Murderbot ‘Eye Contact’: What happens when you leave your murderbot at home

Season 1 Episode 2 Recap and Review

Stupid humans. Murderbot’s frustration with his charges was evident from the time he got out of stasis and realised that two of them, Mensah and Bharadwaj, left without him. But Murderbot’s time with Gurathin provided us with some helpful exposition and another opportunity to admire Alexander Skarsgård’s performance as a malfunctioning security unit.

As adorable as Murderbot was, he was a murderbot. If he were malfunctioning as Gurathin thought, he was a danger to the team. He was also company property, and after that encounter with a massive lifeform whose existence was not on their maps, the Preservation Alliance group had good reason not to trust the company. It was understandable that they had a secret meeting at the hopper whilst Murderbot was in stasis and Gurathin had disabled the security feed. In the end it was decided that Mensah and Bharadwaj would check out a missing area on their maps and take samples.

It was whilst they were out that Gurathin summoned Murderbot for some good old fashioned interrogation. Gurathin explained that there were no security units in the Preservation Alliance. There, AIs were considered people, not equipment, which explained the group’s gentle treatment of Murderbot in general. Gurathin required Murderbot to make eye contact with him as he performed his none too gentle probing. 

Security units were not designed to form emotional attachments with their clients the way comfort units were. So, when Murderbot removed his helmet and spoke to Arada with empathy, Gurathin immediately knew that was beyond his protocols. Murderbot tried to sell a lie that his show of empathy came from his combat trauma module, but the truth was, he got it from his favourite tv show. As Gurathin started to probe into Murderbot’s recent archives, Murderbot decided to show him something he usually avoided himself, human copulation involving Pin-Lee, Arada, and Ratthi. Gurathin stopped his probing immediately. 

The interrogation had to end when Murderbot detected a potential threat. Mensah had gone to the survey area alone, leaving Bharadwaj in the hopper. There she fought a panic attack even as her equipment started to malfunction. The same huge two-mouthed animal appeared, but it did not attack her. Instead, it went into a massive crater with some kind of energy field that destroyed the team’s drone. It looked like a graveyard, with huge animal bones. 

There was something beneath the terrain, something that drew those huge animals in and killed them. One of the team’s theories was that they were alien remnants that caused the survey satellites to glitch. Pin-Lee, the lawyer, said that if that were the case, they needed to stop surveying immediately as it was illegal to disturb alien remnants. 

Mensah wanted to reach out to Deltfall Survey, another team on the other side of the planet. But, they were not responding to comms, because they were dead. The episode ended with a decision to go see Deltfall Survey, but this time, they were going to take Murderbot with them. 

Two episodes in, and I’ve already reached the point of and? What happens next? Debuting the show with two episodes, with the second one ending on an intriguing cliffhanger, was a good call. I wonder, though, how these episodes would feel when they start dropping just one every week, with each episode being just 30-ish minutes long. In any case, see you on the next one!

Strays

🤖Mensah said that when she talked to Murderbot, it felt like he was going through something. 

🤖Pin-Lee drafted a contract for that sexual encounter with her, Arada, and Ratthi. 

🤖Gurathin, after seeing the feed of Pin-Lee, Arada, and Ratthi: ‘You don’t have to look at me anymore.’ Lol.

🤖Gurathin told Murderbot to try and recover the memory from before he was refurbished. 

🤖Gurathin apologised to Mensah for insisting that Murderbot not go with them. 

🤖Murderbot: ‘Get yourself killed on your own damn time.’ Alexander Skarsgård’s voice work is outstanding. 

🤖Guess who bought the first book of Martha Wells’s series! I can't wait to start reading it!

Writers: Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz

Director: Chris Weitz

Original air date: May 16, 2025

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