A House Divided

A House Divided is a quest in Fallout 4. This quest occurs after the Father declares you his successor, when multiple members of The Institute, specifically Dr. Higgs and Dr. Loken, decide to protest the Sole Survivor's promotion by locking themselves in The Institute BioScience Laboratory.

Quick walkthrough
Talk to Newton Oberly and (possibly) resolve the standoff in the Institute's Biosciences oberservation room following conversation with Lawrence Higgs.

Detailed walkthrough
After Oberly opens the door, head through, and dispatch a synth guard. In the next hallway, there are two laser turrets. You can either proceed to the room designated by the quest marker to speak to Lawrence Higgs, or you can make your way through the FEV Labs. Note that the FEV Lab is where you'll find Virgil's serum, if you intend to fulfill your promise to him to retrieve it.

In the room with the terminals and window where the quest initially points you, you can either talk Higgs down with two persuasion attempts (the first attempt is more difficult), or the situation escalates and you'll have no choice but to kill him.

To gain access to the lab, you'll need to insert the Bioscience Security Override holotape into any of the terminals in the room. From the overridden terminal, you have the options to "shutdown turrets", "release specimens", and "open lab door". Once again, you can also gain access to the main lab via the FEV Labs. Note that at this point, Higgs is hostile to you and will attack as soon as you enter the lab.

After you've either talked Higgs down or killed everyone in the lab, return to Oberly. He'll express regret if any violence took place, and comment that funeral arrangements should be made. If Higgs was talked down, you'll be asked to decide his and his colleague's fate. Here you can make a persuasion attempt to have them executed. If you choose to spare them, Oberly will reward you with chems.

Bugs

 * If you enter the Biosciences Lab via the FEV Labs, speaking twice to Higgs seems to always result in being stuck in dialogue mode: the HUD does not return and normal controls are blocked (e.g., no PipBoy, can't jump or shoot, etc.). This only occurs if you attempt conversation with Higgs after Max Loken intercedes to say he'll unlock the lab.