Well, it looks like my guess in the ep5 thread that Lucy and Maximus had been kidnapped by Vault 4 for breeding stock because V4, like V33, was also too interbred, was wrong-- it’s far more weird than that.
Still, based on the “A Man and his Dog” poster that Coop had in his place we saw in this ep, pointed out by @Miller in the last thread, I gotta believe that in a general sense, either the show writers or the original game designers had to be influenced by either the movie ‘A Boy and his Dog’ or the Harlan Eliison novella it was based on:
Awfully lax security in Vault 4 for such a weird, secretive experimental place. Maximus was able to walk right in to the control area and almost snatch a fusion core before being interrupted. Lucy was able to take an elevator right to level 12. Shouldn’t they at least have needed a screwdriver and a bobby pin to break in? Or guess a password on a terminal?
Nice eye for detail- I missed that. I suspect I’d be missing several little in-jokes and Easter eggs if it wasn’t for these threads.
The actor did mention to Coop at the Vault-Tec commercial after-party that he did voice work for Vault-Tec for the robot. And then of course Vault-Tec screwed him on his fee-- instead of the agreed amount, they paid him a fraction of it plus a Mr. Handy. “Now I have to listen to a robot talking to me in my own voice”.
Speaking of Vault-Tec, the conversation between Coop and his former actor buddy about how Vault-Tec has a ‘fiduciary responsibility’ to their stakeholders, not to the U.S. Government, and therefore have a financial interest in nuclear war, was some nice world-building. I like how the show is really digging into the lore and darkly parodic aspect of the games, and is not just a mindless actiony shoot-em-up.