After I tried to stop this series and start a new series (which failed), I am back in the driver's seat for King's Survivor's final phase, since it would probably have lasted longer if Adobe didn't cancel Flash (thanks for rushing my series, mate!). This season, I tried to do what u/swoldow did before and make a season called Saints Vs Sinners, where 10 people who embody the term "Saint" will face off against the people who embody the term "Sinner", but unfortunately, it seemed like a lot of the people who signed up misunderstood the definition of saints and sinners. For the love of god, someone who is slightly villainous is not a "sinner", and average people are not "saints". Oh well. I guess it's the best I'm gonna get. Here is the cast:
Kahramanca (Saints) Tribe:
Ardet Prifti, 31, Rhythm Guitarist, u/Twig7665
Ardet lived a difficult life. Born in Albania with a family that was associated with the mafia meant that Ardet was never safe, and one day, he came back home to find his whole family had been murdered by the Albanian mafia. He spent years on the street, struggling to survive, before he discovered his musical talent. He played a guitar (which he had to steal), which enabled him to earn money. After a few years of doing that, he moved to the United States, where he did his best to get into the largest music college in that country, and actually succeeded. He met some people that became his bandmates, and soon they were pretty popular in the underground scene. When their fame exploded, Ardet's bandmates grew either egotistical or paranoid, but Ardet saw fame as a way to spread awareness for mental illness. He has now become a strong supporter of mental health charities around the country, and he signed up for Survivor to raise money for one of the charities he supports.
Ava Chrisly, 23, Kindergarten Teacher, u/Gemini_B
Ava was born deaf. After her father died when she was 3, her birthmother struggled to care for her and her 3 siblings. Ava was especially tough since she needed special treatment and one night her birthmother left her on the doorstep of a rich widow with a note explaining how Ava got there. The Widow, not wanting to deal with a deaf child, left her outside where she spent a cold night alone and scared. She came across Marissa, a young girl who ran away from home. Marissa took pity on her and the two banded together.
They spent years together on the street with Ava learning to read lips and Marissa learning sign language. Marissa quickly saw that Ava had a gift with children and encouraged her to find a job with kids. Ava didn’t want Marissa to leave, but then Marissa surprised her by revealing she had a scholarship to a teachers college. Ava went off to the collage and became a kindergarten teacher, but when she returned she learned that Ava had gone to jail for stealing from a rich old woman and using the money to bribe a college administrator. Ava promised she’d help bail Marissa out, and learned about survivor. She’s hoping she can win the million to help free Marissa and get their lives on track.
Chelsea Rutherford, 22, Lifeguard, u/IAmWolfNinja
Chelsea was the heiress to the throne of a foreign country with a corrupt government. The wealth that came with such a status meant nothing to her, since she was utterly disgusted with the actions of her family. Knowing her resentment for their governmental policies, Chelsea's family gradually became verbally abusive towards her. Unable to take any more, she escaped as a teen to pursue her own path. When she arrived in America, Chelsea wanted to do everything she could to erase her dark past and the actions of her family, so she got a job as a lifeguard, where she has saved countless lives. She's occasionally recognized as an heiress, but when it's brought up, she tends to have nervous breakdowns.
Chester "Cap'n" Richardson, 67, Retired Naval Officer, u/swoldow
Some may see him as just the average old man, but Cap’n has seen and done things most people couldn't fathom. Cap’n joined the navy at a ripe young age about 5 years before the Cold War began, and learned everything from afar, slowly working up the ranks. When things got bad in Vietnam, he was given the chance to take charge of a ship during the war, and he immediately said yes. He ran the ship strictly, but he got both respect from everyone, as well as being genuinely liked as a person by his crew. He led them to many naval victories but unfortunately that didn't last, when his ship was shot with a torpedo, which blew the whole thing up and killed everyone on it, except for Cap’n. With the emotional baggage of watching people he has gotten to know kick the bucket, he immediately resigned from the navy after. As a result of the shipwreck, his mindset has changed, as he’s now super overprotective of his family, and still can't let the explosion go after years and years of retirement. He hopes Survivor can help him learn more about himself, and be the thing he needs to live the rest of his life in peace.
Cornelius Von Helton, 52, CEO, u/Gemini_B
Cornelius was raised by a family that had fallen from riches and was in tough times. He never expected to get to go to university but got lucky by getting a scholarship for his creative greeting cards. While at university, he enrolled in a business course and after collage started a greeting card business with some friends. All of his friends quickly gave up on the business, but Cornelius stuck through it. When he made a greeting card that was delivered to Eddie Murphy, the comedian was impressed and hired him to do his greeting cards to his friends, family, and invitations to parties. Quickly other celebrities started to hire his business and many fans wanted to get into the trend. His business rapidly expanded and he soon found himself with a company that covered parties, greeting cards, published books and even dabbled in a touch of Realestate. While in his thirties though, Cornelius was mugged while on a walk in the park and got stabbed. He was quickly rushed to the hospital and while there, he was nursed back to health by his soon to be wife. He claims that she saved his life and proceeded to date her after leaving the hospital. She was reluctant at first, but he quickly charmed her and the two have been married for 15 years now. He has two children, a son aged 10 and a daughter aged 8. He's continued to run his business, but leaves most of the work to his higher-ups as he wants to be able to spend as much time with his family and employees as possible. He views his employees as his family and does his best to remember all their names and make the workspace as nice for them as possible. He's come to survivor because his wife loves the show and wanted to compete, but due to growing health issues can't. She's trained him to win, and he wants to do this and win for her.
Dana Vasquez, 43, Stay At Home Mom, (filler character)
Greg Zimmer, 40, High School Teacher, u/AngolanDesert
Greg is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. He is very trusting and kind and will do anything for the people he loves. Since he grew up in Texas, hard work has always been his priority. He knows that if he wants to win this game, he has to work hard at everything he does. Greg decided to be a high school teacher so he could teach his students the importance of hard work. He has been a fan of survivor for a while, so when he saw that applications for survivor were going out, he knew he had to join in. Hopefully, he won’t disappoint his students.
Gwendolyn "Gwen" Wallerby, 52, Baker, u/ghetra
Gwen works at a bakery where she gets to do what she loves every day: make many different kinds of pies. She is a very warm, loving person and has a reputation for helping out whoever needs it, usually by baking for them. Baking takes a lot of patience and strength, and she is stronger than she looks. She naturally has a very loud voice that sometimes irks people, but once they get to know her it quickly becomes endearing. Now that her children are out of the house, she has started reading much more and taking classes on different subjects that interest her. The world is her oyster.
Kirk Smolarek, 62, History Teacher, u/Twig7665
Kirk never had a normal childhood. His mom walked out on his family not long after he was born, and his father was a former Polish soldier with PTSD and a severe drug addiction, leading to Kirk experiencing abuse from him for as long as Kirk can remember. Wanting to escape his miserable life, he smuggled himself on a boat bound for Australia when he was 16. Lo and behold, the ship got caught in a windstorm and ended up sinking, and Kirk and a few other survivors ended up stranded on an island. After spending more than a month there, he was taken back to his homeland after being found there. He ended up being the only survivor of the whole ordeal. He was returned to his deranged father, where the next time his father tried to abuse him, he fought back, causing his father to end up in the hospital. Deemed not guilty because he defended himself, Kirk did not spend time in prison for this. His father on the other hand did spend time there for drug-related charges and child abuse, but was killed by another inmate before he could be released. Kirk then went to college, where he studied history there, and decided to become a history teacher. He then kept that job title for over 40 years now, and despite being in his 60s, he is still an enjoyable presence for his students, as he incorporates unusual teaching methods to make his students interested in what he's teaching. Despite being financially stable, he wants to win the money so he can be well off when he retires in a few years.
Maralyn Sander, 32, Tour Guide, u/Void_Drone
Maralyn gives tours of New York, driving around in her bus, answering questions, watching broadway shows. And she spends most of her money on her family, except for the money she spent on her pink pearl necklace. She enjoys the tours for the most part, but when she's alone she vents about how annoying the tours can be.
Kotu Adam (Sinners) Tribe:
Alexa Station, 20, YouTuber, u/IAmWolfNinja
A 3AM YouTuber who arrived late to the trend, Alexa has a tendency to flex her belongings when no one really cares. She was recently involved in a scandal where she faked her boyfriend's death, causing endless amounts of controversy, and a near arrest. Her sub count is dropping significantly every day, so she joined to help gain her popularity (relevancy) back.
Carter Witworth, 23, College Student, u/JTsidol
Witworth, he was born to a extremely rich family, but his parents didn’t have time for him, but spoiled him rotten, when he got into school, he was known for being a bully, however no one confronted him, and everytime he’d get in trouble or fail a test, his parents would pay his way out, last year, he got a slap in the face, when his parents yet again had to bribe the college board to accept him, they cut off his allowance, he’s playing just for the money, nothing else.
Irvin Eamers, 32, Olympic Sprinter, u/asiansurvivorfan
A born athlete, Irvin loved competing in all sports but wasn’t known to play fair as he was never a team player and would often torment others to win. He started training for the Olympics at the age of 17 and eventually got the opportunity to compete in multiple Olympics where he took home many gold medals. However, they were striped from him when he was caught doping and using steroids to give him an edge in races. After the controversy, Irvin’s current wife left him and he was banned from competing in any future competitions. He came on Survivor for one reason and that is that is the money as he’s currently being sued by the Olympic committee.
Jessica Abrefa, 25, Poker Player, u/Twig7665
Jessica wasn't the most well off growing up, she lived in Alabama, where racism was rampant. As such, she was bullied for her race, until one day, she decided that they will all be wrong about her not being able to do anything because of her skin colour. She publicly humiliated the whole football team at her high school, and that stunt got her expelled in her senior year. She didn't care, and then she decided to run away to Las Vegas, which she did. While there, she started modeling, but found it boring. She then picked up the hobby of gambling, and played her first poker match when she was 21. She proved herself to be a formidable foe by beating one of the top poker players at the time, a dude named Brett Herman. Impressed by her skills, he tried to form a bond with her, but she turned him down due to him being a very paranoid man. Now, Jessica dates and cheats on men almost daily, and is considered one of the top female poker players, despite only playing for a few years. An avid Survivor fan, she wants to be as flirty and manipulative as she is in her real life. The only problem would be meeting another poker player, but she finds it unlikely that she will.
Joey "Wildcard" Caruso, 24, Poker Player, u/wordonthestreet2
Joey did not grow up with the best moral compass as his father notoriously had ties to the mafia. He used the money his father made through illegitimate businesses to gamble throughout his teenage years. When his father learned about his poker abilities and how easy it was for him to manipulate his opponents they began using his poker career as a way to launder mafia money through various casinos. He is known for his excellent poker face and unpredictable style of play which earned him the nickname Wildcard.
Maize Nguyen, 28, Heiress, u/Vicctoryy
From the outside looking in, the Nguyen Family Dynasty of San Francisco looks like a well supported and strong business, but from the inside, things are crumbling apart. The matriarch and patriarch are always at each other's necks over the company, leaving their children to clean up their messes. Maize, being the oldest, has taken it upon herself to lead the company, and she leads with an iron will and even harder iron fist. While she seems like a worthy replacement for her faulty parents, she has never been afraid to leave with force. Anyone at the receiving end of a verbal lashing from Maize is likely to not return to work the next day, or ever again. She is arrogant, rude, demeaning, and yet she gets things done. Saving the company from absolute bankruptcy caused a lot of backlash, but Maize couldn't care less. Success should be accomplished by stepping on the necks of those who aren't ready for the power, and Maize has done that exact thing. Any person in Maize's way has been an obstacle she has to conquer, and with a flip of her finger, that obstacle is no longer a problem. She has never been afraid to crack a few eggs to make an omelette, and unfortunately, those eggs have just been working class people struggling to make minimum wage and put dinner on their table. Too bad for them according to Maize. Maize has come to Survivor to prove that the Nguyen Dynasty is far from over, and their business monopoly will run on for years with Maize at the front of it. She is the iceberg, everyone else is a ship with no idea of what's in their way. Those too bold to step in her way are trampled, quite literally. Maize has no problem with controversy, controversy brings attention, attention brings money, and money brings power.
Molly-Anne Benson, 26, Marketing Assistant, u/ghetra
Molly-Anne is a social butterfly. She loves chatting with people about pretty much anything and loves meeting and getting to know new people. She has a natural charm about her that draws people in, but sometimes people are bothered by how chatty she is. She also loves to gossip and is not above spreading rumors. However, she is rather sensitive and can be set off by just about anything. She frequently will push people's buttons if they offend her and will hold a grudge until the end of time.
Nikki Lopez, 29, Stripper, u/Void_Drone
Randall Martin, 49, Real Estate Agent, u/TDSwaggyBoy
Being a self proclaimed sleazeball, which is a very weird thing to be proud of, Randall's life was never too good. He didn't grow up with a lot of close friends. Sure, people liked him at first, but when they really got to know him they didn't appreciate him nor his antics very much. Randall had to make a name for himself. He quickly found a career in the world of real estate. Not even his co-workers enjoyed his company, but they appreciated his skills. Being a fast and smooth talker really pays off in his industry. And now, Randall wants to put his skills to use in SURVIVOR. How well will that pan out?
Vito Luco, 49, Used Car Salesman, u/swoldow
Vito is the last person you'd want to trust with anything. A true con-artist at heart, he now has a job selling used cars, but his past jobs would make you run away from him in fear. When he was younger, he was a part of a major drug-trafficking operation run by the mafia, and he later got a job selling illegal fireworks, both of which got him to do jail time for a decade. Newly released, he seems to be back to his old ways, as he scams people out of their money daily with his faulty cars. He was born constantly overshadowed by his perfect younger brother, who is a popular politician, while he just swindles from people. As a result, he hates people who play loyally, and wants to prove that evil is the best way to play. He isn't afraid to play hard, as that's what he did all his life, and he'll either win, or go out swinging.
Link to Season
Episode 1: The 20 new contestants are welcomed into Turkey, where their first task is to compete in a challenge for reward. The Sinners tribe win this reward due to having more young and fit members than the Saints tribe. As a result, the Saints are already demoralized as they arrive at camp. Cap'n starts to feel good vibes from Ardet and Maralyn, and takes them under his wing to form an alliance. Ava, on the other hand, reveals that she is deaf to Chelsea and Gwen, and the three form another alliance due to being close to one another already. Cap'n sees this and scrambles to find an idol, and does so. Over at the Sinners tribe, Witworth and Jessica see their opportunity to look for an idol, and they find it, giving them more security, while back at camp, Maize and Nikki get into a fight over thinking that the other has an idol, which neither of them do. Vito becomes the moderator of this fight, saying that the three of them plus Irvin and Molly need to stick together in the long run. Randall sees this alliance form and tries to get Alexa, Jessica, Witworth, and Wildcard on board, which they all agree to at first, but then Wildcard sees this as his opportunity to cause conflict within his tribe, so he becomes content with being a swing vote. The Sinners win immunity, and on the Saints tribe it quickly becomes a race to see who can scrape up the swing votes the fastest between Cap'n's alliance and Ava's alliance. Dana becomes the target for Ava's alliance because of her weakness in challenges and her blind loyalty, while Greg is targeted by Ardet and Cap'n due to his shiftiness. They are able to get Kirk and Dana on board to blindside Greg, and they try to talk to Gwen, but she does not flip. Instead, at tribal council, we end up with a 5-5 split, followed by a 4-4 vote split due to no one flipping. Then a rock draw occurs on the first vote of the season. Ardet becomes the victim of the rocks, sending him out of the game despite never receiving a single vote.
Episode 2: After an explosive first vote, Cap'n tries to figure out who flipped on the six and sent Ardet home. No one tells him who did it, so he assumes it was Ardet. Ava tries to flip Maralyn from Cap'n's alliance, but is unsuccessful at doing so. At the Sinners camp, Jessica and Witworth, despite being closely aligned, argue over who gets to keep the idol, and Witworth ends up keeping it in the end. The Saints pull out a surprise victory over the fractured Sinners, and back at camp, Wildcard decides to snake the alliance he was pretending to work with, and joins Vito's alliance. Their first target is none other than Alexa, who saw this game as nothing other than a tool to get more relevancy back, and it particularly irked Vito, who wanted to play against people who played hard. So together, with his alliance and Wildcard, they vote for Alexa. Meanwhile, the four person alliance realizes that Wildcard snaked them, so they vote for him, and Alexa becomes the second person voted off in a 6-4 vote.
Episode 3: After Alexa's vote off, Irvin tries to bond with Vito, wanting to be his right hand man, and they become closer due to both being sleazy people. Wildcard begins to feel like he's in control, and it starts to annoy people on his tribe. At the Saints camp, Cap'n starts to rub people the wrong way because of his cockiness due to having an idol, but no one catches on to him having an idol, which is good news for him, because he plans on holding onto the idol until the merge. The Sinners win immunity for the third time, and they grow cocky because of this. Cap'n and Kirk, being the two oldest men on the tribe, join forces with Dana and Maralyn to take out their biggest threat in the opposing alliance, Greg. However, the other side has majority, and they decide that Dana has been blindly loyal to the other three, and hasn't been pulling her weight in challenges, so she becomes the third person voted out in a 5-4 vote.
Episode 4: After a somewhat boring vote, Greg starts to get paranoid, since he's already gotten 9 votes and it's only episode 4. He then tries to get the minority alliance to pin their votes onto Gwen, but Gwen gets angry at him for doing so, and they have an argument. At Sinners camp, Jessica tries to talk to Irvin, trying to get his alliance to help hers take out Wildcard, and Irvin tells Vito about the plan, and Vito starts to see Wildcard as not being of use anymore. After losing the reward challenge, the Saints come back harder and beat the Sinners at the next challenge. Wildcard lets Vito know that he is going to vote Maize, since he wants to make a big move early on. This becomes the final nail in Wildcard's coffin, as Vito was quite close to Maize. At tribal council, Wildcard becomes the first unanimous boot of the season, going out in a 8-1 vote.
Episode 5: Vito starts to think that Irvin has been playing way too loyally, and he gets into a discussion with him that slowly devolves into a full-blown fight between them, but Vito, realizing that Irvin would make a bad enemy, tries to make it up to him, and it works. The Sinners win both reward and immunity, and they feel elated about it. Cornelius goes to Cap'n and proposes an alliance to him, allowing them to control things from behind the scenes with Maralyn. He also reveals that he has grown a disdain for Greg, and that they need to flip the numbers on him. They get Gwen and Kirk on board, or so they think, but Gwen blabs to Greg and their alliance, leading to Kirk to flip as well. They decide to vote Cornelius out due to him being the biggest gamer on the tribe, and he goes in a 5-3 vote.
Episode 6: The tribes pack up their things, anticipating a swap, but then the host announces that they will be competing for individual immunity on their tribe, and whoever wins will be safe from the double tribal council taking place that night. Maralyn wins for the Saints, and Vito wins for the Sinners. The Sinners also win reward, earning food to enjoy while they watch the other tribe go to tribal council. Witworth, Jessica, and Randall decide it was now or never to get rid of Maize, who had a fight with Randall earlier that day, but Vito, hearing about this, decides that Randall is the biggest sleaze on his tribe, and he needed to go as soon as possible. In his voting confessional, he states there can be only one sleazy guy on the tribe, and that was himself, so Randall had to go, and Randall becomes the sixth person voted out in a 5-3 vote, and he is bitter as all hell about it. At the Saints tribe, Cap'n becomes angry over the fact he cannot vote in the majority, and it makes the majority annoyed with him, so they decide to vote him off. Luckily for Cap'n, he still has an idol, so he and Maralyn vote for the most threatening player in their minds, Chelsea, and Cap'n plays his idol, sending Chelsea out of the game in a 2-0 vote.
Episode 7: After Chelsea's idol out, Cap'n officially became public enemy number one on his tribe, and he tries to find his rehidden idol, but Kirk finds it instead. Maralyn and Greg have a fight due to the food on their tribe running low, and morale being even lower. At the Sinners tribe, Nikki begins to be seen as an easy goat due to her one-sided loyalty to Vito. Morale at the Saints tribe dips even lower when they lose both reward and immunity. Not wanting to lose again,the majority decide to vote off their oldest member, Cap'n, as a last ditch attempt to prevent them from going on a losing streak. Cap'n and Maralyn vote for Greg, and Cap'n becomes the eighth person voted out in a 5-3 vote, missing out on the jury by one placement.
Episode 8: After Cap'n's vote out, there are only five members on the Saints tribe, compared to the Sinners having seven. The Sinners increase their winning streak by two by winning both reward and immunity. At the Sinners camp, Jessica and Witworth have another fight over the idol, with Jessica insisting that she keep it. This causes the rest of the tribe to be alerted to the fact that Jessica and Witworth have an idol, and Witworth becomes a target because of this. At the Saints tribe, the women form a tight three, and Kirk and Greg are forced to band together to survive. At tribal council, the three women stay strong, and Greg is voted out 3-2 and becomes the first member of the jury, leaving only four Saints left in the game.
Episode 9: With his back up against the wall, Kirk knows that he's probably gone next if he didn't have the idol, which ensured his survival until merge. The Saints finally win a challenge, a reward challenge, but lose immunity once again to the inflated egos of the Sinners. Not much else happens this episode, but Kirk tries to get Maralyn to flip and vote out Ava, but she disagrees to do so, and she votes for Gwen instead, making Kirk not trust her, and he decides to vote for her, while also playing his idol. This causes a 1-1-0 tie between Gwen and Maralyn, and Ava, misunderstanding what would happen if she forced a tie, votes for Gwen while Kirk votes for Maralyn, and Ava becomes the second person in King's Survivor history to be eliminated by default, due to there being no other options, and she becomes the second member of the jury
Episode 10: At long last, the tribes merge into the purple Ucurum tribe, meaning balance in Turkish. Left in the game is Witworth, Gwen, Irvin, Jessica, Kirk, Maize, Maralyn, Molly, Nikki, and Vito. At first, it seems like it would be Saint Vs Sinner, but Jessica and Witworth come to the three Saints left in the game, and they convince them to vote with them come tribal council. Vito wins his second immunity challenge of the season, and his target was Witworth for being the strongest male not in his alliance, and also for lying about not having an idol, which he believed was given to Jessica. At tribal council, the lines cause a 5-5 divide between Irvin and Witworth, and on the revote, Maralyn randomly decides to flip to avoid a tie, and Carter Witworth becomes the third member of the jury, and also another person to go out with an idol in their pocket. He is understandably pretty pissed about this ordeal, but wishes his tribe well.
Episode 11: The day after Witworth's blindside, the nine remaining contestants compete in a reward challenge, which the team containing Irvin, Maralyn, and Vito win. At the reward, Irvin and Vito realize how dangerous Maralyn could be after she starts trying to talk game with them. Soon afterwards, Maralyn finds the idol, and Jessica calls out Molly for following Vito almost blindly. Nikki wins the second post merge immunity challenge, and Vito tries to recruit Jessica for the vote, which succeeds. They then choose to target Maralyn, since she was the most threatening out of the three Saints, and the six remaining Sinners pin votes onto her. Unfortunately for them, Maralyn pulls out an idol, and the Saints vote for Irvin, a potential immunity threat, making him the fourth member of the jury in a 3-0 vote.
Episode 12: After Irvin's blindside, only two men are still in the game, compared to the six women. Nikki is able to find an idol, after thinking that she hasn't been playing hard enough, while Molly gets into a fight with Maralyn over the latter pulling out an idol, which she hadn't wanted her to do. Molly wins immunity, and it becomes a battle of the Saints Vs the Sinners, just like the theme of the season. The Saints go after Maize, wanting to weaken Vito further before going after him, but they are unable to swing anyone over and Vito, fueled by vengeance, gets his alliance to vote for Maralyn. In a 5-3 vote, Maralyn becomes the fifth member of the jury. Back at camp, the final seven become annoyed at Nikki's arrogance after being safe from being voted out, so she becomes a target for the two remaining Saints left. Kirk also becomes a target for being a perceived leader for Gwen, causing him to be target numero uno. After Kirk wins immunity, the target shifts from him to Gwen, due to her being perceived as not wanting to play the game, and rather would be along for the ride, which Vito found unpalatable. Kirk and Gwen then try to vote out Molly for her strength in challenges, and in the end, Gwen gets the boot in a 5-2 vote, making her the sixth juror.
Episode 13: With only six people left in the game, the final reward challenge takes place. Maize wins it, and she shares it with Vito, her closest ally, and Jessica, who her and Vito wanted to bring closer. Soon, they realize what a threat she could be, especially because she's a poker player, she becomes the biggest target instead of Kirk. Luckily for her, she wins immunity. Kirk tries to bond with Maize as a way to get Vito to not vote him out, but it backfires, and he becomes the biggest target yet again. At tribal council, he votes for Molly, but everyone else votes for him, making him the seventh juror in a 5-1 vote and completely eliminating the Saints from the game.
Finale: Jessica, Maize, Molly, Nikki, and Vito remain. Five players who had remarkably different playing styles, but all came from the same tribe. They compete in the second-to-last immunity challenge, which Maize wins, and the biggest target becomes Jessica again, who has proven herself to be the only player not following Vito, and only voting with him just to get further in the game. Vito does not feel the same way about keeping Jessica around, so he and his alliance with Nikki, Molly, and Maize vote for her, and Nikki plays her idol in case someone flipped on her, and Jessica becomes the eighth juror in a 4-0 vote. Back at camp, Vito feels incredibly cocky, and he tries to influence a fight, and he does so between Nikki and Maize. He then goes on to win final immunity, and Nikki tanks her own game with her fight with Maize, and everyone votes her out, causing her to become the ninth juror in a 3-1 vote. The final three consists of Maize, Molly, and Vito. Molly gets criticism for her lack of strategy, only using her social game to get far, and her challenge capabilities. Maize is seen as following too closely to Vito, but the jury is willing to vote for her if Vito tanks his jury speech. He does not, and explains his game in great detail, saying he started out forming a five person alliance on the first night, he commenced the Wildcard blindside, the Witworth blindside, the Jessica blindside, etc. He did it all, but the bonds he formed in the game were genuine, and he didn't intend his villainous backstabbing to be taken personal. In the end, he gets all the jury votes, even from two people he never met, Greg and Ava. Maralyn wins the Fan Favorite for standing up to Vito and her idol play.
Winner: Vito Luco, u/swoldow
Fan Favorite: Maralyn Sander, u/Void_Drone
Potential Returnees (yeah, I haven't done this in a while): Vito, Jessica, Kirk, Maralyn, WItworth, Ava, Cap'n, maybe Ardet, if I do a first boot season
Next season, will be the final season before season 35, I won't spoil the theme for 35, but trust me, it won't be a season to miss. Season 34 however, with the release of the new Island Of The Idols sim, it will feature two King's Survivor Idols, who will be revealed with the sign ups. Next season will be King's Survivor Venezuela: Island Of The Idols!

