Fallout 4's Missing Villain 

he was caught by the Imperial ambush while trying to cross the border

Me:"He's a synth, you're a synth, I'm a synth; is everyone on this blasted planet a synth?" Dogmeat: "Woof"

Perhaps Zimmer, given his age, implanted his memories into a synth as a way of extending his existence.

But Dr. Zimmer could be alive even if you killed "him" in FO3, as the Dr. Zimmer in FO3 could just be a synth fed with his memories and would serve as a way for Dr. Zimmer to "personally" take care of business without the risk of dying himself

If Dr. Zimmer's voice sounds familiar it's 'cause he's got the same voice actor as the Vault-Tec Salesman from Fallout 4.

"Zimmer is a synth" I sleep "Pinkerton is a synth" REAL S#!%

It has to be that they left Zimmer's fate purposely ambiguous so that whatever you decided the outcome of the Replicated Man was could be canon in your playthrough.

In that Zimmer's quest from Fallout 3 he explains that he's from the Institute from the Commonwealth and that the Institute makes synthetic people. Not only that, as the quest progresses a character claiming to be a member of the Railroad appears to the player asking to give false information to Zimmer in order to prevent him from getting the synth. And that 7 years before Fallout 4 was released. This makes me believe that Bethesda took that quest as a starting point to write the story of Fallout 4.

Me: "Wait, they're all synths?" Nate: "Always have been."

You can tell Zimmer "Get his reward" then instantly kill him, then go in tell harkness the truth and also get his reward. You get both the gun and upgrade. 😎

I remember doing this mission 3 and immediately being hooked on the ideas of The Common Wealth and The Institute. Wondering what was going on in a different part of the fallout world and hoping we could see it one day. When it all came full circle in 4 it was honestly one of the most satisfying gaming moments ive ever had.

My theory on Zimmer is that he was cut out to leave room for an Institute faction or presence in another Fallout game down the line. That way, even if you wipe out the Institute in Fallout 4, Zimmer could be in charge of a surviving or renegade faction in another future game set somewhere else.

If he was a synth, he could have been rebuild and appear in FO4. It is more likely he was enhanced with synth components like Kellog.

The real doctor Zimmer made synthetic versions of himself to cover more ground to collect the other synthetics as fast as possible

I wonder if the Zimmer who was in charge of the SRB was the real man, and the synth sent to retrieve Harkness was also another courser prototype he helped to create. Very curious. I've played through both games numerous times and this thought has only just come to me now after your video. Great content as always 😁👍

Zimmer is either dead at the hands of Harkness or the Lone Wanderer, or he's out there still looking for the other "High Profile" units. It was implied he was going after more than one and it's likely the one he had with him at Rivet City was brought from the institute as a guard rather than another he was trying to recapture. If so, he still has units to recapture after getting A3-21 back and it's entirely possible he got killed at another point along the way or simply hasn't finished the task.

"they trusted a synth to manage an entire division"...did they though? doesn't it make more sense that they would have these models made to represent them outside the commonwealth. After all, losing a synth is a much lighter blow than losing a scientist and the wastelands are a dangerous place. No, i'm pretty convinced the dr. zimmer we met in fallout 3 is not the real one.

Happy Saturday!

This is a terrific video, thanks for digging into the lore! I always wondered why, given the Institute's general squeamishness about exposing themselves to the surface, one of their senior staff - and no spring chicken - would be personally searching the wasteland, hundreds of miles from home. This explains why quite nicely. Some random speculation to add: - At the time FO3 takes place, Gen 3 synths would have been around for 50 years (given Sean's 60 year age in FO4). - In FO3, Zimmer has the appearance of a man who is in his 70s at best. - It seems odd that the Institute population at large - given their general attitude toward synths -would have wanted a synth to be the head of the SRB. - It also seems odd that they would have specifically chosen to give such a synth the appearance of a man in his 70s who needs corrective lenses. (yes, maybe for the "people respect older male figures" factor, but this seems weak.) My hypothesis is this: there originally was a human Zimmer, possibly one of the first scientists who worked on the Gen 3 project, fifty years prior to FO3. He eventually became the first head of the SRB - there would have been no need for such a division prior to the Gen 3s - and developed the first Coursers, and very likely iterated on them to produce the superior models we eventually see in FO4. So how did we end up with Zimmer the synth? This is where we get into more speculative territory, but what do else do we know was happening at the Institute prior to the time of FO3? Sean (Father) was rising to a position of leadership in the organization. At the time of FO3 he would be approximately 50, but we know he was already in charge when the FEV experiments were ordered, so he would have had to become Director at least ten years before that (in his 40s.) Now maybe he rose from living DNA source to respected leader all on the merits, but it's not unreasonable to assume that Sean might have faced some opposition, especially from someone more senior, who was actually involved in creating the Gen 3s... like Zimmer. And given what we know of Sean's fairly amoral nature, one way to eliminate that opposition would be to have Zimmer replaced. The synth Zimmer could go on doing his job, without the rest of the Institute knowing a thing. He could back Sean's bid to become director, giving him the legitimacy of an endorsement from the "old guard." And, if Sean became worried that somebody might discover Zimmer's true nature, he could send him on an extended mission out into the Wasteland to find the most critical missing synths. Anyway, I never tire of theorizing about this series, I think filling in the blanks is one of the great joys of Fallout lore. Thanks again!

