Content Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the Netflix show Love, Death & Robots.
It’s definitely not advisable to watch Love, Death, & Robots either at work or with the entire family. Anyone remotely interested in the animated anthology series knows that it was strictly made for people who drive cars and are eligible for 401k, also known as adults.
The show is known for its incredible variety of art styles, which range from stunning cell animation to photorealistic motion capture. Each episode (some people also call them short films) explores different themes and genres. While the animation is almost always impressive, its hard-hitting stories sometimes miss the mark, as its numerous plot holes continue to stump audiences today.
Updated on May 25th, 2022, by Hannah Saab: The recent release of Volume 3 of Netflix's Love, Death & Robots has unsurprisingly sparked new discussions and debates about the award-winning anthology series. A popular topic within the fandom revolves around more recent glaring plot holes from the show, which are hard to miss in episodes like 'In Vaulted Halls Entombed' and 'Bad Travelling.'
An Endless Loop (Volume 1: The Witness)
Like the title of the Volume 1 episode 'The Witness' implies, this story revolves around a young woman witnessing a murder take place in her neighbor’s apartment. The killer notices the girl and then what follows is essentially one long chase sequence. Alberto Mielgo, a visual consultant for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, directs the film with impressive technical skill. Spider-Verse’s influence is felt all over the animation style. There are all kinds of “booms” and “pows” bursting across the screen.
Even though the film has a lot of style, it doesn’t change the fact that its very premise has a big ol’ plot hole. Viewers are initially supposed to think that the entire episode was meant to be a chase scene, but its last couple of minutes reveal that the main character is actually stuck in an endless loop – one day she kills the murderer, but the next day she becomes the murderer. Although the audience discovers that the woman is looping, it’s ultimately never explained why she loops in the first place. Is she cursed? What reality does she live in?
Sonnie's Body (Volume 1: Sonnie’s Edge)
The human-turned-Beastie Sonnie is a powerful character introduced in the fan-favorite episode 'Sonnie's Edge.' The plot revolves around futuristic cage fighting wherein people can link up to avatars that look like giant monsters. There’s a well-choreographed fight scene in the middle of the film and also some potential for fresh commentary regarding artificial intelligence. However, there are some questionable narrative choices towards the end.
The finale reveals that the main character is a woman’s consciousness that has been uploaded onto a piece of A.I. If this is the case, why is the woman able to simultaneously control a robot and also her creature at the same time? The film hints that she is able to upload onto a robot, but the plot never reveals how that A.I. has the ability to simultaneously control her cage-fighting monster at the same time.
Farms On Saturn (Volume 1: Suits)
Imagine FarmVille meets Independence Day, one then starts to get a pretty good idea of what Suits is all about. The episode depicts an alternate future where farmers have become earth’s chosen warriors to fight off an alien invasion. Farmers living in rural America jump inside mech suits and demolish hordes of U.F.O’s. What’s admirable about Suits is that it really tries to imbue its story with an emotional theme about sacrifice. Yet, that’s all undercut by some seriously weird story decisions.
There’s never any sort of explanation as to why government soldiers aren’t the men going up against the aliens. Things get even stranger when the episode’s double-twist ending seemingly comes out of nowhere. The final moments cut to an aerial shot of space revealing that the whole story actually took place on Saturn, but it's never explained why. Rather than feeling satisfied with this part of the episode, it leaves audiences scratching their heads. There’s never any concrete statement explaining why this story had to take place on Saturn or how humans ended up there.
Cats Can Talk (Volume 1: Three Robots)
Easily one of the best short films from the show, 'Three Robots' presents a story where humans have gone extinct. The plot’s hook is that the robots treat the objects that humans once cherished as tourist attractions. One scene shows a few robots taking a tour of a restaurant and pondering what it might have been used for. Another hilarious bit revolves around a robot trying to understand the function of a basketball. What’s great about the episode and its continuation in Volume 3 is that it gets a bunch of mileage out of its simple and comedic concept.
However, one of the episode’s best jokes comes with a double-edged sword. It’s revealed that cats have the ability to speak and also have cognitive thoughts. Although seeing the robots’ reaction to the cats speaking is admittedly really funny, their shocked response implies that the world doesn’t have any other talking animals roaming around. If this is the case, it would’ve been helpful if the film explained why cats have evolved further than any other living animal on the planet. This is the same case in the Volume 3 episode 'Three Robots: Exit Strategies,' but instead of just talking, cats have somehow been able to move to Mars – that's a big jump from the first season that is never really explained.
