Better Than Us Season 1 Episode 9 Recap

Victor tells Igor that the chip he put inside Arisa’s body worked well, but because something broke inside Arisa, it’s now his job to fix her and prepare her for the bidding. After the competition, they will destroy Arisa. Igor is against the idea. He worries about how they can manufacture super bots without the prototype. Still, Victor says because Arisa has footage of the murder and because she told it to Georgy and his family, they have to get rid of her. Gleb tells Victor that Georgy has been meeting with Major Varlamov lately. Because Georgy has gotten the police involved, Victor tells Gleb to take care of everything.

Gleb and his men kidnap Georgy, Alla, and Sonya. Before they leave the house, Georgy sends a message to Varlamov asking for help. Georgy is separated from the others and is taken to Cronos. Meanwhile, Egor, who‘s outside at that time, sees what‘s happening to his family — he stays hidden. After arriving at Cronos, Victor tells Georgy to make another deal with him. Sonya and Alla are safe, but what will happen to them depends on how Georgy acts. Victor says Arisa is in Cronos, so Georgy must accompany her to the competition. If Arisa wins the bid, Victor will let everyone go.

Varlamov sees Egor in the house when he comes to save Georgy. Egor says his family had been kidnapped and taken to Cronos. Major Varlamov can’t just storm into Cronos to save them, so he tells Egor to go and stay with his grandfather while he takes care of everything. Irina takes him to his grandfather‘s apartment, but he immediately goes out as soon as Irina drives away.

While waiting inside the car, Alla sings a song to Sonya. The child bot, Boris, hears the song and approaches the car. He asks them if they’ve seen his mom. Then he says he wants to stay and listen to the song because his mother used to sing the same song. Gleb’s men say they have to leave Cronos. They are unaware that a child-bot is inside the car with Alla and Sonya. Another of Gleb’s men goes to the hospital and kills Sergey’s friend, Yuri, to eliminate another possible witness. Just in time, Major Varlamov walks in and shoots the suspect while the suspect also shoots him in the arm.

The next day, everyone is excited to see the bots participating in the show. The Ministry of Social Security conducts the Bot Show as an open bidding contest. The winning bot in the competition will be mass manufactured for the Early Retirement Program. The Liquidators prepare from their new hideout to destroy Arisa. They will get their passes from Katya. Bars, Zhanna, and the other members will pretend to be catering staff to enter the building. Georgy is given a tablet where he can see Alla and Sonya inside a house, but still, he doesn’t know where they are.

The colonel visits Major Varlamov in the hospital. Varlamov explains that only Victor has a motive for killing Sergey’s friend. Not only that, but he also abducted Georgy and his family. He asks the colonel to get him a warrant so he can confiscate Arisa and prove that Victor is guilty. The colonel gives in and tells Varlamov to take his team. He says he will look for a judge to sign a warrant, but the job won’t be easy because not everyone wants to get involved.

Egor goes to Cronos to look for his family. He sees Georgy with Arisa, but they move too fast, so he loses them. While walking inside the building, he sees Zhanna and the Liquidators. Egor tells them his family was kidnapped and wants to save them. Bars has a different plan. He tells his men to take Egor to the van while they look for Arisa. Bars and his men attack the security guards guarding Arisa. When they finally get to Georgy, Bars tells him to open Arisa’s container. Georgy shows Bars the footage of his family and says that if he lets Arisa go, Victor will kill his family. But Bars threatens to hurt him, so Victor opens the container. Bars aims his knife at Arisa’s memory chip, but even before he stabs her, Arisa fights back and threatens to break Bars’ arm. Bars begs Georgy to make Arisa stop and says he knows where Alla and Sonya are. He says they might be where he was shot. After Georgy receives the address of the place from Bars, he tells Arisa to let him go.

The head of security wants to stop the show until they‘re sure the Liquidators are no longer in the building, but Georgy tells them that Victor will only get angry if they cancel the show because he has already spent a lot of money in preparation, so the head of security believes Georgy and decides not to say anything to Victor. The Bot Show starts, and everyone is excited to see how the two bots will perform. Georgy walks Arisa to where the competition will take place. When Arisa sees the kids, she tells Georgy it‘s not what they trained for. Georgy advises her to treat the kids as she would Sonya. The Minister’s idea is to have the bots deal with many kids. The tasks consist of playing with the kids, feeding them, and putting them to sleep. The audience will pick the winner using online voting.

Georgy wonders why Arisa isn‘t getting many votes even if she‘s performing really well. A staff member says that no mother would want someone like Arisa in their home because she’s too pretty. The other bot can’t even perform as well as Arisa. Alexei smiles at his opponents, sure that Arisa will win the bid. Suddenly, Arisa picks up a kid and runs away, looking for Georgy. After checking, they see that Arisa figured the kid was sick, so they immediately bring the boy to the hospital. Because of it, Arisa receives many votes. 

Bars and his group arrive at the house where Georgy’s family is being held. Because only one person guards the house, they quickly get inside and get Sonya and Alla. But Bars doesn’t really have any plan of saving the two. After the others leave the house, Bars sees the child bot Boris sitting on the couch. He takes his knife, aims for the chest, and stabs the bot’s memory chip. When Georgy checks the tablet, he sees that Alla and Sonya are no longer in the house. Bars calls Georgy and tells him to meet at the coordinates he will send to see his family. 

Meanwhile, Major Varlamov and his team arrive at the afterparty. They say that according to the information they received, Arisa is suspected of murder. And as per the court order, Victor has to provide the information required for the investigation and Arisa’s prototype.

Our Thoughts

We are thinking of ways Georgy and his family can escape the situation, but it seems like there are none. Victor will kill them if they don’t do as he says. The Liquidators want Arisa so they can destroy her. Both are violent and willing to use violence to get what they want, so we don’t know what Georgy will do next. Of course, he wants to keep his family safe. 

If Victor knows the existence of the Liquidators, why can’t he just get rid of them? Gleb had said that he knew how to end the group, but based on how they’re acting, they seem difficult to stop. Victor can use his money and security to handle the problem, but he always sends Gleb. Why doesn’t Georgy ask for help from the police? We know Major Varlamov is doing his job, but why is it only him and his team? How can they handle all enemies if there are just three of them all the time?