love death robots travelling

Bad Travelling

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Bad Travelling (❌💀❌) is the second episode of the third volume , and the overall twenty-eighth episode of LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS .

Synopsis [ ]

Release the Thanapod ! A a ship's crew member sailing an alien ocean strikes a deal with a ravenous monster of the deep.

The episode opens with a textual preface describing sailors of antiquity traversing alien oceans and hunting jable sharks. It was common for ships to be lost at sea during these voyages, whereupon they would be said to have had a "bad travelling".

One such vessel navigates choppy waves during a storm and is suddenly attacked by a murderous crab-like creature known as a Thanapod . After killing three sailors, including the captain and helmsman , it drags and kills the sailor Turk below deck and takes refuge there. The remaining crew draw straws, with youngest sailor Cert going first, to decide who should confront the monster, and the most physically imposing of them, a man named Jorvan , picks the shortest straw. However, he intimidates his fellow sailors into turning against the ship's second-in-command, Torrin .

As Torrin heads below deck, the Thanapod uses the human corpse of Turk to communicate with him, asking to be taken to the populous Phaiden Island to satisfy its hunger. Torrin strikes a deal with the beast, securing his own safety and recovering the key to the captain's lockbox from the Thanapod's vomit. Emerging from the bowels of the ship, he arms himself with a gun from the captain's lockbox and explains his agreement with the monster to his fellow sailors. To satisfy the Thanapod's hunger for the time being, Jorvan suggests that they sacrifice Calis , a crew member injured in the attack. His protective brother Melis defends him, and Torrin states that they are in this together. Crew member Chantre states that this puts them back where they started, and Torrin says they face a tough decision. Jorvan is thrown to the beast himself under Torrin's orders, presumably for suggesting another man be sacrificed.

Unwilling to unleash the monster upon the inhabitants of Phaiden Island, Torrin proposes that they head for a deserted island a greater distance away but with a greater risk to their lives. The decision is put to a vote, with each sailor marking a ballot and putting it into a box. Later, Torrin reveals that he gave each ballot distinct marks, letting him know that there were cowards amongst them. Maril asks what he said, and Cert confirms that he said there are cowards. Torrin states there are two crew members voted to fulfill the creature's wish. It initially appears that he will kill Cert, but executes Calis and Melis instead with one bullet, and feeds them to the Thanapod.

Later, while Torrin scans the horizon in the crow's nest, a crew member named Deacon makes an attempt on his life. Torrin catches him in the act, whereupon the assassin drops the knife from his mouth, which lands next to Paln while he is carrying barrels, and he defends himself by claiming he was pressured into it by the others. The monster calls Torrin below deck to express its impatience, and numerous offspring likely born or hatched on the ship emerge.

At the bow of the ship, Torrin talks with his crew, dismissing what happened as an expression of low morale. Crew member Suparin refers to the Thanapod as Torrin's "friend", and Torrin responds sternly for the man to maintain course. He assures the group that their predicament is nearing its end. Yet with morale at an all-time low, five of the six sailors sneak into the captain's cabin and ambush Torrin in his bed that night, only to fall for a decoy. Torrin, who had anticipated the attack, easily kills his aggressors: he shoots Chantre through the back of her head before they realized he was there; chops Paln in the side of his neck with an axe; shoots Maril through the throat; Suparin in the torso; and Cert through the throat as he flees the room. He discovers Deacon in a chest; Deacon claims he refused to participate. He thanks Deacon, and the two toss the bodies of the crew down to the Thanapod. However, Torrin reveals that he did not need to mark the ballots as every single sailor voted to sail to Phaiden Island, and he pushes Deacon down to join his deceased crew members.

Near the island, Torrin, sole-surviving crew member, stops his ship. He meets with the Thanapod to explain that the hide and meat of the jable sharks they hunt are useless. As he hacks into barrels, spilling oil throughout the hold, he explains that they hunt them for the oil. He raises his pistol, and the Thanapod derisively reminds him that, "Shell protects." Torrin replies that it is not intended for it, and fires at a lantern, which releases flames down to the oil and sets the vessel ablaze. The beast and its offspring are unable to escape the burning ship, and it tries to catch Torrin but fails. Torrin leaps from the blazing vessel to a rowboat he had prepared, and rows away to safety at Phaiden Island.

• An uncredited actor voices Unidentified Helmsman
• Thus it was the helmsman who was the captain that was eaten in the initial attack, and Torrin retrieved the key when the Thanapod vomited the captain's remains.
• According to the short story the episode is based on, Turk is the sailor used as a talking corpse, Calis is the brother of Melis, and Jorvan is “first knife,” the large sailor who is sacrificed first. Paln is a watchman, and while it is not known exactly who Paln, Maril, and Deacon are just from the short story, it is known who they are due to their voice actors being credited with their names, and this allows for confirmation as to Calis, Jorvan, and Turk's identities (confirming the identities were not altered from short story to episode).
• Concept art released later confirmed the identities of all of the named sailors in the episode, although it omits the 2 unnamed sailors killed in the opening, and features an alternate captain model.
• Two crewmembers were merely wounded in the initial attack, Suparin and Calis, while four were killed, including the helmsman and Turk.
• When drawing straws, it is implied that Jorvan was chosen to go below and investigate the Thanapod, but upon losing intimidated the crew into turning on Torrin.
• As every ballot had an identical vote, it is unknown why Torrin chose to kill Melis and Calis after the vote, though it is likely because Torrin wanted to waste as few bullets as possible.
• After the vote, Cert's lack of protest when it appears Torrin is about to shoot him and the flinching when he believes it to be coming foreshadows the reveal of his own vote to sail to Phaiden Island.
• It is possible that after Torrin stated two of them had voted to sail to Phaiden Island and he shot Melis and Calis, the rest of the crew, having also all individually voted to sail to Phaiden, had assumed that Torrin had messed up with his markings and rememberings of the ballots, and didn't say anything so as to avoid the same punishment.
• When Torrin pulls out his gun and the Thanapod states that its shell protects, it is referring to the gun and not the fire and oil that would prove deadly soon after.
• Torrin uses all 6 shots of the revolver throughout the episode, explaining why he only used one to shoot both Melis and Calis, and why he killed Deacon by pushing him down to the Thanapod directly.
• While it is unknown what the four sailors who died in the attack would have voted, they were the bravest of the crew who attacked the creature while most of the crew stayed back or ran away, meaning they would have likely been more willing to sacrifice themselves.
• The total number of crewmembers on the ship was originally 14, with four dying in the initial attack, and all except Torrin dying by the end of the episode.
• 1 Beyond the Aquila Rift
• 2 Good Hunting

‘Love, Death and Robots’ Volume 3 Episode 2: Bad Travelling Ending Explained

Here is the ending explained to Volume 3 episode 2 Love, Death and Robots 'Bad Travelling'

Love, Death, and Robots – Picture. Netflix

For anyone confused about the ending to the second episode of volume 3  of Love, Death and Robots then allow us to help! We’ll also be covering the remaining episodes of volume 3 of  Love, Death, and Robots, but here is the ending explained to Bad Travelling .

