A musical biopic fittingly composed of religious ballads, The Testament of Ann Lee chronicles the life of its eponymous 18th century religious leader, played with tremendous passion by Amanda Seyfried. It spans several decades and traces Ann’s travels from Manchester to New York as well as the newly-invented religious dogmas that guided her journey. It’s a film of spiritual ecstasy that lives on the edge of realism – for better and for worse – while mythologizing an oft-forgotten historical figure whose unusual beliefs about celibacy had altruistic ends, making for a particularly compelling experience.

Directed by The Brutalist co-writer Mona Fastvold and co-written by that film’s director and other co-writer, Brady Corbet, The Testament of Ann Lee arrives with all the lush historical detail you’d expect, made even more inviting by William Rexer’s 70mm cinematography. It begins with a decontextualized vista of women in bonnets and religious robes moving rhythmically in the woods in the late 1700s. This image, removed from time, is all that’s known to most people about the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, also known as the “Shakers,” a particularly enduring Christian sect – their number recently rose to 3. Ann was once their prophet, one of the rare female figures of such importance at the time.

One of these dancing women, Mary Partington (Thomasin McKenzie), is both a key supporting character in the film as well as its narrator, providing conflicting accounts of Ann’s life but ultimately deciding which parts of her story are worth telling… and believing. It’s a film about the reinterpretation of doctrine that is itself reinterpreted for the audience by a woman invested in making Ann (affectionately called “Mother” by her worshippers) seem like the Second Coming. Regardless of what the filmmakers themselves believe – Fastvold was raised in a secular household – they present The Testament of Ann Lee as though it were an article of faith, making it particularly intoxicating.

In her childhood and early adult years, Ann is seen to have a complicated relationship with her body and beliefs, from her revulsion towards sex to the movie’s sudden flashes of visceral biblical imagery; brief inserts of Renaissance paintings depicting Eden feature particularly phallic snakes. As she molds her own outlook, she and her supportive brother William (Lewis Pullman) join the Shakers in their early days, attending closed-door meetings involving confessions in the form of song, and exorcising sin through writhing and rhythmic thumping. It’s a time of great religious upheaval; Methodism has just been born, the Church of England is entwined with state power and cruel penalties, and the Shakers worship in secret.

After marrying fellow congregant Abraham (Christopher Abbott), Ann’s experimentations with sex and BDSM leave her spiritually unfulfilled. As the years go by, she bears four different children, all of whom die before the age of one, resulting in a pervading grief that informs the way she eventually reshapes the Shaker church. The film frames Ann’s mourning as not only a key to her rejection of carnal impulse, but the foundation of her self-proclaimed divinity. Her visions, she claims, come to her in moments of mania, like when she’s imprisoned for her beliefs, and likely ill and dehydrated. However, the film finds no need to employ a skeptical lens to its chronology. Instead, the camera buys into Lee’s theological stature, and the frame becomes enraptured by the Shakers’ ritualistic motions, capturing worshippers in alternating close-ups and panoramas as they beat their chests with open palms.

The songs and movements, drawn from real Shaker music, are acoustically addicting, even when the people singing don’t have particularly dulcet tones. Your mileage may vary, but this is part of the film’s commitment to naturalistic performance. Not every churchgoer would be a professional singer, though each member of the flock is fully devoted to Ann’s premonitions of a better world, free from tyranny and cruelty. It’s hard not to agree with her objective, even if the notion of lifelong celibacy seems strange or self-defeating.

The film’s ensemble is wonderfully fine-tuned, especially Tim Blake Nelson and Jamie Bogyo as elder churchgoers who – in a decision that feels almost countercultural despite the Shakers’ conservative constraints – yield to the word of a young woman. This faith eventually leads the Shakers across the Atlantic to the New World, where they remain largely apolitical, but invite the consequences of doing so during the Revolutionary War. However, As Ann’s convictions grow stronger, Abraham wavers, testing each of their commitments to the cause of an abstract utopia with no clear path beyond what Christ allegedly tells her.

Seyfried, however, sells Ann’s unshakable zeal with tremendous gusto, turning in a career-best performance as a woman who emerges from the throes of anguish so convinced of herself that she believes with every fiber of her being that her conception of the world and its suffering is the right one, and that everyone deserves a part of her, though they must partake willingly. However, if there’s a downside to the movie’s framing of Ann through Mary’s eyes, it’s that her conception as a holy figure yields a narrative in which she’s rarely tempted to stray from her path, offering little by way of dramatic tension as the film plays out.

