KA Byrnes – Enneagram and Encaustic

Fallout: The Wrangler

ONE

Lucy and Ghoul Coop stare at the deathclaw emerging from the Gomorrah casino. Two more deathclaws approach from opposite ends of the street. Lucy and Coop dodge behind a car. Looking like Jurassic Park’s T-Rex, the deathclaw sniffs for them as it climbs on the roof.

Dogmeat runs away; Coop and Lucy follow, sliding under the security gate just out of reach of the (slowly) chasing deathclaw.

Roll title card.

TWO

Lucy and Ghoul Coop stand in Freeside looking at the boarded up section of Vegas. She wonders why her dad would go in there. Coop explains that a special vault, one for management is in there. His wife and daughter are in that vault. Of the handful of management vaults spread around the Wasteland, Coop has found them all and each one was empty.

Fallout: The Demon in the Snow

ONE

Gunfire, snow, and vertibirds.

Title card: The Alaskan Front

It’s the pre-apocalypse Battle of Anchorage. The Marines wear the janky T-45 power armor. Charlie’s left arm starts sparking and malfunctioning. Cooper orders him to return to base. Instead of following him, though, Coop continues his search for the missing unit. Falling snow and burning equipment in the dark make it hard to see.

TWO

Gunfire and approaching troops. Cooper tries to return fire, but his left leg armor sparks and locks up. He falls over like a tree. The Chinese soldiers approach and mock him as he lies helpless. Behind them, through the flames and snow, Cooper sees a beast approaching. We know what it is, although Coop doesn’t. He tries to signal with his eyes as the deathclaw comes up and eviscerates the troops. He’s terrified as the deathclaw breathes on his face. It leaves without touching him, though, and word comes over the radio that the battle is won. Cooper tries to say that it wasn’t the soldiers that routed the Chinese, but no one is listening.

Title card: Fallout

An overhead shot of Cooper lying on his side, helpless in the snow, is mirrored here as Max looks down at Xander’s dead body. It’s the moment immediately after Max drove the super sledge into Xander’s head at the end of the last episode.

Fallout: The Profligate

ONE

Thaddeus’ ghoulification has progressed. (He was briefly Max’s Squire, remember.)

TWO

He oversees children, some ghouled, whose job seems to be to drink Sunset Sarsparilla. The bottlecaps, Wasteland currency, are collected after the bottle is opened. He’s sympathetic and kind as he cracks the whip.

Title card: Fallout.

Lucy is a captive of the Legion. Slaves are tortured. Tunic Lady, who “lost her Legionary”, has her throat violently slit. Lucy reacts in shock.

Title card: The Legion.

THREE

She’s brought before Caesar. The Legate who cut Tunic Lady’s throat takes off his helmet in a prolonged reveal. It’s Macaulay Culkin. He refers to Lucy as “Profligate”.

Fallout: The Golden Rule

In Season One we learn that Shady Sands, a post-apocalypse, thriving community, is nuked by Hank. He wants only his controlled vaults, 31-33, to lead the world. Anyone not beholding to middle management should be stopped.

ONE

Episode Two of Season Two opens with the healthy Shady Sands. Boy Max lives here. His father invents a water purifier. The radiated water everyone’s been forced to accommodate is clean. Hope pervades the settlement.

A caravan man and his cart enter town. He robotically repeats the same phrase. Blood coming from his eyes, the man collapses in the center of town. People surround him, trying to help. When he curls over, the mind control device implanted at the base of his neck becomes visible. Max’s father quickly removes the tarp on the caravan cart. Underneath is a bomb.

(It’s an enlarged mini nuke design from the games with a Pip Boy interface. YAY!)

Joseph sends Max running for home and tries to dismantle the bomb’s timer. Closeup of the smiling Vault Boy as the Pip Boy screen informs him that by stopping the countdown Joseph has activated the fail safe. He runs.

Fallout: The Innovator

You may remember that I greatly enjoyed Season One of Amazon’s Fallout, based on Bethesda’s game series. Not only have I previously gamed Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Fallout 4, I’m currently having a lot of fun in Fallout 76’s MMORPG that takes place in a post-apocalyptic Appalachia.

However, I’ve been disappointed with and worried about some of the episodes I’ve seen so far in Season Two. They seem a little scattered. You’ll see what I mean even here in Episode One. Since notating the structure that exists, I’ve become convinced that a better structure is possible.

First, here’s the episode as broadcast. After, see my Critical Notes for how I would re-edit it.

Needless to say, spoilers abound.

ONE

Title card: The Man Who Knew

Pre-apocalypse Los Angeles. Protestors take bats to Mr. Handy robots outside of RobCo. headquarters.

Plight of the House Elf

Helping Deek, the house elf who stays in my Room of Requirement, is optional. However, until I talk to him I have only one outdoor space for my beasts. As I need to feed and brush them in order to get armor upgrade materials, it’s a small pain to rotate them in and out. The beast room can only hold four species at once. An oceanside space opens up after interacting with Deek.

