Days Gone

0:17 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to The Other Castle. The Other Castle, I'm Andrea. And my name is Tom. And we are a podcast that does the plot, lore, and more behind all your favorite video games, and maybe some video games you have a lot of feelings about, like this week, because we're doing Days Gone. Yes, we are. And if this is your first time checking us out, you can go to our website, theothercastlepodcast.com. That's the othercastlepodcast.com. Over there, we have every one of our episodes listed. You can find links to our Discord, to our Patreon, to all of our social media stuff. Our Patreon is only $2 a month. The first seven days are free, and we have a lot of bonus episodes that come in between the seasons. It's good shit. And you get a cool extra name color on Discord, where we talk about all the games we cover, gaming news, gaming memes, and sometimes we bully Tom.

1:01 It's a good time. So much bullying. I don't understand why. It's just you that you're getting picked on. Like, I don't know what the drama is. All to get me to pick an onion. Did you pick the fucking onion? I picked the onion. Oh, good. Now are we going to the Shrek rave? No, we're not doing the fucking Shrek rave. Why aren't we going to the goddamn Shrek rave? We joked about the Shrek rave. I can't even tell you what episode, but it was like two seasons ago. It doesn't feel that long ago. It was so long ago, and now an actual Shrek rave is coming here to Vegas. Okay, Gen Z is doing this shit where they're having raves where you just dress as Shrek and you watch Shrek and you do Molly with other Shrek fans, which honestly, like, community is important.

1:43 Like, you need this to bond with others. It's hard to make friends. Do you think DreamWorks is officially sponsoring this one? No. No, I don't. Mostly because of the Molly, and that's okay, I get it, I understand. I've been in licensing. Sometimes you can't sign off on things because of the drugs. Because of the drugs. Because of the implication, yeah. There are drugs in this, which is fun. So today we're talking about Days Gone. Now, are you familiar with this game even a little bit? Just barely, like super peripheral. Okay, so I know I've played it, obviously. You haven't played it, but you did have the experience of kind of watching over my shoulder as I was playing it. Because we were in our energy of Tom playing Baldur's Gate on his PC, and I'm literally sitting next to him on the couch playing the PlayStation.

2:30 Because that's how we spend our lives, guys. So Days Gone is a 2019 third person zombie on a motorcycle game from Bend Studios. But it's so much more than that. Or maybe it's not. You know what? It's a varying landing zone. That's what it looked like to me. It looked like it was just zombies with motorcycles. I'm not gonna argue. Okay, that's about as much that I knew about it. I knew that there was like, I remember seeing something about zombie hordes being a big thing about this game where like a thousand will chase you or something. Yeah, that sucks. Oh, so that does happen. Yeah, I fucking hate it. And that was like a big revolutionary thing they were doing with the game.

3:11 Yeah. But outside of that, nothing. Gotcha. Well, I'm glad you're fucking in this episode. You're gonna learn a whole lot about it. Oh, hell yeah. So Ben Studios has been around since 1992, and it is a PlayStation studio with some PC ports occasionally, just because that's how they roll. But primarily we're working on games for PlayStation equipment since the 90s. Siphon Filter was an original IP that they had created. Are you familiar with Siphon Filter? I've heard of it, yes. But again, this is another series that I've never touched. There are seven entries in this series. Holy shit. I understand if you're like, I'm not gonna play any of these seven, because what, are you gonna pop in at five? Right. And be like, yeah, it's not a final fantasy. There's an ongoing ass thing.

3:52 Okay, so it's one continual story. I believe so. So after that franchise, Ben worked closely with Naughty Dog, which is gonna feel ironic in a second, on two uncharted titles for the PS Vita that came out in 2011 and 2012. PS Vita? Oh, I am dating myself with that, aren't I? Wow. So after the 2012 uncharted title, the studio went really quiet until Days Gone was announced at E3 2016, along with the first Insomniac Spider-Man game. Big year. Oh, shit, yeah, that's a huge year. It was such a good PlayStation fucking entry, and I believe I was there for that. I was at the E3 when Spider-Man was announced, but I did not clock Days Gone.

4:34 And we also went to the Sea of Thieves presentation, and they had these... You're laughing because I know what I'm talking about. They had these fake tattoo sleeves that you could put on. They were like nylon with fake anchors and shit. And I actually have an anchor on my arm, so I was like, this is stupid, and I want it. And I came home and made you wear them for me. You're like, I need to see what you would look like covered in tattoos. It was dumb. Yeah, and now I actually just have them. Yeah, that's true. This is before you had tattoos. Also, what a funny piece of merch to have and be like, yarr. The first trailer for Days Gone that was showcased at E3 shows that the project was made for PlayStation 4 and prominently features this beautiful backdrop of the Pacific Northwest. Of course.

5:16 We're in Oregon, though. We're not near Crater Lake in Washington. It's just always the damn Pacific Northwest. I'm in my Alan Wake era, but this is an American studio. It's not a European studio fetishizing the Pacific Northwest for whatever reason. It's Americans fetishizing the Pacific Northwest. Which we don't. I know. This buttery male voiceover talks about the fall of man and what he's lost to the apocalypse and how he just really misses his wife. Oh. We meet a heartbroken biker, a self-described drifter, a man who just wants to kiss his old lady. We meet Deacon St. John, played by Sam Witwer. Oh, shit, Sam Witwer, really?

5:56 Yeah, we've encountered Sam Witwer in the 2022 horror game The Callisto Protocol, which has been covered on this show. And he's also Darth Maul, just straight up. So funny enough, he was also in the pilot episode of The Walking Dead, which is titled Days Gone By. Really? Yeah, and he plays a zombie. You know, it's all just connecting too much. There's something really kismet about that, right? Yeah, working with Naughty Dog first off, not him, but just like the people that are involved in this story. Yeah, there's a lot of cosmic connection here. And just to speak on that, we're saying that's funny because Naughty Dog is obviously the studio behind The Last of Us. Right, The Last of Us 2, which also took place in the Pacific Northwest.

6:39 Partially, yes. The second one does, in Washington, not Oregon. Right. They might have taken the Oregon Trail, but like. Yeah, they really had to, right? Which we've also covered on this show. Look at me, I'm talking about everything. So Sam Witwer worked on Days Gone for four years, three of which he said were incredibly fun. Three of which, oh no. Which year was the bad one? I'm not gonna elaborate, cause he didn't, but holy shit. It'd be funny if it was like that second year was awful. He's like year two fucking sucked. And then we got our shit back together. Yeah. He did full mocap and vocal performances for Deacon St. John under the guidance of the game's writer and director, John Garvin. Okay.

7:20 Sam Witwer has gone on the record saying that they fought occasionally, but that ultimately Garvin's vision for the game and character did work out. Okay, good. John Garvin has been in gaming since the early 90s and has been with Ben's studio since 1997. So he's been doing this shit since before mocap. Yeah. From the original siphon filter all the way up through Days Gone. That's wild. He really had his work cut out for him though, because working on this game, he started with a team of around 50 that grew to over a hundred through the production cycle of just this game. Oof. And we've seen that like really affect a creator in a negative way in the past. Yeah, it can be difficult to be a creative lead and a team lead.

8:02 Sometimes those skill sets don't intersect. Yeah, we saw that with Bioshock Infinite. The production cycle for Days Gone was about six years, and it took that long of a time because it was the studio's first open world game. While this was hyper ambitious, the team worked really hard to make sure all missions and encounters added to the plot and the character development of Deacon. They were critical of removing filler content and keeping the focus on the core story itself. Unfortunately, the years of work and high attention to detail didn't necessarily work out for everyone involved. Oh, no. Days Gone came out on April 26, 2019, which is in between the releases of Last of Us 1 and Last of Us 2.

8:42 Yeah. Unfortunately, for PS4, and IGN gave the game a 6.5. That's out of 10. Ouch. GameSpot gave it a five. Oh, no. Out of 10. Oh, God. And on Metacritic, the PS4 entry got a 71 out of 100. Holy shit. I mean, that's not a terrible score, but still. Yeah, I mean, that's the most glowing review we've gotten, but it's just rough. You know, some people felt that the story was tedious, the gameplay was repetitive in parts, and there were admittedly bugs and glitches at launch that have been fixed. Okay, that does really affect the score, though. Absolutely. I mean, we covered cyberpunk on this show. Yeah, which, like, if it came out in the way that it is today, we'd probably get solid 10s across the board.

9:26 Oh, my God, just the way it's running now with that Idris Elba update, which I don't remember. The Phantom Liberty. It's called Phantom Liberty. In my head, I just see Idris Elba's beautiful face telling me everything's gonna be okay. But it would have been a fucking masterpiece if it came out like this. Right. I played this game on PS5, and I did run into a couple of glitches. I ran into a glitch where the music would not change. It would be like the battle music outside of a battle, and I ran into a couple audio-based glitches similar to that, which kind of sucks because I'm playing this five years after launch. Honestly, audio glitches being the worst of the glitches that you ran into, that's not terrible. It's not terrible, but those battle glitches would keep me from doing other things that I couldn't do outside of battle.

10:10 Oh, okay. So the game was saying, no, no, you're in a battle. And I'm like, I'm literally fine. I've killed everyone around me. There is no red on my map. Leave me alone. And it's like, neer, neer, neer, fuck you. Oh, that really sucks. I'm like, stop. Oh, that's too bad. And also timing wise, having a game with a zombie-like environment enemy in a post-Last of Us world is gonna create immediate comparison. And ironically, this team worked so closely with Naughty Dog on their unchartered entries, but failed to capture a lot of the magic that Joel and Ellie brought to the screen and became the expected bar for narrative games to hit in today's age. Yeah, motorcycle isn't gonna get the same kind of emotional draw as the horse Sparkle or whatever the horse's name was.

10:52 Shimmer, I think it was Shimmer. I think it was Shimmer, who we see explode. Explode. And I wanna be clear that the creatures in Days Gone are definitely not zombies, but they are Last of Us-like infected people. So that kind of sucks for them, too. So again, no word of zombie anywhere in this game. No. Oh, Jesus. And that also is like, you know, Last of Us 1 originally came out in 2013. We know that that's kind of when this started. So you're like, did you copy homework and change it a little? Yeah, right? What are you doing? But no, this is very distinctly not a Last of Us title. It doesn't feel like The Last of Us, doesn't handle like The Last of Us.

11:33 And it's just, but I get it. I'm not going to knock you for thinking it's The Last of Us at home. Right. The original title of this game was Dead Don't Ride, which I fucking hate. That's so bad. It's so bad. Oh God. That was a working title for a while, which feels embarrassing, because that's so fucking stupid. Like The Last of Us is beautiful and poetic and speaks to not only whittling down people you love, but also the state of the world. And it feels like this big wild thing that you're trying to wrap your arms around. And it makes you curious. It makes you want to know more. Dead Don't Ride is fucking stupid.

12:14 It sounds like a horrible zombie novel series. It sounds like a literal arcade box you see in a shitty arcade that doesn't have House of the Rising Dead or whatever. Like a knockoff arcade would be like, Dead Don't Ride, pew, pew. And the guns never work. No. So for this game, it was really hard to shake those inevitable Last of Us comparisons, especially since both studios are Sony owned and Sony backed. So the PlayStation crowd is like, well, if I have the option between this critically acclaimed masterpiece that is an ongoing product that is coming out with this beautiful HBO TV show and these environmental experiences of Halloween Horror Nights and comics and more games versus the game that was once called Dead Don't Ride that is essentially dead on arrival.

13:05 Right. Fuck me, I'm going to play The Last of Us. It sucks. This poor game. I know. It's not fair, but it isn't not their fault. It is their fault. Anyway, with The Last of Us being an immediate classic that was genre defining and has now become a crossover pop culture phenomenon, it had some big shoes to fill, just by definition. Despite middling reviews and some perspectives that this game is literally just We Have the Last of Us at Home, Days Gone sold about seven and a half million copies. Although those are pretty good numbers, especially for a brand new IP and being a console exclusive at launch, Sony did, overall, decline Ben's proposed sequel.

13:52 The team actually personally had the inkling that the franchise would overall be a trilogy, but obviously that's for sure shit not happening. Oh shit, please tell me there's not a cliffhanger at the end of this game. Oh, bitch. Oh, no. That's the worst when you set up for a sequel and never get your sequel. The game is afoot. But that's not even where the drama ends. So this came out April 2019, right? In December of 2022, John Garvin, the game's director and writer, that guy, went on a now deleted Twitter rampage. Oh, no. Do you love where this is going already? Already.

14:32 If it's now deleted, that means it's fucking juicy. So he blamed two elements for the game's softer than anticipated launch, the technical issues. Yeah, absolutely. That's your fault. You directed it, bro. Yeah. Tell them to go back and fix it. And, and now I'm quoting, woke reviewers who couldn't handle a gruff white biker looking at his date's ass. End quote. Oh, my fucking God. You know, it's the complete opposite problem of The Last of Us Part 2. Entirely. You know, somewhere in his deleted tweets, the words Neil Cuckman. You know what I mean, though? If that's what you're hitting post on, there's some dirty shit in your drafts.

15:17 You know, people can handle sex. Yes. People can hand sexuality. Grand Theft Auto isn't always great towards women. Neither is Leisure Suit Larry. And Grand Theft Auto is a huge fucking hit. Grand Theft Auto is a masterpiece, unlike Leisure Suit Larry. I don't even know why you're bringing Leisure Suit Larry into the equation here. I'm just angry. But yeah, that has nothing to do with it. They can handle sexuality and shit like that, and a man checking out a woman if the game's fucking good. Yeah, yeah, entirely. This is so giving. Remember when Battleship came out? The movie that was based on the fucking board game, Battleship.

16:01 That Rihanna music video without the music? And he blamed Avengers for existing. Just the concept of Avengers? Just the concept of the Avengers existed, and the director's like, that's the reason why my movie failed, was the Avengers. Imagine being like this. This feels like the same kind of shit, like, oh, the woke mob came for your game. No, they didn't come for your game. It sounds like nobody came for your game, actually. Also, I'm gonna let you know right now, interracial lesbian couple in this game, they're fucking amazing. They have the strongest relationship out of everyone in this game. So why wouldn't the woke mob be into that?

16:43 Yeah, if you're gonna blame, quote, unquote, like, the woke mob, why is there a genuinely perfectly described interracial lesbian couple, and you're like, fuck the woke people, and you're like, well, you know, would you have included that in your game 10 years ago if it wasn't for realizing queer people are people? Yeah, right? Like, go fuck yourself. He also went on another rampage where he was like, if you guys wanted a sequel, you should have bought the game at full fucking price. Oh my God. And everyone was like, well, first of all, it launched with bugs, you dipshit. Yeah. Second of all, who's gonna spend $60 on a game and they're not sure if they're gonna like it? It's really difficult to do that when the fucking reviews are saying, this kind of sucks.

17:27 Oh man, somebody that can't handle criticism is such a sad thing. Fully. And you know what? The entire gaming community said, shut the fuck up. People who hated and liked the game were like, this dude fucking sucks. Because I feel like this game is kind of polarizing. It's not only people hated it. There are people that genuinely loved this game. Oh yeah, the two camps of people who have played it are like, this fucking sucks or this is the most underrated Sony property. There is no middle ground. Entirely. Which ironically also follows the path of Last of Us 2, of this is a masterpiece or this is a trash fire. That's true, yeah. Except one of them also sold a lot more copies.

18:11 Facts. Yeah. One of them did get this people, John Garvin. Yeah. So John Garvin did part ways with Ben Studios in 2020, like kind of towards the end of the year, which is obviously after The Last of Us 2 came out. So maybe he's bitter, you know? I'm not saying it's okay. I'm saying maybe there's some alignment there. Anyway, after his Twitter rampage, which again is years after he left, Ben Studios issued a statement saying that his statement doesn't reflect what the studio feels as a whole. They said, we kicked him out two years ago. They still had to clean up his mess after he's gone, which really sucks. And you know what? He also claimed that he was fired in late 2020 due to his personality, which makes sense after that fucking Twitter rant.

18:58 Yeah, right? If you can't handle being told you're wrong, I imagine you are not the most pleasant person to work with. Fully. And I also want to say, this did sell 7.5 million copies. On the other hand, Ghosts of Tsushima sold eight or nine. Yeah. And that's also a brand new IP from kind of a smaller studio. And I don't want to say small. It's obviously backed by Sony. Yeah, it's Sucker Punch. It's still a pretty big studio. I'd say Sucker Punch and Bend were kind of on the same level of they've got other franchises, they've got other shit they've done, but this was their new venture. And it's within a year or two of this coming out, right? Yeah, that's not wrong. So, man, you know, there are better ways to do this.

19:40 But you know what? We also can't let one asshole ruin a property for us. Harry Potter still kind of slaps, even if JK fucking sucks. Truth. One asshole does not make a game a guilty pleasure. While yes, he speaks like an asshole and has made mistakes that should not overshadow the work that so many other people brought to the table. We still can enjoy things and we can still enjoy Sam Witwer. Sam Witwer himself has stated this very specific warning about playing Days Gone, perhaps in reaction to the reviews and the commentary on the game arising after the release, whatever. He said, Days Gone was always meant to be a slow burn game and story. For better or for worse, it was designed for you to take your time.

20:23 The best story beats and the best gameplay happened much later in the game. And it's clear that the nature of the game reviews and the slow burn philosophy of game development are not compatible. All right, I get it, man. He's like, hey, you didn't play it all the way through. You didn't play it right. I can totally tell by your review that you didn't get to act three. Right, speed runners, you're doing it all wrong. And you know, the legacy of Days Gone is so split between people who see it as a huge waste of talent and some that see it as the most underrated title of all time. But I'm going to tell you what happens and you can figure it out for yourself. And if you do it this way, you're not giving John Garvin any money.

21:04 Yeah. So rev up your engine, babe. Hop on and let's head back to the Pacific Northwest. This is Days Gone. The game opens on a billboard welcoming travelers to Farewell, Oregon. Farewell is based on Bend, Oregon, which was once called Farewell Bend. Hey, that's where Bend Studios is. I was going to say Bend Studios. Exactly. It's nighttime and the scene lingers on the billboard, and then the billboard is hit with a Molotov cocktail. Hell yeah. It's 2017, so maybe they were inspired by Joel Miller to throw Molotovs at shit. Police sirens start ringing out and over a PA system, we hear that all evacuees must remain indoors.

21:46 In an alley, a blonde woman is hugging her stomach, bleeding. Sorry, they told the evacuees to remain indoors? You know, if you're going to have problems this early. Word one. In the first shot, I'm going to need you to take a seat. The woman has a work lanyard around her neck. A tattooed biker looks over her. This is where we meet Deacon St. John and his wife, Sarah. Another tattooed biker who has full skull tattoos, and not just tattoos of skulls, tattoos on his skull comes up to them. This is Boozer.

22:26 We love all these people. Deacon looks up at Boozer and tells him she may be going septic and that the knife may have nicked a kidney. Boozer calls Sarah his little sister and asks how she's doing. Sarah is breathing heavy and is upset, saying it was just a little kid with a big knife. Deacon starts to move her, and the three of them make it to a roof with a Nero helicopter. Nero is the national emergency response organization who are currently working overtime. All around, there's something horrible happening in the city, and there's, like, fires, and there's some sort of rampage going on, and it's definitely not safe to be outside right now. So it's like a societal collapse. Yeah.

23:06 Like, in the opening of The Last of Us. But we're actually going in, like, middle of it, so. Yeah, and there's a girl named Sarah. She's hurt. We have to get her to safe. Oh, my God, it's The Last of Us. Is she blonde? Yeah. Of course. God damn it. She's a woman here. Yeah, at least. Deacon brings Sarah up to the Nero copter and speaks with a guy named O'Brien, who is in a full hazmat suit. Deacon tells O'Brien that she's not infected, that she just got stabbed, and she needs medical attention. O'Brien's like, I don't have room in the fucking helicopter. I'm just a grad student. I don't know what's going on, man. Deacon pulls a gun on the grad student O'Brien and gives O'Brien the inspiration to invite the two of them on the helicopter, despite Deacon, Sarah, and Boozer being a party of three.

23:53 Deacon accepts and makes O'Brien help get Sarah on the chopper. He tells Sarah she'll be all right. Deacon goes over to Boozer to tell him to get on the chopper, but Boozer declines. He tells Deacon to go on with Sarah and that he'll be okay. Deacon then clocks that Boozer has a huge gash on his leg. Oh no, the Boozer tells him again, he'll be okay. Deacon goes back to the chopper, and O'Brien tells him that they're heading to a refugee camp. Deacon tells Sarah that Boozer is never going to make it without him. Sarah, clutching her knife wound, is heartbroken, but understands. Deacon removes a comically large dog ring off of his hand and slips this bulky beast on her dainty finger. It covers her wedding band and her entire knuckle.

24:35 The whole, like when you say comically large, it's just like the full fucking finger almost. Oh, it's ridiculous how big this is on her. He looks into her eyes, and instead of saying goodbye, says, I want this back. We clock that he has Sarah's name tattooed across the side of his neck. Which like, holy shit. Okay, I just got part of my neck tattooed. Two days ago. Literally. I had to be put into a choke hold at one point. That shit was wild. I was involuntarily kicking. My body was just like, what if we sent pain receptors everywhere? And I was like, I'm so sorry. I'm trying to hold still. I was like, chain smoking CBD cigarettes because I don't smoke tobacco.

25:16 But I was like, I need the sensation of something like that shit sucks. And his is intricate. It takes up a big ass part of his neck. That shit sucks. And his is probably like done by like prison tat style. Oh, yeah. He's a biker biker. So there's no way he got that done in a clean environment. The helicopter takes off without Deacon. As it ascends into the night, Boozer limps over to join Deacon and watches as Sarah is separated from them. Boozer says, Oh, shit, what did you do? The city begins to be swallowed up by the fire, and we get the title card. Days Gone. Oh, shit. Hell yeah. Then another title card.

25:58 Two years later. Two years later. Okay, so a little bit of a diversion from The Last of Us finally. The Last of Us was 20 years later. A generation later. This is, you know, this is not that much time. Yeah. The camera pans down from a gorgeous landscape scene from the inspirational Pacific Northwest in the year 2019. The tips of the mountains are snowcapped and the trees are thriving. The world of Days Gone is just mountainous and you can smell the pine needles in the air. Nature has won the war for the betterment of the environment and for the worse of its inhabitants. Oh, remember that time during lockdown when just the world came back? Yeah, that was six months after this game.

26:41 It was cool to see, like, beaches be clean. Oh yeah, nature's healing. Yeah, rivers were clean and shit like that. It was beautiful. The scene comes down from the tops of the trees to a highway sign that's been spray-painted with the message, Freakers, all dead. Freakers? Tell me that's not what the zombies are called in this game. In this world, there are no zombies, and zombies never show up in the game, but the word freakers do. Oh, good lord, that is easily the worst word. I have heard for a zombie-style creature. Just say fucking zombie, I swear. Just fucking say it.