There’s nothing especially cruel about the Shakers, other than how they excommunicate members who break their rules concerning fornication. That aside, being immersed in their world for two hours and change verges on liberating, especially during scenes of percussive prayer. The instrumentation by composer Daniel Blumberg remains largely faithful to what one might have heard at the time, but when characters like William get swept up in the word of Mother Ann – Pullman, in these moments, gives himself over to the film completely – the rules break, and the music cracks through space and time with electric guitars luring the Shakers into the future. That they don’t make it to the 19th century in one piece, owing to violent eruptions, feels incredibly tragic by the end.

Beyond the humongous stage, tense in-game stand-offs and hard-fought Winner Winner Chicken Dinners of PUBG United 2025 (the combined Global Championships for both PUBG MOBILE and PUBG) fans and players in the host city of Bangkok were reminded that PUBG MOBILE is more than a game; it’s also a platform where creators, artists and players can bring their ideas to life, contribute to the game’s creative ecosystem and receive recognition and rewards for their hard work.

For aspiring creators, WOW and PDP are more than platforms, they’re launchpads for ambition and imagination. This month, creators from around the world gathered at the PMGC in Bangkok, where 16 standout creators were celebrated on a global stage at the PUBG MOBILE Creative Vision Awards 2025, which recognises contributions across World of Wonder (WOW), PUBG MOBILE’s in-game creation platform, and the Ptopia Design Project (PDP), the platform of the game’s global design contests. If you’re interested in becoming a creator yourself, there’s good reason, thanks to the incentives from the WOW $10 million dollar prize pools and more across PDP contests – and with modern creator tools, a supportive community and a focus on accessibility, there’s virtually nothing to stop you.

Who better to learn from than the winner creators themselves; here’s what they have to say about their creative process, and how PUBG MOBILE provides them with creative freedom.

Where to Start in This World of Possibilities

With over 5.4 million maps created and over 8.5 million peak daily players, WOW’s mobile UGC creation platform is undeniably huge, but that continued support had to start from somewhere. For creators of all kinds, it’s almost always making the first step that is the hardest. Whatever your motivation, with PUBG MOBILE, the gap between initial idea and active creation is designed to be small.

For Kuwait based ناايل؟, Creator of the Year for Best Story, it was “curiosity” and being “drawn to the feeling of turning a simple idea into something players can enjoy” that first sparked his interest in creating in WOW. Taking inspiration from his culture, environment and personal stories, it was the tools within WOW that enabled him to turn “complex ideas into clear systems without needing prior coding experience.” Paired with a design principle to create experiences that are clear and easy for players to understand, ناايل؟ has now been recognised as one of WOW’s top creators – an experience that is sure to boost his confidence as a creator.

Speaking on how creating for WOW has impacted him he said: “Seeing players enjoy my work made me realize that I have real creative potential. It also encouraged me to take creation more seriously and to keep improving my skills on a higher, more professional level.” His recommendation for players looking to create for PUBG MOBILE in WOW? Start simple, build small ideas first, explore the tools, and most crucially "experiment and learn from mistakes.”

Freedom to Create

Every creator needs to have an element of curiosity to get started, but for Creator of the Year: Best Scene Designer winner CaiCai, it was wanting to create triathlon challenges for their teammates where they could try, fail and laugh together, that sparked an interest in creating in WOW.

CaiCai’s background in design and architecture may have given the Australian creator an edge when it came to shaping and building maps, but its WOW’s suite of visual programming, AI supports and open logic tools that not only made the process possible, but also easy. Visual programming “expands the creative possibilities and greatly enhances interaction and flexibility within my maps” they said, noting also how “it removes many limits and truly empowers creators.”

It’s a sentiment that is also shared by Egyptian creator and winner of Creator of the Year for Best Stage Design Y O Y O, who praises the tools for their ease of use, saying, “the mix of visual programming, AI support, and open logic tools lets me build ideas exactly the way I imagine them. Instead of spending hours trying to translate an idea into code, I can see everything laid out clearly and make changes instantly.”

MURSHAD, who won Creator Of The Year for Best Creative Gameplay, similarly notes how WOW can turn ordinary players’ imagination into playable worlds through the platform’s accessible tools: “visual programming and AI support have made map creation much easier for me by allowing me to design and implement complex mechanics visually, without having to write extensive code. This makes the entire process more intuitive and efficient, enabling me to create better and more intricate maps with ease.”