The Date is 8/21/2288 Let's say you are in Fallout and you walk into a bar. Depending on which Fallout Title you find yourself in the alcohol selection and cocktails may change. I'm going to list cocktails that would still be possible to make in Post-Apocalyptic America along with their Availability and Price in Caps. And thanks to [dwill2168] from GameFAQs I will also be providing a price in USD. [dwill2168] was able to find the value of a Cap in USD (2009) 1 Cap = .69 cents & 1 Dollar = 1.44 caps. This will help show you how the value of each cocktail has changed in Post-Apocalyptic America.
1. Nuka-Ria a. Red Wine Glass (No Ice) b. Use Diced Mutfruit & Tarberries instead of Ice c. Fill 2/3rds with Red Wine d. Top with 1/3 Nuka-Cola Orange e. Garnish with 3 thin slices of Mutfruit <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas Sarsapa(gria) Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallout 4: 8 Caps | $11.52 Fallout 76: 11 Caps | $15.84 Fallout 76: Blackberry Alternative: 12 Caps | $17.28
Info: The Nuka-Ria and Sarsapagria are the Post-Apocalyptic versions of the Sangria. It seems that Post-Apocalyptic America is severely lacking citrus fruits like Oranges, Lemons, Limes, Grapefruits, Pineapples etc. So Nuka-Orange or Sunset Sarsaparilla was used in place of the Orange Juice and Lemon Lime Soda. Peaches were replaced by Tarberries or Barrel Cactus Fruit and Mutfruit can be used if you don't have any Fresh Apples. If you're visiting Appalachia you can also substitute the Tarberries for Blackberries.
1. Sarsapagria (Alternative) a. Red Wine Glass (No Ice) b. Use Diced Fresh Apple & Barrel Cactus Fruit instead of Ice c. Fill 2/3rds with Red Wine d. Top with 1/3 Sunset Sarsaparilla e. Garnish with 3 thin slices of Fresh Apple (Description: This cocktail should appear Yellow-Orange in appearance with the skins of the diced red apple pieces being semi-visible)
2. Whiskey & Water a. Small Rocks glass (With Ice) b. Add 2oz Whiskey c. Top with Purified Water <> Fallout 3: 3 Caps | $4.32 Fallout 3: "Dirty Whiskey" Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32 Fallout 3: Aqua Pura Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88 Fallout New Vegas: 3 Caps | $4.32 Fallout New Vegas Dixon's Whiskey Alternative: 5 Caps | $7.20 Fallout New Vegas: "Dirty Whiskey" Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32 Fallout New Vegas: "Dirty Dixon" Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32 Fallout 4: 4 Caps | $5.76 Fallout 4: Bourbon Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96 Fallout 4: "Dirty Whiskey" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88 Fallout 4: "Dirty Bourbon" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88 Fallout 4: "Drugged Whiskey" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88 Fallout 4: "Drugged Bourbon" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88 Fallout 4: Aqua Pura Alternative: 1 Cap | $1.44 Fallout 4: Aqua Pura & Bourbon Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88 Fallout 4: Institute Water Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32 Fallout 4: Bourbon & Institute Water Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32 Fallout 76: 4 Caps | $5.76 Fallout 76: Bourbon Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76 Fallout 76: "Dirty Whiskey" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88 Fallout 76: "Dirty Bourbon" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88 Fallout 76: "Whiskey & Toxic" Alternative: 1 Cap | $1.44 Fallout 76: "Bourbon & Toxic" Alternative: 1 Cap | $1.44
Info: Due to the lack of ingredients in the wasteland, Whiskey & Water might have gained some popularity. This cocktail is cheap yet refreshing since it comes with Ice. However, cocktails that come with ice will be much less accessible to those living in the wasteland since it requires electricity to make. Ice-based cocktails will probably only be available to purchase in major cities like New Vegas, Vault City, Diamond City, Megaton, Good Neighbor and even some of the larger settlements of the wasteland. Some cocktails will use nicknames based on their ingredients like a "Drugged Whiskey" which uses Drugged Water and Whiskey as it's main ingredients.
3. The Washington Apple a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice) b. Add 1.3oz of Whiskey to Cocktail Shaker c. Add 1.3oz of Mutfruit Schnapps to Cocktail Shaker d. Add 1.3oz of Cranberry Juice to Cocktail Shaker e. Add Ice Shake and Pour f. Garnish with a slice of Mutfruit <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas: N/A Fallout 4 Tarberry Juice Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96 Fallout 76: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallout 76 Tarberry Juice Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Info: Notice Fallout 4 can only make an alternate version of The Washington Apple using Tarberry Juice. Sure it costs more and you might even soak up a few Rads, but most would agree that the taste of Tarberries is much better than Cranberries.
4. Bloody Larry a. Cocktail Glass (With Ice) b. 1.5oz Vodka c. 0.5oz Brahmin or Bighorner Bouillon d. Top with Homemade Clamato or Tato Juice e. Garnish with a Carrot stick <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas: 11 Caps | $15.84 Fallout 4: 14 Caps | $20.16 [Add Bacon for 1 Cap | $1.44] Fallout 76: 11 Caps | $15.84
Info: The Bloody Larry is similar to a Bloody Mary. Unfortunately the cocktail is quickly going out of style in the wasteland due to the extinction of Tomato's (and Potatoes) in 2287. People were then forced to switched to the mutated hybrid Tato. Tato now fills the role of Tomato's and Potatoes for most of the eastern United States making the Bloody Larry possible to make still but the cost is steep. The Bloody Larry got it's name in New Vegas sometime after The First Battle of Hoover Dam. A seemingly wealthy man by the name of Larry had taken up residence in the Gomorrah. Larry quickly became a frequent customer at the Brimstone Bar where he could always be found drinking a Bloody Mary. Well one day before Larry had arrived for his usual, a mysterious man in a long trench coat was at the Brimstone having a drink. Upon Larry's arrival The Mysterious Stranger jumped up out of his chair, pulled out a Revolver and shot Larry dead. It was unclear why The Mysterious Stranger killed Larry as he seemingly disappeared in the commotion that ensued after Larry was shot. However things quickly came to light once Larry's personal items were recovered. Wedding rings, lockets, pocket watches and more all matched the descriptions of missing persons from a once occupied town a few miles south of New Vegas. Since the incident, the cocktail has forever been referred to as the Bloody Larry. However, if you were to visit New Vegas today you may notice that the Bloody Larry no longer contains Tomato. But due to it's popularity the casinos of New Vegas have done everything in their power to try to mimic the Bloody Larry with new ingredients. Although most agree it just doesn't taste the same.
5. Blackberry Lemon Drop a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice) b. Add 2oz of Vodka to Cocktail Shaker c. Muddle Blackberries in Cocktail Shaker d. Add 2oz of Lemonade to Cocktail Shaker e. Add Ice, Shake and Pour f. Garnish with Blackberries on a toothpick <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas: N/A Fallout 4: N/A' Fallout 76: 5 Caps | $7.20
Info: The Blackberry Lemon Drop is similar to the Blueberry Lemon Drop. However, because there are no Lemons for trade, Lemonade must be purchased from Mr. Squeeze. Ironically, it doesn't contain any Lemons as Mr. Squeeze says he uses alternate ingredients to make it taste like lemonade.
6. Mut-Berry Martini a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice) b. Add 3oz of Vodka to the Cocktail Shaker c. Muddle Tarberries in Cocktail Shaker d. Add 1oz of Mutfruit Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker e. Add Ice, Shake or Stir & Pour f. Garnish with a slice of Mutfruit <> Fallout 3 "Mutfruit Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96 Fallout 3 "Apple Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96 Fallout 3 "Pear Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96 Fallout New Vegas "Mutfruit Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96 Fallout New Vegas "Apple Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96 Fallout New Vegas "Pear Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96 Fallout New Vegas "Prickly Pear Martini" Alternative: 5 Caps | $7.20 Fallout New Vegas "Barrel Cactus Fruit Martini" Alternative: 8 Caps | $11.52 Fallout New Vegas "Banana Yucca Fruit Martini" Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallout New Vegas "Mojave Martini" Alternative: 11 Caps | $15.84 Fallout 4: 12 Caps | $17.28 Fallout 4 "Mutfruit Martini" Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76 Fallout 4 "Melon Martini" Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76 Fallout 4 "Tartini" Alternative: 12 Caps | $17.28 Fallout 4 "Gourds & Cream Martini" Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallout 76: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallout 76 "Mutfruit Martini" Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76 Fallout 76 "Melon Martini" Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32 Fallout 76 "Tartini" Alternative: 5 Caps | $7.20 Fallout 76 "Cranberry Martini" Alternative: 5 Caps | $7.20 Fallout 76 "Gourd Spice Martini" Alternative: 8 Caps | $11.52 Fallout 76 "Pumpkin Spice Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96 Fallout 76 "Blackberry Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96 Fallout 76 "Starlight Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96 Fallout 76 "Mothman Martini" Alternative: 11 Caps | $15.84
Info: Martinis will still be a thing in Post Apocalyptic America. However with Vermouth being impractical to make and hard to find, you will have to say goodbye to the Classic Martini. Only flavored Martinis will be available in the wasteland. For those visiting New Vegas, if you didn't like the new version of the Bloody Larry you should consider trying a Mojave Martini before leaving town. If anyone out there truly loves Martini's I highly recommend you visit Appalachia. That region is home to a large variety of fruits making it a perfect place to drink some Martini's.
6. Mojave Martini (Alterative) a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice) b. Add 1oz of Vodka to the Cocktail Shaker c. Muddle Prickly Pear Flesh in Cocktail Shaker d. Add 1oz of Barrel Cactus Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker e. Add 1oz of Banana Yucca Fruit Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker e. Add Ice, Shake or Stir & Pour f. Garnish with a Prickly Pear Wheel (Description: This cocktail's appearance will be dominated by the muddled prickly pears, appearing Purple-Red in color. The prickly pear wheel garnish should be Green, showing off the White-Yellow insides with the seeds)
6. Pumpkin Spice Martini (Alterative) a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice) b. Add 2oz of Vodka to the Cocktail Shaker d. Add 1oz of Pumpkin Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker e. Add 1/2oz of Cream to the Cocktail Shaker e. Add 1/2oz of Pumpkin Puree to the Cocktail Shaker e. Add Ice, Shake & Pour f. Garnish with Homemade Whipped Sweet Cream topped with a pinch of Spices (Description: The Pumpkin Spice Martini should resemble pumpkin pie with an Opaque Orange color topped with Homemade Whipped Sweet Cream and Spices)
6. Mothman Martini (Alterative) a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice) b. Add 1.5oz of Vodka to the Cocktail Shaker c. Add. 1oz Starlight Fruit Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker d. Add 1oz of Firecracker Fruit Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker e. Add 1/2oz Lemonade to the Cocktail Shaker f. Add 1/4oz Mothman Eggwhites to the Cocktail Shaker e. Add Ice, Shake & Pour f. Garnish with Starlight Fruit on a Toothpick (Description: This cocktail should have a perfect orange hue to it. Paired with the Yellow Starlight Fruit Garnish, the Mothman Martini would be perfect for Halloween)
7. Root Beer Rum Float a, Pint Glass (No Ice) b. Add 1 Scoop of Homemade Iced Cream to Pint Glass c. Add 2oz Rum d. Add 6oz of Nuka-Wild <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas: N/A Fallout 4: 20 Caps | $28.80 Fallout 4 "Nuka-Cola Float" Alternative: 20 Caps | $28.80 Fallout 4 "Vim Float" Alternative: 20 Caps | $28.80 Fallout 76: [Unaffordable]
Info: Though still probably unaffordable at 20 Caps, the Root Beer Rum Float is proof that if you have enough Caps, you can indulge in some of the delicacies of the Wasteland. If you're visiting Appalachia you can still gather the supplies to make your own Homemade Iced Cream but at a huge cost since Brahmin milk is much more expensive there.
8. Black & Tan a. Pint Glass (No Ice) b. Add 8oz of Ale to Glass c. Layer 8oz of Stout on top of Ale <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas: N/A Fallout 4: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallout 76: 7 Caps | $10.08
Info: This cocktail is simple and does not require Ice to make or drink so it might gain a lot of popularity in Post Apocalyptic America.
9. Rum & Cola a. Rocks Glass (With Ice) b. Add 2oz Rum c. Fill with 2.5oz of Nuka-Cola <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas: N/A Fallout 4: N/A Fallout 76: 11 Caps | $15.84
Info: If you thought Rum & Cola would be a thing in the wasteland then you thought wrong. Nuka-Cola and Vim cost about 20 caps per bottle making it difficult for bars to work with. However, in Appalachia the cost of a basic Nuka-Cola is only 10 Caps. Though this is much cheaper in comparison to other cities, if I'm paying 11 Caps I'd rather get a Mothman Martini.
10. New Vegas Bomb a. 2oz Shot Glass b. Add 1oz of Vodka to Shot Glass c. Add 1/4oz Barrel Cactus Fruit Schnapps to Shot Glass d. Add 3/4oz Prickly Pear Juice e. Fill a Rocks Glass with 8oz of Sunset Sarsaparilla <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas: 4 Caps | $5.76 Fallout 4: "Boston Bomb" Alternative: 12 Caps | $17.28 Fallout 76: "Firecracker Bomb" Alternative: 14 Caps | $20.16
Info: The New Vegas Bomb is the Post Apocalyptic version of the Vegas Bomb. In prewar times the Vegas Bomb was often drank in what was considered the "New Vegas" area. So to be fair, it should be called the New New Vegas Bomb.

