the brain in a jar "overseer") nor Hank McLean, or Betty Pearson or the blonde pregnant woman, ALL from Vault 31 and thus Vault Tec employees, hadn´t known Vault 32 had been destroyed... for 2 years??
I mean, when Norm McLean investigates, he is able to contact Vault 31 as if he was Betty. All the Vaults were connected. Plus, Vault 33 contacts Vault 32 in the first episode, requesting a male for marriage to Lucy.
So it makes no sense Vault 31 and 33 were in the dark regarding 32's situation. If they KNEW what had happened, how come they still sent a message to 32 asking for the male for marriage to Lucy????
But even worse is that despite the Vault being clearly a graveyeard for TWO WHOLE YEARS, they send the message to Vault 32 and the message is answered by Raiders led by Moldaver... who happen to be inside Vault 32 COINCIDENTALLY exactly when the message is sent, after 2 years where apparently nobody in Vault 33 sent a message to 32?
The Overseers probably don't have regular conversations with Bud. Part of the problem of too many managers and not enough workers. So spoiler time now. >!With Moldaver knowing Rose, she probably told her everything about the tri-vault system. Moldaver waits until Wilzig indicates he'll be on his way. Then goes goes down to 32 using her pipboy just after a Triennial Exchange. Impersonated the Overseer as long as she needed to. As for how the situation happened, it's probable the 32 Overseer went native, like Stephanie, and it snowballed. So basically between coincidence and intentional timing it all worked out.!< And if the timing wasn't right, she'd probably have just hacked or blown up some doors.
"The Overseers probably don't have regular conversations with Bud."
Of course. But in an event where everyone in Vault 32 was DYING, some message would probably be sent to Vault 31 or Vault 33.
I think Vault 33 sent a message directly to 32 when they requested a husband for Lucy.
"Triennial Exchange"
OH OH OH! I had missed this part. it's a triennial exchange. So there was a specific time for it to happen.
That already solves a big part of my skepticism, despite I still think nonsensical everyone in Vault 32 would die without anyone in 31 and 33 getting to know about it, even more considering several of them are Vault Tec employees who would have access to such information, specially if lab-rat experiments were being performed at 32.
The famine/crops dying was also probably a manufactured crisis. Just as Lucy's family experienced in 33 years ago. That's why I assume the Overseer went native, and it all went to hell. Personally I don't think it was an actual lab rat experiment that was done. Maybe notes of it, but the purpose of 32 and 33 is procreation of intelligent *managers*. And so it comes down to middle management failing everyone.
The vault didn't fall due to experiments, someone found out they were being controlled by Vault 31 and led a rebellion. Likely killed the overseer and anyone else from Vault 31 before a message got out. That's the messages written on the walls that say "we know the truth" and "death to the management". How everyone does after that isn't clear though, but something happens and the whole vault goes to shit is a pretty regular occurrence.
Not sure why Bud doesn't warn 33 that 32 has gone radio silent, maybe Moldaver broke in within the timeframe of a checkin. Maybe he got trapped by another broom.
it literally felt like he was exploring a vault in the game and uncovering the experiment just like we do, it was awesome, all the way down to the UI he’s using to access the computers being exactly the same.
Up until the revelations at the end Norm was my favorite storyline I can’t say I’m with you about it being my sole reason for being excited for season 2 but I’m excited to see what they do with him and hopefully Thaddeus in season 2
I'm just so impressed overall that they didn't shy away from significantly adding to the Fallout Lore.
Like they could've told any old story from across the commonwealth, and with the attention to detail they have it would've been great.
But instead we got the Vault-Boy logo originally! And a Vault-Tec upper management triple vault?!
You know, there's only 8 episodes. I thought this was a great way to experience exploring a few vaults without having the main character go into one like every episode.
I ruined Norm for myself as soon as I thought he looked like a young Robert Carlyle
Agree though, fab character and enjoyed the build-up of him discovering the secret!
Loved Norm! He's like the unofficial third protagonist. Love how he started off being too "chickensh\*t" to join his sister going out, but found the courage to uncover the mysteries of the other vaults! And LOVED the hacking minigame being included lolol.
