Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red & Artificial Condition.Apple TV+'s adaptation of cast of Murderbot has brought all the books' colorful characters to live-action in tremendous fashion, and they're all as layered and complex as they are in the novel.

While complex characters and faithful adaptations make for one of the best TV shows on Apple TV+, it also makes Murderbot somewhat complicated. Murderbot's two-episode premiere instantly dropped viewers into the middle of a complex sci-fi world filled with SecUnits, a mysterious Company, augmented humans, and massive centipede-like monsters. Murderbot handles most of these elements naturally, but there are still some points that may need clarification, especially for viewers who haven't read the books before. Luckily, Murderbot's faithfulness to Martha Wells' books also means its easy to predict what comes next for Murderbot and PreservationAux.

What Really Happened To The DeltFall Team In The Murderbot Books Explained

The DeltFall Team Was Murdered By Hacked SecUnits

At the very end of Murderbot season 1, episode 2, Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) and the rest of PreservationAux tried to the other survey team that was on the same planet as them, DeltFall. PreservationAux noticed some anomalies with their maps and surveys of the planet, and they wanted to see if DeltFall could explain the anomalies. The DeltFall team, however, had been massacred, and even their SecUnit was destroyed. Something clearly killed the DeltFall team, but Mensah decided to investigate and see why DeltFall wasn't answering. Murderbot episode 3 is going to explore that mystery in depth, but the books already have the answer.

In All Systems Red, Murderbot and PreservationAux went to DeltFall's habitat and investigated the carnage there. As Murderbot discovered, the SecUnits there had been hacked, and a mysterious group known as GrayCris had compromised their combat overrides to make the SecUnits wipe out the DeltFall survey. One of the SecUnits even tried to install the same combat override on Murderbot, but it was rescued by Mensah and the rest of the humans before that could happen.

What Was That Weird Gravity Well Mensah Found In Murderbot?

The Gravity Well Was Caused By The Alien Remnants Ratthi Mentioned

Aside from DeltFall, one of the bigger mysteries of Murderbot season 1, episode 2 was the strange gravity well that Mensah found while she and Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) were out exploring. As Mensah came upon the anomaly, it seemed to suck in one of the centipede-like animals that attacked Bharadwaj in the premiere, and it even destroyed one of the drones. Eventually, Ratthi (Akshay Khanna) explained exactly what the anomaly was: remnants of an alien society that was on the planet long before PreservationAux arrived. Gurathin (Daniel Dastmalchian) confirmed that alien remnants were the cause of the map outages they were dealing with.

GrayCris was hunting for alien remnants to sell on the black market, and they tried to kill the other survey teams to prevent them from exposing the existence of the alien remnants.

The presence of alien remnants has a few big implications for the rest of Murderbot season 1. As Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu) mentioned, any planet that has alien remnants is immediately shut down to surveyors and only open to archaeological digs. Those who have read All Systems Red also know that the alien remnants are the reason DeltFall was killed and PreservationAux was attacked. GrayCris was hunting for alien remnants to sell on the black market, and they tried to kill the other survey teams to prevent them from exposing the existence of the alien remnants.

Why Did Mensah & Bharadwaj Survey The Site Without Murderbot?

PreservationAux Doesn't Trust The Company & By Extension Murderbot

One of the more confusing parts about Mensah's discovery of the alien remnants was her decision to go to the site without Murderbot. Mensah and Bharadwaj knew that there were plenty of dangers on the planet, like the animal they encountered in the premiere, yet they forwent their highly capable security escort. Mensah and Bharadwaj were operating under the assumption that they couldn't trust the Company they contracted to supply their survey, and they thought they couldn't trust Murderbot by extension. Gurathin also voiced some of his concerns to help convince them to leave Murderbot behind and leave while it was in stasis.

Arada, Pin-Lee, & Ratthi's Love Triangle In Murderbot Explained

Arada & Pin-Lee Are Married, Arada Likes Ratthi, Ratthi Likes Pin-Lee, & Pin-Lee Just Wants Arada To Be Happy

Along with all the conspiracies and dangerous fauna in Murderbot season 1, episode 2, the show also introduced a new romance subplot. Arada (Tattiawna Jones), Pin-Lee, and Ratthi started a polyamorous relationship in Murderbot episode 2, but the exact dynamics could use a bit of review. As it stands, Arada and Pin-Lee were previously married before the expedition even began. Arada, however, had a crush on Ratthi, while Pin-Lee didn't. Ratthi, on the other hand, has a crush on Pin-Lee. Pin-Lee agreed to sign a contract making them a throuple, and her, Arada, and Ratthi all presumably had sex.

The Murderbot show removed the character Overse from Martha Wells' novels. Pin-Lee has mostly taken over Overse's role as Arada's wife and Ratthi's friend.

Arada, Pin-Lee, and Ratthi's polyamorous relationship is a new invention for the Murderbot show, and it's a bit more unpredictable as a result. The various levels of attraction at work in the love triangle could easily cause some tension between them in the future, and it could create even more drama as Murderbot progresses. Pin-Lee may become jealous of Arada's infatuation with Ratthi, while Arada may be jealous that Ratthi is more interested in Pin-Lee than her. How that web of jealousies could influence what's to come in Murderbot, however, remains to be seen.

Why Gurathin Is More Suspicious Of Murderbot Than The Rest Of PreservationAux

Gurathin Knows That Murderbot's Behavior Is Very Strange & He May Have A New Backstory To Make Him Distrustful Of The Company

PreservationAux quickly learned that Murderbot wasn't a normal SecUnit after it comforted Arada, but the scientists didn't all have the same reaction. Most of the team were a bit wary of Murderbot, but Gurathin was outright hostile to it, and he even forced Murderbot to make eye with him. Gurathin is suspicious of Murderbot because he realizes just how many liberties Murderbot is taking with its abilities. SecUnits aren't supposed to be able to comfort people or have emotions like social anxiety, which is a sign that it has gone rogue. Gurathin is the only one who understands the full implications of a rogue SecUnit.

It also seems that the Murderbot show is setting up a bit of new characterization for Gurathin that wasn't present in the books. While Gurathin was airing his grievances against Murderbot, Mensah and the rest of PreservationAux said that he had "good reason" not to trust the Company or anything d with it. It seems that Murderbot has given Gurathin some new backstory, perhaps a bad encounter with Company-d bots in the past, that makes him more wary of Murderbot than his peers are.

What Happened In Murderbot's Memory Of The Massacre?

Murderbot Was Hacked In A Malware Attack & Slaughtered A Group Of ComfortUnits

Yet another mystery set up in Murderbot season 1, episode 2 was Murderbot's fractured memories of an unidentified massacre. Murderbot was a refurbished model, and as it told Gurathin, its memory was wiped when it was updated. However, some fractured visions of a massacre are still in Murderbot's system, and it expresses a deep desire not to dig into them. In Artificial Condition, Murderbot learned that it was hacked while on a contract for a mining operation at Ganaka Pit, and the malware it was infected with made it slaughter 57 people.

During Murderbot's contract, a rival company attempted to sabotage the company Murderbot was contracted to. Their attack, however, forced all the operation's SecUnits to "lose their minds" and attack any living thing in sight. Most of the people Murderbot massacred during the malware attack were ComfortUnits, whom Murderbot described as "sex bots," that were trying to protect human miners. Its memory is foggy, but Murderbot believes that was part of the reason it decided to hack its governor module in the first place. Regardless, the incident at Ganaka Pit weighs heavily on Murderbot's conscience, and it could be a major focus of Murderbot going forward.