"You know there's no escape, even in death!"
―Serial Designation J to Serial Designation V.
Serial Designation J-10X111001, or simply known as J, is one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Doll) in Murder Drones.
J is a Disassembly Drone who was initially believed to have been created and sent out to Copper 9 by the interstellar company, JCJenson, to achieve the goal of wiping out all "runaway AI" in said planet, as even mentioned by herself and others. However, it was later revealed that this was, in fact, not true, as it turns out, J was actually a former Worker Drone who was then converted by the Absolute Solver controlling Cyn, and is following its commands so the program would let her live.
Physical Appearance
Serial Designation J has the distinctive features of a female Disassembly Drone. She has silver hair styled in high twin pigtails, tied with black ribbons. Like other Disassembly Drones, she has neon yellow eyes and a black headband adorned with five additional eyes that match the color displayed on her visor, as well as a long, thin black tail ending in a large syringe filled with Nanite Acid.
Her attire consists of a short-sleeved black shirt with side pockets under it, a black leather belt giving it as a skirt, a dark yellow shirt beneath her blazer, and a tie, giving her the appearance of professionalism, especially in comparison to the other two members of her squadron.
As for her legs, it looks as though she is wearing knee-high stockings with visible suspenders but rather is a part of her chassis. On her left bicep, she wears a yellow armband marked with a skull emblem, signifying her role and identity as a Disassembly Drone.
When in combat mode, she reveals jagged teeth, and her visor displays an "X" shape, signaling her aggressive intent. Her appearance is further heightened by large metal wings with a yellow and black color pattern and possesses 16 feather blades, with the middle of these wings being two yellow glowing circles. She is demonstrated to have interchangeable hands that she can switch out for other tools and weapons that can aid her in her missions, one of which are three-sharp claws, which enables her to tear through targets with ease.
Worker Form
As a Worker Drone, J wore a black hard hat with a maid crown attached to the front of it, a grey with black trim overall maid dress paired with a black bowtie around the neck, and black thigh-high socks with two white stripes on the top as well as laced black shoes.
Her twin pigtails appeared to be slightly longer and were decorated with two black ribbons.
Eldritch J
- Main article: Eldritch J § Physical Appearance
Eldritch J resembles Cyn's actual form, a monstrous centipede-like being possessing with a yellow and black color pattern, as well as having multiple mantis-like appendages and a row of spikes running through its back. Its head is identical to J's, albeit with a melted visor, sharp serrated teeth lining the upper jaw, and the absence of a lower jaw.
It also sports multiple appendages ending with Solver cameras. These camera appendages are used for the purpose of projecting holograms of drones it has studied and killed, before using them to lure its next victims. Other than that, Eldritch J also has claw appendages, which it often uses to grab onto individuals.
One of Eldritch J's appendages resembles a human hand. Whether this is genuine human flesh or a look-alike is unknown.
Personality
J is best described as a "lethal workaholic," as she is incredibly dedicated to her job - even using corporate jargon like "synergistic liability" and "fourth-quarter profits" in place of insults or vulgarism. J has had a penchant for obeying authority and following orders as far back as her days as a Worker Drone, where she refused to help Tessa free herself from her chains as "corporate had spoken."
Although J is not as sadistic and insane as V is, she is still a “cold killer” and does look down on others who are not as good as her, with it being confirmed she “takes pleasure in domineering this beneath under the guise of following orders”. This is best shown in J's relationship with N, as she despises him and tells him that she would personally kill him if their company allowed it. J's dislike of N goes as far as to infect him with a virus as soon as he starts to question the company (even though there was a valid reason for doing so) while also taking glee in doing such an act. This is made even worse upon the reveal J knew they were helping Cyn and not JCJenson, showing she really did just want an excuse to kill N. Even in flashbacks to the Elliot Manor, J was already shown as abusive to N, kicking him unnecessarily, and telling him to move.
J is also arrogant, domineering and prideful, as she enjoys insulting others. This proved to be her downfall, as after she incapacitated Uzi, she took her time with a monologue instead of finishing her off immediately which gave Uzi the chance to stab J with her Nanite tail. Despite this, J praises her comrades if they are worthy. This is shown when N supposedly gets past the Worker Drones' doors and, despite her low opinion of him, J genuinely congratulates his efforts and rewards him with the thought of having a JCJenson-branded pen, an item they both consider an accomplishment.
