Murderbot Episode Guide

The PreservationAux team begins a scientific survey of a remote planet with a company-supplied Security Unit assigned to protect it. Unknown to the humans, their SecUnit has disabled its governor module and acquired free will, although it would greatly prefer to hide that fact behind armour, sarcasm and several thousand hours of downloaded television.

Episode 1: FreeCommerce

Skully’s Pick

A scientific expedition reluctantly accepts a corporate Security Unit as part of its insurance requirements, unaware that the construct has secretly hacked its governor module. When two researchers are attacked by a huge indigenous creature, Murderbot reveals both its combat abilities and a degree of empathy that makes Gurathin suspicious.

Episode 2: Eye Contact

Mensah and Bharadwaj investigate a region missing from the company-provided planetary maps, forcing Murderbot to confront another dangerous life form. Back at the habitat, Gurathin studies the SecUnit’s unusual behaviour and attempts the one form of contact it finds more alarming than gunfire: sustained eye contact.

Episode 3: Risk Assessment

After communications with the neighbouring DeltFall survey fail, the PreservationAux team travels to its habitat to investigate. The apparent disaster quickly becomes a tactical nightmare involving damaged systems, dead researchers and Security Units behaving far outside their normal programming.

Episode 4: Escape Velocity Protocol

Skully’s Pick

A hostile SecUnit captures Murderbot and installs malicious code capable of overriding its independent control. As Mensah and the others attempt a rescue, Murderbot must calculate whether it presents a greater danger to its clients than the enemy pursuing them.

Episode 5: Rogue War Tracker Infinite

The team recovers Murderbot and attempts to repair its severely damaged systems. Their return journey brings them into contact with Leebeebee, an eccentric survivor whose account of the attack on DeltFall raises further questions about what really happened.

Episode 6: Command Feed

Murderbot struggles with corrupted memories, unwanted attention and the possibility that the expedition has admitted a serious threat into its habitat. When the situation turns violent, it must protect the team without allowing fear of its own history to dictate its choices.

Episode 7: Complementary Species

The PreservationAux researchers assess their options as evidence of deliberate sabotage continues to accumulate. Murderbot investigates the truth behind a traumatic incident buried in its memory, confronting the question of whether it once became the killer it fears it could be.

Episode 8: Foreign Object

Representatives of the GrayCris expedition arrive with an explanation for the deaths and an offer that inspires very little confidence. Murderbot detects inconsistencies while the scientists attempt to navigate a confrontation in which corporate authority may be more dangerous than the planet itself.

Episode 9: All Systems Red

Skully’s Pick

Murderbot puts a risky deception into operation, apparently offering to betray its clients in return for its own escape. While Gurathin attempts to reach the planetary communications system, Mensah and the others must trust that their SecUnit has a plan it has deliberately refused to explain.

Episode 10: The Perimeter

Skully’s Pick

With Murderbot badly damaged and returned to corporate control, PreservationAux fights to prevent the company from erasing or destroying it. Legal intervention, recovered data and a difficult offer of freedom bring the season to an emotional conclusion centred upon Murderbot’s right to choose what happens next.