The crew of a jable shark hunting vessel is attacked by a giant crustacean, the Thanapod, whose size and intelligence threaten the lives of the crew, and the island it wants safe passage to.

Bad Travelling is the first episode of Love, Death and Robots directed by David Fincher, the executive producer of the series.

Ending Explained

After forming a deal with the Thanapod, Torrin’s intentions from the very beginning were to betray the creature. However, Torrin faced several issues, keeping the Thanapod well-fed, keeping the crew from mutiny, and ensuring that Thanapod never made it to Phaiden Island alive.

In the end, Torrin was the only member of the ship to survive, revealing that the crew voted unanimously in favor of fulfilling the Thanapod’s wishes to be taken to Phaiden Island, instead of Torrin’s suggestion to trick the creature and take it to a deserted island. Torrin used the bodies of his crew to keep the Thanapod and its babies well-fed as he continued his plan.

A short distance from the shores of Phaiden Island, Torrin revealed his treachery to the Thanapod by using the barrels of Shark Oil to create a fire on the ship. Barely able to escape the claws and clutches of the Thanapod, Torrin was able to make it to the lifeboat and begin rowing to shore. While rowing, he watched the Thanapod and its babies burn in the inferno of the ship, stopping it from wreaking havoc on the populous of Phaiden Island.

Why did Torrin kill his crew?

Torrin was by no means a perfect captain and person, but he wasn’t about to let the Thanapod be let loose on the shores of Phaiden Island and eat its unsuspecting population. It’s unclear if Torrin ever had the intention of taking the Thanapod to a deserted island, or if it was a ploy from the very start to decide which crew members deserved to live and which ones deserved to die. Had any of the crew members voted in favor of Torrin’s plan to take the Thanapod to a deserted island he may have shared his true plan with them, but instead, in their secret ballot, they all voted to save their own skins, and sacrifice the innocent people of Phaiden Island.

What did the Thanapod want with Phaiden Island?

At first, Torrin assumed the Thanapod only wanted to be taken to Phaiden Island so it could consume the local populace. It wasn’t revealed until later that the creature had laid eggs, hatching a large number of hungry babies. Had Torrin fulfilled his side of the bargain with the Thanapod, then Phaiden Island would have been an all-you-can-eat buffet.

What were your thoughts on Bad Travelling ? Let us know in the comments below!

Jacob joined What's on Netflix in 2018 as a fulltime writer having worked in numerous other industries until that point. Jacob covers all things Netflix whether that's TV or movies but specializes in covering new anime and K-dramas. Resides in Norwich in the United Kingdom.

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Love, Death and Robots Season 3 Episode 2 Ending, Explained

‘ Love, Death & Robots ‘ is an anthology series that blends science fiction , horror, and comedy elements to a great effect through short and crisp standalone stories. The second episode of the show’s third season is directed by David Fincher and titled ‘Bad Traveling.’ The seafaring story follows a sailor forced to confront a mythical crustacean sea creature.

As a result, the ship’s crew fights for survival , and the sailor must make some difficult choices that will determine his and the crew’s fate. Naturally, viewers must be curious to learn about the outcome of this doomed sea journey. In that case, here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Love, Death & Robots’ season 3 episode 2! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Love, Death & Robots Season 3 Episode 2 Recap

Episode 2, titled ‘Bad Traveling,’ opens with a ship sailing in an alien ocean hunting for an elusive mythical creature known as “the Great Jable Shark.” However, the ship’s crew comes under attack from a Thanopod, a revenues crustacean sea monster who eats the flesh of the ship’s crew. After much deliberation, Torrin is sent to confront the sea monster. Torrin realizes that the Thanopod can speak, and it expresses its demand to be safely transported to Phaiden Island, the nearest island. In exchange, the Thanopod may spare the crew’s lives.

After bargaining with the Thanopod and sharing the information with his crewmates, Torrin kills the group’s leader and takes over the position. Before agreeing with the Thanopod’s demand, Torrin makes the crewmates vote through a secret ballot. Since Phaiden Island is populated, the creature could wreak havoc on its innocent residents. Therefore, Torrin proposes leading the Thanopod to a different isolated island. However, the other island is significantly further from Phaiden Island, thereby presenting the crew with a dilemma.

The voting decides that it would be unjust to lead the monster to Phaiden Island and jeopardize the lives of hundreds of innocent people. However, Torrin kills the two people in favor of heading to Phaiden Island and feeds them to the monster. The crew soon realizes that Torrin’s plan will doom them all, and they plan a secret attempt on his life. However, Torrin had already anticipated the attack. He kills all but one crew member of the ship. He finds the last surviving crew member locked in a chest for not partaking in the assassination attempt. In the end, as the threat of the Thanopod rises, Torrin must find a way to survive.

Love, Death & Robots Season 3 Episode 2 Ending: Does Torrin Survive? What Happens to the Thanopod?

After Torrin makes a deal with the Thanopod, it becomes evident that the ship’s crew is effectively doomed. The creature eats human flesh, and there is a limited source of food available on board for it to consume. Therefore, Torrin strategically takes out his crewmates and feeds them to the monster. After learning that the Thanopod has birthed several offspring, Torrin realizes that he must quickly feed the monster and its children to ensure his survival. As a result, he draws the crew members into a trap and kills them.

After the surviving crewmate helps Torrin feed the Thanopod, Torrin reveals that the secret ballot was a sham as everyone had voted in favor of heading to Phaiden Island. he then pushes the man below deck, making him food for the creatures. The ship arrives at a nearby island, but the Thanopod realizes that it has been tricked. Before the creature can unleash its wrath upon Torrin, he burns down the ship with oil and escapes in a lifeboat. The episode ends with the Thanopod meeting a fiery end as Torrin rows away.

The episode’s ending paints Torrin’s actions in a new light. Initially, it appears that Torrin is morally unjust and only working to ensure his own survival. However, in the end, viewers learn that Torrin knew that the ship’s crew was already doomed and had no chance of survival. However, their deaths could be used to avert the Thanopod from attacking the innocent residents of Phaiden Island. Moreover, Torrin is the only person on the ship who has the ruthlessness to carry out the necessary actions to stop the monster from heading to Phaiden Island. Ultimately, Torrin succeeds in leading the Thanopod away from Phaiden Island and to its demise. However, Torrin is also the sole survivor of the incident, which highlights the moral ambiguity of his actions.