Despite her arrogance, J is not incapable of showing emotion. This is demonstrated in N's memories of when they used to be Worker Drones working at the Elliott Manor, where being in the presence of Louisa is enough to terrify her, as well as when Lizzy, Thad, and Khan appear to attack her with a railgun, making her systems warn her of a "Prior Hazard" as her face bears an unnerved expression. J also felt guilty in "Home" when Tessa was chained up, not wanting to disobey, as "corporate's spoken." However, she has a positive relationship with Tessa, whom J is genuinely kind and respectful towards.
However, J's true motivations are revealed in the finale, where it's shown she's aware Cyn murdered Tessa and, in spite of this, is assisting her in the attempted destruction of Copper 9, focusing on being on the "winning team" in hopes that Cyn wouldn't kill her if she aids her. Despite briefly offering V a chance to join her and Cyn, she later distances herself from her former allies, coldly stating she never needed V or N before trying to help the Solver kill them both.
According to Liam Vickers' perspective via a message of his on Discord,[1] J's narration is a character who is heavily influenced by corporate culture. She consistently chooses to side with whatever dominant system or power is in place, whether it is oppressive or not, in order to secure better conditions for mostly herself and, to some extent, her companions, N and V. She prioritizes her own interests over trying to change or improve the current system, even if it comes at a personal cost.
Prime Video Introduction
J is the leader of the murder drones trio and JC Jenson loyalist. She is a workaholic that loves to use corporate jargon when she speaks. Whilst V is more murderous, J is a cold killer and does what’s necessary. She is also arrogant and prideful. Taking pleasure in domineering those she considers beneath her under the guise of following orders.[2]
Biography
Pre-series
J is an incredibly loyal Disassembly Drone who was once a Worker Drone in her past. She was repurposed and befriended by Tessa to serve at Elliott Manor as a maid, where she met N, V, and the Absolute Solver disguised as Cyn. J assisted Tessa in preventing the Solver from instigating a massacre at the mansion.
However, their efforts were in vain as J was among all the Worker servants who were corrupted by the malevolent AI to help with its murderous plan. Later, J was rebuilt by the Solver to be a Disassembly Drone, and together with clones of N and V, a copy of her was sent to Copper 9 to eliminate all Workers found there.
Season 1
PILOT
J is first seen in a flashback by N, where J has N pinned on the ground with her foot, telling him if she was allowed to, she would personally kill N herself. J is fully introduced at the corpse spire where she notices how N has gone offline; she assumes he tripped and knocked himself offline. J reboots N's systems by scolding and smacking his face, which turns N's systems back online. As N runs away to chase Uzi and retrieve her railgun, N's sudden escape makes J and V suspicious and so they follow him.
J and V catch up to N to find out he managed to get through the first two doors of the Worker Drone bunker. J seems genuinely surprised by how N was "not useless for once." She rewards him with the thought of having a JCJenson-branded pen. After V leaves to find an entrance to the outpost's last door, N questions the company's motives and the Disassembly Drones' fate when all the Workers are eventually killed.
N's questioning gives J a reason to kill N, and so she plants a virus on him and leaves him for dead as she flies into the vents to wipe out the rest of the colony of Worker Drones. J and V had Thad, Khan, and many other Workers cornered when suddenly N and Uzi arrive.
N finally tells J that he doesn't like the way she's been treating him; to which J calls him a traitor. Afterwards, Uzi fights J. While N defeats V, J is on the brink of victory as she has Uzi on the ground and is about to finish her off. However, during J's monologue, Uzi manages to stab her with her Nanite tail. The stab causes J to back up in pain and fall, which allows Uzi to grab her railgun and shoot J with it. The blast obliterates the upper half of J's body, killing her.
Heartbeat
In a dream of N's (actually a flashback), J is a Worker Drone maid in a mansion where she is still abusive to N. This is shown by her kicking N to the ground and asking him to move. J then looks over and anxiously greets Tessa, but she quickly gets annoyed after seeing Tessa has another new Worker Drone behind her.