27:23 You're so mad right now. Freaker? Oh, your eyes are so big and angry. Freaker is the best thing they could come up with. In the six years it took to produce this game, they decided to call the big bad freakers. I mean, this is the same group that said the dead don't ride, so fuck. Alright, so the freakers. Yeah, they're a form of infected humans who have lost all their humanity. This infection takes hold of mammals and makes them super feral, strong and unreasonable. Oh, mammals. So animals too? Oh, you clocked that, didn't you? Oh shit. While they're not technically nocturnal, they typically do come out more at night.

28:06 You can still run into them at any point during the day, and they're attracted to noise, so if you blow shit up or you're driving your motorcycle, they'll be like, I'm gonna get you. They don't talk. But I assume that's what they'd sound like. So these people ride Harleys in a world where it's important to stay quiet. Deacon, I'm getting the feeling you're not an intelligent man. I love how upset you are. We have barely started talking about this game. I'm sorry, but the logic is not logic-ing right now. I think I know what camp you're gonna land in in terms of Masterpiece or Trash Tire. I'm gonna give it its chance, though.

28:47 You're trying. I'm trying. Sam Witwer said Slow Burn. So far, we're not even into the gameplay yet. We have not picked up the stick yet. And you have found several points that you're very upset about. I guess I'm too woke. I don't know. You can't handle a white biker looking at his date's ass. We have seen no asses yet. I don't even think we've seen a bike yet. Yeah, we haven't seen any bikes yet. Wasn't he riding it towards the helicopter? No. Oh, no. They were walking. Oh, my God. That mission was on foot. It was a cut scene. All right, so the Freakers are wild, and they, like, don't talk.

29:30 They're just, like, fucking feral as shit, which kind of sucks because that's basically elastomers infected also. Are these fast zombies or slow zombies? They are fast zombies. They're bipedal. They're noise sensitive. They're fucking sprinters. In this scene, we don't actually see the Freakers yet, but we do see our boys, Deacon and Boozer, riding their loud as fuck Harleys down the deserted road. The boys are as dirty as their bikes are, and they're still sporting their club cuts. Those biker gang insignia leather vests with patches claiming allegiance to their squad. Now, I've never... I don't know how to ride a bike, like a bicycle. Right.

30:10 But Tom grew up in a Harley family. I did. I very much did. And like, they joined groups. I'm not going to call them gangs, but they were definitely biker groups. So that was common. That's a thing. You know, I've never seen, what was that show? Sons of Anarchy. Yeah. And I know that that show really inspired a lot of people to join biker gangs and motorcycle clubs, stuff like that. And especially this game. Like, obviously had a huge impact on it. Yeah. I never watched it mainly because I'm like, you know, they're going to get a lot wrong, things like that. And I bet it's going to become like stereotypes, like probably like biker meth, shit like that. Those kinds of biker gangs.

30:51 That was not my parents. Your parents were not into the biker meth? No, they were more easy rider, like wild hogs style of fucking bikers, you know? Which honestly, a fun movie. Yeah, it really is. But, you know, I grew up on the back of a Harley entirely. And, you know, I don't ride motorcycles because the first time I ever got on one, I fucking wrecked the shit out of it. Like 12 seconds, not even 12 seconds, four seconds on a motorcycle before I wrecked that son of a bitch. And yeah, I haven't gotten on a motorcycle ever since. Gave yourself a concussion. Yep. Never the same since. No, I haven't. This whole life has just been kind of a flash from that moment, I think. The lamp is glitching.

31:31 Yeah. No, but yeah, I grew up on a motorcycle, so I will lend my motorcycle knowledge as much as I can throughout this episode. I appreciate Biker Corner because I don't know anything about motorcycles, obviously. Right, and the culture behind it. Right, but this group of motorcyclers are the Mongrels from Farewell, Oregon. They both sport patches that say 1% in red. Oh, God. Which is a reference from the saying from the American Motorcycle Association that says 99% of the motorcycling public are law-abiding. There are 1% who are not. And I'll tell you this, 99% of the people who claim to be the 1% in the motorcycle culture are fucking not.

32:12 They just have DUIs. Yeah. But this meant to imply here that these are some bad boys. Yeah. Oh, my God. Boozer has a special patch saying Sergeant at Arms, which means he's the right hand of their leader. And Deacon says Enforcer, which just kind of means he's down to throw down. Again, these... Oh, goodness. Yeah, this is gonna be definitely like Sons of Anarchy style, isn't it? Yeah. It's a bunch of people who are like non-conformists having a full conformity aspect to them as well. Oh, yeah. In the two years since we've last seen him, Deacon has also let his beard grow out. To show that time has passed. Exactly.

32:54 They park near a cemetery saying they lost them, whoever they are, and spot a woman who is actively dying being having beaten to death. Ouch. Her eyes are swollen shut and she's coughing blood. Uzer recognizes her as Alvarez and runs to her. Alvarez outs her assailant as Leon with her dying words. Fucking Leon. Deacon says fucking Leon. A bike speeds past them and Buzzer and Deacon jump into action to chase them down because, you know, of course, it's Leon. Yeah. While chasing Leon through the woods, Buzzer and Deacon see a horde of Freakers. We get our first good look at the Freakers, these feral infected humans. They're mostly skin with the clothes and hair rotting off of them.

33:37 There's a few varieties of Freakers we'll see through the game, and the most basic, the ones we see here, are swarmers. Swarmers often travel in groups and communicate through basic grunts and via pheromones. They have a hive mind and can turn to work with each other if they find an uninfected human to eat and kill. They're not particularly, like, particular about who they eat though, because sometimes you'll see them eating each other. What the fuck, really? Yeah, they're a little cannibalistic under the right circumstances, but I guess we all are. Wow, okay, they want dead rotting flesh. You know, it is what it is. A horde of Freakers is common, often being groups of at least 50 or more Swarmers who all live and move together.

34:18 50 or more? Yeah, and this was a big selling point of the game of like, we've created these kind of assailant AI that will be groups of Freakers that you will have to attack while they all start to like, descend on you. To be fair, that is some technological marvels. It's really fucking cool, and there are some as big as like 500 that you encounter in the game. There are huge hordes. The thing is, I'm gonna, I'm gonna let you know right now, the first time you do it for a story mission is about 75% of the way through the game. Really? You can get them earlier, but the game does not explain that you have to go get these fucking hordes until like the 25 hour mark?

35:00 Holy shit. Out of the 30, 32 hour campaign. So you have to get chased by these things every once in a while? Yeah, and like you can absolutely like jump into it early and fight the hordes and like do the whole thing. There is a horde mission line of like killing all the hordes, you know, just to hundo the whole thing. I don't love fighting the hordes. I don't think it's very fun, but you know, I'm just not wired to... That's not for me, and that's okay. Perfectly honest, I don't enjoy platinuming a good game. We're not hundo people. I have OCD like literally diagnosed. This is not part of that. Yeah, give me the main game. I'll do some side quests. If I find out later, there were some that I missed that I should absolutely do, I might do it again. Maybe. Yeah, if it seems that interesting.

35:43 Otherwise, yeah, I don't need to go find all the trophies. For sure. This was a big seller for some people that were like, that's fucking cool as shit, and it's totally something some people get down on. I respect that. This is not for me, and that's okay. But going back to the whole 50 zombies, sorry, freakers on the screen at once. You can say zombies. Yeah. It reminds me though of like back in the day of early gaming, where if too many characters were on the screen, everything would slow down. Yeah, the fact that they can have 500 freakers ascending on your playable character at once, and you can kind of pivot your camera to see everyone, and it's smooth, that's fucking sick. Granted, you said there were a lot of glitches at first, so maybe it wasn't that.

36:24 You can do it now is what I'm saying on the PS5. So just past this horde, Leon has collapsed after catching a bullet from the boys. As he lays dying, Deacon confronts him about skimming some drugs from a nearby camp, which is enough for Leon to have likely earned a bounty on his head. Leon gives Deacon a map leading to the stash in the promise that they'll kill him quickly, rather than leaving him to be torn apart and eaten alive from that horde. What's the bounty in the post-apocalypse? Mostly, we're gonna get there, but just to jump ahead, there are camps, and if you bring in bounties, you'll be able to exchange it for camp credits, where you can get upgrades for your bike, upgrades for ammo and your guns and shit like that.

37:11 Camp credits, so like company store dollars? Yep. Okay. And fucked entirely. Exactly. Oh, God. Now, Deacon is a man of his word and shoots that scumbag right between the eyes. Uzzur grabs Leon's hat, freshly stained with Leon's blood, and hands it to Deacon so he can collect on that bounty. And Deacon puts Leon's hat on his belt loop and is like, fuck yeah, let's get this money. Fucking Leon. When Deacon and Uzzur go back to get their bikes, Deacon sees that his bike's fuel pump has been shot out. Oh, shit. Deacon hides his bike under some big ass leafs and suggests he and Uzzur go to a nearby town for supplies. Deacon hops on the back of Uzzur's bike and they head on down.

37:53 They make plans to use the map from Leon to collect the drugs that Leon stole and return them to Tucker, the leader of the local camp that the drugs were stolen from. Yeah, put everything back in place. They'll make things right, cash in on the bounty, stock up on supplies, and then finally get out of this fucking town and head up north. While Deacon is skeptical about the viability of moving north, Uzzur argues that they need a change of scenery. While on the way, Deacon and Uzzur get jumped by a gang of marauders. It's just random survivors who hide out on the roads and run out and fight Deacon and Uzzur to rob them. There's entire cities. We don't need to live like this. Leave each other alone.

38:34 Yeah. Thankfully, this is not unusual for Deacon and Uzzur, so they beat the shit out of these people and it's handled. They're probably equally as guilty as they are. Oh, and no one's good in the apocalypse. It's like that scene in The Last of Us where Ellie's like, Joel, did you once do this kind of shit? And Joel's like, yeah. I'm not going to lie to this child I don't give a shit about. Yeah, I totally did the same thing. That's why I knew they were going to do it to us. I could read the signs, kiddo. Boozer and Deacon don't even really talk about getting jumped before they hop back on their bike and head back down into town. They also passed by an old Nero checkpoint. Now, Nero is that national emergency response organization group that was evacuating people during the original outbreak two years ago.

39:21 This checkpoint is a fenced off area with tents and portable labs where Nero was running research and emergency services for survivors. But most of these are all abandoned in the world by now. So this was Fedra in The Last of Us, right? Thank you for being our Last of Us translator. It's just honestly, I'm sorry. It is way too tight. Like the comparisons. It's real. I'm not gonna fight you on that. Yeah. These checkpoints usually do have a lot of good resources on site, so through the game, it's worth it to go out and clear these checkpoints and unlock some cool shit. We're on a mission right now, though, so Boozer and Deacon just drive by. While the boys bike through a tunnel, Deacon smells something foul, and that's a freaker nest.

40:06 The freakers have created nests in cool, dark areas, often like caves or long haul truck trailers or alcoves and tunnels, shit like that. These nests are where they sleep and stay together during the day before they come out at night and are like, I'm a freaker. Nests are usually signified with a shit ton of sticks, kind of like a bird's nest, which is a very literal alignment. I was thinking like Blair Witch project. But like big, like a doorway full of sticks is basically what it looks like. Oh shit, like the three little pigs. Exactly, and you gotta blow that motherfucker down. And Deacon almost always complains out loud to himself about how bad it smells when he's near a nest.

40:48 Which is kind of nice to be like, OK, I'm nearby. I just got to walk around a little more. The nests are not subtle, but it can help the community to destroy these nests and displace the Freakers. So Deacon throws a Molotov at it. Of course. This burns up the Freaker nest and a few run out of Deacon, but he's able to clear out the whole nest quickly. This will happen throughout the game. It's kind of fun, actually. I liked hunting these down and clearing them out. It felt satisfying to clear the map of those places. OK, cool. After his good deed of the day, Deacon gets back on his bike with Boozer. The boys get to a little truck stop called Crazy Willy's to grab bike parts, and unfortunately, it's fucking crawling in Freakers. Deacon tells Boozer to ride his bike around and wrangle some of them away from the area while he goes into the garage and looks for parts.

41:31 These Freakers are super rabid and some of them are attacking and eating each other. It's fucking gnarly. Again, eating of each other, that is at least something unique to this game. I have never seen zombies that eat each other. I haven't either. I think that is really cool that they're just like, fuck it, we ball. Deacon goes all sneaky sneaks and makes his way to an auto garage and meets a newt. A newt is a Freaker who is an underage human. Oh, God, no. Child zombies? A child zombie. Fuck me. The fact that they have a different name is just kind of fucked up. I know. And I want to remind you in this beat that Rockstar Studios refused to make child NPCs to keep players from harming children.

42:14 Right. But Bet Studios said, fuck that, that's so woke. What if we made the children creepy and you could beat the shit out of the children and you would be rewarded with XP? Oh, my Lord. I guess we did it in Bioshock, so there's your Bioshot, everybody. That one's not as bad, though. You don't watch yourself kill those children, but you're absolutely killing those kids if you're harvesting. You're not helping if you're harvesting, that's fair. I mean, it is harvest or save, so the implication is not great with the Bioshock of it all. But yeah, the newts are fucking... They're never too small. They look like they're maybe 10 to 12 years old, which I know does not make it better.

42:56 But I did want to give you that solace that at least it's not a four-year-old. At least? It still sucks. It's the apocalypse and it's fiction. Yeah, I mean, it's gonna happen definitely, children being zombies. Yeah, but we never want to talk about it. You would want to take out those nests first, just so there's no suffering left. Yeah, there you go. So clearing the nest could be a good thing. Kind of. This fucking sucks. Yeah. Well, Deacon is making his way over to the bike parts. He kills a bunch of grown-up freakers and baby freakers, and he's talking to himself. It's a lot of pew pew. Yeah, that's what I thought. Oh shit, more goddamn freakers.

43:37 I'm Deacon. This is why you need a sidekick, so that way these moments don't feel like a crazy person. I'm glad you say that. So while Deacon's running commentary was often lauded by players by being like, you sound fucking crazy, a very specific section of fans loved this. Really? Deacon's running commentary and paired with his fight or flight response really spoke to people with PTSD. Oh, okay. You're going to feel like an asshole. I am already. Canonically, Deacon was in the Army and did one full tour of Afghanistan in the 10th Mountain Division, which is a real division of the Army. On his right hand, he has the insignia of this division tattooed, and he says he hated every minute of service and was honorably discharged after his tour.

44:23 Following his service, he joined the Mogrolls MC, the motorcycle club, but due to his military background and the immense trauma from the outbreak, it's widely believed that he does suffer from PTSD. Oh, shit. Deacon's constant running commentary to himself and his self-preservation in the face of danger are often signs of PTSD manifesting and really rang true to other people affected with PTSD. That's really kind of cool. And this didn't land for everyone, but the people who understood his pain felt like this made him so real, of like, holy shit, I've gone through this. I've had to get shipped off to fight for something, and now I talk to myself, and now I say my thoughts out loud, and I don't want to be alone in my head. Like, there were some elements that actually spoke to the character, but a lot of people were like, hey, buddy, shut the fuck up, they're attracted to noise.

45:11 Then maybe they should have at least explained that, if that's gonna be his character trait. Okay, that would have been cool. Yeah, if it was intentional. It could have been completely unintentional. A certain demographic just ended up latching on to that aspect. Yeah, like when you're like, oh, that character's queer coded. Right. And you're like, well, they're not technically outwardly queer, but they're queer coded enough that we feel we can be like, you're one of us. Yeah, fully. Like the people with the conspiracy theory that I think it's in the Spider-verse that Gwen might be a trans character. I haven't heard that. Yeah, it's based on the painting colors in her scenes and stuff like that when she's in her own world. There's a lot of the trans flag colors in her scenes, stuff like that.

45:54 The whole aspect of her dad not accepting her for who she is, that kind of thing. There's a lot of people that have really queer coded and trans coded to Gwen for reasons like that. Who knows? It could have been completely intentional. It could have been completely unintentional. But you know what? If it helps make someone feel more seen or more understood or less alone, who gives a shit if it's intentional or not? Exactly, yeah, 100%. So yeah, if this is a good representation of PTSD, fine, I take back any comments that this is kind of a dumb thing. They should have explained that. It's definitively unclear. If that was the intention, they should have explained it.

46:34 And then, yeah, you can kind of just like go on from there. But anyway. So Deacon barrels into the garage and manages to find a fully intact motorcycle, which is wildly convenient. He grabs what he needs, and as he gets ready to leave, he hears Boozer yelling that they're being ambushed by Rippers. The Rippers are a cult that have formed in the area that worship the Freakers. A cult that worships the zombies. Of course there is. There's always a cult that worships the zombies in the end. Is there one in The Last of Us? Not in The Last of Us yet. Yet. You said give it a second. Yeah, we've had cults already. Now we just need one that worships the zombies. I'm really in a cult this season. Yep.

47:15 You are in your cult mood. The rivers see the Freakers as the next natural evolution of man and that they should be revered for this. That wasn't like Dead Space, right? Yes. And the Callisto Protocol. Yeah, I think also in Dead Rising, there was an aspect of that as well. Well, I was just blaming Glensoe Field for it. Yeah, I know. Using kind of the same tropes in Dead Space and Callisto Protocol, which also brings Sam Witwer and Noah. But, you know, it's mildly different. Anyway, the Rippers hate humans that are outside of the cult because they kill freakers, because humans are like, hey, that's bad, and they're like, fuck you, they're gods. So there's tension there.

47:55 They're also called Rippers as a lengthening of RIP or rest in peace. So it's like, we worship death. So they're not Vic from Cyberpunk. No, he's a mechanic, not a cultist. He's closer to being Deacon in this situation. Boozer just got jumped by a pack of Rippers while trying to steer the Freakers away from Deacon. Deacon hears him screaming and is like, oh, fuck. God damn it. So Deacon runs out of the garage to help Boozer, and he sees two Rippers that have Boozer pinned down on the ground, and one has a blow torch coming up to them. Jesus. This is the player's first look at the Rippers, and we see that they're mostly men that are shirtless and bald and have scars and cuts all over their body to resemble the Freakers as much as possible.

48:40 They're hugely scarred everywhere, including their face, and usually have RIP carved into their foreheads. Holy shit. Just fucking feed these people to the fucking Freakers. You think they'd just be like, okay, I worship you, you can have me now. Yeah, just go ahead, join them. Yeah, I think that's what they do in Dead Space at one point. They're like, we fucking love the infected. I want to be a necromorph. Then he's like, I'm a necromorph now. And you're like, yeah, you are. Yeah, dive right in, buddy, go for it. Who's stopping you? The ripper with the blowtorch takes it to Boozer's arm and starts burning him through his shirt and yelling at him. The ripper says, these tats are a symbol of a dead man, dead symbols of the lost. He has obviously got biker tattoos all over him for the Mongrels MC.

49:23 The rippers keep holding him down, and the blowtorch ripper says, you are lost and we are found. He brings the blowtorch back down on Boozer and holds it steady, burning into Boozer's flesh, letting it boil beneath him and cooking his biker gang tats completely off of him. Oh, there can't be anybody that still gives a shit about that alive. What the fuck? I can't believe anyone gives a shit about tattoos anymore. Right. Also, who says tats? That's me being ridiculous. But yeah, no, it's been two years since the fall of man, and they're like, how dare you rock motorcycle tattoos and Boozer's like, they closed down all the laser shops. What do you want from me? Oh my God.

50:03 Laser Away has been dead for years. Boozer breathes through the pain, not giving these motherfuckers the satisfaction of him screaming through his torture. Hell yeah, Boozer. And Deacon's not going to let this shit slide. Deacon wrecks house destroying these assholes while Boozer lays on the ground holding what's left of his arm. Oh, I hope he's using a melee weapon through this. I want to use a melee weapon through this. Just to feel the haptics of beating the shit out of them? Yeah. Fuck yeah. You can do whatever you want. Deacon comes up to Boozer and he can't even hide it. This arm looks fucking awful, and Deacon is immediately scared for him. Oh, they clipped his wing. Deacon tells him not to look in his arm and to get up and to get on the bike, and they're just going to get out of here.

50:48 Yeah, you don't want to see what this looks like, buddy. Boozer is in shock and he looks down at what's left of him. Then he gets on the bike, and as he does, a horde of freakers start running down towards them, attracted to all the screaming and the gunfire and everything. And the blood and the smoke and the fucking everything. Oh, my God. Deacon tears ass back to their compound, the two share. It's a watchtower that's surrounded by a chain-link fence and barbed wire where they sleep upstairs in the tower. You know, very fire watch. By the time they get home, Boozer is already starting to look pale. He's sweating, he's feeling sick as shit, but they made it. Deacon walks Boozer up to the tower and drops them off in a bunk and tells him he'll be right back.

51:28 Henry, I'm home. He still has to go get his bike, you know, so he's like, all right, you stay here. No one's gonna steal my fucking Harley. Yeah. So Deacon's like, okay, cool, I'm gonna go figure out how to get some medical shit for Boozer, but I figure I can go grab some sterile supplies at Nero. That's great. There's checkpoints fucking all over. And he has to like figure this out right now because Boozer's been like, man, we're gonna ride up north. It'll be so great. And they really can if Boozer's all fucked up. So let's handle that first. Boozer's like, yeah, man, I'm gonna be here. Leaving my shotgun though, I'd feel naked without it. Deacon's like, yeah, this will be great. Sure, the recoil alone will blow your fucking arm off. You'll be down to stubs on both sides, buddy.

52:10 What are we doing here? Deacon leaves on foot to go grab his bike, so you just have the one bike when you're riding around. And he spots a Marauder who is scoping out his and Boozer's hideout. And he's like, oh, absolutely the fuck not. He chases this guy down and kills him after overhearing him plan to kill Boozer and take the safe house loot for themselves. Was he planning this out loud to himself? Yeah. He's like looking, and then he like finds another guy. He's like, ah, let's go rob these guys. Deacon's like, I'm gonna fucking murder you. Absolutely not. Deacon takes out this Marauder group, and radios Boozer to let him know that, just like, you know, as a heads up, there's people trying to kill us, but I handled it. So just stay in bed, okay?

52:52 Boozer just takes this as one more reason they need to get the fuck out of here and move up north. Deacon says, yes, absolutely. We need to get your arm better, and then we can go, okay? And Boozer's like, got it. Boozer's getting too old for this shit. Absolutely. Deacon makes it on foot to where they left his bike, and it's fucking gone. Oh no. He looks around, sees nothing, and then screams, fuck! I love that. Like, what a vibe. He then sees one guy that he actually recognizes nearby. This is a guy who belongs to a nearby camp, Copeland's camp. After seeing this raggedy ass biker come out of nowhere and scream, fuck, the Copeland camp guy starts running away.

53:36 Yeah, right. And he's also yelling back like, hey, I didn't steal your bike. Deacon runs after him, promising, I'm not gonna fucking kill you. The guy keeps running and is like, you have to talk to Copeland. And Deacon says, fuck it, now I'm gonna kill you. Deacon doesn't actually kill this guy, but he does run after him, and he follows him all the way to Copeland's camp. This camp is huge, and it has people on patrol, it has fires and these big fences to keep everyone safe from everything. It's actually a really cool little society. This is our first camp of many in the game. The camps are small communities led by lunatics. Obviously. Copeland's, for example, has a welcome sign that says, Copeland's camp, martial law in effect.

