All Systems Red

Ep 9 is the character study we've been waiting for.

"All Systems Red" delivers what might be the series' most emotionally complex episode yet. This penultimate installment takes a different approach - less action thriller, more psychological drama - and the results are mostly compelling.

The episode's strength lies in its character work. Murderbot's journey toward emotional acceptance finally reaches a breakthrough moment that feels earned after eight episodes of buildup. Skarsgård navigates the character's internal struggle with remarkable subtlety, showing us a security unit genuinely grappling with what it means to have feelings.

The supporting cast gets meaningful moments to shine as tensions within the group reach their peak. The writing explores how different people handle crisis and uncertainty, creating genuine human drama that grounds the sci-fi elements perfectly.

However, the episode stumbles when it tries to balance character development with action sequences. The pacing feels uneven, and some thriller elements feel forced rather than organic to the story being told.

What saves the episode is its emotional honesty. The humor emerges naturally from character interactions rather than feeling manufactured, and the final moments set up the finale beautifully.

Strong character work with minor pacing issues.

8.5/10.

We're getting towards the end of this excellent first season, and both the action and interpersonal entanglements are coming to a head. Also, I'm finally starting to care about some of the secondary characters, which is great. (Murderbot itself has been a wonderful character from the very start, which is what pulled me in to begin with).

But the best thing about episode nine is the slightly longer runtime. The only downfall of previous episodes was that they all seemed way too short. It's amazing what a little over five minutes extra did for the pacing!

Let's hope that when (not if!) there's a Season 2, they are all 30 minutes or LONGER. I'm really looking forward to a lot more.

After the previous episode, I expressed my disillusionment with the series, which was stuck in place and the episodes were too short. This penultimate one is six minutes longer, and everything changesproving that Murderbot is indeed suffering from its format! By far, the best episode of the series. Things are finally happening, the action and dialogue are not identical to the previous eight. A real suspense is established and maintained throughout the episode. The humor is once again present and impactful, and the ending is moving. All that remains is to hope for a final opus of the same caliber.

This episode had some clever plot twists and the longer runtime helped them play out in a more detailed and satisfying way.

Script was also quite sharp for this one.

One odd thing about this show is that the crew is easily distracted as normal people often are. Most sci-fi doesn't really have characters that need to adjust their focus so much to survive. With the shorter runtimes of the other episodes, it took longer to flesh out this rather unorthodox group.

Overall, with this episode in the bank, "Murderbot" has succeeded in making me care a little more about what happens next to these folks.

Kudos to the creative team for keeping at it👍