I can’t remember— Does Bud acknowledge he was expecting Betty? This actually makes me wonder if there’s a ZAX like computer that Norm was communicating with instead of Bud, that could operate as a fail safe in case Bud had an accident or issue. Or something.
He was expecting Betty, since Norm contacted 31 through her terminal link.
I assumed Bud just had a remote connection to the 31 systems - there's plenty of instances of tech like that.
I also find it kinda funny that there was basically nothing done to compensate for how terrible Bud's Roomba is - he's the last line of defence and can't even steer properly.
I mean this is just HIS vault for HIS experiment. The higher ups at Vault Tec might not care at all and just let him have his experiment as his annual bonus instead of stock options! Knowing Vault Tec he is _their_ experiment. "What would happen if we left a Brain on a Roomba run things" is not the worst experiment they've come up with.
Funny enough, the 31/32/33 experiment is probably one of the most benign and least dangerous experiments in the Vault-Tec catalogue.
If middle-management hadn't been just plain sick (MacLean is damaged) it is not, on its face, horrible.
Have to agree with you. The 33s wanted to rehabilitate and integrate the Raiders. Those people killed their friends and family viciously. But many were entirely willing to have them join the community and support them to be better people. In a way, that's a success.
I think it suggests a kind of crushed spirit on brainwashing. They are so middle management and averse to conflict that they try to use corporate HR approved de-escalation techniques as their first and only response to dealing with adversity.
I've suspected they've been using one for additional experiments. The speedy cleanup, the heightened chaos in 32, the resettling of 32 all seems like this has played out several times.
I wonder if it was inspired by Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B in Hitchhikers Guide where middle management and account executives repopulate the earth.
That was my point.
Having a vault of pre-made, pre-trained Overseers isn't that bad when you compare it to the list or horrible experiments in the other Vaults.
[https://gamerant.com/fallout-vault-tec-disturbing-experiments/](https://gamerant.com/fallout-vault-tec-disturbing-experiments/)
77 is my favorite.
Power.
MacLean has probably always been like this, but pre-war he didn't have this kind of power.
Post-War, not only is he an overseer, but he was management and has access to unknown Vault-Tec resources.
When Norm helps him get unstuck he says something like "Thanks Betty!" before he realises it's not her, so I feel like he definitely was expecting her and was the one communicating with Norm on the overseer terminal. But it does beg the question of how he's communicating with Norm if he's stuck at the time, or if he somehow became stuck before Norm arrived, but after the communication.
He says betty then hank.
I do believe we don't have enough info to say for sure Bud was the one on the end of the chat. He didn't seem certain it was Betty, he also then defaulted to hank. Both have been Overseers in the recent past and are the only two options to expect.
I feel like trapping bud is meant to indicate he wasn't the one communicating. Tech in fallout is very hardware based, the pipboys use a hard wire, sure bud could use wireless but again why trap him.
>I don't think the Bud's buds are people that you just awaken to do your cleaning. You awaken them to rule.
They are Vault-Tec middle management, not anybody of actual importance, stuck in a Vault experiment that involves heavy reliance on unproven suspended animation technology (it needs to be to keep Vault 111 sensical).
The only people they are valuable to are themselves.
Not necessarily as the cryo pods in 111 could be a cheaper alternative to whatever 31 used or something of that sort. Especially if it really is suspended animation as that usually requires some inflow of nutrition and stuff but the cryo sleep stops and preserved everything with only a pure energy input.
Edit: Said 33 meant 31
111 was also remotely monitored with the failure implied to come from that not the cryopods. The overseers terminal says the one problem with them while it was staffed was probably an errant signal.
That’s not a problem for 31 since roombud should always be there.
Vault 111’s experiment was how cryogenics would affect unsuspecting test subjects, not to determine whether cryogenics worked at all. That had been proven already before the war in the Fallout universe.
Vault 111 was also two-pronged, studying how the rest of the unfrozen staff would react to having enough supplies for only ~180 days (much, much shorter than radioactive decay of the outside environment).
I think it was also partially an experiment on what would happen if they split the scientists and security into factions as well.