Fishes In A Desert (Volume 1: Fish Night)
Fans can't be blamed for thinking 'Fish Night' tells one of the scariest stories in Love, Death & Robots, with its plot hole making it even more terrifying. The episode's story focuses on two door-to-door salesmen driving through the desert. Unfortunately, their car breaks down and leaves them stuck. One of the salesmen muses about how some deserts used to be filled with ocean water and creatures – things get really perplexing from that point.
Suddenly, neon sharks and prehistoric sea monsters begin to populate the desert sky. The scene wants the viewer to question if what they’re seeing is in fact real. Everything seems like a metaphor until one of the salesmen literally gets attacked by a creature. What begins as a potentially unique dive into allegorical storytelling quickly turns into a plot hole. The rules within this episode’s world are never established and as a result, the philosophical moments don’t quite land. However, the episode features stunning animation.
A Civilization In An Old Fridge (Volume 1: Ice Age)
Rob and Gail are shocked to find an increasingly smart civilization in their fridge in 'Ice Age'. They start out as an ordinary young couple moving into a new apartment but then discover that they have a miniature society living inside their freezer. The tiny society amazingly speeds through different time periods throughout history. Somehow the minuscule city is able to race from Ancient Rome to The Old West within the span of an hour.
Although the episode’s basic concept is charming, there’s never any reason given as to how these little people exist. Moreover, how did they wind up inside the freezer? Perhaps it's futile to even ask these questions because the overall point of the story is to simply relish in its fun premise. Without any explanation for the society’s existence, the film ends up feeling like a couple of loose ideas strung together, rather than a complete story.
Otto's Origins (Volume 1: The Dump)
What’s particularly interesting about the story of the Volume 1 episode 'The Dump' is that it’s simple – a guy lives in a junkyard and the government comes to repossess the land. However, the old man named Dave has an enormous trash monster called Otto protecting him from outsiders.
Although the episode is fun, there are still some missing details – where does Otto come from? The audience never finds out if Otto fell from the sky or randomly plopped itself into existence. Moreover, if a story revolves around a giant monster, the viewers need some sort of background for the character. Not to mention how it doesn't make sense that Otto would eat Dave's companions but never feel the need to do the same to him.
Yan's Futuristic Enhancements (Volume 1: Good Hunting)
A boy called Liang is raised to hunt demon shapeshifters in 'Good Hunting.' The problem is that Liang grows up to fall in love with one of the shape-shifting creatures named Yan. In the future, Yan is attacked one night by a gang and brutally dismembered. With Liang now a genius engineer, he decides to make her a mechanical body.
What’s important to note is that the episode is established to distinctly take place in a steampunk city. For those that are unfamiliar, the steampunk aesthetic contains a lot of old-timey-looking gears, ropes, and enormous top hats. Yet, the body the man creates for the woman looks like something out of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. According to the episode’s established aesthetic, the woman should look more like the Tin Man than Iron Man. With that said, all of these concepts are hand-drawn with mind-blowing animation, making up for the bizarre plot hole.
Torrin’s Murderous Rampage (Volume 3: Bad Travelling)
Torrin has quickly become one of the least likable characters in Love, Death & Robots thanks to his questionable actions in 'Bad Travelling.' The episode tells the story of a ship that's taken over by a thanapod, an intelligent crustacean with a frightening ability to speak through dead bodies, which is how it's able to negotiate a deal with Torrin in the first place. Torrin tricks the thanapod into believing that he is going to Phaedin island, all while devising a convoluted plan to kill his crewmates one by one for voting to follow what the creature wants.
Torrin believes that the rest of the crew deserve to die and be fed to the thanapod because of their unwillingness to risk the long journey to a deserted island, which would save the inhabitants of Phaedin. The plot hole comes when Torrin decides to kill the thanapod and its disgusting critters in the end by setting fire to the barrels of oil that were below deck all this time, never bringing it to the deserted island like he explained to his shipmates. Why did Torrin have to murder the rest of the crew when he could have just killed the thanapod from the very start?
Harper’s Escape (Volume 3: In Vaulted Halls Entombed)
The Volume 3 episode 'In Vaulted Halls Entombed' takes fans on an awful journey into a cave full of alien-like creatures, with the final Lovecraftian monster testing the last surviving soldier's resilience. When Harper comes face to face with the eldritch horror, she's forced to kill her superior officer who is quickly controlled by the being. She has no choice but to remove her own eyes and ears to avoid releasing the deity, as it's implied that it would destroy the world if that ever happens.
The major plot hole becomes obvious in the final scene where Harper is shown walking outside of the cave as the sun sets. She no longer has eyes or ears at this point and is muttering in an alien language (presumably the deity's). While an earlier scene shows a nearby tunnel that might not have the murderous critters from other passages, that still doesn't answer how she's able to make it out in her condition. The ending certainly adds dramatic flair, but it would've been interesting to see how she managed to escape with her life.