Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Murderbot Episode 3.

If you thought Murderbot‘s first two episodes moved along at a fast clip, buckle up. The ride toward potential (no, definite) danger shifts into higher gear with Episode 3, “Risk Assessment,” written by showrunners Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz and directed by Toa Fraser. Last week, we left off with a deeply reluctant Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) preparing to escort four members of the human PreservationAux team — Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), Arada (Tattiawna Jones), and Ratthi (Akshay Khanna) — from one side of the planet to the other. The scientists are on a well-intentioned but misguided rescue mission, hoping to make direct contact with DeltFall, another survey team, whose communications have gone ominously silent. (Viewers know DeltFall’s humans and SecUnits both met a grisly fate, but who committed the slaughter is still a mystery.)

As everyone packs for their cross-planet flight, Gurathin (David Dastmalchian) tries to change Mensah’s mind. She calmly argues that if the DeltFall team is in danger, then it’s PreservationAux’s responsibility to help them. Plus, it’s possible DeltFall has (or can assist with finding) more insight into those mysterious mapping anomalies. Not to mention, if PreservationAux abandons the expedition altogether, that would make the Company happy — and no one wants that. Gurathin can’t disagree on that last point.

All this heroic sentimentality makes Murderbot queasy, even though it can’t vomit without a stomach. It has retreated back inside the safety of its face helmet and angled itself as far away from everyone as it can, which isn’t far away enough. Mensah tentatively approaches to ask if Murderbot minds keeping its helmet lowered, so the other scientists remember it’s a trustworthy part of their team. Being considered “part of the team” is such a new and perplexing concept that Murderbot spirals into a mini-existential crisis. It responds, of course, by distracting itself with media. Today’s selection is Strife in the Galaxy, an inaccurate and overdramatic show about SecUnits. (This couldn’t be foreshadowing, right?)

Murderbot Refuses To Become Part of the Team in Episode 3

Mensah unknowingly interrupts this emergency self-care session to ask whether it’s protocol for a habitat’s automated systems to launch a security beacon when a major system fails. Murderbot confirms, which makes the DeltFall situation even more suspicious — although Murderbot adds a disclaimer that even the best equipment isn’t immune to malfunctioning. Arada, cozied up on a bench between Ratthi and Pin-Lee, confidently states that Murderbot won’t fail them. Doubtful over that sentiment but thanking the universe that the conversation’s over, Murderbot immediately restarts Strife in the Galaxy — and Ratthi walks over just as quickly to congratulate Murderbot on being so dang good at its job. When Murderbot doesn’t respond to his enthusiastic overtures of coworker-friendship, Ratthi asks whether it’s true that “imitative bot units” are grown from vat-created human tissue. “Does that mean you have, like, human feelings, too?” he prods. “Cause it really seems like you do.”

Cue intense Murderbot anxiety. Before it can have a stroke, Mensah summons Ratthi away and takes him to task. Offscreen, the group agreed to give Murderbot the space it seems to want and need; Ratthi getting all up in that space has clearly made it uncomfortable. But the good-hearted, semi-clueless Ratthi can’t abide not treating their SecUnit like a human being, especially when Ratti considers the entire SecUnit practice a form of enslavement. Murderbot’s internal monologue sounds more incredulous than usual, wondering why it would ever want to be treated like a human, and no, Ratthi, it’s definitely a machine, not a person.

Tuning out their ongoing argument, Murderbot accesses the habitat’s security cameras and checks in on Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) and Gurathin seconds before Gurathin finds Bharadwaj crying — presumably, the trauma of almost being turned into lunch by a giant insect creature has caught up with her. Gurathin offers her some behavioral therapy modules, but Bharadwaj politely declines. Murderbot keeps an eye on Gurathin as the augmented human then proceeds to sneak into Mensah’s quarters. “Why don’t these people lock their f*cking doors?” it despairs, then launches into a vindicated thought rampage about Gurathin being a murderous spy for the Company or a rival corporation. Instead, Gurathin smells Mensah’s pillow, clutches it to his chest, and quietly cries. Murderbot’s assessment? “This is truly depressing.”

Mensah Grows Closer to Murderbot in Episode 3, but It Doesn’t Return the Feeling

Suddenly, Murderbot’s kicked out of the satellite feed. Everything vanishes: the monitoring channels outside the habitat, the hopper’s navigation systems, etc. Pin-Lee isn’t surprised, citing the consistent satellite outages they’ve been tracking since the day they landed on this weird planet. When the others express surprise over both the outages and Pin-Lee secretly compiling data, Murderbot automatically confirms Pin-Lee’s findings, which almost blows its cover, because why would a SecUnit know about someone’s private activities? Scrambling, Murderbot lies, claiming the Company requires all SecUnits to randomly scan clients’ personal logs. Furious at their bond company for illegally spying on them, everyone except Mensah turns their angry suspicions onto Murderbot.