1. Boston Bomb (Alternative) a. 2oz Shot Glass b. Add 1oz of Whiskey to Shot Glass c. Add 1/4oz Mutfruit Schnapps to Shot Glass d. Add 3/4oz Tarberry Juice e. Fill a Rocks Glass with 8oz of Nuka-Bombdrop (Description: This Mutfruit and Tarberry cocktail gets it's name from the bomb that destroyed Boston in 2077, the one that many believe created the Glowing Sea)

10. Firecracker Bomb (Alternative) a. 2oz Shot Glass b. Add 1oz of Whiskey to Shot Glass c. Add 1/4oz Firecracker Schnapps to Shot Glass d. Add 3/4oz Cranberry Juice e. Fill a Rocks Glass with 8oz of Nuka-Cherry (Description: This cocktail gets its name from the exploding fruit that is native to the region. Don't worry though, they're safe to consume once picked)
11. Cherry Berry Fizz a. Collins Glass (With Ice) b. 2oz Vodka c. 2.5oz Tarberry Juice d. 2.5oz Nuka-Cherry e. Garnish with Tarberries on a Toothpick <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas: N/A Fallout 4: 15 Caps | 21.60 Fallout 76: 8 Caps | $11.52 Fallout 76 "Cherry-Cranberry Fizz" Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallut 76 "Black-Cherry Fizz" Alternative: 10 Caps | $14.40
Info: This cocktail is sweet and refreshing, a perfect choice if you're visiting Nuka-World. It's definitely not cheap, but you're in Nuka-World, you're on vacation! I hope...
11. Black-Cherry Fizz (Alternative) a. Collins Glass (With Ice) b. 2oz Vodka c. 2.5oz Blackberry Juice d. 2.5oz Nuka-Cherry e. Garnish with Blackberries on a Toothpick (Description: Unlike the Red Cherry-Berry Fizz the Black-Cherry Fizz uses Blackberries instead of Tarberries making it's appearance Purple)
12. Liquor & Juice a. Rocks Glass (With Ice) b. 1.5z Vodka c. 3oz Apple Juice d. Garnish with a slice of Apple <> Fallout 3: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallout 3 Mutfruit Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallout New Vegas: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallout New Vegas Mutfruit Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallout 4 Mutfruit Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76 Fallout 4 Tarberry Alternative: 11 Caps | $15.84 Fallout 4 Melon Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88 Fallout 76 Mutfruit Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76 Fallout 76 Tarberry Alternative: 5 Caps | $7.20 Fallout 76 Cap Codder Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32
Info: Another wasteland favorite, Liquor & Juice is a step up from Whiskey & Water. And if you're careful about what you buy you can get away without spending much.
13. B.O.S.sy Boy a. Rocks Glass (With Ice) b. Add 1.5oz Vodka c. Add 0.5oz Lemonade d. Top with 2.5oz of Experimental Tea <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas: N/A Fallout 4: 9 Caps | 12.96 Fallout 76: N/A
Info: The Bossy Boy got it's name from the Brotherhood of Steel Faction who are responsible for making the Experimental Plant. Though some claim it's addictive, it's probably not something that concerns you if you're drinking it with Alcohol.
14. Pink Panty Dropper a. Rocks Glass (With Ice) b. Add 1.5oz Vodka c. Add 0.5oz Tarberry Juice d. Add 1.5oz Lemonade e, Add 1oz Lager f. Garnish with Tarberries on a Toothpick <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas; N/A Fallout 4: 4 Caps | $5.76 Fallout 76: 3 Caps | $4.32
Info: This cocktail is perfect to get the night started. It's relatively cheap and tastes delicious. Though the original recipe does call for Strawberries, Tarberries will have to do for now.
15. Brave Brahmin a. Rocks Glass (With Ice) b. 1.5oz Tequila c. 1/4oz Ant Nectar or Sugar d. 2 3/4oz Black Coffee <> Fallout 3: N/A Fallout New Vegas: 7 Caps | $10.08 Fallout 4: N/A Fallout 76: 7 Caps | $10.08
Info: The Brave Brahmin is similar to the Brave Bull, and with Citrus being almost non-existent the Brave Brahmin is a nice change of pace since it's a Tequila Cocktail. Sure, Tequila has stood the test of time and survived the nuclear apocalypse, but clearly Margaritas have not.
Thankyou For reading!
The following are just a few Recipes I didn't include above
​
~Fallout 4 & Fallout 76 Mutfruit Schnapps Recipe~ 4 Mutfruits, Honey or Sap and 1 Bottle of Vodka = 1L Homemade Apple Schnapps Cost to make (35 Caps | $50.40) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (70 Caps | $100.80) Cost per ounce x3 markup (3 Caps | $4.32)
​
~Fallout 4 Homemeade Clamato Recipe~ 1 Carrot, 1 Softshell Mirelurk Meat, 3 Tatos, 1 Thistle = 1L Homemade Clamato Cost to make (54 Caps | $77.76) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (108 Caps | $155.52) Cost per ounce x3 markup (5 Caps | $7.20)
~Fallout 76 Homemeade Clamato Recipe~ 1 Carrot, 1 Softshell Mirelurk Meat, 3 Tatos, 1 Thistle, Salt, Pepper = 1L Homemade Clamato Cost to make (47 Caps | $67.68) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (94 Caps | $135.36) Cost per ounce x3 markup (4 Caps | $5.76)
~Fallout New Vegas Homemeade Clamato Recipe~ 1 Carrot, 5 Jalapeño's, 1 Honey Mesquite Pod, 1 Tablespoon of Thin Red Paste = 1L Homemade Clamato Cost to make (48 Caps | $69.12) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (96 Caps | $138.24) Cost per ounce x3 markup (4 Caps | $5.76)
~Fallout 4 Homemade Cream Recipe~ 3/4 Cup Brahmin Milk, 1/3 Cup Industrial Shortening = 1 Cup/8oz Heavy Cream Cost to make (9 Caps | $12.96) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (18 Caps | $25.92) Cost per ounce x3 markup (3 Caps | $4.32)
~Fallout 76 Homemade Cream Recipe~ 3/4 Cup Brahmin Milk, 1/3 Cup Industrial Shortening = 1 Cup/8oz Heavy Cream Cost to make (24 Caps | $34.56) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (48 Caps | $69.12) Cost per ounce x3 markup (9 Caps | $12.96)
~Fallout 4 Homemade Whipped Sweet Cream Recipe~ 1/4 cup Water, 1 Cup Brahmin Milk, 1/4 Cup Sap = 2 Cups/16oz Whipped Sweet Cream [182 Servings] Cost to make (26 Caps | $37.44) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (52 Caps | $74.88) Cost per serving x3 markup (1 Cap | $1.44)
~Fallout 76 Homemade Whipped Sweet Cream Recipe~ 1/4 cup Water, 1 Cup Brahmin Milk, 1/4 Cup Sugar = 2 Cups/16oz Whipped Sweet Cream [182 Servings] Cost to make (44 Caps | $63.36) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (88 Caps | $126.72) Cost per serving x3 markup (1 Cap | $1.44)
~Fallout 4 Homemade Iced Cream Recipe~ 1 3/4 Cups Cream, 1 1/4 Cups Brahmin Milk 3/4 Cup Sap = 4 Cups/64oz Iced Cream Cost to make (37 Caps | $53.28) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (74 Caps | $106.56) Cost per 6oz Scoop x3 markup (10 Caps | $14.40) Written By Bazil2013 aka NoModMaster 10/12/20 📷ReplyForward

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUSLY:

• Observer Rewind - 1987 by SaintRidley
  
• The Complete Wrestling Observer Rewind 1991-2001
  

1-7-2002	1-14-2002	1-21-2002	1-28-2002
2-4-2002	2-11-2002	2-18-2002	2-25-2002

NOTE: I mentioned it in the first post of 2002 but a lot of y'all are aware that a few months ago, SaintRidley picked up the Observer Rewind reins after I stopped and started doing his own recaps from the 1980s. Well, he's been doing great work with it and he just finished posting the year of 1987. I went ahead and added it the Previously" section up there. ↑↑↑ Just wanted to make sure to bring it to everyone's attention.