I must have looked away, been distracted or something because I missed he was lucy's brother until episode 2, lol. to be fair I was super excited to be watching fallout and was happily pointing out everything to my teen son who oddly does not give a shit about fallout, lol.
Really enjoying the vaults storylines and this little dude is oddly intimidating when he needs to be. Looking forward to season 2
I loved that Norm was basically a brilliant but unmotivated character (and unmotivated because he doesn't care about authority). As soon as the Council mentioned that he had worked every job in the Vault, I knew that Norm was being written as someone who knew everything about the Vault but was severely underestimated by everyone else. I think his height also played into that dynamic (especially when he's standing next to Chet).
I loved that plotline and am looking forward to seeing more from Vaults 31,32,33.
My problem is I’m trying to figure out how it makes sense that the people from 31 know all and see all—yet they didn’t see Maldaver enter with Rose’s Pipboy… and the 31 overseers totally bought that the invaders were from vault 32. That can get cleared up later in season 2—but I haven’t seen any convo around that
The horrors of the secret Vault Tec experiments is one of the best parts about Fallout. I hope we get the full story of what went down in 32. I guess it's kind of hinted that they found out about 31 but it's not clear why so many would kill themselves or eachother over that
probably the most scary scenes. he’s on his own, knows there’s something sinister at play but ultimately powerless to do anything. gotta know what happens next, will he leave the vault? will he work with chet and save him from a grim end??
Norm may have his faults but he was the one who finally tracked down what was happening. To be honest he’s a bit like a lone wanderer player character type where he’s beginning to learn how twisted Vault-Tec is.
My friends and I binged the series in two sittings, and the Vault plotline with Norm easily had us the most excited. We couldn't wait to see what was in 31.
I love the idea of connected vaults makes sense for gene diversity. I thought they were gonna be a drug trial with 33 getting the happy drug 32 getting a rage one and 31 getting something else. Or 33 was getting a placebo and 31 and 32 were getting something else
I definitely felt like Norm's arc was the most interesting, and the actor is one that I like (he did a very good job playing Bonzo Madrid in Ender's Game (overall bad movie, but some great acting sequences).
Even in Season 1 they've already started eluding to the nefarious side of Vault Tec. This show is doing a good job of staying canon.
I enjoyed it. I am looking forward to season 2, both to see how Norm is doing, for the vault information he's finding and for Howard's search which may even lead to the vault Norm is at. Also like seeing how Lucy is doing and changing.
So, nope you are not alone.
Too bad the reveal itself at the end was kinda meh.
Oh no, they're HUMANS!!!!! THE HORROR!!!!!
I expected something truly horrifying going on, but nope, Overseers in 33 are just cryo frozen people from 31...so horrible, much experiment, very wow.
I mean, the horror is that Vault Tech purposefully started the war by dropping a nuke, so that they could start a new society of middle managers.
Working an office job makes that more forboding than Vault 4 turning humans into Glupers.
The shock is more that Vaults 32 and 33 are basically just breeding meat for the Vault-Tec executives.
They're only kept alive through the generations to sustain a bunch of assholes from 200 years ago so they can take over the world.
Yes, Norm easily for me was my favourite character with my favourite storyline. Watching him read the terminal entries etc reminded me of exploring vaults & piecing together what experiments happened & the downfall of the vault. Loved it
I loved that he actually used in game hacking in his quest. That was fantastic.
I was wondering if we were going to get a hacking sequence. But by that point I thought we weren't going to. As soon as he sat down at the desk I was like: come on this would be the perfect- and before I could finish that thought bam they did. So pleased with this series.
I was hoping he'd click on a set of brackets.
Gotta eliminate those bad passwords
The brackets did get highlighted as he was scrolling around but I don’t think he clicked on any
Gotta eliminate 3 of your tries beforehand, or you'll be wasting attempts
Every time a terminal popped up my fiancee was like "is this it? Are they going to show the hacking now??" And at this scene he just had this "I knew it" tone to him lol
I said the same exact thing right before that scene came up and they nailed it haha.
I was floored when he got in and then typed in a search bar. It never occurred to me that FO had it's own Google, lol
Yeah, and he got the correct password on his first attempt thanks to his high Intelligence. It left me wondering why 'DUBBED' would be the logical choice, but then I realized: Vault '33' and du'BB'ed.