NexusSPIKE, winner of the Popular Creator Award Winner for Arena - Themed Maps, echoes a similar ethos for aspiring creators, highlighting the importance of patience and originality in map design: “I would advise new creators to take their time in learning how to build maps. I would also advise creators to make original maps. While copying maps may seem like a quick way to get plays, it is not a sustainable practice.”

How to Create a Winning Idea

PDP empowers designers from around the world to create outfit, weapon and vehicle designs to be added to PUBG MOBILE. With over 13 diverse contests, a prize pool totalling $1,000,000, and 1,366 PDP winners in 2025 alone, there’s plenty of opportunities for creators to submit their designs and receive recognition, whether they’re professional designers or amateur artists.

For PDP creators such as Ariestrada, winner of the Best Outfit Design Silver Award, the open-themed contests are a chance to flex his creative muscles and create designs that players actually want. Ariestrada’s success started with winning an Outstanding Award in PDP in 2023 – since then he’s also received double awards, Silver and Bronze, in the first Ultimate Set Design contest, followed by a Gold Award in the third Ultimate Set Design Contest, plus two Best Design Awards and a Judges' Choice Award in the PDP Fashion Icon contest.

How has he created so many winning ideas? For him it's all about “keep[ing] an eye on trends outside the game and mix[ing] them with something unique to create something fresh.” His experience with the game has also been a crucial component. “I've played PUBG MOBILE a lot and followed their tournaments, which has helped me understand what works well in the game, what players want.” Based in Bali, Ariestrada also utilises PDP to bring elements of their traditional culture into their ideas whilst also leaning into their knowledge of PUBG MOBILE as “ players love sleek designs because they feel "light and fast," so I always adapt to that style”.

Support to Keep Creative

What sets PUBG MOBILE’s WOW and PDP creative systems apart are their focus on giving creators financial incentives, rewarding creators and growing its community. Together, all of this works to ensure the imagination of players fuels PUBG MOBILE’s evolution, while still providing real-world rewards for contributors.

WOW creator ناايل؟ feels that the community visibility, contest rewards and financial incentives have “had a significant impact as a creator. They made me feel that my work has real value, pushed me to keep improving, and encouraged me to pursue bigger and more creative ideas.” Understandably, the feeling of seeing your work in-game and recognised by the community means a lot for ناايل؟ who says it gives a “strong motivation to keep growing”, while fellow creator CaiCai highlights how the financial rewards are encouraging “because they make me realise that creating isn’t just a hobby—it’s something that could potentially grow into a professional path”.

Future Ambitions

For this class of creators recognised at PMGC 2025 it was a chance to acknowledge the hard work and dedication they’ve given to their respective creative outlets – but creativity is an infinite resource, and there is always another project, map, or design to be working on. So what’s next for them, what do they hope to achieve and how do they plan on evolving as creators?

CaiCai has the noble goal of becoming a “more well-rounded creator with stronger gameplay design skills” by experimenting “with more detailed mechanisms and dynamic elements to make maps feel more alive.” Discussing what he wants design next, ناايل؟ is set on exploring “ideas that feel unique and push WOW’s tools to their limits” with a particular interest in more experimental styles “and unique gameplay concepts that haven’t been done before.”

PDP creator Ariestrada reflected on the importance of the community and how learning from “amazing artists” has helped him improve and grow. As for what he’ll explore next in PDP, he remarks “we already have many anime-themed outfits, and I'd love to create more anime styles with PDP, but with our own twist to it.”

For those looking to start their creative journey, PDP creator Mranderson, winner of the Best Creative Silver Award, only has words of encouragement. He began his creative journey as a traditional illustrator, but over time discovered a deeper passion for gaming as a world where he could merge his artistic talents with interactive storytelling. Through this fusion of art and gaming, his work has reached tens of millions of players across the globe, earning him widespread recognition and respect within the community. “Participating in PDP allowed me to fulfill a major dream in my life—seeing my creations featured in one of the world’s top tactical battle royale games, and experiencing the profound emotion of wearing outfits designed by myself in the game,” he reflects.

For all aspiring creators, he has a clear message: “I simply say: give it a try, seize this opportunity to be part of this incredible design project and this wonderful family of artists and friends from all over the world. And, why not, with your results in each competition, your consistency and dedication, you might even be invited at the end of the year to the PDP awards ceremony, which has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life.”