Read More: Love Death and Robots Season 2 Episode 8 Recap and Ending, Explained

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Love, Death + Robots season 3, episode 2 recap – “Bad Travelling”

This recap of Love, Death + Robots season 3, episode 2, “Bad Travelling”, contains spoilers. You can check out all of our coverage of this show by clicking these words .

“Bad Travelling”, the title of this episode, refers to the fate of ships that set out and fail to hunt “the Great Jable Shark”, a mythical creature prowling a vast alien ocean. It seems like an understatement. In this sodden, grim 20-minute short about a sailor making an ill-advised deal with a slimy crustacean that uses dead bodies as fleshy megaphones, “bad” traveling is the best anyone is going to get.

Love, Death + Robots season 3, episode 2 recap

The crab, at least according to the subtitles, is called a thanopod. The man who bargains with it is Torrin, a curiously well-spoken seaman whose first order of business is to request that the creature regurgitate the key to a lockbox containing a pistol. With that, he has a stronger negotiating tool than the straws everyone drew to decide who went belowdecks in the first place. The hulking man who appointed himself leader is the first to be fed to the thanopod to satiate its appetites on the way to the nearest island, which it has requested safe passage to.

Phaiden Island is populated. Dropping the thanopod there would presumably cause a considerable loss of innocent life, so Torrin proposes a secret ballot in which the surviving sailors will vote to either take that easy option despite the moral implications or try to trick the creature by taking it to the uninhabited islands further afield, hopefully without it realizing the deception. But this vote is in itself a trick. Torrin folds and marks the ballot papers so he can identify which sailor voted which way. The two who voted to condemn the innocent people of Phaiden Island to save themselves he executes and feeds to the thanopod.

Torrin’s bright idea is that giving the creature a double-sized meal will keep it full for longer, but no such luck. As the ship nears Phaiden Island, the thanopod summons Torrin, who has barely foiled an attempted mutiny, to tell him that it’s hungry. And if the chittering of its offspring that litter the decks are anything to go by, so are they. That night, while Torrin sleeps, the remaining crew attempt to kill him again, but he anticipates the betrayal and kills them all. There is only one survivor, locked in a chest for his refusal to participate, and after he helps Torrin to dump the corpses belowdecks, Torrin reveals that he never actually marked the ballot papers. He didn’t need to, since everyone voted to abide by the creature’s wishes and unleash it upon Phaiden Island. Torrin sends this last man to his miserable fate, being smashed to mush by the thanapod to make him easier for the children to consume.

Torrin’s final act is to spill the oil of the jable shark in the hold, explaining that it’s the only thing the creature is good for — its meat is foul, and its hide is too tough to do anything with. He ignites the fuel and sends the thanopod to a fiery demise as he escapes the ship.

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‘Love, Death + Robots’ Season 3: David Fincher Gets Animated for the First Time on ‘Bad Travelling’

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It’s easy to see why David Fincher chose “Bad Travelling” as his first foray into directing animation. He made his feature debut with the ill-fated “Alien 3,” after all, and the premise of this third-season episode of “Love, Death + Robots” is a bit like setting the plight of the Nostromo on the high seas: A giant, slimy crab devours the crew of a shark-hunting vessel, with only the cunning navigator surviving to battle the beast. (It also makes up for Fincher’s aborted take on “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” at Disney .)

Fincher also likens “Bad Travelling” to “Ten Little Indians” meets “Deadliest Catch,” with the ship’s navigator, Torrin (Troy Baker), contending with mutiny, betrayal, and a starving Thanapod crustacean that bizarrely communicates through ventriloquism.

But, of course, it was the grotesque, slimy xenomorph, hatched by legendary biomechanical designer H.R. Giger, that Fincher especially loved about “Alien,” and why he paid so much attention to the Thanapod. “David wanted [the Thanapod] disgusting and to be confusing,” Blur Studio animation supervisor Hubert Daniel told IndieWire. “The mouth doing one thing, legs and pincers doing another thing. He kept asking for more goo and more saliva.”

Daniel made a one-minute CG animation test after the design was approved by Fincher and Tim Miller (his co-creator on “Love, Death + Robots,” who founded Blur and directed “Deadpool”). They studied crabs and scorpions, and arrived at the menacing Thanapod, which was the size of two Range Rovers side by side. Fincher preferred the look and movement of a crab, and rejected the idea of a scorpion tail.

“The mouth was one of the things I tested out that David liked,” Daniel said. “It completely folds on itself and closes with a slit of flesh. But then it can open, revealing fangs, little teeth, and tentacles. When it’s talking and gets more agitated, the mouth moves more, the tentacles undulate, the eyes start twitching. It also has gill-like openings in the front of the mouth for breathing that I moved for ventilation.”

But there’s a twist: The Thanapod is female and gives birth to hundreds of babies once it starts consuming crew members (another nod to the “Alien” franchise). “It grows larger and moves slowly, dragging its belly on the ground, and it gets too big to get out of the [hull],” Daniel said.

The animated performances were motion-captured to get facial and body reference. The entire short was shot in the volume with reference cameras and a few props and set dressing. There were around 10 actors and stunt performers directed by Fincher. They rehearsed and shot 300 master setups (15 to 25 takes each) to get the range of emotions and movement for each character that Fincher required. The footage was then assembled for the director to review, and the mocap takes that he approved were cleaned and sent to the animators. They then took the data to re-target on the 3D models (influenced by the actors’ features). The character animation was stylized and slightly caricatured to match the retro look of the ship environment.

“I set up the process similar to a live-action shoot and ahead of time we talked through what the environments were going to be like,” Aaron Weldon, 2nd unit director and layout supervisor at Blur, told IndieWire. “We then blocked those out, made sure they had the proper scale of the crab, what the different rooms would be, what the props were. We could rehearse and shuffle things around, make the rooms larger. The nice part for David was he’d run the whole scene as a master, and then break up more specialized inserts to focus on key performances.”

Weldon and the layout team meticulously researched Fincher’s work to achieve his signature look, depth of field, symmetrical compositions, and lighting style. “We used the specific 35mm camera and lens package that he picked out [for the virtual shoot],” he said. “It has the same film back for digital cameras for the same depth of field that he likes. For the most part, he locks his cameras off; he likes being very symmetrical, either straight on, or perfectly at 45 degrees.” For live-action, Fincher shoots with a customized Red digital camera and Summilux lens.

