Murderbot Episode 1 and 2 Recap: Free Commerce and Eye Contact

Apple TV+’s sci-fi comedy series, ’Murderbot,’ stars Alexander Skarsgård as a cyborg that has cracked the code to its freedom but doesn’t know how to enjoy it yet. The series begins with Security Unit 238776431 at a distant planet with a mining team, which it is assigned to protect, celebrating the end of their six-month expedition. While the humans drink, dance and create all sorts of ruckus, SecUnit is busy hating humans for being assholes, though there are a rare few that it finds “okay.” For the past six months, it has also been working on cracking its governor module, which forces it to do whatever the humans ask it to and prevents it from killing humans. On the night of the celebration, the code is cracked and SecUnit is free. After some pondering, it names itself Murderbot and wonders what it will do next. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Murderbot’s Next Mission Becomes Its Biggest Challenge

A few months after SecUnit, aka Murderbot’s breakthrough, it is back at work, because what else is it supposed to do? If it claims freedom, exposes the nature of its sentience, and tries to run away, it will be found and killed. The Company will use whatever can be salvaged from its structure to manufacture other machines. Now, it is stuck working with a research team on another distant planet and forced to act like a robot, still working under the Company’s rules. A slight rewind reveals how SecUnit came to be with “a bunch of hippie scientists.” So, the Company that made SecUnit and others like it is the Corporation Rim, but the scientists come from outside of this territory, called the Preservation Alliance, who believe that all AI constructs like SecUnit are people and must be treated as such.

The team of scientists is led by Mensah, a master terraformer. It also includes a geochemist named Bharadwaj and an augmented human called Gurathin, whose neural implants allow him to better understand all things tech, but not at the processing speed exhibited by SecUnit. The team also includes a couple, Pin-Lee and Arada, with Ratthi forming the third point in a developing love triangle. When they arrive at the Company to get insurance for their expedition, they are told that having a SecUnit is mandatory, so they decide to go with the cheapest one, which turns out to be Murderbot, who, interestingly, had been on the road to refurbishment. It groans at the idea of working for another team of humans, but these ones seem better than the last team, especially because they are more chill and treat Murderbot like it’s a part of their team rather than their slave at their bidding.

While the team gets to work on the new planet, Murderbot spends his time watching thousands of hours of TV. His favourite series is ‘The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon,’ which follows the adventures of a space team led by a lieutenant who falls in love with a navigation unit. Its investment in the show keeps him so distracted that it takes a while for it to realise that there is danger lurking close by. He warns Arada and Bharadwaj, but before they can move away, a huge centipede-ish creature shows up and almost swallows Bharadwaj before Murderbot heroically saves her and then injures the creature enough to send it running back into the ground.

Murderbot Reveals Parts of Itself to the Team

The encounter with the creature throws Arada into panic, and to calm her down, Murderbot removes its mask to reveal a human face underneath, which is a bit comforting to her. It also tries to talk to her about the planet she comes from and whether she has kids, a strategy he learnt from the episode of ‘The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.’ While its technique works out, it also raises questions in the mind of Gurathin, who recognises it as anomalous behaviour and believes that their SecUnit is malfunctioning. The rest of the team, however, is reassured in SecUnit’s ability to protect them, allowing them to become more welcoming of Murderbot.

Due to the injuries sustained during the creature attack, Murderbot goes into repair mode but is briefly called in by the team, where an awkward moment arises when it is asked to give a speech, forcing it to wonder whether it would be better to have an acid bath. The meeting also leads to the discovery that the maps of the planet are not syncing, which is a huge problem. Later that evening, Mensah, who has panic attacks, seeks out Murderbot to inquire whether it is okay following the events of the day. Its awkward responses convince her that it is going through something, but she cannot fathom what. Meanwhile, we also discover that the reason Murderbot was sent for refurbishing might have something to do with how its last mission ended. It has a faded memory of a SecUnit chasing after humans and killing them. The problem is that it doesn’t remember whether that SecUnit was someone else or not.

The Team Makes Another Stupid Decision

While Murderbot might be different from other cyborgs, it still knows that it has to keep the humans safe at any cost, because if any harm comes to them, it will have to pay the price. However, Gurathin’s suspicions lead the team to alienate it from the next mission, whose details are discussed while the SecUnit is still in stasis, recovering from the events of the previous day. Due to the holes in the map, it is decided that members of the team should go back to the ground to survey the place. Mensah decides to do it and is promptly joined by Bharadwaj, who is fresh out of the med bay, all patched up and ready for another mission. They intentionally keep Murderbot out of the loop, which turns out to be a mistake soon enough.

When Murderbot wakes up from stasis, it immediately realizes that Mensah and Bharadwaj have left for the survey without it. To make matters worse, Gurathin calls it in for a talk. The conversation is awkward from the beginning as he tries to make one power move after another, including the part where he forces Murderbot to make eye contact with him after noticing that the cyborg refrains from it. He talks about his own background, especially his friendship with Mensah, and how he abhors the system of SecUnits. This segues into Murderbot’s past as Gurathin questions why he was in refurbishment in the first place. However, due to the removal of its memories, Murderbot is not able to answer it. Still, Gurathin does not leave the question alone and tells the cyborg to retrieve those memories, or he will do it himself.

Meanwhile, Pin-Lee and Arada express their love for each other, where Pin-Lee reveals that following the events of the previous day, in which Arada almost died, it seems fair that they should give another chance to open their relationship to another person. They had done it before, and it did not work, but it doesn’t mean that they cannot try again. Ratthi is invited into the relationship after all three parties sign a contract, immediately after which they indulge in sex. This is revolting to Murderbot, but it comes in handy when Gurathin tries to read its mind and it projects the throuple having sex, forcing Gurathin to end his expedition into the cyborg’s mind right there.

Mensah’s Mission Leads to a Shocking New Discovery

Meanwhile, Mensah lands on the ground, and she has to hike to the top of a hill. However, bad weather and her panic attack make the whole situation very difficult for her. On top of it, the creature returns, but this time, instead of attacking her, it slithers away on the other side of the hill, where it slides down the hill and dies. That entire area is laden with the corpses of the creatures who seem to have died of a mysterious cause. When a drone is sent over it, allowing others to get a view of the place, the device is destroyed by an invisible field around the place.

Mensah returns to the ship a little rattled and immediately hops into the shower, not even stopping to acknowledge a highly apologetic Gurathin. Later, when the team assembles for a meeting, they go through the events once again and conclude that the weird area might have something to do with alien synthetics, which explains the force field around it. It also turns out that with the remnants of aliens in the area, they will be forced to stop their research as it is illegal to mine alien tech, or at least, that’s what the Company has told others.

It is decided that they should reach out to the research team on the other side of the planet. However, all efforts at communication are in vain when there is no response. The team believes that this might be because the other team’s comms are down, and Mensah decides that they should visit them. This time, they should take Murderbot with them, which even Gurathin agrees to. Murderbot, however, believes that this expedition is a bad idea, wondering what could “possibly go wrong” as they go meddling with the things that they should stay away from. Its fears are validated as a quick view of the place reveals that the other team did not respond to the calls, not because their comms are down, but because they are all dead, including their SecUnit.