Murderbot - S01E06 - Command Feed

[00:00:17] Welcome to The Lorehounds, your guides to transport neurofiber repair. I'm John, the guy who did some repair manuals to make space on my hard drive for more seasons of Doctor Who. And I'm Alicia, here to guide you through your daily Sanctuary Moon breathing exercises as we break down the sixth episode of Apple TV Plus' Murderbot, Command Feed.

[00:00:38] Well, there's spoilers for the first six eps. We do have screeners, but we're now watching ahead, so don't worry about spoilers for that or for spoilers for anything that hasn't happened yet in the show that was in the books. I know you and I have both done a little bit of the reading, but not a ton, honestly, at least for me. No, we read the first book, which is the basis of the first season, but they are also expanding upon that. So we do still have some room to speculate as we had some speculation about Labibi that... Labibi. Labibi.

[00:01:08] Labibi. Or what did Ratty call her? Labibi. Yeah, Labibi. Yeah, Labibi. I love... One of them insulted the name and the other one and the other one's partner said, it's a beautiful name. Yeah, it's a beautiful name. She's holding a gun. It's a beautiful name.

[00:01:26] But it's also Arata said when Labibi, like, Arata was comforting Labibi on the transport over back from Doubtfall, and she was like, oh, that's a beautiful name. Yeah. And now she's like, that's a stupid name. Yeah, yeah. I do really like that they were like, is that even your real name? And she's like, yeah. Yeah. That was pretty good. That was pretty solid. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've got plenty to get through today.

[00:01:54] You want to give your background and hot take? Yeah, sure. So this one was 26 minutes, so a few minutes longer than usual. Well used three minutes. And written again by Paul and Chris White, directed this time by Aurora Guerrero. And I don't know, this one could be my favorite so far. As we said, yeah, there's no Labibi in the book. So no murder of Labibi in the book.

[00:02:21] So this was definitely a surprising episode. It was an escalation. I didn't expect her to go out so quickly, but I think it created some interesting tensions and showed, you know, it gave it was an event that gave all the characters a chance to show more of who exactly. They are in these sorts of circumstances.

[00:02:44] I was also very surprised by how that happened, but it like pleasantly surprised because it wasn't the act of killing Labibi herself. It was the response and how shocked Murderbot was that it didn't play out like again, one of his serials. Right. I love it. And we talked a lot on with Andor about the whole good victims trope.

[00:03:08] And I think they handled that well in the last episode where Labibi was, you know, being really inappropriate with Murderbot, kissed its chin and stuff. And, you know, we saw what was it? What is the stats? Productivity. No, not productivity. Anyway. Integrity or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. We saw it dropping. And, and just how Murderbot froze up because often that is what, what people do in that sort of situation.

[00:03:35] Um, I do wonder though, do you think that, that feeling of being violated played a role in the reaction that Murderbot had when it walked in and, and saw Labibi holding a gun to its team's head? It's, that's a good question. Um, I, I think Murderbot would have done that either way. Like just saw, saw somebody holding a gun to the team's head. I think that was, I don't think. Even though it was Garroth. Yeah.

[00:04:05] You could have killed me. It was possible, but unlikely. That was great. Perfect. Yeah. Not like, no, I'm a, I'm a great, I like, like a, a Wester show would have been like, no, I'm, I'm a perfect shot. I'm a bot. I'm not a human. Yeah. But this one was like, yeah, it was possible. But yeah, not, not likely, but I bet Murderbot would have paused more if it was like Mensa or, um, or like Bardwash or something. Yeah, perhaps, perhaps it was, it was the perfect hostage for Murderbot.

[00:04:35] Right. Um, I do like, I like how much time they're investing in Murderbot and Mensa's relationship. This is, um, a relationship that I think book readers are particularly invested in. And I think they're going even deeper into it in this first, then we, in this season than we saw in the first book. So then there was time for in the first book, I should say.

[00:04:57] And yeah, I just continue to be impressed by Alexander Skarsgård's line deliveries and the micro expressions because this is, it's an interesting character for him to play because on the surface, um, there's not, there can't be any big reactions. Right. And he has to stand, he being the actor, has to stand unnaturally still for a human. Um, but then. I think there's a word for that. It's, it's like soup to lay. I don't, I don't know how to pronounce it.

[00:05:28] Subtle? Subtle to. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm joking. I'm just joking around. Yeah, but I just think that, um, a, just there's still, you can always tell what Murderbot is thinking because of the expressions that Alexander Skarsgård uses. So I just, yeah, I think he's done a great job with this character. Absolutely.

[00:05:48] And, and I'm, I was so doubtful going in of Alexander Skarsgård being able to be this, this like, like you're saying, like the subtle and like giving nothing on the surface character. And I, I think doing an absolutely amazing job. Yeah. I just, um, shared a, an interview and in, uh, on the discord from Collider where, yeah, they were interviewing, uh, him, Jack McBrayer and, uh, Paul and Chris White.

