WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Season 1 of Cannon Busters, now streaming on Netflix.
The narrative of Netflix's Cannon Busters relies heavily on robots in its setting which throws robots into an outer space western. In the series, Philly the Kid, an immortal gunslinger and gambler, tries to take two bots, SAM (Special Associate Model) and Casey, to find Prince Kelby of Botica. Kelby fled after a coup, and Philly and his crew now wants to find him to lead some sort of rebellion.
But as important as Philly is to this mission, SAM and Casey who are the heart and soul of this story as the droids act as the map for the journey. However, in Episode 8, "Turnbuckle Ex-Machina," Casey's story takes a scary turn as we get one of the darkest adventures involving artificial intelligence ever.
The team heads to Gara's Keep to find Kelby and his bodyguard, Odin, but make a pit stop at the outhouse city called Zenith. It's a wasteland where junk is dropped from the upper-class city in the clouds called Shavon. As SAM is tricked into looking around for allies and Philly goes off to find her, Casey is left exploring a junkyard where she meets another bot like her, and the series takes a very dark turn.
The bot, Leet, reveals there are thousands of models like her and Casey around. Casey's shocked, since she only saw three in her life and thought she was rare, but it's because all the others are dead. Leet shows her their remains in the scrap heap, but Casey's stunned to find out they actually deprogrammed themselves. She thought they were crushed by other bots, but she realizes that she's essentially in a suicide yard.
When the bots believe they're obsolete or don't serve a function anymore, it doesn't matter if they're in great working condition, they come here and switch off to be destroyed so their parts can be used for newer models and upgrades. It's not something they're conditioned to believe either, it's simply because they think they outlived life and now need to serve a greater purpose.
This gives Casey an existential episode that makes her feel like a burden to her crew, especially when she thinks of Philly constantly bullying her for annoying him. She wrongfully assumes SAM abandoned her too and so, as the plot takes a break from all the action and explosions, she decides to destroy herself in a trash compactor.
Luckily, SAM swoops in to save the day, grabbing her off the conveyor belt and switching her power back on to remind her of her worth. Casey actually sheds a tear, which she lies and says is a glitch, but everyone, her friends included, know better. They also understand they need to make her feel like an essential part of the team so it's a great learning experience for everyone involved.
This story isn't like A.I. or I, Robot or even the Voltron franchise with huge cinematic scenes of robotic spectacle; it's more about substance than style. This arc has all the emotion and drama it needs to make you tear up and to remind everyone to not take loved ones for granted. SAM convinces Casey to break her old robot philosophy and to start spreading a new mindset to bots across the galaxy to remind them they should be appreciated because ultimately, they're just as important as all the other species around when it comes to preserving freedom in the cosmos.
Created by LeSean Thomas, Cannon Busters is now available to stream on Netflix.