Murderbot | S1E9 "All Systems Red"
Spoiler Warning: This reflection discusses key details from Murderbot Season 1, Episode 9: “All Systems Red.” Proceed thoughtfully if you haven’t yet watched the episode.
To the hostile forces, Murderbot is still just a piece of equipment—predictable, hackable, ultimately disposable. That’s their first mistake. The second is assuming they can outthink him. His plan unfolds with quiet inevitability, grounded in a moral calculus the others only glimpse as it’s already closing around them. By the time the crew understands the stakes, they’re deep inside his logic, with no path forward except the one he’s set. They follow not out of trust, but because there’s nowhere else to go.
Dr. Mensah still finds room to move within those boundaries. She adapts on the fly, making a choice that pushes her directly into danger—a choice Murderbot hasn’t anticipated. But when the moment comes, he catches her. The explosion rips through the air, the ground drops away, and he shifts into combat instinct without hesitation. All systems red. He saves her because no one else can, because it’s the only outcome he will allow.
Between those high points, the episode lingers on smaller, sharper beats. Gurathin avoids Murderbot’s gaze, as he has before, and this time Murderbot calls it out—“I notice you have an issue with eye contact”—with the faintest suggestion of a smirk. It’s a callback, but also a signpost. Whatever sits between them now, it’s no longer pure distrust. The remark lands like a wry acknowledgment between people who still wouldn’t call each other friends.
And then there’s the stalling. Murderbot needs time, so he tries something deliberately unnatural: small talk. Human banalities, strung together with lines from Sanctuary Moon. It’s absurd, almost surreal, and it works. The enemy doesn’t realize what’s happening until they’re already past the point of stopping him. Even conversation, in his hands, becomes a tactical tool.
The result isn’t a grand statement about morality or loyalty—it’s something quieter and more unsettling. Murderbot is learning to move through human systems, bending them to his needs without asking for permission. He’s no longer defined by what he’s programmed to do, but by what he decides to make possible. And when the moment demands it, he acts—not as a servant or a soldier, but as something far less predictable.
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