[00:06:18] And it was, it's a delightful, really insightful interview, but also, uh, also really great interview for highlighting the friendship between Alexander Skarsgård and Jack McBrayer. There's a really funny story about underwear. Um, but it just, yeah, he got to, he talked about how he has to be restrained for a lot of the time with his character, but then inside Murderbot's head, Murderbot's a total drama queen.

[00:06:45] And we also got to see a bit more of that with the sanctuary moon fantasy last episode too. I really, I really loved to, I mean, that was great. And, and the fact that Murderbot expected this like fanfare of praise after shooting Labibi. But what I really liked was sort of this, and maybe I'm getting too deep into details now, but the idea of Murderbot, you know, using, using fiction to sort of deflect from, from real life.

[00:07:10] That, that is definitely something, you know, I, we, a lot of us experience anxiety similarly, uh, and have used fiction in similar ways, but also the way that it showed that it can be both a deflection point and a tool for legitimately overcoming anxiety. Yeah. And that, that was really meaningful. And that was something added completely for the show. And I loved it. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Yeah. I'm glad that they gave Mensa an anxiety disorder in the show.

[00:07:36] I think they've done some interesting character work making, you know, showing the complexities of, of her role in her character and, um, how her interactions with Murderbot also. Yeah. Yeah. No, totally agree. Uh, I, I, I love that scene. You know, I'm having a heart attack. No, you're not. No. You can't. No. Well, yes, I can, but. Yeah. I mean, I've gotten panic attacks. I know what it feels like. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:06] All right. Well, shall we get into the plot? Let's do it. Um, so we start with showing some backbone. Yeah. Tell us all about it. The hopper with Murderbot and Mensa has crash landed after getting caught in the blowout of the beacon explosion. And they don't know how to repair it because Murderbot erased the backup manual in its memory banks to make room for more episodes of Sanctuary Moon.

[00:08:29] But when Murderbot goes down after losing too much lubrication fluid from an injury and Mensa uses lubrication fluid from the ship to bring it back online, Murderbot comes up with a solution to repair the broken data connection on the ship. Mensa needs to crack open its spine and extract a fiber of neural tissue so that Murderbot can connect the onboard computer. This works allowing Mensa and Murderbot to return to preservation ox space. Okay.

[00:08:58] I have to say that I had to turn away for like most of that surgery scene. Yeah. I am not a gore person. Even the horror I like, I don't like the gore and I will turn away for it. And my wife was laughing at me because it doesn't bother her at all. And I, and, and yeah, I, I just. Did you say I'm a vegetarian? Well, I used to be, but not anymore. But you don't have to eat me. Yeah. You don't have to eat me was a good line.

[00:09:26] There were, there were a lot of really good like one-liners in this episode. But man, was that grotesque, but also very cool. And, and I loved when, and this, I also kind of had to look away for this, but I loved when Murderbot is fixing it afterwards and he's bending over and stretching out his back. I keep saying his, it's, it's just going to happen. It's Alexander Skarsgård. And it's weird to call a person it. But it's a construct.

[00:09:55] I know, but still, this is weird. Okay. So, but seeing that, that like steel rod of spine, just, just coming out in the middle of emptiness. I mean, the, the graphics are great on this, the CGI, uh, amazing work, amazing work. And, and I love the nonchalance of Murderbot when Murderbot is going to, to bend down with this back open. And, and later with, you know, I'm, I'll, I'm just going to repair my spine if you don't mind before we head out.

[00:10:26] Yeah. And I like, um, we had several instances of, of Murderbot using lines from shows. We learned of another show called Med Center, our gala, which I guess is like the pit. And, and so Murderbot says, if you don't do this thing, little Jemmy's going to die. Like, and I was wondering, so Murderbot is basically learning how to display empathy by watching others do it and mimicking it.

[00:10:55] Is Murderbot using the fielder method? Oh my God. Stop yourself. I, I, we already got David into it. So maybe, maybe we'll convince him to do a one shot on it. This is a rehearsal reference for anyone who doesn't know. The fielder method. I mean, the miracle over the Mojave was one of the most moving moments on television. So. Okay. Here's a medical question.

[00:11:21] I didn't, I mean, medical, obviously Murderbot is a construct, as I said, but does it looks like that neural fiber that Mensa took out looks like the spinal cord. Does Murderbot, that must have a function, right? Does Murderbot not need that to function? It's, it's, he said take one of the threads, one of the fibers. So I guess there's more than one in there. So maybe it's like. Okay. Less bandwidth on the data.

