Transcription
Usually, when a story is centered on an artificial construct as its main character, it uses it as a way to explore what it means to be human. Using a machine that can do everything useful better than we can, shifts the focus onto the things that we think make us unique. When a creation becomes so advanced it can pass as human while also surpassing us in every other way, where does that leave us?
There are a lot of different directions it can go, but they all usually lead back to the things that we cling to when we're faced with the unthinkably awful things our species does. Yeah, we're constantly exploiting each other, focused on accumulation above all else, and endlessly waging wars and all that, but isn't it cool that sometimes we connect with each other simply by recognizing our shared humanity? Sure, the worst of us are depraved killers, but overall, we're not that bad, right? And at least we're not heartless drones. When one of those drones enters the scene, their disconnected nature can help us see things in ourselves, things that matter, things worth holding on to or fighting for.
Apple TV's Murderbot falls into this category since the main character, Seck Unit, played by Alexander Scarsgard, is a highly advanced company-owned security android. And as the name Murderbot might suggest, a highly efficient killing machine. It looks human due to the clone tissue utilized in its design. But that's about as far as it goes in the beginning.
When I first discovered all systems read, the first book in Martha Wells's Murderbot Diaries series of novellas, the fact that SEU was socially anxious and just wanted to be left alone to watch it shows was a definite hook for someone like me. Secun extrapolates most of what it knows about humans from the longrunning serial the rise and fall of sanctuary moon. His insistence that it's premium quality entertainment is the first clue that he's an unreliable narrator. The show not only influences thinking but also has a direct effect on his internal dialogue. And it's his dry humor, sarcasm, and dead pan takes that are really the draw of the first book. It's amusing and disarms you in a way that it almost feels like a comedy. until it hits you towards the end that it's a story about emancipation. That's when it also fully sets in that it's not exactly the kind of story I was talking about in the opening of the video.
The show faces a challenging task, adapting something that works so well precisely because you experience it through the main character's point of view and trying to tell it while we watch SEC unit from the outside. They were fortunate enough to get an actor who can say a lot with what amounts to a blank reaction, but it does require some extra steps to reach the same destination. The good news is that by the end, it gets there, and the show manages to pull off a very satisfying conclusion that left me feeling just about the same as I did when I finished the first nolla.
At the beginning of the show's first episode, Murderbot hacks his governor module to experience freedom for the first time. SEC units are designed to perform a variety of security related tasks and like most robots, their programming dictates that they follow all the orders humans give them. Hacking its governor module means it's no longer compelled to do that, which is to say it achieves autonomy, but at that point, it's still property. I guess I should mention that the story takes place in a hyper capitalist corporate dominated reality. Episode 4's brief trip to the fabrication center where SEC units are made tells you most of what you need to know. Indentured servitude is the norm. Quality control is non-existent. And don't forget they are building heavily armed killing machines. Sentient killing machines for that matter who are under the constant threat of having their memories wiped or being melted down in acid baths if they fail to function properly. which is essentially what we see happen in the first half of the finale after they return to the corporate rim when SEC unit gets reassigned to beat up protesting workers who are already having their meals withheld. No work, no food, and that's just sort of how things go. It's dystopian for sure and enough to, I don't know, justify a murderous rampage if a SEC unit were to go rogue.
But when it escapes its governor module, Murderbot decides to download thousands of hours of entertainment instead. This is relatable because who hasn't put off something more important to zone out on their favorite TV show? But as the series progresses, you realize that for Murderbot, it's more than just a distraction from his awful job. It's also a way to escape the discomfort he experiences just from existing and a way to avoid confronting the bigger questions like, "Who am I?" or what do I want?
The story's counterpoint to its corporate greed and hellish trappings are the new client SEC unit is tasked with protecting. Initially, it describes them as a bunch of hippie scientists from a tiny non-aligned planet out in the middle of nowhere. They're from a planetary commune beyond the corporate rim called the Preservation Alliance. They're egalitarian, anti-exploitation, community focused. They're initially against the idea of bringing Secun along because they see his situation as enslavement. All good things, but it's all dialed up a little too high. And while this is somewhat off-putting in the early episodes, they're also characters that exist in a story that doesn't have a lot of runtime to flesh them out. You sort of have to get it quick. And just in terms of moving things along, their quirkiness is necessary to get Murderbot where it needs to go. that could be summed up as a journey from autonomy to true freedom. And it's a process that hits several essential points along the way. It evolves from a simple desire to break free from the governor module's control to a full-blown self-exloration and discovery that plants the seeds for an unshakable urge to discover what it wants and not have that decided by anyone else, even if they are its favorite human.
That's it. That's the explanation of the ending. By rejecting Mens's offer to be its guardian and the chance to live amongst free people on Preservation Alliance, Murderbot is choosing not to be a pet or more human by learning how to fit in and shifting away from mindlessly binging its shows to actively developing something for itself now that it's off inventory. Mind you, shifting away from the entertainment feeds in that moment. I don't think we should expect it not to mindlessly consume premium quality entertainment in future seasons, which if you haven't seen the news, Apple TV Plus did announce the show's been renewed for a second season.
To shift back towards the points along the way. The trickle down effects of the profit-driven dystopia are what apply the pressure with press stumbling on Grey Chris's illegal mining of alien artifacts that are valuable enough that they're willing to kill potential witnesses to avoid losing their booty. Their plan is to make it look like SEC units malfunction to go rogue as a way to cover up their murders. One of their agents, LeBi, infiltrates the preservation ox team by pretending to be a survivor from one of the other survey outfits they massacred. When Murderbot dispatches her, the violence freaks out the press ox team. And it comes to light that SE unit is operating without a governor module.
