Mason’s Rats
Episode 7 of Love, Death & Robots Season 3 starts with another uprising, this time on Mason’s farm as rats all start to turn against humans. Apparently Traptech are the solution to this, as a sleazy businessman shows up and suggests Mason invest in high-tech weaponry to destroy the rats. Apparently, changes in the environment are seeing rats and other animals turn against humanity as a result. The rata are cleverer than Mason suspected though and after thwarting the initial threat, the farmer brings in the big guns. The rats are all completely slaughtered, with the rat forces determined to try and stop the machines. Mason overhears the commotion and heads in to the barn to take a look. There, he notices the rats all hanging on for dear life. With his shotgun in hand, he takes matters into his own hands after commenting how this bloodbath looks like World War IV. He saves the last of the rat forces, destroys the machine and decides to form a peaceful coalition with the rats after all. Oh, and he cancels his cheque with the bank too!
The Episode Review
Mason’s Rats is a clever episode, an allegory for war and how bloody awful it can be regardless of which side of the conflict you lie. The whole idea of war going on without actually looking, kept behind closed doors, is such a clever way of interpreting conflicts across the world. That ending, with Mason seeing all the rats brutally slaughtered and killed, is eye-opening and very revealing when you stop to think about how this parallels drone warfare and armies using high-tech machines to take out enemy forces. The turn-around at the end is a nice way of closing the chapter on a positive note, with the two sides eventually reconciling their differences and realizing that war is hell and not worth the price paid to see things through to the end.