54:20 Oh god. Deacon approaches the gate, and the guard recognizes him. Deacon explains that someone stole his bike, so he's at the camp looking for it, and the guard lets him in. And we talked about camps briefly, but just for a kind of overall sense, camps are non-combative zones, and they all have little stations with resources. There's usually an ammo shop and a bike shop for parts and fuel. There are stations where Deacon can sell gathered plants or corpses of wildlife he's found in the wild, like for meat, for deers and shit. Or freaker ears that he can exchange for camp credits. Ears. So when you kill a freaker, you can collect their ear, and then you turn the ear in at camp to be like, I'm ridding the world of freakers, and they're like, absolutely, here's two dollars.

55:01 Oh my gosh. Does it have to be a right ear specifically so you're not turning in both ears? No, I don't know. You know what? Yes. Yeah, sure. It can only be the right ear, Tom. Each camp has a different credit system, so it's good to diversify where you do your business so you have a nice, healthy amount of camp credits to spend anywhere you are. The more you shop and sell with each camp, the more items are unlocked. So credits transfer between camps? No, they don't. Oh, shit. That's why you have to diversify. Got it. Here, Deacon heads up to Manny, who runs the bike shop at Copeland's camp. Manny is like, Oh, shit, what's up? It's been a while. Deacon says, Yeah, yeah, I'm looking for a bike and walks over to a bike that's just been scraped up.

55:43 Manny says, Well, you don't want that one. It just came in. It was rusted. It was all shitty. Whoever had it doesn't know shit about bikes. They were a fool. They just parsed it out for parts because it was such trash. Like, it didn't even have a fucking fuel pump. Tell me this is his bike. Deacon's like, Oh, a fuel pump. Like this one. And he whips out the fuel pump he just worked so fucking hard for all day. Manny isn't dumb. He catches up and he goes, Hey, when I said fool, I mean, the fools who brought it in didn't tie it up right. Right. That's why it's all banged up. He stumbles over his words until Copeland, the leader of the camp, swoops in to save Manny from talking himself into an ass whooping.

56:24 Copeland is this white guy with huge, John Marsden ass scars across his face. He's a no-nonsense former prepper who ended up being right. God, I hate those types. But he was right, you know. I know the worst thing is that for a person like him to be right. In his spare time when he's not running a camp, he also runs a radio show called Radio Free Oregon where he talks about conspiracy theories. Of fucking course he does. He had that on ham radio back in the fucking day where he was just in his basement yelling into the fucking void about 5G or something.

57:05 And then because he was proved right, everybody's like, well, I guess we should listen to this fucking lunatic. Yeah, he's a total nutcase, but he is thriving in this environment. He was right one time. It was the one really important time. Copeland pulls Deacon aside to talk, and they talk about how the camp got hit by rippers recently. Copeland says there are rumors that the ripper cult were looking for Deacon and Boozer specifically. Deacon's like, well, you know, people say a lot of things. Once they're alone, Copeland says he saw Leon the other day and that Leon had promised him a big stash of drugs. Fucking Leon. Deacon plays it cool and noncommittal, not coping to Copeland that he knows what happened to Leon and that those drugs were stolen from Tucker's camp, even though he does know where Leon was and he does know where they were stolen from.

57:54 He knows who killed Leon. He does. Copeland blatantly is like, hey, bring me the fucking stash and I'll pay you out. Deacon pivots the conversation to his bike and that his voice chopped it up. Copeland says, you know what? Yeah, we salvaged it. And then he spots Leon's bounty hat hanging off of Deacon's hip. He snatches it off of Deacon and says, you know, Leon wore a hat like this, didn't he? There's a bit of a back and forth, and Copeland straightforwardly says, you want to work with my camp? Do some runs for me. Deacon is like, well, fucking shit, I'm already here. Fine, what do you want? Copeland asks Deacon to go take out a small group of drifters that have been harassing his people on their supply runs, and Deacon agrees to kill them all.

58:38 Oh, God. On his way out of camp, Deacon heads back over to Manny, who is apologizing again for tearing apart Deacon's old bike. He offers Deacon a new bike that he just put together, and Deacon is annoyed. Manny promises to look out for parts and help Deacon out with bike upgrades, which is also a clever way to introduce the upgrading your bike system in the game. Yeah, that's pretty well done. Deacon also manages to angrily ask Manny if he can keep an eye out for the custom gas tank that was a gift from his dead ex-wife. His dead ex-wife? Yeah. Manny backs off apologizing, but at least now Deacon has a new starter bike. Before Deacon leaves, he goes to the bounty stand. At every camp, the bounty stand has someone who collects the Freaker Ears and adds camp credits to your account.

59:23 At Copeland's camp, a girl named Jesse runs the bounty booth. And if you talk to her enough, she will allude to how she knows Deacon outside of Copeland's camp interactions. Oh, really? There is some fan theories that she rode with Booser and Deacon before she joined the camp. There is also some illusion that she wants to fuck the shit out of Deacon. I will admit she is flirty, and I texted my friend Amber and was like, yo, this bounty bitch wants to fuck him. And she was like, heading there now. It's cute. I just find it really charming that there are some NPCs that really allude to how small the community is, and you know what? Dick is in short supply. It's like meat.

1:00:04 It's hard to find. It's hard to find some sausage out there. Yeah, so go off, bitch. Plus, you just established his ex-wife. Well, she's dead. Everyone's dead. Right. You know, it's kind of an ex if you're dead, because then you're just a widower. That's not your current wife. That's a late wife. Late wife. I'm sorry. My bad. Anyway, he's single. Deacon goes off to handle some rogue camps and eventually gets back to chasing down the drug stash. As he finds it, he sees a spotlight roam through the night from the sky. Deacon looks up and sees a Nero helicopter, which he hasn't seen since the evacuation days of early infection. I was gonna say a fucking helicopter? Jarring.

1:00:46 Deacon freaks out and radios Boozer to tell him and says he's gonna go follow them. There shouldn't even be helicopters anymore. What the fuck? Right. Who can even fly one? Who can afford to fuel one? The last time Deacon even really interacted with a helicopter was when he loaded Sarah up on one. The last time he ever saw her. His late wife. It was probably the first time he'd ever interacted with a helicopter. How often do people actually interact with a fucking helicopter? Okay, valid. Especially in suburban Oregon. Yeah, I mean, I guess he probably did when he was like in the military. Now, I think about it. But yeah. Oh, yeah. True. The camp that the helicopter that Sarah was on got overrun by freakers, and that's what took her away forever.

1:01:28 He's like, I'm not great with helicopters. They usually kill my wife. Deacon rides off and follows the helicopter's spotlight to a clearing where the chopper lands. A handful of fully strapped Nero soldiers come out, guns drawn, and guard a scientist who's in a full hazmat suit into a small cave. Deacon sneaky sneaks and listens in as a scientist takes note of a freaker horde's movements and hears that Nero agent O'Brien is alive and at another site. Deacon recognizes O'Brien as the guy he handed Sarah off to. Out loud to himself, Deacon is like, wait, if O'Brien didn't die when the freakers overran the camp they went to, then what happened to Sarah?

1:02:10 Oh, shit. He corrects himself and is like, no, no, no, don't think about that. But he can't help it. If O'Brien is alive, maybe Sarah is too? They couldn't pick a last name that was a little less common? It's Oregon. It's common that there would be an O'Brien there. Go figure. I get you. Nero rounds up its people and takes off, leaving Deacon in the dark with questions. Deacon immediately radios Boozer and is like, okay, so O'Brien is alive. Boozer tries to be rational and is like, hey, buddy, remember when we went to the camp and it was completely wiped out? Deacon goes, yeah, but I just overheard the Nero guys talking about O'Brien, and it's 100% exactly the same person.

1:02:56 Boozer immediately is like, hey, buddy, let's not go down that road. Right. Deacon's like, oh, no, no, no, I'm not. I totally get that. But just saying, like, what if? Hear me out. My dead wife isn't dead. Boozer goes, no, she's fucking dead. Yeah, we would have found her by now. Deacon gets sent on some missions from Copeland, mostly bounty hunter shit, and then makes some time to go see Tucker. Tucker's camp is in the Hot Springs and is in this nice wooded area with big fences. I like Tucker. He's smart. She. Oh, shit, my bad. Tucker's smart. I shouldn't have gendered that person because I'm just thinking Hot Springs. Great idea.

1:03:37 You're like, well, if I'm going to be anywhere, I want to have a jacuzzi. Tucker's like, Absofuckinglutely, these dogs are barking. All the guards here are strapped, and there's a lot of farming areas on the campsite where camp members are working, like tilling fields, shit like that. Unlike Copeland's camp, where people are kind of just doing their own thing and vibing, this one is a bit more sparse. Tucker's camp is pretty full, and everyone seems to be on hard working hours. Deacon finds Tucker working at a problem with her second-in-command. Tucker is this older woman with white hair, and she's trying to figure out how to plant more plants and feed all the people at her camp. The ground is unfortunately really hard and shitty here, but the people are hungry, so it has to get done.

1:04:19 She doesn't want to give up her hot tub. Tucker is basically like, we're all hungry, just make them work harder. It's not like they have anywhere else to be. Tucker sees Deacon and asks if he found Leon, and Deacon just silently hands Tucker Leon's bloodied hat. As he keeps doing. Yeah. Sorry, it's moved hands a couple times. Yeah. Tucker is unmoved by the gesture, but does appreciate that Deacon took action. Tucker and Deacon take a quick tour in a golf cart, and Tucker tells Deacon she lost two more people to fever. While this is a loss, she's still quite pessimistic. She tells Deacon that the camps only made up of criminals degenerates, murders, and you know what that is?

1:04:59 Those are the only people nasty enough to survive. Damn. This is who's left, which is so fucked up and dark to think about. That's why in these post-apocalyptic scenarios, people are always the problem. Yeah, the soft ones get taken out first. Yeah, and the ones that are left are kind of assholes. Nice guys finish first in the apocalypse. Yeah, not at all. She screams at a man resting under a tree to get back to work while she glides by in her golf cart. She tells Deacon that running this camp is like running a prison. This leads up to Tucker asking Deacon to look into someone for her. She said one of her scouts saw a young woman alone and scared in a neighborhood, and she wants Deacon to go find her and bring her into camp.

1:05:43 She doesn't want that girl out there in the wild alone and unprotected. And again, she's down a few bodies, and these crops aren't going to dust themselves. Right, she just needs more people. But also let's save this small girl. While we're here, Deacon can choose to return Tucker's drugs to her camp, or he can say, fuck it, we ball and bring them to Copeland. The decision really just drives where you have more currency, but it's kind of cool that you can adjust Deacon's loyalty between the camps. That is cool. On his way out, Deacon stops by Tucker's right hand man again and chats for a bit. This guy tells Deacon that one of his guys was taken down by a ripper camp who was asking about two bikers really trying to hunt these guys down. Deacon goes like, damn, that's crazy.

1:06:25 What's that got to do with me, though? Right. Mr. Right Hand looks at Deacon and says, well, the ripper's called the Mongrels. And then the camera shows Deacon's biker cut, his leather vest that says he's a part of the Mongrels Motorcycle Club. Oh, shit. So I mean, yeah, Deacon, what the fuck? So the rippers are specifically hunting down two bikers from the Mongrels MC. Oopsie. So yeah, man, they're fucking looking for you. Now, Deacon's trying to be chill about it, but now it's clear that the cult is specifically looking for. Deacon fucks off to go clear his mind, and that means riding over to the camp he thought Sarah died at. For the last two years, the last he heard of Sarah was that she was at the specific camp that Nero evacuated her to.

1:07:08 But when he and Boozer made it there, it was overrun and completely destroyed by Freakers. For the last two years, Deacon has been coming out here to this abandoned camp where he thought Sarah's final resting place was and talking to her. Oh. There's a big rock with Sarah's name carved into it that Deacon goes to, and he thinks about her and he tells her what's going on, and he just catches her up on his life. Sometimes he leaves her flowers or other small trinkets. Today he's like, hey, it's me again. Deacon. We have a flashback to the last time he saw her. We see Deacon and Sarah frantically escaping the city when Sarah runs into a small child and is adamant that they help the child.

1:07:50 The child stabs the shit out of Sarah and then just runs off. Fucking kid. They meet up with Boozer and start navigating to safety, and then the exact goddamn same cutscene from the beginning of the game plays. And it's not even like a different angle or anything. It's just the same exact shit copy pasted. Wait, really? Yeah. Like it's the fucking room? Yeah. Holy shit. And they're like, let's get to the chopper. We see O'Brien, Sarah goes off, Deacon gives her his mongrel ring. We've seen it. Not that long ago. We could have just waited for this moment to do that scene. Yeah, we could have, yeah. And then Boozer and Deacon stay back, you know, literally the exact same scene.

1:08:34 Holy shit. But just like a little bit earlier start. Yeah, there's just a slightly longer version of this, but the ending part is exactly the same, and it's the same angle, which is kind of wild. I feel like they were going for one of those moments of, like, using a shot from later in the fucking game to, like, open, you know, kind of a thing, but they don't really do that job of explaining that that's what they're doing. Like, for more context, we just see her get stabbed and see them, like, go through the building to get to the roof. Yeah, what the fuck? In the present, Deacon tells Sarah's memorial rock to rest easy and then he'll be back. He rides off and runs into another Nero helicopter and tails them until he can catch up and snoop on them to see what they're up to.

1:09:15 There are so many helicopters. Out of fucking nowhere. He hasn't seen one in years and now they're fucking everywhere. As he approaches on his bike, the Nero agent shoots at him and knocks him off his bike. Oh shit. But he figures if they want to kill him, he'd be dead. So it was just a round of warning shots. No. Just a definitive no from you. Shooting from a helicopter is not fucking easy. Probably. They probably missed you. Deacon's like, that would have hit me. No. Just because they're military doesn't mean they're fucking perfect shots. Have you seen Stormtroopers? Yeah. O'Brien was just a grad student.

1:09:55 These may not be the best of the best. All right, Deacon, you are so fucking like convinced of so many things. Deacon follows the helicopter as it lands, and some of the Nero guys start looking into an infected freaker. They look like they're doing experiments on one. They're still in their hazmat suits, and they're really cautious, but then their security details start shooting at the freakers, and they start to get overwhelmed. Like even more and more freakers show up, so they're like, God damn it, abandon ship. Of course they do. They get in the helicopter, and they fuck off out of here. This horde starts chasing the helicopter away, and Deacon's like, well, everyone's distracted.

1:10:36 I'm going to go investigate this little spot they were looking into. And he finds a Nero radio, which is great. Yeah, you need that. Deacon catches Boozer up on what he saw, and that Nero were doing some kind of study on the freakers, and then he grabbed one of their radios. Boozer's like, Hey, man, you know, your dead wife is dead, right? Deacon's like, Oh, no, no, no, I totally know she's absolutely 110% dead, rotting in the ground. Totally get it. But O'Brien is alive, and he'll have answers, and he'll know she's like, for sure, for sure dead. Boozer's like, Okay, man, I'll ride with you, and if he's alive, we'll find him. But I need you to know that dead Sarah is dead.

1:11:19 She's definitely dead. Definitively. I am saying this with certainty. Deacon ends his chat with Boozer and closes his eyes, remembering the day he met Sarah. The day he met her? Deacon was riding his bike through the woods in Oregon when he came up on a woman having some car problems. Blonde, flannel-clad Sarah has popped up the hood of her car and is fiddling around with things when he comes up on her. Instead of offering to help her, Deacon tells her he's lost and asks her for directions. What the fuck? She gets annoyed at this and her entire situation and is like, you know what? I don't know where the fuck I am, so I can't help you. Deacon says, okay. And then he rides off.

1:12:00 This is a bad meet-cute. You don't think this is romantic? Sarah yells after him and he stops and offers her a ride and they introduce themselves. Sarah's never been on a bike before and asks how to even get on the fucking back. He's like, just throw your leg. I don't fucking know if this is easy. He tells her to hold on tight. They chat for a bit and Deacon's like, so, what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? Jesus fucking Christ. It's not a club, dude. Sarah says, you know, I ask myself that all the time. You've never been here. You just said that. Do you want to write this game? I feel like you're poking the right holes.

1:12:42 I think anybody else could have, honestly. Sarah does explain she's out here because she studies plants. OK, sure. A few rednecks try to run them off the road, and while Deacon evades it, Sarah is completely freaked out by this. This is pre end of the world? Yes. It's just fucking assholes. She's got a lot of tattoos, and she is working in a male dominated field, but she's still a little soft, you know. She gets off the bike to catch her breath and gets enough cell reception to call for a tow truck. Deacon gets her back on the bike to take her back to the car while they wait for the tow, and they chat a bit more.

1:13:22 Sarah is like, hey, you weren't really lost, were you? Deacon says, well, my ex would say I've been lost for years. Oh, my God. You hate him. Sarah says she's from Seattle and that the group she works for opened a lab out here. She studies really rare plants that happen to be native to this area. And Deacon says, wow, that's the best thing I've ever heard. Deacon, open your fucking ears then. When they come up on Sarah's car, the rednecks that tried to run them off the road are ransacking her car. Jesus Christ. There's three of them and one of Deacon. So while he holds his own for a minute, he starts getting his ass beat in by these rednecks.

1:14:05 Is this all just a cut scene or do you actually have to fight these guys? Part of it's a cut scene, but you do get to get in the fight with them. Sarah hides on his bike and tries to get cell reception while they hold Deacon up and start punching him right in the ribs. Sarah goes through Deacon's side bag and finds a gun which she pulls on the rednecks. She shoots in the air and they let go of Deacon, get spooked and fuck off. Good. Once they're alone, Sarah starts apologizing while Deacon's head gushes with blood. Oh my God. He says, it's okay. It's okay. She freaks out that she's like, oh my God, I could have killed someone. Oh my God. And he says, it's fine. You'd have to aim at literally anything to actually kill anyone. Right. He tells her it's okay.

1:14:45 She did good. She did the right thing. While she just like profusely apologizes for going through his shit and touching a gun. He promises to wait with her until the tow truck comes and they share a moment. In the present, sad Deacon is sad. To make him less sad, he goes on a mission to save a hoe, and he finds that girl Tucker was looking for. Okay. Deacon finds like a late teens, early twenties something girl hiding out in a house. Her name is Lisa, and the trauma of the end of the world has left her mentally stunted. She's hugging her knees and sitting on the floor and is dirty and hungry. Deacon asks if she's alone and she just starts crying. Deacon reads her name on a trophy that's in the room and she says, Hey, that's mine.

1:15:29 I should have gotten first, but Missy cheated. She's like really mentally fucked up. Oh shit. So she's just like stuck in a child state. Yeah. Feral child. Lisa says her family told her to wait here and that they'll come back for her. Oh shit. But it's been two years since the world fell apart. They're not coming back. She's Ellie and Deacon sure shit isn't Joel. But nevertheless, he steps up to get her the fuck away from the infected and to a safe camp. They evade freakers and at one point, they fight a fucking bear. Holy shit. And Lisa gives Deacon zero banter while they go on an adventure. A bear is a mammal. Was this a zombie bear? This one's a regular ass bear.

1:16:09 Okay. On the ride back, Deacon will ask Lisa some questions and she just says nothing. And then we'll say crazy shit like, you know, my dad was a rock collector. I love rocks. We used to find really cool rocks all over here. Do you think my dad's at the camp? Should I bring him a rock? This poor girl. Oh, this is tragic. Deacon's like, no. Again, just like dry as fuck banter, not Joel, not Ellie, barely Owen and Mel. Deacon rolls up to Tucker's camp with Lisa, and Lisa immediately runs into Tucker's arms. She calls her Mrs. Tucker, and Tucker holds Lisa in a big hug and tells her that she's safe now.

1:16:53 Oh, that's sweet. Lisa frantically tells her that her mom and dad were gone and people were sick, but Tucker hushes her. Tucker says, Lisa, we were neighbors, weren't we? I lived just down the street, right? You remember me? And now these neighbors are reunited in the afterworld. Ugh, it's so wild. It's great, but then she's also like, now get to fucking work. You're jumping ahead. Oh, no. Tucker calls this a goddamn miracle. She's like, I'm gonna get you food, I'm gonna get you a tent, I'm gonna get you a place to sleep. You are safe, baby girl. Baby girl. That's a little hyperbole, but Deacon's like, I saved a baby girl. I am the Joel.

1:17:35 Deacon goes back into the wilderness, and then, while on a solo ride, his Nero radio goes off, and it's someone speaking directly to O'Brien. He must be close. Fucking O'Brien. Nearby, a Nero helicopter has landed, and a bunch of Nero guys in hazmat suits are looking around. Deacon goes sneaky sneaks to get closer and sees if he can figure out which one is O'Brien. He finds one Nero baby boy who's complaining about not being a doctor and is like studying bugs or some shit, and he jumps him. But it's a good thing he jumped him, because that's O'Brien. Oh, hell yeah. Deacon unplugs O'Brien's radio and points a gun at his face. O'Brien, who again was like basically an intern, who was not supposed to even be there the night of Nero, puts his hands up.

1:18:24 Deacon's like, hey man, I just want to talk. But he's still like pointing a gun at his face. O'Brien is terrified reasonably and is spilling over his words, and Deacon shoves the gun closer to his face and is like, hey man, relax. Everything's fine. Ignore the gun. Right, stop pissing yourself. What's wrong with you? Right, this is your problem. I'm just trying to threaten you. With no context, Deacon says, you're alive. O'Brien confirms this. I'm alive. Deacon says, how are you alive? O'Brien says, he doesn't understand that question. Like, what's the fucking context here, guy? Yeah, like, who are you and why are you so amazed?

1:19:06 Deacon finally blesses O'Brien with some context and is like, hey, dipshit. The night the world ended, you were in farewell and you took off and the camp you went to is overrun. I put a wounded woman on your chopper. O'Brien goes, oh shit, yeah, no, I do remember. She was hurt really bad. Wait, is that you? Last time I saw you, you pointed a gun at me too. Because now, all two times Deacon has approached O'Brien, it's been with a gun pointed to his fucking face. Great first impression, buddy. Right. O'Brien tells Deacon they were diverted to another camp because, again, the previous one was overrun. They never made it to the camp they were supposed to.

1:19:47 Oh shit, so he had bad information. Yeah, that's the camp Deacon's been going to worship Sarah and shit. Right. Wrong place entirely. They landed, and O'Brien got diverted into another research facility from there. He doesn't know if Sarah survived. He dropped her off, but he promises Deacon that he can check and find out. O'Brien clocks Deacon's neuro radio and is like, oh, that's how you found us. Yeah, that makes sense. But yeah, man, I can look into it. I know I gave her oxygen and got her an IV, and I kept her alive. I didn't see her die. Like, I actually saved her life. Deacon tells O'Brien to reach out to him when he finds out what happened, and O'Brien reminds Deacon that he's not the only one who lost someone that night.

1:20:30 Oh, shit. Deacon goes back to Tucker's camp to check in on little Lisa, who is tilling the fields. There it is. There are supervisors with giant guns watching Lisa and other campers work on the field. Jesus Christ. That's the job to have. Being the gun supervisor? Absolutely. Deacon asks how she's doing, and she nervously looks around and says, They won't let me leave. Deacon's like, Hey, but you know, it's safe here. Why would you want to leave? That shit outside sucks. There's zombies and shit out there. Like, bears tried to kill us, girl. What are you doing? Lisa blinks at him and is like, Well, I have to keep working.