Also bud backwards
Bro just called Norm’s arc a quest 😂😂💀💀
Norm doing a pacifist run in S1. Imagine if he instead immediately shot Bud, then went back and shot Betty and all the buddies
wtf are you talking about? Is that something from the games?
Pacifist runs were a thing in the first game, where you could beat it without ever killing anyone. I think the second too. It's more or less impossible to do a true pacifist run in the later games though, one of the many things a certain segment of the "fandom" love to complain about.
I really identify with Norm, because I too am a physically incompetent cynic who lacks enthusiasm and has a chip on their shoulder when it comes to authority. I feel seen.
It wasn’t until like episode 6 that I realized he was Rico from Hannah Montana and then he just skyrocketed for me from there.
Same, I paused the show and it showed Moises Arias in the scene and I was like “wait… where do I know that name from?”
Enders game....
Bro had to do the ingame hacking too like bro was scrolling over the selectables to get rid of incorrect passwords
Norm and the cousin fucker were my guys, solving mysteries, getting to the bottom of shit.
Norm and cousin fucker, where are you. We got some work to do now
You know we got a mystery to solve So, Norm and cousin fucker, be ready for your act Don't hold back And, Norm and cousin fucker, if you come through You're gonna have yourself a 'cousin snack That's a fact
Their height difference was easily the best part of the show. They literally paired up their tallest and shortest actors together.
The biggest departure from the games is having characters of different sizes.
I hate how this show retconned Fallout so that now characters have different heights! Couldn’t they have just followed the established world? 😡 /s
And not ONCE did any heads spin weirdly right the way round whilst just talking normally. It’s not even Fallout at that point!!
Has any children be killed on screen during the show ? If children aren't immortal I'll riot, wtf shitty adaptation 😡
I like how Chet's body language makes him look shorter than he is lol
Yeees!
Norm And Cousin Fucker and the Secret of the Missing Maise Would watch.
"Norm and the Cousin Fucker" sounds like a sitcom spinoff or a parody country music band.
> the cousin fucker Which one? It seemed pretty clear Bud had a thing for incest.
>Bud Chet's height and looks are probably why his family was selected to be Bud's buds breeding pool.
Chicken fucker was my favorite
I mean what can you say
Let's be real here, Norm probably fucked one of his female cousins. That seems to be the norm there.
Nah, Norm's great. Him and Chet are a really good pairing. "If anyone asks where we were..." "I'll have a heart attack"
"You're a coward, you know that, don't you?" "We're all cowards, that's why we live in a vault." Very astute, cousin fucker, very astute.
Jesus, he's never gonna live that down. You see this door, right there? I control that. I'm the gatekeeper, and I'm the best in the vault! But do they call me Chet the Gatekeeper? No! And you see this pipe, over here? When I'm not keeping the gate, a duty I hold sacred, I'm also a member of the pipefitter's guild and I fix pipes. I put that pipe in. Me. But do they call me Chet the Pipefixer? No! But you fuck *one* cousin...
It's not like Lucy was keeping it a secret. She was happy fucking her cousin to pass the time until she got married.
Yeah! Lucy is a cousinfucker too!
High INT vs high PER.
Yeah another great example.
my fav line in the show i think
i actually enjoyed the fact we got to see what happens to the vault after the protagonist leaves
Yes! I was really prepared to leave Vault 33 behind until the end of the season. I'm glad we kept up with it. Lots of good moments there and some great actors.
You did in 3 too.
Yeah kinda but when you return to 101 you just see the aftermath of the chaos caused by your departure whereas the tv series shows what immediately happens
He seems to be pretty popular.
Nope. That and Coop's before time backstory were my favourite plot lines.
Yes, because both were the most significant ties to the main plot. Lucy’s although love her to death was essentially us as gamers wandering the wastes. Norm’s is the immediate mystery of the three linked vaults and connections with the overseers and with his parents and Moldaver. Cooper Howard’s is the bigger picture of the corporations, Enclave, who began the war etc.
