The Ghoul is captured and led to an old acquaintance, while Lucy learns that Vault 4 isn't quite the kind of Vault she's familiar with.
Tropes:
- Abnormal Ammo: When Maximus is treated for his gunshot wound, the "bullet" turns out to be a rotted tooth.
- Accidental Misnaming: Benjamin reads Lucy's name as "Goosey" and ignores her attempts to correct him.
- Baby Factory: On Level 12, Lucy finds pods with pregnant women inside. She gets interrupted before she can find out more.
- Continuity Snarl: The chalkboard Lucy finds retracing the story of the NCR lists the "Fall of Shady Sands" as happening in 2277. Even if one says that isn't the nuking of it (as the explosion is drawn on the board as having happened afterward), New Vegas takes place in 2281 and featured multiple characters talking about Shady Sands without mentionning any serious problem it may have had, and certainly nothing on the level of qualifying as its "Fall".
- Cult Colony: It becomes obvious to Lucy that Vault 4 is a sect after she witnesses a ritual where the participants strip naked and chant to a depiction of Moldaver.
- Different World, Different Movies: One of Cooper Howard's movie posters is for a film titled A Man and His Dog.
- Do You Want to Copulate?: Both Lucy and Maximus proposition each other for sex in an extremely straightforward and awkward way, thanks to the strange attitudes toward sex in the cultures they were brought up in.Maximus: Do you want to make my cock explode?
- Forbidden Zone: Lucy and Maximus are prohibited from entering Level 12. Naturally, Lucy feels compelled to investigate what's going on up there.
- In Case of X, Break Glass: Level 12 has a Harpoon Gun behind a glass case for emergencies; the warden takes it out to use against the intruder (Lucy).
- Mundane Luxury: For a guy whose only experience with civilization is the Brotherhood, Maximus quickly becomes enamored with pre-war amenities available in the Vault.
- Mutants: Vault 4 has all sorts of people with mutations, with a cyclops Overseer just to start.
- Mythology Gag:
- Matt Berry plays an actor whose recent career highlights include becoming famous for playing a butler called Codsworth and signing his voice rights away to provide the voice of the Mr. Handy robots. These are both a reference to Fallout 4, where the protagonist owns a Mr. Handy butler called Codsworth, with the implication being that the game's protagonists had named their Mr. Handy after the butler character.
- A brief arrangement of the title theme of Fallout 3/Fallout 4 is heard when Lucy finds the New California Republic flag in the Vault 4 classroom.
- The Real Heroes: In the opening black and white commercial, Cooper praises the scientists for their dedication to the five-year trial at Vault 4, commenting that while he may play a hero in the movies, they are the heroes in real life.
- The Reveal: The Gulper is actually a Half-Human Hybrid, which Lucy discovers on a video tape recording.
- Saying Too Much: When Cooper is arguing with his wife about her work for Vault-Tec, Barb frustratedly retorts that she's been doing all she can to put their family "in one of the good Vaults". Her expression immediately changes as she realizes what she's said, and Cooper picks up on it, asking her what she means about "one of the good Vaults" (and the implication that there are bad ones). Her subsequent deflection on that topic is what pushes Cooper into secretly attending an anti-Vault-Tec meeting.
- Self-Surgery: We are treated to a Gross-Up Close-Up of the Ghoul sewing his missing finger back on with a needle and a thread.
- Spit Take: Benjamin spits his drink when Lucy asks him right out what's on Level 12.
- Stepford Smiler: Maximus is creeped out by the dwellers of Vault 4 because they are smiling all the time.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Although Lucy puts up a hell of a struggle when she's caught on Level 12, there are about a dozen people against her, and she's eventually overwhelmed by weight of numbers.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: At Vault 4, neither the fusion core facility nor Level 12 have any security measures in place, making it easy for Maximus and Lucy to snoop around.
- Wham Shot:
- Just in case you might have thought Vault 4 was one of the normal ones, the camera pans to a sign above the quarantine area reading "Test Subjects".
- The Ghoul finds a picture of Lee Moldaver on Sonny's wall, remarking that he knew her at a different time. As the scene cuts between Vault 4's ritual and Cooper Howard going to an anti-Vault-Tec meeting, we learn that she was not only alive at the same time as him, but seemingly hasn't aged a day in 200 years.
- Womb Horror: Lucy finds recorded footage of a female subject giving birth to an entire pod of baby Gulpers who immediately start to eat her alive.
