I'm not entirely sure, but he does make great cornflakes.

Definitely seems like he was having to keep Synth!Shaun around as bait for the main character.

Slightly related...but after doing the memory quest, going through Kellogg's life, I couldn't help but sympathize with him, especially when I started a new character. After all, he lost his wife and child as well (although yours was kidnapped, not killed). It definitely made me wish I could learn more about him, particularly his early life, the missing spaces in between memories (even if he does summarize those spaces when you activate various memories during the quest). He ended up just being a sad pawn in Father's game.

Have you finished the game? Or at the very least talked to Father after completing the Battle of Bunker Hill? Because...

Did you actually have to use a spoiler button in the Cheats, Spoilers, Hints section?

Honestly now.

The dream sequence was the real Shaun at 10. The synth Shaun was created later for the SS to "reclaim" a portion of the lost childhood. Kellogg probably knew about the synth Shaun, but doubt he stayed at the Institute to care about a replica.

At least, that's how I took the information.

The dream sequence is very recent. Amari mentions it in the background, and X6-88 (the courser) mentions Virgil leaving the Institute, which was not 50 years ago.

What's weird though is that if you read Kellog's log entry at Ft. Hagen it mentions acquiring the child and then immediately proceeds (in the same entry) to say he has gotten new orders to pursue "the renegade" and has cleared out Ft. Hagen. I assumed the renegade was Virgil. If so, there is something dodgy going on with chronology here or else Bethesda is just being sloppy.

He actually says "delivered" the child back:

Access: Local.

Login: Kellogg

Notes: The boy, Shaun, successfully delivered back to the Institute, payment received. New orders to track down renegade, gathered reinforcements, cleared out and secured Fort Hagen. We move out soon.

Ah, okay. My error. He is talking about synth Shaun then.

That's a more recent memory in terms of Kellogg's timeline, not our own. When we speak to Virgil, he does imply he left the Institute years ago, implying the FEV finally mutated him and why he's desperate to get the vial. From what I gathered, Kellogg just never found a way into the Glowing Sea to go after him or just didn't care to.

'Child Shaun' as bait assumes a lot...how the hell would anyone know what their kid grew up to look like? Mind you, 'child shaun' as anything assumes a lot.

'Father Shaun' seems some sort of developmentally [censored] sociopath. "Hi, don't mind the robot kid look-a-like I just broke your heart with...I'm your real son"...and, "You've just destroyed everything I hold dear and have spent my life building, so here, you have this twisted fa?ade of a human robot to remind you of what a d**k you sired." The man is at pains to convince you that synths aren't people, then lumbers you with a synth kid as a surrogate son? I'm sorry I didn't set the old fool's bed on fire before wiping the Institute out.

Yet, that's exactly what happens.

Valentine mentions seeing a kid with Kellogg and the SS goes all "That's Shaauuuuunn!"

Virgil left the Institute sometime after 2287.02.10. That's the date of his last entry on his Institute terminal.

Great. Means I missed out on a terminal. I thought I checked the FEV area pretty well. Good thing my second character hasn't been to the Institute yet.

With this bit of info, it seems to me the story is broken now, because why in the world would Kellogg be watching a synth Shaun? Makes zero sense, unless synth Shaun ran away.

The way I took it was that it was actually synth Shaun as the radio in the last memory is talking about Pipers article about the mayor being a synth I believe. It could of also been a bread crumb from old Shaun in order to show the SS that the institute uses teleportation to get around. Though I didn't know about the virgil entry so I dunno now, too much timey wimey going on

Yeha, Piper's broadcast was what convinced me it was synth Shaun. While X6 and Kellogg could both probably be having that conversation with real Shaun playing in the background 50 years ago, Piper wouldn't even be born yet - unless, *gasp*... she's a synth

I actually had tears in my eyes when Shaun introduces himself to the SS - all those years gone and lost, and there was no way the relationship was going to be the same. I agree that there were so many things I wanted to say and ask, but wasn't given the option to. That was one deep moment, but it should have been so much deeper. As a dad, I could imagine if that was really my son I'd be so broken and have so many things to tell him. In the end it was moving enough, I guess, but damn he sounded manipulative. And I wanted to slap him when he called Nora "collateral damage".

Finally someone who also sees how stupid the child synth stuff is. He even leaves a final request for you to take care of the damn thing, even though the institute spouts over and over that synths are nothing but tools. I honestly don't know what Father's goal was or what is the institutes goal in making synths more and more human like when they don't view them as any more than objects of free labor. They are merely pushing synth evolution because they "can" which indeed makes them out to be the horror that most of the commonwealth fear. That's the institute though, too often asking "Can we?" rather than "Should we?"

Shawn in fact tell you (the real Shawn) that he has never left the institute.

And thats about the only time I think he is not feeding me a line.

A really tough fight? That is a bit of an understatement. In my first playthrough, I had run into a deathclaw that was easier than him. If you run into him when the best weapon you have is an Institute rifle you picked up moving through Fort Hagen, it is an insane fight. lol

Out leveling him as you said, makes him a cake walk. Two gauss rifle rounds into the sniper's triangle does the trick.

I didn't finish the whole MQ yet.

The search for my son ended there in this dialogue...

Siding with the Railroad, my job is to infiltrate the Institute and gather as much information as possible. Big D told me to play along and this gives you any opportunity to tell Shaun(Father) whatever he wants to hear. As a result I gain access to the whole facility and hacked/scanned every single terminal in the building.

p.s. on a next playthrough, I may join the "Kill them All!"-Faction aka "Brotherhood of Steel" and shoot Shaun into the face right there.

He doesn't know the kid's a synth.

He had been asked to keep him (working as a bait for the protagonist...) in DC before a courser comes to retrieve him.

He probably realised it later on, because collecting pieces to the puzzle.

Then he gets told to hunt down Virgil.

It has no real meaning outside of the consideration that it was exactly what it looked like: a trap built around Kellogg so that it could be identified and chased down by the Sole Survivor, for real Shaun's knowledge over whether it could chase and beat Kellogg, or even if it could track him.

You just blew my mind

In Kellogg's case, after reading much of his backstory I just can't hate him, or even see him as that much of a villian. He's just some poor thug-like individual who's upbringing, life situtations, own poor choices, and being manipulated by Shaun, led him to his tragic end. And at that end, it's pity and not haterd that forces the SS to put him down like some wretched animal in pain.

Instead it becomes Shaun who receives much of the haterd and loathing. I realize that he had no control over his upbringing, but he did have control of his events once he assumed command. When he stated Nora had become merely "collateral damage" in the scheme of his life, all feelings for the lost "son" vanished. And where replaced by loathing and disgust for the cold, manipulative creature who was mainly dead inside.

I'll play the Institute ending once just to say I played it, (and maybe get an achievement out of it), but every other playthrough will most likely consist of killing everyone in it.

but when did he create sugar bombs?

That is funny as it happens even though his armor is very cool to look at, I do give it to a settler and add a chef hat and assign them to Bar/food duty. Just because they make the best breakfasts.