Rockstar has launched an official marketplace where creators can sell mods.

The Cfx Marketplace, described as a "curated digital storefront where talented FiveM/RedM creators can share and sell their work," is currently only open to a select few creators, but players running their own servers can choose from hundreds of mods — some free, some not — to add new maps, scripts, characters, clothing, vehicles, and more to their games.

If the name Cfx sounds familiar, that's because Rockstar acquired the modding team behind the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto 5 roleplay servers FiveM and RedM back in 2023. That came as something of a surprise given the company’s combative relationship with modders in the past.

Now, as part of that relationship, select creators worked with Rockstar to build and supply the new mod superstore as it rolls out "in phases to ensure the best experience for both creators and server owners."

As one happy player said, the official marketplace makes it "much easier to find some trusted creators and hopefully more competition." "Amazing idea! Hope this will be a better way for both creators and server owners to reach more people and find what they need," added another.

Right now, there are hundreds of mods to choose from, some of which are free, and others, most typically bundles, are available for upwards of $450. The Attractions & Parks Bundle, for instance, includes a Theme Park, Water Park, and Maze Bank Theme Bank for $137.99.

Right now, most mods seem to be for GTA 5, but Cfx.re has mods for both Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, so we may see more Red Dead 2 mods as the marketplace expands.

Grand Theft Auto is an enduring juggernaut, with GTA 5 having sold 220 million copies to date. Rockstar is yet to detail how GTA Online will change as a result of November's release of GTA 6, but it seems likely the Cfx Marketplace lays the groundwork for a similar offering in whatever's next for the game.

It also seems in preparation for whatever other plans Rockstar has for monetising GTA RP when GTA 6 comes out. GTA fans had begun speculating about what Rockstar RP servers would look like when the company announced it was working with Cfx.re back in 2023. That excitement then only increased when popular musician Faheem Rashad Najm a.k.a. T-Pain teased in 2024 that he was working on GTA 6 but had been asked by Rockstar to stop engaging with RP servers like nopixel.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

The director of the Stranger Things documentary has cast doubt on the fan suggestion that the Duffer brothers might have used ChatGPT to write their scripts.

Martina Radwan’s Stranger Things documentary, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5, launched on Netflix this week, and fans have spent their time digging into every detail and pausing to take a closer look at each frame as they continue to process the divisive finale of the hit show.

Social media is awash with shots of the documentary that show a laptop with what appears to be a ChatGPT tab alongside a Google Doc in which Matt and Ross Duffer are working on the finale script. This has now turned into an accusation that Matt and Ross Duffer used ChatGPT to write the script itself. Netflix and the Duffers have yet to comment on the ChatGPT question specifically.

Fans accuse the Duffer Brothers of using AI to write ‘Stranger Things’ final season after spotting ChatGPT tabs in behind-the-scenes documentary. pic.twitter.com/gxmYW2OCUJ

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) January 13, 2026

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Radwan cast doubt on the fan claims, insisting that at no point did she witness an “unethical” use of generative-AI in the writers room.

“I mean, are we even sure they had ChatGPT open?” Radwan said when asked about the moment in the documentary. “Well, there’s a lot of chatter where [social media users] are like, ‘We don’t really know, but we’re assuming.’ But to me it’s like, doesn’t everybody have it open, to just do quick research?

“How can you possibly write a storyline with 19 characters and use ChatGPT, I don’t even understand.

“Again, first of all, nobody has actually proved that it was open. That’s like having your iPhone next to your computer while you’re writing a story. We just use these tools… while multitasking. So there’s a lot going on all the time, every time. What I find heartbreaking is everybody loves the show, and suddenly we need to pick it apart.”

Radwan was then asked directly if she witnessed an unethical use of generative-AI in the writers room.

“No, of course not,” she replied. “I witnessed creative exchanges. I witnessed conversation. People think ‘writers room’ means people are sitting there writing. No, it’s a creative exchange. It’s story development. And, of course, you go places in your creative mind and then you come back [to the script]. I think being in the writers room is such a privilege and such a gift to be able to witness that.”

