The seventh episode of the third season of Love Death and Robots continues to make viewers sit back and marvel at the gorgeous yet horrific animated universe. It begins on a charming note that cleverly conceals violence and anarchy. The eighth episode, Mason’s Rats, is set on a futuristic Earth and follows an elderly farmer who discovers a rat infestation in his barn. When Mason finds that the rats are utilizing tools and weapons against him, things start to go wrong.
Mason and the rats are soon engaged in ferocious combat. Mason uses heavy weaponry on the rodents while they stand their position in the barn, but the performance in the finale is anything but predictable. In this video, we will go over the entire episode of Mason’s Rats before getting to the conclusion. Let us get started, shall we? Oh, and keep an eye out for spoilers.
Love, Death & Robots Season 3 Episode 7 Recap
On a seemingly uneventful day, Mason wakes up and goes about his everyday work, but everything changes for him when he notices a couple of rats running into his barn. He picks up his gun and walks into the barn. Mason shoots a rat but is shocked and surprised to see that the little rodent is wearing a rudimentary utility belt of sorts. The next thing we know, Mason is looking at an armed rat posse that’s not afraid of the old man. One of these armed rats shoots Mason with a miniature crossbow.
Mason immediately seeks the help of a pest control company called Trap Tech to care for his pest problem. The salesman from Trap Tech explains that such incidents of mutated and intelligent rats are on the rise throughout the world. Given that the show is based on a futuristic Earth, it is safe to assume that the rats became more intelligent after feeding on genetically modified crops which accelerated their evolutionary process to the point that they can now build weapons and tools to defend themselves.
The salesman sells a rat killing machine called TT 6, an immobile weapon armed with a guided pulse laser that could sense its target up to a distance of a thousand meters. Mason installs six of these beasts in his barn, but tragedy strikes as the weapon kill Mason’s cat, Susan. Mason buries Susan and sleeps in peace that night, but the next day brings more miseries as he sees one of the rats dismantling the camera on the TT 6. It turns out that the rats had figured out a hack, the TT 6 was useless if it lost its eyes, that is, the cameras.
Naturally, Mason contacted Trap Tech once again. Mason pays a heavier price this time for a more lethal killing machine. He buys the TT 15, a scorpion-shaped mobile weapon with gas-cooled autocannon, and an armored chassis, but its coolest feature was its targeting technology, which was the same as the one used by that era’s navy drones. Now, that is textbook overkill, but then again, there’s no kill like the overkill, right?
The machine proves to be ruthless in its work and begins the rat-ocalypse. I mean, the TT 15 was pure Old Testament, all blood and bones. It wasn’t before long that even Mason got scared and worried about the way TT 15 made its kill. Instead of just killing the rats, the metal scorpion seemed to enjoy raining bullets on the rats until only the head remained. Within a short span of time, Mason’s yard had a miniature mountain made of rat heads.
But the rats seemed quite resourceful and advanced, and with a combined effort, they managed to do some significant damage to the scorpion. However, it wasn’t destroyed completely. Just as it was about to land a final blow on the rest of the rats, Mason arrived with his gun and shot down the advanced piece of rat-killing hardware. After this, Mason pays his respect to the rats for their courage and bravery, before accepting a drink that the rats had made.
Ending Explained: Why Does Mason Destroy the TT15?
It turns out that Mason was put off and disgusted by the brutality with which the TT 15 killed the rats. In fact, he was rather ashamed and guilty because the bloodshed was a thing of his own making. The valiant counteroffensive that the rat army put before the decapitated killing machine moved Mason and made him shoot down his super expensive weapon. In the end, Mason and the rats share a toast, while Mason makes a final phone call which ensures the viewer that Mason wasn’t after the rats anymore.
In the end, it was empathy that won. The good old farmer could see the valor and determination of the rats holding their ground and fighting against all odds. I mean, they were just trying to survive in a place that they considered their homeland. This was not very different from several real-life events in the pages of history when one superior nation attacked another.
Although the barn officially belonged to Mason, the rats were its denizens too. What I mean is, can you say that a bird that builds nests in your backyard tree is not its resident? All in all, the episode was a beautiful take on anti-war causes and deserves due respect. That was all in this video, but do check out our other videos on the third season of Love Death and Robots.