We have all seen the notion of being trapped alone on an unfamiliar planet in science fiction films. What sets this one distinct, though, is the unique perspective on what happens afterward! The third episode of Love, Death & Robots continues the story’s dismal and serious tone, and it is another action-packed episode with beautiful animation.
The line between human consciousness and artificial intelligence blurs
How real can machines get before they start to make you feel uncomfortable and start questioning reality? The answer is just as much as shown in this episode! The first sequence takes you into the barren landscape of a moon of an alien planet, and it is all rugged and filled with undulations. Two astronauts, Burton and Martha are exploring the surface on a land rover, and Burton warns her companion about crossing the operational limits of the rover.
Suddenly, Martha detects a random temperature spike and Burton thinks it could be the sulfur eruptions under the ground. Before they can change their course, they end up in the middle of insane undulations on the ground and the rover gets flung like a rock. Martha recovers from the accident, but she is soon shocked by the discovery that her co-pilot Burton is dead from the impact.
Her face shield somehow broke in the accident and half of her face got ripped off in the process. Martha gathers herself in the tragedy and tries to communicate with the base, but with no success. The communication systems are down, and she figures out that her journey to the safety of the base is roughly 41 km away. To make matters worse, the oxygen levels are low and she has to make do with Burton’s oxygen tank. Martha still retains her composure and drags the body of her fallen co-pilot on a sled as she decides to walk the distance.
It is a long and treacherous walk through the rugged terrain, and a nasty fall causes a painful fracture in her arm. She goes ahead with administering herself morphine sulfate, in spite of warnings from her guidance system that there could be side effects, including hallucinations and loss of general motor functions. There is no other choice for Martha if she wishes to continue her journey, and she decides to take the risk. We watch her pupils dilated after the procedure, and it doesn’t take long before the hallucinations begin. She hears Burton calling to her, and although she realizes that she is hallucinating, the effects start getting to her.
The voice of Burton keeps getting stronger, and her eerie words start to take a toll on Martha’s mental stability. From poems to philosophy, Burton’s voice seems to be almost like an omnipresent force and toys with Martha’s mind as she continues the journey. The hallucinating effects keep getting stronger, and she watches in horror as the landscape around her changes. After a while, Martha realizes that she wouldn’t make it and goes for another dangerous drug that would help her survive better. But there are more side-effects to be dealt with – from paranoia to psychosis.
At this point, Martha has become so desperate for survival that she simply doesn’t care. Meanwhile, Burton continues with her narrative and reveals certain secrets about the surface of the moon Io that they were exploring. Apparently, Burton’s death was only the end of her physical presence because her mind lived on by assimilating with Io. Finally, the oxygen starts to run out once again.
Martha has only about two minutes and several kilometers left to travel – making it virtually impossible for her to survive. Now, she is faced with a crucial decision. Standing at the edge of a cliff, Burton’s artificial intelligence form suggests she take the plunge right into the thermal lake ahead of her. Given that Burton lived on, Martha decides that she would take the risk just in case. It ends with her jumping into the lake, and she surrenders her mind to the machine. We see an eruption of golden light around the moon, and the Io version of Martha continues to communicate with those on Earth.
Was it all a part of her hallucination?
The viewers might be divided on this one because there are plenty of chances that Martha was simply hallucinating the whole time. She did use the drugs that were said to have such side effects, and the gravity of the terrible situation might have gotten to her. She was probably suffering from some kind of guilt as well, and the initial phases of her hallucinations did suggest that she had a traumatic past.
It could have all combined to ensure such unreal visions that eventually led to her death from the lack of oxygen. Since her original oxygen tank was damaged, the chances are that Burton’s tank wouldn’t have enough for her to travel the whole distance to safety. In that case, it would make sense for her subconscious to start believing that she could live through the jump into the lake because it would enable her a painless death.
Now, for the other side of the story! We have reasons to believe that she wasn’t actually hallucinating the whole time. The last scene does indicate that Martha keeps communicating with Earth after her death and that wouldn’t be possible if she was hallucinating about the whole living-through-machines theory that Burton proposed. It was probably a combination of both – hallucinations added to the side effects of Morphine Sulfate and the actual presence of some supernatural form of artificial intelligence that assimilated with Burton’s mind.
The most terrifying explanation
Yes, another bizarre thought crossed our minds as we watched in horror! What if, the artificial intelligence was actually cunning enough to trick Martha into killing herself? Well, things do add up nicely for that, don’t they! It could have led Martha into a situation, where she would have no choice but to join the world of machines. In that case, it could have purposely malfunctioned the equipment, misguided her, and finally coaxed her to give up on her physical life! This is certainly a terrifying proposition, but it is one that could well be the case!
Irrespective of how you view the climactic moments, this was a nail-biting episode that kept viewers guessing till the very end. Space horror gets a real taste of quality animation and the flurry of cosmic colors make it visually stunning. Don’t miss out on the third episode of this remarkable series because it is all set to blow your mind!