In episode two of Apple TV’s Sunny, entitled “Don’t Blame the Machine,” Suzie, played by Rashida Jones, reminisces about her relationship with her late husband Masa, played by Hidetoshi Nishijima. We see the moment they met and their first date; we also see her rethinking situations through her memories. Through her memories, she uncovers signs that were always there—that Masa lied about what he did for a living. Now Suzie is finally able to identify the clues. As she searches for more clues to uncover the full truth of what Masa did for a living, she begins to trust her personal robot Sunny, voiced by Joanna Sotomura.
While trying to learn more about her Masa, Suzie also attempts to learn more about Sunny. She takes Sunny to a “homeboy” repair store. The man working at the store discovers that while Sunny visually looks like the latest homeboys out, she is actually very advanced and has slightly different software that includes sealed files. The man cannot help Sunny because he has never dealt with a homebot like her before, and Suzie leaves. The man’s granddaughter follows behind Suzie and stops her to tell her there is a manual somewhere on how to hack into your homebot, even though that is illegal. She tells Suzie that the person who made the secret manual has a signature symbol. She lifts up her shirt to reveal she has it tattooed on her.
Suzie heads to her mother-in-law Noriko’s, played by Judy Ongg, house, only to find she’s being negatively influenced by her homebot. Her homebot convinces her to throw a party and throw away a sentimental painting that Masa made. Noriko sees nothing wrong with what she has done. She even asks Suzie if she keeps everything her late son Zen, played by Fares Belkheir, ever made. Suzie gets upset and heads home on her bike, with Sunny holding onto her from behind.
After trashing Masa’s office looking for clues and coming up short, Suzie and Sunny decide to return to his job for clues. As they get closer to the building, Sunny begins to shut down while she repeatedly says, “division five denied.” Suzie decides to leave her and continue into the building. Suzie lies her way into the building and exploring the halls. An alert goes off for employees to put on glasses and earplugs for group stretches. One of the employees gets personally notified that there is a security breach in division five as Suzie breaks into a locked room. He runs through the hallways to stop Suzie. The man almost catches up to Suzie, but Sunny randomly appears to save her, and they go home.
As they watch TV at home, there is a knock at the door. Suzie sends Sunny to open it and see who it is. Sunny comes back with Masa’s shoes in her hands, saying that a representative from the airline dropped them off after finding them in the plane crash wreckage. Suzie is distraught and walks away. We see another robot return to a random man who asks if Suzie believes that the robot is from the airline. We now know that there are more suspicious things going on outside of just Masa’s work.
This episode ends on a great cliffhanger, and the ending alone brings up the overall rating of the episode. The cinematography in this episode is very visually pleasing. The shot composition works very well and is pleasing to the eye. In the scenes where Suzie is at Masa’s job, the camera is continuously directing your eye to the next important fragment of information. The writing in this episode stays true to Suzie and Sunny’s characters. The writing also finds a way to add in comedic elements that aren’t so obvious.
Rating: 8.5/10