The show goes on for Murderbot, Apple's comedic sci-fi series based on The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells...or does it? The latest episode, "Escape Velocity Protocol," is the most harrowing yet. Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) starts the episode in a dangerous situation only to get into an even worse one by the time the credits roll. The fate of our heroic SecUnit is left up in the air, despite the best efforts of its fellow intrepid galactic explorers Doctor Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), Arada (Tattiawna Jones), and Ratthi (Akshay Khanna).
Beware FULL SPOILERS for Murderbot Episode 4 ahead!
Murderbot "Escape Velocity Protocol" review
Considering that the third episode of Murderbot left off on a big cliffhanger with Murderbot blasted by a mysterious rogue SecUnit, it should be no surprise that "Escape Velocity Protocol" spends almost the entirety of its 22-minute runtime on the adrenaline-fueled fallout. But before we plunge in, the episode gives us a nice breather with its cold open, which shows how SecUnits are made at a factory in the Corporation Rim. This is amusing and sobering by turns, as we watch the fun workplace banter of the factory workers, only to discover they're indentured servants who probably won't survive their term. It ain't easy making Murderbots. But the show makes such light fun of it that even when it's delivering harsh realities about its fictional galaxy, it's easy to laugh along at the horrific absurdity of it all.
As with every episode so far, Skarsgård's narration is the glue that holds everything together. I am convinced after watching the show that I need a version of the Murderbot audiobooks narrated by him, because his work with Murderbot's inner monologue is nothing short of fantastic. In this episode, it does a bit of extra heavy lifting to relay exposition, both in this cold open as well as the action-packed events that follow.
Once the opening credits roll and we get back to the present, we see that the rogue SecUnit is dragging Murderbot to a room with an operating table where it plans to insert an override module into the back of its neck that will reprogram it to turn hostile towards the Preservation Alliance team. Who sent this SecUnit? What do its masters want? This episode doesn't give us those answers; it's long enough to see Murderbot get out of the situation and not much else. Come back next week!
Murderbot manages to slip the grasp of its captor with the help of some distractions courtesy of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, which is automatically running through its systems even though it's nearly unconscious, since the campy TV show is what fills the majority of the SecUnit's memory banks. This leads to some absolutely hilarious scenes, including Murderbot singing the theme song to the show as a ruse and hallucinating itself into the program. But despite its best efforts, the rogue SecUnit manages to overpower it and insert the override module into its neck. Luckily, Mensah arrives in the nick of time and uses a big old drill to punch a hole through the Rogue SecUnit's chest.
But this only delays the cyborg's pursuit. As Murderbot goes through a series of absurd Sanctuary Moon hallucinations, Mensah desperately steers the defenseless SecUnit out of the building. The override is already taking hold, labeling the hostile cyborg as a friend rather than foe.
As with everything else in the episode, the tone of the showdown outside the DeltFall habitat sways between intense and funny, as the rogue SecUnit attacks, Ratthi tries to defend the group only to have the recoil from his dialed-up blaster smack him in the face, and finally, Pin-Lee and Arada show up to crash the shuttle down on top of the bad guy, screaming with exhilaration that their insane plan actually worked. It's a great sequence and I had a blast watching it.
It's also one that's lifted directly out of All Systems Red, the first Murderbot book by Martha Wells. So far, the Murderbot show has been shockingly faithful to the book, while stretching its limbs into all the extra space it has thanks to the fact that it's adapting a 150-page novella instead of the door-stopping tomes weighing down shows like The Wheel of Time or House of the Dragon. This is a show that's light on its feet, and a huge plus side to that is that it can include everything it wants to from the books while also adding tons of extra material, like the majority of the comedic bits with the PreservationAux team or Murderbot's Sanctuary Moon hallucinations. After so many shows have had to make difficult cuts from their source material, it's refreshing to watch a show which has the opposite obstacle of lots of extra time to fill.
The episode ends in the exact same way this sequence does in the book. Rather than allow itself to fully succumb to the override which will force it to kill its human clients (dare I say, friends?), Murderbot grabs Mensah's blaster and fires it into its own chest. Murderbot then collapses on the ground, seemingly dead. But of course, it is a Murderbot, and can be repaired. We haven't seen the last of it yet. But will it emerge unchanged from this experience? And how will the crew view it now that it has shown its willingness to lay down its own life for them? What will the SecUnit itself think of that decision once it wakes with a clearer head? These are the sorts of questions that make Murderbot fascinating, and I can't wait to tune in again next week to see the answers.
Murderbot Bullet Points
- Gurathin (David Dastmalchian) and Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemsk) don't appear at all in this episode, but I didn't miss them. This was a sharply focused half-hour of TV, which is exactly what these events needed.
- Beyond the obvious focus on Murderbot itself, this was a very solid episode for Pin-Lee, Mensah, Ratthi, and Arada. It had some of my favorite material for each of those characters to date.
- A mandatory shoutout to Alexander Skarsgård's outrageous Sanctuary Moon wig. It's a character all its own. Props to the hair and makeup team.
Verdict
"Escape Velocity Protocol" adapted a key sequence from the Murderbot books but made it its own. Very funny scenes worked seamlessly alongside some of the most intense moments in the show yet. This episode was a lot of fun to watch while also speeding us through events at lightning speed; it was probably the strongest installment of the season so far. I wish I could dive right into Episode 5, but do appreciate that the show consistently leaves me wanting more. Till next week!
Episode grade: A-
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