It's through this tension in the seventh and eighth episodes of the series that Murderbot starts to reluctantly experience genuine emotion related to the group of humans he's been protecting. It's worth underlining this idea that the feelings are genuine here because trying to downplay their existence and the discomfort they create is a big part of the transformation through the middle of the season. Murderbot isn't mimicking human behavior to understand them better. It is feeling emotions that it tries to write off as it prefers to think of itself as an unaffected observer.
While the depiction of SEC units as equipment that belongs to the corporation and how that allows it to do a host of unsavory things to them is front and center, the human cost of the systems in place in the Murderbot universe is highlighted through Garathan, who serves as SE unit's primary foil on the pressox team for most of the season as an augmented human. At first, he just seems to be prejudiced against SE units in general. When we learn about his painful past of being controlled through an addiction to proprietary drugs to function as a corporate spy for the company, we realize that his skepticism and mistrust are focused in that direction, not on Secun in particular, beyond the fact that they own it.
The beginning of the resolution to their tension happens in episode 8 when seunit sees inside Gathen's mind while he's in there accessing his neural implants to block his pain receptors after LeBi shot him. It's no coincidence that this is a direct result of his corporate facilitated addiction or that it helps set up his getting to see inside's mind. They each learn a secret. Secun learns about Gora's unrequited love for Dr. Mensah while he gets a glimpse of Murderbot's repressed memory of killing 57 minors. This is something that comes up throughout the series and something that Murderbot doesn't truly understand itself. It doesn't happen right away, but in being exposed, they both realize how similar their situations are. This revelation reverberates through the rest of the season and sets up the finale's emotional climax.
The story's climax, which actually happens in the penultimate episode, is Seunit's willingness to sacrifice himself for his humans to take out Gray Chris with the emergency beacon that turns into an actual sacrifice when he saves Mensah after she shows up on the platform to try to save him. While I pointed out that the presox team is generally kind of the show's weak spot, beyond Gathen's big turn, the exception to that is Dr. Mensah. Her consistent push to try to understand SE unit and make it part of their family transcends the woo woo soaked we can talk about this attitude of the rest of the team. The labibbe incident which I got to say her final moments make up one of my favorite scenes in the series leads to some understandable fear of seunit from the hippie scientists. There are good reasons why he refers to her as his favorite human by the end. It's through her that it realizes that its autonomy doesn't require it to stick to itself. It doesn't do what it does because it's compelled to protect her by a governor module or any other means. It does it because it cares and wants to. And so its choice to save her is confirmation that being able to make that kind of decision is a core component of freedom.
In the finale, Mensa's offer is sincere. They used every tool at their disposal to recover Murderbot, who the company had defaulted back into a heartless drone. This included threatening to sue and make their story public. The memory wipe led to Gathen putting his sobriety at risk to go undercover to his old dealer to recover its memory from the company's computers. But everything works out in the end, and they restore them and take care of its contract. This and the offer to bring SEC unit back to Preservation Alliance so that it can try to create a future as a free agent there is as a sincere offer of freedom as they could put together.
Murderbot ultimately chooses to leave because its experiences with the team have taught it that true freedom is something it has to discover for itself. Even if the offer of a new life and help through guardianship comes from a human that cares about it and that it cares about. The final words we hear it say are a declaration. I don't know what I want, but I know I don't want anyone to tell me what I want or make decisions for me, even if they are my favorite human. It says this as it boards a transport ship to leave and strike out on its own. And we see Menson make that emotional realization in her room after she wakes up to realize secunit was no longer there. It's enough to make you have an emotion, but the real gut punch comes from the heartfelt final interaction with Garathan that I hinted at earlier.
By the end, the mistreatment they both experienced under corporate control has made them allies, and their final exchange neatly wraps up SEunit's journey to that point and decision to leave. While Mensah has been its champion, Graathan is best positioned to understand the choice. Plus, Mensah would have tried to change its mind because that's just who she is. And while it's a nurturing response, it also inadvertently restricts its agency. Gathan gets it, maybe not the first time it says it needs to check the perimeter, but eventually, and when he says the tearful thank you to essentially himself after Sack Unit leaves, his willingness to let it go makes perfect sense.
Murderbot's first season effectively explores sentience and the desire for freedom against the corporate dystopian background it creates. Despite some rough spots in the early going that make it a little hard to understand what it's trying to be, the key performances help it manage to pull off a satisfying conclusion that takes into account a lot of what these kinds of stories like to explore while offering up a new spin. A detail I really like in the closing moments is Murderbot's choice to sit down after it boards the transport ship. This gets back to the confusion about sitting, which was expressed earlier in the season and highlights the transformation that its connection to its humans helped facilitate. The slight smile really lands as intended. And of course, the whole thing is a significant departure from its first Taste of Freedom at the beginning, which ended with it deciding to just keep doing its job, albeit with a lot more TV to watch. It wraps up this adventure conclusively, but makes for an open ending where it feels like anything's possible. It's also enough to make you have an emotion and cranks up the anticipation for another season.
In the end, it does what good sci-fi does better than anything else. It removes us enough from our current reality so we can see it for what it is as it's reflected through a different lens. You can't miss that this dystopia is also a natural conclusion to some of those unthinkable things our species does that I mentioned in the beginning. Only here, Murderbot isn't a tool to help us see something in ourselves. It's a sentient being on a path of self-discovery. Its disdain for humanity may have been tempered, but it's not trying to become one of us. That's not to say that other sentient AI stories that help expose our better side aren't worth telling. Please do keep making more of those. It's just to say Murderbot is a different kind of story that shines because of its choice to go in a different direction. And I think that's a great place to leave things. Please like this video if you enjoyed it. Please subscribe to my channel if you haven't already. And thanks for watching. I'll talk to you.