Better Than Us Season 1 Episode 5 Recap

After a deadly encounter with Arisa, Gleb wakes up under his overturned car. Arisa’s hand reaches out to him as if to finish what she initially intended to do. Arisa’s hand continues to reach for him, so Gleb takes out his gun, aims at Arisa, and pulls the trigger. 

Victor tells Igor that Cronos didn’t get the project. The Minister has decided to have a bidding war to get the project. Cronos doesn’t have to apply to join, but they will surely have many competitors. Back in the office, Gleb waits for Victor. Even if Victor is happy to have Arisa back, he’s a bit problematic that the super bot is severely damaged. Gleb explains what happened, saying he only defended himself. He warns Igor not to wake Arisa, but he wakes her up. When Arisa opens her eyes, she pushes Igor and attacks Victor. Luckily for them, Gleb shoots Arisa, stopping her. 

Alla goes to the CCD with Marina to talk to the authorities about Egor’s case. Georgy also arrives there, but Marina does the talking. Even if Georgy knows that Alla lied about going to Australia, they focus on Egor. Marina tells them they have to wait for the court hearing. But while they’re talking, Egor is taken outside and boarded in a vehicle. Vlad and Irina tell Major Varlamov that Marina is correct, but he doesn’t want to let Egor go because he plans to use him to get to Georgy. He says Georgy is the only link they have to Cronos, and if they find enough solid evidence, they can finally file a case against Victor. Irina still doesn‘t understand why Varlomov hates Victor so much, so he hands a pile of papers to Irina, then tells her the report will make her hate Cronos and Victor.

When Alexei visits Victor, he expects to see the super bot. Arisa comes inside and serves them coffee. That’s when Victor reveals that Arisa is their super bot. Alexei initially can’t believe him because he thinks Arisa is human. Not known to Alexei, Igor is in the other room with Katya, controlling everything that Arisa Number Two does. 

Georgy tries to strike a deal with Major Varlamov. Georgy says Sergey died from a broken neck. Major Varlamov isn‘t satisfied with the confession and tells Georgy that he can’t deal with him with only such. Georgy argues that Varlamov can’t keep Egor because Nikolay will take back his statement, so the case against Egor won’t be as strong. Major Varlamov shows a photo to Georgy. He says that Kirill, a Liquidator, was arrested and rescued by his friends. He left a note for his mother, then went on a run. The other day, they found him dead. And they found the letter in Egor’s pocket, so Egor is the main suspect.

On the day they’re about to meet the Minister, Igor and Katya follow them. Alexei walks to the Minister with Arisa Number Two holding his arm. He pretends that the bot is human, and no one suspects otherwise because Arisa Number Two looks real. Alexei says they will deliver the super bot later. The Minister says he must make a call because the reception is blocked inside the building. Victor immediately calls Igor. Igor says they’ll lose connection with the bot if Alexei brings Arisa Two inside. Katya says Arisa is already losing the connection even though she hasn’t entered the building yet. Victor, worried that they’d be caught faking it, tells Igor to have Arisa Two get hit by a car. Igor doesn’t want to do so initially because the bot is their only one, but he tells Katya to do as Victor says. They control Arisa Two to make her walk to the road, where she gets hit by a car.

Back at Cronos, they wake Arisa up and immediately stop her by asking why she wants to kill him. Arisa explains that Victor is a danger to her family. Igor thinks it’s a cognitive error because a bot can’t comprehend things like such. Arisa says her processor is fine, and she has authorized three users: a man and two kids because they needed a woman’s care. She says she’s placed them in the center of her emotional cluster. They want to remove the program, but Igor explains that it’s built into Arisa’s identity — she can’t be edited. Victor tells Gleb to bring Arisa’s family to Cronos.

Gleb picks up Georgy and releases Egor. When Victor sees Georgy, memories of a tragic day come back to him. His wife brought their only son to the hospital. Initially, the operation was successful, but not long after, the boy died in the hospital. It was Georgy who operated on the boy. Victor got angry and sued the hospital, but because of connections, the hospital just decided to suspend Georgy even if he did what he could to save the child. That was when Georgy lost his job, house, and family. Victor tells him now that he needs his help in operating Arisa. Georgy, in return, tells Victor to give him back his life. 

With the done deal, Alla moves in with her family. They live together again. A few days after, they have a picnic with Arisa and Nikolay. They try to enjoy the day as if cameras are not monitoring them. Egor offers to walk his grandpa home. While walking, he tells Nikolay that bots are evil. Nikolay asks him if it‘s his idea or someone else, even if he knows Egor is just repeating something he heard from someone else. Nikolay then tells Egor that getting in trouble only to impress a girl is not good. Meanwhile, Arisa tells Georgy that Alla is interfering with their lives. She says her job is safeguarding the family; Alla is not one of them. She even says that if Georgy needs a wife, she agrees to be one. Georgy says that even if Arisa is ideal, she’s just a bot; Alla is a human. She says she’s an empathic bot, and her job is to register physiological signs of humans, such as pulse, blood pressure, and perspiration. With those, she can judge the emotional state of a human being with minimal errors. She says Alla doesn’t love Georgy, and she lies most of the time.

Victor visits his son at the cemetery. His wife refuses to go with him because she likes to believe that their son is still alive. She stays home to look after their bot child, Boris. 

Our Thoughts

Is Victor’s wife crazy or in denial? It’s hard to say anymore. Maybe Victor got so cold because he lost his son. As for Georgy, he got everything back just like that. But the weird thing is, why is Alla living with them? She is Georgy’s ex-wife, and her husband is waiting for her in another country. Won’t it feel like she’s cheating on him with what she’s doing? Did Georgy forget about Alla’s husband and just move on? That’s unfair because Alla’s husband was so good to her. 

We get that Arisa is a super bot, but she still is a bot. Why can’t they do something to change the program so they won’t need Georgy’s help? Even if they get the deal using Arisa, at some point, they have to face the fact that they must make more like her. They only imported Arisa. Will the manufacturers create another killer bot? If they change the program and just copy some things from Arisa, will it still be similar? We think Igor is smart enough to create another bot. It may not be like Arisa, but it can still be a functional bot to make them win the bid.