I believe the Dr Zimmer we saw in fallout 3 was in fact a synth created by the real Dr Zimmer. After obtaining Saun from the vault, he was able to create a duplicate of himself right down to his own memories essentially making himself immortal. Maybe he was sick or dying, and this was his solution to keep his work going. This would make the "old man" mystery make alot more sense if it was Zimmer himself sending kellogg into the vault.

Imagine the institute dealing with Mr. House and making him a new body

Nate you need some scuba gear for how deep you’re diving into the lore

What if the "package" lost to raiders was Zimmer? Oxhorn did a video where he decoded one of the Railroad Morse code messages in Fallout 4, where a supposed "priority" subject was lost in transit.

I wonder if Danse was the one being searched for by Zimmer? Danse is a synth and even said he was in Rivet city around that time as a junk vendor. Having his mind wiped would explain why he doesn't remember he's a synth and being a courser would explain why he is so good at following orders and his combat skills.

That moment when your realize Dr. Zimmer is also Septimus Signus.

Knowing Bethesda, they probably canon killed him off during the events of Fallout 3. My guess is that he is dead.

What I'd like to know is why or what program was responsible for the synth replacement of various people in the commonwealth like the mayor of Diamond city or how Danse was a synth, and why they were doing this to random people...never find that out. It's like a cliff hanger mystery that never gets revealed/solved.

Theory: Pinkerton put “his” shutdown code in harkness when he did the mind wipe. It was part of the new memories he installed in harkness. So that when somebody came looking for him, he could give up harkness and the shutdown code would work and they would think they have A3-21 captured.

I killed Dr. Zimmer after he gave me the reward. Then talked to the synth and got the Plasma gun as well, Yah Fallout.

are there any ties from Horace Pinkerton to the Railroads "Pinky" character that lead before des?

I think it would be useful to construct a timeline on this. After all, Zimmer and Pinkerton might not have been "born" synths, but rather may be replacements. There would have been no need for an SRB before there were Gen 3 synths. So, the SRB may have been brand new at the time of Fallout 3. Zimmer may have had another role previously, perhaps a hand in creation of Gen 3, and he became emotionally attached to his creations, thus wanted the position as head of the SRB. He may have replaced himself as a bid for immortality.

Pinkerton could still be A3-21. If he was aware of the fact that he was a synth, and knowledgeable enough to be able to reprogram another synth, he might have been aware of his own control code. So when he wiped Harkness' memory he implanted the code there as well as a backup in case the institute came looking for him. That's why he so casually gives Harkness up when asked about him. It was the plan all along.

Hans Zimmer was going to be a bad guy?! Damn, he would have beat us with his amazing orchestral songs

"Where is Dr. Zimmer?!" Lol we dont know but heres his relation to FO3 & FO4 for 35 mins.

That whole "Replicated Man" quest feels like content a studio would patch in when it came close to the next game coming out, as a teaser, rather than something thats there almost a decade before. I've never done the quest so hearing all these plot elememts, the commonwealth and the organizations mentioned so clearly really took me by surprise. Crazy.

“[NAME] is a Synth…” *200,000 units are ready, with a million more well on the way.*

Zimmer might have put his mind in a synth body as a means of immortality.

"Change the way you look at the Institute for the worse." - How can it be worse!?

