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Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Murderbot Episode 4.
We’ve almost reached the halfway point of Apple TV+’s Murderbot, and the 10-episode sci-fi adventure continues to be one of the most entertaining offerings on streaming right now. Episode 4, titled “Escape Velocity Protocol,” written by Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, and directed by Toa Fraser, cranks up the winning formula behind this adaptation of author Martha Wells‘ The Murderbot Diaries novella series: unconventional charm, a sparkling cast, and heartfelt Feelings (with a capital F).
Rather than immediately resolve last week’s cliffhanger, Episode 4’s cold open flashes back several years to a SecUnit production factory in the galaxy’s Corporation Rim section. And if the phrase “SecUnit production factory” conjures miserable images, you aren’t wrong. Dark, dreary, and depressingly industrial, the Threshold Pass Fabrication Center is also beset by glitching computers, inconsistent quality control, and unhappy indentured workers forced into egregious overtime hours while told to be grateful for it. The personnel can’t even dissect the newest episode of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon in peace — rude!
Ruder still for the poor Security Units, the facility’s also full of rumors. A new trainee, naive to this whole process of manufacturing “constructed beings,” asks a senior employee why the Company designs each cyborg with a unique face. Supposedly, it’s a security measure; the individuality makes it easier to track down a SecUnit if they go rogue. According to the clickbait-y news feeds (and the clichéd soap operas, like Strife in the Galaxy), that happens as routinely as sneezing. On cue, an assembly line churns out a fabricated, inanimate version of Murderbot’s (Alexander Skarsgård) future head, ready for its dramatic close-up.
Murderbot Is in Bad Shape and Mensah Makes a Key Decision in Episode 4
After the fantastic-as-always credits, we have our cliffhanger resolution, and it’s not pretty. Offscreen, the SecUnit that emerged from the shadows during Episode 3’s final seconds — ominously outfitted in sleek obsidian armor — has beaten Murderbot to a pulp. Our reluctant hero is still conscious, but barely functioning: bleeding, bruised, unable to move, in agony without working pain sensors, and being dragged by the ankle across the floor. To cope, its fried memory banks are throwing up a stream of random clips from Sanctuary Moon, instead of, you know, helpful information.
The enemy SecUnit unceremoniously dumps Murderbot onto a metal work table before stomping off to prepare a combat override module, a device identical to the one Murderbot found attached to the SecUnit who played dead (only to end up actually dead). Even though Murderbot overrode its governor module in the premiere episode, granting it complete autonomy, installing a combat override device will hijack all of Murderbot’s programming, including its prized free will. Given how at least one hacked SecUnit brutally massacred the DeltFall survey team, it stands to reason whoever’s orchestrating this cover-up wants Murderbot to personally ensure that the same deadly tragedy befalls the PreservationAux crew.
Meanwhile, said crew are experiencing their own crisis. Since we last saw her, Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) has stayed rooted in virtually the same spot — observing the DeltFall habitat from a distance and desperately trying to raise Murderbot over the comms; its silence is too much for her empathetic heart to take. Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu) doubles back from the hopper and urges Mensah to go back with them, as well as to avoid needlessly “anthropomorphizing” Murderbot. Resolving herself to do the opposite on both counts, Mensah orders Pin-Lee back to safety, breaking their team’s rules about equality and consensus. In the hopper, once Arada (Tattiawna Jones) and Ratthi (Akshay Khanna) hear how their de facto leader flexed her authority, it’s all the push an overeager — but not over-worried, considering the deadly circumstances — Ratthi needs to seize a gun and dash off on a self-appointed rescue mission.
Murderbot’s Love for Soap Operas Comes in Handy in Episode 4
As for Murderbot’s predicament, although its battered self has recovered enough to speak, it still needs to restore its mobility systems — and the evil SecUnit is moments away from snapping that combat override module onto the back of Murderbot’s neck. After an embarrassed disclaimer, Murderbot unleashes a last-ditch, semi-genius stalling ploy: singing Sanctuary Moon‘s theme song. Perplexed, the other SecUnit halts in its tracks, override module in hand. Those few seconds buy Murderbot just enough time. The following fight is brutal and scrappy, and ends with Murderbot’s foe snapping the module into place. Murderbot falls limp to the floor, its scrambled systems estimating it has roughly 10 minutes to subvert the “little f*cker’s” programming before disaster strikes. And, for what it’s worth, not wanting to be turned into an actual murder bot has nothing to do with protecting its annoying, “defenseless,” and “useless clients” — not one bit!
