Despite his disdain toward most of his coworkers, he is later portrayed as one of the most compassionate characters in the series, and seems to have a soft spot for Bender. In the Season 6 episode " Lethal Inspection," it is revealed that Hermes worked at the robot factory in Tijuana, Mexico where Bender was constructed, as Inspector No. 5, checking robots for defects as they came off the production line. Bender was built without a backup module, but Hermes' compassion for the baby robot led him to override Bender's "defective" assessment and give him a chance at life. He turned in his resignation afterward, and later destroyed all evidence of his employment there to prevent Bender from learning the truth, almost being killed in the process. At the end of the episode, he smiles as he watches his personnel file burn. In the earlier episode " How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back ", he risks his bureaucratic license to rescue Bender, sorting the entire Master IN pile in under four minutes to recover the disc containing Bender's downloaded brain.