Apple TV+For fans of the Martha Wells’ Murderbot books, the new Apple TV+ series is a delightfully faithful adaptation. Sure, The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon — the corny sci-fi soap opera SecUnit watches — is turned up to 11 for the screen, but with all great adaptations come some understandable additions, omissions, and major changes. However, smack dab in the middle of the series, with Episode 5, “Rogue War Tracker Infinite,” Murderbot makes its biggest change to the source material yet. Right at the start of this episode, before the opening credits roll, we’re introduced to a brand new character, and she’s not found anywhere in the books. Here’s why Leebeebee, as hilariously played by Anna Konkle, is such a game-changer for the show. Spoilers ahead.As with the first book, All Systems Red, the kindly, hapless team from Preservation Alliance is trying to figure out why rogue SecUnits from their mining rival, DeltFall, have gone on a murder spree. And just like in the book, the team also figures out that their SecUnit, despite also almost getting taken over, hacked its own governor module a long time ago. Murderbot has layers upon layers of rogue bots: the rogue bot we know and love, and others that are rogue in a bad way. As the only survivor of the DeltFall group, Leebeebee says the carnage she witnessed was “Like an episode of Rogue War: Tracker Infinite: Tribulation.”While we may never get a glimpse of the future TV show Rogue War: Tracker Infinite: Tribulation, there is a more pressing question: Who is Leebeebee, and why is she such a big deal?Because this character is found nowhere in the book, the introduction of Leebeebee changes the plot of Murderbot more than some of the show’s other changes. Making Sanctuary Moon more like a future version of Star Trek is certainly bigger and bolder than in the first novella, but it didn’t change the plot of the story that much. The introduction of Leebeebee does.What is Leebeebee’s deal? | Apple TV+So far, all the major characters in Murderbot have counterparts in the original novella, thus making the show somewhat predictable for those who have read the books. But by having a random, talkative, and kooky new character suddenly crash the party, it upends the basic structure of the story. This decision, perhaps more than anything about Murderbot, has been the smartest development for the TV series. Because, even though Leebeebee is hilariously weird, there’s no way this character simply exists to amp up the cringe-comedy element of the series. Instead, the existence of this new character, one that totally breaks the format of the book, is clearly hiding some new twist. Murderbot is now off script, meaning that we’re essentially watching a faithful adaptation of a fairly popular sci-fi book that can now surprise its biggest fans. Even the Netflix version of 3 Body Problem wasn’t capable of this kind of thing, despite changing so many elements of that story from the original novel.Again, adding one new character to an ensemble of other characters may not seem like a big deal. But, because the structure of All Systems Red is so brief and so tight, the fact that the equally spare and focused series has added a person is meaningful, and confounding at the same time. Leebeebee is part of a new, and deeply entertaining, Murderbot puzzle. And what happens next, even a highly advanced, and snarky artificial construct couldn’t predict. Murderbot streams new episodes on Fridays on Apple TV+.