Download PUBG MOBILE and try WOW and PDP for free via the App Store and Google Play Store. Also make sure you follow the WOW social channels on Instagram, Tiktok, and YouTube, PDP social channels on Instagram, X, and TikTok, and PUBG MOBILE social channels on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube to stay up to date and learn more about WOW and PDP’s creator programmes, contests and toolsets.

Warning: Spoilers follow for Season 1 of Pluribus, Carol.

Have you been watching Pluribus, the new sci-fi show from Vince Gilligan of X-Files, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul fame? Apple TV has confirmed that it’s the most watched show in the platform’s history, and that’s an impressive feat since between series like Severance, Foundation, For All Mankind, and Silo, Apple TV has been the place to be for science-fiction programming for a while now. Even among such esteemed company, Pluribus is an excellent addition to the sci-fi canon (see IGN’s own stellar reviews for more).

With the first season now wrapping up with the Season 1 finale “La Chica o El Mundo” (which translates to “The Girl or the World” in Spanish), and a Season 2 confirmed to be on the way, IGN interviewed Gilligan and his writing/directing/producing partners Gordon Smith and Alison Tatlock. Smith and Tatlock co-wrote the finale, with Smith directing, so we dove with them into some of the biggest events of Season 1’s ending – and what they could mean for Season 2.

Carol, the Joined, and the Road to Albuquerque

Just so we’re all on the same page, Pluribus is about Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn), a writer of fantasy romance novels from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who is one of only 13 people on Earth who is immune to an alien virus that turns all of humanity into a hive mind known as the Joining. The blueprints for the RNA sequence that creates the “psychic glue” which joins all of mankind were transmitted from another planet, and DNA scientists seeking to recreate it accidentally unleashed the infection into the human population.

Despite this seemingly apocalyptic scenario, which included over 800 million people dying worldwide when the virus was released into the atmosphere, the “Others” are kind and affectionate towards Carol. But a combination of her grief at the loss of her manager/life partner Helen (Miriam Shor), her complicated feelings towards her Joined chaperone Zosia (Karolina Wydra), and her own prickly personality have led Carol to going through the emotional wringer as she tries to figure out what to do in a world that’s been horrifically changed but also doesn’t want to be saved.

Pluribus Season 1 Ending Explained

Kusimayu’s Joining

“La Chica o El Mundo” opens with Kusimayu (Darinka Arones), a Peruvian woman and one of the 13 “survivors,” who has requested to be added to the hive mind. The Others can develop a specific pathogen for those with immunity by harvesting their stem cells. We see Kusimayu and her village preparing for what feels like a ceremony, singing songs and helping settle her after she inhales the pathogen.

But once she’s converted, all of that cultural specificity disappears, and Kusimayu joins the Others as they abandon the village, including the domesticated animals, with one particular baby goat seeming very confused and anxious when the previously warm Kusimayu coldly leaves them behind. It’s a chilling scene that strikes at the heart of what the Joined have been taking away from the world despite their friendly exteriors, and sets up the tension at the heart of the finale perfectly.

“It just seemed like this incredible opportunity,” Tatlock told us, “to go to a very specific cultural place and have the Others in her world recreating what is familiar to her, and then see what happens when it is dropped.”

Added Smith, “This is the first person, really, that we've seen, possibly in the world, do this on their own – that they chose this. She absolutely chose this, but she's still real nervous. And hopefully we could see that there was a loss of culture, that there was something that goes away when Kusimayu as Kusimayu goes away.”

The reference to Kusimayu “going away” highlights that the Joining, while technically preserving the thoughts and memories of every person they subsume, do not truly remain themselves under most circumstances.

The Real Zosia

And then there’s Zosia, who Carol has tried to help become a coherent individual as they settle into a romantic relationship, including encouraging Zosia to use the personal pronoun “I.” This of course raises the question of whether or not it’s possible for Zosia to “love” Carol as an individual and not as an avatar of the Joining.

When asked about Zosia’s development in the last few episodes, Gilligan said, as he often does when discussing Pluribus, that he wants the audience to come up with their own answers. But he also added that if someone like Carol sets out to put the world back to the way it was, then that would mean every single person would become their former self again.

