Murderbot – Rogue War Tracker Infinite

By starrymag | June 13, 2025

By: Quinn Que

 

 

The SecUnit who secretly calls itself Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) regains consciousness after shooting itself in the chest. “Guess I’m not dead, despite my best efforts,” Murderbot sardonically notes in voiceover. The self-inflicted wound was a desperate measure to prevent itself from killing its human clients after being infected with a malicious virus.

Dr. Ayda Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) takes immediate command of the situation, instructing her team to lift the damaged SecUnit. Arada (Tattiawna Jones), still struggling with anxiety issues established in the premiere, begins to panic. Mensah quickly redirects her energy, instructing her to grab a weapon and stand watch while they prepare to transport Murderbot.

As the team works, they hear rustling in the nearby foliage. Arada, overwhelmed by fear, shoots blindly into the haze. Her wife, the pragmatic Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), sharply reprimands her – pointing out that the figure appears to be wearing a DeltFall uniform, suggesting they’re an ally rather than a threat.

The newcomer introduces herself as Labibi (Anna Konkle), a DeltFall contractor. Her uniform is blood-spattered and her face bears the emotional wear of prolonged trauma, with mascara streaked down her cheeks.

Labibi shakily recounts how her team was attacked by the Black SecUnit they encountered in the previous episode, explaining that DeltFall’s own security units were hijacked and turned against their human clients. When she expresses concern that Murderbot might similarly attack them, the team assures her it won’t. Murderbot’s sardonic voiceover cuts in saying, “Not unless you’re stupid enough to revive me.”

At the PreservationAux habitat, the team places Murderbot into its repair chamber—a circular platform designed to repair damaged organic tissue and fabricate replacement components. Professor Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) takes responsibility for the delicate surgery required to remove the fiber fragments embedded in Murderbot’s data port—remnants of the enemy control device it tore out in the previous episode.

As Murderbot observes the new person dressed in bloodied DeltFall attire, it asks itself who she is via voiceover and we flashback to the team exchanging information and introductions on the Hopper ride back to their habitat. Labibi identifies herself as an indentured worker, one who barely survived a massacre according to her. She’s a character with an unusual affect, vacillating between trauma responses and inappropriate behaviors, including an unsettling attraction to Murderbot.

During this journey Mensah attempts to extract more information from Labibi about the attack on DeltFall and their possible motives, but Labibi insists she doesn’t know anything of value. Meanwhile, in a lighter moment, Ratthi (Akshay Khanna) discusses potential children with Pin-Lee, suggesting they name any future offspring “SecUnit” in honor of their protector – an idea Pin-Lee finds difficult to process.

Back in the present, Bharadwaj successfully clears Murderbot’s neck port, with Murderbot saying it is impressed that “the hippie” actually knew what she was doing. The team prepares to reboot the unit, with Gurathin (David Dastmalchian)—an augmented human with a black diode beneath his left ear—volunteering to assist with the process. He connects directly to Murderbot’s systems, and the SecUnit loses consciousness as the reboot sequence initiates.

When Murderbot regains awareness, it finds itself in the habitat’s common area, facing the team. Though physically repaired, it discovers it has also been immobilized. Gurathin, whose distrust of the SecUnit has been evident throughout the series, announces he’s found damning evidence: Murderbot had disabled its governor module long before they hired it, meaning it “was already rogue”  before the virus in his estimation.

What follows is a heated debate among the team about whether Murderbot can be trusted without its governor module. Several team members defend the SecUnit, pointing out its consistent actions to protect them despite having the freedom to do otherwise. They further argue that the very concept of governor modules is considered unethical by the Preservation Alliance commune.

As their conversation shifts to speculation about Company sabotage, Murderbot finally speaks up explaining with cold logic that if The Company wanted them dead, it could easily poison their water or air systems. Yet then it would have to pay out costly life insurance claims, making such a plot unprofitable.

Bharadwaj prompts Gurathin to reveal the other information he discovered, the thing he said he found most disturbing: Murderbot spends most of its time watching a soap opera called “Sanctuary Moon.” While Gurathin sees this as suspicious behavior, the team is less convinced of any sinister implications.

In a delightful moment of connection, Ratthi tests Murderbot’s knowledge by deliberately misquoting a plot point from the show. Murderbot immediately corrects him, proving its genuine fandom. “That’s literally such a deep cut,” Pin-Lee acknowledges, impressed by Murderbot’s vast knowledge of the in-universe space adventure series.

Gurathin remains unconvinced and announces his intention to keep Murderbot immobilized indefinitely. With perfect timing, Murderbot calmly states, “That won’t work,” before moving with superhuman speed to grab Gurathin by the throat. The SecUnit explains it has hacked their hub system, allowing it to override the immobilization commands.

As the terrified team begs Murderbot to release Gurathin, we see a pivotal moment in the character’s development. It lets go and turns to leave, simply stating, “I’m done.” This resignation marks the first time Murderbot has openly rejected its assigned role and shows that the SecUnit is perhaps having an emotional response to what it perceives as the human’s ungratefulness or lack of trust in it.

In a crucial character moment, Mensah chases after it, pleading for it to stay. She promises to keep its secrets from The Company and to respect its autonomy, asking it to remain part of their group. Murderbot’s voiceover reveals its cynicism. It assumes that Mensah is only saying what she must to maintain control of the situation. Nevertheless, it replies with a simple, “Okay,” agreeing to stay and continue helping them, its internal monologue explaining that it felt compelled to say this in kind with Mensah’s offer.

Murderbot suggests they launch an emergency beacon to The Company and the team begins preparations. Meanwhile, Labibi continues exhibiting increasingly bizarre behavior—staring at Murderbot intently and making strange claims about her role at DeltFall, including that she was only brought along to do laundry. Ratthi finds these statements suspicious, but the group quickly gets sidetracked.

A misplaced utterance by Pin-Lee pivots them all into brief, comedic discussion of classism as relates to the high status and advanced degrees of all the PreservationAux team members vs the poverty and subjugation that an “indentured” like Labibi likely experiences. Gurathin quickly refocuses them however.

He announces that he can’t reach the beacon remotely from their habitat, another abnormality amongst many the team has experienced. Murderbot volunteers to take the Hopper and activate the beacon manually. Despite Gurathin’s continued objections, Mensah decides she will accompany Murderbot on this mission.

As Mensah and Murderbot prepare to leave, Gurathin commits to rebooting their malfunctioning hub system. Something must be causing the maps, the remote activators and so on to misbehave. Labibi continues her disruptive behavior, pestering Gurathin about data until he dismisses her.

En route to the beacon, Mensah and Murderbot share another of their increasingly candid private conversations. They deduce that if The Company isn’t behind the attacks, a third party must be operating on the planet. Murderbot theorizes someone may have bribed a Company employee to conceal the presence of another survey team without understanding their true intentions.

For the first time, Murderbot can speak freely without pretending to be a conventional SecUnit. Its voiceover notes, “It was weird talking back and forth this way. They did it on the serials all the time, I just hadn’t done it myself.” This observation highlights how Murderbot’s understanding of human interaction has been largely informed by entertainment media.

As they approach the massive rocket-like beacon, Mensah begins asking Murderbot about its history. Before it can answer, its threat assessment module alerts it to danger. Suddenly, the beacon explodes. Murderbot attempts to protect Mensah and turn the Hopper around, but the episode ends with their vehicle plummeting downward as fiery debris strikes critical flight components.