The most complex sequence was the climax, where the Thanapod chases Torrin up a spiral staircase after he sets the ship on fire. To enhance the realism, Fincher insisted on constructing a 10-foot wooden model of the staircase to shoot in the volume. “It’s four different mocap clips,” Weldon added. “The actor fires the gun, throws it down, turns, and runs toward the stairs and starts to go up. We then mixed in the stunt guy sprinting up the stairs, tumbling, and hitting the wall and coming up the top of the stairs. We cut to the stunt guy running out the ship’s door, sprinting across and leaping. And then we cut to another shot where he leaps off the ledge down into the water.”

For Daniel, the chase with the Thanapod comprised his best work on the short. It’s one really long slow-motion shot. The only disagreement he had with Fincher occurred during the chase. “I wanted to have a tentacle that reaches out and wraps itself around Torrin’s neck,” he said. “David thought it was too rubbery. And I kept saying, ‘Trust us: it will look good when it’s finished.’ Tim agreed. We kept the particles, smoke, lighting, shadows — proper texture sold the look. And he liked it.”

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David Fincher Tries Animation in ‘Love, Death + Robots’

The director made his first animated short for the new season of this Netflix anthology. “It was an incredibly freeing, eye-opening, mind-expanding way to interface with a story,” he said.

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By Noel Murray

Before David Fincher became an A-list director and multiple Oscar and Emmy nominee — lauded for of-the-moment films like “Fight Club” and “The Social Network” and the TV series “House of Cards” and “Mindhunter” — he was one of the co-founders of the production company Propaganda Films. Propaganda was known for its visually dazzling TV commercials and music videos, and Fincher honed his craft in dozens of miniature movies made in myriad styles.

Yet until recently, he had never directed animation, even though he loves the medium so much that he signed on a few years ago to be an executive producer of the Netflix anthology animation series “Love, Death + Robots,” which returns for its third season on Friday.

“Love, Death + Robots” sprung from the ashes of a project Fincher had been developing with the “Deadpool” director Tim Miller since the late 2000s: a revival of “Heavy Metal,” the animated movie series inspired by the adults-only science-fiction and fantasy comics magazine. The first season of “Love, Death + Robots” debuted in 2019, featuring 18 episodes (ranging in length from 6 to 17 minutes) that adapted short stories by genre favorites like Peter F. Hamilton, John Scalzi and Joe Lansdale. An eight-episode second season followed in 2021.

Despite his involvement, Fincher never made a short of his own until Season 3, when he and the screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (who wrote Fincher’s crime thriller “Seven”) tackled a tale by the British science-fiction author Neal Asher called “Bad Travelling.” Set on the high seas on a distant planet, the story follows a merchant ship as it is tormented by a giant, intelligent crab that manipulates the crew members and then eliminates them one by one. Fincher described the short as “like a David Lean movie crossed with ‘Ten Little Indians.’”

“Bad Travelling” was made via motion-capture, a computer-aided style of animation in which actors perform on a set and their facial expressions and gestures are mapped directly onto their animated characters. Fincher worked closely with Miller (who co-founded Blur Studio, the special effects and animation company that produced “Bad Travelling”) and Jennifer Yuh Nelson, an artist and filmmaker (“Kung Fu Panda 2”), who is the supervising director for “Love, Death + Robots.”

In a video interview last week, Fincher discussed the challenges and pleasures of making “Bad Travelling” and the series as a whole, and how he carried his detail-oriented directorial approach to this new medium. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Including this volume’s episodes, there have now been three Neal Asher stories adapted for “Love, Death + Robots.” What is it about Asher that suits this show?

Well, “Bad Travelling” was part of our original pitch to do this. We’ve had these giant four-foot by six-foot blown-up copies of really beautiful production art sitting around in the conference room for, good God, 12 years or something. Finally, somebody had to make it. That honor fell to me.

Neal is a favorite of Tim’s, and Tim does most of our curation. He has a list of, like, 350 short stories he’s always wanted to see animated. Neal was one of the first examples that Tim brought up to me of the kind of stuff that’s available out there, to say, “OK, I think this is sustainable.”

That’s an instructive way to think about this series: not just as an anthology of adult animation but also as an anthology of science-fiction stories of varying lengths and approaches.

It’s a very difficult thing to write a short story. It’s an art in and of itself to, in the broadest of brushstrokes, bring a reader into an already populated world, make us understand as much as we need to know about the geopolitics or whatever, and then get on with it. It’s what I’ve done making television commercials. That’s a great sandbox to do something with one idea for 30 seconds or two ideas for 60 seconds. I’ve done music videos, which is like a mélange of ideas that should hopefully hang together in some abstract way over 3 to 4 minutes.

The most difficult thing is to acknowledge the integers. When you have 19 minutes, it’s a very different thing than when you have 22 minutes. You have to force yourself with this material to be terse.

Does your job as a director change, depending on what you’re making?

I think any card-carrying member of the D.G.A. knows the acknowledged formula: You want to come into every scene as late as possible, get out as soon as possible and make your point. That can be applied to a lot of different kinds of directing. You can bore people at 30 seconds. I’ve done that. You can thrill people at 2 hours and 45 minutes, and you can bore people at 2 hours and 45 minutes. I’ve done both of those.

I don’t see any of this stuff as slumming. I don’t think of directing television commercials or directing television episodes as a lesser form of directing. And to be honest, that has made my shows like “House of Cards” and “Mindhunter” slightly more expensive than the normal for television programing. Most people think of television as, you know, 7 to 10 days of shooting, to produce an hourlong episode. I’ve yet to be able to do it in that time frame. I’m a slow learner, I admit it.

What did you learn from directing animation?

When I’m setting up to do a master, I’m thinking in terms of, “If this is going to be an over-the shoulder shot, I either have to get this person away from the door frame, or I have to tell the key grip to go get a chain saw.” But in [computer-generated imagery], that kind of stuff doesn’t enter into it. The space is entirely plastic. It was an incredibly freeing, eye-opening, mind-expanding way to interface with a story because so much of live-action storytelling is enduring or working around practical things.

Of course, when you can change anything at a later date, you also have to ask yourself, “How far am I going to kick this can?” You can open up these files and go, “I want the chin to do this, and I want the ears here.” You can modify all this stuff ad infinitum. For somebody who likes to polish as much as I do, at some point they just have to pull it from your cold, dead hands.

With motion capture, is part of your job as a director also to convince the actors that they’re really on a ship, in fear for their lives?