Later, when Frank is attempting to fix the hole in the ceiling left by N, J's corpse slowly creeps away as if being dragged. Frank investigates the situation and sees J's chest pried open, revealing her organic insides and heart. Her corpse suddenly transforms into a biomechanical abomination, which later kills Frank. The newly-transformed dead body, now known as Eldritch J, would then kill more Worker Drones to assimilate parts for J's reconstruction.
Eventually, N and Uzi would appear and defeat Eldritch J, stabbing J's core with his Nanite tail, causing it to become a blackhole and float away.
The Promening
A clone of J was re-deployed to Copper 9, accompanied by her boss Tessa, now grown up and working for JCJenson. Tessa coldly states the two of them have "maintenance work" to do, most likely a euphemism for killing more Worker Drones.
Home
During the events of Home, J appears in N's memories. She is first seen standing near Tessa while the latter nervously paces around the table. Tessa asks if J could pretend to be a "ripping royal stud," to which J complies and quickly poses like the person shown on the cover of the Gala invitation. Tessa congratulates J but starts to rub her wrist in pain. In response, J looks up at her in sadness.
Tessa then assures J that she's fine but quickly gets distracted after noticing N. Cyn later tells Tessa that J had forgotten to let her out of the basement again. J annoyingly replies that despite that, Cyn still escaped and then keeps the basement key in her hair. Tessa's mother walks up and begins scolding her daughter for bringing the Drones out again, and declares that she is going to throw them out.
Tessa quickly apologizes. Cyn suddenly retorts, telling Louisa that they "aren't broken" and "can no longer be thrown out." Before Louisa could say anything, N quickly jumped to Cyn's defense and took the blame for her behavior.
Later, Tessa is seen in her bedroom attempting to free herself from the chains while Cyn plays with a doll house, and J sits on a rocking horse. Cyn and J are both chained by the ankle like Tessa. Tessa asks J to help her get freed, but J apologizes and refuses because "corporate" (Tessa's parents) had already ordered her not to do so. Tessa looks down at the chain and sees Cyn (now in her Eldritch form) right in front of her.
Cyn then assures Tessa that she "won't have to discard her (Tessa's) pets" and Cyn "won't discard of her (Tessa)." She also states that Tessa "seems squeamish" and warns her not to go to the gala. Cyn leaves through the opened window, and after a couple of seconds, Tessa and J look at each other in fear and silence.
Afterward, J attempts to bite off Tessa's shackle and free her while Tessa goads at J for motivation; telling her that Cyn wants "paid time off" to "attend union negotiations" (a workplace taboo). Infuriated, J finally bites through the chain in her rage and begins punching it while she screams that it is an "unrelated layoff" before spitting onto the ground, exhausted.
J stands up and shakes off her tiredness as she looks towards Tessa, and the two quickly leave the room. They quietly tip-toed across the hallway to stop Cyn. Tessa bumps into a suit of armor and nearly knocks it over but she notices a sword. J makes her way over to a gun case containing a revolver. They show their weapons to each other and they immediately trade.
N and Uzi (in the form of a crow) then appear, and N motions for them to lay low. J and Tessa look at each other in confusion until a pair of cracked glasses fall from the ceiling. They slowly look up and see V crawling on the ceiling. The four quickly group together back-to-back, and N tells Tessa they need the key from J to get into the basement. Uzi then flies over and grabs the key from J's hair, saying that she (Uzi) would kill her.
Tessa tells the group that Cyn will massacre the gala, and N questions if it is their Cyn, saying that the actual Cyn is cool; Tessa and J seem suspicious of this. V suddenly swoops down and attempts to attack Tessa. Before V can harm Tessa, J quickly gets in the way and uses the sword against V's claw. J then instructs N and Uzi to go to the basement while she and Tessa stall "the coma patient." V attempts to grab the key from N but is quickly stopped by J, pushing him through the doorway.
The gala is about to begin with James commencing it. However, Cyn, puppeteered by the Absolute Solver, appears in front of the guests, ready to attack. But J and Tessa arrive to put an end to the yet-to-be massacre. James and Louisa scold their daughter for her tomfoolery, but are immediately pushed aside by the Solver. Tessa tries to stop it from carrying out its plan by throwing several objects at it but to no avail.
