The Last Few Moments of This Episode Will Leave You in Tears

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for the Murderbot season finale.

After nine snark-filled weeks, Murderbot has come to a close. “The Perimeter,” written by showrunners Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz and directed by the latter, marks the end of one adventure and the beginning of another, with the show’s renewal now confirmed; Murderbot’s cast and crew deserve as many seasons as they need to keep bringing author Martha Wells’ series to the screen. As a fan of Wells’ endearingly unconventional work, it’s been a pleasure to watch the Apple TV+ adaptation capture the source material’s soul and broadcast those delights to a new audience.

By most standards, “The Perimeter” is a quiet season finale. Murderbot’s penultimate episode wrapped up the explosive action, leaving room for Episode 10 — a bittersweet, hopeful coda filled with satisfying resolutions for its main characters and a thematically important role reversal. This time, instead of Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) reluctantly protecting its helpless human clients, the Preservation Alliance survey team are the ones defending a powerless Murderbot — and to no one’s surprise, they do so out of love for their socially awkward SecUnit, not moral obligation.

Murderbot Loses Its Memories and Identity in the Season Finale

After sacrificing itself to protect Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) last week, Murderbot wakes up to a living nightmare. Its wounds might be healed, but it’s once again at the mercy of the Company that created it — restrained to a table in a sterile-looking room while two derisive employees ignore its demands for information and its disoriented, fearful calls for help (specifically, Mensah’s name). Instead, the men take the opportunity to spit in Murderbot’s face, activate a full memory wipe, and install a working governor module. A few seconds is all it takes for Murderbot’s memories to vanish. Gone just as easily is its prized autonomy — all that wonderful uniqueness the Company considers “defective.”

As this violation unfolds, every PreservationAux member except Ratthi (Akshay Khanna) is neck-deep in a contentious meeting with their contacts at the Company. Our heroes want Murderbot freed, which perplexes the corporate brass; in their eyes, Murderbot is simply another outdated “piece of equipment.” When Mensah’s continued insistence, backed by the authority of the Alliance, fails to sway them into revealing Murderbot’s location, Gurathin (David Dastmalchian) offers to buy their bodyguard-turned-friend, since ownership is the only language this system understands. The executives still refuse, implacable against all potential leverage — even the fact that they sold equipment to the murderous GrayCris team. The Company has enough resources to keep that sketchy information quiet.

As for Ratthi, he’s on watch duty in the main lobby of Port FreeCommerce, scanning the transport lanes and milling crowds for signs of Murderbot. He joyfully dashes up to “Seccy” once he spots his bestie (and its armed human escorts), but when Murderbot doesn’t respond to his enthusiasm, it’s not an independent decision — it’s because Murderbot doesn’t recognize Ratthi. When the team reunites in their rented quarters, everyone except Mensah feels despondent. Construct or not, she refuses to believe Murderbot’s consciousness just vanished from existence with the press of a button.

Gurathin offers the slimmest hope: even though Murderbot’s programming can’t undo a factory reset, there’s no way the Company hasn’t stored its memories on a backup server so they can sift through them for “even one particle of monetary value.” The bad news? Whatever scraps they’ve kept won’t be enough to restore Murderbot’s full, true personality. Consensus reached to still try, lawyer extraordinare Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu) prepares to injunction the Company six ways from Sunday, while Gurathin plots how to rescue his quasi-enemy.

The Humans Launch a Rescue Mission in the ‘Murderbot’ Season Finale

Outside the Company’s headquarters, security officers have formed a barricade against a sizable group of working-class employees protesting the Company’s subhuman practices. When they take up a chant of “we’re not slaves,” the power-hungry officers happily order several SecUnits, including Murderbot, to break up the demonstration by breaking bones. Murderbot’s mindless obedience doesn’t last long. Inflicting violence against innocent civilians triggers the fragmented memories of the fleeing, screaming clients it unwillingly gunned down. Being haunted by those mystery-laden images isn’t the healing, magical power of friendship at work, but even a mind-wiped Murderbot shrinks into itself, frozen in place. The protesters, initially surprised, start beating a malfunctioning SecUnit that’s incapable of defending itself.