The Stranger Things Season 5 finale, which left it up to the audience to decide whether Eleven was alive or dead, has proven so divisive that some fans have concocted stories about secret 'Snyder cuts' and theories about a ninth episode that would have revealed the show’s true ending. Both were proven to be fake. Still, a petition to release this supposed “unseen footage” gained nearly 400,000 signatures — despite being debunked by the cast. Some fans are even using generative AI to make alternative Stranger Things endings.

Ultimately, Stranger Things really is done and dusted. And don’t expect a follow-up either. The Duffers have ruled out a Stranger Things sequel that would check in on the characters years later, saying it would be “a gross cash grab.”

But all is not lost for Stranger Things fans. Netflix has two announced Stranger Things spinoffs in development, the first of which is Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, a new animated series due out this year. This is set in the same universe between Seasons 2 and 3, and follows the original characters as they “fight new monsters and unravel a paranormal mystery terrorizing their town.” The second spinoff is an unnamed live-action series.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Rockstar has pulled a fan-made mission in Grand Theft Auto Online designed to replicate the real-life assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Variety reports that a user-created level named "We Are Charlie Kirk" was recently pulled from the game, and that Rockstar has now added "Charlie Kirk" to its list of banned words — meaning that players will no longer see missions labelled with his name.

It's unclear how quickly Rockstar acted to remove the mission, though footage of it was uploaded to YouTube that's now over a month old. Rockstar added the ability for players to create and publish their own in-game missions as part of the A Safehouse in the Hills update that launched on December 10 — meaning this content was made within a day or two of the mode going live.

Magic: The Gathering will kick off 2026 with a return to Lorwyn, and Lorwyn Eclipsed might be the most excited I've seen the community since, well, Edge of Eternities (the last Universes Within set).

It's a trip back to a simpler time, without bagels (Spider-Man), bending (Avatar), or the Buster Sword (Final Fantasy) - just fantasy creatures throwing spells at each other all day long.

Not only is it the first set of a packed year, but it marks big changes to the product lineup. Theme decks are back for Standard play, while a new Draft Night boxed product encourages players to, well, draft cards to build their decks.

Then there's our first Commander decks since Edge of Eternities, and both look pretty great, actually.

Here’s everything on offer, and where you can find it if you're looking to lock your preorder in ASAP. Just be warned that prices are all over the place, and many products are running low on stock ahead of release.

Play Boosters

Bundle

Commander Decks

After no Commander Decks for Marvel’s Spider-Man or Avatar: The Last Airbender, they’re back with Lorwyn Eclipsed.

Collector Boosters

Draft Night Box

Theme Decks

UK Preorders

Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.

Best Buy's starting off the new year right with a little Winter Sale, and it has quite a few video game deals worth checking out right now. Among the variety on sale is Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, which has dropped to $44.99 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch.

This deal makes for $25 off both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions, and $15 off the Switch version. They won't stay at this price for long, though, as Best Buy's Winter Sale only lasts until January 19. Now is the time to make a move on it if it's been on your radar.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds for $45

Kiefer Sutherland was arrested after allegedly assaulting and threatening a ride-share driver in Hollywood, according to local police.

The Los Angeles Police Department said Sutherland "entered a ride-share vehicle, physically assaulted the driver (the victim), and made criminal threats" in an incident near Sunset Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue around midnight on Monday, according to NBC4. The LAPD said the victim was not injured in the incident, which is now under investigation.

The 59-year-old former star of hit TV series 24 was released after paying a $50,000 bond, and is now due at Los Angeles Superior Court on February 2. Sutherland's representatives have yet to comment.

Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders cheater purge is underway, and it seems popular streamer Turner Tenney, a.k.a. Tfue, has found himself in – and back out of – the line of fire.

The internet personality, who returned to regular gaming content creation for the first time in two years in December 2025, announced he had been hit with a 30-day ban (which was reversed after just 24 hours) in Arc Raiders earlier this week. He neglected to share any insight into why he believed Embark may have taken action against his account at the time of his ban, instead only sharing screenshots of the notifications and a separate call to action: #FreeTfue.