• It's been awhile since we've had major PPVs going head-to-head with each other, but it happened this week when WWA aired it's 2nd ever PPV live from Las Vegas, going head-to-head with PRIDE. Dave recaps the history of head-to-head PPV battles, specifically the WWF vs. Crockett war in the late-80s. How Vince McMahon created Survivor Series specifically to run it in direct competition with Crockett's first ever PPV, Starrcade 87. The resulting loss of needed revenue was a huge reason why Crockett eventually had to sell the company to Ted Turner and, in retrospect, set into motion everything that led to WCW's eventual death last year. He goes on to recap how Royal Rumble was created and aired on free TV to go head-to-head with Crockett's next PPV attempt, Bunkhouse Stampede. Then Crockett responded by creating the first Clash of the Champions and airing it against Wrestlemania IV. Not sure PRIDE vs. WWA is up there in the same league as that PPV battle. Which, to be fair, Dave admits it's not the same thing.
  
• Anyway, the PRIDE show was among the greatest events of all time, one of the very few times in the history of the Observer that a show got a unanimous 100% thumbs up vote on the reader poll. It aired in Japan live and in the U.S. on a bit of a delay, with the matches edited in a different order. In Japan, the card was headlined by Vanderlei Silva vs. former UWFI wrestler Kiyoshi Tamura, which was an excellent fight that Silva won. In the U.S., the show was built around Ken Shamrock vs. Don Frye in the main event (in Japan, it aired 3rd from last) and the 2 men had an absolute war that should shut up critics who say both are too old. Shamrock lost a split-decision in a fight that Dave thinks should have legitimately been a draw. (This fight is considered to this day one of the all-time wars in MMA history. An utter slobberknocker. Neither fighter was the same again afterward and Frye has said that the damage Shamrock did to his legs in this fight led to him later getting addicted to painkillers). After the fight, Shamrock went over to ringside and hugged his girlfriend Alicia Webb, who you may remember as Ryan Shamrock. The girl that played his sister in WWF.
  

WATCH: Don Frye vs. Ken Shamrock - PRIDE 19: Bad Blood (2002)

• And then there was WWA. A low-budget, amateur-ish event, marred by bad production and no-shows. Not that the crowd would even know, because most of the lineup was never even announced ahead of time anyway. The scheduled main event of Jeff Jarrett vs. Randy Savage didn't happen because Savage held promoter Andrew McManus up for more money at the last minute. Savage originally had agreed to work the show in exchange for a 30% ownership stake in the company, which was agreed upon. But three days before the show, Savage upped the ante, saying he wanted the 30%, plus an extra $50,000 in cash. At that point, they started haggling back and forth to try to strike some kind of deal. Ownership got pulled off the table and then Savage asked for a flat $250,000 fee to work the show. WWA turned that down and came back with a flat $150,000 offer instead. Savage turned that down and at that point, everything broke down. For what it's worth, a lot of the lower card wrestlers on the show worked for $300. Last second attempts to bring in Sting to save the show didn't work either. Road Dogg was also supposed to appear on the show but couldn't because of legal issues. Word is he got arrested 2 days before the show in Florida on a probation violation. As a result, the PPV was headlined by Jeff Jarrett defending the WWA championship against Brian Christopher.
  
• The whole show was simply an embarrassment. The production was completely minor league and the crowd was totally dead for all these long matches with guys nobody cares about. The in-ring work was fine, but the booking often made no sense, with overbooked three-ways and 6-way undercard matches that ended up being more clusterfuck than match. It was also one of those Russo-type things where the commentary team made endless inside-references that only the hardcore internet fans would get. But then again, this show only drew hardcore internet fans anyway, so why not? They also constantly made reference to WWF, which came across as desperate and sad. In particular, Larry Zbyszko was given the chance to cut a meandering promo, challenging Vince McMahon to a fight over some unspecified grievance from 20 years ago and criticized them for having Chris Jericho as their world champion. Dave thinks Zbyszko was actually angling for a job from WWF by trying to start his own angle and says this promo was basically his job application. And he thinks it was pretty pathetic. Backstage, the disorganization was apparent and most even within the company saw what a mess it was and have already given up on the promotion as a lost cause. Dave said this PPV made it clear that nobody will be challenging WWF anytime soon.
  
• Other notes from the WWA Revolution PPV: yes, in case you're wondering, that Japanese man sitting behind the commentary table all night who very briefly (literally blink and miss it) got involved in the Scott SteineDisco Inferno tussle was indeed NJPW star Hiroyoshi Tenzan and yes, they flew him all the way from Japan (and had him bring his ring gear just in case), only to have him do almost nothing and never be acknowledged on camera. Eric Bischoff was backstage, as a guest of Ernest Miller. Bischoff laughed off any questions about going to WWF but said the ol' "never say never" shtick. The crowd was about 2,800, most of them freebies and they were desperately giving away tickets in the casino before the show. During the first match, the building looked practically empty so they quietly began moving everyone closer to ringside to pack the area around the ring to make it look presentable for TV. Opening 6-way match featuring all the hottest indie stars was a sloppy mess, with too people flying everywhere trying to get their shit in and the cameras missing most of it. Bret Hart came out and cut a long, rambling promo before announcing Brian Christopher was replacing Randy Savage in the main event, to zero crowd response. By the 5th match, people in the crowd could be seen leaving, never to return. Jerry Lynn showed up, interrupting an Eddie Guerrero interview, at which point Dave mentions, oh yeah by the way, the WWF released Jerry Lynn 2 days before the PPV. Considering WWF has been talking about reviving the cruiserweight division after Wrestlemania, Dave doesn't know why they'd get rid of a guy who could be one of the best in the division. Anyway, yeah, this show sucked. Here ya go, enjoy.
  

WATCH: WWA: The Revolution PPV - 2002

• WWF's latest investor conference call took place and wasn't particularly newsworthy, but there's some stuff to note. The new agreement with DirecTV is until August of 2003 and is under the exact same terms they were operating under last year, which means WWF gained nothing while losing an estimated $4.4 million in revenue over the last few PPVs. Following the brand split, WWF plans to run 16 PPVs per year, and increasing the price by an extra $5. Linda McMahon said Wrestlemania 18 has sold 58,000 tickets as of the time of the call, for a record gate of $3.96 million, breaking the record set by last year's WM. Dave goes through all the numbers and for the most part, in comparison to previous quarters, almost everything is down. Which is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention because WWF is clearly on the downswing. Linda also said they're currently interviewing new writers and are hoping to double their writing staff, which Dave thinks is a terrible idea (and time has damn sure proven him correct). Finally, Linda was also asked how the purchase of the WCW library has benefited the company, which Dave thinks is an interesting question since revenues have declined since then and the Invasion angle flopped so hard that it killed any brand value the name "WCW" may have had. Linda talked about the value of the tape library but Dave points out that it's been a year and WWF has done practically nothing with that library (of course, in the end, they found ways to monetize that WCW library and it more than paid for itself).
  
• In his first match as an official member of the AJPW roster, Keiji Muto lost the Triple Crown championship to Toshiaki Kawada in a match nearly a year in the making, before a sold out crowd at Budokan Hall. He hasn't seen it yet, but the match was reported to Dave as a near-classic (he ends up giving it 4.5 stars). The other 2 NJPW stars who jumped ship, Kendo Kashin and Satoshi Kojima, also worked their first official AJPW matches. Kaz Hayashi, formerly a member of Jung Dragons in WCW and who worked in WWF's developmental until asking for his release a few weeks ago, also debuted on the show and will be part of Muto's faction.
  

WATCH: Keiji Muto vs. Toshiaki Kawada - AJPW 2-24-2002

• Obituary time for Swede Hanson, who worked primarily in the Carolinas and had a brief run in the WWF as a cult favorite babyface in the early 80s. Sadly, he passed away in a mental hospital because he had advanced Alzheimer's disease which made it impossible for his family to handle him and they had him put away. Jeez, that's rough. He also had a litany of other health problems. Dave gives an in-depth history of his career in the 60s and 70s as a heel in the Carolinas before talking about the WWF run. Vince Sr. brought him in as a monster heel to challenge Bob Backlund, and Dave thinks someone else must have backed out at the last moment or something. By this time (in 1979), Hanson was well past his prime and hadn't been a major star anywhere in years but he was a big dude and so they brought him in to face Backlund and they actually sold out Madison Square Garden with Backlund vs. Hanson in the main event (though Dave says Bruno Sammartino working the undercard sure didn't hurt). The match sucked and almost immediately after, he became a jobber in the WWF, but Vince Jr, on commentary, just loved to call him "Rawboned Swede Hanson" and the "Rawboned" nickname caught on. Vince said it with such gusto that Hanson briefly became a cult favorite jobber from it and the crowd turned him babyface at damn near 50 years old. It led to a brief career resurgence and him having a small role in the Backlund/Billy Graham feud for the title before he finally faded into oblivion.
  
• Mark Henry won the "world's strongest man" competition at the Arnold Classic bodybuilding and fitness event. Henry has been out of WWF for the past 2 months training for this competition and the training paid off, with Henry capturing first place and making a legitimate viable claim to his "strongest man in the world" moniker. During the event, Henry became the first man in 50 years to cleanly press the 366 pound Apollon wheel weight above his head. In another event, he carried an 800 pound block of bolted together railroad ties up a 40-foot ramp faster than the other competitors. For his victory, Henry won a $75,000 Humvee and some other cash prizes. Over the same weekend, he also won another $1,000 in a contest where he was able to lift an inch dumbbell (which weighs 172 pounds) to his shoulder with one arm. There's a bunch of other weightlifting stuff here, but you might be surprised to find out....I dunno shit about any of this. I got winded lifting pizza to my mouth earlier. Mark Henry strong.
  

WATCH: Mark Henry at the Arnold Classic 2002

• Another obit for former wrestler, promoter, and father of 80s valet Baby Doll, Nick Roberts who died of pancreatic cancer. Once again, a bunch of details and stories about someone I've never heard of in wrestling history that Dave somehow knows everything about. I know I've said it before, but these obituary pieces are some of the greatest reasons for subscribing to the Observer.
  
• Masahiro Chono says he wants to take NJPW in a more serious, realistic direction. No sports entertainment gaga nonsense, they want it to be like a real sports product. So much so that, in his own match with Manabu Nakanishi at the last big NJPW show, Chono wouldn't even bounce off the ropes, saying that it's not credible and no one would do that in a real fight. Ah yes, Inoki's gonna love this.
  
• FMW wrestler Kodo Fuyuki has said he plans to try to keep the promotion running after it was announced it was folding last week. FMW still has 8 shows scheduled for this month and Fuyuki said he plans to try to run them himself and keep the company going (no such luck buddy).
  
• Japan Today, an American newspaper that covers Japanese news daily, had a story on Antonio Inoki battling diabetes. It says he was first diagnosed in 1982, which Dave says is right around the time Inoki's in-ring work dropped off considerably when he lost his stamina. The story said for the last 20 years, Inoki has eaten a ridiculously healthy diet and is in better health now at 59 than he was then at 39.
  
• Dave said he got tons of positive feedback on the debut of RF Video's Ring of Honor promotion in Philadelphia. The show was sold out in advance, was well organized, and had several really good matches. They limited a lot of the mistakes that most indie companies fall victim to, such as too many matches, too many run-ins, too much mic work, too many guys trying to do too much stuff, etc. Steve Corino and CZW announcer Eric Gargiulo did commentary. Eddie Guerrero faced Super Crazy in an excellent match and the main event was a three-way featuring Low-Ki, Christopher Daniels, and American Dragon that Dave has heard rave reviews for. And thus, ROH was born.
  

WATCH: Highlights from ROH's debut show in 2002

• Vic Grimes took the most insane bump of all time at an XPW event before 1,500 fans in Los Angeles. Grimes was facing New Jack in a scaffold match said to be at least twice as high up as the fall Mick Foley took off the Hell in a Cell. The ring below had tables stacked 4-high to break his fall, but Grimes ended up missing most of the tables when New Jack overshot him. Perhaps on purpose. Grimes missed all but the corner tables at the edge of the ring before coming down on the corner turnbuckles. After the bump, they tried to rush fans out of the arena since it was almost 1am and gave many the impression Grimes life was in danger. But he was surprisingly okay and was walking around backstage after, although he was definitely banged up. Grimes was really nervous about the bump earlier in the day, as you might expect and Dave says he's pretty damn lucky he didn't miss the ring because he almost certainly would have died if he took that bump straight to the floor. Elsewhere on the show, there was a match where porn star Lizzy Borden (wife of XPW promoter Rob Black) faced another porn star, Veronica Caine, in a match that was supposed to end only when someone was stripped totally naked. But right before it happened, the lights went out and the women were rushed out of the ring and when fans realized they'd been ripped off, they were so pissed the arena feared a riot. (Anyway, here's the bump and yeah....Grimes very easily could have died from this. No mention from Dave on the fact that New Jack also tazed him before this)

WATCH: Air Grimes goes long

• Shane Douglas is expected to take over as XPW booker when his WCW contract with Time Warner expires next month.
  
• Former WCW journeyman wrestler Chip Minton's primary career was bobsledding. He only wrestled in WCW occasionally while doing that, primarily as a jobber on the C-shows. Minton was part of the US bobsledding team in both the 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics and was planning to compete this year, but failed to make the team. Soon after that, he failed a steroid test and has been suspended from the sport for 2 years.
  
