By: Quinn Que
The episode opens with a flashback set one month prior to the series’ main events, right after the PreservationAux team signed the deal with the Company but before they took their ship to the alien planet. They are gathered at a fancy restaurant and doing a verbal bonding ritual. Each member is encouraged to share both a “sweet” and a “bitter,” meaning positive and negative anecdotes from their lives, specifically ones that involve another team member.
After Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) shares her two involving Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), the group begins playfully urging the reserved Gurathin (David Dastmalchian) to share his. After some embarrassing antics at the table, he indulges them, divulging his origin as a Corporation Rim spy who was forgiven, and taken in, by the team’s leader, Dr. Ayda Mensah (Noma Dumezweni). He gets overwhelmed with emotion after completing his first story and steps away from the table without sharing a second.
Mensah goes to find him, where he reveals his “bitter” is that she’s being naive to trust the Company and do the survey expedition. She wonders what that says about him for following her, and he admits that maybe he’s naive as well. We then flashforward, right back to where we were in the last episode.
The team is frantically packing to leave. Their SecUnit and our titular anti-hero, Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård), is beckoning them to hurry up. Pin-Lee wonders “who died and made SecUnit our boss,” to which Ratthi (Akshay Khanna) retorts that Leebeebee’s death had something to do with it.
Eventually they get into the Hopper and begin their journey to a safer secondary location, knowing that the mysterious third survey team Leebeebee was working with will likely be hunting for them. Murderbot resents that the team are scared of it due to the violent methods it used to protect them. It tries to ease their fears, but each awkward attempt just makes everyone more uncomfortable, a reminder that the SecUnit isn’t good with human emotions.
Arada (Tattiawna Jones) wonders if Murderbot feels remorse for taking a life, but Ratthi, who continues his clumsy efforts trying to befriend the SecUnit, isn’t sure. Soon the team lands and Murderbot goes out to set up a new perimeter for them. It calls the team “ungrateful” via its voiceover monologue, and wonders whether it should stop working so hard to protect them.
Back in the Hopper, Pin-Lee suggests they abandon the SecUnit because it could kill them all whenever it wanted. Mensah and Ratthi defend Murderbot, arguing that the third survey team is the real threat. Arada agrees with them, saying they need its help just to survive.
Meanwhile, Gurathin’s wounds from Leebeebee’s treachery are getting severe. He’s running a fever and struggling to walk. He’s also still distrustful of Murderbot, even asking Mensah if the reason she’s nice to it is because she has feelings for the SecUnit. She assumes this is just delirium on his part, a symptom of his worsening condition. When Murderbot returns, the team pepper him with questions, which it finds annoying.
Mensah asks it how it’s feeling, to which it flatly says “fine,” its voiceover revealing that it just told her “any bullshit [that] would do.” Ratthi asks it outright if it plans to harm them, mostly to clear the air with everyone. Pin-Lee asks why Murderbot doesn’t want to show its face or make eye contact, to which Murderbot replies it’s not a sexpot, likely still reeling from Leebeebee’s weird sexual advances. They urge it to try a team-building exercise, which it refuses.
Ultimately Mensah says that the team are just scared, and they need Murderbot to both help protect them and feel like a member of the team. She asks it to again lower its helmet. It slowly complies, then notices a noise nearby. A giant alien centipede monster, like the ones from previous episodes, appears out of nowhere.
Murderbot rushes the team back inside the Hopper, closes the hatch, and takes defensive posture with weapons ready. As it aims at the creature, another giant monster appears, about the same size as the first but a different color. The two begin interacting with each other, which the team first mistakes for fighting and then realizes is a mating ritual. They sit back helplessly, half amazed and half repulsed, as the creatures copulate on top of their ship.
Once the mating is over, the creatures depart, leaving behind egg sacks affixed to the Hopper’s hull. As the team debates what to do with the sacks, a Black SecUnit, like the one from episode 4, appears and attacks. Murderbot realizes these newer models can also jam its threat assessment module, essentially giving them the element of surprise whenever they want.
A big fight breaks out, one in which the humans try to help but mostly just end up getting in the way. Murderbot struggles to hold its own against the superior Black SecUnit. The enemy, in its zeal, hits some of the egg sacks. As Murderbot reels from the fight, a rumbling from nearby is heard, and then one of the creatures from earlier reappears.
The monster attacks the Black SecUnit and rips its head off. A protective parent angry over the damaged eggs. The Black SecUnit falls to the ground in multiple pieces, and the alien centipede snatches up its eggs, taking them with it back into an underground lair. The team looks on with a mix of shock and relief.
“In retrospect, I was glad we didn’t touch the egg sacks,” Murderbot opines via its voiceover. Ratthi wants to congratulate Murderbot with a hug and high five, but attention turns to Gurathin, who’s just collapsed. The team decides they must return to the Habitat to get him medical treatment. Murderbot advises them against it, saying they’ll all die instead of just Gurathin in that case. Bharadwaj counters that helping each other is what they do.
Mensah says Murderbot can stay in the field or join them on the ride back. The episode ends with Murderbot staring down at the pieces of the Black SecUnit lying dead on the ground.