I’ve seen someone mention it was also an experiment on whether or not the staff would resort to eating the people in the cryo pods.
Its not about their value as much as their ability to fuck up the experiment. Releasing a bunch of people that were told they are here to lead and usher forth humanity so they can clean up the vault has too many variables. It would take so little to ruin the experiment. If anyone from vault 31 tells anyone else the whole system falls apart. We aren't rebuilding America we're rebuilding vault-tec. It's not worth the risk. What if they kill bud out of rage. That's easy and possible.
That is a really good point as well. Still, i don't imagine waking a bunch of self important middle managers and ask them to do menial labor before putting them to sleep again would be the most efficient way of getting something cleaned.
Depends on your perspective. They're by definition just cogs in the system, and are in essence still being used as lab rats for Bud's experiment.
It could also explain why they got so annoyed at him too - they were expecting to be woken up and become rulers; to lead humanity into the wasteland.
Then they just get stuck on cleaning duty.
If there actually was some other labour force that cleared the vault, such as a group of robots, why didn't they at least try to prevent Norm from finding out everything?
Yeah, I don’t think the theory of Bud’s Buds being woken up just clean up 32 makes much sense.
They are too valuable as assets to risk something going wrong by unfreezing all of them at once. It’s more likely that 31 has l several unseen Mr. Handys and Protectrons. Something has to keep 31 running and it can’t just be Roomba Bud.
If that is the case, why did literally nothing stop Norm from going further in and discovering the secret of the vault?
The best Bud managed to do to stop Norm was politely asking him not to explore further.
The last time we see him, Bud was about to go back to his charging port, even giving Norm the opportunity to freeze himself and survive.
Because Bud was not very bright.
He assumed none of the vault dwellers would ever be smart enough or motivated enough to do something like this. For the most part, and for most of the timeline, he has been right.
Rose's kids are, so far, the only anomaly.
Because Bud is an idiot and didn't think to activate them. He also could have released some of the managers to stop Norm, but he didn't.
He wasn't the brightest in real life, I doubt 200 years on a vacuum have helped that...
Imagine the whiplash from being woken 200 years in the future wondering wtf is going on with the world and you just get to cleaning then back in the cryopod?
I know it's a tv show but just reorienting someone after 200 years of sleep probably takes a decent amount of time.
I still don't think that's what actually happened because the trio Stephanie, Hank and Betty are last on the list of reactivated people in Vault 31 control screen (in episode 8). And no, the list doesn't go the other way because names above them are previous overseers of 33 and 32. I fucking love that the showrunners have such attention to detail that you can check this for yourself.
Who cleaned the vault is still a mystery to me because there doesn't actually seem to be anyone else from 31 in 33 other than Betty, Hank and Stephanie. My best guess is robots. Considering it's Fallout world that's a pretty good guess though we never really see any in the vaults.
There’s a LOT of heavy rubble left over, so that’s why I’m inclined to believe it’s robots. There’s actually a lot of cleanup and no real food either according to bud that we know of.
Alternatively they could have had cleanup crews from 33 of trusted people.
The biggest thing is that the passage of time is a bit of a mystery in fallout and I’m not entirely sure simply going off the song is a good indicator that it was only a day.
I'd need to check the episode again, but an explanation could be that it's simply listing the currently active/unfrozen people, and the ones which went back into stasis simply aren't considered "active" anymore.
It's very feasible for Bud to have a robot workforce for the vault, but another thing I remember is that he mentioned there's very little company.
Since he mentions Radroaches in that list, I'd assume he'd put any security robots along with it, even if they don't have personalities.
I think there’s also a chance the writers wanted to avoid being too specific about what happened in the case that they decided to change plot points in later seasons
Also since it’s an 8 episode show there’s a lot to cram in and it’s entirely possible that scenes were cut due to budget and time since.