• Remember a couple weeks ago, it was mentioned that Roddy Piper was in a car accident but he was playing down how serious it was? Turns out....very serious. Piper suffered 4 broken ribs, one of which punctured his liver and nearly killed him. He also suffered severe back injuries and shattered his ankle. Piper was taken to the hospital and was near death but obviously, he managed to pull through and has still been making all his appearances for XWF in recent days. (Yeah I think in Piper's autobiography, he dedicates the book to the guy who saved his life by rushing him to the hospital and even says he was clinically dead for a few moments. Then again, Piper was like a lot of those old time guys and was prone to exaggeration, so who knows).
  
• Eric Bischoff is teaming up with Mark Burnett, the producer of the hit show Survivor, to produce a MMA reality show called Skien. From Dave's understanding, it will basically be a reality show with K-1 kickboxers leading up to a PPV event. (Here's an article about it from Variety at the time, but this ends up going nowhere).
  

WATCH: Variety article on Eric Bischoff's new reality show

• Notes from Raw: only one thing really notable, they filmed a segment at referee Tim White's bar The Friendly Tap. The bar really is owned by White and WWF pretty much always films angles there when they're in town (Providence, RI). This time, the skit featured the APA going into the bar to drink and the bar was filled by a bunch of gay men and drag queens (played by a bunch of wrestlers from indie promotion Chaotic Wrestling) while the APA guys acted all grossed out by it all. Then Billy and Chuck attacked them. Dave thinks this played on all the typical homophobic stereotypes and he seems pretty irritated by it. Anyway, among the wrestlers from Chaotic were Todd Sinclair (better known now as ROH's senior official), Rich Palladino (ring announcer for Beyond now) and John Walters (indie wrestler and former ROH Pure champion).
  
• Next week's Smackdown hasn't aired yet but it was taped and Dave has details. Notably, this is the episode where Austin chases down the NWO and tries to shoot them with a net gun. Dave says this was a mess, with the gun going off but no net being fired from it and they'll have to fix the whole thing in post-production. It went horribly when they filmed it and it aired for the live crowd and it killed the crowd and basically forced them to improvise on the spot (on one of the Something To Wrestle podcasts, Bruce Prichard tells this story and how frustrated they were with this net gun being a piece of shit). This episode also featured Stephanie yelling at Chris Jericho for getting her the wrong hand lotion and Booker T and Edge feuding over a Japanese shampoo commercial. (Rock/Hogan was great, but man, the build for everything else at Wrestlemania 18 suuuuuucked.)
  
• Prototype won the OVW title from Leviathan at the latest OVW tapings. After the match, they did an angle to set up David Flair as the #1 contender for the title. Prototype's only singles loss in OVW came last week, when Flair beat him, so there ya go (this video covers ALL of that. The FlaiCena match, the Leviathan match, the post-match angle, etc).
  

WATCH: Prototype vs. Leviathan for OVW title - 2002

• Wall Street Journal did an article talking about the decline in Smackdown's ratings, saying they were down 28% from last year and down 42% from the year before that. The article blamed it on Smackdown changing networks. Here's the thing though....it hasn't. Raw changed networks in 2000. Smackdown has been on UPN since its debut. Also, UPN has grown overall in ratings while Smackdown has declined. So....no. It's just because the show sucks now.
  
• Charlie Haas, fresh off returning to the ring and winning the HWA title after the death of his brother, tore his ACL this week. He just had surgery and will be out 4-6 months. Rough few months for that dude.
  
• A Washington newspaper did a story on James Dudley, who you may know as....WWF Hall of Famer James Dudley and little else. On-screen, he's never really done much. But Dave says Dudley started working for Vince Sr. back in the 1940s, when Sr. was a boxing promoter, and was essentially his Vince Sr.'s driver and assistant. Dudley did a lot of odd jobs for the company during those early years, working ticket booths and stuff like that, but to most people, he was just kinda known as Vince Sr.'s limo driver. So when he was indicted into the WWF Hall of Fame a few years ago, it was a pretty controversial decision among a lot of people, given that someone like Bruno Sammartino isn't in, by the company's limo driver is. Anyway, before his death, Vince Sr. made Vince Jr. promise to take care of Dudley and keep him on the payroll. So for the last 18 years or so, even though he doesn't work for the company, Vince McMahon has continued to pay him a salary. He also bought him a new car as a gift some years back.
  
• Billy and Chuck's recent tag team title win makes Billy Gunn the most decorated tag team wrestler in WWF history, as he's now held the tag titles 9 times (3 as part of the Smoking Gunns, 5 as part of New Age Outlaws, and now once with he and Chuck). The previous record was Mick Foley, with 8. (to the best of my research, if we're only talking WWF/WWE tag title reigns, that record is now held by Edge).
  
• USA Network CEO Barry Diller took part in a lecture at Syracuse University and talked about losing the WWF to TNN. When asked why it happened, he responded, "Because I'm a dope." He said he didn't fight hard enough to keep the WWF and admitted the loss hurt, but also said it may have been the best thing for them in the long-run because pro wrestling doesn't really fit the direction they're planning to take the network. He said wrestling fans came for wrestling and left immediately after it was over and there was never any cross-over fans who stuck around to watch the next show or anything like that. He said they could never figure out what to connect wrestling to within the rest of their properties.
  
• WWF held a try out camp in Cincinnati and reportedly, nobody was particularly impressive, including AJ Styles. The knock on Styles was that he's average looking and too small. Wrestler Sonny Siaki was said to be the most impressive, but he also rubbed people the wrong way with his attitude so probably not gonna make the cut this time. Matt Morgan, who was on the Tough Enough casting special last season got a tryout and since he has no formal training, he was pretty awful but he's big so Dave seems to think he'll get a chance anyway. The other one they were impressed by was a woman named Erin Bray, who was one of the final 25 picked for the original Tough Enough. But then some other contestants spotted her out on a date with one of the show's judges and they threw a fit, which resulted in Bray not making the final 13. Another wrestler, Travis Tomko, is a guy who has worked some indies and is a former bodyguard for Limp Bizkit ("Tomko, gimme a beat." "No.")
  
• Rock was a presenter at the NAACP Awards and Dave thinks he looked pretty great for a guy who was almost murdered in an ambulance by the NWO a few days earlier. Cheeky Dave is just the best.
  
• Speaking of, Dave throws in a random paragraph to backhandedly shit on Kevin Nash. For years, people in the business joked that Lex Luger made the most money with the least ability or drawing power of anyone ever in wrestling. Dave says it's gotta be Nash. For example, Nash is not wrestling and is only going to be in Hall's corner for the match at Wrestlemania (his knees really are giving him problems), but he has been promised that he's going to get the same type of payoff as if he was the guy in the match working with Austin in the semi-main event. Not to mention all the huge contracts he signed in WCW, or how he got a huge-by-WWF-standards deal here, plus got Vince to cave to almost all his other demands regarding schedule and bringing back Scott Hall, among other things. (I mean, while Dave is being kind of a dick here, I don't think he's really wrong either. When it comes to top draws in the history of the business, Nash isn't anywhere near even the top 10 or 20. And he's never exactly been a great wrestler. But since the 90s, Nash always managed to make sure he gets PAID like he's in that upper echelon. Nash is one of those very few wrestlers who isn't entranced by the fame or the fake accolades. He treats wrestling for what it is: a business. It's the way they pay their mortgages and buy groceries, just like you and me at our jobs. I love it. I laugh my ass off every time I hear "Brock Lesnar signed a huge new contract to only work 6 matches a year." Good for him. I hope he gets even more money for less dates next year. You should always know your worth and never let your employer take you for anything less. Nash has always been one of the guys to do that and he's probably going to die comfortably in a nice house while these other guys from his era are still clinging to fame at 60 years old doing $300 indie shows on crippled knees. Anyway, that's my soapbox). Dave seems to feel the same way and admits, love him or hate him, you gotta give Nash credit for being one of the smartest guys in the biz.
  
• Fear Factor featuring the Hardyz, Lita, Test, Molly Holly, and Jacquelyn aired this week. First they had to climb up a rope ladder hanging from a helicopter over the river and they all made it up except Jeff Hardy who slipped near the top and fell (knowing Jeff, he probably purposely let go so he could take the big fall for fun). Lita also got eliminated for being the slowest one up the ladder. Next they had to chug a gross drink that included bile, rooster testicals, spleen, and some animal brains all blended together. Molly Holly almost vomited after one sip and was out. Jackie and Matt succeeded. Test refused to even try. So then it came down to Matt vs. Jackie and they had to walk across the tops of high poles and move flags around. Matt Hardy ended up winning the whole thing and won $50,000 for charity.
  

WATCH: WWF stars on Fear Factor, Pt. 1
WATCH: WWF stars on Fear Factor, Pt. 2
WATCH: WWF stars on Fear Factor, Pt. 3

• Sunday Night Heat is being converted into one of the B-shows like Metal and Jakked. Awhile back, they started airing Heat from the WWF New York restaurant but the production costs of that were high. So in a cost-cutting move, they're just gonna tape dark matches and throw them on Heat the same way they do those other shows, featuring all the nobodies that can't ever get TV time on the main shows.
  
• As mentioned last week, Scott Hall has been taking a drug called Antabuse, which makes him violently sick when he drinks or even smells alcohol. It caused him to get sick after Raw last week when Austin poured beer all over him in a bit after the cameras were off. Hall has said he is clean and has been clean for awhile, except for the incident a couple weeks ago where he fell off the wagon. Others are skeptical and question if Hall only takes his medication on TV days and needless to say, there's some doubt here.
  
• Everywhere he goes, Brian Christopher has been telling people he's coming back to WWF after Wrestlemania, but contrary to what he's saying, Dave says there are zero plans for that (indeed, it does not happen).
  

FRIDAY: More on WWA's PPV disaster, the landscape for any new promotion attempting to start up, WWF huge show in Japan, WWF loses appeal over "WWF" initials, Bret Hart given offer for Wrestlemania 18, and tons more...

The Date is 8/21/2288
Introduction: Let's say you are in Fallout and you walk into a bar. Depending on which Fallout Title you find yourself in the alcohol selection and cocktails may change. I'm going to list cocktails that would still be possible to make in Post-Apocalyptic America along with their Availability and Price in Caps. And thanks to [dwill2168] from GameFAQs I will also be providing a price in USD. [dwill2168] was able to find the value of a Cap in USD (2009) 1 Cap = .69 cents & 1 Dollar = 1.44 caps. This will help show you how the value of each cocktail has changed in Post-Apocalyptic America.
​
1. Nuka-Ria
a. Red Wine Glass (No Ice)
b. Use Diced Mutfruit & Tarberries instead of Ice
c. Fill 2/3rds with Red Wine
d. Top with 1/3 Nuka-Cola Orange
e. Garnish with 3 thin slices of Mutfruit
<>
Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas Sarsapa(gria) Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallout 4: 8 Caps | $11.52
Fallout 76: 11 Caps | $15.84
Fallout 76: Blackberry Alternative: 12 Caps | $17.28
​
Info: The Nuka-Ria and Sarsapagria are the Post-Apocalyptic versions of the Sangria. It seems that Post-Apocalyptic America is severely lacking citrus fruits like Oranges, Lemons, Limes, Grapefruits, Pineapples etc. So Nuka-Orange or Sunset Sarsaparilla was used in place of the Orange Juice and Lemon Lime Soda. Peaches were replaced by Tarberries, and Barrel Cactus Fruit or Mutfruit can be used if you don't have any Fresh Apples. Don't forget to try the Blackberry Alternative If you're visiting Appalachia.
​
1. Sarsapagria (Alternative)
a. Red Wine Glass (No Ice)
b. Use Diced Fresh Apple & Barrel Cactus Fruit instead of Ice
c. Fill 2/3rds with Red Wine
d. Top with 1/3 Sunset Sarsaparilla
e. Garnish with 3 thin slices of Fresh Apple
(Description: This cocktail should appear Yellow-Orange in appearance with the skins of the diced red apple pieces being semi-visible)
​
2. Whiskey & Water
a. Small Rocks glass (With Ice)
b. Add 2oz Whiskey
c. Top with Purified Water
<>
Fallout 3: 3 Caps | $4.32
Fallout 3: "Dirty Whiskey" Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32
Fallout 3: Aqua Pura Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88
Fallout New Vegas: 3 Caps | $4.32
Fallout New Vegas Dixon's Whiskey Alternative: 5 Caps | $7.20
Fallout New Vegas: "Dirty Whiskey" Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32
Fallout New Vegas: "Dirty Dixon" Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32
Fallout 4: 4 Caps | $5.76
Fallout 4: Bourbon Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Fallout 4: "Dirty Whiskey" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88
Fallout 4: "Dirty Bourbon" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88
Fallout 4: "Drugged Whiskey" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88
Fallout 4: "Drugged Bourbon" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88
Fallout 4: Aqua Pura Alternative: 1 Cap | $1.44
Fallout 4: Aqua Pura & Bourbon Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88
Fallout 4: Institute Water Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32
Fallout 4: Bourbon & Institute Water Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32
Fallout 76: 4 Caps | $5.76
Fallout 76: Bourbon Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76
Fallout 76: "Dirty Whiskey" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88
Fallout 76: "Dirty Bourbon" Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88
Fallout 76: "Whiskey & Toxic" Alternative: 1 Cap | $1.44
Fallout 76: "Bourbon & Toxic" Alternative: 1 Cap | $1.44
​
Info: Due to the lack of ingredients in the wasteland, Whiskey & Water might have gained some popularity. This cocktail is cheap yet refreshing since it comes with Ice. However, cocktails that come with ice will be much less accessible to those living in the wasteland since it requires electricity to make. Ice-based cocktails will probably only be available to purchase in major cities like New Vegas, Vault City, Diamond City, Megaton, Good Neighbor and even some of the larger settlements of the wasteland. Some cocktails will use nicknames based on their ingredients like a "Drugged Whiskey" which uses Drugged Water and Whiskey as it's main ingredients.
​
3. The Washington Apple
a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice)
b. Add 1.3oz of Whiskey to Cocktail Shaker
c. Add 1.3oz of Mutfruit Schnapps to Cocktail Shaker
d. Add 1.3oz of Cranberry Juice to Cocktail Shaker
e. Add Ice Shake and Pour
f. Garnish with a slice of Mutfruit
<>
Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas: N/A
Fallout 4 Tarberry Juice Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Fallout 76: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallout 76 Tarberry Juice Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
​
Info: Notice Fallout 4 can only make an alternate version of The Washington Apple using Tarberry Juice. Sure it costs more and you might even soak up a few Rads, but most would agree that the taste of Tarberries is much better than Cranberries.
​
4. Bloody Larry
a. Cocktail Glass (With Ice)
b. 1.5oz Vodka
c. 0.5oz Brahmin or Bighorner Bouillon
d. Top with Homemade Clamato or Tato Juice
e. Garnish with a Carrot stick
<>
Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas: 11 Caps | $15.84
Fallout 4: 14 Caps | $20.16 [Add Bacon for 1 Cap | $1.44]
Fallout 76: 11 Caps | $15.84
​
Info: The Bloody Larry is similar to a Bloody Mary. Unfortunately the cocktail is quickly going out of style in the wasteland due to the extinction of Tomato's (and Potatoes) in 2287. People were then forced to switched to the mutated hybrid Tato. Tato now fills the role of Tomato's and Potatoes for most of the eastern United States making the Bloody Larry possible to make still but the cost is steep. The Bloody Larry got it's name in New Vegas sometime after The First Battle of Hoover Dam. A seemingly wealthy man by the name of Larry had taken up residence in the Gomorrah. Larry quickly became a frequent customer at the Brimstone Bar where he could always be found drinking a Bloody Mary. Well one day before Larry had arrived for his usual, a mysterious man in a long trench coat was at the Brimstone having a drink. Upon Larry's arrival The Mysterious Stranger jumped up out of his chair, pulled out a Revolver and shot Larry dead. It was unclear why The Mysterious Stranger killed Larry as he seemingly disappeared in the commotion that ensued after Larry was shot. However things quickly came to light once Larry's personal items were recovered. Wedding rings, lockets, pocket watches and more all matched the descriptions of missing persons from a once occupied town a few miles south of New Vegas. Since the incident, the cocktail has forever been referred to as the Bloody Larry. However, if you were to visit New Vegas today you may notice that the Bloody Larry no longer contains Tomato. But due to it's popularity the casinos of New Vegas have done everything in their power to try to mimic the Bloody Larry with new ingredients. Although most agree it just doesn't taste the same.
​
5. Blackberry Lemon Drop
a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice)
b. Add 2oz of Vodka to Cocktail Shaker
c. Muddle Blackberries in Cocktail Shaker
d. Add 2oz of Lemonade to Cocktail Shaker
e. Add Ice, Shake and Pour
f. Garnish with Blackberries on a toothpick
<>
Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas: N/A
Fallout 4: N/A'
Fallout 76: 5 Caps | $7.20
​
Info: The Blackberry Lemon Drop is similar to the Blueberry Lemon Drop. However, because there are no Lemons for trade, Lemonade must be purchased from Mr. Squeeze. Ironically, it doesn't contain any Lemons as Mr. Squeeze says he uses alternate ingredients to make it taste like lemonade.
​
6. Mut-Berry Martini
a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice)
b. Add 3oz of Vodka to the Cocktail Shaker
c. Muddle Tarberries in Cocktail Shaker
d. Add 1oz of Mutfruit Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker
e. Add Ice, Shake or Stir & Pour
f. Garnish with a slice of Mutfruit
<>
Fallout 3 "Mutfruit Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Fallout 3 "Apple Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Fallout 3 "Pear Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Fallout New Vegas "Mutfruit Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Fallout New Vegas "Apple Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Fallout New Vegas "Pear Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Fallout New Vegas "Prickly Pear Martini" Alternative: 5 Caps | $7.20
Fallout New Vegas "Barrel Cactus Fruit Martini" Alternative: 8 Caps | $11.52
Fallout New Vegas "Banana Yucca Fruit Martini" Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallout New Vegas "Mojave Martini" Alternative: 11 Caps | $15.84
Fallout 4: 12 Caps | $17.28
Fallout 4 "Mutfruit Martini" Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76
Fallout 4 "Melon Martini" Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76
Fallout 4 "Tartini" Alternative: 12 Caps | $17.28
Fallout 4 "Gourds & Cream Martini" Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallout 76: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallout 76 "Mutfruit Martini" Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76
Fallout 76 "Melon Martini" Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32
Fallout 76 "Tartini" Alternative: 5 Caps | $7.20
Fallout 76 "Cranberry Martini" Alternative: 5 Caps | $7.20
Fallout 76 "Gourd Spice Martini" Alternative: 8 Caps | $11.52
Fallout 76 "Pumpkin Spice Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Fallout 76 "Blackberry Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Fallout 76 "Starlight Martini" Alternative: 9 Caps | $12.96
Fallout 76 "Mothman Martini" Alternative: 11 Caps | $15.84
​
Info: Martinis will still be a thing in Post Apocalyptic America. However with Vermouth being impractical to make and hard to find, you will have to say goodbye to the Classic Martini. Only flavored Martinis will be available in the wasteland. For those visiting New Vegas, if you didn't like the new version of the Bloody Larry you should consider trying a Mojave Martini before leaving town. If anyone out there truly loves Martini's I highly recommend you visit Appalachia. That region is home to a large variety of fruits making it a perfect place to drink some Martini's.
​

