Murderbot 1×06 Review: “Command Feed”

Murderbot’s sixth episode, “Command Feed”, is a much tenser watch than previous episodes.

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode discusses a graphic surgical scene and extreme violence.

At the end of the previous episode, Murderbot and Mensah were travelling towards an emergency beacon, only for it to explode. This episode picks up shortly afterwards, following their hopper crashing.

During the crash, Murderbot sustained an injury. To make matters worse, the hopper is also damaged and is unable to fly. Murderbot should have a manual for repairing the hopper saved in its system, but it had deleted it to store more ‘Sanctuary Moon’ episodes.

The overwhelming stress of the situation causes Mensah to have a panic attack. Murderbot wants to help her, but is not used to providing emotional support to anyone. To help Mensah, it shows her an episode of ‘Sanctuary Moon’ that specifically includes a plotline about calm breathing. With Murderbot’s support, Mensah is able to feel calm again.

I admire the show’s efforts to raise awareness about such an important subject. Earlier in the show, Mensah tried to hide her struggles from the rest of the PreservationAux team, so it was especially good to see her accept Murderbot’s help.

Just when Mensah is beginning to feel better, Murderbot’s physical injury starts to take its toll, and it ends up passing out. Mensah, thankfully, is able to heal Murderbot by giving it lubricant oil from the hopper. I think the episode could have spent more time on this part, as it felt a bit too fast, with Mensah having her idea off-screen.

Ultimately, Murderbot comes up with a plan to use some of its neural wiring tissue to repair the hopper. To use the tissue, Mensah has to cut it out of Murderbot, which she finds very disturbing. This part of the episode goes on for quite a long time and is much more graphic than anything we’ve seen thus far in the show.

There is some levity, with Murderbot quoting a medical serial, but the process was mostly very tense to watch.

Back at the PreservationAux team’s habitat, the rest of the team has been packing up to leave, just as they planned in the previous episode. Leebeebee helps the team out and particularly talks to Bharadwaj and Gurathin. Bharadwaj is very empathetic to Leebeebee and her situation.

During their discussion, Leebeebee makes some more problematic comments about Murderbot. I was glad to see that Bharadwaj calls her out.

Gurathin is less willing to talk to Leebeebee and to tell her any significant information. Leebeebee then drops her act and threatens to shoot Gurathin and Bharadwaj if they don’t do what she wants.

I wasn’t surprised that Leebeebee was a villain, but I was pleased that the somewhat predictable twist was revealed early, rather than being dragged out for multiple episodes.

Leebeebee explains that she is not from DeltFall and that she tried to use the emergency beacon to kill Murderbot and Mensah. Believing the two to be dead, Leebeebee threatens to kill the rest of the PreservationAux team if they do not give her the information about their scientific expedition that her employers want.

Bharadwaj still tries to show Leebeebee compassion, but her efforts are in vain, and Leebeebee shoots Gurathin in the leg.

Gurathin is just about to give Leebeebee the information she wants, when Murderbot and Mensah return. Wasting no time, Murderbot blasts Leebeebee’s head off. Like earlier in the episode, this scene was very graphic – more so than past episodes.

Although Murderbot saved them, the other humans are very disturbed and upset by its actions. On a practical level, they’ve lost their chance at finding out who Leebeebee was working for. More significantly, the members of the PreservationAux are very distressed by the violence they just witnessed. Bharadwaj, in particular, seems incredibly anxious in the aftermath.

Murderbot, though, doesn’t regret its actions. I thought the episode could have expanded on Murderbot’s thoughts a bit more, because its reflection felt quite brief, and then the episode was just over.

I think it goes without saying that this was definitely Murderbot’s most intense episode so far.

With four episodes left in the season, I am curious about when we’ll find out who sent Leebeebee. Even though I’ve read the source material, the show has made a lot of changes to the story, so I’m still guessing how everything will unfold!

Author: Iris Autumn

Iris has a degree in Digital Media and a passion for writing. She has published in cultural arts magazine The Artifice. Iris’ interests include intertextuality, media portrayals of fandom and creativity, and stories that are campy.

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