1:21:10 You know, they want us to keep working. Deacon clocks this and is like, Uh-huh. You're an indentured servant. Yes, seriously. And he's just gonna leave this girl in fucking slavery too, isn't he? What's he gonna do? They won't let her leave. That's fucking horrible. But all right. Now Deacon wants to cheer up Lisa, you know, as penance for accidentally selling her into slavery. Yeah, was she better off living in that house by herself? I mean, she was doing okay. So he's like, well, I know she liked rocks, like her and her dad collected rocks. Why don't I go out to like the mountains and find like a nice geode for her? Yeah, a geode, really? Bitches love crystals, Tom.

1:21:52 I know, but in this world, he's gonna find geodes. Go for it, dude. Do you know how many fucking crystals there are in this world? This is 2017, 19, like Frozen in Time 17. These bitches have crystals, Tom. So he goes out, he finds a nice geode. Of course he does. It wasn't that hard. When he brings it to her, she says, Oh my God, it's beautiful. Hey, can you take me back to the wilderness? I want to be back in the wild. This really sucks. I escaped the first time for a fucking reason. Yeah. Deacon tells Lisa, No, it's not safe out there. And then she storms off with her geode.

1:22:33 She tells Deacon she has to go to sleep because they make her wake up really early for work. Deacon is like, Man, I really got this bitch enslaved. Oh, no. Really did. Whoopsies. Deacon heads back to his base to check on Booser, who is looking really rough. He's starting to get stir crazy, and he's sweaty, and his arm is in a really bad place. It's basically beginning to rot off. Booser has a fever, and is in a lot of physical pain all over, and Deacon is like, oh, shit, you need, like, legit medical attention. Yeah, you've got fucking gangrene. Yeah. Booser goes, I just need a nap. And I can relate.

1:23:14 I'm such a, like, no, I'll sleep it off, ass bitch. Unless you're hungover, in which case you say, take me to the fucking hospital. Why won't you take me to the hospital when I'm hungover? Tom's bringing this up for, I think maybe starting at, like, maybe 22 through, like, 24. Which is a small period of time, relatively. Right. When I'd get viciously hungover, I'd be like, I need you to take me to the hospital. And every time Tom said, absolutely fucking not. I was on my parents' insurance. Who gives a shit? Let them figure it out. But did you die? Maybe. Being viciously hungover is truly a circle of hell in and of itself. And there were times where I was like, if I just collapsed right now, I wouldn't even be mad.

1:23:57 I just give up. I just give up. You should have taken me to the hospital. But now we have places where you can just get an IV the next morning. That's true. Which is fucking great. Anyway, this is more akin to when you should have taken me to the hospital for a hangover. Right. He's going to sleep off the fucking burn through his arm with a blow torch. Yeah, right. Deacon goes, look, this is not something you can sleep off. He gets stressed out and then Deacon slips into a memory of him and Sarah. Years ago, they're out in the wilderness and Sarah is teaching Deacon how to pull plants from the ground for extraction and how to use them for their botanical properties. Deacon tells her he's pulled weeds before.

1:24:40 She explains that they can use a modified lavender's linalal properties to treat burn victims. So that's why we're also extracting lavender plants very carefully to make sure that we preserve the linalal properties and can use them medicinally. Deacon says where he's from, the only weed used for medicine is the kind you smoke. Yeah, also contains linalal, dumbass. He doesn't understand terpenes. He's a biker. And he's like kind of a dumb biker. You know, there are bikers out here that are incredible mechanical engineers who understand how to make these things run and are really smart minded. Deacon's not that. His role in the club was enforcer. He's a punchy boy. The reason we'd worked for you as a pain reliever was because it had linalool.

1:25:26 Hey, you're kind of high up on that horse. Can you come down here? OK, I'm sorry. Sarah leads Deacon around the edge of a lake where Deacon's camera is positioned carefully to focus on Sarah's ass the whole time. Oh, no. Well, game's fucking awful. This guy looked at a butt. I'm too woke to look at Sarah's ass. I hate this game. Four out of ten. He thinks this is the moment the whole game fell apart for fucking reviewers. Also not a great ass. I'll take this beat also to talk about Sarah. She's portrayed by Courtney Draper. And we know her. Yes, we do. If you want to get a shot glass, that is goddamn Elizabeth.

1:26:07 Girl changed fucking everything. Changed porn. In gaming. You were so distraught to find out she changed porn. I am distraught to find out that the landscape of porn was affected by Bioshock Infinite. That's a fucking crazy one in the Bioshock Infinite episode. Courtney Draper is one of the funniest bitches on earth. So she obviously got this job from a lot of her incredible work from Bioshock Infinite. And on set, because Sam Witwer is a Bioshock fan, if he would fuck up a take, she would just start yelling book or catch and throw shit at him. Oh my God, I love that. Could you imagine? He'd be like, oh, let me take that again, and she'd just go, book or catch.

1:26:49 What a bitch. I love it. He's like, she's a little shit. I love her. They saw a lot of people for the role of Sarah. Really? And Sam Witwer specifically went up to John Garvin after his chemistry read and was like, that's her. Not just because I'm a fan of Bioshock Infinite. Which like, who isn't a fan? Seriously. But also he didn't clock that she was Elizabeth. Oh, really? He didn't realize that until after she had been hired and they started like really getting into rehearsals and working out the characters and stuff. In their fucking interview, like chemistry read, he was just like, that's fucking Sarah. She's nailing this soft and hard personality in All in One, where she's like kind of a bad bitch, but she's still just a girly girl, you know, who loves plants and shit.

1:27:30 Hell yeah. Because she didn't have a lot of credits before she booked Elizabeth. No. So it's like the baddest bitch in Bioshock Infinite and the baddest bitch in one of the few women in Days Gone. Okay, well, good for her. Oh, that's so good for her. I don't think she's ever passed the Bechdel test. But she's one of the best fucking performers in video games. Shit yeah. So we're looking at her ass. And Deacon's like, yeah, looking at the butt. That's what I like. Sarah talks to Deacon about plants, especially plants that grow here specifically, but actually aren't native to the area. She says, you can thank Ogden for that, the first explorer to come through this part of Oregon.

1:28:10 Deacon immediately corrects her and says, Ogden is the first white explorer to come through this part of Oregon. Whoa, okay. Like, what the fuck are you complaining about woke reviewers when you've got great lines like that coming out of Deacon? Sarah immediately clocks this and is like, oh, you're so politically correct for a biker. And he's literally just being correct. We're the politics in that. Yeah. That's just a fair ass statement. Sarah then says she hasn't seen a single person of color since she moved here, so that's why it's so surprising. Right. Well, it is Oregon. It's like suburban, like mountainous Oregon. Deacon's like, you know what? We have some fully patched in brothers at the clubhouse.

1:28:52 And I don't love that he says brothers, but. Oh, he meant it that way. When you say patched in brothers, I thought like just like parts of the community, like the biker gang. But no, he meant black people. He also says jokingly that they're just there to piss off the skinheads. Oh, well, good. Diversity hires are in every industry. Is mostly what I'm getting at. Because this motorcycle club is super fucking woke. Sorry, John Garvin. He didn't write that line. He's joking of kind of, but like he does say that bikers are more charming than people give them credit for, and some of his POC brothers make some mean margaritas, so you should come by the clubhouse.

1:29:35 Oh, my God. Oh, Lord. You look stressed out. Oh, he is that kind of like. I have a black friend. My neighbor is black. Like, yeah, because you gentrified the neighborhood. Dip shit. You moved into his neighborhood. And you called it the hood when you did. With that, Deacon's like, Oh, yes, I can use plants to heal Boozer. As Deacon leaves to find a bunch of lavender, you know, also thinking about how much he loves his wife, he gets a call from Tucker on the radio. Tucker says that Lisa and a few others from her camp were taken by the Rippers.

1:30:16 Deacon is furious, and he's like, Why the fuck was Lisa off site? She just moved in. I got her a rock. Right. I got her a geo, damn it. But he's like, I have to jump into action because he's seen the damage Rippers do to hostages, and it's not pretty. He rides out to a Ripper camp not too far away from Tucker's camp and mutters that he'll kill fucking all of them for Lisa. Hell yeah. And he's like, All right, Lisa, hang on. I'm coming, baby girl. He's not saying baby girl, but it's so hard not to say baby girl. There's a ton of Rippers all around, and they're tweaking out and occasionally torturing hostages by tying them up and cutting them to have the same scars that they have. Jesus.

1:30:56 Sometimes some Rippers can be seen with a small cloud around their faces. This is PCP. All the Rippers are on PCP. I was thinking bath salts, but okay. No, it's fucking canonical that they're on PCP. Holy shit. Who even does PCP anymore? Bitch, right? Honestly, to share some details, I didn't realize so many people were on Coke still. Right? I'm 33. I lie about and say I'm 30 is something, but I'm 33. Why do I know so many people that are on Coke? It made a big resurgence. I don't know why. We're in a recession. Nobody can afford it. Coke is an inflation drug. What the fuck?

1:31:36 I think it's tech. I haven't done Coke since 2009, 2010. Never have by self at all. Good for you. It's kind of fun. But I haven't done it because I can't top the last story I did it on. And you know what? If you guys want to talk about it, I'll do it on the Discord, but I do not want to commit this to a fucking recording. But I... No, there's somebody with a name attached to it that just like you don't want to out them on a podcast. No, that'd be rude. Anyway, so the Rippers canonically, they worship the freaks, and it's been shown in some of the notes through the game that freaker nests have psychoactive and hallucinogenic elements. So if the Rippers are worshiping mutants and like freakers and all this crazy shit while on PCP and inhaling hallucinogenic properties, they're going to be tweaking the fuck out.

1:32:23 So they're seeing things and they're like, ah, PCP is a drug. It gives you a lot of energy and makes you really erratic. Okay. It's wild. I've never done it. I don't think I've even really seen it in action in anyone I know closely. I feel like I've seen it just living on Las Vegas and seeing people like run in the middle of the street naked and be like, ah. You know, that's PCP. And it's like, it's a shitty drug. It's not a, cocaine is like a nice designer drug, which I hate saying, but it's like for rich, fancy people. PCP is not a rich, fancy people drug. It's real trashy. Deacon kills dozens of tweaked out cultists and finds Lisa tied up and lying face down in the dirt.

1:33:04 He runs up and sees she's alive, but the light is gone out in her eyes. She looks around and then she starts screaming, and Deacon looks at her and tells her to shut up. He calms her and is like, do you remember me? I accidentally sold you into slavery. I'm that guy. They run off to his bike. Deacon asks Lisa if she's okay, and she says, no. No, she is not okay. Deacon tells her he's taking her to another camp that is nothing like the Hot Springs Camp run by Tucker. Good, don't bring her back to fucking Tucker. Lisa says she hates Mrs. Tucker. Good, she should. On the way, Deacon radios his friend Ricky, who lives at the Lost Lake Camp. Ricky makes it clear that last time Deacon and Boozer were at Lost Lake, it didn't end well, and he's like, yeah, that's why I'm reading in you, girly, come on.

1:33:52 They make plans to meet up away from the camp's grounds so Deacon doesn't start any drama. Apparently the last time he was at Lost Lake, the leader of Lost Lake kind of told him he'd kill him on sight if he ever saw him come back. Yeah, it's a good reason not to return. Yeah, that's why he's like, let's meet off campus. What the fuck did you do, Deacon? He's just fucking around. Like, you've got a lifetime ban from one of the casinos here because you had a vape pen on you, and not like a tobacco vape pen, a weed vape pen on you. Two casinos. Two casinos. It's two, Tom, it's two. I cannot get my ID scanned at two casinos on the strip because of weed. But you're not on shoot on site status.

1:34:33 I signed a thing saying I'd be pressed with trespassing charges. That's not a shoot on site situation. It's more of a like, hey, dipshit, we asked you not to be here because you're a dipshit. And it's for the same reason Paris Hilton is not allowed at the same properties. Yeah, exactly. Which the irony being you were later invited to a weed conference at this hotel. I was and I went because you can suck my ass. Anyway. Anyway. Down way in the woods, a coolest fuck brunette named Ricky rides up on a motorcycle. I love Ricky. Ricky is a bad bitch. Ricky used to ride with Deacon and Boozer about a year ago before joining the Lost Lake Camp full time.

1:35:15 She immediately makes a joke about Tucker being a slave trader, and Deacon is like, Oh, my God, I'm sorry. She makes a joke about it. Like, we all know about this. We know Tucker's a terrible person. Why are you doing this? He's like, Jesus, I thought it'd be different this time. Anyway, this is Lisa. I accidentally sold her into the slave trade, and then she was attacked by a cult. Do you think you can find a bunk for her? Ricky is like, what the fuck, Deacon? Jesus! Hey, Lisa. Are you okay? Lisa's like, absolutely not. I'm not okay. Ricky immediately becomes so soft, and she's like, hey, Lisa, do you like to go fishing?

1:35:56 I love fishing. It's my favorite thing in the world. You know, I live at a camp that has a lake, and in the morning, the fish jumps super high. Would you want to go fishing with me? Lisa is scared, but is immediately like, this person is being kind to me and isn't saying they're going to use me as a slave, so that's good. She nods, and then Lisa gets on the back of Ricky's bike. Ricky takes her down to Lost Lake. They're going to have a great time together. And Deacon's like, oh, thank God, she's probably not going to be enslaved now. That and every game has fishing. Every game has fishing. You don't get to go fishing in this. No, but they talk about it well enough that, you know what, this game has fishing too. You're like, it's implied fishing.

1:36:37 Fuck you. Deacon heads back to the safe house and finally gets some rest. In the morning, he wakes up to see Boozer holding the shotgun up and screaming, they're coming. Oh my God. Boozer is crazed and turns his gun on Deacon and goes, how did you get in here? Oh no. Deacon goes, I live here. It's okay. I'm your friend. And then he rustles the gun away from Boozer and is like, you are beyond fucked up. Yeah. The lavender did not help. Boozer tells him he's hearing voices and Deacon is like, oh my god, you have blood poisoning. I was going to say, what the fuck happened with this blowtorch?

1:37:17 Deacon takes Boozer on a ride and says he's just going to take him to the Lost Lake Camp real quick. Put you out of your misery real quick. Oh my god. It was at the same camp we just dropped Lisa off for. They camp out just outside of the Lost Lake campus and Deacon tries to trim his beard with his big ass hunting knife before going in. Is he trying to disguise himself so he doesn't get shot on sight? No, but Boozer's like, are you trying to get pretty for the camp? Yeah, like make himself presentable. He's like, why are you like this? You don't need to be like this. It's the apocalypse, bro. Beauty standards are out the window. Also, Iron Mike said he'd kill them if they ever showed back up, so what are you doing? Iron Mike runs Lost Lake and he earned that name Iron Mike for a reason.

1:38:02 Deacon says, you know what? Actually, it's probably fine. Jesus Christ. His plan is to go in, get into the infirmary at Lost Lake, get some meds for Boozer, and get out. Quick in and out mission. Easy. So he's gonna steal from Iron Mike? Yeah, that's the plan to not get killed, is to steal from the medical tent. Jesus Christ. Bad idea. Deacon. Since they camped out nearby, Boozer is nearby, so he can run in, grab stuff. If they need more, he'll just run back in. Easy plan. Jesus Christ, Deacon. Deacon tells him to just stay alive and stay awake, and he'll be right back. Deacon sneaky sneaks his way into camp without killing anyone, because that would obviously bring some attention.

1:38:42 Right. And looks for the camp's infirmary so he can grab some supplies for Boozer. On the way, he sees Iron Mike, the leader of the camp, talking to Schizo, one of the heads of security for the camp. Iron Mike and Schizo look exactly like what you'd imagine. Iron Mike looks like Mike from Breaking Bad, a hardcore looking older white guy with some white hair. He's seen some shit. You get it. Schizo is a Malibu's most wanted looking ass. He's the hardest dude in Oregon looking ass fucking white boy. And like he fucking sucks. His name's Schizo. Fuck Schizo. Big fuck you to fuck Schizo. Schizo is telling Iron Mike about some men that got fucking butchered, and that it took hours to rake up all the body parts.

1:39:27 It was the Rippers, and Iron Mike is like, oh, god damn it. You know what? Just leave it be. Schizo was upset with this, and he's like, wait, well, what about next time? What about our people? How are we going to protect them from Rippers? Iron Mike takes this in, but he doesn't give him an answer. Iron Mike, like Copeland and Tucker, is a camp leader, and he has to get into some politics to keep his people safe. Iron Mike made a pact with the head of the Rippers, a guy named Carlos, to keep the Lost Lake camp safe. Like, hey, you stay on your side, I'll stay on my side, just to fucking cease fire between our two groups. Iron Mike and Carlos have just a full pact of, we're not going to hurt each other.

1:40:09 So this is extra fucked up that the Rippers did this to his people. So they had a live and let live kind of situation. Yeah, just you do your thing, I'll do mine. So why are they attacking our people? Deacon comes up on the infirmary, which is run by Addie. Addie was a veterinarian technician in the before time. Oh, okay. So has some medical knowledge. It makes her the most qualified medical professional on site. And it's stressful. She just wanted to fucking help kittens and shit, and now she's like patching up loose arms and shit like that. Oh shit. Addie is Ricky's girlfriend, and I love them together, and they are the power lesbian couple that I mentioned earlier. Oh, okay, I love that. So Ricky's this badass enforcer for the camp.

1:40:51 She's riding a bike, she's doing missions. Ricky's also in the before time a mechanical engineer. Hell yeah. She's fucking brilliant. She understands how dams work. There is a side mission where she helps get power restored to Lost Lake so they can all take hot showers. Fuck yeah, this girl's awesome. She does that nearly single-handedly with Deacon. She's like, Deacon, cover me while I fix the dam. And then they fucking get power to a camp in the apocalypse. She's brilliant. And then on the other hand, Addie, a fucking doctor. An animal doctor, but still a doctor. Yeah, it's still like, they're both pulling in six figures separately. They're doing great for themselves. You know they have a bunch of dogs filling up the Subaru.

1:41:33 Totally. They're doing great in the before time. And now they just love each other, and they're fucking cool as shit. I love them. That is wonderful. Honestly, listening to it, if anything happens to Iron Mike, it sounds like she should be in charge afterwards. Ricky or Addie? Ricky. Yeah, Addie's also very gentle. She's the more golden retriever to Ricky's black cat, because you know, archetypes are real. Anyway, I love them together. Addie isn't here right now in the infirmary, thankfully, so Deacon goes in to get some antibiotics. Obviously, the second Deacon puts his hands on them, Addie and Ricky show up, and they're like, Hey, man, what the fuck are you doing? Well, Ricky knows that you're around.

1:42:14 Deacon has his gun pulled and is like, Come on, let me out. Ricky says, You're not going to shoot me. You have a fucking code. You won't shoot a woman unless you have to. Also, fuck you. Is this the first mention of his code? I think it's come up before, just here and there, but Ricky really heavy-handedly is like, You won't shoot a girl. Right, and one that you're friends with. Yeah, chivalry isn't dead. A lot of things are, but not chivalry. Deacon explains, Look, I'm only taking antibiotics. I'm not taking narcotics because Boozer is super sick. He has blood poisoning. We were attacked. He looks fucking terrible. And this isn't malicious, I promise you.

1:42:55 I just know that Iron Mike will murder me in cold blood if I ever step back on campus. Promise you this wasn't in malice. Ricky is mad that Deacon stuck in and was trying to steal, but Addie is like, baby, if someone's sick, we have to help. She has a Hippocratic Oath. For the vets? It's more of like you see a bird on the side of the road, right? Well, that one is the Hippocratic Oath. Oh, my God. You hate your look of anger at me right now. Rhinoplasty means something different in her field. We have to look out for each other. We're all we got. Like, why is Addie the sweetest person on earth?

1:43:38 Ricky agrees, and she offers Deacon a ride to go get Boozer. She's like, well, sit on my bike. They won't kill you if they see you with me. Yeah. On the way, Deacon asks about Lisa. He's like, hey, how'd she go? Like, is she doing okay? You know, she likes rocks. Have you brought her a rock? Ricky says a few days ago, she was assigned to go on a scavenging mission, and when the group came back, they said she ran off alone. Jesus Christ, this fucking child. Deacon is like, God damn it. Oh, my Lord, she is stressing me out. This poor girl. This feral ass child who is worse than any dog or fucking pet that just constantly keeps running away.

1:44:19 Where are you going? Why did you run away this time? She was doing better by herself. Like, maybe she's like, I'm gonna go back to that fucking house. Fuck these camps. Like, oh, God. I understand her running away from slavery. But unless Iron Mike was a total fucking creep immediately. He's not. He's not a creep. He's a total heart of gold guy. What the shit is she doing running away from? Okay. I would just be like, you know what? I'm done. You'd give up on her? Best of luck to you, chick. You, I have done my part. I love that you're so invested and then immediately so angry about Lisa. Deacon's mad about it too, though.

1:44:59 He's like, why the fuck was she on a scavenge mission? That's true. Why was she out on a mission immediately? Ricky's like, fucking Schizo put her on to it. And he was like, fuck Schizo. I fucking hate Schizo. All my homies hate Schizo. Fucking Schizo. So that's kind of a bummer. When Ricky and Deacon get back to Boozer, he is pouring sweat and he's delirious. He's waving his shotgun and he barely recognizes Deacon. And he like really struggles to remember Ricky, even though they used to ride together. She's like, hey, I'm Ricky. I'm your friend. We lived together. What the fuck? Why did they leave him a shotgun? He was sad without it. I know, but still like, you know, he's losing his shit.

1:45:41 Yeah. He's already pulled it on you once. Yeah, and he keeps pulling it on people. Yeah, he's not getting better. No. And that's what he says. He's like, I'm so sorry. I'm basically dying. Deacon takes Boozer on the back of his bike and Ricky rides with them back to the Lost Lake Camp. They for sure can't enter the camp without an escort, you know, because Iron Mike said he'd kill them on site. On site, yeah. But they get Boozer sorted out with Addie, who is eager to help him get back to health. Again, Heart of Gold, fucking Golden Retriever, beautiful. Angel. She's a full on sweetheart. I fucking love her. And she's like, I've got the antibiotics, but it's going to need time. We're going to take care of him. He's really fucked up. You guys kind of downplayed this.

1:46:22 This is way worse than I expected. Ricky and Deacon leave Addie to tend to Boozer, and they chat for a bit on their way over to Iron Mike. They're going to have to convince him it's a good idea to let Boozer stay while he's sick, because there's no way this is getting past Iron Mike under the radar, you know? Oh, but still, you are on shoot on-site status with this man, and you're going to walk into his fucking room. And be like, hi. Hello, friend. Not only are you going to walk in, you're going to ask if you can stay. I need a favor. Immediately, Skizo shows up and inserts himself into the conversation and says Boozer is useless and they shouldn't let Boozer stay there. Skizo literally says, verbatim, we should throw them out on their asses.