Fallout 3 was my first induction into the franchise. I remember the replicated man very well after watching this video. I actually wound up being a fan of Blade Runner as a result of this game. This video brings back some memories for sure and I like the way you put it together. My ears did perk up a bit though when you dismissed the idea of Pinkerton being the actual synth that the institute was looking for. It's very plausible that he IS in fact the VERY synth they were looking for. Yes, the doctor made what he was looking for and yes he had the exact code to power down Harkness.... but you overlooked what was in your video all along. The railroad agent offers you a component to prove that the synth that Zimmer is looking for is dead. This works when it's done. These components are most commonly acquired off of dead synths, but Harkness isn't dead. Nor is Pikerton. Also there is the idea of the institute trusting a synth to run a whole division of the institute. This implies that there are some very advanced synths that serve other purposes other than labor and acquisition of other synths. Synths that are this smart would have no problem placing their original components into another synth to avoid capture once and for all. Not to mention that it seems these components seem to be the only thing defining these synths at this point. Maybe a human with a synth component installed can be controlled as such. It goes all over the board when we begin to think like this. But, none the less, it's very plausible for Pinkerton to be the real synth in this situation. He's more than clever enough to pull something as simple as a switheroo with everything else he's got going for him. The only other thing that I wanted to add is the actual reason for Zimmer's absence from Fallout 4. It is most likely because of the style of game that the fallout games are. I believe only in one installment do we see what the developers decided the first player character would look like in a following game. It didn't bode well with audiences as that character has so much range based on what we as players ultimately decided we wanted to look like. To just narrow down to one choice option strips away what Fallout ultimately is strong for in one situation. This ties in with all of the different choices we make in prior games as well. And yes, as the games are made, the developers do take liberties with ultimately making choices that could have gone which ever way by how we played. I believe the choice to leave out Zimmer was one of those areas that by leaving him out; it doesn't hurt the prior story we made in a prior game. There is just enough information to recall him and just enough to not finalize what we may have done with him in fallout 3. But for all that it's worth, these types of things are what I truly believe is so very strong in the Fallout world. It's the lore driven by choices we can make. Don't get me wrong, as a fan I am very well aware how broken and unfinished these games are... but they just have that something special about them, don't they? Thanks for the video, this one was a good one. I very rarely comment... ever. This one for some reason made me want to let you know you do a good job with these. It's been years since this game has been out, I wonder if you'll find inspiration to revisit this in the future. Take care and thanks.

Dr. Zimmer is possibly either still looking for the one synth from Fallout 3, or he may have moved on, and could be elsewhere looking for another lost synth.

There's a 10 year time gap and he was kinda old, he's probably dead

“But our son...” Hi Nate. I’ll see you in court for child support.

Helping Zimmer doesn’t give you a gun, it give you the Wired Reflex perk.

Is it possible that the component pinkerton had was the one the railroad agent gave you? or at some point they intended for you to be able to get it from a few different locations?

Once I heard "The Replicated Man" I was like "HOLY SHIT That quest!" I never put the two together. Thank you Nate.

The problem with the institute is that at NO POINT it ever becomes clear what their actual goal is, WHY they are replacing people with synths or even making synths at all? Is this guy a villain? A hero? Literally nobody knows because nobody, probably not even Bethesda, knows WHAT he and everyone in his organization are actually trying to do. Siding with the Institute actually gave me brain damage, because you're suddenly the leader and still have no idea what anyone around you is actually doing. Though I guess this is a thing in a lot of Bethesda games.

Maybe Doc Zimmer wasn't a synth, but was maybe just like Kellogg and had synth components

I love the references in this quest. Armitage for instance is also the name of an gynoid protagonist in the Armitage the Third anime movies.

The Institute is such a great Fallout faction, too bad the Fallout 4 story left a lot to be desired

Nate NEVER runs out of mysteries. Change my mind

Dude I was thinking about that guy Zimmer and Harkens but your the first person to bring the details together for me, Kudos !! Thanks !

I feel like it’s worth mentioning that we find a character named Pinkerton in fallout 4 who shares the same last name as the one from fallout 3.

Thought: Everyone in the Institute is a synth. When we get there, they convince us they're real. But the robot uprising was long, long ago after Zimmer was sent back in a box.