[00:11:50] Maybe it'll just slow Murderbot down a little bit on data transfer between parts of its body. I have to admit that I do not have a firm grip on the biology of what is inside the spinal cord, but I guess there might be more than one fiber. It just looks like a chunky fiber. Yeah. I, I, well, I, I don't think that it's like, I don't think that was biological material. You know, I think that was. No, they said it was cloned. No, they said it was cloned human. Oh, the fuck. Oh, that sucks.

[00:12:18] Yeah, because, okay, so this is an interesting thing. And so I don't consider it a spoiler to say that a character exists. So I'll say in the second book, you meet a character who is a transport ship and I have not finished the second book yet. So I don't know if they say this, but I, I was thinking of the transport ship as only AI.

[00:12:38] And now murder bot is saying in this episode that, uh, the transport ships also have the, these human cloned neural fibers in them. So is the, is it the human elements, the human neural tissue components that give constructs personalities? Like I'm very curious. Are we going to see a contrast with pure AI that doesn't have any human tissue? I don't know. Chat GPT.

[00:13:08] Are you, are you taking notes? I mean, are we going to add some, add some neural components to you? Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. Um, but yeah, jumping back. Uh, I, I liked where I liked how it started with, you know, the glimpse of sanctuary moon. And then murder bot said, I don't watch cereals to remind me of the way things actually are. I watched them to distract me when things in the real world are stressful as shit. And I think we all identify with that.

[00:13:37] But then I was just thinking, we've been spending a lot of time recently watching things like Andor and, um, and the last of us and things that seem very touching on real life. Well, but, but I think there's different functions on those, right? I think, I think I had a conversation with Marilyn on the discord once about this, about how, yeah, a lot of fantasy and sci-fi is escapism. Mm-hmm. But a lot of it is not. And a lot of it is, is made not to escape, but to confront.

[00:14:04] And to confront, well, because a lot of, a lot of sci-fi and fantasy will, will strip away the real facts so that you can confront the real feelings and the real emotional meaning of things. And, um, I, you know, Andor and the last of us are like that. The last of us when it's good. Um, but, you know, something like Murderbot, something like Doctor Who, like you brought up in, in my intro that you wrote. Like, that is something I watch to forget about how the real world is sucking right now. Although, RTD.

[00:14:32] Is I watch this person like, yeah. Make me feel like somebody's gonna save us and like that we're hopeful. Right. Yeah. RTD does like to remind us of the real world. But I would say, okay, so I was listening to an interview with Martha Wells recently, the writer of the Murderbot books. And she described it, she said, well, I guess it's a bit, at least the preservation ox team is a bit hope punk.

[00:14:58] And, um, yeah, I think that that's, that is what she's kind of providing for us and why so many people like this story and these characters is because it's, you know, there's still lots of scary stuff in the world. We, we can be kind to each other in the midst of that and get through it together. Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

[00:15:20] And, and I do like in the hostage negotiation with Labibi, even then, uh, I think it was a Rada who was trying to talk her down and saying like, come live with us. It's fine. You can be forgiven. Oh, Baradwaj, yeah. Oh, it was Baradwaj. I can't keep the name straight. Um, so Baradwaj is, is like, hey, it's, it's all right, dude. Like, you don't have to, you know, we, we can figure out your corporate debt or whatever. Don't worry about it.

[00:15:51] And, and then the one thing that they can't give is money. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. They can give them something more valuable, but that is, you know, Labibi was not raised in that system. She was raised in a world, whatever her real background is where money is king. And like, if you live in this, like, you know, horrific capitalist landscape that she seems to be from, like money is power, right? Like money is freedom. Mm-hmm. And that it's hard to shake that.

[00:16:21] Yeah. Yeah. Maybe she needs to watch more sanctuary, sanctuary moon. I love that they are, you know, I was nervous earlier in the season that we might not get, um, that, that cast back, but apparently they recorded four days of material for this season with that cast. Um, Oh my God. And they've added lore to the show.

[00:16:44] So I wonder if this is, um, obviously, yeah, they added this, this navigation bot character played by DaWanda Wise and a romance between it and, uh, flight captain Hussein played by John Cho.

[00:17:00] Um, and it's, this conversation was interesting because I'm wondering if murder bot, if we should be taking murder bot as an unreliable narrator, if we should be keeping that in mind more than we are, because for example, we already know murder bot was, uh, over the cold open episode where we saw murder bots construction. Murder bot was B was being sarcastic, but also, I don't know, just an unreliable narrator.

[00:17:25] And now we hear murder bots say about the navigation bots couldn't fall for John Cho because, well, yeah, no genitals. Sure. Sure. Um, and no dopamine, but dopamine is a huge factor and, and in anxiety it's too much or too little of it can be, it's a huge cause of anxiety.

[00:17:49] And yes, it's part of falling in love, but, um, doesn't murder bot have dopamine with those neural fibers and everything? Wibbly wobbly timey wimey. That's, that's where I'm at with that. I, I'm, I'm at a murder bot's an unreliable translator. Sorry. Um, uh, narrator. Yeah. Yeah. Very well could be. Although I feel like murder bot does know all about the biological processes. I don't know. So yeah, but murder bot was saying things. Yeah.