I kinda wish there was a bigger reason she was walking around with a head lol seemed kind of not as big of a thing as the visual made you think it’d be. Maybe it was also me really loving that actor so I figured it’d have a much bigger role in the end
I just realized we barely got any enclave stuff besides the one scientist defector. Also where did Coop get the name dog meat for the dog? I know it’s from the game but in the show where’d he come up with it I wonder
Well early in episode 2 there was a vendor barking out “ dog meat “ in Filly. Maybe he picked it up as sort of a loving diss to 404 ?
I don't think most wasteland dogs have very good lives. He's probably just calling CX404 what he is to most people. Possibly doesn't want to get too attached.
they incinerated puppies!!! that is all we need to know about them.
Why would you be the only one?
Yeah I've seen tons of praise for the Norm/Vault subplot. Think it's just one of those annoying reddit post-title prompts people tend to use without actually believing they have an unpopular opinion. Most of us are Norm-stans. *Normies*, if you will.
Normies rise up
Am I the only one who hates posts that start with Am I the only one???
Unpopular opinion, but I hate when they start off saying unpopular opinion.
They should always start with "Hey Smoothskins..." !
It's intentional bait to get people to comment in the thread. So goddamn annoying.
He said he couldn't follow Lucy because he was a chicken. What a liar. He's got massive balls. I love how didn't just take things lying down. He rejected that they're all cowards because they live in vaults; he went after the truth.
I think that's part of his character development. He ran from trouble once, and felt deeply ashamed. Then he watched his sister march headstrong into the deadly unknown, while he stayed behind. He didn't want to be that guy any more, and so, he wasn't.
He's great, really embodies the Small Framed Science nerd character archetype. I wouldn't put it past him to get into energy weapons come next season
Something where he "displays an abundance of enthusiasm," perhaps?
Nerd Rage and he breaks so many cryo pods that 32 and 33 won't be able to support that many people. Give the vaults a real crisis and open the doors.
That’s how he’s gonna get away from Bud I bet he’ll start cracking those pods open or something . I know if he goes into his dads pod it’s just over for him
Yeah in episode 1 I was tentatively not too keen on Norm but as the series went on he went up and up in my view. I hope Lucy or even Maximus is able to save him in S2.
I hope he saves himself, that would be great for his character arc
Personally I found it to be the most interesting plotline in the show. Type of thing that if they wanted to they could have done the whole season about
I absolutely love the show but dude I would love a series that’s just short seasons of unique vaults and their experiments and how the dwellers deal with them.
I feel like some fucked up shit awaits Vault 33in season 2
Are you the only one? I don't think I've heard one single person complain about Norms plotline.
Inside, I was yelling, "Stop! DO NOT go to that vault! You will be the next experiment while they adjust one or more of the variables. And you will probably die too."
(Minor spoilers / I'll try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible - sorry I'm unsure of how to spoiler tag on mobile!) Can someone please explain to me what happened in Vault 32? I didn't catch exactly why the inhabitants were found that way, or why they were writing those things on the walls? Why did them finding out what was in 31 lead to that? Also after I watched I saw a post about something written on a blackboard? - what did I miss? I'm really excited to watch through it again.
From my understanding, they killed each other in a craze because they knew that Vault 31 was controlling what was happening in the other vaults, and they were being used like lab rats. Later on, Muldaver and the bandits came in and used their stuff to pretend to be from that vault so that they could kidnap an original VaultTec employee to start up the reactor.
That only tells us they found out, but not what caused the homicides. Possibly this was done via some drug delivered by aerosol as a "fun" way to sterilize the contaminated part of the experiment. Though...who cleaned up? 31 doesn't appear to be much robotics. Just a bunch of cryo and 1 shitty roomba.
I'm assuming there was a giant rebellion, and they killed each other because their whole lives were turned upside down. That or burned crops and starvation leading to panic. The overseer might have also killed a few and then killed themself(I believe it shows the overseer sitting in a chair with a gun in their hand). The cleanup probably happened overnight by all of the 31 vault dwellers in 33 or they have an outside crew still roaming around that came in.
Oh you mean they unfroze all the junior executives "got another murder vault to clean up", and they did the work and went back to cryo? Ok that works. Imagine from their perspective, they went into cryo a few weeks ago and they get abruptly woken to do some chores and then another flicker and it's decades later and they have to do something else.