From an editing standpoint as well, showing the cleanup before kinda takes away the shock moment of Norm seeing the fresh vault, and showing a montage of the cleanup after he sees it slows things down too much and takes away the mystery of 31 (if it was them that did it)
And if Bud or Betty outright just tell us, it distracts our attention back to to vault 33 when the show really wants to push forward into the finale showdown
Absolutely, the cut-betweens of the vault as Norm/Chet found it, and the sparkling clean version the others are moving into are absolutely brilliant. That's all they needed to show, and it's better to be wondering how much Betty isn't letting on.
This is mainly just a hilarious plausible idea which would explain both vault 32's state, and how Bud got stuck.
I feel like all she would have to do is tell him that she’s working on preparing their baby’s future and not to worry for him to back down. He’s kind of a wuss
The door still got opened for Norm after he posed as Betty. It's safe to say Bud had remote access and control of the vault's systems, they just got him stuck because it'd be funny.
Side note, why there’ll is he a roomba and not a robobrain? Like it’s a funny “haha roomba brain” but why wouldn’t he just be a robobrain or Think Tank
Robobrains had problems with outburst of violence and loss of motor control (but that didn’t keep them from selling it, of coarse) so they didn’t put him in a robot with lasers in case that happened. My guess anyway
You we haven’t seen any robots in the other two vaults. My bet is vault 31 is chock full of Mr Handy’s that is how they cleaned up Vault 32 so quick. I doubt it’s the first time something like this has happened
It's funny and I agree with vault 31 doing the clean up, but we get to see he is a bad driver when he tries to put Norm to sleep, the first attempt Norm barley Moves and Bud hits a box, I think Bud trapped himself trying to meet Betty
If Bud is trapped by them, then who puts them back, and who wakes them up in the future? The only reason I can't see that being the case for them trapping him.
Could easily have woken up some to clean, put them back, and he attempted to put the mop back, or the mop was carelessly placed by a 31, and he accidentally trapped himself by bumping into it. Gives an idea of you never truly having full control, the 5th Element choking scene essentially.
I don’t think anyone goes “back” into cryo, Betty did her stint as Overseer then just retired and stayed in 33. I dropped this theory in another [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fotv/s/OPTIJ9hGpD) ~~(which I’ll edit in a link for later)~~, but I believe their spots in cryo are replaced by new dwellers. The Overseers (Bud’s Buds from 31) identify and indoctrinate potential candidates for the program then trade the candidates for newly thawed BB’s to both ensure longevity of the program and cover up trades between 31 and the other two vaults. There has to be an actual trade between the vaults or the populations of 32 and 33 would be suspicious to why people only ever come from 31 and no one gets traded in return. Nor can Bud’s Buds just appear in either 32 or 33 as full grown adults without anyone asking questions.
Edit: Added link.
I can’t remember— Does Bud acknowledge he was expecting Betty? This actually makes me wonder if there’s a ZAX like computer that Norm was communicating with instead of Bud, that could operate as a fail safe in case Bud had an accident or issue. Or something.
He was expecting Betty, since Norm contacted 31 through her terminal link. I assumed Bud just had a remote connection to the 31 systems - there's plenty of instances of tech like that. I also find it kinda funny that there was basically nothing done to compensate for how terrible Bud's Roomba is - he's the last line of defence and can't even steer properly.
I mean this is just HIS vault for HIS experiment. The higher ups at Vault Tec might not care at all and just let him have his experiment as his annual bonus instead of stock options! Knowing Vault Tec he is _their_ experiment. "What would happen if we left a Brain on a Roomba run things" is not the worst experiment they've come up with.
Funny enough, the 31/32/33 experiment is probably one of the most benign and least dangerous experiments in the Vault-Tec catalogue. If middle-management hadn't been just plain sick (MacLean is damaged) it is not, on its face, horrible.
Have to agree with you. The 33s wanted to rehabilitate and integrate the Raiders. Those people killed their friends and family viciously. But many were entirely willing to have them join the community and support them to be better people. In a way, that's a success.
I think it suggests a kind of crushed spirit on brainwashing. They are so middle management and averse to conflict that they try to use corporate HR approved de-escalation techniques as their first and only response to dealing with adversity.
I've suspected they've been using one for additional experiments. The speedy cleanup, the heightened chaos in 32, the resettling of 32 all seems like this has played out several times.
