The latest episode of Murderbot is twenty minutes of mistrust, miscommunication, attempted murder… and mating. Ew.
Spoilers ahoy.
Murderbot is a show that knows how to not only do killer cliffhangers but compelling cold opens. This week we began in a restaurant back on Port FreeCommerce just before departure for the alien planet. Poor Gugu looks so uncomfortable at the way they stand out against the muted Corporate Rim guests. They’re playing a truth-telling game where each of them must recount a memory of someone at the table and describe a part that was sweet and a part that was bitter. When Bharadwaj shares a memory involving her confessing her former romantic attraction to Pin-Lee, her turn ends with Pin-Lee shaking her hand and them all saying “We can talk about this.” Gurathin looks like he doesn’t know if he should be bemused, peevish, or uncomfortable so he settles for all three at once. Until Ratthi picks him to go next.
Up to this point, most of the meaty character development has happened with Mensah. We know basic backstories and relationship configurations for the rest, but they’ve been backgrounded for the most part. Ratthi had his masculinity debacle in episode four, and Bharadwaj had her chance to shine in episodes six and seven; now it’s Gurathin’s turn. He, of course, chooses Mensah—who looks fabulous, by the way, in a crocheted multi-colored shawl and over it a polkadot scarf with both mesh and fringe, as well as her hair in fantastic braids. We learn his dark secret at the same time as the rest of the non-Mensah team: that he was a corporate spy who had been forcibly addicted to drugs and blackmailed into working for the Corporation Rim. Mensah shows him “what is possible between people of good will” and helps him escape. His bitter? He believes Mensah is naive to make this deal with the Company. She gives him a look that I’m sure he took as pity but to me reads as wanting to comfort someone but not knowing how to do it, of realizing someone is down in a dark emotional pit and they are the only ones who can get themselves out of it.
What we learn about Gurathin in this scene explains his dislike of Murderbot and why can’t fully accept his place in Preservation Alliance. He desperately wants to be part of a group but doesn’t know how to do that with his Corporate Rim background. He and Murderbot are a lot more alike than they realize (which I think is also fueling their mutual distrust). Both are transitioning from past to present. Gurathin in particular may have left the Corporate Rim, but he hasn’t shed the trauma it put on him. I’m not sure he’s ready to. Who is he without that baggage? Figuring out your life after something terrible happens can be terrifying. You have to build a whole new you. This plays out with costuming in the cold open. Gurathin pairs a rainbow-colored knitted vest over a hoodie and under a suit coat, a blend of Preservation Alliance chaos couture with corporate simplicity and mass production. With Murderbot, we see this blend of SecUnit violence and Murderbot personality when it takes its helmet down to ask PresAux to hurry the hell up or die, then stammers “I-I mean from them, not-not from me.” Both are trying so hard!
In the present, Murderbot hustles everyone onto the hopper before the hostile third party shows up to attack them. Once again, PresAux forgets that Murderbot can hear them, that the hopper isn’t that big, and it is a super soldier with enhanced senses and the ability to tap into any technology. Ratthi tries to smooth things over with Murderbot, which leads to a moment that is so quintessentially neurodivergent. Ratthi jokes that Murderbot’s aim was pretty good “Unless you were trying to hit Gurathin and missed.” If you were aware of social norms, you’d know that Ratthi is looking for reassurance and that Murderbot should respond with something to smooth things over, whether or not it believes in what it says. If you’re neurodivergent like me, it can be hard to recognize what the other person actually wants versus what they’re saying, especially when conflicting tones or facial expressions are added to the mix. And even if you do know what the expected response is, depending on your masking reserves you may just choose to ignore it. Many neurodivergent people also often give truthful, overly detailed answers even when the person asking them doesn’t want the truth or doesn’t care about the response. We see both with Murderbot. It tells Ratthi, “If I was trying to kill Gurathin, he would be dead. You would all be dead if I wanted to kill you.” Which, yeah. Not what Ratthi wanted to hear, but it was a truthful answer to what he asked. Don’t ask me a question if you don’t want my real answer! I don’t know how to guess at what you’re implying!
Murderbot once again stomps off to check the perimeter. It has to decide whether to abandon the humans or keep protecting them even if it means putting up with their derision. PresAux is also debating what to do. Pin-Lee wants to abandon it, Gurathin is worried it’s going to try and kill them too, Ratthi and Arada side with Seccy, and Mensah is more concerned with the people actually trying to kill them than speculating about whether or not their SecUnit might. There’s a reason she’s the leader.
