Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Murderbot season 1, episode 3 & All Systems Red.evil Company in Murderbot, make it a high-concept science fiction show. On top of both of those, however, Murderbot is also an action series, and episode 3 just proved that it can absolutely dazzle audiences with a good fight scene.

The books that Murderbot is based on - The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells - have more than a bit of action in them. Just as in the show, the first novel, All Systems Red, starts out with Murderbot fighting a massive, multi-toothed monster to protect Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski), and it only gets more violent and gory from there. Murderbot episode 3 got to the second main fight of All Systems Red, and it certainly didn't disappoint in its brutality and coolness. As awesome as that fight was in Murderbot, however, All Systems Red's version is somehow still even better.

Murderbot’s Fight Against The Hacked SecUnit Was One Of The Apple TV+ Show's Best Scenes Yet

Apple TV+ Brilliantly Translated Murderbot's Technological Capabilities Into TV

At the end of Murderbot season 1, episode 3, Murderbot investigated DeltFall Survey's habitat and realized that the SecUnits there had been hacked before getting into a fight with it. Murderbot's fight with the hacked SecUnit was easily the best moment in Murderbot season 1 so far. Everything about it, from the actual mechanics of the fight to the physicality of the SecUnits' combat choreography, worked tremendously well. While it could have been longer, it was a great display of both Alexander Skarsgård's action abilities and Murderbot's potential for even better fights in the future.

The most impressive part of Murderbot's fight, however, is easily the predictive technology it uses. The way Murderbot predicted the other SecUnit's every blow reminded me of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes in the best way possible, and it made an already great fight scene into a truly memorable one. Watching the hologram of the SecUnit play out an entire fight right before watching Murderbot perfectly counter every move was simply awesome. It was a real high point of Murderbot's first three episodes, and it makes me very hopeful for the future of the series.

Murderbot’s Fight With The SecUnits Was Even Better In The Books

I Still Wish We Could Have Gotten To See Murderbot Fling Itself Face-First Into Danger

As great as Murderbot episode 3's fight scene was, it still wasn't as good as the same fight in Martha Wells' books. In All Systems Red, Murderbot comes to the same conclusion that the SecUnits at DeltFall were laying in wait for it, but it decides to do something very different. Murderbot sneaks around, ambushes two of them from behind, and flings itself directly into a hail of energy bolts while returning fire. There's something really special about the way Murderbot analyzes the situation and fights other SecUnits by jumping into the fray and seeing "whose parts give out first" that the show just doesn't convey.

Dr. Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) also had a much cooler role to play in Murderbot's fight in the books than she did in the show. After Murderbot realized that the other SecUnits had staged a body and set a trap for it, Mensah subtly picked up on its hints and said, out loud over the comms, for it to return to the hopper. Mensah used her keen situational awareness to give Murderbot the perfect cover for its ambush in the books, but in the Murderbot show, she's completely in the dark. Mensah's not involved in Murderbot's fight at all, and her quick thinking could have made the moment even better.

I really wish we could have seen All Systems Red's version of Murderbot's fight. The visualization of Murderbot getting shot to bits while taking out the other SecUnits could have been done really well with Apple TV+'s budget, and it could have been one of the more visually impressive and visceral moments in the entire show. That being said, I'm still glad to have seen Murderbot's predictive software, and it added a new element to the character that I didn't even know I wanted to see. Murderbot may not be a one-to-one recreation of All Systems Red, but it is great in its own right.