Description: Season 5, Episode 7
Air Date: November 8, 1963
Plot Summary: In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, survivors are given survival advice from a mysterious old man.
Review: As I grow ever hyped about the release of "Fallout 4," this episode comes at a perfect time to fuel my excitement! In fact, I could easily see this being the inspiration for a quest in the FO series or some kind of weird cult faction. But enough about FO...this is an interesting episode despite my spoiling of the twist right in the picture. In the story, you have a town full of idiotic survivors after a nuclear war 10 years prior. Their leader, Goldsmith, receives instructions from the titular old man in regards to what food, drink, and soil is contaminated. Due to the desperation and outright idiocy of the survivors, they often question the wisdom of the old man and want to indulge their thirst and hunger. While I can't entirely blame them, you have to understand this is an irradiated wasteland and only a fool would risk contamination.
Later on, a group of soldiers from an allegedly, newly restored government come to town. Goldsmith believes they are just thieves or raiders pretending to be official in order to get free food, water, and shelter. When they explain to the soldiers about the old man, they doubt his existence and believe Goldsmith is swindling the survivors. After trying to blow up the entrance to the cave, the soldiers say screw it and talk the survivors into eating contaminated food and getting drunk with irradiated alcohol. I love how TZ even depicts some whore survivor trying to hook up with two of the soldiers. In this state of indulgence, the survivors all turn on Goldsmith and force him to reveal the old man, if he truly exists, once and for all. Now this is an interesting aspect to the episode as you see Goldsmith preferring death to giving up the old man but changes his tune at one point; I believe this point is to show us Goldsmith realizes these people are unworthy of surviving. Sure enough, the old man is a computer that has somehow been programmed to assist the humans and must have had an internal Geiger counter. My one gripe with this reveal, besides the predictability, is that the cave door makes you think this will be some kind of facility...yet the computer appears to be just floating with no plug or power source. Uhh...not possible. Come on, TZ, you could have used one of your existing sets; this is an embarrassing flub. Nevertheless, the survivors idiotically destroy the computer and seal their fates. The next day, Goldsmith wanders around town, pondering the mysteries of the universe, as we see all the survivors and soldiers' dead bodies lying about. A somber end and final depiction of one possible path for humanity to take--kind of ballsy too for the era.
Overall, a decent episode in light of the obvious revelation that there won't be just some old man hanging out, chowing down on canned beans, and sipping away on Nuka Cola. I appreciate the controversial plot in that TZ outright showed the aftermath of 1960s America being destroyed rather than some hypothetical, future date being a destroyed. Complimenting this idea is the pessimistic view that humanity will ultimately doom itself on top of that. If only a few aspects had been cleaned up, and given polish, this could have been one of the classics. As it stands, this falls just short of being worthy of the underrated category.
I like this episode. It plays out the old battle of believing in God vs atheist ism. Major French plays The Atheist role who seriously doubts Goldsmith's God, or in this case the old man in the cave. The argument of how nobody except Goldsmith has ever seen the old man and Goldsmith I mean and his three Troopers are not the only ones who are doubting the old man's existence. The battle of God vs no God is nothing new atheist and believers have been battling this for hundreds of years now.
ReplyDeleteA couple other curiosities I have about this episode or why ten years after the nuclear blast is Goldsmith and his "Old Man" are still are still battling over weather pre-war canned food is contaminated or not that just seems like an answer that should have been easily settled long time ago. You can see how the other towns folks start really joining up with major French and if I start showing obvious signs of being tired of Goldsmith, especially when they dig into the food and and bottles of liquor that have been untouched for all these years do the contamination fear. You can see the enjoyment of all the towns folks besides Goldsmith that night finally getting a good meal and a few drinks. Even even one girl acting pretty frisky while staggering intoxicated with her arms around two of the army guys. It's obvious now how everybody except Goldsmith is feeling better. Townsman Jason also says a very good line after Goldsmith says (for the 500th time) "the old man's kept you alive for 10 years" and Jason says "we've been kept alive, but we haven't lived!" Very good points and very good episode.
Corrections on my other comment, I wrote it while very tired and has higher than average grammar mistakes. Here's my revised comment:
DeleteI like this episode, it plays out in the old battle between God and atheism. Major French plays the atheist role who seriously doubts Goldsmith's God, in this episode being The old man in the cave. The argument revolves around how nobody besides Goldsmith has ever seen the old man, and Major French and his crew aren't the only people doubting his existence. The battle of God vs no God is nothing new, people have been battling it out for centuries.
A couple other curiosities I have include why ten years after the nuclear blast, they're still battling it out on whether pre war canned goods are contaminated or not. This just seems like something that should've been resolved much sooner. You can see how the other townsfolks begin siding with Major French and are showing noticeable signs of being tired of Goldsmith, especially when they eagerly start jumping into the maybe contaminated canned goods and liquor. They've just about all except Goldsmith become more about just enjoying themselves and indulging their desired rather than continuing to be led on the edge of the string of constant caution and worry. Townsman Jason spells out an example of this after Goldsmith tells everyone (for the 500the time) how The old man in the cave has kept them alive, and Jason says "we've been alive, but we haven't lived!". Excellent point. If you keep walking down the road of life in constant worry being too afraid to stop and smell the roses, what kind of walk would it be? They all were finally feeling good with a full meal in their stomachs and enjoying their intoxication. And I did notice the one girl with her arms around two soldiers. And Major French was not really a bad guy outside of dealing with Goldsmith's no-fun irrational stubborness, as we see him and Jason sitting and socializing with their brewskies. Until Goldsmith killjoy walks up to them again, breaks a bottle of beer, and continues his same rant.