The Ending Of ‘Murderbot’ Finally Gets The Human Element Right

I’ve had more problems with Murderbot than most, but you have to give credit where it’s due. I was right, at least, in my prediction that the previous episode had handled most of the plot particulars. The finale can be summarised neatly in a couple of sentences, at least in terms of simple A-B plotting. But there’s more effective character work and depth of feeling here in Episode 10 than there has been in most of the season, and it mercifully sidelines virtually all of the wonky humour to accommodate that. The whole thing ends on an ambiguous but surprisingly emotional note, and I wish Apple TV+ wouldn’t return to this universe, which I mean entirely as a compliment.

There’s just something about an open-ended conclusion that feels valuable these days, especially in a content-driven streaming climate. Of course, Murderbot has already been renewed for Season 2. I’ll watch it, and not just out of professional obligation, but imagine how nice it would have been for us to have been left wondering about what the titular character got up to without ever really knowing for sure.

Anyway, let’s break down “The Perimeter”.

Corporate Liability

I said above that the “plot” of this episode could be summarized extremely briefly. And it can! Watch this: Murderbot and the PresAux team have been retrieved by the Company; the Company wants what was really going on down on the planet to be kept hush-hush; the PresAux team realizes they can use this to leverage the company into allowing them to purchase Murderbot’s contract. The end.

That’s a gross oversimplification, of course, but the point I’m making is that this finale isn’t about the nuts and bolts of the narrative. In a setting called Corporation Rim, it stands to reason that the malfeasance of the bad guys won’t be adequately exposed. The best the PresAux crew can hope for is getting their buddy back in one piece, which is a close run thing, since the Company cover-up involves wiping Murderbot’s memory, installing a new governor module, and sending him out on “peacekeeping” missions that consist of violently assaulting protestors. When he glitches out during this, he’s scheduled for an acid purge.

This should be easy for the Company. There’s plenty of evidence all over the place — in how the engineers repairing Murderbot speak about and treat him, the mushy remains of the other “defective” SecUnit that was melted first, etc. — that speaks to how SecUnits are viewed. The main advantage that PresAux has in the negotiations is that the Company is so aghast that they’d care about a SecUnit enough to purchase its contract that they find themselves on the back foot. In their eyes, it’s like refusing to move house unless you can take the toaster with you.

The Power Of Entertainment

“The Perimeter” even finds a nice way to pay off all that The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon business without actually having to do another in-show skit. When Murderbot’s memory is wiped and he returns to his default settings and personality, the only person who can think of a workaround is Gurathin. He tracks down an old associate — who seems to have been his colleague, drug dealer, and potentially lover; it’s kind of unclear — and uses him to gain access to all of Murderbot’s memories that were associated with his favorite show. And since Murderbot processed almost all of his human interaction through the lens of Sanctuary Moon, this means that Gurathin essentially downloads all of the personality Murderbot developed throughout this season into his head.

Alexander Skarsgård in Murderbot | Image via Apple TV+

After Mensah is finally able to secure an injunction that prevents Murderbot’s acid purge, she’s able to acquire his contract and “free” him. Gurathin arrives in the nick of time to swap all of his recent memories back across, and he begins to resemble the character he was when he nobly sacrificed himself to save Mensah’s life last week. He isn’t quite the same, which I think is an interesting detail, but it’s close enough for PresAux to feel like they’ve saved the day.

Side note: During his memory wipe, Murderbot was fitted with a new, working Governor Module. Given that his burgeoning personality could only develop because he hacked his original one, I’m not sure how much sense it makes for him to return to that more free-thinking, inquisitive state with a working module. Unless I missed it, this is never addressed, but it’s a minor plot point in an episode that isn’t really about plot, so I can let it slide.

Checking the Perimeter

It’s the end of the episode where Murderbot really excels. To celebrate his newfound freedom, Murderbot drinks and dines with the PresAux team, with the idea being that he’ll go to Preservation with Mensah as his “guardian” and find something he wants to do. But as Murderbot remains awake and watches the others sleep, he realizes, quietly and to himself, that he has no idea what that might be. So, he goes to leave.

Gurathin, of all people, catches Murderbot on the way out. Initially, he interprets Murderbot’s excuse — “I need to check the perimeter” — as him struggling to get used to his new environment. Since Gurathin experienced much the same thing as an augmented human who was welcomed into the fold at his lowest ebb, he very sincerely tells Murderbot that he’ll get used to the oddities of his new companions over time. But what Murderbot means by “I need to check the perimeter” is “I need to leave”. When he repeats the sentence, slightly emphasising the “need”, Gurathin tearfully gets it and lets him go. It’s a wonderfully understated little scene, and David Dastmalchian is, as ever, superb in it.

Dressed like a hippie human, Murderbot makes his way to a transport and then off-world. His narration gives the ending a final note of happy ambiguity, as he explains that he doesn’t know what he wants to do, just that he knows he doesn’t want to be told what it is — even by his “favourite human”. As the ship departs, Mensah watches it go with tears of understanding, and Murderbot finally smiles to himself.