Eye Contact story
Suspicious of Murderbot, Gurathin convinces Mensah not to bring the SecUnit along when she investigates a distant, unmapped location. Mensah becomes disoriented while out in the field, as another of the same species of creatures that attacked the others bears down on her. It moves past her however, drawn to a specific spot full of dead creatures, killed by ancient alien remnants. Back at the habitat, Murderbot, uncomfortable with conversation and eye contact, is asked by Gurathin to explain if it is acting outside the boundaries of its programming. Gurathin becomes concerned that it has some deleted memories.
13 total · 2 choice · 2 major · 9 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| AI point of view | choice | A point of the series is to speculate on how an android might view humans. The series is mostly narrated by the titular Murderbot's inner thoughts. |
| android | choice | The story follows the titular Murderbot, a humanoid robot with organic parts that functioned as a security unit. There is no indication that Murderbot ever existed as a biological organism that became enhanced with technological parts. Therefore, Murderbot is not a cyborg according to our definition. |
| human worrying about self | major | On recurring occasions, Murderbot made it clear that he was discomforted by the others' attempts to become more familiar with him. |
| trust | major | Dr. Gurathin, in particular, did not trust Murderbot. The scientists discussed at length to what extent they could trust the android at length. |
| brain-computer interface | minor | Dr. Gurathin had a port in his neck that allowed him to interface directly with computer systems. |
| having a skeleton in the closet | minor | Murderbot was hiding from the scientists that he'd overrode his governor module. |
| human vs. monster | minor | Dr. Mensah had another run in with a giant centipede-like creature with maws on either end of it, but managed to escape physically unscathed. |
| invasion of privacy | minor | A recurring point was that Murderbot could hear practically any conversation and could access all the security feeds around him. Ironically, Murderbot himself didn't like it much that Dr. Gurathin accessed many of his private experiences. |
| monster | minor | The planet was home to a species of giant centipede-like creature with maws on either end of them. These creatures were a threat to anyone that left the artificial habitat. |
| polyamorous relationship | minor | Pin-Lee reluctantly agreed to let Ratthi join her and Arada's relationship, after Ratthi and Arada fell for each other. Ratthi enthusiastically accepted the offer, and the trio were seen to initiate intercourse with each other, although exactly how it played out is left to the imagination of the viewer. |