1:47:06 From his perspective, I get it. Ricky says, Mike, that's not who we are. We can't fucking let people die, Mike. Iron Mike tells everyone to shut up and is like, look, we've all had some bad shit in our past. I get it. We have to do things to survive. Deacon promises to do whatever they need to help get Boozer back to health. Like, I'll fucking ride for you guys. I got you. Please just, like, help my friend. Iron Mike asks Deacon to take a walk with him. Deacon promises that he and Boozer are leaving to go up north once they can, and Iron Mike accepts that. Like, all right, fine. Some of the Lost Lake campers are surprised to see Deacon, so there's, like, some real ass drama hidden in the fucking story here, which is great.

1:47:48 Like, I don't think that guy's allowed to be here, and he's walking around with the guy that put a hit out on him. Yeah. That's weird. Deacon goes to check on Addy, who gives him a shopping list of things to scavenge for the infirmary. She's like, well, if you're going to be here, I would love a restock. Boozer can't get better if the medicine cabinet is empty, so he's like, I totally understand. I got you. I'll get you anything you need. You're gonna steal my shit anyway. Yeah. So you can see we're out of things. Come on. While checking in on Boozer, he seems to be doing just as bad. He's not getting better yet. Addy reassures him that she's doing as much as she can, but it may not be enough. All they can do is wait. Deacon is furious, but walks off.

1:48:29 On the low, Schizo tells Deacon that there's a crashed plane with a gang of emergency medical supplies, but it's on ripper territory. Deacon doesn't give a shit about the treaty and goes into their area, kills a bunch of rippers, and brings back more medical supplies for Addy. He doesn't need to give a shit about the treaty. He's not a part of it. Yeah, he's a drifter. They're called drifters because they're not associated with a camp. They're like fucking rogue agents. Yeah, totally. Deacon fucks around for a bit and then finds out that Boozer's arm is not getting better at all. Addy needs Deacon back at camp, and when he gets there, he finds out they're gonna have to amputate the arm. I was just about to say, we gotta cut this fucking thing off. It is way more trouble than it's worth at this point.

1:49:11 Addy explains that the antibiotics saved Boozer's life, but nothing is gonna save that arm. Now, I need you to help me cut it off, or you can watch him die. Oh, Jesus. I fucking love Addy, and as a reminder, she's literally just a vet tech who loved cats and dogs and bunnies and shit, and now she's a wartime nurse. Yeah. She went from Nightingales to being Florence Nightingale. Right. I love her. Ricky and Deacon hold Boozer down while Addy removes the arm. She ignores Deacon blindly screaming, we're losing him while she works. Also, they don't lose him. Shut up, Deacon. It's just so dramatic for no reason.

1:49:52 He watched a lot of Grey's Anatomy. In the before time. He heard it on TV. He just always wanted to shout it. He's like, I loved house. At one point, Addy has to scream for Deacon to stop panicking. Out of everyone in this situation, she's like, Deacon, I need you to calm down. He's being too fucking dramatic right now. Yeah. Hours later, Addy tells Ricky and Deacon that they did good. Ricky says when she was in high school, she thought I could go into mechanical engineering or I could be a surgeon. And I should have been a fucking surgeon. Really could have used one right now. Now she's just an engineer. Yeah. Addy goes to Deacon and reassures him that he helped save Boozer's life today.

1:50:35 Deacon says he doesn't think Boozer's going to see it that way. Now he's got a fucking stump arm. Addy tells him the medical supplies he's brought in are hugely helpful and will save a lot of lives. Addy is a fucking saint. After the amputation, Iron Mike comes in roaring after Deacon. He says that the Rippers know Deacon killed a bunch of their people on their land and followed them back to Lost Lake. This violates the treaty. Iron Mike is pissed, but lets it go because he knows those supplies saved Boozer's life and... but goddamn it, Deacon. But also, Deacon, you should have made sure you weren't followed. Yeah, that's on him. That's fully on him.

1:51:15 Like I said, he's not part of the treaty, so he doesn't have to hold to those fucking rules. Yeah, but leave no trace. Yeah, don't let them know that you're working for the people they have a treaty with. No face, no case. Or you know what, maybe leave your Mongrel's MC cut back at home. Yeah, something. Stop being so goddamn obvious. Yeah. A few days later, Deacon comes to Iron Mike and says he wants to do more to help the camp. He really kind of owes it to Iron Mike and the entire camp for saving Booster's life. He takes Iron Mike on a Hawkerl walk and shows him this cave where hundreds of Freakers in a horde have been staying. He tells Iron Mike if they can blow up the cave, they can trap a bunch of Freakers in there, seal it up, and keep this big ass horde from growing or spreading in the area.

1:52:00 He also figures if they can seal up this horde, it'll keep other hordes from coming through. Iron Mike is like, hell yeah, let's fucking run it. The only thing they need to seal the cave at this point is enough dynamite, which Iron Mike is gonna look into, and they'll figure it out down the road. I'm sure they have plenty. Deacon goes to check in on Boozer, and he's doing better than we've seen in a long time. In the infirmary under the watch of Addy, his fever seems to have broken finally, and he's actually aware of what's going on around him. About time. Deacon asks how he's doing, and Boozer says, Well, I could use a hand. Hell yeah, Boozer. Don't lose your sense of humor. This makes Addy really sad, and she tells him to lay down.

1:52:41 She's so gentle. I love her. As Deacon and Addy leave to let Boozer rest, Boozer asks Addy if he'll be able to play the piano again. She says, Please, please, please, just lay down. Just please stop reminding me how terrible this is for you, because no, you won't be able to. No musical instrument is one-handed that I can think of off the top of my head. Harmonica. Yeah, okay. That's it. And he's yelling after her, he's like, I can play chopsticks, Addy, I got this. And she's just so heartbroken at this man's loss. She's like, please stop. He's trying to make a light of it, and she's like, your life's gonna suck now.

1:53:22 Addy asks Deacon to watch Boozer. It's hard to lose an arm, and Deacon is his only friend. Deacon's like, absolutely, I love him. I will keep an eye on him forever. That's our code, man. Iron Mike and Schizo have found a spot where they could get some dynamite for the caves from a nearby mine. Unfortunately, that means Deacon has to ride out with Schizo. They go deep into these nearby mines and find dynamite, which is great. Schizo brings up the Rippers and how they've been looking for two bikers for a while now. Deacon is like, damn, that's crazy. Fuck you, Schizo. Schizo brings up a serious heart to heart with Deacon. He says that when Iron Mike retires, would Deacon join him in running the camp?

1:54:03 Deacon says, no, absolutely fucking not. Zero interest and I hate you. With Schizo? Yeah. Schizo's asking Deacon. Yeah. Yeah, no, Schizo, you're not taking over the fucking camp. Yeah, Deacon's like, that's stupid and you're stupid and I fucking hate this. Ricky's taking over the camp. Yeah. I love that you have your hierarchy in your head. You're like, absolutely not. This is what's happening. And Schizo, you're staying at Schizo level, if you're lucky. Schizo rides the dynamite back to camp and Deacon tries to warn Mike not to trust Schizo. He's like, he's trying to come for the crown, man. Yeah, right? But Mike doesn't really care and is just focused on this project of closing the mines for the betterment of the community.

1:54:45 That's just Schizo. Yeah, he's like, Schizo be talking shit. Yeah. When Deacon gets back to camp, he gets word that Boozer has wandered off of a work site with a bottle of whiskey, and he kept telling everyone he's going home and just wandered into the woods. No one stopped him and Deacon is mad and is like, fuck you guys, I'm gonna go find him. Boozer has wandered so goddamn far from the work camp and is standing just out of sight of a huge horde of freakers. Boozer is shithoused and depressed and dares the horde to come kill him. Jesus, Boozer. Deacon rolls up and he's like, all right, is that what we're doing right now? Is this how we go out? Boozer shoves Deacon and tells him to get out of here.

1:55:26 He's ruining his last moments. Deacon says, you remember what I said to you the night your wife died? That I found you halfway through a case of whiskey and you were planning on drinking yourself to death. His name's Boozer. This is what he does. It's in the name. Boozer says, you chugged a bottle of whiskey and said, if I was going to drink myself to death, you'd be right there with me. You said, that's what brothers do. Deacon kind of like bows and is like, yeah, dipshit. So is this how we go out? This sobers Boozer up and he says, let's get out of here. Boozer gets on the back of Deacon's bike and they head back to camp.

1:56:07 Wraps his arm around him. His one arm. On the ride, Boozer thanks Deacon for saving his life. Again. Again. They have a gratitude heart to heart. Back at camp, Boozer goes to sleep this off. While Boozer sleeps this off, Deacon goes to Ricky to ask her to help make a better prosthetic for Boozer to cheer him up. Right now, Boozer is rocking a hook, like he's like a pirate kind of thing. Oh, really? And Ricky's like, yeah, you know, actually, I think that would be good for him. Maybe the hook is bumming him out. Yeah, she's an engineer. She can do this. Holy, Ricky manages to make a blade attachment for Boozer. So now he has a knife arm. What the fuck?

1:56:47 That's what her option was? That's the best she can come up with. Holy shit, that's fucking metal. But you know what? This does cheer Boozer up. And he shows it off to Deacon by stabbing random walls going, look at my new toy. Oh, my God. That's kind of fucking awesome though. Boozer gets his arm stuck deeply in a wall. Immediately. And Ricky wonders out loud if this was a good or bad idea. Bad idea, Ricky, but great idea at the same time. But like punk as fuck idea. Yeah, for the aesthetic. Tumblr would die for this. Deacon has been trying to stay in contact with O'Brien from Nero this whole time.

1:57:31 Occasionally checks in, does some spy missions for O'Brien because O'Brien is saying that unfortunately, Nero has bad communications between other Nero officers. So he's like, hey, Deacon, go over here. They're landing here. Tell me what they said. So Deacon had to go sneaky sneaks for O'Brien occasionally. They're really boring missions. Deacon's been telling Boozer about all of this and keeping him up to date on all the Nero shit. So he and Boozer are like, hmm, you know what? Let's go meet up with O'Brien. Just for old time's sake. I've got my stabby arm. Let's go on an adventure. I've got my new sword arm. I've got my stab attack. It's like, I wouldn't say a machete, but like a big hunting knife. Really? It's a huge fucking blade. That's fucking wild.

1:58:12 It's very Ash in the Evil Dead. Where he's got a chainsaw arm. Yeah. It's cool as fuck. They get to a landing where O'Brien is waiting and Boozer stays out of sight to not spook O'Brien. He's like, I don't want to bring like another person to this with like a sword arm. Yeah. That may make him nervous. Every time you talk to him, you put a gun in his face, so like, let's not freak this dude out. He's not even supposed to be here today. No. Deacon runs up to O'Brien, and O'Brien reveals that he found some old medical notes on Sarah. It shows she was in surgery for six hours after her stab wound. But she made a full recovery. Shit yeah, Sarah. Deacon goes, Oh my God, so she's alive?

1:58:53 O'Brien shakes his head and definitively says, No, she's fucking dead. The camp she was sent to was overrun and there were no survivors. Son of a bitch. Deacon goes, But you survived. So she survived. Right. O'Brien says, No. The only people who got out were Nero people or people with like government clearance. She would have been dead the next day if you did nothing. She collected plants for a living. She was a plant scientist. Yeah. But he's like, You know what? She would have been dead the next day if you did nothing and you'd be dead right along with her if you got on that helicopter. You did as much as you could. Deacon thanks O'Brien for saving her life that night and walks the way back to Boozer.

1:59:34 The bike is alone, though, and Boozer has taken off. He's so that drunk friend that just darts out into the night. You know, you're like, I can't fucking. You got to put an air tag on them because you're like, they're just going to run. Get a bell on them. Yeah. You see the ones where they put like a balloon on their girlfriend and be like, Oh, the red one's mine. Boozer has gotten bored and went down to a nearby store for supplies and found rippers hunting dogs of all fucking things. Dogs. Shit. No one fucks with dogs and gets away with it, so Boozer killed all of them. On the way back, Boozer asks what O'Brien had to say and Deacon says, drop it. Then they get into a very strange man moment.

2:00:14 And I love your opinions on this because Boozer just punches Deacon and makes Deacon say out loud that Sarah is dead and has been dead for a long time. Well, he keeps having to remind him that Sarah's dead. So he's literally beating it into him? Yeah, that's literally what's happening. He's so fucking sick and tired of having to remind him, your wife is dead. Okay, like Boozer literally knocks him to the ground and tells him he's mourned her enough. He's probably just sick and fucking tired of hearing about it. And like some tough love? Yeah, a little bit. It's giving, like women don't do this. No. To speak in gender norms. This is some boy shit. They don't, but they might sit there and be like, bitch, you're being stupid.

2:00:56 Yeah. You know, this is that version. Okay. Deacon on the ground says, Boozer, you got a hell of a left hook. Boozer says, it's the only move he's got now. I'm just about to say, like it's the only hook he's got. She took off my other one. He's lucky he didn't get shanked. But with that, he's like, all right, my dead wife's dead, god damn it. Like the ass beating is just so therapeutic for them both, and they write off accepting this new chapter of their life, one without an arm and one without the hope that his dead wife isn't dead. They're both leaving without something. Yeah. Deacon drops Boozer off at the farm to work and takes a ride.

2:01:38 He ends up riding by a church, the church he and Sarah got married at. They got married in a church? Oh my God, right? We didn't get married in a church. No one in your family's gotten married in a church. Despite a lot of them being very Catholic. This triggers a flashback to their wedding day. It's a modest, tiny wedding with only Boozer in attendance. He was the best man. You immediately just think that's funny. No, he's sitting in a pew in the back of the church. There's probably 10 rows of pews. It's a very small chapel. And he said, last row. I am not sitting up front in the splash zone for this one. Splash zone.

2:02:19 I don't want to be in the wedding video. Yeah, there's no one there. Sarah is in a full silk white wedding gown. And Deacon is in goddamn jeans and his motorcycle club cut and his hat is on backwards. They only made one outfit for Deacon. That's a fucking fact. He is a cartoon character who wears the same outfit for 14 years of a series. He got married in denim. In denim. That makes me so unreasonably angry. Oh, and you got married in Birkenstocks. Okay, you know what?

2:03:01 I fucking did. Fine, okay, I am so seen and humbled by that moment. Why would you bring that up? Because you know what? Honestly, your feet weren't seen when you were wearing your dress. That's true, I wore a big ass gown, and we have a couple inches height difference. I didn't need to wear heels. It's fine. But we can sure as shit see fucking this outfit that he decided to wear. It's a outfit he wears every day, and I hate him for it. Anyway, Sarah starts delivering her vows, and she's like, Deacon, you mean so much to me. I'd give up anything for you. This ring is a promise. I love you.

2:03:41 Deacon's vows are similar. He's like, this ring is my promise. I will love you forever, and I will never leave you. The minister says they can kiss, and Sarah says, wait. She had Deacon's big ass mongrel's ring, and she hands it back to him and says, here, you can have this one back, but only if you promise to ride me as much as you ride your bike. Dear fucking God, she did not. You've gotta be fucking kidding me, she. You know how often this gets clipped when people talk about the negative parts of this game? Every single time. Every negative review brings up this scene and shows her saying, you have to promise to ride me as much as you ride your bike.

2:04:28 At their wedding, she is clearly in a wedding dress. Even out of context, you know what's happening. You know what this makes me think of? How much you hate everything. That, but also that one viral video of the one bride going down the aisle. Hey, you're a crazy bitch, but you fuck so good about Tom. That one entirely. Yeah. And it's giving the same fucking energy. I don't know. It's like the people that get like their wedding pictures where she's giving him a blow job and stuff like that. It's just, it's so cringy. You don't need to involve your sex life in like the public marriage aspect of it.

2:05:10 Like, yeah, we all get it. Married people fuck. Unmarried people fuck. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, people fuck. You don't got to make a big fucking scene of it. At your wedding. At your wedding. It's so gross and wrong. And this is what she decided to fucking say. Ride me like you ride your bike before he says you may now kiss. She stops the first kiss to deliver that line too. He's like, you guys can kiss and like consummate the marriage. She goes, stop. I have one more condition. Before we consummate the marriage, I want to talk about how we consummate the marriage. I would also like to discuss the frequency of which we consummate the marriage.

2:05:53 It must be more than you ride your motorcycle. Also, I don't love her saying, I want the man to ride me. There's something about that, just geographically, I don't like. Yeah, whatever. If you like being on top or bottom, that doesn't matter to me. Yeah, but like, I don't know. The whole thing of it gives me the biggest ache, and I really do love when this gets clipped. I'll also try and find that one video you just mentioned and put it in the Discord for this, because it does bring me joy. And for some reason, I knew exactly what you were talking about, because we share a single brain cell. 100, oh my God. She's like grinding her pussy, like walking down, and it's like a backyard wedding, and no tino shade to like small weddings go off. But yeah, the sexuality of it makes me angry.

2:06:36 And it also comes so fucking far out of left field, because so far from the minimum that we've seen Sarah as like the gamer, she doesn't come across as this way at all. No, she's super sweet. She's just like, hey Deacon, let's talk about plants. I'm gonna teach you how to pick a plant appropriately. And then she's like, I want you to ride this pussy. It's so aggressive. And also like, it's a small wedding. At least you're not sitting in front of your parents, which is, I never like sex stuff in front of parents. Like that sucks. No. But Boozer is your best friend. And she's like, I want you to ride me. Like, oh. And you got married in a church.

2:07:16 It isn't a church. The minister probably doesn't know them very well. And he is visibly uncomfortable when she says this. I would hope so. Deacon hears this and grabs her and aggressively kisses her. Like, they did have a splash zone that Boozer chose to opt out of. And the minister leaves as soon as he physically can. He's like, their eyes are closed. I am out this bitch. They are Ron Swanson and Tammy Swanson just straight having sex immediately after saying, yes, I do. Just fucking, we at least waited until the wedding was over. Yeah. Like, I've been married. You don't have to have sex immediately. Give it a minute.

2:07:57 Enjoy the cake first. Take a picture, you know? Like, greet your friends and say, thank you for sharing this moment with us. Now, Boozer starts slow clapping while they're kiss fucking. It's just horrible. It's horrible for us, the gamer, and for Deacon in the present, it's moving. He is like, this is the sweetest moment of my life. But as the gamer holding the controller, you're like, no, no, make it stop. I hate this so much. Boozer, enjoy the clapping while you can. Ugh, before he starts clapping these cheeks, baby girl. Oh no, I just meant he's about to lose an arm and he's never gonna clap again. Oh my God. It's gonna hurt real bad if he tries to.

2:08:38 He's gonna stab himself. He's gonna have a lot of really bad cuts on that one hand. Oh. It fucking sucks. Anyway. Sorry, we derailed. We lost our minds because it is truly one of the worst moments in gaming. I think one of the clues, so on our Discord we have a thing where we'll put up like Xs instead of the game title for the games that are coming up for this season. And my clue for Days Gone was this had some of the cringiest fucking dialogue I've ever heard in gaming. And eventually they did figure out it was Days Gone. Right, off of that clue. Obviously that did help, because holy shit, this is historically bad.

2:09:18 Deacon in the present solemnly says goodbye to Sarah and his marriage and his old life for good. He exits the church, turns around and burns it down. Burns it down, what the fuck? Sometimes closure is arson. At camp, Deacon talks to Addie about Boozer and Addie is like, look, he's going through a lot. That's why I told you to keep an eye on him. It's hard to lose a limb. Maybe get something to keep him company and like heal his soul. I can heal his body, but we gotta work on that soul. I love her so much. So Deacon goes out and finds Boozer a puppy. Oh, it is the cutest goddamn puppy I have ever seen.

2:09:59 It's a tiny baby Norwegian elk hound and he's the goodest boy. And he's tiny and he's fuzzy and he's so goddamn cute. Elk hounds are the cutest fucking dogs. There's something about them that's like, you are truly descended from wolves, but like the prettiest wolves on earth. But also where the fuck did Deacon find this goddamn dog? Just like out? Just out there. Yeah. It's an actual wolf. Yeah. And it's tricky though, cause you know, we mentioned some of the mammals can get infected. The wolves can get infected here. So he really had to be like, is this dog okay? Oh my God. So he risked everything for this fucking dog. He really did.

2:10:40 He really did. Deacon brings back this perfect little floof to camp and finds Boozer napping on a patio. Deacon wakes him up and Boozer is confused and angry, and then is completely lit up seeing this little guy. The puppy looks up at Boozer and runs into his arms. Oh, like he knew. It is love at first sight. Boozer very carefully hugs him. Right. Cause of the sword. Holds the one arm way up high. Yeah. And Boozer scoops up this puppy and immediately takes him into the cabin to get him oriented into his new home, get him some water. Oh. Just show him where he's gonna live. And with that, Boozer's depression is cured.

2:11:21 That's all it takes usually. Sometimes it happens, you know? Depression is very complex, but sometimes if you see a cute puppy, you're like, honestly, this life is amazing. This is why they're emotional support animals. Exactly. They're real. Schizo calls for Deacon and says, they can fully blow up the mines once they get detonator cords for the dynamite they scavenged. And Schizo knows where he can get some deck cords, but it's in ripper territory. Deacon immediately shoots this idea down. He's like, I've gotten into trouble a couple times for this, so let's not fucking do that. Yeah, I'm done with those rippers. Schizo says, it's fine. I'll go with you and it'll save a lot of lives and it'll block off the horde caves. Obviously Deacon eventually caves and they head off to get the detonator cords.

2:12:03 It's a whole ass thing. It's deep in the woods and it's just Deacon, Schizo and the rippers. When they come up on the rippers, they're around a ripper bonfire, huffing fumes and getting high and dancing and cutting themselves. Just wants to get high off whatever the fuck they can. Yeah, and like hallucinogenics and PCP, it fucking sucks every time. Schizo and Deacon make it to a transportation building where the detonator cords are. They fight their way in to get away from freakers and find them thankfully. So now we're ready to blow the fucking caves up. Shit, yeah. Or at least that's the plan. As they're leaving, Schizo pulls Deacon's sidearm out of the holster. Schizo raises the gun on Deacon and says, sorry, it was the only way, and pistol whips him.

2:12:46 The fuck? Deacon blacks out. Deacon wakes up alone and standing with his arms tied up like he's being splayed out. His shirt is off, his pants are thankfully on, but everything is gone. He's in a dark room lit by candles. The head of the Ripper cult comes into the room to confront Deacon. It's dark, but Deacon can make out that he knows this man. His man goes by Carlos now. Carlos is who Iron Mike made a deal with. But as he approaches, the candlelight sparks a memory, and Deacon realizes this is a man named Jesse. Jesse used to ride with the Mongrels. Oh shit, he's a former Mongrel. He was in the club with Boozer and Deacon.

2:13:28 Jesse was running drugs and killed another Mongrel brother over a bad drug deal. Oh shit. So he was stripped of his colors. Boozer and Deacon once held him down and burned his club tattoos off of his back while he was excommunicated from the club. Starts to make a bit more sense why they did it to Boozer now. Yeah, and why they were hunting Boozer and Deacon down. Yeah, that makes a lot more fucking sense. They might have had it coming. Well, there's some balance here, right? There is, at the same time. Like, yeah, he held somebody down, so that way they did it to him. He wanted to do it right back, but he also killed somebody. You know, it's not a fun situation they're all in.