“So if you believe that's possible, and Carol does at this point in the story, then I think you’ve got to think there's a Zosia, a real Zosia, in there somewhere,” he said. “But also, Carol in Episode 8 is coming off of a really bad time, a really bad 40-day stretch where she was essentially in solitary confinement. … After 40 days of not interacting with any other human being, she's kind of broken.”

Smith also points to something Zosia says to Carol, which is a key to the true nature of the Joined: “We love you exactly the same as we love Manousos.”

“And Carol says, ‘No, it can't be the same,’” explains Smith. “So… is it that she understands that there's some [part of] Zosia that she's looking for, or that she maybe even thinks, ‘Okay, even if this is the person, this Joined person, maybe that's the person I like, this hive mind in some way. Because she's on the horns of a dilemma. She kind of goes back and forth with her understanding of things, I think.”

And Finally, Manousos Arrives

Things get complicated when Manousos Oviedo (Carlos Manuel-Vesga), a Paraguayan survivor who has refused all contact with the Others and wants to find a way to reverse the infection, finally arrives at Carol’s house after making a multi-month trek from his home country. The language barrier, Manousos’ paranoia, and Carol needing to hide her relationship with Zosia make their early encounters more combative than either likely hoped.

Tatlock elaborated on Manousos’ headspace when he meets Carol, saying he’s probably a little nervous: “He wants to make a good impression, and then 10 minutes later, he's probably wondering why. Why was I trying to make a good impression on her? She's not my leader. What is happening?” He seems quite disappointed that Carol’s resolve to stop the Others isn’t as strong as when she sent him her first video.

Gilligan spoke about what the team was hoping to achieve by finally bringing Carol face to face with the only other human being to resist the Others. As he says, we’ve been waiting a long time for this moment.

“Nine episodes for Stanley to meet Livingston here, and it's been hard fought,” he said. “He literally hacked his way through the Darién Gap just to meet this woman. And then he arrives in her neighborhood and maybe he's expecting – what we’d say in the writer's room – he's kind of expecting Che Guevara or some really charismatic leader. And in Che's driveway is a Rolls-Royce.”

But of course where would the fun be if Carol and Manousos just hit it off instantly? “I think you hope always for fireworks,” says Gilligan. “You're hoping for drama.”

“They were so great together and their distaste for each other was really fun,” laughed Tatlock.

Things get worse when Manousos reluctantly takes up residence in the house of one of Carol’s neighbors, and he contacts Zosia and interrogates her without Carol’s knowledge. Because the Others can’t lie, he learns all about Carol’s affair with Zosia and how the Others function. He continues his experiments by shouting at another Other and exposing him to a radio signal Manousos believes is possibly linked to a way to reverse the Joining, causing the Others to go into convulsions, something Carol did earlier in the season by showing anger towards them. Worried for Zosia’s safety (Others can be killed by the convulsions), Carol interrupts Manousos by threatening him with a shotgun. The Others subsequently leave Albuquerque, abandoning Manousos the same way they abandoned Carol earlier in the season.

With the Others gone, Manousos claims he and Carol can now work on finding a cure for the Joining, but Carol leaves him as well, wanting to be with Zosia. Carol and Zosia go on multiple romantic trips, and it seems for a few days that Carol has found some happiness in a post-Joining world. However, while staying at a ski resort, Carol discovers that the Others have found a way to circumvent needing her consent to obtain her stem cells: They have her frozen eggs from her time with Helen, and are currently working on a pathogen to add Carol to the Joining whether she wants to or not. Heartbroken at the betrayal, and knowing she only has months before the Others have a working pathogen, Carol has Zosia return her to Albuquerque via helicopter.

Upon arrival, Carol tells Manousos she’s ready to “save the world.” Oh, and she also has an atom bomb with her. The end!

What Does This Mean for Pluribus Season 2?

Talk about a hell of a way to end the season. Carol and Zosia’s romance has crashed and burned, Carol is recommitted to curing the Joining, and now we have a ticking clock as to when the Others can forcibly convert Carol.

We don’t know exactly what will happen in Pluribus Season 2, but we can make some educated guesses. Now that Manousos is in Albuquerque, he and Carol will likely become a main cast duo looking to find a way to subvert the Others. Will we finally learn more about that mysterious radio frequency Manousos has been investigating? He seemed to believe he could bring an Other’s original personality back to the surface by playing the signal while they’re convulsing. Is this the method of curing the Joining that Carol nearly discovered when Zosia was in the hospital? And now that Carol has severed her bond with Zosia, will Zosia take on a more openly antagonistic role, or will the Others stay committed to their “smile and wave” attitude? Maybe Carol and Manousos will cure at least one or two people, if only so they’ll have more characters to talk to now that Carol and the Others are once again enemies. No matter what happens, we’ll definitely be watching when Pluribus Season 2 drops.