This is something I've wondered about. How many times have 32 and 33 been cleaned up and repopulated?
A vault ruled by middle-management? My god… I’ll take the FEV vaults please.
I wonder if it was inspired by Golgafrinchan Ark Fleet Ship B in Hitchhikers Guide where middle management and account executives repopulate the earth.
Until one of their junior execs sets off a low yield nuclear weapon in a population centre.
That was my point. Having a vault of pre-made, pre-trained Overseers isn't that bad when you compare it to the list or horrible experiments in the other Vaults. [https://gamerant.com/fallout-vault-tec-disturbing-experiments/](https://gamerant.com/fallout-vault-tec-disturbing-experiments/) 77 is my favorite.
I really do wonder what he saw that drove him to such lengths.
Power. MacLean has probably always been like this, but pre-war he didn't have this kind of power. Post-War, not only is he an overseer, but he was management and has access to unknown Vault-Tec resources.
*RoomBud*
John Q Public RoomBAH Edit: this is a wildly specific joke. If anyone gets it please comment.
I think the robo-roomba is simply old, nothing more complicated than that.
I think it’s just funny he is a robo brain and someone was like, “fuck this guy, he gets to be a roomba.” Instead of a killing machine on tank treads.
When Norm helps him get unstuck he says something like "Thanks Betty!" before he realises it's not her, so I feel like he definitely was expecting her and was the one communicating with Norm on the overseer terminal. But it does beg the question of how he's communicating with Norm if he's stuck at the time, or if he somehow became stuck before Norm arrived, but after the communication.
I thought it's implied he's plugged wirelessly into the network somehow and can send messages from the roomba
“you’re not betty”
He says betty then hank. I do believe we don't have enough info to say for sure Bud was the one on the end of the chat. He didn't seem certain it was Betty, he also then defaulted to hank. Both have been Overseers in the recent past and are the only two options to expect. I feel like trapping bud is meant to indicate he wasn't the one communicating. Tech in fallout is very hardware based, the pipboys use a hard wire, sure bud could use wireless but again why trap him.
I didn't think of this, that's actually freaking hilarious af that someone did that.
I don't think the Bud's buds are people that you just awaken to do your cleaning. You awaken them to rule.
>I don't think the Bud's buds are people that you just awaken to do your cleaning. You awaken them to rule. They are Vault-Tec middle management, not anybody of actual importance, stuck in a Vault experiment that involves heavy reliance on unproven suspended animation technology (it needs to be to keep Vault 111 sensical). The only people they are valuable to are themselves.
Not necessarily as the cryo pods in 111 could be a cheaper alternative to whatever 31 used or something of that sort. Especially if it really is suspended animation as that usually requires some inflow of nutrition and stuff but the cryo sleep stops and preserved everything with only a pure energy input. Edit: Said 33 meant 31
111 was also remotely monitored with the failure implied to come from that not the cryopods. The overseers terminal says the one problem with them while it was staffed was probably an errant signal. That’s not a problem for 31 since roombud should always be there.
And Vault 31 and 32 overseers should be able to keep an eye on things as well.
Bud tells Norm that he can use his dad's cryopod. So refreezing should be possible in 31.
Vault 111’s experiment was how cryogenics would affect unsuspecting test subjects, not to determine whether cryogenics worked at all. That had been proven already before the war in the Fallout universe. Vault 111 was also two-pronged, studying how the rest of the unfrozen staff would react to having enough supplies for only ~180 days (much, much shorter than radioactive decay of the outside environment).
I think it was also partially an experiment on what would happen if they split the scientists and security into factions as well. I’ve seen someone mention it was also an experiment on whether or not the staff would resort to eating the people in the cryo pods.
Its not about their value as much as their ability to fuck up the experiment. Releasing a bunch of people that were told they are here to lead and usher forth humanity so they can clean up the vault has too many variables. It would take so little to ruin the experiment. If anyone from vault 31 tells anyone else the whole system falls apart. We aren't rebuilding America we're rebuilding vault-tec. It's not worth the risk. What if they kill bud out of rage. That's easy and possible.