2:14:09 No, this all sucks. But Boozer at least got a fucking sword out of it. He did, and a puppy. Yeah, and a puppy. His suppression puppy is here. But this guy seems to have gotten an entire fucking gang out of it, so. But a cult? Yeah, he became a cult leader afterwards. He moved up from gang. Yeah, that's true. I think cult is above gang in the hierarchy of like lunatics who run people around and shit. Well, you know what they say. There's more money as the leader, but you have more fun as a member. It's true, it's true. So he's just kind of fucked. He didn't though. He had a way worse time being a member of the gang than he is running a cult. And money doesn't exist anymore, so fuck. Just PCP.

2:14:49 After that whole incident, Jesse went on a crazy psychedelic trip and renamed himself Carlos, and started this apocalypse cult after the world shut down. What is he, Rachel Dolezal? He changed his name to like an ethnic name on top of that? Girl, right? This is a white boy named Jesse that rode in a motorcycle club in Oregon. I don't think he was one of the diverse members. And now Jesse Carlos has Deacon tied up like a prized fucking hog primed for revenge. Deacon knows he's fucked. Jesse is like, remember when you burned off my tattoos? Fuck you. Jesse takes a blowtorch and starts doing his own at-home tattoo removal on Deacon's arm.

2:15:32 Oh. Jesse says, everything about Deacon can be burned away until nothing remains but your name. Deacon breathes through the pain. Jesse talks about how he worships the Freakers, and Deacon cuts him off and says, are we doing that or are you just gonna talk me to death? Jesse says, oh, whoa, we're doing that. But we can't do this without Boozer. The three of us are gonna finish this together. Jesse burns more of an arm tattoo on Deacon off and gets close to huffing the smell of his burning flesh, and I fucking hate it. Oh my God. He says he doesn't have Boozer yet, but he will soon. What are the odds that the three of them would still be here at the end of the world?

2:16:13 Jesse punches Deacon and knocks him the fuck out. A while later, Deacon has woken up and is trying to get out of his restraints. The door opens, and it's not Jesse this time. It's a girl with ripper scars all across her face. She enters the room alone, and Deacon sees Lisa one more time. Oh fucking hell. She comes to Deacon and says she saw them bring him in. Deacon calls her Lisa, and she says, no, no, that's not my name. I don't have a name anymore. Jesus. She says everyone she cared about is dead. She talks about the rippers and says, do you know why we want to be like the freaks? They don't remember what they've lost.

2:16:53 Damn. Even though Lisa is so far gone, her brain has surrendered to the cult mentality. She still sees Deacon as a man who tried to help her. I'm soldering to slavery. Yeah, a little bit. And she cuts him free. Quietly, she leaves him a knife and leaves the room. Deacon moves quickly and gets free and starts to escape. He sneaky sneaks around and he finds his stuff and his clothes and kills as many rippers as he quietly can. He knows he's outnumbered, so the key here is moving in silence. Deacon finds Lisa again and is like, girly, thank you so much, but you have to run because they're going to figure out that you're the one that freed me and they will 100% kill you. Yeah, you keep escaping from camps anyway.

2:17:34 You seem to be really good at it. Yeah, he's like, you have to fucking run. And she goes, yes, I do. Yeah, the slavery camp might be better than this one. She understands that and she's like, yep, I'm out. But before she leaves, she hugs him really, really tight. And then she takes off. Deacon starts to escape the compound, kicking himself for believing Schizo, because fuck Schizo. And getting himself into this issue. It just fucking sucks. Once he starts to get back to his bike, he finds out that the Rippers have descended on the Lost Lake Camp. Of course they did. That Schizo set everything up to take down Iron Mike. Oh shit, see, I thought this was just going to be like, oh, they had to turn over Deacon, because that's the only way to get the treaty back.

2:18:18 They did that, but it was just a pawn to also be like, oh no, Deacon's gone. But also, but we got that hint that Schizo's kind of a fucking skis. Schizo fucking sucks. Oh, fuck you, Schizo. Fuck you, Schizo. Deacon hauls ass on his bike back to camp, and it's absolute fucking chaos. There are fires, there's rippers everywhere, it's fucking crazy. Deacon takes out as many rippers as he can, and he goes looking for Schizo's goddamn head. The fight goes on overnight until both parties call a ceasefire. The rippers oblige and leave, and the Lost Lake camp retreats into the main house to reconvene on what the fuck just happened.

2:19:00 Schizo is with Iron Mike and tells him that this is all one big misunderstanding. Mike is furious that people died on property and is about to kill Schizo himself, but his code of conduct won't let him do that. Well, you really fucking should. Girl, Deacon tries to kill Schizo too, but Iron Mike is like, Jesus Christ, stop. Also, what the fuck happened to you? Yeah. Schizo admits that he made a deal with Carlos and the Rippers to sell out Deacon and Boozer, and it wasn't supposed to come to this. Deacon knows it's really Jesse and the Rippers, which if you Google, you'll get a lot of Full House quotes. Carlos is in the room with a few of his Ripper boys and confirms that they had a deal with Schizo to get Boozer and Deacon.

2:19:43 Iron Mike says, I don't care what you think these boys did, but you're not getting them. Fuck you. Fuck your flag. Fuck your cult. Fuck off. Get the fuck out of Lost Lake, or we all die together right here and right fucking now. Hell yeah. That's why he's Iron Fucking Mike, baby. Yeah. All guns are drawn on each other, and Carlos takes a moment and accepts. On his way out, Deacon tells Carlos, Jesse, that they're not done. After they leave, Schizo starts to speak to Iron Mike, but Iron Mike punches him and knocks him the fuck out. Good. Toss him in the fucking lake. He kind of gets up almost immediately, though, but he does hit the ground blacked out for a second.

2:20:25 Iron Mike tells some of the men to take Schizo to lock up. He says they're going to give him a fair trial and deal with him the proper way. I wouldn't do that. No, fuck you. Boozer and Deacon reconvene, and Boozer is like, was that fucking Jesse? Deacon says, yep, and he wants payback and shows off his arm burn. Certainly not as bad as Boozer's is. I was just about to ask, actually, how much worse or better is it than the one Boozer got? It's much easier to treat. Okay. Deacon says, hey, by the way, I have a really bad idea, and we're going to do it. Grab as much ammo as you can. Boozer is like, shit, yeah, I fucking love bad ideas. I can't grab much ammo. I've only got one arm, but I got you.

2:21:06 I'm going to grab it real slowly, and it's going to be on one side. Deacon has to go grab the dynamite from Schizo's cabin, and Boozer is like, perfect. I'll meet you at the gate. Deacon snags the dynamite and the detonator cords and has Addy clean up his arm. He's like, all right, let's fucking ramp up. Now that he's all ready for revenge, Deacon and Boozer ride out to a nearby dam that sits just over the main ripper camp. Their plan is to blow up the dam, flood the ripper camp, and kill all these fucking rats. Hell yeah. It's just like drowning the rats with the fucking dam exploding is so fucking cool. Oh yeah, no, I love this. And it'll also just fix the ripper problem if most of them die in the fucking flood. Holy.

2:21:47 This works, this is a good thing. Just hope Lisa's out of there. Yeah, she ran, she ran when Deacon left, so she's out here somewhere in these streets. We don't know where. Holy. So the plan again, blow up the dam, flood the ripper camp, take out a majority of the camp, and this fix the ripper problem. So that's exactly what they fucking do. Shit yeah. They flooded out and then they head to a ripper lodge to take care of Carlos Jesse personally. And Deacon gets up there and fights him one on one. And as he does, Jesse manages to blow PCP directly into Deacon's eyes. Oh, that's a fucking move though. I think it works out though, because Deacon wins the fight and slits Carlos Jesse's throat wide open.

2:22:27 Oh, shit. Or at least he imagined he did. The PCP is him just stabbing him with like a fucking paper clip like, with Jesse Carlos dead, Boozer and Deacon hug. They're like, fuck yeah, we did it. One-armed hug. One-armed hug. Careful hug. It's not too tight. They head back to camp and Iron Mike is like, God damn it, I fucking hate the apocalypse. He hate the apocalypse. Oh, fucking mood, dude. Bro, this fucking sucks. Iron Mike tells Deacon he had to let Schizo go. He told him to ride out and never come back. You let him live? Girl.

2:23:08 After that. Bitch, right? So Deacon's like, Iron Mike, do you know what you just fucking did? And Iron Mike says, Yeah, Deacon, I stopped another killing, and I'm good with that. We should change your name to Feather Mike after that fucking move. I gotta say. Heart of an addy. Yeah, I get what you're saying, but... But damn it, dude, you could have killed him. Schizo deserved it. Yeah, fuck Schizo. There is literally merch that says fuck Schizo. Really? It's not official, but it is on Etsy, and a lot of people have it. I don't blame them. They should make an officially licensed fuck Schizo shirt. I would genuinely buy that to support the people of Ben now. Yeah.

2:23:48 Knowing John Garvin does not get a dollar of that, absolutely, I'd buy that shit. Especially. Deacon walks out and sees Ricky teaching Addie how to ride a motorcycle. She's like, here's the clutch, and Addie's like, I know where the fucking clutch is. Ricky goes, then touch the goddamn clutch. You're not on the goddamn clutch. And she's like, I know where the clutch is. Stop pestering me. It's cute. They're having a moment. And it sparks a memory of Deacon teaching Sarah how to ride a motorcycle. Years ago, Deacon rolls up to the government research facility Sarah works in. It's got big fences, and it's really heavily guarded. The guard at the gate, a Karen of a man named Jim, tells Deacon he can't park his bike there. Deacon's like, oh, hey, man, I'm just picking up Sarah.

2:24:29 Jim doesn't care and screams at him to leave. Jim calls Deacon an asshole and calls in on his walkie for backup and tells Deacon he is authorized to use deadly force. Deadly force? This place collects fucking lavender. This dude is a security guard. What the fuck? He shouldn't even be carrying. Like, he has a gun for some reason. Yeah, pepper balls at most. Sarah comes up behind them just as Jim pulls his gun out on Deacon and is like, hey, what the fuck? My boyfriend just wanted to take me to lunch. Jim apologizes to Sarah, and Sarah is like, I'm so sorry, Jim, he's with me. Sarah hops on the bike, and Deacon gets on behind her as they ride off.

2:25:12 Why is she apologizing to Jim? I'm sorry, never mind. She shouldn't be, absolutely. No, no. On the ride, Sarah asks why Deacon is such a dick. Immediate fight, right? I would immediately be like, okay, first of all, you did not see that interaction. Yeah, he started that fight. Also, whose side are you on? Are you fucking him? Deacon says, Jim started it. Sarah asks him if it's still date night tonight, but Deacon says, oh shit, me and the boys are going to go visit Jack, a Mongrel's brother who's in prison. Sarah says, so you're blowing off date night to visit someone in prison. Deacon's like, well, Jack's not just some guy, that's our brother.

2:25:53 Yeah, but he doesn't mean it like he meant the last time he said brother. No, no, this is a white dude. This is the white dude brother. While driving, Sarah's mind wanders, and she almost drives directly into an 18 wheeler. Oh shit. She dodges and pulls off and catches her breath. She's like, oh my God. Deacon tells her, hey, hey, you did great. You could have gotten us killed, but you pulled off in exactly the right way. And she says, no, fuck, I was distracted. I'm so sorry. Deacon's like, hey, what's going on? Sarah explains that work has been fucking crazy lately. Deacon says, oh, I figured it was because you saw my new patch. Oh my God. Making it about him when we could have more plot. Thanks, Deacon.

2:26:34 He shows her a patch that says Nomad, which means he's taking a step away from the motorcycle club and the responsibilities. He's still a mongrel, but he's like a remote worker, like a tele gangbanger. Tele gangbanger. They ride back to work and talk about the wedding, and Sarah's unsure if her family is coming because she's marrying a biker boy. Sarah doesn't really give a shit that they're uptight and snobby about Deacon though, because she loves him for him. On the way, a cop car flies by with the cherries and berries blaring. Deacon is like, are they heading up to your work? Oh no. And Sarah, realizing there's nothing else up there, except for her lab, is like, oh shit, okay, I have to go back.

2:27:17 What the fuck? It's that moment in Lilo and Stitch where the sister's like, please don't turn left. They turn left. Oh shit. Something terrible has happened, oh no. Sarah asks that the club is coming to the wedding, and Deacon's like, do you really want 27 Harleys rolling up to a tiny church? And Sarah says, yes, I do. That's fucking sick. Yeah, right? I've been to those weddings. It is sick. Did your parents have one of those weddings? No, they didn't have one of those weddings, and I wasn't born yet, so. The pictures would be fucking cool as shit, though. No, no, they didn't have one of those weddings, but I've been to those weddings. They're pretty fucking cool. Your dad's funeral was a little biker heavy, too. Oh, yeah. We rode in a Harley Davidson limousine for my dad's funeral, if you remember.

2:27:59 Didn't even know they made those. I know. I wasn't in that one, but that's fucking wild. When they get to the gate, Jim is waiting for them and walkies in that Sarah has returned to the facility. Jim runs up to them and tells Sarah that the chief has been looking for her, and it's urgent. Sarah and Deacon kiss. Sarah runs off to handle the drama, and as Deacon rides off, he flips off Jim. Fuck you, Jim. Fuck off, Jim. Back in the present, this reminds Deacon that Sarah had high-level government clearance because of the fucking lab she worked at, something that was always prioritized by Nero during the evacuations. He's like, oh shit, no. Sarah was important enough that they'd keep her safe. And he remembers she had her fucking lanyard on that night.

2:28:41 She had her clearance badge on her. Deacon radios O'Brien and tells him that Sarah had clearance. She was wearing her ID and her lanyard, and she had credentials on her. Look her up. She worked at Cloverdale's facility. O'Brien agrees to look into her, because every time he sees Deacon, there's a gun on him. So he's like, yep, absolutely. You've made it clear. You can find me and you have a lot of guns, buddy. I got you. And a one-track fucking mind. Yeah. O'Brien's like, all right, well, if she's not a civilian, maybe I can. I will radio you soon. And soon enough, O'Brien calls Deacon to meet up, and when they do, he hands Deacon Sarah's ID badge. Oh shit. O'Brien says Deacon was right.

2:29:22 When the camp was evacuated, Sarah had high enough clearance to get prioritized to get out of there. She got a ride out. She wasn't killed with the rest of the camp. She might still be out there. Well, good for fucking her. Deacon demands a ride to the camp where she was taken to, but the camp has since been taken over by a militia group. They lost track of her and everyone else there, and they know it's somewhere near Crater Lake, but the militia has made it a no-fly zone. They just shoot out fucking everything that goes over it, so they're like, fuck that, we're not going. Deacon goes, Crater Lake. Got it. That's where I'm headed. Before he leaves, O'Brien tells Deacon to be careful. They're studying the freaks, and they're seeing the freaks evolving. He tells them that as bad as things are now, they're gonna get a lot worse.

2:30:06 O'Brien takes off, leaving Deacon with something he hasn't had in a long time. Tangible hope. Damn. Crater Lake is way the fuck out of the map, and Deacon doesn't know of an easy way to get there through the mountains. But he knows Iron Mike does. Iron Mike knows every path in the mountains like a goat. Deacon calls Boozer and tells him what happened with O'Brien, and Boozer asks what Deacon's gonna do. Deacon says he doesn't know, but he definitely knows what he's gonna do. Well, hold on. So this is the first time that Boozer's like, oh shit, so she might actually be alive? Yeah, he's like, dead wife may not be dead? Okay, this is actually tangible. You got it. I punched you in the face over this once before, but all right.

2:30:46 Glad I didn't stab you. Yeah. Deacon says if there's even a chance she's alive, he's gonna find her. Deacon asks Iron Mike for help, but after all this drama, you know, the murders, Iron Mike tells him that if he shows them the path, Deacon has to promise not to come back. For realsies this time. Deacon's like, honestly, fine. Let's fucking ride. I'm down. Deacon goes to say goodbye to Boozer before he hits the road. They shoot the shit for a bit, and then Deacon hands Boozer his Mongrel's MC biker cut, that fucking vest. Boozer takes this leather cut and accepts that Deacon has to leave some things behind to find his old lady.

2:31:26 As brothers, they hug and they say goodbye. Boozer tells Deacon if she's out there, he'll find her. On the way out, Deacon also says goodbye to Ricky and Addie. Addie says, you go get your girl. Addie, again, sweetest person on earth, probably and genuinely, because everyone's dead. Ricky yells at Deacon for being afraid to be a part of the camp and to move on, but she may or may not have just had a little crush on him. There are a few points where she's kind of like, hey, you know, Addie and I aren't married. Oh, really? Yeah, so there may be some tension there, but they never knew anything out of bounds of friendship. If you read the texts, nothing would be suspicious, you know? Right.

2:32:06 But there's always been like an inkling, a little bisexual disaster. They depart as friends. Iron Mike takes Deacon up to the mountains to the past as much as he can and then departs. Deacon rides over the mountains, a new man with his mongrel's life behind, looking for his wife. The mountains are snowy, as mountains often are, you know, it's a mountain. And as he makes it over, he immediately runs into two guys who are being terrorized by an infected freaker bear. A bear? You can tell this bear is infected because there's barbed wire running through it. What the fuck do you mean by running through it? There's just barbed wire around the bear.

2:32:47 So like this bear has like tried to escape through like some barbed wire at some point, it just got like wrapped up onto its body? Yeah, and it doesn't give a fuck. It's like out here for blood. What the shit? An armored bear wrapped in fucking barbed wire. I love this bear. All right, this is insane. Deacon kills the bear and saves the two men who are part of the local militia. That worked out. Yeah. Deacon lies about where he came from. He's like, I've just been drifting around. I'm not looking for anything specific, but hey, where do you guys live and can I live with you? They immediately invite him to their militia camp to get him a nice place to sleep for saving their lives. Deacon's like, sweet, I just infiltrated a militia.

2:33:29 Fair. That was easy. One of the militia guys takes Deacon down to Diamond Lake Outpost, a branch of the militia run by a guy named Captain Cory. Captain Cory is a tall, stern, hairless man. The militia guy talks to Captain Cory and gives him a rundown of what happened. He's like, yo, Deacon saved my life. There was a fucking freaker bear. It was great. Captain Cory dismisses this guy and introduces himself to Deacon. As they shake hands, Deacon clocks that Captain Cory is wearing a big-ass mongrel's ring. Oh, shit. It looks just like the one he gave Sarah. Oh, damn. This visibly shakes Deacon, like he's seen a ghost his eyes are wide, his face is white.

2:34:11 Deacon asks if Captain Cory is recruiting, and he says he could if Deacon can step up to it. He tells Deacon they're fighting a war, and if Deacon can keep up, he'll bring him to the Colonel to get sworn in as a full-fledged militia member. Oh, damn. Deacon's like, perfect. This is a very easy path. I got you. Captain Cory walks away to get ready for a militia mission. Deacon steps away and catches his breath. He's like, holy shit, that dude had my fucking ring. What the fuck? He took it from Sarah. She wouldn't have just given it to him. That means she has to be here somewhere. Deacon wanders around and meets another would-be recruit named Wade Taylor.

2:34:51 Wade says, hey, you can call me Wade. I'll let you know right now. Every single person calls him Taylor. Even the captions just say Taylor. Even the fucking captions don't call him by his preferred name. Yes. Poor Wade. Wade is an amazing character. Deacon introduces himself, and Wade goes, holy shit, Deacon St. John, is your dad a preacher? What? Because he has the name Saint in his last name? And Deacon. His first name is Deacon. That's true too, yeah.

2:35:33 Wade is so stoner-coded. He's just like, oh, man, your name is stupid. Is he like Wade in Grand Theft Auto V? Yeah. Yeah, a little braindead. A little braindead. Yeah, just a little fried. It's great. He's a little juggalo. Yeah. He's just like, hey, man, are we playing soldier out here or what? This shit is fucking crazy. Playing soldier. Oh, no, Wade. Deacon asks if Wade has seen Sarah and shows him a picture. Wade is like, nah, but he'd hit that. Deacon wants to hit Wade. Yeah, right. Deacon folks around the Diamond Lake Campgrounds looking for Sarah, but she's not here.

2:36:16 Camp Cory takes Deacon on some small missions, following up with the squad and tracking an AWOL soldier, and they bond a bit over tracking and their military time. Deacon talks about his full tour in Afghanistan, and Captain Cory talks about doing ten years in the Air Force. Oh, damn. Deacon was like, yeah, all military people have an heir to them. Honestly, that's kind of true. Facts. But none of your other guys have it. Cory is like, okay, damn, scene. Red to filth. They even have a heart to heart where Captain Cory shows Deacon a photo of his wife, Carrie. They remarried for 12 years when the world ended. Oh, wow. Deacon looks at the photo, and his mind drifts back to a night with Sarah.

2:36:57 He daydreams so quickly and easily. Yeah, he's really just like not present. He dissociates a lot. They were out riding at night and going on like a sneaky hike. They wander around a restricted area and go past a chain link fence. They follow a trail lit up by the moon, and Sarah asks if Deacon's told the boys about her. He said he did tell the club he's dating a nice girl. Sarah says it's really past her bedtime, and she has to be up super early tomorrow because she has this crazy project she's working on, and she's clearly super stressed out. They walk by an underground cannabis grow that happens to have a full irrigation system. Oh, nice. And Sarah is immediately annoyed that he took her to an illegal motorcycle club we'd grow.

2:37:44 It's Oregon. You can grow that legally. What are you doing? This was a fucking farm. Like this was, you're moving some pounds here. Deacon asks if she has any botany advice for the plants and if she can put her PhD to use. I knew it was going to have to do with the fact that she's a botanist, but she's apparently like this crazy government botanist who has a clearance level. Government botany is a wild world to get into for your career. Is she looking for super weapons in nature that they can use as poisons and shit? That's what I'm imagining Sarah's doing, is she has a fucking clearance.

2:38:24 We met her collecting fucking lavender. That was a key date that they went on. Yeah, I use that in my bath. It's soothing. It's a natural anti-inflammatory. Yeah, what the fuck? So she's like, no, I will not use my PhD to help you grow some motorcycle weed. Come on, Sarah, be fucking useful. Be cool, Sarah. We'll name a strain after you. He's like, OK, baby, that's not why I took you here. Just keep following the fucking trail. Sounds like that's why you brought her here. They start fighting, though, because Sarah brings up moving in together. And the last time she asked about leaving stuff at Deacon's place, he just pretended not to hear her.

2:39:11 Fucking Deacon. Which is crazy to do when someone's like, hey, should I leave, like, you know, maybe some fresh pairs of clothes here? And he's just like, boop, boop, boop, no one's talking to me. The thing about leaving a toothbrush behind, he's like, did you catch the game last night? Or just start kissing. What if I distract you by kissing you? He revs his engine any time she starts talking about the fucking relationship really loud. But he leaves the restaurant to do it. Just to distract her. He's a fucking idiot. And she's like, you have commitment issues, and he starts having a panic attack thinking about them living together.

