By: Quinn Que
We open on a fabrication center in the Corporation Rim. Here the workers, mostly all futuristic indentured servants stuck in multi-year work contracts, are forced to assemble the various parts of SecUnits from the flesh to the limbs to the operating systems. Murderbot’s (Alexander Skarsgård) voiceover comments favorably on how it finds these facilities more comforting than the human hospitals where babies are born.
There is an arch irony to the way Murderbot talks about the fabrication center, including it saying the center has “rigorous quality controls” whilst we see evidence to the contrary on screen, including arms that are criticized as shoddy work and funky pH balances. All this ends with Murderbot commenting on how weird humans are, right before the cold open ends.
Murderbot slowly regains consciousness after being knocked out off-camera. The Black SecUnit has Murderbot immobilized and drags it into an operating room. Whilst Murderbot is broadly aware of what’s happening, it is experiencing severe system dysfunction, drifting uncontrollably between conscious awareness and scenes from its favorite episodes of the in-universe TV show “Sanctuary Moon,” a pastiche of “Star Trek.”
Meanwhile, Murderbot’s clients are struggling with what to do. Dr Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) had ordered Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu) and the rest of the team to fall back, despite their pleading and some objections that things like this should be decided democratically. They ping her communications repeatedly and she tells them to stop, saying she’s trying to reach their SecUnit.
We then see Murderbot on an operating table. It is wondering why the Black SecUnit doesn’t just kill it. Murderbot ponders its own mortality as Mensah continues trying to reach it via radio. She’s struggling with the notion that Murderbot is just a machine, which Pin-Lee tries to tell her as well. Eventually, she opts to run into the DeltFall habitat after Murderbot, leaving the others behind with strict orders not to follow.
Murderbot realizes that the Black SecUnit is planning to install a Combat Override Module, an external device which will hack our protagonist’s system and install a program which will turn it homicidal towards its clients. Murderbot surmises that this is what happened to the DeltFall SecUnits, and what caused the carnage it found in the last episode. It improvises a distraction tactic: singing the “Sanctuary Moon” theme song.
Surprisingly and funnily enough, Murderbot’s dulcet tones do the trick, giving it just enough time to partially reboot. The two SecUnits then begin a harrowing fight in the operating room. Murderbot tries valiantly to hold its own, but it’s overpowered by the Black SecUnit’s advanced technology, not to mention Murderbot’s own lingering injuries and system failures.
After a struggle the Black SecUnit slips the device onto a port in the back of Murderbot’s neck. Through voiceover, Murderbot explains how the module will work. Murderbot notes that it will be under complete enemy control in ten minutes. The module will also cover its own tracks, making Murderbot incapable of knowing or explaining what happened. In effect, Murderbot won’t even perceive that it has been altered.
As Murderbot wonders what will happen to its “useless clients,” worrying that they “are now completely defenseless,” Mensah bursts in and impales the Black SecUnit with a piece of heavy-duty mining equipment. More of the series’ trademark irony. Murderbot looks on in surprise as the enemy SecUnit falls dead and Mensah, typically a staunch pacifist, vomits in disgust over what she’s been forced to do.
Mensah then moves to help Murderbot up and out of the DeltFall habitat. It initially tries to stop her, but both its dialogue and voiceover are confused as to why. It knows something is wrong, yet can’t remember what. The combat override module has already begun to work. Murderbot explains that whatever it was trying to remember is stuck “in its buffer” and it can’t access the data. Instead, Murderbot keeps mindlessly telling Mensah that her actions are “a violation of security protocol” as she ignores him and moves to walk them both out of the building.
Pin-Lee returns to the Hopper and explains the situation to Arada (Tattiawna Jones) and Ratthi (Akshay Khanna). They don’t like how things are playing out. Ratthi, in particular objects to how Mensah simply barked orders without consensus, arguing she’s just the first amongst equals in the survey team. Arada does remind them that Mensah is their rightful leader, even though Ratthi remains frustrated by the situation.
As they continue spiraling, worried about what could happen to Mensah or what the rest of the broader Preservation Alliance commune would think of them if she died, Ratthi decides to take action. He grabs one of their futuristic weapons, albeit from the wrong side because he skipped weapons training, and prepares to go after Mensah to help.