[00:18:18] Murder bot was saying things during that cold open about, uh, its construction that it must know are not true. I, I also really liked the whole, uh, I, you know, thing you must remember I'm not human things that would normally incapacitate a human would just finishes the sentence when it wakes up. And it also, because, uh, the actor is Swedish.

[00:18:43] I noticed that the actor was choosing to make Swedish sounding like, uh, gibberish sounds before going down. Oh man. Sometimes I forget you're Swedish, but not right now. You can't get it out all the way. No, nor would you want to. Um, oh, I love also the worst fight he and Mensa have had to date as she said, it is not even a premium quality show. And he says, uh, it says agree to disagree.

[00:19:14] Do you think murder bot murder bot knows all the lore about sanctuary moon murder bot make a good podcast host? No. Murder bot would make a good podcast researcher. Okay. Murder bot would not be good at hosting a podcast. Oh, you'd be like, he'd be like, why are you asking me questions about? I liked, um, Mensa's panic attack was pretty, uh, yeah. Seemed realistic.

[00:19:44] Like even you could see she put the way she put her hands down. You know, one of the things that's happened to me when I have a panic panic attack is I get what I call the claw where like my hands kind of, uh, seize up and I can't really use them normally. I don't know if you've ever experienced that and looked like she was having that also. Oh, wow. I didn't even notice. But I, yeah, I love, I love that whole exchange there when murder bot shows her and at first

[00:20:12] she's like, you're showing me this fricking show that you deleted the manual for. And then you see this dawning realization on her face and like understanding and warmth and yeah. Yeah. I, I, I, she really got one around and, and I, I hate to say that because she already kind of was won over by him. Uh, but, but I, there definitely was a rift for a little while. Also, I just realized that Alexander Skarsgård was the buyer in succession.

[00:20:41] I, I completely forgot about this. Okay. Yeah. I always remember he was, uh, someone interviewed him just like on a red carpet somewhere going into an event and was like, and they're like, I don't really watch a succession actually. And he's like, oh, neither do I. That's funny. But this, this show, it sounds like he was very involved from the beginning with design and, uh, story shaping and everything. So he's very into this one.

[00:21:11] Yeah. And he's 48. He looks much younger. Good for him. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, I think, yeah, I think just murder bot is, we got some interesting character, not development, but display here where we saw how murder bot sounded very distant to Mensa, like about, yes, someone is probably on their way to kill them because as it said

[00:21:40] in its head, because I didn't want to sound as freaked out as I actually was. And it's in trying to keep Mensa calm. It actually made her more mad, but then murder bots actually the most mad at itself. Like they're all going to die because of you piece of total shit. Um, yeah. I just saw so relatable. Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, you're your own worst critic, aren't you? Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah.

[00:22:05] And sometimes when you're trying to act too cool or too upbeat or, you know, um, well, at least this, it, it can make the other person feel worse. I agree. All right. Want to take a quick break and then we'll get back to the episode. All right.

[00:22:39] Okay. The heel turn. Meanwhile, back at the base, Garothan grows concerned when he can't get in touch with a hopper. Labibi, who's been bonding with Baradwaj says Deltfall has missing places on their maps. She's fishing for information. And when Garothan still refuses to trust her, she pulls a gun on them both. She has Baradwaj call down the others so they can sit at gunpoint too. And I'm sorry. Baradwaj is like, what's that? She didn't know what a gun was.

[00:23:08] I now understand why Mensa was going to put Pinley in charge. Pinley definitely knows what a gun is. Right. Yeah. And, and, well, I bet you Gar, Bart, I can't say any of these stupid names. Uh, Garothan, Garothan. Uh, I bet you he knows what a gun is, but, uh, cause he's from the corporate rim, but, uh, corporate rim. Am I, am I being Star Wars-y right now? No, you're right. Okay. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. It's probably a Star Wars nod. Yeah.

[00:23:38] Uh, but yeah, yeah. I, uh, I, I see why also not Garothan because Garothan takes everything personally while having no outward emotion. Hmm. Although, okay. I'm thinking about this corporate rim thing. What's in the core? I wonder if the corporate rim. Interesting. Yeah. Hmm. Hmm. So what did you think of, uh, Rati's music skills? Not great.

[00:24:08] It's funny because, like, I, I love Rati and I also hate, love to hate Rati. Mm-hmm. Like, the most cringe guy. But, like, I don't know. I think David would hate this character. Although, we got him watching the, the, uh, rehearsal. So maybe, maybe he'll like him. But, this is, this is, uh, watching him try to, like, get into the massage chain and, like, forcing his way in the front of it. And Pinley is so done with him.