2:39:54 He's like, you're a scientist. Can we be rational about this? Yeah, because he has commitment issues. She says rationally, we would see each other more and save money on rent, and it would be lovely. That's why we moved in. I just moved in. Yeah. We did not have a conversation. I just showed up with my shit and was like, I live here now. Never went on the lease or anything. And you were like, yeah, this is my life now. I guess this is how we're doing this. We've been married for eight years? Yeah, about eight years now. It's great. Deacon is like, and by the way, I did leave a toothbrush at your place, so like that's enough commitment for now. So he's already done that to her. Just a toothbrush, though.

2:40:34 That's all she's asking for. No, that's too much. No, she should just pretend she didn't hear him. Yeah, so they have this entire fight about how Deacon is not ready to commit and he cannot even discuss living together. They come up on a waterfall at the end of this trail, and it's fucking gorgeous. It's nighttime, stars and moon, fucking beautiful waterfall. It's so gorgeous. Sarah is completely taken aback at how beautiful this whole place is, and she's like, holy shit, this was totally worth the hike and the fight, frankly. This was cool. Yeah. Deacon says, oh, you know what? Actually, there's something I've been meaning to ask you. He gets on one knee and holds her hand. Deacon stutters through, will you, will you?

2:41:18 And before he can even say the whole thing, Sarah pushes him and mounts him and starts giggling. Oh my God, like a fucking motorcycle. Deacon asks if that's a yes, and Sarah says yes, but on two conditions. One, we don't have one of those biker weddings where you say you're going to ride me as much as you ride your bike. Stop the fucking presses. So that was a callback? It's a callback that we didn't know about until maybe seven to eight hours later in the game. Holy shit, hold on. So it's actually sweet. It makes it kind of cute that she said that?

2:41:59 It does make it really cute that she says that. I don't like that. It shouldn't be cute. You don't want this to be a tender moment? No, but that's... Oh, fuck. I mean, that's kind of cool that she brought back around, like, a saying from the day they got engaged. Yeah, and Deacon hears this and goes, done. I can't promise that anyway. Like, is that a joke about him not being able to fuck her? Yeah, I think so. And then the second condition is, never leave me. And Deacon says, done. Sarah looks down at her hand and realizes, he put his big-ass mongrel's biker ring on her finger. She goes, oh, my God, look at it. It's so cute with its little fangs clenching onto the chain.

2:42:42 Is it? Nothing says true love like dog skulls. Right, and like his class ring. Yeah, it's bulkier than a class ring. It's her entire knuckle. Yeah. I have a full wedding set, and honestly, it's a big wedding set, and it's curvy. It takes up half my knuckle. Yeah. This takes up half her hand. She then says, hey, but you're gonna get me like a real ring, though, right? Yeah. Deacon looks panicked and then is like, oh, my God. Yeah, of course. That's my ring. You can't have mine. I'll get you one. Fully intended to. Sarah says, yeah, totally. Just, you know, something more simple without fangs. Deacon leans in to kiss his fiance when her cell phone rings.

2:43:24 For some fucking reason, she answers it and is immediately panicked. She says she'll be right there. There's something urgent at the lab and they need her there. She apologizes to Deacon and they leave the clearing. There's a lavender emergency. There's a lavender emergency. We need you to look at the lavender right now. In the present, Deacon hands the photo back to Captain Cory and says, his wife's name was Beth, but he doesn't have a photo. With that, they head off. So he lied. He did lie. Deacon has proven himself to Captain Cory, and he gets to go meet the Colonel at Crater Lake Camp. Crater Lake Camp is on an island in the middle of the lake, only accessible by bridge.

2:44:07 Not unlike Alan Wake. I was going to say, that's also a pretty safe place to go during a zombie apocalypse. Yes, only two points of entry. There are two bridges. There's a main gate and a south gate, though heavily guarded. It was really smart, frankly. Yeah, island's a solid spot. Yeah. The campsite itself, that little island, has a ton of mines that run through it and a ton of people living on it. Captain Cory warns Deacon there's a work camp on the island for those that the Colonel feels are unfit to serve. Oh, shit. There's always a little bit of slavery in these camps. Yeah, a little bit. You need somebody to grow the food for you. Cory takes Deacon to a stage with a few dozen soldiers looking on.

2:44:47 On the stage is a woman with a bunch of tattoos and Taylor. Cory tells Deacon to join the others on stage. Taylor goes, Oh, hey, man. Good to see you, son of a preacher man. Oh, Wade Taylor. Yeah, Wade Taylor. But now that we're in the militia, he's just Taylor. So they sent him to this fucking island to work because Wade was fucking useless. Yeah, what the fuck is Wade going to do? But his new life is Taylor. He's like, hey, man, let's... All right. We're playing soldier. A soldier approaches them and takes all their jewelry, watches, all personal effects. In the militia, they are stripped of personal belongings. Deacon obliges while the tattooed woman gives the guy some shit for it.

2:45:28 Then the colonel arrives. He yells out, turn to hut! And the soldiers in the audience stand at attention. The colonel is an older white guy with a mustache who looks like Feeny from Boy Meets World. Oh, okay. The tattooed woman tells him to fuck off, so he sends her to a work camp. He says he can tell by her prison tattoos and the clothes she's wearing, she was clearly a criminal. He kind of ignores Taylor. He looks at him and is like, mm-mm, don't care. And then when he gets to Deacon, he clocks Deacon's hand tattoo that he got for the 10th Mountain Division where he served. Oh shit, yeah. The colonel indoctrinates Deacon into the militia immediately and makes him a corporal just because he's already served. So he's like, oh shit, you actually understand this.

2:46:08 After the ceremony, the colonel asks Deacon to walk the campus with him. They meet the camp doctor, Dr. Jimenez, and over the walk, the colonel reveals that he's super religious with Christianity. Oh no. He's like, yes, by the way, God is real, and you have to start believing in him. Okay. These are the rules. These are the rules of living here. The colonel says that this island is his holy purpose. The colonel takes Deacon into the deep caves of the island that the colonel calls the Ark. The Ark. I was expecting him to call it Eden, honestly. Here he's been saving books, seeds, computer files, all sorts of crazy stuff, like floppy disks and shit is what I'm talking about. It's so that they can preserve humanity through the end of the world, which is actually kind of cool, like a library of everything.

2:46:55 That's actually important to do. Yeah, saving media. He's like, you know, we may lose engineers, but we can learn how to do it by reading these textbooks and shit. It's smart. The thing about the caves, too, is that they kind of come up into a cone, so they spiral up to the very tippy top of the island. It's really neat. Like a volcano. They leave the cave, and the Colonel explains that they also have enough munitions and firepower to fight all the Freakers. And they'll need it, because the Colonel is in the mindset that they are fighting a war with the Freakers. Oh my gosh. And he has a plan to win. The Colonel walks further with Deacon and says, this is how we're going to defeat the Freakers.

2:47:36 They come upon a tent with a male scientist who is working with some materials in a bin when it sparks. The Colonel introduces Deacon to Lieutenant Weaver, a chemical engineer who's developing explosives to use on the Freakers. The Colonel offers Deacon as a gopher in case Weaver ever needs anything from outside of camp, and he immediately has a list of shit for Deacon to go fetch. He's like, thank God. Oh, finally. Right now, Weaver needs shit for a batch of napalm that he's cooking up. The Colonel takes Deacon to see one more person, someone that people have been calling the Wizard Island Witch. The Colonel alludes to this person also being on the same mission as Weaver, developing something to fight the Freakers. They come up on a tent, and it opens to a woman screaming at a man for not getting her fabric softener.

2:48:21 She's not doing laundry, though. She needs it for science shit, but she's like, read the goddamn label. Fuck you, you idiot. Here, in front of the Colonel, in front of the soldier that's getting chewed the fuck out, Deacon lays his eyes back on Sarah. Oh, Sarah is alive. Not only is Sarah alive, but she's also widely hated on the island for being an asshole. Hell yeah, Sarah. She looks harder than her soft-bottomed self that we ever saw in the memories. She's in a black tank top and a tight militia cap, and she's just like, fuck you, you idiot. Sarah kicks the soldier out of her tent and realizes that she has company. Her boss, the Colonel, and her estranged husband, the Drifter.

2:49:05 Right. Sarah calls the Colonel Matt, they're on a first-name basis, which I don't love. Oh shit. And just immediately screams at her for bringing her useless soldiers. Colonel says he's got this covered and introduces Sarah to Deacon. Deacon's eyes are wide, but his poker face refuses to let on what's happening. He can't let on what's going on, but he also can't take his eyes off of her. Oh, it's his wife. I get it. The Colonel made it clear that there is zero fraternizing allowed in camp. God damn it. Yeah, so Deacon can't jeopardize this with fear of them getting separated or purposely being kept apart. At least if he pretends to not know her, he can get sent on missions and have reason to talk to her.

2:49:46 Right. He can't fuck this up. Sarah's eyes look at Deacon, and then they dart all over him. His face, his hair, everything down to the dirt under his nails. But she also knows the rules and hands Deacon the detergent the other soldier mistook for fabric softener and demands that he read the list of ingredients. She needs a soldier who knows what chemical compounds they're looking for. She's mean and is like, what? You can read, can't you? Deacon is like, uh, yeah, and rattles off the name of some of the chemical compounds on the bottle, and then she yanks the bottle out of his hands and says, good enough, when can he start? She doesn't even look at him anymore. Oh, my gosh. She just moved on. She's fucking brilliant if this is like part of her plan. Oh, yeah.

2:50:26 The Colonel nods and says, I'll leave you to it and leaves the tent. For the first time in years, Sarah and Deacon are alone together. Deacon starts walking to Sarah, and she stops him saying, stand at attention. He obeys, and she slowly walks to him. He reaches for her, and she stops him again saying, don't. She puts her hand on his face, hovering just over where her name is tattooed on his neck. Then she starts to sputter. No, no, no, you're dead. You're supposed to be dead. She repeats, you're dead, you're dead, and he holds her hands and says, I'm right here.

2:51:07 She's supposed to be dead. Bitch, right? They look at each other, and they kiss deeply. Then she stops and says, I couldn't find you. They talk over each other. Sarah's saying she looked for him, and Deacon's saying he found O'Brien. They both end on the conclusion saying they thought they'd never see the other again. Deacon tries to kiss her again, but she shoves him off and says she can't. Deacon immediately is like, point in any direction, and we'll leave right now. Yeah, right? Like, let's just get the fuck out of here. She says she can't. She tells him he doesn't understand. They're fighting a war. It's not a war. She can be helpful and make a difference.

2:51:48 Deacon is like, what the fuck? Oh my god, are you in a cult? She tells him he can stay and help her. After the war, they can go wherever. I promise. Deacon is stunned. A soldier interrupts them, saying the Colonel is looking for Sarah. Deacon salutes her and says, whatever you need, ma'am, and leaves. On his way out, Sarah hands him a clipboard with the materials she needs for her research. This kicks off Deacon being used by both Weaver and Sarah to pick up materials outside of camp for their research and the occasional bounty hunting mission in the mix. Weaver and Sarah's research runs concurrently to figure out how to attack the Freakers in the best way possible. Every time Deacon drops off something or interacts with Sarah, it's tense.

2:52:30 There's no more sneaky kisses, just tension. Oh, that sucks. He calls her ma'am and is very formal. She's stressed and cranky, and whatever he does, it never lands for her. There's no softness. Between the supply runs, at some point, Taylor gets kidnapped by marauders. Oh, shit. This interaction ends with him getting his ear cut off in a torture moment and Deacon having to go rescue him. Fucking Wade, Jesus Christ. God damn it, Taylor. When Deacon brings Taylor back to camp, Deacon's like, alright, you're a fucking idiot. Just go get yourself patched up with Jimenez. And then Deacon and Weaver go play with some Napalm Molotovs, which should be able to take out the Freakers.

2:53:10 Hell yeah. Like, you do get to do some really cool fun shit. Hell yeah, let's like blow it up. Weaver, in this interaction though, does cross some bro code unknowingly, and he mentions to Deacon that he tried to fuck Sarah once. But it didn't go well. Well, he didn't know that's his wife. Yeah, but Deacon's like, I'm gonna fucking murder you. After a few tense supply drop-offs, Sarah tells Deacon she's joining him on the next run. It's awkward, but they finally have a chance to catch up away from camp. Sarah is so excited to hear the boozer is still alive and safe at camp. Oh. They end up at a local community college scavenging for some equipment, and Sarah gets really scared because there's freakers, but Deacon is always there to protect her.

2:53:53 They get the equipment they need, dodge tons of freakers, dodge some marauders, and then they get back. It's still weird, but it's less weird. It does chip away at the tension. Yeah. Back at camp, Taylor has this big bandage around his head where his ear used to be, and he, like, make jokes about not being able to hear anything Deacon says. You know, because of the ear. Right. Taylor has been assigned to guard the infirmary, and Deacon goes in to say hi to Dr. Jimenez. The doc asks to go out on a run with Deacon because he's getting really stir crazy. He's like, man, just let me on the bike one time. I'm so bored. But the colonel comes in and is like, absolutely fucking not. We cannot afford to lose the only doctor we have on the island.

2:54:33 Dr. Jimenez is like, god damn it. I'm bored. Deacon checks in on Sarah and she's really frustrated by the lack of resources at camp. She's like, well, I'm on an island. This fucking sucks. She says she's really close to a breakthrough, but she needs a DNA synthesizer. Deacon's like, well, you know, your old lab probably had one, right? We're not that far. What if we just went there? Went and got it. She goes, oh my god, wait, you're right. Yeah, let's fucking go, and you're taking me. She jokingly says, that's an order, and the way she says it breaks Deacon's heart. But he does agree to take her and tells her to dress warm and pack light.

2:55:15 It's pretty far, so there's a chance they might have to stay out there. As he turns to leave, she stops him, and she finally kisses him again. Oh, good. He kisses her back, then pulls away, and tells her to get ready to go. Nature is healing. Well, he just needs those reminders that she's not actually being mean. She's just playing a part. Yeah, they're always under surveillance. There's soldiers everywhere. You don't know who's, like, listening through the tent and shit. And it's weird. You know, they're strange. They haven't... They thought each other was dead for two years. Yeah, they've each hooked up with somebody. Deacon has not. No? Deacon has definitively not gotten his dick wet. Oh. Since before the apocalypse. Oh, no. So, like, he's one of those characters where women chase him.

2:55:56 He misses his wife. Yeah, he's... He's the guy in the Toby Flenderson novels, exactly. And this better be fucking you in the apocalypse. Okay. You see me get torn apart, you're still like, maybe she's out there. Yeah. Got it? Okay. Okay. This is legally binding, by the way. The Colonel doesn't like that she's leaving the island for a supply run that could take a day or two, but she says she's going, and she's been in the ship before. He tells her equipment can be replaced, but scientists can't. She doesn't give a shit. She goes out. They ride out to this research facility back over the mountain overpass into the old map. On the way, Deacon talks shit about the militia, and Sarah points out that his motorcycle club had ranks and uniforms and moved like an army.

2:56:39 Like a bunch of fucking dorks. Which is exactly what you said. It's the same kind of structure. He should probably appreciate the structure of this because it's basically his motorcycle club with a different fucking skin. Yeah. They just don't have bikes. Yeah. And he's like, okay, first of all, humbled. Seen. Seen entirely. But okay, I get you. But the Colonel's fucking weird. And she's like, yeah, but you know, you love structure. They get down to the research facility and it looks just like how they both remember. The facility had solar power and the plants were on an automatic irrigation system. So they have fucking corn and like crops growing automatically there. It's incredible. So this place is incredibly well preserved. Yes.

2:57:19 Deacon is like, holy shit, I have to tell all the other camps about this. There's so much food and there's an electric fence to keep people out. Like, this is a perfect place to be in the apocalypse. Sarah's security clearance is tied to her fingerprints, so thankfully she's able to unlock the building and get access all over. It's fucking perfect. And because it's solar power, it's still got electricity and everything. Yeah, and it's literally like, welcome back, Sarah. It's been two years since your last login. Oh, man, that's great. Unfortunately, there are some current residents. But who could possibly fucking get into this place that needs such high security clearance? Security Officer Fuckface Jim. Oh my god. Jim and a handful of survivors live in the facility and immediately start attacking Deacon and Sarah.

2:58:05 Fucking Jim. Fuck you, Jim. They attack, Deacon and Sarah attack, and it comes down to the point where Sarah shoots him in the fucking face. Holy shit. That's the dickhead security guard, right, that wouldn't let him in through the door originally? Yeah, Sarah shoots him. It feels good. I'm not gonna lie. Sarah finds her old lab, and it's all tricked out from when the world was whole. Sarah looks over the research and the lab, and then she goes, it's all true and I didn't want to believe it. There was a research intern when she worked there named David Gorman, who was suspicious of what the facility was researching and looking into. He told Sarah, but she was like, honestly, you're being fucking paranoid.

2:58:47 He ended up hacking the system behind the firewalls and found a classified project, and he wanted to be the whistleblower on it. He wanted to be the next Edward Snowden. She said he must have broken in and gotten a sample from the project and leaked it. She said the night she got stabbed, she went to the office to try and find David, but he was already gone. He had apparently been gone for two weeks in Portland at a conference. He had gone to see a reporter, but he was already infected with what she calls the disease. Oh, shit. He didn't even know he was carrying it, but because he had interacted with a sample, he became a carrier of whatever this disease was.

2:59:27 And then two days later, he was at a conference, and the conference interacted with him, and it spread. Oh, shit. This is just fucking COVID. This came out in April of 2019. Yeah, one year before COVID. This is fucked up. After the conference, all those people got on planes and went home across the world. That's how it happens. And then a week and a half later, two and a half billion people were dead. Holy shit. At least they explain in this game how the zombie apocalypse happened, like. Yeah, and Deacon tells her this isn't her fault. What the fuck? Sarah says, no, you don't understand. My research went into this.

3:00:07 I was a part of this. They used me. That's just having a job, Sarah. Yeah, baby, that's capitalism. Yeah. Sarah breaks down sobbing, and Deacon holds her tight, looking around at the room where the end of the world began. On the way out with the DNA synthesizer, Deacon turns off the electric fence and tells Boozer about the facility and all the food being grown here, because he's finally in radio range again. Snow starts to gently fall while he tells Boozer about all the food and that Sarah is alive. Boozer is ecstatic to hear that she's alive and tells them to be safe. Before he's out of range, Deacon also radios Ricky about the farm and where it is, and tells her that he found Sarah.

3:00:49 It's a really sweet moment, because he's been talking nonstop about finding his dead wife, and everyone's like, she's fucking dead though, bro. Deacon is eager to get over the past now that the snow is starting to come down, so he's like, we have to fucking go. They ride as much as they can, but the storm comes in, and they hunker down in an abandoned cabin. They're cuddled up by the fire, and they catch up, and they're taking their clothes off to get them dry, and they bone down hard for the first time in years. That's gotta be some stinky sex too. I literally wrote, it's probably so fucking smelly. Yeah, those two do not bathe often enough. No, there's no way that's fun. You're definitely not doing mouth stuff. But you know what? Good for them. They deserve it.

3:01:30 Yeah. They get back to camp cuddly and lovey, but still very formal in front of the other militia members. You know, keeping up appearances. Yeah, you have to. Deacon gets a call from Captain Cora to head to the infirmary. Once there, it's a fucking bloodbath. Oh shit. Apparently, Taylor is an addict, and he killed Dr. Jimenez, took a bunch of narcotics, and ran off the island. What? Right! Whoa, that feels so out of character for Wade. I thought he was a fucking stoner. Yeah, not like a drug addict. Yeah, he's stoner, Cody. He's like, your name's stupid, not like I'm gonna stab you and take a bunch of oxy. Holy fuck.

3:02:11 Now Deacon has to hunt down Taylor in the wilderness, where he finds him hunkered up with a bunch of marauders. Deacon finds Taylor. Taylor cries, saying, Please don't let me hang. Instead of killing him violently or bringing him down to be killed publicly, Deacon gives Taylor an overdose of the drugs and lets him peacefully die. Oh shit. Bye, Taylor. Fucking Taylor Wade, whoever the fuck you were, just... He's gone. That is a weird character arc. I'm not gonna lie. For someone we really don't interact with much until the third act of the game, it's kind of wild. Yeah, because you like him. Yeah. And then suddenly he sucks. He kills the only doctor on the island to steal drugs.

3:02:54 And there's a whole thing about how we can't lose our doctor. Yeah, it's foreshadowing. Yeah, right. Sarah asked Deacon to bring her a live newt, one of the children infected freakers. Oh, okay, I was like, a fucking lizard? In her lab, she injects this newt with something, but it ends up killing the freaker immediately. Oh shit, so she's experimenting on children. I don't love the implication, but she's a scientist. What do I know? No wonder they called her a fucking witch. The Wizard Island witch. Bring me a newt. She puts it in a cauldron. She considers this a failure, and Deacon realizes that while Weaver's research is to kill the freakers, Sare's research is to cure them.

3:03:40 Oh shit. She thought she could reverse the virus's antibodies, but she can't. She's like, fuck, I fucked this up. I accidentally killed a child. Never in the history of zombie literature, I feel, have they come up with an actual fucking cure for it. I mean, now somebody's gonna put in our fucking Discord. Actually. I hope they do. I hope they fucking do. It is extraordinarily rare. Deacon realizes that she's still trying to make the world a better place, and he's like, keep going. He said, everyone is giving up and fighting a war, and she's trying to save the world. He still loves her. He never stopped loving her. Sare says she wants to run away with them, that they'll ride off and tell everyone she's on a supply run, and they'll go AWOL, and they'll just be together again, because fuck this.

3:04:26 Deacon tells her to pack, and he'll be ready when she is. Deacon gets roped into testing some napalm with Captain Cory, and they go to clear a horde using Weaver's weaponry. Hell yeah. Which is like, this is when you start getting the story missions to clear hordes. Oh, okay. This is how fucking far it is when the game's like, I think you should clear out a horde now. Oh, damn. Well, like a horde is, like you said, like hundreds, right? Yeah, I think the first one is like 50 or 100. Holy shit. Which is relatively smaller. They get up to like 500s and shit. That's insane. It's too much. When Deacon and Captain Cory come back, they tell Weaver that they took out an entire horde, and Weaver is like, fuck yeah, we did it. Deacon goes to check in on Sarah to find that the Colonel has moved her lab into the Ark.

3:05:11 The Colonel started getting super paranoid and can't afford for Sarah to leave the facility, and he needs her under constant surveillance. That's creepy. The Colonel takes Deacon down to drop off some of her supplies. In the Ark, Sarah is furious to be trapped in there. She's screaming that she can't be locked up in here. The Colonel starts quoting scripture at her. Never a good sign. No, that's always so ominous. Yeah, like in Pulp Fiction, once he starts doing scripture, that motherfucker's about to die. Holding a gun, talking about fucking revelations and shit. There are armed guards everywhere, so Deacon and Sarah can't speak freely at all. But under his breath, Deacon tells her he'll get her out of here.

3:05:52 Sarah sends him on a mission to get a botanical poison for the Freakers. Deacon goes out and gets a bunch of hemlock, which is an actual poisonous plant for Sarah. Yeah, holy shit. So you've heard of hemlock. Oh, yeah. Apparently crazy poisonous. Do not eat. Insanely poisonous. He gets her a shit ton and figures if he can cause enough drama, he can help Sarah escape. So he calls O'Brien and Nero, and he's like, Hey, I need you to evacuate me and Sarah off the island. Deacon goes around and disables all the RPGs on the island so they can't shoot down the helicopter. He's like, I'll get us up to the very top cone and we'll get the fuck out of here. And it'll be great. That's my plan. Oh my God. Good luck.