30 day ban?!?!? For what!?!? pic.twitter.com/LnfKmrcWJY

— Tfue (@Tfue) January 13, 2026

Why Tfue was banned in the first place remains a mystery, but fans online have theories. It’s not traditional cheats like aimbot that players believe landed him in hot water with what is currently his go-to game, though. Instead, it’s his promotion of a recently discovered visual exploit that some suspect is to blame.

Players caught wind of the exploit, which utilized developer tools to make spotting enemies easier by forcing environmental effects like fog to a minimum, just last week, January 9. Embark was quick to patch console command access one day later, saying the feature was “never meant to be player facing” at the time – but some PC players had already tried it for themselves.

Nearly nine hours into a stream that took place last week, Tfue can be seen setting up the workaround and using it when loading into Arc Raiders. The process takes only a few minutes and leaves the streamer slack-jawed.

“F**k, dude. That’s bad,” Tfue says when seeing how the exploit is used to illuminate a usually dark hallway. “I shouldn’t have shown this. It’s over.”

The game stream goes black, and he continues: “No, that’s so bad. I mean, people are going to be using that now, dude. What do we do?”

The segment runs approximately 10 minutes and sees the streamer engage in one fight with another player before returning to standard Arc Raiders affairs for another hour and a half. There’s no real evidence suggesting this incident is what led to Tfue’s ban, as many are simply looking to connect the dots as Embark works to make good on its pledge to ensure its extraction shooter is fun and fair for all.

The studio behind both Arc Raiders and The Finals answered long-standing calls to deal with cheaters and exploit-users in a message published January 8. It promised to implement “significant changes” to its anti-cheat strategy in the weeks ahead, saying fans can look forward to a more even playing field as the team deployed glitch fixes and new detection mechanisms. How successful Embark’s actions have been just five days on remains unclear, but it seems some – including Tfue – may already have been on the receiving end.

Just as onlookers had assumed Tfue had been dealt a lengthy timeout, he uploaded a YouTube video, explaining his own theory behind the ban. While many suggested use of glitches or exploits had caused an Embark anti-cheat mechanism to take action, some testing on his end led him to believe the issue could be tied to a new PC setup. At the time, he believed the situation was "a straight-up accident."

"If you guys think that I got banned for testing out an in-game brightness config, it's like... come on, now," Tfue said. "I think it's just a straight-up accident. You know, Embark, it's been brought to their attention that there was a lot of cheating. [Cheaters have been] stream-sniping, people exploiting out of the map, and shooting people through walls, and they're very aware of that. I think they're cracking it down, but I think they just cracked down a little bit too much."

"It kinda sucks," he added. "Honestly it does. I just caught a stray. We're going to hope and pray that it gets resolved."

It didn't take long for Tfue's pleas to be answered. Just minutes after his video was uploaded, he reappeared with a Twitch stream, proclaiming, "I'm free!" Through the ban and unban process, Tfue says his best bet regarding the cause of his ban is that a foot pedal peripheral could be to blame. Otherwise, he's still in the dark as to why Embark originally delivered the temporary suspension.

"I have no idea," he said during the stream. "All I know is all these f**king theories people have made up in their head are all false." IGN has reached out to Embark for comment regarding Tfue’s ban and its anti-cheat measures.

The former Fortnite streamer's break from gaming content creation ended just last month when he announced “I’m back” with a retirement-ending video published December 14. In the four-and-a-half-minute statement, he explained his spark for gaming had been reignited after finally finding a new game that he truly enjoyed.

“I’ve been playing Arc Raiders off-stream, and I’ve been having a really good time,” Tfue said. “It’s like a polished version of [Escape from Tarkov], and I’ve been having a lot of fun playing. Finally, after years of not really gaming or streaming, I actually enjoy a game. I’ve been grinding off-stream, and I’m just like, ‘I just gotta go live because I enjoy it.’”

Arc Raiders launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S October 30, 2025, to tremendous success. It’s ridden its wave to today, amassing more than 12.4 million copies sold as its 1.11.0 patch makes its way to fans. For more, you can read about another Arc Raiders streamer, who was accused of cheating before players took a closer look at aim assist.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

January's list of PlayStation Plus Game Catalog additions has been leaked online, and includes Resident Evil Village.

