Better Than Us Season 1 Episode 3 Recap

A malfunctioning robot is in front of a pharmacy. Someone comes to check on the robot after getting a report from the people who saw it. The man calls and reports that it‘s the same robot that belongs to Nikolay, Georgy’s father. When Georgy wakes up, he sees Arisa playing with Sonya. Even when Sonya says Arisa is her bot, Georgy is determined to find Arisa’s owner. He also asks Arisa to take off the dress she‘s wearing because it belongs to Alla. Arisa agrees but reminds Georgy that he should take off his jacket because there‘s a bit of nitro solvent on it, which is toxic to humans. Outside the house, Alla is waiting inside the car with Marisa. They see the kids, Georgy and Arisa, not knowing that Arisa is a bot. They go inside the house and install hidden cameras everywhere to monitor what‘s happening inside. After receiving a call from tech support, Georgy picks up his father’s robot.

He drops Egor off at school, but after Georgy drives off, Egor leaves the premises to meet Zhanna. When he arrives at Bot.Net, they turn him away. As he walks away, Zhanna pulls him into a hidden spot and says it isn‘t a good time because they will rally that night. Only members are allowed to join, and they must bring a bot. Zhanna says Bars worries about her safety, so she can’t just be with anybody. She says she doesn’t want Egor to get in trouble, but Egor says he will bring a bot to the rally. 

The morgue‘s owner contacts Georgy to tell him about the fire. He tells the detectives that Georgy has family matters to attend to and will be late. The owner thinks the Liquidators burned down the morgue, so he blames the detectives for not dealing with those people. Detective Varlamov says it‘s an imitation of arson — a way to get rid of the body, the bot, and other evidence. When they see that the bots still have their memory chips, they realize it‘s not the Liquidators who burned the place down.

Georgy arrives at the tech support office to pick up his father’s robot, Alex. Upon request, tech support also checks Arisa to find out who her real owner is. They say Arisa is a strange robot model not registered to anyone. Georgy asks tech support to take Arisa because he doesn’t have time to go to the CCD or the police to find Arisa’s owner. A staff agrees to help Georgy. He takes Arisa and puts her in a container with the other malfunctioning robots. Sonya insists Arisa belongs to her, but Georgy tells her that maybe Arisa’s owner is waiting to get her back. Sonya runs to Arisa, not noticing the truck about to hit her. Arisa moves fast and saves Sonya. Because of what happened, Georgy takes Arisa back.

Victor attends a meeting with his father-in-law and owner of Cronos, Alexei. Alexei proposes the “Early Pension” program and says it will let people retire early and let robots do their jobs. Victor says that Arisa, the super bot they’re developing, can detect and interpret human emotions. He adds they can soon work as doctors, teachers, and more. When the other attendees ask to see the prototype, Victor says they’re still testing the robots. After the meeting, Alexei reminds Victor that they will soon start financing once the minister signs the early retirement program. And once they have the money, they will begin getting robots, even if they are not from Cronos. Alexei tells Victor he only has two days to prepare the super bot, or he’s done. 

Georgy drops off Sonya at the house and leaves her with Arisa. While Sonya plays doctor, Alla sees from the hidden cameras that Arisa is only a bot. Egor asks his best friend to help him steal a robot. The robot they want to target is the one begging for money in the subway. The robot starts making sounds, so Egor’s best friend runs away, leaving Egor behind. Egor’s best friend asks Egor if he’s now working for the Liquidators. Egor gets angry and says he doesn’t want to be his best friend anymore.

Detective Varlamov talks to the colonel. He believes Georgy is the only way to solve the case of Sergey. He says Sergey died in Cronos, but Georgy lied in the medical papers and said that the cause of death was a heart attack. The colonel tells him to drop the case and just focus on Kirill’s case because he already wants to cooperate. The colonel says Kirill was in initiation for wanting to join the Liquidators but killed a man in the process. Detective Varlomov tells his team to release the footage of the man who burned the morgue. Georgy returns Alex to his father and tells him to get a new bot since Alex is always malfunctioning. Afterward, Georgy goes back to the morgue. The owner thinks the detectives are right when they said it‘s not the Liquidators who burned the place down. Georgy says he still wants to work there, but the owner says he’s free to go. 

Egor receives a call from his grandfather asking him to look for Alex. Nikolay says he told Alex to buy him some medicine, but he hasn‘t come home. Egor looks for Alex and finds him malfunctioning again. He returns to his grandfather’s house and gives him the medicine he requested. When Nikolay looks for his bot, Egor says he can’t find him. Egor takes Alex to the rally and gives him to Bars. Bars hands him a knife and tells him to remove the bot’s chip. Egor thinks twice before doing what he’s asked, and when he finally stabs the knife in Alex’s memory block, he accidentally cuts himself, splattering blood on Alex’s shirt. Zhanna puts a mask over Egor’s head before they do the rally. The Liquidators tie ropes on the robots’ necks and hang them off the bridge as they scream at the top of their lungs. After talking to Kirill and getting information about where the rally will happen, the detectives rush to get to the meeting place. When they get there, only the robots are there. Zhanna makes a necklace using the memory chip they got from Alex and puts it on Egor. Egor brags about the chip and shows it to the street cameras. 

When Georgy comes home, he finds Detective Varlamov waiting for him. He says Georgy is suspected of concealment and tampering with evidence about Sergey’s death. When Detective Varlamov is about to start the search, Arisa tells Georgy that the detective didn’t bring a court-issued warrant. The detective doesn’t have a choice but to leave. Marina, who monitors them using the hidden cameras, sees what happened and thinks they now finally have something to use against Georgy. Arisa tells Georgy he doesn’t have anything to worry about. She already hid the jacket because she knew it’s evidence. 

Back at Cronos, Igor Maslovsky looks at the bot he just created. “Arisa Two. Let‘s show Vic,” he says. 

Our Thoughts

If Arisa can really detect emotions, then she is a super bot. No wonder she knows when Sonya is sad and what to do to make her feel better. But we want to see the extent of Arisa’s involvement in this family. How far is she willing to go for Sonya and her family? We honestly thought Egor would bring Arisa to the rally. We thought he‘d brag about her, then Arisa would cause trouble. But he brought his grandfather’s robot instead. We think it might cause a problem for their family because Alex had been working as his grandfather’s assistant for a long time. Even if it’s just a robot, it’s still possible that the old man got attached to it. 

Now they have more problems with the police. First, Georgy burned the morgue down, then Egor stole and destroyed his grandfather’s bot. Since Detective Varlamov is determined to know what happened to Sergey, we doubt he will ever stop until he gets the information he wants from Georgy. If Georgy gets in trouble, Alla will have enough reason to say that the kids should stay with her and not Georgy. As for Arisa, it’s amazing how she acted on her own and hid the jacket. Bots just follow their owners’ instructions, but Arisa acted with free will.