[00:24:39] Absolutely insane. I felt like Pinley was melting a bit. Well, first of all, because he's good at massaging. And then, also, that, uh, when he was agreeing with Pinley, then they were sort of like, oh, I don't, maybe I'm being hard on Rati. And then, and then it comes to the discussion of Murderbot. And, um, and Pinley's like, I don't trust that Murderbot. But, and, and Rati, and Arata's like, no, actually, I kind of vibe with him.

[00:25:09] And that's when, um, Rati stops massaging Pinley and goes to sit in front of Arata. And it's like, no, now I'm vibing with Arata more right now. Yeah, I, I don't know what, what Rati's game is. Is, is Rati smarter than he seems? I don't think so. I don't think so. Also, is this, like, this squeaky bagpipe, which it's, it looks plastic. It sounds plastic. It's basically a glorified whoopee cushion.

[00:25:36] Is this a regular thing that people play? I don't know. It kind of gave me, I don't know if you're a big office watcher, but. I've seen it all, at least. Yeah. The, when, when Andy at Helms is like playing the sitar at the Christmas party. But a sitar is a much more pleasant. And I have to say, I do like normal bagpipes that are not little plastic whoopee cushions.

[00:26:02] Um, so, but this was just an unpleasant sound. And. Well, to be clear, Andy was poorly playing. Okay. Fair, fair. Yeah. That's true. Which is why it reminded me of this. And it was like completely out of place. So did you get the impression was Rati doing that instead of helping Pinley and Arata pack? Or did they tell him, no, we don't need your help. We'll just, you do your thing. And we'll, because everyone else was packing up the car except Rati.

[00:26:32] I don't know. Maybe my guy travels light. You never know. I think they were packing like. Nothing else. I think they were packing like common, you know, science stuff or whatever. I brought one shirt. Oh, okay. But Labibi did help with the plant, with the packing. So do you think she might have planted something in their stuff like a tracker or something? That could be.

[00:27:00] That, that, but also I think she just wanted to like see what they had too. Because she wanted to see, you know, it was interesting is she wasn't even leading the other people to them. As far as we know, she was trying to look at their maps. Why did she want to see their map so badly? Spying, I guess. She was going to see what she could find out before they killed them. Before they got got. Before they got got. Yeah. All right. Yeah.

[00:27:27] I wonder what they found out from the last group or, or if it was a similar thing where it just, um, they, they cottoned on and. Right. Had to do something. Hmm. This is all by the way, addition from the book. So we're not spoiling anything, anybody. Um, what did you think of the moment though, where Labibi and Bardwaj, they seem to have this connection. And there was this, this kind of weird thing where it was like,

[00:27:55] Labibi wanted to hold Bardwaj's hand. She was making an excuse to hold her hand. And then like, Oh, what a, tell me about that scar. And then kisses the hand and Bardwaj is like, that was sweet. What was, I may, was Labibi doing something that she like put something on her arm or what? Yeah. What was that all about? That was weird and not explained. I don't know.

[00:28:24] And now you have to go back and look at every one of Labibi's actions and be like, were you being genuinely stupid here? I was looking at that for the beginning. Or were you sabotaging? Yeah. Yeah. I think we were both suspicious last episode. Like, is this just from this other, I mean, you and I knew that there was some other factor because we read the book. Right. But, uh, we, you know, even without knowing that, like clearly somebody attacked Delftfall and we, and we were both like, was she from Delftfall or not?

[00:28:53] Because there, there definitely was the, the very real possibility that this new added character for the show was not from Delftfall. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. I like that the show remembers that Bardwaj still has PTSD from her run in with a giant creature. Um, and I think it's interesting. She tells this story to Labibi.

[00:29:17] And then later when Labibi is trying to get information from Bardwaj and Garoth and Labibi repeats back a similar story. So I'm wondering, I mean, there was some confusion there because she also said when we went to the places on the map with the gaps, and then she said they came back.

[00:29:36] So, um, she's definitely an unreliable narrator, but did she just parrot back Bardwaj's story or were these events that really happened to her and or her team? No, I think it was a lie. I, I think that this was just parroting the talking points. This was trying to mirror to, uh, instill trust. All right. All right. She's following the Labibi system. Um, I, I couldn't tell you what the system is because it's too long.

[00:30:03] Do you think it's possible that she really was an indentured servant? You know, she said the whole thing about her contact, her contract was bought and she had 1.5 times hazard pay. So was she really not, um, she was just trying to, yeah, she's just doing this to, um, get out of being an indentured servant. I, I think that she's an indentured servant, but I think she could get out of being an indentured servant in a lot of ways.

[00:30:29] Uh, but, but she wants to be rich, uh, not just an indentured servant. Yeah. Yeah. And she also, there was a whole thing where she told Bardwaj that she was trying to save, because Bardwaj, like you said, invited, said, okay, come back to preservation alliance with us. And she was like, no, I want money so that I can have kids. And then later Bardwaj is like, do you even like kids? She's like, I hate babies.