Then Gurathin takes his scorn to new lows by accusing Mensah of having feelings for Murderbot. For a guy who claims to not watch space soap operas, he sure does love playing into their trope-y storylines. From what we’ve seen of the Corporate Rim so far, constructs in the Corporate Rim spend all of their time either being physically assaulted or sexually harassed by humans. Gurathin also misgenders Murderbot as “he.” This is a deliberate attempt to misgender Murderbot that intersects with sexualizing it while also demeaning it by stripping away what little personhood it has carved out for itself. And once again, Mensah doesn’t shut that shit down. Ugh.
What I find so interesting about this episode is this is the first time Murderbot is itself in front of PresAux, not just Mensah. Mensah gets that Murderbot is its own thing, but the rest of PresAux keeps trying to get it to behave the way they want it to, the way they would on Preservation Alliance (they do this to Gurathin, too), as if that’s the best way to be a person. They can’t see how their behavior is just as oppressive to Murderbot as the Company’s governor module. SecUnit has this nice moment of connection when Mensah asks how it’s doing and it doesn’t know how to respond. The last time PresAux asked how it was doing, Ratthi didn’t like the answer, but it also knows that Mensah genuinely cares about its answer. The rest of the team is defensive and antagonistic or obsequious and overly personal, which sets off Murderbot’s cantankerous attitude. If it had its governor module intact, it would stand there silently like it did in the first episode when that miner burned its palm. Now it’s free to say whatever it wants, and, as Mensah points out, it has a lifetime’s worth of pent up frustration with humans treating it like shit.
Everything culminates in their hopper being used as the mating site for the “complementary genders” of the Hostile that attacked Arada and Bharadwaj in the first episode. Ever the biologist, Arada is ecstatic about the copulation and resulting egg sacs attached to the hopper. Her glee is interrupted by the sudden arrival of another Evil SecUnit. PresAux keeps trying to help Murderbot but making things worse. At least this time they don’t have to worry about killing it. Hostile One takes care of that after the Evil SecUnit destroys one of the egg sacs. Gurathin passes out, his leg wound overcoming him. PresAux decides to return to the habitat for the med bay even though it means likely encountering whoever controlled that other SecUnit. Murderbot resists, but we just saw how these humans band together to protect one of their own. They risked their lives for Murderbot not a minute ago, and now they’ll do the same for Gura.
The last thing Mensah tells Murderbot is “You can come if you want.” Does Murderbot want that? Find out next week!
Final Thoughts
- Episode 7 has bits and pieces from Chapter 6 in All Systems Red but is mostly invented for the show.
- Costume designers Carrie Grace, Laura Jean Shannon, and Joyce Schure have been knocking it out of the park all season, but especially with Gurathin’s character development.
- I could listen to Akshay Khanna say “startled” for hours.
- The Evil SecUnit repeating “Please remain calm” while shooting at PresAux is peak Murderbot.
Quotes
“It’s wrong to think of constructs like me as half bot, half organic. Like the bot half should just want to obey orders and do its job. And the organic part should want to protect itself and get the hell out of there. As opposed to the reality, which was that I was one whole, confused entity.”
“It’s safer if they think of you as a person who is trying to help. Because that’s how I think of you.” For once, Murderbot doesn’t have a snarky response.
Pin-Lee: “I get it. Sometimes I hide behind a mask.”
Ratthi: “A mask of insecurity.”
Arada: “It’s not a crime to have feelings.”
Ratthi: “I’m a maelstrom of emotion.”
“Frankly, I didn’t find it any more revolting than what humans do to each other.” Lol same
Until next week.
I love that every single time Ratthi has been weirdly awkward with SecUnit has been building to this most excellent time when it’s used to show him Murderbot’s real personality. “Did it say it regretted shooting Leebeebee?” “Um, it didn’t use those words specifically…” GOLD. His readings of “startled” were indeed amazing.
I love that the team is meeting actual SecUnit this episode. I loved all their shouting right before the monster comes. I bet there are outtakes for more and hope we get those eventually.
I was excited that Pin-Lee and Arata got to use their occupations this episode! It’s been a minute.
