There’s nothing like having your cynicism debunked when you only stand to gain from it. So you can imagine how giddy I am to see Murderbot deliver 3 very funny episodes consecutively. Yeah, I may have trust issues with contemporary comedies. And as a fan of the OG sitcoms that owe much of their striking personalities to their equally shocking boldness, it’s reassuring to watch a show actually embrace the freakiest extent of its quirks with absolute confidence.
Spoiler Alert
Murderbot’s secret is out
Murderbot’s not too thrilled to wake up. It didn’t go through the trouble of shooting itself in the stomach just so that this group of very nice people could decide to save it instead of themselves. There’s no way the PreservationAux group would’ve left the poor SecUnit behind, especially after it had just tried to kill itself to save them. Even though they knew that there was something wrong with Murderbot, they were nice enough to haul it to the hopper and fly back to their habitat. But they aren’t going back to their base alone. They’ve picked up this absolutely weird woman with a weirder name that Arada has a difficult time pronouncing. Leebeebee had a near brush with Arada’s bullet when she freaked out and lost control. She’s the only one from the DeltFall team who’s somehow survived the deadly scheme they’ve fallen victim to. She’s rather shaken up by the whole thing involving a dangerous SecUnit killing two of the DeltFall SecUnits and “doing something” to the third. So Murderbot was slightly off in its theory about what went down. But it was dead on about the fact that the evil SecUnit had hacked one of the DeltFall SecUnits and made it kill the scientists like an episode of Rogue War. That’s Leebeebee’s favorite show, though Murderbot doesn’t care for it. But I gotta say. Leebeebee’s turning out to be a real creep. I mean, being so aroused that she can’t stop blurting out a whole erotic scenario involving Murderbot may just be her coping mechanism. She’s seen a lot of people die. But that was more than a bit much. So I can see why Murderbot was glad to be unconscious for that part. Speaking of coping mechanisms, Murderbot’s heroic act has done something to Rathhi. He feels the need to commemorate Murderbot’s action by doing something very testosterone-y. He wants himself, Pin-Lee, and possibly Arada to have a child, a strange instinct that might just remove any sign of a crush from Pin-Lee’s heart. This whole thing has brought out this super pretentious side to Ratthi we didn’t know about. Knowing Leebeebee’s from Corporation Rim, he feels this sudden urge to show off how woke and tolerant he is. Which obviously defeats the whole purpose. While Murderbot’s super entertained by all this, it isn’t very thrilled by the idea of these people trying to get it up on its feet. Murderbot’s terrified that it will slaughter the whole group as soon as they get it back online, something it believes these people are too dumb to achieve. But isn’t it sweet how it still worries for the people it apparently can’t stand? It’s not even worried about the acid bath that awaits it if the Corporation finds out that it’s gone rogue. To Murderbot’s surprise, Bharadwaj is really good at what she does. It doesn’t prove too big of a challenge for a scientist the Corporation calls “amateur” to remove the tendrils of the override module from Murderbot’s neck. And once it’s rebooted, Gurathin gets to do what he’s been dying to do from the moment he’s met Murderbot. To check if Murderbot’s code is all in order, Gurathin gets to plug into his system and have complete access to everything Murderbot has thought and done. Murderbot can’t hide its secret from the PreservationAux team anymore. They now know that the reason it’s been acting so off is that it has gone rogue. But it remains to be seen if Gurathin has gotten a whiff of the memory of the bloodbath that Murderbot got up to.
Does Mensah trust Murderbot?
Murderbot’s relieved to come online and find the humans still alive and well. But it’s got some explaining to do. Getting proof of Murderbot’s issues is practically Christmas for Gurathin. I don’t think he’s malicious, really. He’s just not very self-aware, and he really can’t hear how jealous and petty he sounds when he accuses Murderbot of being a threat to them. But the voice of reason can’t stay quiet in a group of such sensible people. So when Bharadwaj talks, she actually makes sense. Murderbot’s hacked its Governor Module and gone rogue. No doubt about that. But why would it save them time and time again if it was working against them? The people of PreservationAux are bound to wonder if the Company isn’t behind this whole mess. But Gurathin’s gone a step ahead and blamed the whole business, including the faulty maps and inaccurate hazard reports, on Murderbot. I don’t think Gurathin’s a major TV buff. He actually kind of holds Murderbot’s love for serials against him. So much so that he thinks that Murderbot might be using the entertainment programs to send cryptic messages to the Company. Leave it to Gurathin to be absolutely wrong in every possible way. There’s a lesson there about jealousy and how it can even turn an intelligent augmented human into a babbling fool. The rest of the group is rather amused by the rogue bot’s love for shows. And I do believe that Murderbot totally enjoys wowing the humans with its astute observation about something that happened in Sanctuary Moon. If anything, knowing that Murderbot is not under the Company’s command has actually come as a relief to them. Their whole problem with getting a SecUnit was their politics. They don’t want sentient constructs to be enslaved by an evil corporation. They also figure that since Murderbot is free, it has actually chosen to protect them from danger. Leebeebee’s fear is understandable. She’s just back from watching a rogue bot wipe out her entire team. Even though Pin-Lee, Arada, and Rathhi couldn’t have a lower opinion of the kind of people who’d bring Leebeebee on the survey just to have someone to clean up after them, their deaths must’ve been traumatizing for her. So forgive her for not being in a hurry to trust another rogue bot just yet. But this SecUnit’s had it with Gurathin’s whining. So far, they’ve been under the impression that Gurathin has disabled Murderbot from the HubSystem. But while it’s been trying to use very solid logic to convince them that if the Company wanted them dead, they would’ve been dead by now, Murderbot’s only pretending to be contained. When it does lose its patience and pulls an impressive power move on Gurathin, he only has himself to blame. Mensah and her crew really don’t need to ask Murderbot to let go of Gurathin. It doesn’t want to hurt their precious cyborg. It only wants Gurathin to back off. While this was a pretty hostile move on Murderbot’s part, Mensah’s still inclined to have faith in it. She’s always kind of understood Murderbot without it having to say things out loud. So a part of her knows that though they’re in danger, Murderbot is the least of their worries. They come to a deal that sounds fair, although Murderbot still doesn’t completely believe that Mensah won’t give it up to the Company. But that’s just the cynic in it. Their plan is to get to safety, and then let Murderbot chart its own course. And just like Murderbot has no reason to betray them along the way, Mensah has no wish to get a rogue bot in trouble with its evil owners.