As ever, this month's additions have been leaked ahead of time by Dealabs' reliable billbil-kun, who states that PlayStation will likely make the list official later today. Already, though, there's excitement among Resident Evil fans at seeing Village join the catalog (it's set to join Game Pass on January 20).

It's a timely addition, just over a month away from the arrival of Resident Evil: Requiem on February 27, and just ahead of this week's Resident Evil Showcase event that's set to stream tomorrow, January 14. If you're yet to play this spooky first-person modern classic, now is a great time. (And hey, one of its characters may be making a return in Requiem, too!)

Elsewhere, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is another notable addition, alongside off-road simulator Expeditions: A MudRunner Game. Both titles originally launched in 2024 to positive receptions.

Rounding out the leaked list are stealth horror game A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, offbeat indie adventure The Exit 8 and top-down racer Art of Rally. PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers, meanwhile, will gain access to original Ridge Racer from the PS1.

Even more titles may be added to the list when Sony makes its official announcement later today. We'll keep an eye, and update then with any further additions.

PlayStation Plus Catalog January 2026 Games:

Premium/Extra:

• Resident Evil Village (PS4, PS5)
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PS4, PS5)
• Expeditions: A MudRunner Game (PS4, PS5)
• A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead (PS5)
• The Exit 8 (PS4, PS5)
• Art of Rally (PS4, PS5)

Premium:

• Ridge Racer (PS1)

So, anything take your fancy?

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Meta is laying off around 10% of staff at its Reality Labs division as part of sweeping cuts set to affect more than 1,000 people. This includes the closure of a number of VR-first studios, such as Twisted Pixel, the studio behind Deadpool VR, Resident Evil 4 VR developer Armature Studio, and Asgard's Wrath maker, Sanzaru Games. According to Bloomberg, the cuts come as Meta pivots away from the Metaverse towards AI, phones, and wearable tech.

The cuts come just over four years after Facebook changed its name to Meta and went big on virtual reality and the Metaverse.

Letters reportedly went out yesterday (Tuesday, January 13) morning, and developers from the impacted studios shared their shock on social media throughout the day.

"I've just been laid off. It appears the entire Twisted Pixel games studio has been shut down. Sanzaru Games, too," one now former member of staff said, while a designer wrote: "unfortunately, I was part of the layoffs today at Meta, and will be seeking a new role. To my Twisted Pixel Games family: it was an honor to work alongside you for 3.5 years and ship Marvel's Deadpool VR. We made something really special together and no one can ever take that away."

Twisted Pixel is the studio behind a number of popular Xbox Live Arcade games, such as 2009's The Maw and 'Splosion Man. It became a part of Microsoft Studios in 2011, and went on to release Xbox 360 Kinect-exclusive shooter The Gunstringer, and Xbox One game LocoCycle, before becoming an independent company again in 2015 and moving into VR game development.

Meta only acquired Armature and Twisted Pixel in late 2022, and Sanzaru in 2020. However, it is now seemingly shedding much of its internal VR business as Meta scrambles to recover billion-dollar losses and pivot to AI.

In a statement, Meta confirmed the three studio closures: "we said last month that we were shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward Wearables. This is part of that effort, and we plan to reinvest the savings to support the growth of wearables this year."

According to Reuters, CEO Mark Zuckerberg prioritized and spent heavily on the Metaverse, only for the business to burn more than $60 billion since 2020. The Reality Labs business also produces Meta's Quest mixed-reality headsets. According to CNBC, Meta isn’t abandoning VR entirely. It is now courting developers who build games for Roblox to build experiences for Horizon Worlds.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Former Activision boss Bobby Kotick has made a number of claims about the state of his former company, Call of Duty, and the console market as part of a response to a lawsuit.

Kotick, who left Activision Blizzard at the end of 2023 having sold the company to Xbox maker Microsoft for $69 billion dollars, is battling investors who claim he rigged the sale to keep his job and $400 million in change-of-control benefits, and to insulate himself from claims he knew about widespread sexual harassment at Activision. Kotick has denied any wrongdoing.