Even though you have people in skintight Lycra with Ping-Pong balls hanging off them, you still have to say things like, “OK, in this scene it is the sunset of the third day.” I was working with people from all different kinds of performance-based acting — we had musicians, we had singers. It was an interesting group. And they had no issue being in a leotard, going: “OK, so then I’m fighting the giant crab over here. How big is it? Like two Range Rovers side by side? Where are the eyes? The eyes are on stalks?” You’re attempting to impart this thing that’s totally ridiculous.

But honestly, none of that was as difficult for me as being in the middle of Covid and wearing glasses with goggles and a mask and visor. I didn’t quite realize how much I communicate through my face — a lot of director-actor relationships aren’t about giving a line reading but through the way that you interact and the nonverbal cues. The pandemic gear got in the way of all that.

How much input did you have on the visual design? Was there any illustrator or director you were looking to for inspiration?

Tim and Blur had been working on the story for a long time, and they had a lot of production art that felt “Thief of Baghdad”-adjacent. I felt the world itself needed to be a little less phantasmagoric and a little more “Deadliest Catch.” My whole thing was I wanted the people to be at risk of being washed off the deck at any moment. They’re either going to get chewed apart by these blunt-nosed sharks, or they’re going to be dismembered by these pincers of these giant crustaceans.

It must be easier to rip characters apart and spill their guts when you’re working in animation.

Yes, and on the water! Like Jim Cameron and Kevin Costner will tell you, there are such things as forces of nature. If you ever do a story that takes place on the high seas, do it in C.G., because you’re not going to be chasing the sun, and you won’t be worried about people being crushed between boats or drowning. And you’ll never be waiting around for the wave machine.

Is there anyone you’d like to bring into the fold if you get to make a Season 4?

There are a lot, but look, this show takes a while. This episode I did took, like, 18 months. We originally started off wanting to do this with Ridley Scott, Jim Cameron, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski. So many friends of mine I went to and asked, “Would you want to do something like this?,” and they were like, “Yes!” But the reality is that the only way this show is affordable is if the people who are making it don’t mind losing the money they could be making doing something else.

Are we hoping that the world embraces this show on a heretofore unseen level, making it a no-brainer to increase the subsidy for it? Yeah, that would be great. Until that happens, it’s hard to get the director of “Avatar” or the director of “Pirates of the Caribbean” to drop everything they’re doing and come and play with us.

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/recap/LoveDeathAndRobotsBadTravelling

Recap / Love, Death & Robots: "Bad Travelling"

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"Most importantly, I am the only one who can keep this ship on a straight keel. Me, you need intact. Unconsumed."

During a stormy night on a lonely sea, a giant crustacean called a thanapod boards a ship tasked with hunting jable sharks. Its arrival turns the crew against each other as the ship's navigator, Torrin ( Troy Baker ), is presented with a choice.