1. Mojave Martini (Alterative)

a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice)
b. Add 1oz of Vodka to the Cocktail Shaker
c. Muddle Prickly Pear Flesh in Cocktail Shaker
d. Add 1oz of Barrel Cactus Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker
e. Add 1oz of Banana Yucca Fruit Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker
e. Add Ice, Shake or Stir & Pour
f. Garnish with a Prickly Pear Wheel
(Description: This cocktail's appearance will be dominated by the muddled prickly pears, appearing Purple-Red in color. The prickly pear wheel garnish should be Green, showing off the White-Yellow insides with the seeds)
​

1. Pumpkin Spice Martini (Alterative)

a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice)
b. Add 2oz of Vodka to the Cocktail Shaker
d. Add 1oz of Pumpkin Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker
e. Add 1/2oz of Cream to the Cocktail Shaker
e. Add 1/2oz of Pumpkin Puree to the Cocktail Shaker
e. Add Ice, Shake & Pour
f. Garnish with Homemade Whipped Sweet Cream topped with a pinch of Spices
(Description: The Pumpkin Spice Martini should resemble pumpkin pie with an Opaque Orange color topped with Homemade Whipped Sweet Cream and Spices)
​

1. Mothman Martini (Alterative)

a. Cocktail Glass (No Ice)
b. Add 1.5oz of Vodka to the Cocktail Shaker
c. Add. 1oz Starlight Fruit Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker
d. Add 1oz of Firecracker Fruit Schnapps to the Cocktail Shaker
e. Add 1/2oz Lemonade to the Cocktail Shaker
f. Add 1/4oz Mothman Eggwhites to the Cocktail Shaker
e. Add Ice, Shake & Pour
f. Garnish with Starlight Fruit on a Toothpick
(Description: This cocktail should have a perfect orange hue to it. Paired with the Yellow Starlight Fruit Garnish, the Mothman Martini would be perfect for Halloween)
​
7. Root Beer Rum Float
a, Pint Glass (No Ice)
b. Add 1 Scoop of Homemade Iced Cream to Pint Glass
c. Add 2oz Rum
d. Add 6oz of Nuka-Wild
<>
Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas: N/A
Fallout 4: 20 Caps | $28.80
Fallout 4 "Nuka-Cola Float" Alternative: 20 Caps | $28.80
Fallout 4 "Vim Float" Alternative: 20 Caps | $28.80
Fallout 76: [Unaffordable]
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Info: Though still probably unaffordable at 20 Caps, the Root Beer Rum Float is proof that if you have enough Caps, you can indulge in some of the delicacies of the Wasteland. If you're visiting Appalachia you can still gather the supplies to make your own Homemade Iced Cream but at a huge cost since Brahmin milk is much more expensive there.
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8. Black & Tan
a. Pint Glass (No Ice)
b. Add 8oz of Ale to Glass
c. Layer 8oz of Stout on top of Ale
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Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas: N/A
Fallout 4: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallout 76: 7 Caps | $10.08
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Info: This cocktail is simple and does not require Ice to make or drink so it might gain a lot of popularity in Post Apocalyptic America.
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9. Rum & Cola
a. Rocks Glass (With Ice)
b. Add 2oz Rum
c. Fill with 2.5oz of Nuka-Cola
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Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas: N/A
Fallout 4: N/A
Fallout 76: 11 Caps | $15.84
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Info: If you thought Rum & Cola would be a thing in the wasteland then you thought wrong. Nuka-Cola and Vim cost about 20 caps per bottle making it difficult for bars to work with. However, in Appalachia the cost of a basic Nuka-Cola is only 10 Caps. Though this is much cheaper in comparison to other cities, if I'm paying 11 Caps I'd rather get a Mothman Martini.
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10. New Vegas Bomb
a. 2oz Shot Glass
b. Add 1oz of Vodka to Shot Glass
c. Add 1/4oz Barrel Cactus Fruit Schnapps to Shot Glass
d. Add 3/4oz Prickly Pear Juice
e. Fill a Rocks Glass with 8oz of Sunset Sarsaparilla
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Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas: 4 Caps | $5.76
Fallout 4: "Boston Bomb" Alternative: 12 Caps | $17.28
Fallout 76: "Firecracker Bomb" Alternative: 14 Caps | $20.16
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Info: The New Vegas Bomb is the Post Apocalyptic version of the Vegas Bomb. In prewar times the Vegas Bomb was often drank in what was considered the "New Vegas" area. So to be fair, it should be called the New New Vegas Bomb.
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1. Boston Bomb (Alternative)

a. 2oz Shot Glass
b. Add 1oz of Whiskey to Shot Glass
c. Add 1/4oz Mutfruit Schnapps to Shot Glass
d. Add 3/4oz Tarberry Juice
e. Fill a Rocks Glass with 8oz of Nuka-Bombdrop
(Description: This Mutfruit and Tarberry cocktail gets it's name from the bomb that destroyed Boston in 2077, the one that many believe created the Glowing Sea)
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1. Firecracker Bomb (Alternative)

a. 2oz Shot Glass
b. Add 1oz of Whiskey to Shot Glass
c. Add 1/4oz Firecracker Schnapps to Shot Glass
d. Add 3/4oz Cranberry Juice
e. Fill a Rocks Glass with 8oz of Nuka-Cherry
(Description: This cocktail gets its name from the exploding fruit that is native to the region. Don't worry though, they're safe to consume once picked)
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11. Cherry Berry Fizz
a. Collins Glass (With Ice)
b. 2oz Vodka
c. 2.5oz Tarberry Juice
d. 2.5oz Nuka-Cherry
e. Garnish with Tarberries on a Toothpick
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Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas: N/A
Fallout 4: 15 Caps | 21.60
Fallout 76: 8 Caps | $11.52
Fallout 76 "Cherry-Cranberry Fizz" Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallut 76 "Black-Cherry Fizz" Alternative: 10 Caps | $14.40
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Info: This cocktail is sweet and refreshing, a perfect choice if you're visiting Nuka-World. It's definitely not cheap, but you're in Nuka-World, you're on vacation! I hope...
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1. Black-Cherry Fizz (Alternative)

a. Collins Glass (With Ice)
b. 2oz Vodka
c. 2.5oz Blackberry Juice
d. 2.5oz Nuka-Cherry
e. Garnish with Blackberries on a Toothpick
(Description: Unlike the Red Cherry-Berry Fizz the Black-Cherry Fizz uses Blackberries instead of Tarberries making it's appearance Purple)
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12. Liquor & Juice
a. Rocks Glass (With Ice)
b. 1.5z Vodka
c. 3oz Apple Juice
d. Garnish with a slice of Apple
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Fallout 3: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallout 3 Mutfruit Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallout New Vegas: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallout New Vegas Mutfruit Alternative: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallout 4 Mutfruit Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76
Fallout 4 Tarberry Alternative: 11 Caps | $15.84
Fallout 4 Melon Alternative: 2 Caps | $2.88
Fallout 76 Mutfruit Alternative: 4 Caps | $5.76
Fallout 76 Tarberry Alternative: 5 Caps | $7.20
Fallout 76 Cap Codder Alternative: 3 Caps | $4.32
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Info: Another wasteland favorite, Liquor & Juice is a step up from Whiskey & Water. And if you're careful about what you buy you can get away without spending much.
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13. B.O.S.sy Boy
a. Rocks Glass (With Ice)
b. Add 1.5oz Vodka
c. Add 0.5oz Lemonade
d. Top with 2.5oz of Experimental Tea
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Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas: N/A
Fallout 4: 9 Caps | 12.96
Fallout 76: N/A
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Info: The Bossy Boy got it's name from the Brotherhood of Steel Faction who are responsible for making the Experimental Plant. Though some claim it's addictive, it's probably not something that concerns you if you're drinking it with Alcohol.
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14. Pink Panty Dropper
a. Rocks Glass (With Ice)
b. Add 1.5oz Vodka
c. Add 0.5oz Tarberry Juice
d. Add 1.5oz Lemonade
e, Add 1oz Lager
f. Garnish with Tarberries on a Toothpick
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Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas; N/A
Fallout 4: 4 Caps | $5.76
Fallout 76: 3 Caps | $4.32
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Info: This cocktail is perfect to get the night started. It's relatively cheap and tastes delicious. Though the original recipe does call for Strawberries, Tarberries will have to do for now.
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15. Brave Brahmin
a. Rocks Glass (With Ice)
b. 1.5oz Tequila
c. 1/4oz Ant Nectar or Sugar
d. 2 3/4oz Black Coffee
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Fallout 3: N/A
Fallout New Vegas: 7 Caps | $10.08
Fallout 4: N/A
Fallout 76: 7 Caps | $10.08
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Info: The Brave Brahmin is similar to the Brave Bull, and with Citrus being almost non-existent the Brave Brahmin is a nice change of pace since it's a Tequila Cocktail. Sure, Tequila has stood the test of time and survived the nuclear apocalypse, but clearly Margaritas have not.
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Thankyou For reading!
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The following are just a few Recipes I didn't include above
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~Fallout 4 & Fallout 76 Mutfruit Schnapps Recipe~
4 Mutfruits, Honey or Sap and 1 Bottle of Vodka = 1L Homemade Apple Schnapps
Cost to make (35 Caps | $50.40) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (70 Caps | $100.80) Cost per ounce x3 markup (3 Caps | $4.32)
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~Fallout 4 Homemeade Clamato Recipe~
1 Carrot, 1 Softshell Mirelurk Meat, 3 Tatos, 1 Thistle = 1L Homemade Clamato
Cost to make (54 Caps | $77.76) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (108 Caps | $155.52) Cost per ounce x3 markup (5 Caps | $7.20)
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~Fallout 76 Homemeade Clamato Recipe~
1 Carrot, 1 Softshell Mirelurk Meat, 3 Tatos, 1 Thistle, Salt, Pepper = 1L Homemade Clamato
Cost to make (47 Caps | $67.68) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (94 Caps | $135.36) Cost per ounce x3 markup (4 Caps | $5.76)
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~Fallout New Vegas Homemeade Clamato Recipe~
1 Carrot, 5 Jalapeño's, 1 Honey Mesquite Pod, 1 Tablespoon of Thin Red Paste = 1L Homemade Clamato
Cost to make (48 Caps | $69.12) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (96 Caps | $138.24) Cost per ounce x3 markup (4 Caps | $5.76)
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~Fallout 4 Homemade Cream Recipe~
3/4 Cup Brahmin Milk, 1/3 Cup Industrial Shortening = 1 Cup/8oz Heavy Cream
Cost to make (9 Caps | $12.96) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (18 Caps | $25.92) Cost per ounce x3 markup (3 Caps | $4.32)
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~Fallout 76 Homemade Cream Recipe~
3/4 Cup Brahmin Milk, 1/3 Cup Industrial Shortening = 1 Cup/8oz Heavy Cream
Cost to make (24 Caps | $34.56) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (48 Caps | $69.12) Cost per ounce x3 markup (9 Caps | $12.96)
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~Fallout 4 Homemade Whipped Sweet Cream Recipe~
1/4 cup Water, 1 Cup Brahmin Milk, 1/4 Cup Sap = 2 Cups/16oz Whipped Sweet Cream [182 Servings]
Cost to make (26 Caps | $37.44) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (52 Caps | $74.88) Cost per serving x3 markup (1 Cap | $1.44)
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~Fallout 76 Homemade Whipped Sweet Cream Recipe~
1/4 cup Water, 1 Cup Brahmin Milk, 1/4 Cup Sugar = 2 Cups/16oz Whipped Sweet Cream [182 Servings]
Cost to make (44 Caps | $63.36) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (88 Caps | $126.72) Cost per serving x3 markup (1 Cap | $1.44)
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~Fallout 4 Homemade Iced Cream Recipe~
1 3/4 Cups Cream, 1 1/4 Cups Brahmin Milk 3/4 Cup Sap = 4 Cups/64oz Iced Cream
Cost to make (37 Caps | $53.28) Cost per bottle x2 markup, selling price (74 Caps | $106.56) Cost per 6oz Scoop x3 markup (10 Caps | $14.40)