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The series also stars David Dastmalchian.

Mensah, defusing the situation, asks Murderbot that — mandated privacy invasion aside — it doesn’t mean them any harm, correct? “Not consciously,” it grimly thinks. “Can’t speak to the dark recesses of my programming.” Out loud, Murderbot takes too long to repeat the general sentiment that protecting its clients is its job. With the situation decidedly not defused, Mensah offers to take anyone back to the habitat if they’ve changed their minds about the mission, but the team agrees that rescuing DeltFall is the right thing to do; Ratthi references their “history” with “Captain Makeba” as proof. Ratthi then tries to tempt Murderbot into joining their hand-holding routine, which goes over as badly as you’d expect.

Later, with everyone asleep except for Mensah and Murderbot, the former tip-toes over and asks it to join her for a chat. Murderbot contemplates jumping into the ocean instead. Mensah reassures it that the crew’s nerves are to blame for questioning its trustworthiness. Her nerves, meanwhile, have caused insomnia, as if her concerns about the expedition and its potential impact on her home aren’t enough to keep her awake at night. This planet hasn’t yielded the resources they’d hoped for, and the Preservation Alliance has to stay economically independent. Certain planets in the Alliance are already metaphorical seconds away from folding themselves into the Corporation Rim, surrendering their freedom for the assets they need. Just as Mensah’s getting comfortable, relieved to have a listening ear to spill her swirling thoughts to, Murderbot can’t take it anymore. Overwhelmed, it leaps to its feet and bolts out of there, making a terrible excuse about checking the munitions.

Murderbot Battles an Actual Rogue SecUnit in Episode 3

The morning dawns, and the hopper lands outside DeltFall’s perimeter. Compared to the barren desert environment on their side of the planet, this area is a lush, healthy forest filled with an array of trees, hills, and lakes. Unfortunately, with still no response from anyone on any comm system, that beauty is hiding carnage. Armed with the biggest gun from the hopper’s weapon hold and a grim stare, Murderbot leads Mensah, Arada, and Pin-Lee — Ratthi, much to his distress as an elite gamer who can totally (not) transfer those skills into real-life combat, gets left behind; he napped rather than attend the mandatory weapons training — across a lake bed covered with scuttling crustaceans. Once the habitat is within view, Murderbot insists on investigating alone.

Our wonderfully awkward android enters the building without issue — well, aside from the darkness and blaring alarm. It cautiously presses on after finding the murdered humans and SecUnits, but avoids relaying the severity of the situation to its own humans. It does, however, urge them back to the hopper. Mensah insists Murderbot get its constructed butt back to safety, too. Pulling from an episode of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon where a character disobeys direct orders, Murderbot creates static on the comms channel, and sounds quite satisfied with its sneakiness. The tactic does make Mensah, Pin-Lee, and Arada fall back — except Mensah keeps pausing to stare at the habitat, dismay etched into her face.

Inside, all the evidence points to one of DeltFall’s SecUnits committing the murder spree. But Murderbot, through the power of television and personal intuition, smells a rat. One unit going rogue while the others heroically die in battle is a trope predictable enough for an episode of Strife in the Galaxy. No sooner has Murderbot thought as much and toed one of the supposedly dead SecUnits lying on the ground, the unit attacks. Although a newer model with a heightened weapons system, it’s still not a match for Murderbot going all Sherlock Holmes and predicting its attack pattern. The threat eliminated, Murderbot assesses its fellow SecUnit’s body. Someone’s hijacked the unit’s programming with a combat override module. As for who the guilty party might be, well, it’s probably the other SecUnit that slowly emerges from the shadows behind Murderbot, aims its arm gun, and fires.

New episodes of Murderbot premiere on Fridays on Apple TV+.

Murderbot

The ride toward danger shifts into higher gear with Murderbot Episode 3, “Risk Assessment.”

Release Date

May 16, 2025

Network

Apple TV+

Pros & Cons

• Alexander Skarsgård continues to embody the character with a perfect mix of dry humor and nuanced emotion.
• Noma Dumezweni remains a standout, infusing Mensah with warmth, compassion, and vulnerability.
• The episode pushes the plot forward but uses time travel to convey vital character moments.