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The Ringer-Verse

Fallout’ Season 2, Episode 6 Reactions | Button Mash

22 Jan 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.74 - 4.687 Craig Horlbeck

Hey, it's Craig Horlbeck here to tell you that the NFL is back, whether you like it or not.

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Chapter 2: What is the overall review of 'Fallout' Season 2, Episode 6?

4.927 - 16.487 Craig Horlbeck

And we are covering all the latest news, trades, rankings, and more on the Ringer Fantasy Football Show with my two co-hosts, who are both named Danny. Check the Ringer Fantasy Football Show out on Spotify or on our new YouTube channel.

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Chapter 3: How do Barb and Coop's storylines develop in this episode?

30.457 - 56.171 Ben Lindbergh

Hello, and welcome into The Ringerverse, your Nexus feed for all things fandom. I'm Ben Lindberg, Senior Editor for The Ringer and robo-brain of Button Mash. Like the products of inbreeding support groups, but MASH is at max capacity, so Triple Cousins doesn't cut it anymore. However, there is room for another player on this podcast, a Ringer staff writer, the automated Dan, Daniel Chin.

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56.611 - 78.03 Ben Lindbergh

Welcome back. Thanks for having me back, Ben. How's it going? Going well. Sharpen your pencils, people. Grab some tasty trail mix, because we are settling in to discuss season two, episode six, The Other Player. Directed by Lisa Joy and written by Dave Hill. Is that a good idea? As Barb says, none of this is a good idea, but we're doing it anyway.

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78.191 - 85.05 Ben Lindbergh

And as always, we're beginning with our overall review of the episode. So, Daniel, what's your verdict on The Other Player?

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85.03 - 106.842 Daniel Chin

I thought it was a pretty good episode overall. I enjoyed it. I thought it did a good job of carrying the momentum of the previous episode. But that said, I did not think it was nearly as good as the last one. I thought there was so much going on in this episode. And it was kind of just the other side of... There was so much good that came out of all the setup across the whole season.

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106.922 - 109.246 Daniel Chin

And Averly came through in a nice way last week.

Chapter 4: What are the implications of the Ghoul's character arc?

109.887 - 116.256 Daniel Chin

And I thought this was like the flip side of it where there's just like too many storylines and not enough time to really divide it up.

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116.917 - 136.465 Ben Lindbergh

Yes, we'll see if there's enough time to talk about all of them on this episode. But we praised last week's episode. It was our favorite of the season, if not the series. And that was partly because it was very focused and cohesive. And by the standards of this season, at least kind of drilled down on a couple of core characters. That's a tough act to follow.

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136.505 - 157.969 Ben Lindbergh

And this episode didn't try to sort of stick with the pattern that last episode set. Not so much. This was one of the busiest episodes of the series. I liked a lot of it, but we do see almost everyone except Norm and House. And Steph, I suppose, although felt like she was there because she certainly plays a part in the proceedings.

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158.089 - 179.078 Ben Lindbergh

But a lot of lore like last week, but maybe not as well integrated into the story as the lore last week was. You could kind of feel the strings being pulled, the table being set, which I suppose is appropriate at this stage of an eight episode season. But it ultimately works for me just because the themes tie it together and

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179.058 - 183.404 Ben Lindbergh

As always, we'll be pointing out some parallels among characters and timelines here.

Chapter 5: How do Lucy and Hank's interactions shape the narrative?

183.544 - 208.032 Ben Lindbergh

So it works for me. But you're right. It was a one episode blip where we kind of focused on one thing. And here it's everything. All of the plates that have been spinning all season, they're spinning in episode six. So the more complex the Fallout episode, the more complex the recap podcast. But nobody thinks about that. Won't anybody think of the poor recap podcaster.

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208.573 - 229.77 Ben Lindbergh

Tough to know even how to structure this pod, but let's go Barb, because she has waited for her close-up long enough. So we'll talk about Barb and Coop, and then we'll talk about Ghoul and his new companion, as well as Lucy and Hank, and then Maximus and Thaddeus, and then the Valtys. A ton to get to here, but first...

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229.75 - 239.965 Ben Lindbergh

Let's begin with Barb, because this is our first real look at Barb as a POV character. And it's about time that we finally learned a little bit more about Barb, right?

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240.346 - 256.23 Daniel Chin

Yeah, I mean, just seeing her name flash across was a very exciting moment. We were like, ooh, okay, did not expect this to happen. But it was a lot of fun being able to see a little bit more of that and just understanding this character a little bit more after her just being on the sidelines a lot. It was really a big source of mystery.