My theories: •The Dr. Zimmer android was built by the real Dr. Zimmer for field missions. Being as smart as he is, he would never put his true self in danger. He possibly has multiple out in the field, while he is safe in some research facility. •It may be possible that Pinkerton is the Synth that Zimmer was looking for. He performed a memory wipe and facial reconstruction on “Harkness”. It is possible that he swapped components with the other Synth, as a way to throw off the doctor. This is why the unique phrase worked on Harkness. (Additionally, it’s possible that Pinkerton gave Harkness the memories he did, planning on him becoming a leader of the community. When Harkness is taken, it could cause division among the other leaders. Giving Pinkerton a perfect opportunity to regain his position.)

It would have been a hell of a plot twist if we saw him in FO4, even if he where killed in FO3, he is a synth after all, he can be made again in the institute.

I love how Fallout 4's great fantastical reveal was just one of the many many different concepts provided by the previous installments. kinda sad

we should know by know, its not canon till Nate says it is.

I really love fallout 3, and rivet city is really interesting. I also like the idea of recycling giant cruise ships and aircraft carriers as an alternative form of housing

Zimmer knew he was a target for the railroad and had himself replicated in the synthetic Dr. Zimmer, knowing that most people would write him off if he was dead and not dig deeper. This would allow him to trace back his assassins to track down the synthetic and the railroad agents that he's looking for, so it's an extra layer of protection with an added bonus. The reason he is still gone is that he's got more stunts to find, maybe he's looking for DiMa and Chase?

I just found this channel and it’s keeping me up past my bedtime two nights in a row.

crazy that back when fallout 3 came out and I did the Replicated Man quest I had no idea it was hinting to synths in fallout 4....

He's in Fusion City. He approaches you asking help to find his blue pills. If he doesn't find them, his evening will be a disappointment.

I love Nates’ attention to detail, holy shit man. His is fr some of the highest quality content on this niche I’ve seen, in all aspects

I love how fallout 4 doesn't have an overbearing tint. F3 had a green-grey color scheme, while FNV was very much amber. F4 is much more pastel.

could it be that instead of dr. zimmer being an android himself, the zimmer that you meet is just an android replica

Imagine him making it back to the commonwealth after not being able to teleport back to the institute and just finding the spot of the explosion, like: Institute: angers commonwealth residents Commonwealth residents: blows up institute Zimmer: *surprised pikachu*

The Institute is like a balm to your eyes after youve seen dirty and degenerated land and buildings

I would posit that Zimmer's relation to the fev indicates that he might have been Virgil originally but they decided not to go that route. The fev virus would also explain his long life and his absence in the story as he was out in the cave looking for a cure. The entire mystery makes sense if you replace Virgil with Zimmer.

I'm sure this will get lost in the comments.. but I found a very interesting mystery today in Fallout 4 that I think you might find intriguing! There is a man by the name of Wayne Tournquist who has created a small radio broadcast for his wife Bonnie to find him and their kids with at their bunker in West Everett Estates. There is a lot of interesting stuff including a holotape by Bonnie at the Mass Bay Medical Center which confirms that both Wayne/kids AND Bonnie escaped where they were at! Did they find each other, did they die separately in the wastes? A super mutant named Hammer makes a holotape where he kills a human, but was that one of the raiders that killed his neighbors, or was that Wayne himself dying? I can't seem to find an answer, but the story is tragic and compelling so I figure you're the man for the job!

I think Bethesda should include an option at the beginning of the game that asks the player what options they choose to go with on certain main or side quests in the previous game. This would allow Bethesda the opportunity to go into further detail with NPCs from previous Fallout games instead of giving a vague answer as to his whereabouts. For example if you killed zimmer or if you helped him capture the synth.

I like the idea that Zimmer was a normal human but at one point created a gen 3 synth clone to be his proxy, or perhaps multiple synth clones, while he himself could monitor it/them from a secure location. So android component on Zimmer in Fallout 3 makes sense but also why he was the head of a branch in the Institute. Also, Pinkerton could have been replaced much like in Fallout 4, but started out human.

It would be cool if in the FEV lab, there is a sign that says "Don’t catch a FEVer!Where safety equipment at all times!”

When I was a kid I had a doctor named Zimmer. My current psychiatrist looks like Shawn.

when Harknass turns off i wished he did the XP shut down sound

Maybe Zimmer used a synth version of him self as a safety precaution. When it was killed he used to opportunity to go and do his own thing

It could also just be that Harkness was given Pinkerton as his target, and that led him to Rivet city, but he decided to run away during the process of finding him, or even while talking to him, and ended up asking for help from his target. Then Zimmer, who believed himself to be human, went after Harkness.