The investors are led by Swedish pension fund Sjunde AP-fonden (AP7). They have accused Kotick of rushing into the Microsoft merger, and contend the $95 per share takeover price was too low from the outset. AP7 names Kotick, Activision Blizzard, and its owner, Microsoft, as defendants.

Emilia Clarke has said she's likely finished working on fantasy projects after spending nine years as Daenerys Targaryen, the central character in Game of Thrones who received a highly controversial ending.

Speaking to the New York Times, Clarke said that it was "highly unlikely" viewers would see her "get on a dragon, or even in the same frame as a dragon, ever again."

Clarke has previously discussed her difficulty processing how her character ended up in Game of Thrones, and her shock at reading the finale's script for the first time. And in a 2021 interview, Clarke said she could "get why people were pissed" with how her fan-favorite character Daenerys was handled in the series' final episodes.

Now, Clarke has said she struggled following the show's finale, especially after she finally wrapped up her last duties promoting the show at the Emmys in late 2019, shortly before the Covid pandemic hit. "It was the first time in my professional life that I stopped," she said. "I had a full mental breakdown. It was almost as if the timing of the pandemic was bang on."

Seven years later, Clarke is now taking on a lead role in a new TV show, cold war spy drama Ponies, which begins streaming via Peacock this week. "I was definitely, like — a lead in a TV show? I know what that commitment feels like."

But Clarke said this lengthy time since Thrones has now allowed her "to realize that I could try and get some autonomy over my choices, my work. So much of my career didn't reflect my taste, I just sort of shot out of a cannon."

Don't expect Daenerys back in any future Game of Thrones project, then, as work bubbles away within HBO on further spin-offs beyond House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms — including several ideas for potential sequels, according to franchise creator George R.R. Martin. (Where did that dragon carry her off? We may never know.)

Years on from Game of Thrones' final episode airing, the show's legacy still looms large. Earlier this month, Sansa Stark actress Sophie Turner suggested she was one of the few cast members happy with the fate of their character following the series' divisive final season. At the same time, however, Jon Snow actor Kit Harington has said he was "genuinely angered" by a fan-made petition that called for the final season to be remade with "competent writers."

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

This review contains spoilers for Fallout Season 2, Episode 5, “The Wrangler,” which is available to stream now on Prime Video.

We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. The Ghoul has betrayed Lucy, using her as a bargaining chip in his bet to find his family. Ella Purnell appears torn apart as her character’s role in his plan all becomes clear, the tears barely held back as she whispers “We were actually beginning to get along.” It’s the most devastating moment in an emotionally raw episode of Fallout, and certainly justifies her powerfist punch that sends The Ghoul flying out of a second window. The moment captures the full blend of Fallout’s flavour: dramatic, gory, and absurd.

Perhaps the more telling response in this whole exchange, though, is the gritted teeth and low rasp of The Ghoul, who genuinely seems wounded by his own choice. Lucy was good for him – more than just a surrogate daughter, she was a slowly-administered antidote to his lack of humanity. She’s the one drug that The Ghoul can’t afford to go cold turkey on. But his reluctance to see that has led to his impalement on a lamppost, left for dead and with no companion to help find his family.

Splitting up Lucy and The Ghoul shifts Fallout into a whole new phase. While this betrayal (much like the equally phase-shifting Brotherhood of Steel civil war from last week) has always been on the cards, it’s benefitted from a strong, steady build, simmering away through the first half of this season. It’s boiled over at exactly the right moment, leaving three whole episodes to explore the characters’ new situations and set in motion not just a (hopefully) satisfying finale, but put everyone on intriguing paths for the show’s future.