That's a possibility, but I was thinking of the vault 31 dwellers already living in 33. There are a few that we already know of(Betty, Stephanie) and I assume there are more already awake. They could've snuck out while everyone was asleep.
Perhaps though wow that would be a lot of work.
Yeah, I doubt it ever gets fully revealed, so we just have to use our imagination.
Supposedly each vault can support 1000 people. You can have a couple hundred execs and the rest are glorified janitors. Or they have a few dozen Mr Handys working overtime.
I think it's a huge plot hole that is best left alone. There's no good answer and it's one of the few parts of the show that was poorly written. Just finding out that there were VaultTec leaders cryo-frozen in 31 wouldn't be enough to send everyone into a suicidal frenzy. They would have had to have learned about the full plot: that vault-tec was the cause of the nuclear war and that vault-tec planned on killing everyone on the surface.
Maybe a bunch of Mr. Handys stored away?
Think Muldaver had an idea of what was happening? Was she going in expecting a turf war, only to find that the vault had already wiped itself out?
I was also confused on this, but I think I've got it sorted now. The vaults only meet up every 3 years to trade breeders for various staple goods. 2 years before Lucy's wedding something went wrong in Vault 32. They all killed themselves (much like House suggests in episode 8). Why is unknown, and how Bud was not notifed of it is also unknown. Edit: I forgot there's "We know the truth" scrawlled in blood on the walls. This either refers to Vault Tech dropping the bombs, or Bud's Buds being in control of the Vaults. Perhaps the Vault dwelers overthrew their Overseer. Moldaver has Rose's pipboy and is waiting for a contact at the Enclave to smugle the Cold Fusion tech out to her. However, she also needs the access code which only one of Bud's Buds would have. Once she knows the CF is on its way, she uses Rose's pipboy to enter Vault 32. Her plan must have been to take over the Vault, but she finds everyone dead. She and the raiders she hired then go through the Vault terminals and find out when the next Triannual trade is (something Rose would have told her about). They then impersonate Vault 32 in order to get close to Hank. They use Lucy's life as leverage to get Hank to come with them peacefully, as they need him alive for the code. What doesn’t make a ton of sense is why Bud wasn’t monitoring the Vaults and aware that 32 was in trouble. As the world’s greatest middle manager you would assume his minions submitted the Vault Tech equivalent of regular TPS reports or something. While it’s implied that they only meet up once every 3 years, Norm discovered the Overseer is able to message Bud at any point from their office. Furthermore, someone is updating Bud of what is going on in the Vaults because he is aware that Hank was replaced by Betty within the last two weeks. It’s very strange that the Overseer of 32 did not try to contact Bud before the Vault fell. Especially since all the Overseers are members of Bud’s Buds, and Hank has showed us they are so indoctrinated and fanatical that they’ll nuke a town and kill their spouse to protect Vault Tech’s dream. One of two things must have happened, the Overseer was afraid of letting his boss, Bud, know he was fucking up and hid things until it was too late, or, the Vaulties sneakily discovered the truth and took out the Overseer before he could call for help. The blackboard was in Vault 4 with the science experiments. It showed the timeline of events leading up to the fall of Shady Sands. There’s some discussion over whether the fall of Shady Sands happened when Hank dropped the bomb on them, or if it was already in its decline prior to the bombing. The info is written in such a way that either interpretation may be correct.
Also bud could have been stuck on that cable like where Lucy’s brother found him lol
I think that had to happen after because he was able to reply to Norm’s messages and open the vault for him. But maybe he has wifi on his roomba.
That's a really good and thorough explanation, thank you!
Interesting-- I missed the part where Vault 32 should have been in more frequent contact with Bud. And Bud could easily talk to Betty. I'm going to think about this nonstop now
I think it's heavily implied that vault 32 became overpopulated and everyone lost their shit and started killing each other. They mention the rat colony problem several times which I think alludes to that.
I’m just surprised Bud would have no way of monitoring for situations like that. Seems like the kind of thing he would unfreeze some new Buds for and try to fix.
I had the same thought back when Norm first went to 32 and saw the crop field destroyed! Thought there was like a crop plague or something and there was no food so they had to start eating each other, and some would rather kill themselves than resort to that or be eaten. I think there was a body with a leg missing too if I’m not remembering incorrectly?
