Norman and Chet investigate Vault 32, whose mysteries turn out to be far more disturbing than they expected. Meanwhile, The Ghoul searches for a replacement for the drugs he lost, with a captive Lucy in tow.
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Question: Lucy poses one to The Ghoul while the latter is indulging in his cannibalism.Lucy: How do you live like this? Why keep going?
- Artistic License – Biology: While exploring Vault 32, Norman and Chet find the bodies of people who died by hanging still swinging from the ceiling by the nooses. In real life, a decomposing neck wouldn't be able to support the weight of a human body for two whole years.
- Beeping Computers: When Norman searches the computer at Vault 32, it gives off an alarming beeping sound when the "access denied" message appears on-screen.
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: After shooting a ghoul named Martha who turned feral right in front of her, Lucy is left covered in blood. Fittingly, this "baptism of blood" happens in the episode where she starts to get more used to life in the wasteland.
- Boom, Headshot!: After distracting him with happy memories, the Ghoul puts a bullet through Roger's head as a Mercy Kill to stop him from turning feral.
- Conversation Casualty: When the Ghoul and Lucy find another ghoul named Roger who's about to turn, they have a friendly conversation during which the Ghoul suddenly Mercy Kills Roger with a gunshot.
- Dismemberment Is Cheap: Lucy loses her finger for a couple of scenes before quickly getting a replacement.
- Driven to Suicide: When Norman and Chet investigate Vault 32, they come across obvious cases of suicide; one Dweller is left touching a fork poked into a toaster, and a couple of others have hanged themselves.
- Drowning My Sorrows: At the end of the episode, the Ghoul goes on a chem bender after Lucy destroys the organ harvesting operation, putting on one of his old movies and reflecting on what he's become.
- Electronic Speech Impediment: The Mr. Handy stutters when Lucy shocks him with the defibrillator.
- False Reassurance: When Lucy tells the Mr. Handy in the abandoned supermarket that she thought The Ghoul sold her as a Sex Slave, he is disgusted by that idea which relieves Lucy. Then he tells her that he's simply going to harvest her organs.
- Fingore: Lucy gets her finger cut off by the Ghoul in exchange for biting off his finger when she tries to escape. A replacement is grafted onto the stump by a medical Mr. Handy.
- Foreshadowing: The documentary Norman and Chet see on the TV in Vault 32 about the "mouse utopia", which eventually succumbs to overpopulation and cannibalism, is basically one of the experiments proposed for a vault in the season finale.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Ghoul tears out Roger's organs and begins devouring them in front of Lucy. He also takes a few chunks to go, hanging them off his backpack like cuts of beef.
- Instant Birth: Just Add Water!: Right as Stephanie is about to have sex with Chet, her water breaks (which Chet briefly took for her being really into it) and she goes into labor shortly after. The fact she had her baby on Chet's couch instead of in an infirmary implies it was a very quick labor.
- Kick the Dog: In response to the above Armor-Piercing Question, The Ghoul makes Lucy help him butcher Roger for meat.
- Killed Midsentence: Roger gets killed while recounting a fond memory.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The Ghoul's comment about the Wasteland's "Golden Rule" is an in-universe wink to the Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer nature of the Fallout games."The Wasteland has its own Golden Rule... thou shalt get distracted by bullshit every single goddamn time."
- Let Them Die Happy: The Ghoul reminds Roger of the time when they could eat real food and how good it tasted, then blows his brains out while he's distracted reminiscing.
- Madness Mantra: Crossed with Survival Mantra. The almost feral ghouls repeat their names to themselves in a desperate attempt to stave off the inevitable loss of their minds.
- Man Bites Man: In desperation during her fight with the Ghoul, Lucy bites off one of his fingers.
- Maternity Crisis: Steph breaks water while getting it on with Chet.
- Meatgrinder Surgery: Snip-Snip is a medical Mister Handy with a saw blade as one of his operating tools.
- Mercy Kill: Lucy and the Ghoul come across "Roger", a ghoul in the process of going feral. The Ghoul has a friendly chat with him before shooting him in the head, much to Lucy's shock and condemnation. Later, she's forced to do the exact same after being attacked by "Martha", a nearly-feral ghoul.
- Moment Killer: Just as Steph and Chet are about to get busy, Steph's water breaks and she gives birth soon after.
- Mythology Gag: After taking a level in badass, Lucy walks out of the Super-Duper Mart wearing pieces of Raider armor over her Vault suit, looking like basically any PC in the game.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: Lucy coerces the organ harvesters into freeing all the ghouls, even the feral ones. The latter attack immediately, forcing Lucy to once again fight for her life.
- Organ Theft: The operation at the Super-Duper Mart harvests organs from healthy humans and trades a serum that keeps ghouls from turning feral.
- Pet the Dog:
- Roger knows he will soon become feral and tries to get Lucy and The Ghoul to leave before that.
- The Ghoul also reminds Roger of happy memories before giving him a Mercy Kill.
- After defeating the organ harvesters, Lucy finds The Ghoul incapacitated outside the Super-Duper Mart. She passes up an easy opportunity to kill him, and instead leaves him with a few vials of his precious serum (on top of everything he can loot from the Super-Duper Mart).
- Roger knows he will soon become feral and tries to get Lucy and The Ghoul to leave before that.
- Precision F-Strike: The moment that Lucy Took a Level in Badass is when she graduates from a Gosh Dang It to Heck! vocabulary:"Golden rule, motherfucker."
- The Reveal: Vault 32 wasn't exterminated by the raiders; they all killed themselves two years ago when they discovered a horrifying secret. The raiders entered Vault 32 by using Rose MacLean's Pip-Boy, raising further questions about their motives... as well as how they got their hands on a dead woman's tool.
- Screaming Birth: Stephanie ends up giving birth on Chet's couch like this.
- Sex for Solace: After Burt's death, Steph grows close to Chet, and eventually tries to have sex with him (while she has him wear Burt's old clothes). Emphasis on "tries", since she goes into labor.
- Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: Lucy throws The Ghoul's cynicism back in his face after her ordeal in the Super-Duper Mart chop shop.Lucy: I may end up looking like you... but I'll never be like you.
(Lucy places a handful of Feral Suppressor drug vials in front of the stricken Ghoul and walks away)
Lucy: Golden Rule, motherfucker. - Skeleton Crew: The dwellers of Vault 32 have decomposed to skeletons still wearing their uniforms and some seem to have died while operating the vault.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: When Betty comes to talk to Norman, she brings plates with delicious pie for them both, but neither of them eat their piece during their conversation.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Vault 32 had a secret so horrible that when the residents learned of it, they killed themselves and/or each other.
- Wham Shot: Norman checks the access logs for Vault 32's surface door, and learns it was opened from the outside with his mother's PipBoy.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The two guys ruling over the supermarket aren't impressed by Lucy holding the Mr. Handy hostage. They also keep the ghouls in cages, even the ones who haven't gone feral yet.
- Worst Aid: After Lucy gets her finger cut off by the Ghoul, a Mr. Handy attaches a replacement finger to her after choosing one out of a drawer. It doesn't even match her skin tone (and might even be necrotic), but the risk of tissue rejection is apparently not a problem because it works perfectly for her.