What was wrong with the beacon?
It’s good for every party involved that Murderbot doesn’t need to do or say much to refute Gurathin’s theories about it. It doesn’t have much patience for Gura’s nonsense. And because Murderbot is making sense every step of the way; it makes some really good points about why it isn’t in the Company’s best interest to kill its clients; there is not much room for argument. The time has come to launch the emergency beacon, something the DeltFall Survey team didn’t get to do. It’s the only reasonable solution really. Once the beacon is launched, the Company will send a starship to rescue them. It’s up to Gurathin to ping the beacon, something he could’ve used a little bit of silence for. Gura’s uncomfortable with the fact that he can’t control Murderbot with the HubSystem. But even he doesn’t want to stay on this planet a second longer than he has to. When his efforts to contact the beacon fail, things get a lot more real for the group. Getting out of this mess isn’t going to be as easy as they thought. So how Gurathin feels about his friends’ appreciation for Murderbot is the least of their worries right now. Since they’d need to activate the beacon manually, Murderbot’s going to be a must on that journey. But Gurathin won’t let Murderbot go alone. And he isn’t too happy when, as the best pilot in the group, Mensah volunteers to assist Murderbot. Lucky for them, Mensah’s pretty decisive. She knows that this isn’t the time to seek consensus.
This isn’t the first time Mensah’s made decisions that went against one or more of her “equals.” She knows when to pull rank and make the choices that would benefit the group. Sure, every move she made to save Murderbot was very risky. But you could also see it as her gut feeling as the leader of the group. Without Murderbot, they don’t really stand a chance against a hostile group on an unknown planet. So Mensah’s decision came from the rational part of her brain just as much as the emotional. And right now, even though Gura is against it, Mensah has to do what a good leader would do. She’s even picked her replacement should the need arise. Pin-Lee would take up the baton. And it sounds so final that even someone as awkward as Gura feels the need to come out with his feelings for Mensah. But not if Murderbot has anything to do about it. I mean, it had to have been intentional when Murderbot cut in just as Gurathin was about to profess his love to Mensah, right? It was just back from a pretty awful experience with a very gropey Leebeebee. Much less of this one, por favor.
On their way to the beacon, Mensah once again is pretty clueless about just how much Murderbot doesn’t want to hear about her personal life. It’s almost like Mensah’s emotional depth hits a wall at some point. And that wall is her need to talk about her family. Murderbot couldn’t care less about Mensah’s issues with having a favorite among her many kids. But the good thing is, now that the cat’s out of the bag, Murderbot can choose to not listen. It’s still polite. So instead of telling her that having to listen to her is practically painful, Murderbot changes the topic abruptly. But that only makes Mensah pick yet another thing to ask Murderbot about. I think she just really likes to talk. Good thing Murderbot doesn’t mind entertaining Mensah’s theories about what happened to the DeltFall team. There was no sign of forced entry at the DeltFall habitat. But why would they let a group of strangers in? This question gives Murderbot a chance to call Mensah out on her wide-eyed need to help anyone who asks for help. If the DeltFall team was anything like the people of PreservationAux, they might’ve opened the gate to the group of hostiles who pretended to be scientists in need of help. And since PreservationAux is the only other group on the planet, that was probably the bad guys’ cover when they infiltrated the DeltFall habitat. That’s a theory that Murderbot and Mensah both agree upon. And they’re probably right about this one. The task at hand for Mensah is to land the hopper a safe distance away from the beacon. Murderbot would then activate the beacon and hopefully earn a little more of the humans’ trust. But the plan’s a no-go.
In Murderbot episode 5’s ending, Mensah’s just about to ask the rogue cyborg a loaded question when it detects a terrible threat. They can go over Murderbot’s client kill list later. For now, they have to somehow dodge the massive explosion that has just destroyed the beacon. We don’t get to see the fate of the hopper as it swerves through the fire, but I think they’re gonna avoid the possible tragedy by a hair. The people who killed the DeltFall group must’ve planted an explosive in the emergency beacon. Murderbot’s attempts to connect with the beacon might have been the trigger that set off the explosion. If the titular robot is right about the Corporation’s interest in keeping their clients alive, there must be a third entity who’s been killing the scientists on this godforsaken planet. Are they trying to keep something about the planet a secret from other planets and the Company? The answer may lie in Murderbot’s opinion about most people. They’re mostly greedy as hell.