At that precise moment, Mensah makes her dramatic entrance by shoving a spiked mining drill straight into the bad SecUnit’s back and out through its chest. Murderbot vaguely knows it has something important to tell its main human (who’s now busy vomiting), but all it can do is recite Company policies. Terrified but compassionate, Mensah guides Murderbot’s stumbling body through the habitat toward the exit. It keeps trying to remove the override module without realizing what it’s doing, but the device prevents each effort. Murderbot does, however, have enough scrambled awareness left to understand how the tables have turned; Mensah is protecting it, and that earns her the description of “intrepid galactic explorer.” For once, Murderbot’s inside-brain thoughts leave its mouth in an admiring little whisper.
Related
Win Tickets to Our Midseason Screening of Apple TV+’s ‘Murderbot’ with Alexander Skarsgård + Creators Q&A
We’ll be screening Episodes 4 and 5 on June 4 in Los Angeles, followed by a Q&A with creators Chris and Paul Weitz and Skarsgård.
Inspired by that thought, Murderbot unconsciously implements the nerdiest version of self-care — it projects itself and Mensah into the world of Sanctuary Moon. (I’m jealous I can’t do the same.) It’s a dream come true for our Murderbot: standing on the bridge of the series’ starship, complete with a yellow uniform emblazoned with purple stripes, a pompadour-styled wig tall enough to see from space, and more animated enthusiasm than it would ever display in real life. The fantasy, a mercy for Murderbot’s barely healed brain (and the series’ most delightful gag to date), interprets a threat proximity alert as a hostile starship emerging from a wormhole. That threat warning, unsurprisingly, is the recovered SecUnit rounding a corner ahead of Murderbot and Mensah. Both the real Murderbot and its Sanctuary Moon counterpart scream their lungs out.
Murderbot Sacrifices Itself To Protect the Team in Episode 4
Back on the hopper, Pin-Lee and Arada worry about Ratthi’s safety while admitting they might need to rethink their throuple contract. This planetary-mystery-turned-emergency has shifted his behavior from endearing to over-the-top, and Pin-Lee hasn’t been into the arrangement from the start. Having arrived at the DeltFall habitat, Ratthi chooses that moment to ask how to fire a gun. (A bit late for that one, my guy.) As he cautiously approaches the habitat, he finally gets within close enough comms range to hear Mensah’s frantic distress call. He races toward the door, alight with Mrs. Doubtfire energy (“Help is on the way, dears!”) — only to find the door locked, and the controls unresponsive.
Still processing the SecUnit’s pursuit through its therapeutic Sanctuary Moon filter, Murderbot stresses — voice thready with emotion — that Mensah “abandon ship.” If it makes a heroic last stand, then she can escape. Mensah dismisses that suggestion as the drivel it is and keeps dragging Murderbot along with her, the villainous SecUnit hot on their heels. Just as Ratthi has decided to shoot the door open, Mensah’s own gun blasts through a section of the habitat wall. Ratthi and Mensah barely get a moment to hug before the SecUnit follows them through their escape route and unleashes another barrage of laser fire.
With one minute left before the module assumes control, Murderbot notes a telling detail about the other SecUnit: it’s deliberately missing its targets. Murderbot retains enough independent thought to remember its earlier analysis, that a rogue SecUnit slaughtering innocent civilians fits every predictable stereotype and diverts both blame and attention away from whatever’s really happening on this planet. Just like the corrupted DeltFall SecUnit, Murderbot is supposed to kill the PreservationAux team. As if to make that job easier by gathering almost every team member in one place, Arada and Pin-Lee fly in via the hopper and use the landing apparatus to crush the bad SecUnit until its guts squelch out.
Murderbot finally manages to remove the combat override module, but by this point, it’s too late. Still self-aware enough to realize it’s seconds away from murdering its clients, Murderbot insists the group shoot it. When they refuse, Murderbot snatches Mensah’s gun from her hand. Turning its last gasp of autonomy into defiance, Murderbot actually tells everyone, “I’m sorry,” before shooting itself in its manufactured heart. As it crumples onto the sand, its distressed humans hover over its unresponsive body.
New episodes of Murderbot premiere on Fridays on Apple TV+.
Murderbot
Murderbot’s love for media comes in handy during a dangerous fight, while Mensah makes a key decision.
- Release Date
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May 16, 2025
- Network
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Apple TV+
- The mix between heavier action and comedic beats is excellent.
- The Sanctuary Moon gag is the series’ funniest moment to date.
- The entire cast continue to deliver pitch-perfect performances, with Alexander Skarsgård and Noma Dumezweni as the standouts.