Mensah and Murderbot continue to shuffle towards the exit of the habitat. The SecUnit is limping on unsteady legs, and it still senses something is wrong. It tries to reach for the control device on its neck, but is being stopped internally. Mensah notices Murderbot behaving abnormally, but she doesn’t know if it is just damaged from the fights or generally prone to odd behavior regardless.
Murderbot begins to hallucinate. It thinks that it is in an episode of Sanctuary Moon. Mensah is reimagined the ship captain, and Murderbot sees itself as an intrepid crewmember. Their journey to leave the DeltFall habitat becomes an attempt to activate the engines on the starship and enter escape velocity. Suddenly, they hear a noise. “Incoming hostiles,” Murderbot manages to exclaim. Murderbot screams as another Black SecUnit appears and begins shooting at them.
Pin-Lee and Arada discuss their predicament. Arada worries about something happening to Ratthi. “Our contract is null and void” if that happens, smirks Pin-Lee, before apologizing, insisting they don’t want anything bad to happen, and saying they just find macho behavior annoying. Pin-Lee suggests that when everything calms down and the meet back up that they should talk about their contract. “It’s just temporary,” Arada chides her wife. To which Pin-Lee retorts, “So is life!”
Ratthi has run all the way through the forest to the DeltFall habitat. He re-establishes radio communication to say he’s about to breach the doorway. He asks for guidance on how to use the weapon he took, which Pin-Lee provides with obvious frustration in their voice. Khanna and Wu play this well, a delicate balance on both their parts. Khanna’s Ratthi is the right mix of plucky exuberance and need for reassurance. Wu plays Pin-Lee as serious but snarky and just trying to keep it together amidst a bunch of taxing circumstances.
As he approaches the compound, Ratthi hears a distress call from Mensah over the radio. He rushes to the door but can’t get in. Meanwhile, Murderbot tells “Captain” Mensah to save herself while it stays behind to “fight the raiders.” Mensah, now convinced her SecUnit is delusional, refuses its directive and continues trudging them both through the building.
Pin-Lee and Arada realize Ratthi needs backup, so Arada comes up with a plan. Mensah and Murderbot hide in a storage room as the enemy SecUnit bangs on the door, attempting to break in. Murderbot is confused as it notices that its threat assessment sensors don’t detect any danger, a nod to the fact that the override module sees the Black SecUnits as allies instead of enemies.
The Black SecUnit finally breaks in just as Mensah breaks an energy weapon. She blasts the intruder within seconds and then makes an escape route by blasting through a side of the habitat. Ratthi is just about to shoot through the front door as Mensah helps Murderbot out into the open. Ratthi quickly joins them, glad to be together.
Their happy reunion is cut short as the Black SecUnit comes out and begins firing on them. Murderbot’s voiceover also recognizes that the override module will have complete control in less than a minute. Murderbot also notices that the Black SecUnit keeps missing clean shots at the PreservationAux team members. The why becomes obvious once Murderbot understands that the enemy wants it to kill its own clients, just like the DeltFall units killed theirs.
Suddenly, the Hopper arrives and it crushes the Black SecUnit under its landing gear. Pin-Lee and Arada cheer from the cockpit as they save the day, completely smashing the threat. Ratthi, who briefly knocked himself out by misfiring his weapon, wakes up and celebrates as well. But Murderbot isn’t feeling so good.
Our uneasy protagonist falls to its knees. Mensah asks what’s wrong and Murderbot finally manages to forcibly extract the control device from its neck port, breaking the thing apart in its hands. But the crisis is not averted. The program still managed to infect Murderbot, and it finally informs its clients of the imminent danger. It needs them to save themselves. It struggles to tell Mensah what they must do.
“Why was I dancing around the word,” it asks itself in voiceover. “Maybe because I thought she didn’t want to hear it.” It calmly but uncomfortably relays the instructions: “You need to kill me.” The team refuses, insisting there must be another way. Murderbot knows otherwise. As the program inside its head begins putting “target acquired” shooting markers on the faces of its clients, Murderbot grabs Mensah’s blaster.
The team begs Murderbot to stop, but it just quietly says, “I’m sorry” before shooting itself in the chest. Fade to black.