• All There in the Script : Other than Torrin, Cert, Chantre, Melis and Suparin, the crewmembers aren't named in dialogues but are listed in the credits as Turk, Calis, Maril, Deacon, Jorvan and Paln.
• Anti-Hero : Torrin tricks, schemes and murders fellow crew members... but his ultimate goal is to prevent a dangerous monster and its massive brood from ever reaching the human settlement it wants to be sailed to.
• Implied in the first case. When the crew draws straws to determine who will be sent below deck after the thanapod, the man who draws the short straw chooses to interpret the selection as being for the position of captain . Considering he's by far the largest member of the crew and he immediately chooses Torrin to go after the abomination, the other sailors are easily cowed.
• When Torrin gets access to the only gun on the ship, he manages to assert control over other sailors predominantly due to nobody being too eager to get shot.
• Everyone in the episode (save, possibly, the ones killed early on in the thanapod attack). First is the big sailor, who uses his muscles to bully others and avoid his fate, forcing someone else to go in his place. He is the first of the survivors to be thrown to the thanapod. Everyone else is more than willing to sacrifice an innocent town to the thanapod rather than risk their lives, and all end up being fed to it as well.
• Some of the crew feel the residents of Phaiden Island would be this, which makes them even less willing to potentially sacrifice themselves.
• Audible Sharpness : All the bladed weapons make very strange noises when moved - including a knife being thrown in hand, repetitively "cutting" air.
• The Baby of the Bunch : Cert is significantly younger than the rest of the crew, appearing to be barely an adult (or maybe in his late teens). Unlike the rest of the mutineers, he stands paralyzed during the fight after their ambush fails and after Torrin shoots him, he visibly regrets having to do so.
• Bittersweet Ending : Torrin survives, as the last crew member. He also manages to (probably) kill the monster and its offspring. However, prior to that, he had to kill every single member of the crew, fend against a mutiny and burn the ship down. And even with this victory, there is still the horrifying reality of there undoubtedly being more similarly evolved thanapods in the oceans.
• The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In : The crewman who tried to sneak up on Torrin in the crow's nest drops a knife he held in his teeth. It falls down and drives into the deck with the pointy end of the blade.
• Blofeld Ploy : Torrin asks Melis to step to the right with the apparent intention of killing Cert, only to actually kill Melis and his brother in one shot .
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You : Torrin quickly establishes himself to the thanapod as the only indispensable member of the ship because only he can keep them on course. This allows him to barter for the key to the lockbox containing the gun.
• The sharks mentioned in the Opening Scroll turn out to be a key part of defeating the thanapod, as they are mainly hunted for their oil.
• The thanapod being unable to fit through the doorway to the cargo hold is crucial both to Torrin's initial survival when he first encounters it, and his escape once he sets the barrels of oil on fire. It also means the beast can't easily get out of the hold again, leaving it to be burned to death.
• The Chessmaster : Torrin is capable of routinely manipulating the crew to do the thing he wants, but always giving them the illusion that they are calling the shots or making the decisions together.
• Cold Equation : There is a man-eating monster in the ship's hold that only wants passage to the nearest island, with near-insatiable hunger. There is nothing to feed to it, except the surviving crew. Who and in what order should be given to it to allow the rest to stay alive?
• Convenient Cranny : Torrin repeatedly survives the crab's attack by fitting through an opening the crab cannot follow.
• Dead Guy Puppet : The thanapod uses a torso with the head of one of the sailors it killed as a puppet to communicate with the living.
• Death World : The sea is constantly covered in fog and dark clouds cover the sky non-stop. Going into water is pretty much a death warrant, due to the plethora of man-eating creatures and outright monsters in it.
• Dirty Coward : The crew is made almost exclusively out of gutless, yet still dangerous people. They will do anything to save their hides, but at the same time won't risk their own lives, especially when given an alternative. The only time when they outright stand against Torrin is when they think he's asleep and even that is their lowest point: assaulting him only when they know he won't be able to shoot any of them and they can get away without a scratch. One wonders what even made such a yellow-bellied bunch seek out such a dangerous job as sailing, especially in a monster-infested sea.
• Drawing Straws : Once the captain gets killed in the opening, Torrin, the sole remaining officer, suggests drawing lots to determine who will be sent down to face the monster. Instead, the guy who draws the short straw, being the largest among them, declares himself captain and forces Torrin to go.
• Eaten Alive : The sailor who drew the shortest straw ends up being devoured with neither the crew nor the thanapod bothering to kill him first. However, his gruesome death is portrayed as Laser-Guided Karma , given he first decided to ignore his fate and forced Torrin to go into the hold and face the monster. Another sailor is eaten alive in the opening, still screaming and kicking while shoved down the thanapod's maw.
• Establishing Character Moment : When Torrin is forced to face the thanapod, he doesn't resist and goes willingly, thus differentiating himself from the rest of the crew who refuse to face the monster. Secondly, once the monster establishes that it can talk and makes demands to go to Phaiden Island, Torrin proves himself able to remain calm under pressure and crafty enough to negotiate with an Eldritch Abomination .
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones : Admittedly, every member of the crew besides Torrin is completely willing to sic a hungry thanapod on a city of civilians. However, Melis also faces down the crew in order to protect his injured brother from being sacrificed to the monster (making him the only person besides Torrin in the entire episode to care about someone besides himself).
• Everyone Has Standards : Torrin has little issue with manipulating, killing, and sacrificing the rest of the crew to the thanapod, but he refuses to let the creature reach a heavily populated island alive.
• Explosive Breeder : As with real-life crabs, the thanapod hatches dozens of its offspring after boarding the ship.
• Foreshadowing : When Torrin threatens Cert , the latter is terrified but doesn't protest otherwise . This strongly hints that he indeed voted to sacrifice Phaiden Island. It turns out, all of the crew did.
• Gender Is No Object : Two of the sailors are female and presumably the briefly present helmsman/captain.
• Genius Bruiser : Torrin. He's able to hatch a plot to kill the entire crew on the spot once they all vote for Phaiden island, and when the time comes to enact his plan, he successfully kills off every single one of them by himself.
• Giant Enemy Crab : The thanapod. A huge sea crab, about the size of a bus and with an exoskeleton completely impervious to the weapons the sailors have.
• Gothic Horror : The short puts great emphasis on building atmosphere, along with constant fear of the unknown and unforeseen.
• Guile Hero : Torrin is a particularly morally ambiguous version.
• Gunpoint Banter : After securing a deal with the monster and getting a key to the captain's gun box from it, Torrin negotiates with the rest of the crew while waving the gun around to assert his authority.
• Hidden Depths : Torrin is an intelligent, educated master manipulator, and plays both the thanapod and the crew like the fiddles on the soundtrack. Turns out he's also very handy in an actual fight, especially since he lured his enemies right where he wants them. And as cunning, manipulative and ruthless as he may appear, it turns out he's the only member of the surviving crew that isn't willing to sacrifice possibly thousands of innocent people to save his own life.
• Humans Are Bastards : The remaining crew is made almost entirely of self-serving assholes with loyalty to nobody but themselves. They betray, sacrifice and backstab each other non-stop, in a desperate attempt to be the last man standing of the crew. Ironically, this only helps Torrin survive and send the ship far away from the destination the thanapod wanted.
• I Did What I Had to Do : Torrin is the epitome of this trope. His successful manipulation and calculated murders of his mutinous crewmates coupled with burning the ship, while extreme and risky, ultimately ensured that the thanapod and its offsprings would never threaten Phaiden Island.
• I Lied : Subverted. When arranging the ballot for the choice between Phaiden Island and a further, deserted island, Torrin insists that the votes will be secret. Once the votes are cast, he then tells the crew he covertly made sure he could identify the ballots so he could shoot those cowardly enough to choose Phaiden Island, which is two of them. When everyone but himself and one other is dead, he reveals that he lied about marking the ballots: he didn't have to do any marks, they all voted for Phaiden Island.
• Immune to Bullets : The thanapod boasts that its shell will repel Torrin's bullets. He explains that the gun isn't for it, and shoots the lantern above the pool of shark oil he's just released.
• Attempted by one of the sailors, who was sneaking up on Torrin. He is fended off with a wordless threat .
• When the mutineers are busy whacking at the Sleeping Dummy , Torrin gets the drop on them and without even announcing his presence, kills his first target with a bullet to the head.
• It Can Think : Despite being a massive crab, the thanapod is capable of thinking and communicating using the body of one of the crew members, demanding to be led to Phaiden Island and accepting Torrin's bargain and terms. Judging by the reactions of the crew, none of them realized that thanapods were capable of this. Torrin : Listen carefully, I am in no mood to repeat myself. The thing speaks.
• Kill It with Fire : Ultimately, Torrin uses the fish oil in their hold to set the ship ablaze and kill the thanapod.
• Laser-Guided Karma : The big guy who forces Torrin to go into the hold, rather than honor the Drawing Straws agreement, is the first to be fed to the thanapod. None of the others steps in to help, and they end up serving as meals for the thanapod as well. By contrast, Torrin is the only member of the cast who's prepared to do the best thing for the greatest number of people and seems willing to sacrifice himself (albeit he intended everyone else in the crew to precede him) and he's the sole survivor of the story.
• A Lighter Shade of Black : Torrin is a callous, manipulative man who doesn't even blink when lying or killing people, ultimately being personally responsible for the death of his entire surviving crew. However, he still has the moral high ground, as the other sailors are even worse and would eagerly do the exact same things as Torrin, along with delivering the man-eating monster and its massive brood to a port city - something that Torrin considers unthinkable.