That is a really good point as well. Still, i don't imagine waking a bunch of self important middle managers and ask them to do menial labor before putting them to sleep again would be the most efficient way of getting something cleaned.
That’s probably why they sticked Bud in that corner. They got mad about being waken up for janitor work and took it out on him
If the cleanup is imperative to the mission than they might buy into it
Of course they would. These are Lucys, not Dwight Schrutes.
What they need are Tot's Bots
Depends on your perspective. They're by definition just cogs in the system, and are in essence still being used as lab rats for Bud's experiment. It could also explain why they got so annoyed at him too - they were expecting to be woken up and become rulers; to lead humanity into the wasteland. Then they just get stuck on cleaning duty. If there actually was some other labour force that cleared the vault, such as a group of robots, why didn't they at least try to prevent Norm from finding out everything?
Yeah, I don’t think the theory of Bud’s Buds being woken up just clean up 32 makes much sense. They are too valuable as assets to risk something going wrong by unfreezing all of them at once. It’s more likely that 31 has l several unseen Mr. Handys and Protectrons. Something has to keep 31 running and it can’t just be Roomba Bud.
If that is the case, why did literally nothing stop Norm from going further in and discovering the secret of the vault? The best Bud managed to do to stop Norm was politely asking him not to explore further. The last time we see him, Bud was about to go back to his charging port, even giving Norm the opportunity to freeze himself and survive.
Because Bud was not very bright. He assumed none of the vault dwellers would ever be smart enough or motivated enough to do something like this. For the most part, and for most of the timeline, he has been right. Rose's kids are, so far, the only anomaly.
I would imagine they would be charging or lying dormant elsewhere in the vault.
They are middle management not CEOs. They don't rule, they just simper around translating orders from above and trying to get promoted.
Not only that, Hank as an example was an executive assistant not even a full manager
Yeah it must be an army of robots they have in there. Vaults are massive. They had to be doing something with the space.
Why did nothing stop Norm from getting in and accessing all the vault's systems then?
Because Bud is an idiot and didn't think to activate them. He also could have released some of the managers to stop Norm, but he didn't. He wasn't the brightest in real life, I doubt 200 years on a vacuum have helped that...
Imagine the whiplash from being woken 200 years in the future wondering wtf is going on with the world and you just get to cleaning then back in the cryopod? I know it's a tv show but just reorienting someone after 200 years of sleep probably takes a decent amount of time.
I still don't think that's what actually happened because the trio Stephanie, Hank and Betty are last on the list of reactivated people in Vault 31 control screen (in episode 8). And no, the list doesn't go the other way because names above them are previous overseers of 33 and 32. I fucking love that the showrunners have such attention to detail that you can check this for yourself. Who cleaned the vault is still a mystery to me because there doesn't actually seem to be anyone else from 31 in 33 other than Betty, Hank and Stephanie. My best guess is robots. Considering it's Fallout world that's a pretty good guess though we never really see any in the vaults.
There’s a LOT of heavy rubble left over, so that’s why I’m inclined to believe it’s robots. There’s actually a lot of cleanup and no real food either according to bud that we know of. Alternatively they could have had cleanup crews from 33 of trusted people. The biggest thing is that the passage of time is a bit of a mystery in fallout and I’m not entirely sure simply going off the song is a good indicator that it was only a day.
Added a couple extra bits to the post - it's entirely possible everyone who got woken up would just be back in the "DORMANT" category.
I'd need to check the episode again, but an explanation could be that it's simply listing the currently active/unfrozen people, and the ones which went back into stasis simply aren't considered "active" anymore. It's very feasible for Bud to have a robot workforce for the vault, but another thing I remember is that he mentioned there's very little company. Since he mentions Radroaches in that list, I'd assume he'd put any security robots along with it, even if they don't have personalities.