What did you think of the Season 1 finale of Pluribus? Let us know in the comments!

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles, and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.

Mario fans, here is something special for you today. An unofficial native PC port of Dr. Mario 64 has just been released, allowing you to experience this Mario game natively on PC. This is a must-have for everyone who wanted to play this 2001 tile-matching action puzzle game on PC. Dr. Mario 64 Recomp focuses … Continue reading Dr. Mario 64 Unofficial PC Port Is Available for Download →

The post Dr. Mario 64 Unofficial PC Port Is Available for Download appeared first on DSOGaming.

The Fallout TV show is packed full of characters, factions, locations, and items familiar to any who has played the beloved RPGs. There are so many easter eggs to spot that we found 111 video game details in Season 1 alone. With season two heading to a fan-favourite part of the Fallout universe, New Vegas, naturally, a whole new flood of iconography is set to make its way from the games into the Prime Video series. So, we’ll be digging into each and every episode and picking out everything we’ve noticed that relates to the source material.

You can check out everything we found in episode one, but here, we’ll be taking a look at every video game easter egg and details we spotted in episode two of Fallout Season 2.

Characters, Factions, and Locations

1. Right at the start of the episode, we get a good look at some New California Republic rangers. They’re sporting the iconic duster jacket look from the Fallout: New Vegas box.

2. We can see that these soldiers are stationed at Shady Sands. This is a highly important location in both the games and show, as it isn’t only where Maximus grew up before its inevitable annihilation, but also features prominently in both Fallout 1 and 2.

3. Fast forward a minute or two, and we get to hear the “patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter” line, delivered by a mind-controlled wandering trader. This is a famous New Vegas quote said repeatedly by the NCR as they walk around the desert.

4. Right at the end of the episode, we also get our first glimpse of Caesar’s Legion as Lucy finds herself captured by the Ancient Roman-inspired faction. It looks like we’ll see a lot more of them next week, though.

5. One faction that features prominently in this second episode, though, is the Brotherhood of Steel. Split into Chapters, Maximus’ group is now calling the famed mysterious facility Area 51 its home. Though not featured in Fallout: New Vegas, there is a long-held myth about it being a military base in-universe among the community.

6. Three other Brotherhood Chapter leaders visit the base in the episode. One is from Yosemite. Are they stationed at Mariposa Military Base featured in Fallout 1?

7. Another hails from the Grand Canyon. Although not seen in the games, Fallout lore says that the region has been taken over by Caesar’s Legion. Perhaps in the 15 years between the New Vegas game and the show, a chapter of the Brotherhood has made a foothold there?

8. And last up is the Coronado Chapter. This location is not officially home to a Brotherhood base in the games, but is a part of the Fallout Senora fan project. Could this be a nice little nod to the mod?

9. During the Brotherhood’s heated conversation, there is also a mention of The Commonwealth. Within the context of the Brotherhood, this refers to the Commonwealth expedition force, the faction’s Boston-based chapter. It’s also the name of a region of the East Coast; first referenced in Fallout 3, it’s the area of the USA that encompasses Massachusetts and is the setting for Fallout 4.

Items and Iconography

10. Of course, it wouldn’t be Area 51 without talk of aliens. We see what we can only assume is an extra-terrestrial lifeform stored in a freezer at the base, which does fit in with what we know about the Fallout universe. The games have a long history of alien phenomena and, specifically, weaponry, turning up, especially in the Mothership Zeta DLC for Fallout 3.

11. A creature slightly more from our world is the Brahmin, a multi-headed bovine that serves as a workhorse for many traders and dealers around the wasteland.

12. Much more threatening are Radscorpions, larger-than-normal mutated scorpions that have the power to poison. We see Lucy and The Ghoul battle a nest of these partway through episode two.

13. That swarm of Radscorpions appear to have an alpha with them, though, as a much bigger, nastier version makes itself known. We can’t quite work out if this is a Giant Radscorpion or the much lesser-seen Radscorpion Queen, though. What do you think?

14. Back in Shady Sands, we see the foreshadowing Nuke arrive as Maximus’ father attempts to defuse it. This plump, green design of the explosive is the exact same as we see in the games.