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Chapter 6: What are the dynamics between Maximus and Thaddeus?

256.666 - 284.265 Ben Lindbergh

Yeah. Got to be more title cards per episode this season than last season. It seems like just every episode we're getting new title cards still this deep into the series and the season. So we join Barb in the executive conference room with young Betty. And no Kyle MacLachlan de-aging for Leslie Uggams here. We just get a new actor entirely, but nice to see Betty in a different time.

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284.826 - 292.663 Ben Lindbergh

We see some Vault of the Future art on the wall, which resembles an image from the original Fallout. There's a lot of original Fallout images.

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Chapter 7: How do the Vault dwellers contribute to the plot?

292.643 - 318.718 Ben Lindbergh

DNA in this episode. Some of it may be mutated. We'll get to that. And Barb and Betty are sitting through various meetings and presentations. A lot of working lunches, I've noticed, at Vault Tech, apparently. Just no time to take some time to take a bite. You got to just cram your burgers down your mouth while you're delivering presentations about the apocalypse, which doesn't seem to be...

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318.698 - 331.459 Ben Lindbergh

really helping Barb's appetite here because she's just picking at a salad, but everyone's eating while they're talking. I guess time is at a premium because the apocalypse is coming, but still, you know, maybe a midday break.

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331.81 - 339.623 Daniel Chin

I had that same thought, too. You have four people in a meeting and then there's two people presenting and you're eating burgers while standing up like that. It's like, what's happening here?

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Chapter 8: What reactions arise from the 'Fallout Shelter' announcement?

339.643 - 345.613 Daniel Chin

But it really did highlight how casual everything was and them just talking about dropping bombs on Los Angeles.

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346.955 - 365.12 Ben Lindbergh

Just chowing down, fattening themselves up as they fatten up profits of Vault-Tec. with the rest of the world's ruin, and we get to hear about marketing's plan for the apocalypse. Marketing prefers multiple five-megaton blasts on the image of LA, a cacophony of puff clouds.

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365.62 - 390.336 Ben Lindbergh

We also learned, so this was interesting, we learned that the water chips have a 30% fail rate and that they'll know before installation which ones are faulty, so they get to choose who runs out of water. What do you make of that? Does this mean that Vault 33's chip failure in the future is preordained? Or is that actually a product of the fighting that we saw?

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391.025 - 410.113 Daniel Chin

Yeah, I mean, that's the way I received it, at least. I thought that was a really cool setup, too, because you have young Betty in the room taking down notes. Yes. I mean, it's very possible that she just forgot about this happening, too, because it's been so many years and she was woken up prior to sleep. But I really liked that she was the one taking notes in that room, too.

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410.093 - 429.968 Ben Lindbergh

Yeah, right. So that would suggest that either she thinks it's fixable despite the flaw or that, yeah, she was thawed out 40 years ago and the apocalypse has happened. And maybe this meeting didn't stick in her mind, but she was at least privy to that information in theory. And maybe she'll put that to use in trying to repair the water.

430.289 - 449.81 Ben Lindbergh

And, you know, maybe that has some bearing on whether this is all an experiment and what does that mean. But we will return to the vaults a little later on this pod. We also get an appearance from Senior Junior VP Bud Askins. who proposes specialized freeway lanes for premium customers. Smart idea. Always thinking ahead. Bud and Bud's Buds.

449.85 - 472.527 Ben Lindbergh

This is how he ascended to senior junior VP, just identifying new profit centers at all times. Also, we get young Hank sitting in on a very momentous meeting. And Hank says, I asked Betty if I could take notes on this one. She said, yes, the young, eager beaver Hank. So Betty was in the meetings, but she may not know about the automated man.

472.587 - 495.147 Ben Lindbergh

However, Hank does because he was there and we even see him eagerly standing up out of his chair to get a closer look at the gizmo as fake Robert House presents the device that we have gotten to know so well. So again, Betty may or may not know about the water chip failure. Hank definitely knows about the whole automated man project and he's been in on it from the start.

495.127 - 511.338 Daniel Chin

Yeah, I thought that was a nice little setup as well in the same way of Betty being in the other room when that was happening with the water chip. I did immediately think when he was like standing out of the chair, though, like if he's trying to do this, like covertly for any reason, like terrible poker face. I don't know what he's doing. Yes, it's true.

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