The ‘Murderbot’ Season 1 Finale Just Improved On The Book In One Major Way

If you’ve somehow slept on Apple TV+’s hilarious and heartfelt series Murderbot, now is the time to binge all of Season 1. Because, with the release of Episode 10, “The Perimeter,” the first story in the Murderbot chronicles is now complete, and the events of the finale are simply perfect. Not only does the show stay faithful to the ending of the first Martha Wells novella, All Systems Red, but the final episode also delivers an incredibly emotional resolution that creates an ending both as inevitable as it is unexpected. It’s a stand-out performance for series star and Murderbot himself, Alexander Skarsgård. But the secret MVP of “The Perimeter” might be David Dastmalchian.

Spoilers ahead.

After SecUnit (Skarsgård) seemingly perishes after saving Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) and the rest of the team, we jump ahead and find ourselves in the first episode of the entire series that is not primarily from the point of view of our Murderbot hero. Yes, there have been a few flashbacks from the perspective of other characters, but overall, this episode is unique because for roughly its first half, we’re not in Murderbot’s head. Murderbot has been decommissioned, and the PreservationAux are desperate to figure out how they can buy this specific unit from the Corporation.

In the novella, the idea that Mensah purchases SecUnit from PreservationAux essentially happens offscreen. Here, we see this entire process, which involves Gurathin (Dastmalchian) reconnecting with shady aspects of his past in order to gain access to SecUnit’s data. The biggest problem? SecUnit’s entire memory is going to be erased, even if PreservationAux purchases that unit for themselves.

This is a conflict that is largely absent in the book, and gives the final episode a kind of tension that is close to the plot of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, but in miniature. Gurathin, an augmented human, takes on all the memories of the SecUnit, in order to restore those memories to SecUnit’s body after a kind of fatal demise. This process is also nearly fatal for Gurathin, who, up until the final few episodes, was the one character who hated and distrusted Murderbot the most.

Making the character arc of Gurathin parallel to the arc of Murderbot is something the show has been cooking up for a while, but what makes the finale so great is just how earned this resolution feels. Both SecUnit and Gurathin have been used by the Corporation in the past, and so, in order to get justice, they need each other.

But then, after SecUnit is saved, and its memories restored, the episode hits us with the gut punch. Yes, Murderbot likes these humans. Maybe even loves them. And the warmth from Gurathin in the final moments of the episode is genuine. Gurathin wants to help SecUnit figure out its place with the kooky hippies of PreservationAux, and, as a fellow outsider, Gurathin is in a unique position to make that process easier than it would be otherwise.

However, SecUnit wants to “check the Perimeter,” a phrase that has been used several times in the show, which we’ve come to realize is just its way of making an excuse to do some security work, when it really just wants alone time. Gurathin gets it. He’s sad, but he gets it. SecUnit can’t stay with the team, because that’s just another kind of slavery. It may come back to this group, but it needs to explore and feel freedom, and walk around and figure out what having a life feels like.

The Murderbot finale is also notable because it doesn’t feature any scenes of Murderbot watching his beloved TV serial, Sanctuary Moon. The joke throughout the show is that Murderbot has only wanted to be left alone to watch its shows, but now, at the end, it’s not about having free time to watch shows, but instead, the freedom to just walk around and be a person.

Because Murderbot is officially getting a Season 2, the titular character will be able to go on a quest of discovery and mystery, which continues in the novella Artificial Condition. Whether or not Season 2 of the show will do a direct adaptation of that book (as Season 1 did with All Systems Red) remains to be seen. For now, Murderbot ends where All Systems Red ends, but it does so with a poignancy and tenderness that comes from the TV version, and not just the text.

As SecUnit walks among the people, headed out toward its destiny, and Gurathin cries, both characters say “thank you” to each other in the sweetest way possible.

It’s an “I’m not crying, you’re crying” moment, and it wouldn’t have worked without the entire series building to this point. Most shockingly, it’s not something you would have thought you needed to see after watching the first two episodes. But the triumph of Murderbot is simple: It proves that good science fiction can move you deeply and surprise you profoundly, even if you know exactly how the story ends.

Murderbot Season 1 is streaming on Apple TV+.