Murderbot Episode 3 Recap: Who attacked Murderbot at the Delta base?

Okay, real talk, Episode 3 of Apple TV’s Murderbot series? Kind of weird. It wasn’t bad, exactly, but it felt more like a long comedy skit than a proper episode. The humor? A bit stale.

You can only laugh at Murderbot’s grumpy sarcasm so many times before it stops being funny. Plus, there’s just too much talk and not enough he's doing his thing. So, what exactly went down in this episode? Let’s break it all down, spoilers ahead!

We start off with ADA, who brings along a massive chime as a good luck charm on their sea journey. It’s comically large and kind of noisy, classic ADA.

Preservation Ox had earlier tried reaching out to another survey team, the Delta Survey Group. But no one answered. Most smart people would take that as a sign to leave immediately. But Mensah? Nope. She’s too kind for that.

Mensah is the heart of the group. She believes in helping others, even when it's dangerous. She figures if she were in trouble, she'd want someone to come for her. That’s sweet and all, but also a bit reckless.

Murderbot? It doesn’t have much of a say. If they want it to tag along on the hopper trip, it just… has to go. Sigh.

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Murderbot’s identity crisis

Poor Murderbot is already not loving this mission. But things get worse when Mensah insists it wear its human face during the trip. His whole deal is staying hidden behind metal and glass, so this is nightmare fuel.

Meanwhile, Rothy tries bonding with him by asking about his human parts. Um, awkward much? He hates feeling human. That’s kind of the whole point of being a Murderbot.

Instead of bonding, Rothy just freaks him out more. When he says Murderbot is acting too human, it panics. Because that’s not normal for a SEC unit.

So, what does it do for comfort? It watches its guilty pleasure show, Strife in the Galaxy. It's dramatic, badly written, and exactly the kind of trash TV he loves. Watching it also gives him some not-so-subtle ideas about who might be up to no good.

One of the team members, Barge, is still dealing with trauma after a giant centipede attacked her. Garathan, unfortunately, is terrible at helping. And to make things worse, he starts sneaking around like a bad soap opera villain.

Naturally, Murderbot gets suspicious. Garathan might be in love with Mensah, which makes everything messier.

Meanwhile, Pinley has been tracking weird signal drops. When Murderbot casually confirms it’s also been watching the same patterns… oops. Now, everyone thinks it's spying on them.

They’re not reassured when he says the company might be behind it. Preservation doesn’t trust the company or the robot now.

Everyone gets pretty paranoid. Except for Mensah, who still believes in him. Even though she hesitates before asking, “You’re not going to hurt us, right?”

That hurts more than Murderbot wants to admit.

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Delta survey group mystery

With the Delta team still silent, it’s time to check out their base. He tells the others to stay outside while he goes in solo.

Why? Because it’s been saving their lives since Episode 1, and honestly, they should trust it by now.

Inside the Delta Fall habitat? Total horror show. Everyone’s dead. The place is wrecked. But Murderbot, being a fan of drama series, starts piecing things together.

Its theory? One SEC unit went rogue, killed the other two, and wiped out the team.

Suddenly, one of the SEC units isn’t dead, and it attacks! Thankfully, it’s running low on power, so he manages to win the fight.

The weird part? That bot didn’t hack itself. Someone else did. It was built to break rules, this one was controlled.

Someone out there is pulling strings. Possibly the mysterious black-clad cyborg who shot at Murderbot in the final scene. Who is this guy? No idea. But he might be behind the Delta massacre.

Murderbot decides not to tell Preservation the full story. Why? Because people panic. And when they panic, they screw things up.

Back on the ship, Mensah starts opening up to him about her personal life. She talks about polyamory, heartbreak, and disappointment.

He doesn’t care. Or at least, that’s what it tells itself.

Meanwhile, Arada notices something’s off between her and her partner, Pinley. Turns out Pinley and Rothy might be a little too close, and poor Arada feels left out.

Despite the emotional chaos, he is kind of having fun. Exploring the creepy base? Just like one of its favorite episodes. Finally, some action.

And it looks like things are just heating up…

Episode 3 was a mixed bag. It had some cool moments, like the surprise fight, but a lot of the humor felt recycled. The emotional drama between characters took center stage, while his actual robot-ing got pushed to the side.

Still, the ending leaves you curious: Who hacked that bot? What’s the mysterious figure in black up to? And how much more can he take before it just snaps?

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