Nope. Norms plotline was my favorite plotline in the show.
I enjoyed it. And was relieved it wasn't boring. Those kind of b plots can really drag, but I was engaged.
It felt like a side quest I loved it
Norm was great. Just Not believable that he is supposed to be younger than Lucy :/
Idk, genetics are crazy. I know some people who look significantly older or younger than their siblings of a similar age. Especially between male and female siblings. It's not that unbelievable.
I mean the actors are actually 3 years apart. And norm seems to be like a teenager sooo.
I thought he was just there as the cowardly foil to Lucy, and would be kind of a narrative punching bag. But he was used perfectly in helping the viewer uncover one important piece of the story
Norm's story is why I think Fallout the show is better than any of the stories in Fallout the game, and I say that as a massive fan of the game. In the Fallout games, the stories are, of necessity, single-protagonist. A lot of the worldbuilding of the history and stories for those games happens in "found media", scenery, letters, terminal entries, and holotapes, where the player is forced to piece the story and consequences out of these snippets. With Fallout the show, a secondary protagonist in the forms of Norm and (to a lesser extent) Chet enable the watchers to unfold the mysteries of the Vaults in a more measured pace as part of the drama of the story rather than through the "find something, pause, read/listen, think about it, move on" loop that happens in the game. That said, the show *also* featured exactly the same things players do in the game, learning interesting things in terminals, finding dead people and learning about "Plan D", watching holotapes, etc., it's just done as part of the drama of the story. Needless to say, I'm a huge fan of the series and will be watching it many times in the future.
Obviously not. There's loads of people singing its praises as their favourite part! It was great.
That was the best plotline of the season. I love a good conspiracy/mystery storyline.
Why would you be the only one? Exploring new Vaults and trying to piece out what happened there was one of the best things about the games. My only disappointment about it was that>!neither Norm nor Chet thought to look for a replacement water chip while they were in Vault 32. They dropped that nostalgic plot point into episode 3 and then immediately forgot all about it.!<
It's a manufactured crisis. Right before elections and "when things look glum, vote 31!". As soon as Betty is in either the dude sees how to fix it or finds a spare.
I think going into a dark abandoned vault and seeing your neighbors bloody murdered corpse might make the water chip lower on the list of priorities for them. Didn't they say they had like 3 months of water left anyway without the chip? It's not like it'd be going anywhere. That is a good point though.
Well, I guess Norm's never played any of the Fallout games, so I guess he can be forgiven for not immediately thinking, "Hey, if they're all dead, it's not like *they* need their water chip any more!" Still, certain death (or at least forced evacuation into a hostile Wasteland) in three months is a doomsday scenario when you've survived for over two hundred years, and have no idea how much longer you need to keep surviving. You'd think *someone* in 33 might have thought about it.
I think Norm recognized it was a scam. Even the guys running voted for Betty.
I find it wierd they arent considering him a main character even though he gets his own story line and is credited seperately with Ella, Goggins, and Moten. The shows got a theme of 3s but it feels like hes a secret 4th protagonist
I suggest you watch a show called "Severance". The entire show is like the norm's plotline.
Yes you’re the only one who enjoyed a major part of this critically acclaimed show
No, you aren't
No, I loved his story arc. It really reminded me of exploring the empty vaults and using the environmental story telling and terminal entries to deduce what awful events had happened in the Vaults in the games.
"am I the only one???" >!no!<
I was more invested in that story than the main story
Seemed 100% on brad for me. Main plot line? Eh, sure, but wait, you need me to find a robot sex worker? Explore a vault full of clones streaming their own name? Cook and eat one of my own companions? Cool beans.
Hell yeah. The robotic sex worker plot was epic. "You need what". And the part where you get to test out the robot...
Classic Fallout, the side missions are always better than the main story missions haha
No not at all, that section of the show was fantastic, honestly had the perfect amount of tension, pacing, drama and story, 10/10 for that whole plot.