Kennedy and Heidi: Vicarious Patricide as Tony’s Decompensation

At the risk of needless redundancy, I think it’s helpful to summarize Tony’s state of mind going into the episode Kennedy and Heidi. His consciousness is teeming with ancient but recently-agitated memories showcasing his father’s violence and toxic influence, like Johnny shooting a hole through Livia’s hairdo and baptizing him in the act of murder. He’s unable to shake stories of parental neglect leading to tragic outcomes for children. He’s painfully aware of Christopher’s hatred of him and desire for murderous revenge, feelings ultimately rooted in the fact that Tony guided him into the same corrupt existence into which he himself had been led by Johnny, Junior, and company, suggesting a reciprocal, if unconscious, rage by Tony towards those men. His subconscious mind is under constant assault from hats and movie posters and coffee mugs bearing the image of a bloody meat cleaver, an emblem of his own lost childhood innocence and inculcation by his father into his brutal, ugly vocation. He is racked with acute but intense guilt over the role he thinks his life’s example has played in shaping his son’s values and poor sense of self-worth. And he is still repressing a mountain of hurt over the fact that his uncle and second father tried not once but twice to kill him, a repression Melfi warned would someday result in a total collapse of his defense mechanisms, that is, a collapse of his paternal hero-worship and related quest for the macho validation that has prevented him from critically examining his father, uncle, and the men upon whom he modeled his life.
Now consider the circumstances immediately before the crash. Tony and Chris are on a routine drive back from business in Christopher’s new black Cadillac SUV (the first Cadillac Chris has ever owned, incidentally.) The conversation turns to life priorities. Chris, conspicuously clad in a Cleaver hat, specifically mentions how Kaitlyn has changed his priorities, and Tony mentions the “shit with Junior”. So the context is immediately pregnant with the fact that Junior shot and nearly killed Tony within the past year and with the fact that Chris is in a new place of responsibility, a position where he is, for the first time, truly the custodian and trustee for another life.
In a perfectly-timed illustration of just how ill-equipped Chris is to live up to those responsibilities, he nervously and repeatedly fiddles with the car stereo, fidgets, and widens his eyes, telegraphing to Tony that he is high as a kite on drugs. “Comfortably Numb” swells on the sound system as Tony stares at him, the lyrics underscoring that, in that moment, he does not see Chris as a youngster, as the “adorable kid” he once road around in the basket of his bicycle, but as a grown man:
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse Out of the corner of my eye I turned to look but it was gone I cannot put my finger on it now The child is grown, the dream is gone
Chris swerves, and the crash happens seconds later.

Tony as the Child in the Carseat

It’s critical to note that Tony initially manifests every intention of helping Chris, even as he’s fighting his own injuries. “I’m comin’,” he says as Chris asks for help. His expression and demeanor only change when he realizes what Chris means by “help”. “I’ll never pass a drug test,” Chris moans. “What?” Tony asks incredulously as Chris is inhaling his own blood. Almost simultaneously, Tony turns towards the back and sees that a tree limb has penetrated the passenger compartment, lodging in Kaitlyn’s car seat like a spear. While Tony would somewhat exaggerate the size of the branch in later narrations of the event, there’s no question that it was large enough to have impaled or seriously injured an infant.
Even after this warning shot over the bow, Tony apparently intends to help Chris, coming over to the driver’s side and breaking the window when he couldn’t get the door open. He draws his cell phone to call for help but stops when Chris again mentions being doped up, which suggests that Chris is more concerned about the legal consequences of his intoxication than about the fact that he is drowning in his own blood, completely belying his claim to a life newly ordered around the lofty priority of fatherhood.
That’s the moment when Tony forms a genuine murderous intent, an intent that has little to do with Christopher’s animosity towards him or the danger that he might flip. Those are conscious, background motives that help Tony rationalize and make sense of his actions later. But the factor impelling him to end Christopher’s life is his own, fundamental identification with the child who might just as easily have been killed or seriously harmed in that carseat.
To objectify this point, there is a slow pan of the limb sticking through the seat as Tony performs the suffocation, clearly not a shot representing Tony’s vision or gaze at that moment but objectively corroborating the earlier angle when Tony glances back and we see the seat from his point of view. The juxtaposition of these shots – subjective and objective – tells me the carseat is not just a convenient excuse for Tony. This is what he’s really feeling. In this moment, he is the phantom child in that carseat, a child whose safety and well-being come second to his father’s corrupt values and reckless self-indulgence, a child whose soul and humanity are metaphorically impaled by riding in and being taught to drive his father’s black Cadillac.
The exclamation point on the symbolism is provided by Christopher’s hat. Incredibly, it remains on his head throughout the crash and suffocation, its bloody cleaver logo pointing towards Tony when the car comes to rest. As Tony acts consciously on behalf of an innocent child, the symbol of his own lost childhood innocence is directly before him. And, for good measure, the cap and logo stare back at him in the hospital from the gurney laden with Christopher’s bloody clothing and the black bag containing his dead body. (The logo antagonizes Tony a final time from his coffee mug the next morning before he angrily tosses the mug into his backyard woods.)
Several points about the suffocation itself are remarkable. First was the look of absolute depravity on Tony’s face as he watched Christopher struggle to breathe. This look was unlike any ever seen on Tony’s face at any other moment in the series. Even when committing other personal and deadly acts of violence, his face and demeanor had always betrayed a commensurate level of animus, an active, passionate intent. In contrast, he reached through the window and pinched Christopher’s nose – and maintained that hold – with remarkable calm. His face and eyes throughout the suffocation were paradoxically both incredibly intense and completely devoid of human emotion, a look far more disturbing than any look of mere rage he’d ever worn before.
Second, although this act was, in my judgment, clearly about the release of Tony’s pent up rage towards his father figures, the method of killing evokes Livia. Besides her conspiracy with Junior to kill Tony (which she rationalized was for his own good) and general obsession with stories of child deaths, she had once threatened to “smother [her children] with a pillow” to save them from a fate she deemed even worse. Tony grabbed a pillow intending to smother her in the season one finale before nursing home personnel intervened. In Members Only, Tony spoke of being smothered with a pillow as a suitable form of euthanasia. Its functional equivalent at the scene of the crash had a definite vibe of putting Chris out of his own – and everyone’s – misery. So, in killing his “father”, Tony was also paradoxically suffocating his “son”, thereby channeling Livia’s filicidal urges and concept of mercy killing.
The most spine-tingling resonance with the scene comes from two season four episodes where Tony’s deep identification with “innocents” – be they children or animals – once again comes to the fore, as does his appreciation for the consequences of Chris continuing to use drugs. In Whoever Did This, Tony warns Christopher that he “can’t be high on heroine and raise kids.” And in The Strong, Silent Type, after learning that a doped-up Chris accidentally smothered and suffocated Adriana’s dog, Tony ominously snaps, “You suffocated little Cossette? I oughta suffocate you, you prick!” It’s such perfect foreshadowing that the earlier episodes seem to have been written with the outcome of Kennedy and Heidi in mind.

Righteous Retribution as the Explanation for Tony’s Lack of Sorrow

As previously noted, the most troubling aspect of the episode from the standpoint of character consistency and plausibility was not the fact that Tony murdered Chris. It was his vacuous expression during the killing and the fact that he never betrayed a moment’s genuine sorrow or regret afterwards. He remained, in fact, defiantly happy and unconflicted about it, especially to Melfi, and was sincerely troubled that neither she nor anyone else could see how Christopher’s death rescued Kaitlyn from a lifetime of risks and harm that she would naturally suffer as the daughter of a drug addict (and mob captain).
In his therapy scenes with Melfi, real and dream, Tony even makes the very contrast I raise, noting that he’s never felt this way after murdering any other person close to him. He alludes to his sorrow over Pussy and specifically allows that murdering Tony B left him “prostate [sic] with grief.” In effect, Tony himself is revealing that this killing feels righteous and justified to him on an instinctive level and is therefore not one about which he can feel guilt or sorrow.
That sentiment makes no sense if his dominant motives were those he talked about in therapy: Christopher’s animosity and resentment towards him after the Adriana hit and his drug-use and consequent risk to flip. Whatever weight those factors carry in justifying murder in the corrupt “ethics” of the mob (which, in any case, is less than the weight of the transgressions by Pussy and Tony B), they carry absolutely no legitimate moral weight outside it and could not sustain in Tony the sense of just triumph that he felt in response to Christopher’s death. What could inspire that sense of triumph is the perceived liberation of a child from a dangerous and toxic father, experienced subconsciously as vicarious retribution for the abuse and harm he himself suffered at the hands of his own father and uncle.

Significance of the Names “Kennedy” and “Heidi”

“Kennedy” and “Heidi” are the names of the young passenger and driver, respectively, in the car that sideswipes Christopher’s SUV before the fateful crash. The girls are barely onscreen a few seconds, just long enough to (somewhat artificially) learn their names in the following exchange:
Kennedy: Maybe we should go back, Heidi! Heidi: Kennedy, I’m on my learner’s permit after dark!
Much forum debate after the first airing of the episode centered around the significance, if any, of these names. I propose a related but even more basic question: why are the girls present in the scene at all?
Tony’s windfall opportunity to murder Chris and pass it off as death from accidental injury was entirely dependent upon being unobserved by others after the crash. Given Christopher’s intoxicated state and inattention to the curvy road while he fiddled with radio controls, a mere swerve and over-correction or swerve to avoid an animal (Tony’s crash with Adriana, anyone?) would have easily sufficed to trigger the accident but without the problematic involvement of another car, the driver of which would have to be made to flee the scene illegally and in contravention of the ethics and instincts of at least 95% of the motorists on the road. So the very fact that another car is involved, complicating both the story and the filming, suggests some symbolic or subtextual design to the involvement related specifically to the momentous event occurring right after the crash.
One aspect of that design is revealed and amplified when a grieving Kelly shows up at Christopher’s wake with dark hair framing her face and large, dark sunglasses covering her eyes. A member of the crew remarks, “Look at her. Like a movie star.” An odd look immediately crosses Tony’s face as he spontaneously responds, “Jackie Kennedy”, noting Kelly’s resemblance to the widow of John F. Kennedy.
In my mind, this striking moment in the episode can have only one purpose, and that’s to evoke Johnny Boy in relation to Christopher via a kind of symbolic math. If Kelly = Jackie Kennedy, then Chris = JFK = Johnny Boy since JFK was the explicit parallel figure for Johnny in In Camelot, the first episode of the series depicting cracks in the foundation of Tony’s paternal hero worship. When that foundation completely crumbles inside Tony’s subconscious a season and a half later, it’s entirely fitting that the JFK/Johnny parallel is renewed.
As for the name “Heidi”, most folks around these parts felt it was meant to evoke the idea of “orphan” because of the famous Swiss orphan tale of the same name and because Kaitlyn (and Paulie) both lost parents in the episode. That’s an entirely plausible analysis that requires no expansion, although I’m inclined to think there’s more to it than that, starting with the analogy of Tony himself to “Heidi”. No, Tony was never technically orphaned, though he arguably suffered more as the son of Johnny and Livia than if he had been. He was certainly deprived of real parental love and guidance, on both sides, and that roughly equates to the definition of “orphan”.
Before discussing this episode for the first time, I never knew that Heidi was the story of an orphan, only that it was some kind of tale for children. And I knew that only because of the epic 1968 football game between Joe Namath’s Jets and the Oakland Raiders, the climactic ending of which (an improbable comeback by the Raiders) was cut off abruptly for television viewers at the end of its scheduled broadcast slot so that a movie version of Heidi could begin airing on time. I was only four at the time of this debacle but recall my parents talking about it – and the considerable chaos it caused at NBC and at telephone switchboards around the country – for years afterwards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Game
It wouldn’t become clear until the end of Made In America, but there’s an obvious parallel to the Heidi phenomenon in the wind-up of The Sopranos. Consider that, like the Heidi Game broadcast, Made in America featured an abrupt, unexpected termination of excruciatingly tense action at a penultimate moment, pre-empting audience experience of what appeared to be an imminent and momentous climax. The Sopranos ending may not have disabled an entire telephone network, but it certainly generated an enormous amount of controversy that, for better or worse, persists to this day.
Beyond that, there were enough other football references in the final Sopranos episodes, and especially Jets references, to warrant further consideration of this football connotation for “Heidi”. In Remember When, Tony’s betting losses on Jets football games prompt his call to Hesh for a bridge loan. Later that same episode, Paulie annoys Tony and company with yet another old tale, this one relating how, after witnessing Joe Namath stagger drunk into a bar the night before a game, he bet a load of cash the following day on the Jets’ opponent. In Chasing It, Tony gets inside information on a Jets football game and is irate when Carmela refuses to bet money on it. The episode features a closeup of a large newspaper headline, “Jets Bomb Chargers”.
In Blue Comet, then-current coach of the Jets, Eric Mangini, makes a cameo appearance in Vesuvio, with Artie informing a suitably-impressed Tony so the two can go over and shake hands. News articles at the time clarified that the cameo wasn’t Mangini’s idea but the idea of Sopranos producers, who contacted him months in advance and made accommodations in the shooting schedule around his availability. So this seemed more than a casual desire to have some generic celebrity show up.
That especially seems true considering Mangini was given no dialog and that his meeting with Tony and Artie was only depicted in the silent background of a conversation between Charmaine and Carmela. Mangini’s only purpose on set was apparently to show his face briefly and to have the fact of his identity (Tony has to tell a bewildered Carm that Mangini is the head coach of the Jets) permeate the minds of the audience and the subtext of the scene, which is ultimately about chickens coming home to roost on Tony and Carmela because of the lives they chose.
As alter egos for Tony and Carmela throughout the series, folks who took the proverbial “other path” in life, Artie and (especially) Charmaine engage in subtle gloating in the scene. Football coaching was firmly established as Tony’s “road not taken” in Test Dream, so having an actual football coach present in the episode where the unsavory and downright deadly consequences of his chosen vocation are crashing in all around him provides dramatic ballast. All the better to have the coach in the scene be the coach of the team involved in the Heidi game in view of the ending planned for the following episode.
And speaking again of that ending, the wall behind Tony in Holsten’s is consumed with four large murals specifically brought in by the production crew for the shoot. The largest and most centered depicts a huge, light-colored building with lots of windows, somewhat reminiscent of the Inn at the Oaks in Tony’s coma dream. It’s apparently a high school, however, as it is flanked on either side by images of football players in full uniform with what appear to be names and year of graduation engraved at the bottom. To the side and extreme left is a mural of a tiger and the caption “Class of 1973” at the bottom. The tiger is presumably the mascot for the team and school represented in the other murals. So there is a strong symbolic presence of “football” in the last scene of the series, particularly of high school football from roughly the era when Tony would have entered high school.
Finally, though it may be completely insignificant, when Tony tells Carm about the accident from his hospital stretcher in Kennedy and Heidi, he mentions that he re-injured his knee, “the one from high school.” That certainly sounds like a reference to an old high school football injury.
If these loose strands from multiple episodes are indeed intended to connote football in relation to the name “Heidi”, what does that actually mean in the context of the episode Kennedy and Heidi? What does football have to do with Tony killing Chris or, more precisely, with him killing his father in the guise of Chris?
The linchpin in that symbolism, it seems to me, is Tony’s old high school football coach, the guy who would have been his coach when he originally injured his knee, the guy Tony dreamt repeatedly of trying to silence or kill, the guy whose puzzling duality in Test Dream suddenly makes sense when he’s viewed as a classic, Freudian composite of opposites, specifically a composite of Tony’s opposing father figures with Johnny dressed in the physiognomy of Coach Molinaro by Tony’s subconscious in order to render acceptable imagery of his latent, patricidal feelings.
If you further allow, as I do, that the Johnny look-alike shooting at Tony with a scoped rifle (ala Oswald/”Kennedy”) in that same dream is yet another Freudian “reversal into the opposite” by Tony’s subconscious to disguise his repressed paternal rage, then the Kennedy/Heidi connection is pretty clear. The names are presented proximate to the crash to connote that, in killing Chris, Tony has finally acted out the Test Dream imagery that haunted him for years: he has (symbolically) killed his father, the “Kennedy” and “Heidi” of his dream.

