#also props to isaac for saying it was prudent that bortus was in therapy

[ride-a-dromedary]

@katoska Absolutely agree 100% - and I'd like to take that one step further.

The efficiency excuse has nothing to do with the crew at all certainly and it never did. Because it *isn't* the *crew's* efficiency that is being affected; it's Isaac's.

Isaac is the one having challenges processing Claire's daily absence; Isaac is the one who made a calculation error (which should not be possible) when he and Claire broke up the first time; Isaac is the one who - this season anyway - is having a lot more trouble clearly expressing himself without pausing between his words; Isaac is the one who started questioning the Kaylon Primary's actions after it began to fully sink in that Ty loved him (which - again - for a machine part of a hive mind, should not be possible which indicates malfunction - that also makes his reaction to Ty's saying that they love him all the more important because it's a very visible "Aha" moment for him; *that's* why) and disobeyed a direct order (*again* a machine getting a command and disregarding that command independently) when he recognized that Ty was in danger; Isaac who jumps into the conversation about Topa that has nothing to do with him and offers his assistance when Claire's career and "wellbeing" is on the line; and Isaac is the one who came about his "logical conclusion" to end his own life after he found out not only that it was Marcus who was scared of him - who hated him and wanted nothing to do with him and wrote Murderer on the wall - but that he wished he were dead and says it to his face.

But you'd think no because Marcus also indicated that *no one* on board liked him or wanted him around. But the long and short of it is that Isaac never seemed to care about that before because, bluntly, it did not affect him in any way. It's literally water off a duck's back.

Isaac didn't seem to care much at all when he was being harassed by other members of the crew, or people were leaving when he sat down with them, or whispering about him, or figured that writing was from someone else. He says himself that it'd been happening for a long time. He didn't really seem to care when Charly said what she said to him. When Bortus told him he was happy he wasn't like him, Isaac took in stride. He had no problems before cutting people off or interacting with them bluntly or unintentionally insulting them (though again to him that's really nothing personal- he's an Arificial Lifeform and, like Ed said, they really did and do have an issue with projecting things onto him). The only time crew efficiency in relation to him ever mattered was when *Marcus* indicated it was so. When Claire started taking notice. When Ty gave his assurance that he didn't think badly of him. And, most importantly, when all of that full circled and made it so *his* efficiency decreased. Because Isaac may not care much about everything or everyone else, but he does care about the Finn family.

Isaac - for all intents and purposes- does not understand or recognize what it means to have one's feelings hurt or experience upset because he has no point of comparison. His systems malfunctioning and rearranging his subroutines and decreasing their own efficiency are, most likely, their own way of processing these new experiences (think as though when your stomach hurts or chest tightens when you are upset or anxious). Isaac's (very human like impulse I might add) is to look for outside sources to blame when he doesn't understand what's happening to him. He doesn't associate these errors with "emotion" because, as far as he is aware, it's not possible for him to experience these things. So he turns to the outside - it must be the crew's efficiency that is being affected, not the other way around.

Bottom line? His connection with the Finns rewrote his programming to the point where Isaac is getting his mechanical feelings hurt and affected so strongly that he doesn't know what to do about it. So he turns to outside excuses to try and rationalize why he "feels" the way he does and is doing what he is doing. Otherwise there is no logical explanation - he just loves them and that, as far as he is aware, is not possible for an Artificial Lifeform.