Over in the residential suites, Gurathin visits a former contact who provided him with illicit substances, who also refuses to take accountability for enabling Gurathin’s addiction. Despite their mutual hostility, the man uses his security clearance to sneak Gurathin into one of the Company’s server rooms. After several failed attempts at retrieving the remnants of Murderbot’s memories, Gurathin switches tactics. He searches for The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon and traces the results back to their source — and it works like a charm. Plugged into the storage database via his augmentations, Gurathin downloads every single memory, gritting his teeth through the pain of storing too many files for even an augmented human brain to safely hold.

Simultaneously, the rest of the team dives into action. Mensah, addressing a small press pool, drops truth bombs about GrayCris and the Company’s involvement in the DeltFall massacre, absolving the hacked SecUnits from blame while praising the life-saving protection their own Security Unit provided. Court-issued injunction in hand, Pin-Lee and Ratthi finally find Murderbot in the Company’s disassembly rooms, and not a moment too soon — it’s seconds away from death via acid bath, exactly the fate it has been trying to avoid from the moment it disabled its governor module. Lack of autonomy or not, fear pulses in Murderbot’s eyes like a forgotten word hovering right on the tip of its tongue. Within the safety of PresAux’s quarters, however, that silent, motionless restraint holds against the team’s attempts to trigger any latent sparks of personality.

Murderbot Chooses Its Next Adventure in the Season Finale

Gurathin returns from his dangerous venture mostly intact, aside from immediately vomiting in the kitchen sink. After assuring Mensah he hasn’t relapsed, he manually connects his augmentations into Murderbot’s system. The memories — the awkwardness, the risks, the compassion — transfer over in a flood. Looking somewhat bamboozled in the aftermath, Murderbot breaks the group’s anticipatory silence by stating in that familiar, sarcasm-tinged monotone: “I am missing Episodes 420 to 568 of Sanctuary Moon.” The humans cheer, laugh, cry, and get Murderbot up to speed. They’ve purchased its contract and plan to bring it home with them. Since the Alliance recognizes constructs as people, the sky’s the limit where Murderbot’s free will is concerned. The rest of the day progresses in a blur of boring meetings and a non-boring, private dinner celebrating Murderbot’s future. To paraphrase How the Grinch Stole Christmas: SecUnit’s small heart grew three sizes that day.

The problem is, Murderbot isn’t human. Frankly, without the structure of being a contracted killing machine, its identity and purpose are in flux. Even when it adopts PreservationAux’s catchphrases and wears the comfy clothes Arada (Tattiawna Jones) fetched, it can’t trade one owner for another, no matter how non-malicious its clients’ intentions are. Once night falls, Murderbot watches over their peacefully sleeping forms with undeniable, if conflicted, gratitude. As it walks toward the door, Gurathin interrupts with a whisper-joke about checking the perimeter. Smiling, he assures Murderbot that although adjusting to the Alliance’s ways will take a while, being surrounded by the best people in the galaxy makes the shift easier. Gurathin’s compassion doesn’t waver, even when he realizes that Murderbot intends to leave. These two have always been peas in a pod, and although Gurathin already grieves the loss, he understands Murderbot’s needs. Offering a small smile in return, Murderbot walks outside and closes the door, hesitating long enough to hear Gurathin, silently crying on the other side, utter a quiet, earnest “Thank you.”

As dawn turns the sky pink, Murderbot joins the human crowds going about their daily business. For the first time, it moves through the world unnoticed and unbothered. But just in case, it offers to share its media library with the navigation bot of a departing transport ship in exchange for a ride. “I don’t know what I want,” its narration admits. “But I know I don’t want anyone to tell me what I want, or to make decisions for me. Even if they are my favorite human.” Cut to Mensah, that favorite human, as she wakes up in time to notice Murderbot’s absence and see a ship leaving the docking bay. She nods in proud-parent acceptance, smiling through her profuse tears. As for Murderbot, nursing a private smile, having survived to binge-watch another day after a life defined by conformity, abuse, and fear — it’s long overdue for an adventure of its choosing.

All episodes of Murderbot are available to stream on Apple TV+.