Skarsgård’s tiny facial expressions, both when SecUnit is saying “uhh not from me” and after Mensah implores it to “be a person trying to help,” continue to astound me.
I wonder if we’ll find out Gurathin’s augments were forced by the Corporation Rim? Or if that was implied? Gurathin’s misgendering was super jerky. He does self-correct, but it’s not cool. I can’t tell if he’s actually romantically attracted to Mensah, or is fixated on her as a stable point in his mental health recovery.
Anyway, I loved watching the team interact and grapple with actual Murderbot, and I can’t wait to see what Murderbot thinks!
My favourite line is “unless you’ve got a mining drill.” It’s funny but it also touches on our habit of vaporizing violence. Even though I think Mensah’s awesomeness is shown by the support she offers Gurathin and Murderbot, for Murderbot her willingness to do violence on its behalf also counts for something. I think the show established that most of its clients see SecUnits as disposable (at least before the Company its bill) and so having a client risk their life to save its (English does not like that) is significant.
The show is definitely trying to do something in regards to sex and sexualization and the animals doing it on top of the hopper is part of it. I’m not sure if it’s successful at it though. I think part of the failure is that it relies too much on the audience to condemn the sexualization/romanticizing of Murderbot when it would be more clear if other characters stepped in and squashed it.
Does it bother anyone else to call it Murderbot instead of SecUnit?
Yes, I feel weird saying Murderbot. It’s its name, but it’s private. It prefers to be called SecUnit.
It’s name is Murderbot tho. That’s what it names itself in the first scene in thr first ep. It is a SecUnit named Murderbot. It shouldn’t bother you to call it by its chosen name. In the book PresAux learns its chosen name earlier, but in the show they still only know it as SecUnit.
But it doesn’t want other people to call it Murderbot. That name is private. It’s an unearned familiarity. If it were a real life person, I’d call it Eden or SecUnit not Murderbot.
I kind of go back and forth. When I’m talking about its interactions with the team, I normally say “SecUnit,” because even in the books after they know its name they still call it that. If I’m talking about its internal thoughts and musings I generally say “Murderbot.”
Lots of it is preference, similar to fans not calling characters in Wuxia shows or novels by their intimate acquaintance names.
I prefer to call it SecUnit when I think about it, but given that the character’s creator uses the blanket title The Murderbot Diaries for the series, I think that constitutes permission to use that name. And in the case of episodes like this, where there’s more than one SecUnit, it makes sense to differentiate the protagonist from the others.
I forget, where did “Eden” come from?
That’s the name of a character on Sanctuary Moon, but Murderbot chooses it so it can hire itself out as security consultant in Artificial Condition, the second book.
[oops…NN answered while I was checking my facts]
No worries, you added important info! I forgot it was a Sanctuary Moon character.
Eden is the alias it uses in I think Artificial Condition with that team and ART, when it’s posing as an augmented human.
Wait . . . where was Sanctuary Moon? I missed seeing one of those clips during this episode!
The short runtime of these episodes is frustrating to me. 23 minutes is a Friends episode, on a linear network, with commercial breaks. I want and expect more from a prestige pay-TV service.
I think it works really well, personally. It helps keep the tension and the tone. There’s not much to the original book, so if the episodes were longer that would mean either a much shorter season (4 or 5 eps) or padding out with a ton more stuff not in the books. Padding out is always risky, and I think in this case would dilute everything we love about Wells’ story.
We all got used to these overstuffed, long episodes on prestige TV, but “prestige” doesn’t really exist anymore. Not in the way we thought of it a decade ago. The showrunners here are interested in making a TV show, not a bunch of long moments that stitch together like a movie. The showrunners did an interview I can’t find now where they talked about this very thing, about why the episodes are sitcom length. It might be on Reactor. Worth checking out if you can find it.
This was a fun one. I loved how it was the blue SecUnit’s destruction of the creatures’ eggs that led to its downfall when Mama Creature came to the rescue. (Although I’m not convinced that decapitation alone would kill a SecUnit in the books.) It was also nice that the PresAux team reflexively tried to defend “Seccy” despite being totally out of their depth in a fight.
I don’t think Gurathin’s misgendering of SecUnit was deliberate, since he promptly corrected himself. Although it was an aftereffect of his jealousy about Mensah possibly having feelings for it, which was inappropriate toward both of them.