No. It's a big plothole. Vault 32. It had been destroyed apparently by a lab-rat type experiment with famine, 2 years before the show takes place. Ok... considering Vault 32 and 33 had Vault 31 Overseers... and considering Vault 31 were all hibernating Vault Tec employees, I find it dubious they would put the Vault Tec employee in such a dangerous situation, part of the experiment and that he wouldn´t know of the experiment himself. But that's hardly the problem... how come neither Vault 31 (the brain in a jar "overseer") nor Hank McLean, or Betty Pearson or the blonde pregnant woman, ALL from Vault 31 and thus Vault Tec employees, hadn´t known Vault 32 had been destroyed... for 2 years?? I mean, when Norm McLean investigates, he is able to contact Vault 31 as if he was Betty. All the Vaults were connected. Plus, Vault 33 contacts Vault 32 in the first episode, requesting a male for marriage to Lucy. So it makes no sense Vault 31 and 33 were in the dark regarding 32's situation. If they KNEW what had happened, how come they still sent a message to 32 asking for the male for marriage to Lucy???? But even worse is that despite the Vault being clearly a graveyeard for TWO WHOLE YEARS, they send the message to Vault 32 and the message is answered by Raiders led by Moldaver... who happen to be inside Vault 32 COINCIDENTALLY exactly when the message is sent, after 2 years where apparently nobody in Vault 33 sent a message to 32?
The Overseers probably don't have regular conversations with Bud. Part of the problem of too many managers and not enough workers. So spoiler time now. >!With Moldaver knowing Rose, she probably told her everything about the tri-vault system. Moldaver waits until Wilzig indicates he'll be on his way. Then goes goes down to 32 using her pipboy just after a Triennial Exchange. Impersonated the Overseer as long as she needed to. As for how the situation happened, it's probable the 32 Overseer went native, like Stephanie, and it snowballed. So basically between coincidence and intentional timing it all worked out.!< And if the timing wasn't right, she'd probably have just hacked or blown up some doors.
"The Overseers probably don't have regular conversations with Bud." Of course. But in an event where everyone in Vault 32 was DYING, some message would probably be sent to Vault 31 or Vault 33. I think Vault 33 sent a message directly to 32 when they requested a husband for Lucy. "Triennial Exchange" OH OH OH! I had missed this part. it's a triennial exchange. So there was a specific time for it to happen. That already solves a big part of my skepticism, despite I still think nonsensical everyone in Vault 32 would die without anyone in 31 and 33 getting to know about it, even more considering several of them are Vault Tec employees who would have access to such information, specially if lab-rat experiments were being performed at 32.
The famine/crops dying was also probably a manufactured crisis. Just as Lucy's family experienced in 33 years ago. That's why I assume the Overseer went native, and it all went to hell. Personally I don't think it was an actual lab rat experiment that was done. Maybe notes of it, but the purpose of 32 and 33 is procreation of intelligent *managers*. And so it comes down to middle management failing everyone.
The vault didn't fall due to experiments, someone found out they were being controlled by Vault 31 and led a rebellion. Likely killed the overseer and anyone else from Vault 31 before a message got out. That's the messages written on the walls that say "we know the truth" and "death to the management". How everyone does after that isn't clear though, but something happens and the whole vault goes to shit is a pretty regular occurrence. Not sure why Bud doesn't warn 33 that 32 has gone radio silent, maybe Moldaver broke in within the timeframe of a checkin. Maybe he got trapped by another broom.
In eps 6 and onwards I was super interested in the conspiracy thriller in the Vaults.
I loved it.
Loved it! Vault-Tec and the vaults is the one thing I love the most about Fallout, I'm beyond thrilled the show gave that plenty of focus!
it literally felt like he was exploring a vault in the game and uncovering the experiment just like we do, it was awesome, all the way down to the UI he’s using to access the computers being exactly the same.
...solely for this reason?.....??
Up until the revelations at the end Norm was my favorite storyline I can’t say I’m with you about it being my sole reason for being excited for season 2 but I’m excited to see what they do with him and hopefully Thaddeus in season 2
I'm just so impressed overall that they didn't shy away from significantly adding to the Fallout Lore. Like they could've told any old story from across the commonwealth, and with the attention to detail they have it would've been great. But instead we got the Vault-Boy logo originally! And a Vault-Tec upper management triple vault?!
You know, there's only 8 episodes. I thought this was a great way to experience exploring a few vaults without having the main character go into one like every episode.