"change the way you look at the Institute, for the worse" *wearing BOS shirt, saying 'Ad Victoriam' every hour'* Impossible

Honestly, just been given some really bad news and, oddly enough, this actually made me feel better. Thank you, Nate. You're epic. Edit: My god, you guys are so damn nice. Genuinely. Thank you all. And thank you Nate for bringing together such an incredible bunch of people.

in your section about Dr. Zimmer being a Synth, it is possible that he made Synth Clones of himself to deal with the High profile targets, like a safety precaution incase of betrayal or if his targets come after him, this way his one of his clones goes offline he can then dispatch someone else to the area and keep trying, alternatively Dr. Zimmer could have originally been a human in the past and before dying made a synth clone of himself to take over after his death.

I was playing Fallout 3, and I was sitting there in awe wondering what "The Commonwealth" was, and what the "Institute" was, and then one trip to the Mojave later and I end up in Boston and Cambridge, seeing what the true reality of the Institute was, and it was cool. 2nd only to when I first saw the Prydwen arrive.

If Zimmer is a synth in fo3 maby there is a "real Dr. Zimmer" this could be the reason he would have exsisted in fo4 i suppose

I doubt Harkness is related to Zimmer's FEV expiraments because I feel like 3 months isn't long enough for Harkness to escape the Institute, travel to the Capital Wasteland, get facial reconstruction surgery and a mind wipe, AND live in rivet city long enough to become the head of security.

I wonder if the "human" testing for the FEV was actually done with gen 3 synths. Maybe Dr Zimmer was trying to make super synth soldiers?

Zimmer is hunting down the mysterious strangers or he's building a synth army.

Alright I’m gonna blow your mind: Dr. Zimmer is Deacon

did you forget about nick valentine? his personality being the imprint of another human

I was watching a GameRanxs video and this dudes videos were in the recommendeds, Ive just been binge watching them, they're so well put together!

What I think is so awesome is that Robert Picardo (the Emergency Medical Hologram from Star Trek Voyager) voices Alan Binet, someone who sympathized with synths/believed they were sentient beings, and a few other NPC characters. Picardo’s Star Trek character was a synthetic being that spent the series gripping with becoming an individual and living outside his mechanics. Not to mention the weird coincidence where you have Dr. Zimmer in F4 and Picardo’s EMH character in Star Trek was made by a Dr. Zimmerman (also played by picardo)

Adding onto the idea that Zimmer is a synth in the game Fallout Shelter Online Dr.Zimmer is a character . With each character under the traits of that character the race is listed, like how Hacock is a ghoul and Dogmeat is an animal, and it says that Zimmer is a human. One weird thing that is shown is that Sturges is a synth.

No one appreciates nate enough, he gives so much time to educate us simpletons about the real facts

How do you know he didn’t make a synth of himself like Shaun did ?

glad u made this video i always wondered about this.

The only missing villain is God Howard. Praise be!

31:12 If Pinkerton wiped out Harkness memory, and was savvy enough to be able to do that, Pinkerton could have as much copied his codes to Harkness, thus making Harkness act like he was A3-21. So that point doesn't invalidate the theory, provided Pinkerton is knowledgeable enough to be able to do that. Going down the rabbit hole (and completely bonkers in conspiracy theory), it might be that Pinkerton was an early version of Zimmer that was faulty (not following the "I'm a scientist working for the Institute") that escaped, and thus, is able to do something as complicated as erasing and rewriting Android/Synths memories. Which would sustain the possibility of Harkness being the fake A3-21. EDIT: Also, since Zimmer is an android/synth, his fate in F3 is irrelevant, provided the Institute can simply make a copy. So, the one in F4 is probably just away on the field, and the changes to cut him out were possibly made to not give players too much room in discovering he's an android/synth (in case they didn't in F3).

One of the best quests in fallout 3 who would’ve thought all those years ago we were staring at the plot for fallout 4’s entire story

Hearing Zimmer speak and realizing he's also the Vault-Tec Rep in FO4 was a trip.

I love this content so much, whenever I am playing Skyrim and it gets boring I will just go to your channel and watch your content for hours. Keep up the good work! Because Lydia won't stop standing in a door frame...

I love how fallout 4's writers felt the need to straight up tell you your options every time there was an arbitrary decision to make

It's also possible that Pinkerton was originally a normal man, but was replaced by a synth while he was still in the council in charge of Rivet City by the institute.

Cracking video, TheEpicNate315, great stuff!