[00:30:54] So we don't know what, uh, yeah, what, which parts of this, parts of it are definitely lies. Like she did not want kids. Parts of it are definitely true. Like her name is Labibi. So it's like impossible to sort out which is real and which is fake. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Um, I will say our time with her was too short. She was hilarious. Hmm. And, uh, enjoy the comic relief. That wasn't murder about being awkward.

[00:31:25] Yeah. Yeah. We, she was still hung up on murder bots, uh, potential robo penis. But I wondered if, and so I saw someone else say this and I had the same thought that, uh, what if she was a rogue sex bot? And obviously it turned out that that's not the case, but just the way she had brains. Yeah. We know that now. She's a back on the corporation rim. You bought it, you own it. And I don't, it just felt like, and maybe if she wasn't a dentured servant, she really did feel bought and owned.

[00:31:56] I mean, she probably was, there was a reason, there's a reason we stopped doing indentured servitude in modern society. Yeah. Although arguably it still exists in different forms, but anyway, all right, all right. Let's, let's move on from that. Um, okay. But I like how they do keep it real. Like this hope punk thing. I was saying people can be kind to each other, but it's still, you know, they have the whole conversation. How do you pay for kids? And Garathan's like debt. And, uh, Bardwaj is like scientific endeavor.

[00:32:25] We obtain niche scientific explanations, uh, information that can be exploited for the public good or sold to evil, evil corporate fucks. Like, yeah. Yeah. It's, it is, you know, a question of like, we want to have social programs. We got to pay for them. Um, but also what's money. And, uh, there is, there is always that dichotomy of if you're living in a market-based society,

[00:32:56] how, how do you fund these things? And, uh, a lot of times the answer is, uh, maybe just don't, don't fund the bad things, but, but I'm not going to go into that today because you can't bait me like that, Alicia. I mean, I guess like my question is, couldn't they, I want to know what their planet looks like. Um, is it not a place where they can just grow the resources they need there and, and use that for trade?

[00:33:26] The old fashioned way. Seems like there might be an issue like that, like lack of terraforming or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just terraform it. It's simple. Yeah. But I do, I think this is a good episode for Garothan. Um, I like that Labibi, she realized she could manipulate Bardwaj and most of the others with emotional displays, but Garothan's like, nope, don't care if you're crying. Yeah. She has to pull out the gun.

[00:33:56] Yeah. Uh, oh, if my tears aren't going to work. Yeah. And I love that she does shoot him in the leg just to like prove her point. Like I will shoot the gun. Right. Right. Yeah. So Labibi shoots Garothan in the Neen demands that he show her their survey analysis. Bardwaj tries to talk her down, promising her sanctuary and preservation alliance, but Labibi, real name, wants money and lots of it. She calls them stupid, telling them that she has is not from Deltfall and was never in danger.

[00:34:23] She hates babies and Mensa and Murderbots are most likely dead. Just then Murderbot walks in. So Labibi puts her gun to Garothan's head and Murderbot explodes her head with its gun, shocking everyone. Murderbot doesn't understand why everyone is so upset with it for saving them and goes to repair its spine before they leave the habitat to go somewhere else and hide. So yeah, that was a surprise moment.

[00:34:53] I think, yeah, book readers won't be surprised that Labibi came from this third group. But I think everyone was surprised when her head exploded. Yeah, I was surprised by how quickly that resolved, but I enjoyed it too. I mean, it made sense, right? Like this guy, he's just trying to protect his team. Take the shot. It's open. Take it. Yeah. I did think that she might be a specific character from the books, but I guess not.

[00:35:20] I don't know who you're referring to, but we can chat off here. Do you think that Labibi already reported to her people that Murderbot has jailbroken itself? No, I don't know how she would have. Well, maybe she has something in there, something on her person. Hmm. I mean, she could be, yeah, have some communication device. I don't know. I don't know how that works.

[00:35:50] She promises they'll meet the people she works for soon enough, so they know how to track her to there or know where they are. And I'm guessing that's what we saw in the opening credits with the SEC units in black chasing everyone down the screen. This hill. Yeah, it's not going to go great. I don't think it's going to go great. They are coming. Yeah. And yes, I agree.

[00:36:11] Well, either they just know where this company came from because they saw them on the surveillance at Delftfall or they could track Labibi. You can see it either way. It would be fine. There's many ways for them to find this place. I love the whole array of reactions to her head exploding. Rati spews immediately. Pinley's panic laugh is so real. Arata looks in shock again as does Bardwaj and Garothan.

[00:36:41] And what? So we with from Mensa's perspective, she just had this great bonding moment or a series of great bonding moments with Murderbot and then comes back and this happens. What do you think Mensa thinks about it now? I mean, it's justifiable what he did, right? It's not like he killed somebody who wasn't doing something horrible. And like she would have she would have absolutely killed Garothan in like a second. Hmm. She did not care.