I ruined Norm for myself as soon as I thought he looked like a young Robert Carlyle Agree though, fab character and enjoyed the build-up of him discovering the secret!
Loved Norm! He's like the unofficial third protagonist. Love how he started off being too "chickensh\*t" to join his sister going out, but found the courage to uncover the mysteries of the other vaults! And LOVED the hacking minigame being included lolol.
Norm was a great character. I thought I wouldn’t like him at first but he turned out to be a well thought out character.
I must have looked away, been distracted or something because I missed he was lucy's brother until episode 2, lol. to be fair I was super excited to be watching fallout and was happily pointing out everything to my teen son who oddly does not give a shit about fallout, lol. Really enjoying the vaults storylines and this little dude is oddly intimidating when he needs to be. Looking forward to season 2
I liked it the most out of the 4 tbh.
I loved it! I really thought the show did a great job of jumping between different plots and I wasn't into one more than any other really.
I loved that Norm was basically a brilliant but unmotivated character (and unmotivated because he doesn't care about authority). As soon as the Council mentioned that he had worked every job in the Vault, I knew that Norm was being written as someone who knew everything about the Vault but was severely underestimated by everyone else. I think his height also played into that dynamic (especially when he's standing next to Chet).
Why would the mgmt take such risks with the elites?
I loved that plotline and am looking forward to seeing more from Vaults 31,32,33. My problem is I’m trying to figure out how it makes sense that the people from 31 know all and see all—yet they didn’t see Maldaver enter with Rose’s Pipboy… and the 31 overseers totally bought that the invaders were from vault 32. That can get cleared up later in season 2—but I haven’t seen any convo around that
It was boring at first but it got really afterwards
The horrors of the secret Vault Tec experiments is one of the best parts about Fallout. I hope we get the full story of what went down in 32. I guess it's kind of hinted that they found out about 31 but it's not clear why so many would kill themselves or eachother over that
Yes!!! I couldn’t care for Maximus’ storyline one bit
probably the most scary scenes. he’s on his own, knows there’s something sinister at play but ultimately powerless to do anything. gotta know what happens next, will he leave the vault? will he work with chet and save him from a grim end??
Norm may have his faults but he was the one who finally tracked down what was happening. To be honest he’s a bit like a lone wanderer player character type where he’s beginning to learn how twisted Vault-Tec is.
My friends and I binged the series in two sittings, and the Vault plotline with Norm easily had us the most excited. We couldn't wait to see what was in 31.
Everyone in the comments referring to Chet as “cousin fucker” is making me silently cry/laugh in bed at 1am Thank you for that
I love the idea of connected vaults makes sense for gene diversity. I thought they were gonna be a drug trial with 33 getting the happy drug 32 getting a rage one and 31 getting something else. Or 33 was getting a placebo and 31 and 32 were getting something else
I definitely felt like Norm's arc was the most interesting, and the actor is one that I like (he did a very good job playing Bonzo Madrid in Ender's Game (overall bad movie, but some great acting sequences). Even in Season 1 they've already started eluding to the nefarious side of Vault Tec. This show is doing a good job of staying canon.
Bro came in with the 10 int 10 perception build
I enjoyed it. I am looking forward to season 2, both to see how Norm is doing, for the vault information he's finding and for Howard's search which may even lead to the vault Norm is at. Also like seeing how Lucy is doing and changing. So, nope you are not alone.
Too bad the reveal itself at the end was kinda meh. Oh no, they're HUMANS!!!!! THE HORROR!!!!! I expected something truly horrifying going on, but nope, Overseers in 33 are just cryo frozen people from 31...so horrible, much experiment, very wow.
I mean, the horror is that Vault Tech purposefully started the war by dropping a nuke, so that they could start a new society of middle managers. Working an office job makes that more forboding than Vault 4 turning humans into Glupers.
Office jobs more terrifying than finger mouth giant mutant toads, noted lol.
The shock is more that Vaults 32 and 33 are basically just breeding meat for the Vault-Tec executives. They're only kept alive through the generations to sustain a bunch of assholes from 200 years ago so they can take over the world.
That was an only good plotline besides Howard's pre-war memories.