Equally as strong as those story threads is the episode’s visual presentation. Director Liz Friedlander and writer Owen Ellickson pull the same trick here as was used in the season’s third episode, layering The Ghoul’s past and present over each other, cutting back and forth between flashback and current events to draw parallels. Here, it perfectly captures his anguish as his worlds fall apart – in the present, he betrays his sole companion, only for his plan to be instantly derailed. In the past, he learns that he could be the lynchpin of the entire apocalypse. Once again, Ramin Djawadi’s score really elevates the melancholy of this moment, but the true highlight is seeing Cooper Howard ape Dr. Strangelove’s Major Kong as he rides a bucking bomb. If the end of the world really is coming, at least part of him has already given into inevitability. In time, he’ll learn to stop worrying and love the chaos.

Of course, Cooper learning that he may somehow be at the center of the apocalypse wasn’t the only major reveal this week, but it was by far the strongest. The unveiling of the real Mr. House was, of course, inevitable – we knew Justin Theroux had been cast as the industrial magnate months before the show even started, and it was only a matter of time until Rafi Silver was explained away as a body double. However, while the disclosure itself lacks bite, having the double walk up to an unaware Cooper and say “Mr. House would like to see you” is undeniably cool. I’d have loved to have shared in Cooper’s surprise and seen this land in the way it was clearly intended to.

Robert House has been the awkward thorn in this season’s side, and not just because of that re-casting. As one of the major characters of Fallout: New Vegas, those who have played the game already know much about him, and so this season’s threat that House was the man with his finger on the nuclear button was always empty: fans know he has no involvement in the war. The reveal that House has no plans to help Vault-Tec nuke America thus falls a little flat to a sizable amount of the show’s audience. It was a smart idea, then, to tie House’s predictions of annihilation directly to Cooper. That's the real reveal here. “I don’t think you’re a cowboy at all. No, I think you’re a killer!” screams House, a great line that also layers past and present – The Ghoul, of course, wears the costume of a cowboy and has the show’s itchiest trigger finger.

This season’s flashbacks have all been about putting Cooper on the frontlines of Fallout history, but I didn’t expect him to be at the very centre of the hurricane. I do have my reservations about this – I don’t think it would be a good move to re-write the entire of Fallout history and pin it on a Hollywood actor – but so far this exploration of the unknown is working in the show’s favour.

Talking of exploring the unknown, I appreciate that the flashbacks are able to take us to a version of Vegas we’ve never seen before. The production design continues to be second to none, and seeing the glittering casinos of the strip before they’re ravaged by 200 years of nuclear winter is a nerdy thrill. Similarly, it’s great to see Freeside, one of New Vegas’ most recognisable locations, given life on screen. It even has Bethesda level design, with multiple entrances to buildings that allow sneaky characters to get in through the back door and steal overpriced items. Lucy’s sticky fingers adventure in Sonny’s Sundries is yet another example of Fallout having fun replicating the video game experience in a narratively-appropriate way – the important thing about this mini heist, though, isn’t its link to the games, but that its bloody conclusion forces Lucy to question how she’s changed. The Ghoul has undeniably influenced her, and it’s smart to have Lucy ponder that in advance of his betrayal.

With Maximus absent, this chapter of Fallout is almost entirely about Lucy and The Ghoul, which makes for the most focused episode of the season so far. The only outlying factor is Norm, who makes a more substantial appearance following last week’s single scene. Norm has suffered a similar fate to his fellow vault dwellers this season, feeling significantly left behind in the grand scheme of things, and so this week’s massive discovery is the emergency shot in the arm this thread needed. A trip to Vault-Tec’s California office reveals that Bud’s “Future Enterprise Ventures” is actually the Forced Evolutionary Virus, a genetic meddling project that Fallout fans are more than familiar with. It’s a fun tease for what could be waiting in the season’s final act, but more importantly, the F.E.V. is revealed to be a vault experiment overseen not by Bud Askins, but Barbara Howard.

And so, much like last season, Norm’s seemingly disparate plotline is welded into place among the greater picture. This links Norm’s story to Barbara’s, who’s linked to Cooper, who’s linked to Lucy, House, and Hank. These newly forged connections help make the entire season feel like a more coherent whole, and while we don’t know exactly where things will land, you can see how the components are being aligned to ensure everything is in service to each other. This gives me a little more confidence that whatever is going on in Vaults 32 and 33 will eventually be given substance, but with less than half the season remaining, the clock is ticking louder than ever.