[00:37:10] Yeah, no, it's true. It reminds me of in Andor when Mon Mothma sees somebody kill someone who she knows as a spy, but her face is just like, oh, my God, but I didn't know we were killing people now. You know? Well, we could go even deeper on the Andor and go, how nice for you. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:37:42] Right. But but also, I don't know how else they were going to incapacitate her. You know what I mean? Like, okay, shoot her in the foot. She's going to pull the trigger on Garothan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Like, I just don't see another way out of this. They already tried talking her out of it. And she's like, is there no stun gun? Murder bot doesn't use a stun gun. Look at look at the name. I mean, that's kind of murder bot bigging itself up.

[00:38:11] There are no circular blasts coming out of that gun. That's exactly what I was thinking of. Yeah, I just I want to shout out David Asmalkin, who plays Garothan. I just think he's been doing a great job. And I just have to think about how different he is in every role I see him in. Like, he was in that horror movie, Late Night with the Devil last year.

[00:38:33] And I just saw him on Monday in The Life of Chuck, where he plays just a completely normal guy who admits that he misses the internet for porn. It's just, yeah, I think he's a great actor. So it's great to see him here. Very cool. Are you familiar with him? No, I'm not at all. I've never seen him before. Okay. Okay, cool. Yeah.

[00:39:01] Okay, so then we get our final sanctuary moon clip where the camera is moving. I liked the camera movement there where it's again, John Cho and Wanda DeWise in there, you know, stranded on wherever they're stranded. And the camera swivels to expose John Cho's face like an eclipse. That was just a cool camera movement.

[00:39:24] And then feelings are the commands from inside and how we follow those commands from outside and from inside. That is our story. I'm like, that is so stupidly phrased, but also very true. Wow. He's 52 also. So he's 52. Alexander Skarsgård, 48. These are all middle-aged people looking 30. I like to see, well, yeah. And we have middle-aged women in this show too. I like to see it. Yeah.

[00:39:52] Not every person on an adventure is 20. That's true. That's true. I always say that to my, I'm like, why are these shows always about like high school age kids? Like what? How many high school age kids do you know who go on adventures? No, it's always the adults. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And it's also more interesting to see people who have more experience under their belts, more life-lived to deal with these things. But of course I say that. You have my word. If I write a fantasy novel ever, it's going to have older characters.

[00:40:22] We're not doing this like 16-year-old Johnny was out on a patrol. It's like, no. No, he wasn't. He was in his PJs. Okay. I am writing a fantasy novel and I do have to say the main characters are younger, but they are surrounded by older people. Unforgivable. I know. I know. All right. So Murderbot ends with the monologue. I think that the Preservation Ox team had been feeling like they were starting to get to know me.

[00:40:51] They had thought that they were making connections with me, that I was becoming like them. But then I exploded Labibi's head and that felt good. Curtain. I'm sure it did. You know, he did not like Labibi from the start. Yeah. I mean, but I don't think Murderbot would feel as good exploding Garothan's head even. No.

[00:41:18] I'm sure it felt good to hold Garothan against the wall by the neck, but. Right. But that's more for the, you know, that's just a hobby. Yeah. Yeah. That was just like dabbling of menace. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was a good episode. I think this was my favorite episode so far. There was a lot of like deep themes in here, but also funny moments, surprises. I was surprised and delighted by the whole Labibi plotline.

[00:41:48] Yeah. Very, very good episode. Yeah, I agree. I'm very excited to see. I can't believe there's only four more coming. I'm already starting to feel. I'm like, no, don't end. You know, I think it's an appropriately linked season. You know, I think it's going to be fun. I think it's going to be a good, a good short and sweet season. But I do want that season two confirmation. Yeah, that would be good. That would be good. You can't take another cancellation. We got to.

[00:42:17] If there's another cancellation, we're putting you on like a watch list. I can't join another renewal campaign. He can't keep getting away with this. All right. Well, we have a lot of stuff coming, which I'm not going to talk about one show that might be coming because supposedly the plans are up in the air with that. But we have 28 days, weeks, years later.

[00:42:47] You have stuff coming on that? You want to talk about that? Yes. So first, there's going to be on Monday for subscribers an episode looking back on 28 days and 28 weeks later. And that's with Jean and I and Riley. It's going to be a guest host. And then we're going to have in the public feed after 28 years later comes out. We will do an episode about that in the public feed. The other one will be just for subscribers.

[00:43:14] And the 28 years later is going to be planned around Ironheart, which is starting very imminently. Okay. Very cool. Very cool. I'm looking forward to that. I don't know much about the 28 days later universe. Ironheart, I'm interested. I'm interested. So let's see what happens with that. Oh, I think you would like the 28 days, weeks later world. I have, I was just prepping. 28 minutes later. Anyway, go ahead.

