Diksha Sundriyal
Apple TV+’s ‘Murderbot’ follows the story of the eponymous robot who cracks the code of his consciousness at the beginning of the show. The sentient SecUnit is forced to keep working for humans because there isn’t much he can do on his own. By the end of the season, however, the circumstances shift significantly, putting him in a very unique situation. While the season unravels a lot of mysteries, there is one thing that remains unresolved till the end. It refers to the alleged murder spree that Murderbot indulged in, though the truth surrounding the situation remains unclear even now. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Massacre at the Mining Facility was a Result of Human Error
The massacre incident in question happens before Murderbot cracks his governor module and becomes a fully sentient being. However, even being in control of his mind does not bring his memories back, and he remains in the dark about what really happened at the mining facility, where more than fifty humans were killed. In the books, this is referred to as the Ganaka Pit incident, and the details about the case are covered in-depth in ‘Artificial Condition,’ the second book in ‘The Murderbot Diaries.’
In the book, haunted by his partial memories of the massacre and feeling guilty about killing innocent humans, Murderbot embarks on a journey to uncover the truth. He discovers that the entire incident has been covered up by someone. In fact, the cover-up goes so deep that even the maps of the mining facility have been removed from the system. If there are no maps, no one will go looking for the place, or even if they do, they won’t find it. Murderbot, however, is particularly motivated, and he does end up back on the scene of the crime and discovers exactly what happened.
It turns out that the problem was never the robots, as Murderbot already guessed. It was human error through and through. The problem started with greed when another company tried to sabotage the company that Murderbot was working for. They wanted to disrupt their supply chains, so they decided to tamper with their bots responsible for hauling the shipment to its target location. For this, they used the ComfortUnits, which were infected with a malware that was supposed to jump through them to the freight bots. The purpose was to get the bots out of the picture, so the delivery process would not happen, and the villain company would get its order delivered first.
Murderbot was a Victim Rather Than the Perpetrator of the Terrifying Scheme
The malware was cleverly hidden in a patch, which should have been checked by a human before being put through to the bots. The ComfortUnits flagged the patch as a problem, but the human in charge of checking them was too lazy to do his job. He uploaded it anyway, and that’s where things went completely downhill. While the malware was targeted at the freight bots, it didn’t limit itself to them. It jumped around to the SecUnits. While the freight bots targeted each other, the SecUnits went completely haywire and started attacking humans.
The only robots not to be affected by the malware were ComfortUnits, who realised what was happening and tried to control the situation and save their humans. However, they were no match for the SecUnits, who are built for war, and despite their best efforts, they could do nothing to stop the massacre. Though they did die trying. With all this in mind, it is clear that while Murderbot was involved in the massacre, he wasn’t actively responsible for it. Because of the malware, he didn’t even know what he was doing and had no control over his actions.
When he was taken back to be fixed up, the memories of the massacre were removed, though they were not completely rooted out, which is why he keeps having flashes of the incident, even though he doesn’t really understand what happened there. This curiosity leads him back to the mining facility, and he goes through another tumultuous journey to get to the bottom of the truth. The Apple TV+ show’s first season teases the incident but keeps the mystery till the end, indicating that perhaps, the second season will have Murderbot uncover this mystery.
Read More: Murderbot Finale Recap and Ending Explained: Why does Murderbot Leave?
