The Very Pulse of the Machine
In the third episode of Love, Death & Robots, Martha Kivelson is stranded on a Jovian moon after her rover crashes. She’s unable to get through to Orbital and is facing a bleak future. ..
Martha continues on through this alien landscape, dragging Burton through the endless sickly yellow deserts. After injecting herself with a cocktail of different drugs to keep herself going, Martha starts to hallucinate. Burton’s voice echoes through, reciting poetry and seeing a variety of different images, including a large astronaut trudging through the landscape. The sun beats down mercilessly on Martha as she drags Burton through the endless desert. She’s been injecting herself with a cocktail of different drugs in order to keep going, but after a while her hallucinations start to take over. Burton’s voice echoes through her mind reciting poetry and showing her various images; one is of an astronaut walking across the barren landscape. ..
It’s soon revealed though that the voice she’s hearing is that of a machine, as the moon they’re on is apparently one giant robot. Somehow this consciousness manages to connect with Burton through the cracked hole in her mask, connecting with Burton’s mind and physically carrying an exhausted Martha to her destination.
Martha wakes up on the moon, with only a minute of oxygen left. IO, the mechanical moon, encourages her to take a leap of faith and dive into the 230 degree Celsius heat and connect neurologically with the machine. ..
According to Io’s computer logs, the purpose of Io is to “know you.” As Martha dives into the lava, her entire body combusts and causes a chain reaction. As we zoom out, seeing the moon from a distance, Martha’s voice bleeds through: “Earth station come in, this is Martha Kivelson.”
The Episode Review
The very pulse of the machine feels quite similar to “Fish Night” - an episode in season 1 with a lot of dreamy visuals and interesting thematic content. This chapter seems to follow suit, with a really solid premise and a simple but effective twist midway through.
This moon is actually a machine, and it’s making Martha feel trippy and hallucinatory. She could argue that she’s dreaming this whole thing, but it seems more likely that she’s just taking drugs and running out of oxygen.
The chapter is intentionally ambiguous in that respect, with the ending featuring Martha walking away and eventually taking a leap of faith into the lava, signifying the end of her life. That ambiguity is ultimately the best part of this chapter, and it’ll be interesting to see different theories crop up surrounding this one.
This week’s episode of Love, Death & Robots was another great one. The show explored the relationships between love, death and robots in a unique way that was sure to please fans of the genre.