[00:43:44] We're recording this, that episode tomorrow. And so I was just prepping for it. And now I had just gotten the theme song out of my head. And now that we are talking about it, it's back in my head. Like, anyway. Anyway. If you say so. I don't know this theme song. You're just saying stuff at me. We got plenty of bonus content coming. We got, you did the Sony Spider Villainverse power ranking funeral.

[00:44:14] Yes. I started listening to that. I haven't finished it, but it sounds great so far. Yes. Or as Jean-Tampt did, the Sony Trash Universe. And I, I made an important plea about bat propaganda. Bat propaganda? Yeah. There was bat slander in Morbius, even though I also defended Morbius. Okay. Fair enough. I don't think bats lack propaganda. I mean, like the most popular superhero in existence is bat themed.

[00:44:44] Yeah. But I mean, they're, they're painted as in Morbius, they're painted as, um, as vicious killers and they're not. They like take a teaspoon of blood from vampire bats, take his teaspoon of blood from sleeping animals. Hmm. Interesting stuff. Mm hmm. All right. More bat facts. Next week. Bat facts with Alicia. Uh, we've got, we've got the Gene Hackman tribute with, uh, the French connection. We're recording that tomorrow.

[00:45:14] I've finished most of the movie. It's interesting. Interesting. Um, a lot of, a lot of interesting bits in there. Hmm. I've watched it in the sequel. Was the sequel good? The sequel is not bad. It's a, I mean, well, we'll talk about what I think. You're a more generous movie critic than I am. Yeah. Uh, I mean, so what I like about the sequel is that it's set in Marseille. So it's a change of scenery.

[00:45:40] And then the French all like the criminals and the cops alike all hate Popeye Doyle. And it's funny. That's funny. Um, his character in the French connection is insane. Anyway, uh, let's, let's talk about that tomorrow. And then we're going to, we're going to have another list presented. I'm, I have to finish putting it together tonight. I have it all together. I just want to make sure my list is good. Um, and, and we'll do a second 11 sees this month is in addition to second breakfast.

[00:46:08] So y'all can get excited. And I think it's mushroom second breakfast. Yes. Yeah. That was your idea. I just, I just say a random word and usually David gives me a thumbs up. I don't know how you feel about mushrooms, but you didn't object. I mean, I have interesting things to say about mushrooms. I'm not a fan. Okay. Well, it'll be a fun guy time. Ha ha ha. All right.

[00:46:38] Uh, other than that, I think I'm recording a silver and lean story with Marilyn. Once I can get that together and we'll have that going and, uh, some, some more shows coming down the pipeline, but for now let's just talk quickly about our affiliates. Can you tell me about our affiliates, Alicia? So we have nevermind the music where, um, I think the last episode I listened to from them was a time after time one.

[00:47:01] And it was funny because I think that's the episode where Mark was explaining about the British names for music notes, which I somehow had never heard before. And they are ridiculous. There's like, uh, hemi-dumi semi-quaver. Um, and then it was funny. Then the next day I got a podcast episode pop up that had that as the title. I'm like, I know what that is now. Thank you, Mark. That's pretty funny. Yeah. Very nice.

[00:47:31] So, um, we've got radioactive ramblings, rings, and rituals, uh, properly. Howard just started their, uh, Kevin bacon rap season. Um, we'll shift dust, just launching the dunes and the star Wars cannon timeline product, uh, podcast, high Republic content right now. And, um, yeah, I guess if anyone wants to send in thoughts about murder bot or otherwise, please send your feedback to lorehounds at the lorehounds.com and also come chat with us on the discord. All right.

[00:48:00] Speaking of discord, I want to thank our discord server boosters, Aaron K. Taylor, the thriller, dork, the ninjas, do 71, Athena, and Tina, let's do Nancy M. Ghost of partition and radioactive Richard and our lore masters or top tier Patriot supercast subscribers. They are some Martian, Michael G. Michelle E. Brian P. SC. Peter. Oh, H. Adam S. Nancy M. Do 71. Brian 80 63. Frederick H. Sarah L. T.

[00:48:30] Alex V. Subzero. Aaron K. Dally V. Mothership 61. Gnarls. Kathy W. Lestu. Jeffrey B. Elisa U. Neil F. Ben B. Scott F. Steven N. Julia F. Kali S. Ilmariel. Forward slash Tim. Paul K. And Adrian. Thanks everyone. And we'll see you next week for more Sanctuary Moon. Thank you. The Lorehounds podcast is produced and published by the Lorehounds.

[00:48:56] You can send questions and feedback and voicemails at thelorehounds.com slash contact. Get early and add free access to all Lorehounds podcasts at patreon.com slash the Lorehounds. Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities. Thanks for listening.