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Murderbot 1x07
The show is feeding me well.
So they really were just like "let's see how many h/c bingo squares we can tick off for Gurathin in this episode," huh. (For the record: I approve wholeheartedly.)
If the entire team only found out his whole traumatic backstory (suicidal ideation! forced drug addiction!) A MONTH AGO, no wonder they've been going out of their way to reassure him that he's loved and wanted the whole mission.
(Also: I know it's part of their culture, but I am with Gurathin - and Murderbot - on wanting nothing to do with the emotional sharing circle. And I can't help thinking that group sharing of personal grievances with each other seems likely to cause more problems than it solves. Can't wait to find out what Arada, Ratthi, and Pin-Lee have to talk about at the next one. :D)
In addition to the show still being obvious and yet (IMHO) not overly anvillicious with the Murderbot/Guarathin parallels, I think it's also really interesting how abundantly clear it is that Murderbot doesn't understand the emotions that it's feeling (including the ability to even recognize what those emotions are). Like, you're feeling hurt and rejected, you just want to walk straight off into the woods and stand there until your batteries run down and plants grow over you, and YOU HAVE NO IDEA that hurt and rejection to the point of suicidal ideation is what you're feeling, all of this is completely opaque to you.
I am really enjoying Gurathin and Bharadwaj's little individual friendship in the background of the main show. Bharadwaj laying on the bench in the hopper with her head in his lap! And she often gravitates towards him in danger scenes. In earlier episodes, it wasn't clear if they were spending time around each other just by pure circumstance (they're the two left behind in the habitat; he's the one who is available to sit with her in the medbay) but it's clear in this episode that they are friends in particular even apart from the group friendship.
Another highlight of this episode: Pin-Lee screaming and throwing themselves at the enemy SecUnit and having to be forcibly removed. They're a really interesting character (one of my faves) because temperamentally they're somewhat closer than the others to Gurathin/Murderbot in how they react to things, but without the damage; they had the same utopian upbringing as most of the others, which means they're a practical fighter type by nature who doesn't generally have enemies to fight or any experience in actual combat outside of video games. That being said, fuck them up in the courtroom, Pin-Lee!
And another unambiguous parallel in this episode: that the enemy SecUnits are people, and have as little choice about what they do as SecUnit would have had before it overrode its governor module. Murderbot pointing out that Mensah has also killed somebody! The humans do react differently to dead constructs than to dead humans - that's completely obvious at the end of the episode, Ratthi cheering and congratulating MB after the enemy SecUnit's death, a wild contrast to what happened with Leebeebee ... but they're still people, and the close shot on the face of the decapitated SecUnit at the end of the episode really underscores that.
Next episode whennnnnn.
So they really were just like "let's see how many h/c bingo squares we can tick off for Gurathin in this episode," huh. (For the record: I approve wholeheartedly.)
If the entire team only found out his whole traumatic backstory (suicidal ideation! forced drug addiction!) A MONTH AGO, no wonder they've been going out of their way to reassure him that he's loved and wanted the whole mission.
(Also: I know it's part of their culture, but I am with Gurathin - and Murderbot - on wanting nothing to do with the emotional sharing circle. And I can't help thinking that group sharing of personal grievances with each other seems likely to cause more problems than it solves. Can't wait to find out what Arada, Ratthi, and Pin-Lee have to talk about at the next one. :D)
In addition to the show still being obvious and yet (IMHO) not overly anvillicious with the Murderbot/Guarathin parallels, I think it's also really interesting how abundantly clear it is that Murderbot doesn't understand the emotions that it's feeling (including the ability to even recognize what those emotions are). Like, you're feeling hurt and rejected, you just want to walk straight off into the woods and stand there until your batteries run down and plants grow over you, and YOU HAVE NO IDEA that hurt and rejection to the point of suicidal ideation is what you're feeling, all of this is completely opaque to you.
I am really enjoying Gurathin and Bharadwaj's little individual friendship in the background of the main show. Bharadwaj laying on the bench in the hopper with her head in his lap! And she often gravitates towards him in danger scenes. In earlier episodes, it wasn't clear if they were spending time around each other just by pure circumstance (they're the two left behind in the habitat; he's the one who is available to sit with her in the medbay) but it's clear in this episode that they are friends in particular even apart from the group friendship.