Also, I’m still barely holding my own with leveling. To give myself a buffer, I pursue his quest to rescue his abused house elf friend. Spoiler: his buddy is dead, surrounded by spiders.

(I’m not enthusiastic about fighting game spiders, but I can do it. Tough mission for those vulnerable to arachnophobia, though.)

GRAHAM, NINE

The story misdirects us on Graham’s character. He appears to be a drunken playboy. Later we learn that he’s a widower father of two young girls. He’s a serious person who lets loose when he can, which isn’t often.

He openly admits to being a weeper. He guards information about his daughters because he’s a good father, but any other personal revelations are fair game. He’s not afraid of what he feels. Like his sister Iris, Graham seems to be a Heart Type.

Or is he?

We can’t have him be another Two, like his sister; that would be bad writing. He’s not snarky enough to be a Four. I can’t see Graham as a Three. Although he’s successful, he doesn’t have that Three glow.

Graham is a Nine. He’s a caretaker. (He probably rescued small, injured animals when he was a child, lol.) Amanda’s Four personality reveals Graham’s Nine. Her insecurities are a framework Graham understands. He’s pretty sure he knows how to be in love with her. Because this is a romcom, Graham’s certainty becomes upended in the story’s Five, but the Eight and Nine prove he was right all along. A happy resolution is welcome — upbeat Christmas story is a good choice — but it also feels believable because the Character Enneagrams are well done.

Like Graham, may we all embrace our inner Mr. Napkinhead at this holiday season, bringing joy to family and friends.

AMANDA, FOUR

This is a very organized, competent, and stressed person. Her professionalism keeps her from relaxing.

Here’s an interesting experiment: Take Cameron Diaz with her beauty and charisma away from Amanda. We’re left with a workaholic. She has a lovely home and a successful business, but no personal life. She doesn’t see herself as romantically attractive and she has constant panic attacks. Actress glamour is doing a lot of heavy lifting to round out this character. On paper Amanda is one step away from being an unlikable heroine.

Possibilities for her Enneagram number include a Four (for the swings in her emotions), a One (for her rigidity about the rules of her career), or a Six (for an inability to find the gray tones in life). Because Amanda annoys me, I suspect she’s a Four. (Personally, it can be a difficult number for me to understand.) Also, she’s just not funny enough to be a One or Six.

A Four also makes sense for Amanda’s crisis: she can’t cry. And we can see at the beginning that she doesn’t really know how to be happy. A Four — someone who feels and knows the full spectrum of emotions — shouldn’t be blocked at either end. She’s living in the middle of the bell curve, a place for a One or a Six but not a Four. Amanda’s lack points us to her Enneagram number.

MILES, SEVEN

The story requires that Miles have a broken heart. It’s how he and Iris bond. He’s such a cheerful person, though, that it’s disconcerting to see him feel sad. His spontaneous personality — singing loudly in the video store, offering Christmas fettucine — seems impervious to depression.

Miles finds so much joy in his daily life that I want to call him a Seven. His songwriting and film scoring work bring him pleasure. Being tossed into the middle of Arthur’s dinner party brings him relaxation. Although his girlfriend cruelly dumps him, he finds a way to move past her without lingering or wallowing. Life is too exciting for Miles. He won’t be bogged down by sorrow.

It’s hard to separate Miles from Jack Black. The actor’s real life personality infuses any character he portrays. Dewey Finn from School of Rock is also impulsive and bold. Miles is a dependable adult unlike Dewey (lol), but they share an authenticity. What you see is what you get. Black’s style meshes well with Miles’ happy Seven qualities.

He also meshes well with Iris’ Two. She doesn’t need more drama in her life, and Miles is low maintenance. He’s easy to love: expecting nothing and welcoming everything.

IRIS, TWO

The Holiday has become a Christmas staple over the past 20 (!) years. Wow, has it really been that long? Well, then, it’s certainly worthy of a look at its Character Enneagrams.

When you first meet Iris, our English rose, do you like her? On the one hand, she has a generous and vulnerable heart. On the other, she’s seduced by an obvious and repugnant con artist. She wins us all over, though, when she gets to Los Angeles and takes such pleasure in her vacation.

Unlike Amanda, whose problem is herself, Iris’ problem can be left behind in England. She forms relationships with people — Arthur and Miles — who aren’t toxic. Her routine at home was a prison. Here she’s free. Iris, named after a flower that emerges at the end of winter, blooms in warm California.

This is a Heart Type. Iris is a Two. Her caring nature leads her to overextend her sympathy for Jasper, the cad. The sweetest personality in the Enneagram, a Two, can be manipulated by vultures, and Iris is a textbook case. Jasper expects (and demands) that Iris take care of him. It’s exhausting for her; she’s depleted by their relationship. Arthur, the elderly neighbor, is the opposite. He’s a bit grumpy about any caretaking, but he accepts Iris’ help. Her easy persuading is understood and appreciated.

We’re so happy to see Iris rewarded with the people she meets. She deserves to find true friends and love.