- We're back in Helena's sitting room. She's playing the piano.
- Dr. Gall, Domin, and the other supervisors talk about how they're surrounded by robots and they're really totally and completely screwed.
- Fabry comes in and says he's electrified the garden fence. The robots can't get through as long as humans are still controlling the power plant.
- They regret that people taught the robots to fight in wars. Then Alquist says, you know, maybe building the robots was a bad idea. (This seems like a reasonable conclusion.)
- But Domin says he doesn't regret it; he wanted mankind to be master over the earth, and he still thinks that's a cool idea.
- Meanwhile, Busman is totaling up the accounts, more or less because he can't think of anything else to do.
- The robots attack, and then the humans turn on the fence and fry several. Hallemeier thinks that's awesome (bloodthirsty sort, this Hallemeier).
- Everyone is more or less distressed. Domin starts rambling about how he already feels dead. Alquist starts shouting about blood—so much for grace under pressure.
- Gall says he's to blame for everything because he fiddled with the formula for robots, changing their temperament.
- He says it was his own experiment, but Helena chimes in to say it was her idea to try to give the robots souls.
- She was afraid of them and figured if they were more like people, they wouldn't hate us.
- Domin points out that people are really good at hating each other, actually, which is maybe why Helena's scheme backfired.
- Gall helped her because he's in love with her. Everyone's in love with her, because she's the only woman in the play, pretty much. The men don't seem to have many options.
- Anyway, it turns out Gall only altered a few hundred robots, so they decide that isn't what really caused the change.
- Busman decides that the whole thing was in fact caused just by making too many robots.
- But that's not the fault of the builders, but of demand. People wanted the robots, so robots were built. No one is at fault.
- Convenient that.
- Busman says all ideals are worthless. Then he says he'll take Rossum's manuscript and go negotiate with the robots.
- But that's not going to work because (oops) Helena burned it.
- They won't let her tell them that she burned it though; instead they keep interrupting and talking over her. They're sexist jerks.
- They (the jerks) go on blathering about how they're going to trade the formula and escape and humanity will rule the world again.
- Finally they figure out that the manuscript is gone, and Helena says she burnt it.
- The supervisors have to admit that they don't know the formula. And they didn't copy it down anywhere.
- Humanity really does deserve to die, it seems like.
- Helena says she destroyed it to get rid of robots and go back to humans having children.
- The supervisors decide that maybe it's a good thing, since now the robots can't make any more robots, so they'll eventually die out.
- They think that somehow humans will survive. It's not clear how, but hope springs eternal we suppose.
- Busman realizes that they have half a million dollars, and decides to go out and try to pay the robots off.
- That seems really dumb.
- Even dumber is that he forgets that the fence is electrocuted and ends up killing himself—whoops.
- They all say that they'll be okay as long as the lamp is on, because that means humans control the power plant and the fence is still electrocuted.
- There's a lot of overblown poetic language about the flame of humanity still burning, blah, blah blah. At this point we're sort of ready for the robots to kill everyone if it would just make them shut up.
- And then the lamp goes out.
- Nana pops up to spout about the end of the world.
- They fight a brief battle, and everybody gets killed (offstage, mostly—it's an all-ages play, no unnecessary blood).
- That is, everybody gets killed except Alquist, who the robots decide to save because he works with his hands.
- The robots, or their leader, Radius, have decided to take over the world and work and work forever.
- All the humans are dead except for Alquist. But the play goes on, in…