Another highlight of this episode: Pin-Lee screaming and throwing themselves at the enemy SecUnit and having to be forcibly removed. They're a really interesting character (one of my faves) because temperamentally they're somewhat closer than the others to Gurathin/Murderbot in how they react to things, but without the damage; they had the same utopian upbringing as most of the others, which means they're a practical fighter type by nature who doesn't generally have enemies to fight or any experience in actual combat outside of video games. That being said, fuck them up in the courtroom, Pin-Lee!
And another unambiguous parallel in this episode: that the enemy SecUnits are people, and have as little choice about what they do as SecUnit would have had before it overrode its governor module. Murderbot pointing out that Mensah has also killed somebody! The humans do react differently to dead constructs than to dead humans - that's completely obvious at the end of the episode, Ratthi cheering and congratulating MB after the enemy SecUnit's death, a wild contrast to what happened with Leebeebee ... but they're still people, and the close shot on the face of the decapitated SecUnit at the end of the episode really underscores that.
Next episode whennnnnn.
no subject
I thought of you!
I find myself feeling guilty because I too remain more horrified by the killing of LeeBeeBee than by the killing of constructs, but I like how the show is dealing with that. It presents so very much as a comedy, but it has all this really heavy material . . . kind of like life. . . .
I didn't fully understand the game they were playing! Were they grievances specifically? It felt like awkward moments they got past, or mostly past, and they were saying "sweet" and "bitter," and I was confused. I also thought that was a terrible idea, and proposing a circle with Murderbot was enough that I'm surprised Gurathan didn't just pass out then to get away from it all!
Like MB, I'm very glad they didn't remove the egg sac themselves.
no subject
The way I understood it, they go around the circle picking someone else among their friend group, and they say a "sweet" thing about that person (something flattering or kind, a good memory, that kind of thing) and then a "bitter" thing (some time they hurt the other person, or a grudge they're still nursing) so that it can be brought out in the open and dealt with. I get what Mensah is saying that "the bitter is part of the sweet" (it's normal to have small resentments and petty hurts about your friends, as well as the things you like about them) but also, HELL TO THE NOPE, this sounds like it could easily devolve into a full-on shaming circle nightmare, and/or bring up things about the relationship that would honestly have been better not mentioned. Not every small resentment needs to be brought up IN PUBLIC WITH THE ENTIRE REST OF YOUR FRIEND GROUP THERE. I would be retreating to the bathroom and never coming out.
(Though I did appreciate Mensah taking Gurathin aside once it was clear he wasn't handling it well and letting him do the rest of it with just the two of them.)
I find myself feeling guilty because I too remain more horrified by the killing of LeeBeeBee than by the killing of constructs, but I like how the show is dealing with that. It presents so very much as a comedy, but it has all this really heavy material . . . kind of like life. . . .
Well, there's also the fact that we got to know Leebeebee and she's clearly fragile and vulnerable and struggling. I think it would be different if we'd spent that kind of one-on-one time with a construct as well. Plus, the constructs were also very actively trying to kill them and are also hard to kill, so it requires a certain amount of overkill to stop them, whereas Leebeebee could (in theory) have been immobilized or otherwise incapacitated without killing her.
I think we're supposed to think about those moral dilemmas, though, and I like that the show brings them up!
no subject
no subject
...I am a bad person because I was "yawn, kill her already" with LeeBeeBee despite her very human vulnerability and damage because in my head she'd moved to the "threat, needs to be removed/killed ASAP" category but I was more affected by the ALSO threat/hostile enemy SecUnits. It felt - for me, it felt like because we didn't get their histories, I projected into the situation more of a "we are killing that which we don't understand without having heard its story" feeling plus the fact that (with what we know about governor modules) they don't have a choice, whereas LeebeeBee had shitty options (as far as we know) but had more of a choice/more agency, and the killing of entities not-having-a-choice felt worse to me. (This is completely irrational, as far as emotional reactions go; I'm not arguing against your reactions.)