By: Quinn Que
We begin with a full scene from the show-within-a-show, “Sanctuary Moon.” It’s an interesting diversion from the normal events in Murderbot, one that our eponymous lead (Alexander Skarsgård) is so wrapped up in that the SecUnit nearly forgets it has a job to do. Dr. Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) asks it for advice on how to approach their Hub Habitat, their former base of operations. Murderbot has considered the possibilities, and they’re not good.
The mysterious third survey team, which killed the second survey team DeltFall and plans to kill our heroes in PreservationAux, is likely already at the Habitat. Gurathin (David Dastmalchian)’s temperature is spiking. He needs medical treatment ASAP, but bringing him to the Habitat could risk running into an ambush. Murderbot checks some ongoing security feeds he left behind in case of emergency.
The team sees their enemies clearly for the first time, including their insignias. Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu) is able to match the logo with a name from her database: GrayCris, a team known for mining operations. A member of GrayCris comes onscreen and addresses Preservation directly. She says GrayCris will leave their Habitat and wait to meet them at a different rendezvous point later on, insisting that coming to a new agreement is the only option.
They’re resolved to go into the Habitat for Gurathin’s sake, but the SecUnit is skeptical, arguing that GrayCris could simply be lying in wait. It also notes that their “odds of surviving another physical altercation are extremely low,” the SecUnit’s way of being diplomatic in the face of its overconfident and naive clients. Seeing they won’t relent, it grumpily decides to scout ahead and secure the Habitat on their behalf, telling them all to stay put, especially the regularly overeager Ratthi (Akshay Khanna).
After it confirms no hostels are in the building, the team bring Gurathin to med bay and prepare for an operation on Gurathin’s gunshot wound. Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) will handle the surgical side, saying it should only take about 10 minutes to work on Gurathin. The dour patient refuses painkillers, reminding Mensah of his addiction history and that he doesn’t want to relapse. They begrudgingly oblige him.
Gurathin suggests the SecUnit hold him down, but then the two of them have an epiphany at the same time: It can turn off the pain receptors of an augmented human via a direct link, similar to how SecUnits turn off their own pain receptors for self-repairs. Mensah asks if this is just something the SecUnit saw on “Sanctuary Moon,” and it truthfully answers “no.” Its voiceover reveals the SecUnit saw the procedure on a different serial – “Med Center Argala.”
It also explains via voiceover that it isn’t assisting Gurathin “to be nice,” but as a purely pragmatic gesture. Doing this is preferable to hearing him scream, plus it allows the SecUnit to return the “favor” of Gurathin rummaging around in its head a few episodes ago. The SecUnit begins watching Gurathin’s memories, but admittedly gets “lost” in a “sea of organic goo,” one that is unlike the mental databases of computers or other SecUnits.
We see Gurathin’s unrequited love for Mensah, which distracts the SecUnit and leads it to blurt out Gurathin’s thoughts as if they were its own. As Bharadwaj finishes the operation and asks Arada (Tattiawna Jones) to seal the wound, Gurathin regains enough strength to mentally and digitally turn the tables on the SecUnit while they’re still physically linked. “One moment,” he says, before probing into all of the SecUnit’s memories and personal data.
As the images and information flash before his eyes, Gurathin finally realizes two nasty secrets: SecUnit’s history on the mining colony, as alluded to back in the pilot, and the unit’s private name for itself – “Murderbot.” It unlinks them and tries to claim Gurathin is delirious, but to no avail. Gurathin says that Murderbot has a fragment of memory which seems to indicate its involvement in the deaths of fifty-seven miners on its previous assignment. This is the fragment it was concerned about for weeks, the one it tried to hide from him.
Gurathin suggests that Murderbot is a “defective unit that’s just one thought away from killing everyone.” Though Murderbot denies killing clients wantonly or knowingly, it can’t be certain what happened. It suggests alternate theories, like a combat override module or an order from a client. But it can’t be sure. Accused again by Gurathin of being defective, an embarrassed and dejected Murderbot sheepishly answers with “maybe.”
The rest of the group stare in stunned silence. Murderbot then leaves the Habitat and walks into the woods. The team wonders where it’s going, then debates what they should do next. Mensah is initially concerned about the SecUnit, but decides that learning more about GrayCris is the bigger concern. They brainstorm how a third survey team could be on the planet without them knowing, and what rule the Company may have played in this.
Ultimately they agree that someone from the Company most likely took a bribe to hide GrayCris from the map. They doubt the Company realized GrayCris would kill anyone, since that’s bad for Corporation Rim business. DeltFall must have stumbled upon GrayCris’ operation, thus the massacre at its Habitat. And now PreservationAux was next on the chopping block. The only thing keeping them alive, besides Murderbot, is that GrayCris needs their survey data.
Murderbot walks along the beach side of the planet and flips through clips of its favorite shows, saying its “trying to calm itself down.” It feels upset over the perceived ungratefulness of its clients. Then it gets an idea, what if it “writes [its] own storyline” involving a plot to betray them.
As the team argue over what to do next, Murderbot returns and announces, “I have a plan.” Realizing its first attempt at saying that sounded too aggressive, it repeats itself in a softer tone, and Gurathin curses under his breath.