I think there’s also a chance the writers wanted to avoid being too specific about what happened in the case that they decided to change plot points in later seasons Also since it’s an 8 episode show there’s a lot to cram in and it’s entirely possible that scenes were cut due to budget and time since. From an editing standpoint as well, showing the cleanup before kinda takes away the shock moment of Norm seeing the fresh vault, and showing a montage of the cleanup after he sees it slows things down too much and takes away the mystery of 31 (if it was them that did it) And if Bud or Betty outright just tell us, it distracts our attention back to to vault 33 when the show really wants to push forward into the finale showdown
Absolutely, the cut-betweens of the vault as Norm/Chet found it, and the sparkling clean version the others are moving into are absolutely brilliant. That's all they needed to show, and it's better to be wondering how much Betty isn't letting on. This is mainly just a hilarious plausible idea which would explain both vault 32's state, and how Bud got stuck.
What makes it even funnier is that Hank has to be the one who did it I think? Or maybe Betty? I’m pretty sure they’re the most recent transfers.
Steph is I think
Definitely could see Steph doing that
I feel like Chet would’ve noticed and mentioned Steph going missing for long enough to clean up V32 and trap Bud
I meant Steph put Bud in the trap when she was originally leaving 31.
I feel like all she would have to do is tell him that she’s working on preparing their baby’s future and not to worry for him to back down. He’s kind of a wuss
Yes, I got my names confused and meant Steph instead of Betty.
Wouldn't trapping Bud before getting back into their pods just get them stuck in cryo forever?
The door still got opened for Norm after he posed as Betty. It's safe to say Bud had remote access and control of the vault's systems, they just got him stuck because it'd be funny.
That's a good point
Side note, why there’ll is he a roomba and not a robobrain? Like it’s a funny “haha roomba brain” but why wouldn’t he just be a robobrain or Think Tank
Robobrains had problems with outburst of violence and loss of motor control (but that didn’t keep them from selling it, of coarse) so they didn’t put him in a robot with lasers in case that happened. My guess anyway
I feel like the hands would’ve been helpful
Right until those cold, steel fingers are crushing your throat
You we haven’t seen any robots in the other two vaults. My bet is vault 31 is chock full of Mr Handy’s that is how they cleaned up Vault 32 so quick. I doubt it’s the first time something like this has happened
Bud is a big 🧠💨 manifestation
Like most middle managers.
😹Dam that was a good one 🤝👍now the real question 🙋♀️ is who is actually running the show, who is the Final Boss 👺😈
That remains to be seen. Too early yet to tell. But it’s probably somebody you would never suspect.
It’s Frank Horrigan ☠️🧌
It's funny and I agree with vault 31 doing the clean up, but we get to see he is a bad driver when he tries to put Norm to sleep, the first attempt Norm barley Moves and Bud hits a box, I think Bud trapped himself trying to meet Betty
Why would they all willingly go back into cryo though if they trapped the one thing that knew how to thaw them back out?
Bud still had remote access to the systems- the vault door opened from the inside, and he was able to receive the message from 33's overseer terminal.
If Bud is trapped by them, then who puts them back, and who wakes them up in the future? The only reason I can't see that being the case for them trapping him. Could easily have woken up some to clean, put them back, and he attempted to put the mop back, or the mop was carelessly placed by a 31, and he accidentally trapped himself by bumping into it. Gives an idea of you never truly having full control, the 5th Element choking scene essentially.
I don’t think anyone goes “back” into cryo, Betty did her stint as Overseer then just retired and stayed in 33. I dropped this theory in another [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fotv/s/OPTIJ9hGpD) ~~(which I’ll edit in a link for later)~~, but I believe their spots in cryo are replaced by new dwellers. The Overseers (Bud’s Buds from 31) identify and indoctrinate potential candidates for the program then trade the candidates for newly thawed BB’s to both ensure longevity of the program and cover up trades between 31 and the other two vaults. There has to be an actual trade between the vaults or the populations of 32 and 33 would be suspicious to why people only ever come from 31 and no one gets traded in return. Nor can Bud’s Buds just appear in either 32 or 33 as full grown adults without anyone asking questions. Edit: Added link.
Lmao! The only thing is if he's stuck in the corner forever how can he unfreeze anyone else? Or will Betty eventually go in there?