15. A grown-up Maximus later comes face-to-face with some Feral Ghouls while out on a mission. The Brotherhood refer to them as Abominations, which is a catch-all term in the Fallout universe for some vicious creatures, but, interestingly, it doesn’t include ghouls in New Vegas, but rather things like Deathclaws and Centaurs.

16. Speaking of The Brotherhood, their signature vertibirds and airships can be seen high above the Nevada skies throughout the episode.

17. It seems that much of The Brotherhood’s mission in the desert circles around one of Fallout’s most prized power sources: Fusion cores. These fuel some of the more technologically advanced equipment found in the wasteland, including the Brotherhood Knights’ power armor. We can see one being used to power up the turbines that blow away the sand to reveal Area 51.

18. After her and The Ghoul’s face off with the Radscorpions, Lucy is given a choice not too dissimilar from what we’d expect from one of Bethesda’s RPGs: whether to give her only Stimpak to her radiated companion or a woman in need. Stimpaks are a player’s primary method of healing in the games.

19. The Fallout universe is also home to a fair amount of healthbar-draining heavy weapons, just like the one we can see some Brotherhood members investigating as they enter their new base. It’s a Cryolator, an energy weapon that freezes foes with a cryogenic spray.

20. That’s not the only piece of heavy artillery the Brotherhood discovers in Area 51 – we also see them messing around with a motorized Minigun, too.

21. Speaking of Brotherhood members messing around, things almost go disastrously wrong when we see them playing with a plasma grenade. These high-powered explosives possess the power to superheat those they impact and turn them into piles of green goo. Not exactly something to be throwing around between friends.

Music

22. “Lazy Day Blues” is the instrumental track performed by Bert Weedon that can be heard as Lucy and The Ghoul walk towards the abandoned hospital. This track is played on the radio in Fallout: New Vegas.

23. Another track from the games can be heard when “Ac-Cent-Tchu-ate The Positive” by Bing Crosby plays. This featured in Fallout 4 and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 1945 Academy Awards after appearing in the film “Here Come the Waves”.

24. “You Belong to Me” is the song that opens the episode and is from 1952, with its most popular recording being performed by Jo Stafford. Though not actually in any Fallout games, versions can be heard in Bioshock Infinite, along with movies Natural Born Killers and Shrek.

25. The two other songs that can be heard in this episode also have no connection to Fallout, but are certainly representative of the ‘50s era stylings this world finds itself locked into. They are “Secrets” by The Dale Sisters and “Let’s Twist Again” by Chubby Checker.

And that’s everything we spotted in the second episode of season two of the Fallout TV show. Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments. For more Fallout, check out our review of this episode, and stay tuned next week for all of episode three’s easter eggs.

Full spoilers follow for Pluribus Episode 9, “La Chica o El Mundo,” which is available now on Apple TV.

And then there was one! Er, two!

Finally, after nine episodes of being very lonely on opposite sides of the globe, Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) and Manousos Oviedo (Carlos-Manuel Vesga) have met face to face. And it did not go well at all. Big surprise.

But before we get to those two, “La Chica o El Mundo” (or “The Girl or the World”) begins with a look at Kusimayu (Darinka Arones), the Peruvian girl who is one of the 13 uninfected and who Carol met back in Episode 2. She’s the one who actually expressed interest in joining the Others, aka the Joined, and here we see that the hive mind has finally figured out how to make that happen. “We would never hurt you,” Kusimayu’s family and friends – or former family and friends? – tell her. And they don’t physically hurt her, to be sure. She simply inhales the live virus, which transforms her into one of them. So why is the scene so horrifying, then?

Man, the way the lovely tribal singing that the village folk have been aurally caressing Kusimayu with just abruptly stops once she’s joined… it’s ghastly. As the villagers, including the now joined Kusimayu, proceed to completely shut the place down – in silence but with a smile, always with a smile – drives home yet another danger behind the Kepler-22b virus: the complete and under destruction of human cultures. Just ask that baby goat that goes running after Kusimayu when she opens the animal enclosure in one final betrayal of her former way of life. Baaaaaa.

From there we return to Carol and Zosia (Karolina Wydra), the strangest couple in Albuquerque, who are watching a satellite image of Manousos’ ambulance as his arrival grows nearer (“And he’s in an ambulance?” “Long story,” Zosia says in that disarming way of hers).