“He’s Dead”

In my judgment, this explains Tony’s otherwise puzzling, peyote-induced insight when he proclaims, “He’s dead,” after winning at roulette on 3 successive spins, prompting him to fall to the floor in spectacular and uncontrollable laughter. What other, real death could have inspired such a euphoric and epiphanic reaction? What real death could Tony only have appreciated while in a drug-induced, altered state of consciousness?
Many felt the line referred to Christopher because he’d just died, obviously, and because Tony’s gambling luck suddenly changed afterward. That analysis never made sense to me.
First, Tony plays roulette at the casino while sober when he first arrives in Vegas and loses every round. Chris was already dead at that time, as Tony well knew and accepted. Indeed, Tony was never in any state of denial about Christopher’s death (or about having killed him.) He embraced it, both consciously and in his dream therapy session with Melfi after the crash.
The “he’s dead” insight occurs only after Tony takes peyote and notices a sudden and complete about-face in gambling luck. Why would he need psychedelic drugs to suddenly realize what he already knew and accepted about Chris? And why would Christopher’s death be tied in his mind to his own gambling luck anyway? No prior connection between those two things had ever been suggested.
On the other hand, Tony’s sudden escalation in gambling, which coincided with the agitation and intensification of his latent rage towards his father(s), could easily be seen as a subconscious rebellion against the stern, anti-gambling lecture Johnny imparted the night Tony witnessed the cleaver incident. To the extent that the rebellion results in huge financial losses and self destruction, it obviously fails. His father retains ultimate power and authority. To the extent the rebellion results in huge winnings, it succeeds, and Tony vanquishes his father.
That conquest was the ineffable and elusive “high” that Tony was subconsciously pursuing in Chasing It but which he could not articulate to Melfi. Thus the sudden change in gambling fortune on his Vegas trip is easily tied in Tony’s drug-altered psyche to a euphoric realization that he has conquered or symbolically killed his father, none of which Tony could appreciate without a vastly altered state of consciousness.
And that leads to why he went to Vegas in the first place. He asks that question out loud to the Vegas prostitute, Sonia, immediately before admitting that Christopher once mentioned taking peyote with her. Tony then confesses to having always wanted to try the drug.
Clearly, then, he didn’t just happen to pick Vegas and didn’t just happen to make contact with this girl. His subconscious was pushing him to that venue because he craved the enlightenment of a peyote experience. So while Tony’s real motives for the murder, and for his otherwise inexplicable jubilance afterward, were completely closed off to his conscious mind, somehow he sensed their existence and yearned to unlock and understand them. However his peyote revelations didn’t stop with simply understanding why he killed Chris.

“I Get It. I Get It!”

Tony’s desert epiphany is a bookend to his near-death coma experience and, I believe, can only be fully understood in relation to it. Yet exploring that relationship is a journey all unto itself, calling not only for consideration of the coma episodes and Kennedy and Heidi but the meaning of the cut to black that ends the series. While exploring the religious and spiritual underpinnings of those episodes is of even more weight and interest to me personally than the issue of Tony’s motives in killing Christopher, it deserves and demands its own, dedicated discussion. For now, I’d simply like to posit what I strongly believe Tony’s epiphany to have been with only minimal argumentation as to why I hold that belief.
The epiphany is presaged when Tony enters the casino on his peyote trip and notes that the roulette wheel is built on the same principle as the solar system. The ball spins round and round the center or “sun” of the wheel because of two delicately-balanced but largely opposing phenomena: the momentum of the ball (which, without the wheel, would carry the ball away in a straight line) and the centripetal force of the wheel (applied by the rim, which continuously pulls the ball towards the center even as the ball’s momentum continuously pulls it on a path perpendicular to the centripetal force.) The antagonism (or cooperation, if you prefer) of the forces gives rise to a unified system: an orbit.
If this sounds a bit like the Bell Labs scientist’s explanation of how two tornadoes are in fact just facets of one, unified system of wind, it’s likely no mere coincidence. As Hal Holbrook’s character argued, separateness is a mirage. The universe, and everything in it, is one big soup of molecules interacting in cause/effect fashion according to laws, making it one whole, not a bunch of discrete parts. “Everything is everything,” as the black rapper reduced it.
That was the philosophy that really made an impression on Tony in the days and weeks following his coma. The principles of quantum physics articulated by Holbrook’s character are likely as close as you can get to a scientific codification of Bhuddism and therefore reinforced much of what the Bhuddist monks conveyed to Tony in his coma. The monks laughed when Tony claimed he wasn’t Finnerty and explained that there really is no “you” and “me, that death would bring an obliteration of individuality. Separate consciousness – and the consciousness of separateness – is an illusion of the living.
So all this laid the philosophical groundwork for Tony’s Las Vegas trip. In that trip, Tony seeks out a girl with whom Chris had slept, then sleeps with her himself. He mentions having refrained from a longstanding desire to try peyote because he always felt the weight of his responsibilities, an implied contrast to Christopher, who always indulged in drugs despite his responsibilities. The idea that Tony was seeking to almost live life in Christopher’s skin in the Las Vegas portion of the episode was something several posters mentioned in first discussions after Kennedy and Heidi aired. Even the girl, Sonia, remarks how similar Tony and Chris are, a somewhat dubious observation that somehow offends Tony but which also helps define his impending epiphany.
That epiphany is spurred when the rising sun flares at him over the desert mountain vista. This recalls Tony’s earlier comparison of the roulette wheel to the solar system. It also resonates completely with the fact that Kevin Finnerty was a solar heating salesman from Kingman, Arizona, a town which, not coincidentally, lies 95 miles southeast of Las Vegas and shares the same desert landscape. Also not coincidental, IMO, is the fact that in the prior episode, Christopher spoke of the perks of joining witness protection and of “living large” in Arizona.
So I believe that, in that desert sunrise on the cusp of Arizona, in fulfillment of his identity as Kevin Finnerty, solar heating salesman, Tony saw his “son” – Christopher – “rise” and realized that, in murdering him days before, he (Tony) was really “rising” as a “son” against Johnny Boy. And in that linkage, he suddenly realized that “everything is [indeed] everything.” He is both Chris and Johnny Boy, both abused and misguided son and abusing, misguiding father. He is murdering uncle and would-be murdered nephew. He is both the mother that sees suffocation as mercy killing and the son who is suffocated. Christopher is both his son and his father. Johnny Boy is Coach Molinaro. “Kennedy” is “Heidi”. Opposites are really two sides of the same coin. In that fleeting moment of insight, Tony was truly feeling “one” with the universe.

The Second Coming

The episode following Kennedy and Heidi is titled The Second Coming after the Yeats poem that grips AJ in the English lit class he’s auditing. While the poem speaks to the bleakness of his depression and outlook on life at that particular time, there’s little doubt that – like everything of substantial weight in the Sopranos universe – it ultimately relates, first and foremost, to Tony. First referenced in the Cold Cuts therapy session dealing with pent-up rage where Tony’s deep shame from the cleaver incident is finally revealed, the poem seems the veritable inspiration for the storyline (as interpreted in this article) that culminates in Christopher’s murder:
The Second Coming By William Butler Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight; somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
The widening gyre, the orbit that breaks down when the center can no longer hold, is clearly a parallel to the decompensation of which Melfi warned, the point at which Tony’s defenses after Junior’s second murder attempt could no longer hold and the underlying pathological rage at his fathers would take over. True to the poem, a “blood-dimmed tide was loosed”, inspired by a perverse compassion for the “innocent”. While “the best” all mourned Christopher and thought his death a tragedy, Tony, “the worst”, was full of passionate intensity and could not understand why no one else saw the greater good in Christopher’s death.
The “revelation” occurs in a “waste of desert sand”, imagery easily compatible with Tony’s “I get it” moment in the Nevada/Arizona desert. The uniquely depraved look on his face as he suffocated Christopher is evoked by the line describing a “gaze as blank and pitiless as the sun”. “Twenty years of stony sleep” refers to the decades of denial Tony maintained, the defense mechanisms that kept him all his life from confronting and admitting that, in some very real ways, he hated his father. It’s a figurative sleep that was suggested literally in the noted fact that so many episodes in season 6B started with Tony in a deep sleep. Somnolence was suggested even in the choice of the song “Comfortably Numb” as soundtrack in the moments immediately preceding the crash, the moments right before the hour of the “rough beast” finally arrived. Even the incidentals are perfect allusions, as with the image of “stony sleep” being turned into a nightmare by a “rocking cradle”, or, in this case, by a car seat with a branch sticking through it.
I’m intrigued by the line describing the emerging beast as having “lion body”. It may mean absolutely nothing. But among the story points worth considering in relation to it are the tiger on the wall in Holsten’s and the enigmatic cat in Made In America.
More obscure is the fact that in Remember When, the single episode most explicitly dealing with the violent release of stifled paternal rage, Carter Chong described his grandfather as a “lion” and noted that his father owned “Grumman” stock. (Grumman manufactured a number of high-profile fighter military aircraft, most of them named for some kind of cat, e.g., Panther, Jaguar, Tomcat, Tigercat.) Carter was reviewing these facts to himself in the scene immediately preceding his vicious attack on Junior, suggesting that, in acting out on his stifled paternal hatred, he was adopting the predatory, aggressive characteristics of a wild cat. Notably, when Junior, the paternal surrogate who modeled this kind of aggressive behavior to Carter, was seen at the end of that episode bruised and literally defanged, his sunken mouth void of false teeth, he was stroking a harmless little housecat on his lap. Once a lion, the former mob boss was a lion no more.

Asbestos Dumping as a Metaphor for Tony’s Toxic Spill of Rage

Kennedy and Heidi opens with a controversy between Tony and Phil Leotardo over asbestos disposal. One of Tony’s contractors was removing asbestos from old buildings, while following none of the strict (and expensive) asbestos-handling laws regulating worker and public safety, and was seeking to dump completely uncontained truck-fulls at waste stations controlled by Phil. Phil’s guys were denying the trucks the right to dump. As a consequence, huge, openly-smoking asbestos mounds were building up at job sites.
After Christopher’s death, Tony was doing little to find a solution, skipping town to gamble, get laid, and get high and leaving the contractor high and dry. Finally, near the very end of the episode, the contractor dumps heaps of asbestos at dawn in an open marsh area resembling the New Jersey Meadowlands.
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that gained widespread use in the 19th and 20th centuries as an ingredient in various building industry materials – including wall compounds, insulation, and roofing materials – primarily because of its extreme insulative properties and resistance to heat and fire. In the last 40 years, it’s become better-known for its cancer-causing and toxic effects on those mining and working with it in manufacturing, demolition/remodeling, or other “raw” environments.
Both the heat resistance and toxicity of asbestos make the shoddy removal/dumping storyline a compelling metaphor for Tony’s equally shoddy “dumping” in Kennedy and Heidi. The smoldering heat and flames from his hatred towards his father and uncle were contained beneath his consciousness by an insulating firewall of denial and repression. In essence, this denial and repression was Tony’s psychological asbestos, and it (more or less) contained the heat and fire within him for 47 years.
But it finally broke down, allowing the flames to rage and do damage and necessitating a messy disposal. Unfortunately the breakdown didn’t happen where it should have, in his therapist’s office as the result of honest introspection and dialog about little things like his uncle trying to kill him twice and his father indoctrinating him to murder at 22. That would have been the equivalent of careful, legally-compliant asbestos removal. Instead the breakdown occurred in a roadside ravine and the resulting “waste [in the] desert sand” was every bit as toxic as the smoking piles illegally dumped in the Meadowlands immediately before the desert epiphany and which we saw reprised in the very first shot of the following episode.
Think about that for a moment. Tony’s “I get it” moment was literally sandwiched between shots of noxious mounds of asbestos blowing in the New Jersey wind, a significant clue that some other kind of perversely cathartic disposal was in the middle of that sandwich.

The Orbit of the ‘Blue Comet’: Long Journey to Nowhere

It’s fair to ask: if the broad strokes of my interpretation are valid, what impact did the epiphany have on Tony going forward? After the drugs wore off, did he actually retain any specific understanding of his subconscious motives for killing Chris? Was he left only with the impression that he had enjoyed a very brief moment of enlightenment but without intellectual distillation of the enlightenment itself?
Because the insight was founded upon the secret that he had murdered Chris, even if Tony had retained it, he couldn’t overtly share it with anyone. Still, I lean toward the interpretation that the specifics (at least the ones I proffered) were lost to him when the altered state of consciousness ceased. When he tried to describe the magic of what he experienced in the desert to his crew, he could only come up with the most mundane, inadequate words: “The sun . . . came up.” They all looked at him like he was half retarded.
He was slightly more specific with Melfi, offering that he saw “for pretty certain” that this reality is not all there is. He couldn’t define the alternative but was still convinced there was “something else”.
He did speak in therapy of appreciating a balance and unity in opposites that he hadn’t appreciated before, a “ying” [sic] and “yang”. And he offered that “mothers are like buses . . . the vehicle that gets us here,” but that, once here, we are all on our own, individual journeys (mothers included.) So, to the extent his epiphany comported with what he revealed in therapy, it seems to have had little to do with fathers and with Christopher’s murder and more to do with letting go (finally) of some of his issues with his mother.
But perhaps the best clue to his residual state of understanding came when he indicated that some of what he thought he had grasped in the desert now eluded him. “You think you know, you think you learn something . . . like when I got shot,” he begins. Then, speaking specifically about the peyote experience, he reports that the insight gained is “kinda hard to describe. . . . You know, you have these thoughts, and you almost grab it . . . and then . . . ftt.” He flicks his fingers away from his chin as if to indicate “nothing”. So, to paraphrase Edna St. Vincent Millay, a fragment of what he knew remains, but, apparently, the best is lost.
It wouldn’t take long for all of it to be lost. By the time Tony sits with AJ’s female therapist in Made In America, “going about in pity” for himself because of who his mother was, he has come full circle, essentially back to where he was to start the series. Like a “blue comet”, his orbit was highly elliptical, if not erratic, and carried with it the potential of veering off into deep space or crashing into the sun. But despite killing his own nephew, having a near-death experience himself, and saving his son from an act of suicide, the orbit held. The sober breakthrough never came. The repudiation of his father and of his way of life never took hold in his consciousness. And so, by series’ end, we, like Tony, were exhausted from a long journey that ultimately took us nowhere.
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