Punk Pixie

Janity calls the guy at the end her second father, and there is one reference to 'the older kids' being upset about moving to hell torus. Meaning that there's kids other than Janity and Tula in this group marriage. But Leonide is only getting (presumably) her bio kids out. And we know Janity's second father doesn't give a shit about Tula because he didn't directly make her.

We know Sofi is Mensah's bio kid; MB mentions several times how she looks like someone shrunk Mensah. We don't know if (given wonderful future tech) Tano and/or Farai is her other parent(s) but I feel like it's never mentioned because it doesn't matter. These kids have three parents that all love them no matter what DNA they have.

Also, someone should give Granny a gun. She definitely deserves a gun. She'd be so good with a gun. (Other characters are being killjoys, by not giving her a gun. Smh)

(one of my) Favorite interaction(s) is at the end, where Three is in the dog house and goes:

Three: "The Perihelion is mad at me for not following the plan :-("

Murderbot: "That's a 'you' problem." (Wellcome to the consequences of your own actions, Three)

Three: "Could it be a 'we' problem? 🥺"

I've always thought of Murderbot as having the lived experiences and emotional capacity of a full adult, but the emotional maturity of a "forced to grow up too fast" adolescent.

As opposed to Perihelion, who by now also has had the lived experience of a gentle-parented young adult, but feels like it has reached only the emotional maturity of a child at this point in its life. My interpretation of its beef with Holism, actually, is that Holism is simply older and significantly further along its journey to emotional maturity, and Perihelion is being an aggro little brat to it bc it also wants to be "an adult" NOW, RIGHT NOW, with all the trust and decision-making "perks" that comes with. (Holism might not itself appear super mature to a human adult based on Seth's reactions to it, but the gap between them is definitely wide enough that ART can't tell the difference between how Holism is now and how it might be in the future.)

And perhaps Perihelion is more "preteen" by the time the events of PD occur, as it has been able to further interact with Murderbot and watch shows with it since we last saw them, learning and growing the whole time. I would imagine, in fact, that is it learning and growing far faster than any preceding University transports because it has this dog in its cheetah enclosure companion that is both more emotionally developed and overall sulky, traumatized, and struggling with being taken care of. (The University is taking many notes on all of this, I'm sure.)

Perihelion isn't being forced to grow up "too fast" in this case, it's just been given the opportunity to rise to the challenge of helping its friend accept the kind of love and self-worth that Perihelion has been familiar with all its life, while simultaneously learning a lot from this friend's more even-keeled, empathetic, and nuanced responses to other people as well as its more developed sense of responsibility. This has all accelerated the rate of Perihelion's development.

Meanwhile, Murderbot isn't "maturing faster" per se, so much as this friendship, and all its friendships, are slowly chipping away at all the many reinforced layers of fear and despair that has kept its maturity in a locked-up state. Its relationships are allowing it to actually feel, express, and act on the full range of its own emotions and understanding. From the outside, it may look like Murderbot is "maturing" into adulthood, but what's really happening on the inside is recovery and healing, which is beginning to finally integrate into its bearing and reactions the adult emotional maturity it already had but had thus far been unable to access.

Three and the start of the Sec Unit Revolution

Murderbot continues to be the most deus-ee of deus ex machina the corporation rim has ever encountered, I love it.

You are a small-time militia trying to keep your small home sector safe from a bunch of armed assholes with guns that could put a hole through you in one shot. You've got a crowd of frightened civilians behind you, and a group of angry, armed mercenaries shouting demands in front of you.

Suddenly, a random security consultant literally appears behind you out of nowhere, saves your boss's life, identifies who the mercenaries are working for, borrows a gun and takes out one of the mercenary's guns in a single clean shot, saving an entire tram full of civilians. And then while you're all busy going after the weakness the security consultant identified in the mercenaries' weapons, they just as abruptly disappear.

Upper management takes one look at your report and says 'okay, fine, don't tell us what happened, but for fucks sake, come up with a better cover story.'

i wanna discuss this very, very smooth move from farai and naja. cause i think this maneuver was entirely premeditated. they know murderbot's priority is their safety. they know it would sooner separate from the group than put them in more danger; it already tried having them go on without it when they first encountered security looking for rogue secunits. and all three of them said no fucking way, we're going with you, it's safer for you. (humans accepting it repeatedly shields it from scrutiny and suspicion. the heart is a stealth field generator. no one expects a rogue secunit to have a child clinging to it so the militia thinks nothing of letting them in unchallenged)

anyway, i think farai and naja long suspected mb would want to go and do this alone. and they planned not to let it go alone and to split up without letting it argue. they wouldve had to lie to murderbot, communicate without it being aware.

theres something so... family knows you best and knows how to sort of discreetly lovingly manipulate you into having an easier time about it or to know how youll react to something and know the best way to handle it.

the same goes for farai and mb lying to naja about 'catching up later' if they had to go on without them:

that 'it's a good idea to lie to naja' is actually what clued me in to farai being willing to lie to mb

so how did they do it?

well, an earlier scene pointed out mb's blindspot:

all they would have to do to keep mb out of the loop would be pass a paper note lmao (is there paper? who knows. but naja knows how to set up an untracable one way news feed without even being an augmented human so i think they have a few tricks)

i love how they protect it. it reminds me of network effect, where as soon as thiago realizes he misjudged mb, he takes the next opportunity to support it by *not letting it go alone* to the hell plague planet station. this family i swear c:

and when they do let it go off alone? when farai takes tula off its chest... they know it's going off to help other people: the militia, the civilians. they know it wants to protect as many people as possible, not to let them be collateral damage to a danger they brought. and despite farai (and janity) being distressed they support its decision

just as theyre trying to support mensah's decision to help

i think farai gets it now. she's made the decision herself now, to help strangers at the risk of her own family. and she's seen what mb does and how it helps too