(Of note is the fact that the title card tells us that this is happening some 60 days after the Joining, whereas the previous scene with Kusimayu takes place 71 days before. We’ve seen this kind of time-shifting put to use before, mostly to convey the most important aspects of Manousos’ story as compared to Carol’s, since they didn’t really line up in a linear way for the viewer. And by the end of this episode, Carol will catch up to Kusimayu’s latest development too. It’s just a cool way that creator Vince Gilligan and his writers have been crafting this story.)

But back to Carol and Manousos’ first meeting. Boy, could it have gone any worse? By which I mean, could it have gone any better… for we, the viewers, that is? I mean, how freaking awkward is it when they greet each other outside the house? Sure, the language difference was always going to make things tough, but we’re talking about two of the last 13 people on Earth with free will… and possibly the last two who actually give a damn about that very concept. This could’ve been a Hollywood-style meet-up, complete with soaring fanfare as they ran and hugged each other. But nope, instead we get “I no dangerous” and instant disagreements. And it only gets worse from there… This guy snaps his fingers at Carol!? Man!

It’s hilarious, but these two clashing was inevitable. They’re just too similar, too hard-headed. And that’s surely why they’re the only ones who can save the world.

That’s assuming, of course, that the pair can agree on what saving the world actually looks like. We learn here that Manousos thinks, initially at least, that if the Joined can’t be reverted to their non-hive forms, then they are better off dead. Carol on the other hand argues that they’re still human, and besides, they wouldn’t even hurt an ant. “And isn’t it evil to value a man the same as an ant?” Manousos replies.

Now that he’s in town, Manousos takes to running his own tests to figure out how to un-join the Joined, though he’s more willing to push boundaries. It starts with his finally talking to representatives of the collective, specifically Zosia, which Carol does not appreciate one bit. But this also leads to a moment that is surely important to Carol’s mission against the hive mind, as painful as it may be: Zosia tells Carol that the Joined, and by extension Zosia, love Manousos as much as they love her. And it’s not just the statement of fact that is so painful but Carol, but also the casual way that Zosia unloads that information on her. Like, of course they love them the same, Zosia seems to say. Isn’t it obvious?

The funny thing is, Manousos just might be closer to figuring out the key to undoing all of this, or at least he has a better theory than Carol ever did. His whole mysterious radio frequency/coaxing the individual back plan is interrupted here by Carol’s shotgun, sure, but it seems like as good an approach as any. And he was sure to warn the whole world to lie down before he started, too.

And so this leads to Carol and Zosia’s turn in paradise, travelling the planet and living the perfect life. The girl or the world? Carol seems to have made her choice… which feels very un-Carol-like. Maybe she just had had enough. Maybe she wanted a quote/unquote normal life with a loving companion again. Maybe she disliked Manousos and his approach enough that she was willing to overlook the bigger problems of the Joined. But even if the bombshell about her frozen eggs hadn’t been revealed, it’s hard to believe that she wouldn’t have made it back to Manousos eventually.

But that bombshell did drop, and it’s both heartbreaking and terrifying for Carol. There’s a ticking clock for her now, and she’s got nowhere to go but home… to her new best friend, like it or not: Manousos. Oh, and an atom bomb too.

Questions and Notes From Kepler-22b

• I’m surprised the frozen eggs thread has played out as expected. Seems a bit on the nose, really, with all the times they were mentioned prior to this. I figured we were in for more of a swerve.
• “I mean, it’s not like he’s dangerous, is he?” Huh, Manousos apparently has a darker history than we realized, at least judging by Zosia’s response here.
• By the way, why does Manousos carry a machete instead of, I don’t know, a gun? Certainly he’d have a better chance of defending himself with the latter. Unless the whole “is he dangerous” thing connects to some kind of history with that blade…
• “You know what, you can get right back into your ambulancia and fuck right off. I’m finito!” Who hasn’t said this once or twice themselves?
• Carol’s phone translating everything even after Manousos drops it in the drain is just the perfect touch to their inaugural meeting.
• Yes, that’s the Golden Girls DVD menu playing when Carol wakes up on the couch. “Thank you for being a friend [Manousos]!”
• Radio frequencies to bring individuals back from a hive mind state! It’s not quite the same, but it is reminiscent of the classic Star Trek episode “This Side of Paradise.”
• I’ve enjoyed watching this season and writing about it, so hopefully I’ll be back for Season 2!