3:06:33 Deacon runs into Sarah's lab to grab her and move her to the top of the cone of the cave so they're as high up as possible to get evacuated. Deacon takes out the guards watching Sarah, and as they start to escape, she kisses him and then they head out. Hell yeah. They run into Weaver who fully gets what's happening. He clocks it. He's like, Oh, they're escaping. And he just lets them go. Good for him. He believes in love. At the top of the cone, fuck, it's the Colonel. Oh shit. The Colonel is with some new soldiers and he's very casually like, Look at my new recruits, we're taking a tour. Here's Sarah and Deacon. Look at our new friends. Oh, so he has no idea all hell is breaking loose. He's fully not malicious in this point.

3:07:14 He's literally just doing a campus tour, and they have picked the worst moment. Among the new recruits is an old face. Oh. Here Deacon and Schizo are reunited. Jesus fucking Christ. Oh, not goddamn Schizo. I was hoping it was Lisa. Nah, way worse. Way the fuck worse. Fuck you, Schizo. Schizo clocks Deacon. Deacon clocks Schizo. And Schizo immediately screams, traitor, and jumps Deacon, trying to kill him with his bare hands. Oh, my God.

3:07:54 As they grapple, the Nero helicopter flies overhead, hovers for a moment, but because soldiers start pulling guns, it flies off and their window is closed. Oh, no. Truly the worst case scenario all around. In the next scene, Deacon and Schizo are both tied to chairs, and they are sitting in the Ark. They just... Sorry, that's really funny that they both got taken. Yeah, they're both in trouble. Saria is fighting with the Colonel, telling him not to listen to Schizo. Like, who the fuck is this new guy? Deacon's proven his worth. He's a fucking corporal. Like, what is happening? Schizo starts lying through his teeth, saying that Deacon is a spy for the Lost Lake Camp and for Iron Mike.

3:08:38 And he says that he saw Deacon assault a woman, and I'm using lighter language than Schizo said, at Iron Mike's camp, and describes Deacon's back tattoos as proof that Deacon was a shitbag, that we all saw him assault this woman. He's got this big dog tattoo with chains around its neck on his back, and he's a scumbag. He's feeding information to Iron Mike and Lost Lake. You guys are all in trouble with this guy. The Colonel is like, let's see if he's telling the truth. Take his shirt off. Oh, shit. They rip Deacon's shirt, and he goes, You have the mark of the hound on you. Which is the dumbest shit he could say. Oh, my God. He could have at least said the mark of the beast.

3:09:20 It's the same kind of fucking Stein. No, he's like, It's the hound. The Colonel turns his attention on Sarah, saying the Nero helicopter was also a spy, and Sarah came from a Nero camp, and that you must be a spy and in the militia as well. The Colonel pulls a gun on Sarah, and Deacon stops them by saying, You know what? I lied. I called the helicopter. I was taking Sarah as a hostage. Skizzle's right. Put the gun down. Don't hurt Sarah. Oh, damn. The Colonel pulls Sarah back under extreme lockdown and puts Deacon in a lockdown to be hanged the following morning. The Colonel asks Skizzle to tell him more about Iron Mike's camp and why they were spying, if they're dangerous.

3:10:06 Where is it located? What are their entry points? Fucking Skizzle. Captain Corey is assigned to watch over Deacon before he's executed. Deacon is knocked the fuck out, but wakes up the next morning outside near a fireplace on the ground. Captain Corey is sitting nearby and says, Oh good, I thought I heard you breathing. He wasn't sure. Overnight, Captain Corey and a few of the men from his outpost, the Diamond Lake outpost, went full AWOL, because the Colonel is a fucking lunatic. Oh shit. He knew Deacon wasn't lying. He knew Deacon wasn't a shitbag. He could tell Deacon just wanted to find someone special.

3:10:46 He totally isn't even mad that he lied about it. He's also probably like, hey man, I can see the fucking tattoo on your name that says Sarah, and that you're always hanging out with Sarah. I'm not fucking stupid, but the Colonel absolutely is. Yeah, there are a lot of women named Sarah. Yeah, but you know, if you're specifically only doing runs for the Wizard Island witch, when everyone else fucking hates her, and you're looking at her longingly. Captain Cory also noticed the tattoo on Deacon when Schizo was outing him and all this shit that matched the ring that he had. Now, his ring that he's been wearing was pulled off of Sarah when she got to camp and ended up with Captain Cory, who's just been wearing it like for funsies, like whatever.

3:11:26 Sick ass ring. Yeah. Captain Cory put it all together. He's like, the ring, the tattoo, also your neck tattoo, and Sarah, come on, man. I see what you're doing here. The sentiment is topped off by the gesture of Captain Cory returning Deacon's ring. Deacon's like, yeah, that's mine. You're right. Fully red to filth. Cory says any man who goes through God knows what to find his old lady doesn't deserve to die at the end of a rope. He's just a romantic. Oh, it's so sweet. Cory and the other AWOL members plan on going to Reno and invite Deacon. They're like, just run away with us. To Reno. The worst place on Earth. The biggest little city in the world.

3:12:07 Let's live at the Harris Casino. But Deacon can't come this far just to leave Sarah on a fucking island with a lunatic. And on top of that, Schizo is helping the Colonel plan an attack on the Lost Lake camp. And fuck that, Lost Lake is my homies. I'm gonna kill them. Corey says a convoy rode out this morning towards Lost Lake, so he's got a fucking move. Deacon has to make it all right. Corey shakes Deacon's hand now with the mongrel ring back on his finger, mirroring their first meeting. Corey wishes Deacon luck, and as he leaves, Deacon salutes Corey. Thankfully, they took Deacon's bike with them out on this mission, so he's not fully stranded.

3:12:49 Which, like, wouldn't they just scrap it? Never mind. Deacon's first order of business is warning Lost Lake about Schizo turning on them and telling the militia to take them all out. Sarah's at least safe in the Ark for now, but Boozer and Ricky and Addy and everyone at Lost Lake is in danger. Deacon tears ass over the mountain and down to Lost Lake, but it is too late. By the time he rolls up, Schizo has beaten him back to camp. And Schizo rolled up to Lost Lake with the fucking militia, and they are wreaking havoc on the entire camp. There's fires, there's people dying. It's horrible. Fuck you, Schizo. Fuck you, Schizo. Some of the militia have retreated, but no one has seen Schizo right now by the time Deacon's gotten there. He's like, where's Schizo?

3:13:30 Bring me his head. Literally everyone in the camp is looking for that backstabbing rat-faced buck, but he's been gone for a minute. Rat-faced buck, indeed. Ricky sees Deacon, and she's like, holy shit, Deacon! Iron Mike just got shot. Addy, Ricky and Deacon are bedside with Iron Mike as he breathes in what happened. With blood spewing out in his breath, Iron Mike asks Deacon if he found his old lady. Deacon tells him he did. Iron Mike has some closure there. He tells Deacon he'd like to meet her. She must be a hell of a girl to go through all this trouble. Kind of like his old lady. I hate when they say old lady to mean wife. I know, it sucks, but like, it's just a bunch of romantics.

3:14:13 I know. Iron Mike coughs up more blood, and Addy tries to give him some painkillers, but he refuses, knowing that other people in the camp could use it. I was like, why would you? Oh, that's why. Fuck. Iron Mike holds onto Deacon and tells him he was wrong. He looks in Deacon's eyes and tells him to do what he needs to do to keep the camp safe. With his last breath, Iron Mike asks for Ricky, who holds his hand and reassures him that she's there. Then his body lets go, and Iron Mike passes in Ricky's arms. Deacon and Ricky come out of Iron Mike's house to address the survivors. The last standing Lost Lake campers are all gathered, waiting for Iron Mike to come out and tell them what they're doing next.

3:14:57 Deacon addresses them and tells them the bad news. Iron Mike is dead. They are distraught and they start yelling, and they're like immediately unruly, reasonably. Yeah. Deacon tells them to shut up, because the militia that came through are coming back and there's a lot more of them. So we need to get our shit together, and we need to hit them first. Deacon, Boozer and Ricky come together to strategize how to hit the militia. Deacon comes up with a fertilizer truck bomb to roll into Wizard Island. There's only two gates. The main gate will explode, and the Lost Lake Camp will hit the south gate and flank everyone from behind. With the confusion, they'll hit the island so hard, Deacon can run into the Ark and grab Sarah and get out, and all the Lost Lake survivors can just take everyone else out in the militia.

3:15:42 Ricky tells Deacon this is a terrible plan. Yeah, it sounds like it. Boozer says, you're right, this is terrible. I'm in. Fuck yeah, Boozer. The gang gets to gathering everything they need for the assault on Wizard Island. Since Captain Cory abandoned Diamond Lake, we don't really need to worry about that outpost like at all. Boozer offers to drive the fertilizer truck and gets an arm attachment. That's a repurposed ice cream scoop so he can shift gears. It's very charming. So it goes over the ball? Yeah, it goes over the little ball of the truck. Okay, that's pretty clever. I'm not going to lie. It's very cute. I love that he has like this changeable arm. Yeah, they keep making him different attachments for different things.

3:16:23 He's like, I can scoop fucking ice cream if we need to. I can shift a gear. He's probably also going to bring his knife hand, you know, just for S&Gs. It's a little brilliant. They get a full dump truck up and running and loaded with super volatile fertilizer to make a mobile bomb to blow up the main gate at Wizard Island. Jesus. Plan is to drive it up to the gate and jump out just before the truck explodes. Deacon and Boozer get amped up for their mission, with Deacon telling Boozer, it's probably a one-way trip. Boozer says, yeah, that means I don't have to drive this fucking thing back. They're both aware they may not survive, but they know it's worth it to save the camp.

3:17:04 Right before they leave, Boozer says, hey, I have one more thing. And he pulls out Deacon's mongrel cut, his leather vest. Pulls it out of the truck and hands it back to Deacon. Boozer tells him, only a couple of bikers would pull up a dumbass stunt like this. As true brothers, they are ready. Deacon turns to see Ricky and Addy leading the rest of the Lost Lake survivors. Deacon didn't think this many people would come, but they're here for Iron Mike. Deacon tells them to hit the south gate as soon as they blow up the main gate. And let's fucking go. Under the shield of night, they head out. Deacon is on top of the truck yelling down at Boozer to get to the gate.

3:17:45 And as soon as they approach, Deacon tells Boozer to jump. Boozer tells Deacon, they only have one shot at making this work. Go get your old lady. Your old lady? I know. Boozer pushes Deacon off of the truck as he drives directly into the main gate. And Deacon watches as it burns up in an all-encompassing fireball, destroying the main gate. Deacon's face is lit up by the fire of his best friend's burning body. Oh shit. Deacon swims from shore to Wizard Island, finding nothing left of Boozer floating in the water. He whips out his gun, and he knows what he needs to do now. Deacon fights his way to the Ark to get Sarah.

3:18:25 On the way, he spots Schizo screaming at a soldier and is like, oh, fuck you, I'm gonna kill you. Deacon fights his way up to the Ark to find Schizo holding Weaver up at gunpoint. Oh, fuck that. And Weaver's our homie. Yeah. Schizo's demanding Weaver give him the detonators for all of his bombs. Weaver tells him to fuck off. Good. Fuck yeah, Weaver. Deacon shoots at Schizo, and Schizo lets go of Weaver because he's a dirty rat bastard, and he has other dirty rat bastard things to do. And Weaver was cool, so that's great. Yeah. Tried to fuck Sarah, but that's in the past, so it's fine. Schizo knows it's Deacon somehow, and he's just like, oh, fuck you, Deacon. And he starts taunting him.

3:19:05 He's like, I killed Iron Mike. Fuck you. The Ripper should have eaten you. Deacon kills more and more militia to get to Schizo until he finds him and beats him to death with his bare hands. Oh, shit. And finishes him by slitting open his throat. He likes doing that. That's exactly how he killed Jesse, yeah. And with that, Deacon goes looking for the Colonel's chambers where he probably has Sarah. He can hear the Colonel freaking out about now he's safe in the Ark and it's a holy ground, and this is God's plan to keep the Ark safe. And Deacon's like, bet. Deacon finds the Colonel and he's having a cup of tea with Sarah. Cup of tea? Like there's not a fucking war going on.

3:19:45 Bitch, right? Pick up a gun. Colonel. Right? There are militia all around guarding the two. The Colonel points a gun at Sarah and makes Deacon relinquish his gun. The Colonel makes Deacon have a seat at the table with them and pours him a cup of tea. With her eyes, Sarah tells Deacon not to drink it. As the Colonel rallies on about how the Ark was once saved by the grace of God, the poisonous hemlock that Deacon once got for Sarah takes hold of the Colonel. Oh, shit, yeah. His face goes blue, then stops moving, then he stops living. Fuck yes, Sarah. The militia is confused as the Colonel has just apparently taken a sip of tea and then dropped dead.

3:20:31 But Sarah runs to Deacon and is like, you came back for me. With no pushback, no more oppressing forces, they just walk out of the Ark together. Outside the Ark, the Lost Lake Camp have the militia defeated. Hell yeah, they do. The militia are surrendering and they're completely over. They're like, we don't want to fucking fight. This is stupid. Yeah. Addy jumps to help those who are injured and creates like a triage area so they can treat people. And Ricky tells Deacon, it's over. She tells Deacon that everyone that wasn't killed or injured by the blast basically just gave up. Kind of felt like Domino's. Then Ricky asks where Boozer is. Ricky's heart breaks as she looks at Deacon's face, realizing he's gone.

3:21:15 Then Ricky stops and goes to help Addy rather than remind Deacon that his best friend in the entire world is now lost. Deacon turns around to look at the wreckage, the fires, the carnage, the blood. And out of the shadows, he hears, hey, hope you saved some for me. He turns to see Boozer. How the fuck, Boozer? We fully did not see him jump out of the truck. No, I'm sure we didn't. Boozer, but no, we see the truck go all the way into the gate and explode in one cut. Boozer apologizes for being late. Then Deacon goes, no! Boozer says he jumped at the last minute, and he's fine, which is a lie. We did not see that happen.

3:21:55 He has full view of the driver's side seat. What the fuck? Anyway, Deacon is in tears as he holds Boozer close. Boozer laughs at him and is like, what, you didn't think I'd blow myself up, did you? Who would be around to bust your balls? Sarah hears this and goes, I would. Boozer also hasn't seen her in two years and runs up and is so happy to see her and hugs her, and he's like, my little sister. They love each other. They're best friends. As the morning breaks the sky open, Weaver comes to Deacon and tells him he's gonna stick around and keep working on explosives and fun shit to kill the Freakers. He's like, I fucking hate the Colonel, but he was right about a couple things. Like, we should blow them up.

3:22:36 Boozer and Deacon celebrate breaking down the militia. They hug again, and Deacon starts to give a speech to all the survivors. He tells them, he's not a leader, but today we've done something. Today we banded together to fight for the right thing to do. And you know what? We won. If you don't have hope for a future that matters, like, what the hell are we fighting for? He ends the speech by burning the militia's flag and tells them that they're taking the first step. They cheer. They're like, fuck yeah, new world. Sarah tells him it was a good speech for an outlaw biker. Deacon and Sarah kiss, then ride off with her on the back of his bike as the end credits roll.

3:23:17 And then there are two postgame scenes that I want to bring up. That kind of give us a little more closure. A little after this, at Lost Lake, Deacon is told there's a ripper at the gate. He runs out and he's like, who the fuck is even alive? I drowned those rats. And a security guard has someone at gunpoint with ripper scars all over their face. He looks at her and tells the security guard, she's not a ripper, she's Lisa. Oh, Lisa. Lisa is still bald and still has huge scars all over her. She took a motorcycle here, so Deacon starts asking her about her ride. How the fuck did she learn how to ride a bike? She couldn't fucking like clean herself like three weeks ago.

3:23:59 He tells her if she's sticking around, that he can have Ricky take a look at the bike and get her fixed up. She tells Deacon she's brought in some bounties and has like a pillowcase full of freaker ears. Fuck yeah, Lisa. She just wants to trade for supplies and she'll be on her way. And she looks at Deacon in the eyes and says, she's not staying in a goddamn camp. I don't blame her after all of her experiences in camps, especially with Deacon. But she grew up quick. She has turned into Deacon the way Deacon opens the game being an outlaw biker drifter who does not want to be a part of any fucking camp. Yeah. And is just bringing in bounties. He sees Lisa. He's like, oh, no.

3:24:40 I've created a monster. He tells Lisa, though, that he wants to introduce her to Sarah. You know, Sarah had a younger sister that really reminded me of you. And she goes, yeah, I used to have an older sister that would bust my balls all the time. Stop it. It's they're not. OK. It's not her little sister. I promise you. What? Why wouldn't he recognize her? Fair. It's sweet. And he kind of takes her in. He's like, all right, let's have you meet Boozer. He's the head of security, so he'll make sure to let you in and know that you're not you're a safe person that we can trade with. And Lisa starts her life. Good for Lisa. Now, the other one, this is a sequence that most people are flabbergasted by.

3:25:24 A while after the game ends, Deacon gets a call on the radio from O'Brien. O'Brien asks about Sarah and Deacon goes, yeah, we actually got her out. We're happy and I'm in love. It's great. Then O'Brien tells Deacon he has to talk to him in person. They meet at a cemetery because like goth and O'Brien is still in his full hazmat suit like every time we've seen him. O'Brien says, hey, I'm really glad to see you. I'm here to warn you. He says, remember when I told you the infected were evolving? And Deacon goes, yeah, why do I care? I saw like big ones. Fuck off. For the first time in the entire game, O'Brien removes his helmet. We see his face is shriveled and his hair is gone.

3:26:07 His veins are bursting and he is in fact an evolved infected. Oh shit. O'Brien tells him the strain of the virus is accelerating at a very fast pace. Deacon is terrified and takes a couple steps back because he's like, what the fuck is happening? We've never seen a freaker that can speak and be coherent at all. They're all feral except for O'Brien now. O'Brien tells Deacon that they knew all along, of course. That's why Nero is so secretive and protective. O'Brien tells Deacon they're coming. He takes a step forward toward Deacon and says, I'm sorry, there's nothing you can do to stop them.

3:26:47 The helicopter fires up as he says, there's nothing anyone can do. Deacon watches on as the helicopter takes flight. To himself, he whispers, what the fuck? Indeed. And that is Days Gone. Holy shit. That was meatier than I ever expected it to be. Entirely. And I'm going to give you some post game. So I listened to an interview with John Garvin, the lunatic. And he said that the first game is The Walking Dead, right? And like Sam Whitworth. Yeah, go figure. But he did have plans for two more games. And the second game is Planet of the Apes in Western Oregon. And the third game is a battle between the old guard of humans and the new evolved guard of Nero.

3:27:34 And he also says that Sarah's pregnant. What? He just drops that tidbit? Yeah, he fully like talked in a podcast about he's like, yeah, Sarah's pregnant. Now is she pregnant when she reads Deacon? Oh, it's implied that it's Deacons. Okay, okay. It comes out black. It was weavers the whole time. Comes out Colonel. It has a little mustache. It's half a freaker. It was O'Brien's. Oh, no. Yeah, no, it's implied to be Deacons. But that is the Wild West as fuck story of Days Gone. Now, it's not a perfect game. I actually sit in the middle camp of like, it's not a perfect game, but it was fun.

3:28:17 Honestly, it felt like it had a weak opening. Yeah. But after you got going, I was into it. Yeah, I mean, after they repeat the opening sequence and you're like, what the fuck is this? Then it really like the wheels start turning, and I love Lisa's arc. I love fucking Sarah. I love Ricky and Addie, so all the girls in this, I really fucking love. Imagine that. I'm here for it, but there is really fun gameplay. I like doing a lot of the camps. There is some Far Cry to taking over Marauder bases, and there's some fun in the different politics of each camp. There's a lot of fun stuff. I don't like the hordes. I don't like the listening missions where you have to follow Nero cops around for fucking O'Brien.

3:29:00 But there are really good things, and I had a good time playing it. Yeah, you played through the whole thing at least. Yeah, and as of right now, it was on PlayStation Plus, so I didn't pay for it. So fuck you, John Garvin, you're not getting my $60. And they will not get a sequel because of that. Yeah. Seven and a half million copies is a lot, but I get that they're like, it's not Ghosts of Tsushima money, which we did not think would do well. Seven and a half million copies is a lot. It is a stupid amount, especially for a system exclusive. System exclusive single player. Like, that's pretty big. Yeah, but it didn't do as well as Ghosts, and it got kind of review bombed, critically. It sounds actually a little unfortunate. I feel like this is a series that could probably, like, revamp itself and pull itself out of the gutter a little bit.

3:29:46 You'd want it to, but Sony just had such a big round of layoffs, and they keep shrinking the workforce in the gaming industry. Yeah, that's kind of scary. I just don't think the talent is gonna be there to be able to produce something like this, which does suck, because, like, Sam Witwer, endlessly charming. He's wonderful. I love Courtney Draper. She's the baddest bitch. Like, let's get her working just in general. I want to see her. It's just a bummer. And, like, the idea of the trilogy of them fighting feral freakers and then getting into freakers that are like O'Brien, that are scientists and can thoughtfully create military groups and shit like that, that's wild. Yeah, I would really like to see that, honestly. Yeah, and then Sarah's over here maybe still trying to find a cure.

3:30:30 Yeah, fully. Which is wild. It turns into fucking Spider-Man No Way Home where they have to fix all the super villains. Ah, that's Days Gone. Well, thank you so much for taking us on that fantastic adventure. Yeah, and if you can see this, the bitch fell off. I have not laughed that hard during one of these episodes in a long time. Maybe there were some points that weren't meant for comedy, but we laughed at them for funsies. Oh, well, if you enjoyed that, make sure you like us, you subscribe to us. Leave us a rating. Check us out at theothercastlepodcast.com. That's the othercastlepodcast.com. Once again, over there, you can sign up for things like our Discord, our Patreon, which is just $2 a month.

3:31:14 Hell yeah, and patrons made this episode happen, so let's give them a quick shout out. That's right, so we want to say thank you to Jacob, Tomas, Amber, BerserkPanda, Andrew, Damien, that chunky boy. I love that name. What's up, buddy? AJ, Paul, Omar, Erin, Cerise, Unuseful, Molly, Krisha, Mollymock, Jackie, and Alan. Thank you for helping make this show happen. We appreciate you, and I would bring you all my Freaker Ear bounties. Yeah, we're just going to drop off a pillowcase full of ears. Hell yeah. I'm Lisa, bitch. I fucking love Lisa.

3:31:54 I love Lisa, too. Honestly, she started to remind me of Sadie Adler there for a little bit. Oh, yeah. She really does go on this wild fucking like sweet to salty arc. Yeah. The best. Anyway, well, please make sure you listen to us next week. And until then, this is Tom and Andrea reminding you. Wear a fucking helmet at least once. No one ever rides a helmet in these goddamn games in this essay. And don't skip the cutscenes. Bye!