Dark Matter - Episode 7

"Let's switch on the sex bot; what could possibly go wrong?"

Recalling her dreams from last episode, Five retrieves the code for the vault, granting access to a treasure trove of money, guns and women. Seriously; there's a woman in stasis and a dismantled 'entertainment' android, and being smart people, our heroes immediately wake them both up. The woman is Sarah, a critically ill farmer who had a thing with Marcus/Three after she saved his life. He put her in stasis because of her illness, then of course forgot that he was trying to find her a cure. They bond for a time before he has to return her to stasis as the illness accelerates.

The android is Wendy, a perky bot with an Aussie accent who wins the crew over with her cooking and massage skills and has sex with One ("You seem anxious. If it would help, I can switch off my performance analytics before we begin,") thus pissing off both Two and the Android, who feels threatened by the newcomer. Of course, the sexbot turns out to be an assassin, or rather an actual sexbot reprogrammed to kill the crew and gloat in the voice of their vanquished foe - a man whom, of course, none of them remember at all - as they crash into the sun. Three acts as bait to lure the bot off the bridge while Five releases the others who were locked in the mess and they work together to avert disaster. Unfortunately, the bot's sabotage causes power fluctuations, including knocking out Sarah's stasis pod.

This episode gave us a chance to see another side of Three. We learn that Marcus initially tried to run out on Sarah when things got emotional, but stayed to help her when she got sick. We're never sure if he would have stayed if she hadn't, but either way it's a softer side than we've seen before. The real star, however, is Zoie Palmer's Android, managing to use extremely limited facial movement to transform her wide-eyed blandness into the most heartbreaking kicked-puppy impersonation as the crew go gaga for Wendy's thrifty yet delicious cooking. The scene where she tries to win back One's regard with a range of exciting accent options is priceless tragicomedy.