• Literal Metaphor : The crew are crabs in a basket, pulling each other back inside, rather than working together to survive. All while a giant crab is feeding on them as a result.
• Lured into a Trap : Torrin conspicuously tells a crew he knows to be mutinous that he intends to rest and to wake him when they reach their destination. When they inevitably try to take advantage of this opening, he's waiting in ambush.
• Monster Is a Mommy : As Torrin discovers when the thanapod calls him back for a chat, it's not trying to feed itself, it's trying to feed its many children.
• Monster Organ Trafficking : The crew is basically whalers who hunt "jable sharks" rather than whales, and for much the same reason (oil, the flammable kind).
• The first mutiny happens right after the thanapod attack when the man chosen to investigate the monster forcibly takes the position of captain from Torrin.
• The second mutiny happens after Torrin chooses not to transport the thanapod to Phaiden. The rest of the crew attempt to force one skittish member to assassinate him in order to protect themselves.
• The third mutiny is performed by the whole crew when Torrin tells them he's going to finally catch a nap. As he instead sets up a Sleeping Dummy , he is able to lay an ambush for the mutineers while they are busy whacking at the empty bed, killing them all.
• The Navigator : Torrin is the only crew member to survive the initial attack with navigation skills and uses it as a bargaining chip - both the crew and the monster need him to survive as long as feasible.
• The Needs of the Many : Torrin gives the crew a choice: a short cruise to the inhabited Phaiden Island, where the thanapod wants to go and will likely massacre the settlement there, but will only require a few of them to die along the way; or a few days longer to reach an uninhabited island, which will require more of them fed to the beast as sacrifice, possibly all of them, but the port will be safe. The crew is manipulated into making a vote for it, but in reality, it's Torrin using it to play them, as he already made the decision and every other person voted to send the ship to the Phaiden Island.
• Nerves of Steel : Torrin's greatest strength throughout the short is this. When faced with an intelligent monster that could rip him apart without a thought, and a crew who's willing to toss him to said monster, it's his ability to keep cool that allows him to negotiate and manipulate the situation to his advantage.
• Noble Demon : Torrin is one step away from outright Villain Protagonist , yet remains the most moral member of the crew and would rather get everyone killed on the ship, than unleash a monster with its brood on a port city.
• No-Sell : The thanapod's shell is impervious to blades and bullets. The only way to kill it is by roasting it alive .
• Number Two : Torrin is the First Mate and The Navigator of the ship until the death of the captain by the thanapod and ensuing circumstances launches him into a de facto leadership position.
• Offhand Backhand : When one of the crew members sneaks on Torrin, he just points a gun in his direction, cocking the hammer , without saying a word. The man instantly backs down.
• One Bullet Left : Torrin uses it to break a lantern and thus ignite the oil in the ship's hold.
• One-Hit Polykill : Intentionally so. Torrin only has a single drum of bullets in the revolver, so he arranges for his target to align where he needs him, using a single shot to kill two men.
• Only Six Faces : Almost all male characters have near-identical faces, making it hard at times to tell them apart.
• Opening Scroll : The episode opens with text explaining that the sailors are hunting the jable shark.
• Paranoia Gambit : Torrin's actions with the vote and executing the two brothers. By claiming that they were the only ones who were cowardly enough to bring the creature to Phaiden Island, he planted the seeds of doubt in the rest of the crew, who each believed that Torrin had made a mistake, yet were unwilling to question it lest they out themselves as cowards in turn.
• Pragmatic Hero : While the word "hero" is debatable when applied to Torrin, he's definitely pragmatic and has a strong enough moral compass to refuse setting the monster on an island full of people. He doesn't hold back a bit when manipulating his crew and then murdering them all when it turns out they'd rather let the monster go on a killing spree instead of dropping off it on a deserted island.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner : Torrin : As you know, there's not much eating on a jable shark. The meat is greasy [hacks a barrel] and the hide is too thick for any garment. [hacks another] What they do have in abundance... is oil. [draws pistol] Thanopod : Shell protects! Torrin : It's not for you. [ BANG! ]
• Revolting Rescue : Torrin has to reach into a heap of crab vomit to get hold of the captain's key.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves : The last surviving sailor got locked by the mutineers in a chest for refusal to participate (or at least so he claims, but considering Torrin was able to open the chest with barely any effort it's suspect), but it makes no real difference. Torrin points out that the vote was a sham since all of them voted for sending the monster to Phaiden Island, so the sailor was willing to save himself over the islanders. For that, Torrin pushed the last sailor into the hold.
• Secret Test of Character : The vote was for Torrin to see if the crew would be brave enough to spare innocent civilians at the price of their own life. It turns out that everyone failed.
• Serrated Blade of Pain : Torrin goes into the hold the first time while carrying a sword with jagged teeth like a saw. Intimidating in appearance, but the sword still doesn't have any effect on the Thanapod.
• Sleeping Dummy : Torrin rigs one up after telling the crew he intends to take a rest, correctly anticipating they would attempt to kill him while he was vulnerable.
• Sole Survivor : Torrin is the last crew member alive. Not by circumstance - he personally killed almost every single other sailor.
• Tempting Fate : After feeding Melis and his brother to the thanapod, Torrin muses that a double feeding should mean double the time between feedings, then cautiously adds "One would hope." He's right to be paranoid, as the thanapod isn't just feeding itself.
• Threatening Shark : Monstrous "jable sharks" are said to infest the oceans and be a major source of profit and danger for the human populace. We see their severed heads in the hold and one eating a flying fish in the foreground, but they aren't actually seen threatening any of the crew. Rather the antagonists are a crab and inhumanity , but it does offer the means to kill off the former (namely, via the shark's flammable oil).
• Title Drop : The Opening Scroll says that lost vessels were said to have had a "Bad Traveling".
• Trapped-with-Monster Plot : A thanapod boards the ship and, during the ensuing melee, falls into the cargo hold where it can't easily escape and the crew likewise can't remove it. Thus begins the plot as the characters have to find a way to dispose of the beast without it killing them all.
• Villainous Valour : Above deck, Torrin is outnumbered and surrounded by his treacherous crew. Below deck, he must bargain with a monstrous crab that is Immune to Bullets and able to kill a man easily. Through guile and manipulation, Torrin ultimately prevails over both and saves a community of innocent people in the process.
• Thanapod ( speaking for the first time ): Phaaaaaaiiidennn Iiiiiiislannnddd.
• Torrin ( to his last crewmate ): In the spirit of fairness, I lied before. I didn't actually mark the ballots. I didn't have to. Every one of you made an 'X'.''
• What You Are in the Dark : A very, very dark example. Torrin kills people left and right and incites the crew members against each other, but has ultimately a noble goal of saving the inhabitants of the Phaiden Island, even if they have been ungrateful toward the crew in the past. Although given how the crew treats each other, the people of Phaiden Island might have a reason to be unfriendly.
• Wooden Ships and Iron Men : This alien world has a level of technology not out of place with the Age of Sail. The characters are working a wooden sailship as rugged whalers except with oil-filled sharks instead of baleen whales. The most advanced thing seen in this episode is Torrin's revolver.
• The first victim actually eaten alive is a female sailor whose screams can be heard as she's shoved head-first into the thanapod's mouth during the opening.
• When ambushing the mutineers, Torrin's first target is Chantre, one of the two female sailors in their crew, simply because she was the closest person to his position.
• The second female meets her demise when being used as a Human Shield by a fellow mutineer , only for Torrin to callously Shoot the Hostage .
• Whole-Plot Reference : To The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello . A small crew of a damaged ship must reach the nearest land while transporting a man-eating monster, dependent on the main character, who's their navigator. The main difference is in aesthetics and in the tone of the story: while Explorations had a hopeful ending despite all the horror, Bad Travelling plays the story as hopeless and brooding .
• Xanatos Speed Chess : Torrin manages to account for/manipulate practically everything that happens after he's forced to go down into the hold. The thanapod wants to go to Phaiden Island? He immediately establishes that he's the one person on the ship it can't eat, and thus gets hold of the key to access the one gun on the ship and is able to dispose of the man who usurped the title of captain and can intimidate the others. He suggests dropping the thanapod on an uninhabited island, but the rest of the crew is reluctant? He puts it to a vote, and kills the two who (apparently) voted against him, meaning the others are cowed into going along with him and there's more food for the thanapod, giving them more time to get to their destination. It turns out that the Monster Is a Mommy and needs even more food for its offspring? He baits the crew into mutiny, kills all of them and placates the creatures with their bodies. Finally, he moors a fair distance away from Phaiden Island and sets the oil in the hold alight so the thanapod and its offspring perish, and is still close enough to land that he can row himself to safety.
• You Can't Fight Fate : The sailor who drew the shortest straw at first uses it as an excuse to force himself as the new captain and remains confident in his raw strength saving him. But once Torrin negotiates with the monster and gets a hold of the only gun on the ship, the sailor is still fed to the thanapod as its first meal, just as he would have been if he went through with the verdict of the straw drawing.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness : Torrin only kills the last surviving sailor after they've fed the other mutinous sailors to the thanapod, suggesting he only spared the man as long as he did because he didn't feel like dragging all the corpses by himself.
• Love, Death & Robots: "Three Robots: Exit Strategies"
• Recap/Love, Death & Robots
• Love, Death & Robots: "The Very Pulse of the Machine"
• Creator/David Fincher

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Following an Anthology format  Love, Death & Robots  never allows anyone to know what to expect, not only from the upcoming season but from the next episode as well. The season uses short and snappy standalone stories to merge science fiction, horror, and comedy elements to great effect.

David Fincher , who also acts as an executive producer on the show, directed the second episode of the third season, Bad Travelling. The story is all set in a unique marine setting that will keep you on the edge of your seat, unsure of how events will unfold. Allow us to assist everyone who is perplexed by the second episode of Love, Death & Robots season 3! Do note that this post will contain spoilers , so make sure you’ve watched the whole episode before reading any further.

Bad Travelling beginning explained

The second episode, titled ‘Bad Traveling,’ begins with the legend of “Bad Traveling,” which describes how ships were frequently lost during long trips to an alien ocean, in the hunt for “the Great Jable Shark.” When all of a sudden we see that the ship’s crew is attacked by a Thanopod, a sea monster that feeds on the flesh of the crew.

The ship’s captain gets killed and now the remaining crew has to elect someone who will confront the sea monster. After considerable consideration, Torrin is dispatched to meet the Thanopod hiding in the ship’s hull.

The Deal Between Torrin and Thanopod

Upon confronting the sea monster Torrin realizes the Thanopod has the ability to communicate, and it demands to be securely taken to Phaiden Island, a densely populated island. The Thanopod may spare the crew’s life in exchange. Torrin confirms the deal with Thanopod offering to carry it to the island if it doesn’t kill him. He retrieves the captain’s key from the Thanapod’s vomit and takes over command.

Torrin then sacrifices the previous captain to the Thanopod, leaving the rest of the crew in a dilemma to decide whether to save the people by sailing to an uninhabited island that is significantly further or save their own lives by sacrificing the thousands of lives on Phaedin Island.

Torrin’s Confession

We were led to believe that after everyone votes, Torrin then makes a confession that he had marked the votes and he now knows the people who just care about their own safety rather than the lives of thousands of people on the Phaedin Island. Upon this Torrin kills the two crew members who voted for Phaedin Island and feeds them to the Thanopod as they couldn’t be trusted and the ship needed to be aligned to one common goal.

Torrin vs The Crew

Torrin receives a call from the Thanapod, informing him that it and hundreds of its offspring were hungry. He becomes aware that he is running out of time. Torrin, therefore, decides to ignore the assassination attempt by one of the crew members and stick to his plan of abandoning the Thanapod on the uninhabited island.

The crew realizes that Torrin’s scheme will ruin them all so they plot a covert assassination attempt on his life. Torrin however had foreseen the attack. He kills all but one of the ship’s crew members. He discovers the final surviving crew member confined in a chest for refusing to take part in the attempted assassination.

The Actual Plan

After killing all the crew members, Torrin now had enough meat to feed the Thanopod and its offspring. With the help of the surviving crew member, he feeds all other bodies to the Thanopod and pushes the very last member to the realm of Thanopod as well.

Now here is the twist, remember we told you that “we were led to believe that Torrin had marked the votes and now knows the two crew members who voted for Phaedin Island”. Torrin when pushing the final person confessed to him that there were no marks on the votes, it was just that everybody voted for the Phaedin Island. This also shows how Torrin knew that the crew will eventually turn against him because all they cared about was themselves and were willing to sacrifice all of the people on the island for their own safety.

Bad Travelling ending explained

Finally, Torrin directs the ship’s path toward the deserted island and descends to the hull to falsely report the Thanapod their arrival at Phaedin Island. However, while conversing with the Thanapod, he leaks oil from the drums and sets the ship to catch fire. He dives overboard and onto an emergency boat that is already waiting for him in the water.

As Torrin leaves for Phaedin Island, the ship explodes in the distance. We observe the Thanapod screeching in anguish as the fire spreads, despite its declaration that its shell will protect it. It is unknown whether it will survive the fire, but Torrin is most likely to have saved the lives of thousands of innocent people on Phaedin Island.

Ending remarks

Throughout the episode, Torrin was a complex character. A man intended to do good through any means suitable for his goal. He wasn’t prepared to let the Thanapod loose on Phaiden Island and eat the island’s unsuspecting inhabitants. However, his crew had other intentions so, he unhesitatingly devised a plan to take them all out first to avoid any complications further.

Though, he succeeded in saving thousands of innocent lives, were his actions justifiable? Couldn’t he talk his way through the other members of the ship? It did make me think that does end justifies the means?

Overall, Bad Travelling was a fantastic episode and quite easily one of my favorite episodes of all time. What do you think of Bad Travelling? leave a comment down below to let us know about your views on this remarkable episode.

That is all on Love, Death & Robots Episode “Bad Travelling” Explained. To know about Love Death + Robots Season 3 Episodes Ranking: Worst to Best or for more entertainment , keep following Retrology.

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