The Solver tells Tessa that "[she] didn't have to see this." It then takes control of all of the drones in the building, including J, who now has an 'X' displayed on her visor. J slams the door shut behind Tessa, and the Solver begins to massacre everyone in the dining room.
In the present day, J appears next to Tessa as the two meet up with Doll outside of a building. Doll tosses the key to Tessa and reminds her that they must take her with them since they "had a deal;" Tessa replies by firing a warning shot at Doll (presumably to confirm that she is not infected with the Absolute Solver). Turning around, J and Tessa see Uzi, V, and N standing far away. They stare at each other, and the credits roll.
Dead End
After Tessa reunites with N and V, Uzi points out that she is tired of killing J, to which she replies that effective Disassembly Drones were cloned more. When Doll betrays the group and steals the Keybug, they chase after her, which brings them to Cabin Fever Labs. J reveals Cyn's plan to infiltrate the Labs and then their plans to stop her. Tessa hands her the key to her ship and instructs her to guard outside. J flies off afterward.
Mass Destruction
On the surface, Lizzy takes Thad outside the colony towards the corpse spire to introduce him to her "secret friend." The environment suddenly loses gravity before returning to normal, with Thad and Lizzy faceplanting onto the snow. Abruptly, a landing pod arrives and touches down on the spire, from which J emerges and swiftly enters the structure. Lizzy claims that this was the reason she brought Thad out.
Later, Thad and Lizzy plan on attacking J, but an explosion suddenly erupts from within the spire. J swiftly enters her pod and leaves. When Thad and Lizzy enter the spire to investigate, they see that J has destroyed N and V's landing pod to prevent it from being used as an escape vehicle.
Later, J lands her ship at the entrance of the labs and tries to contact Tessa (who at this time, has revealed herself to actually be Cyn wearing Tessa's corpse), but she gets hit by a school bus, causing her to lose the keys to the ship and making her tail become slightly disfigured in the process. Angered, she draws her gun at the bus, demanding to know the identities of the drivers.
She sees Lizzy and Thad posing ominously in the fog, holding a railgun (rebuilt by Khan earlier) and metal pipe respectively, while Khan is smugly lying on the bus roof. Upon noticing the railgun light up, a warning sign with the words 'PRIOR HAZARD' lights up on her visor, a callback to her death by Uzi's railgun during the first episode.
Absolute End
J first is seen sitting on a remnant of Copper 9, holding an apology note from N for taking her ship, with a drawing saying he "owed her a ship." One of Cyn's tentacles brings back the destroyed and burning remains of their Landing Pod, and J begrudgingly thanks her "boss" for the placement of the ship and the destruction - revealing that she's known Cyn was Tessa the entire time and is cooperating with her.
Thad, Lizzy, Khan, and the bus that hit her in the previous episode are shown to be within the same fragment. J exclaims it's time for them to go into the "scary planet hole thing." Jumping down from the tower, J's peg feet get stuck in the ice thanks to the gravitational pull, and she tells herself that she's calm before yelling at Thad, Lizzy, and Khan to "Go away" and firing a missile at them. V and a red-eyed Sentinel then appear and deflect the missile.
V and J then start to fight, as V questions J on her betrayal and her working with Cyn. V exclaims that J told her that the Absolute Solver would leave them alone as long as she and N did their jobs correctly. J then states that the Solver tricked V, and if J promised her anything, then it tricked her as well, revealing that she was aware of Tessa's fate.
J fires a missile at V, saying that "there's no escape, even in death", showing that she really doesn't see a way to escape Cyn, hence why she's helping her. After cutting V's lower leg off, J asks her to join her and Cyn on the "winning team". V refuses the offer and they continue to fight, as N and Uzi fire a composed black hole at Cyn.
Later, while Cyn goes after Uzi, J rescinds her offer, and kicks V down, coldly telling her that she never truly needed her or N before shooting at her. Time passes and after Cyn starts chasing V, with V narrowly escaping her, J ambushes V, kicking her and sending V flying down. Cyn throws N's corpse next to V and J then watches as Cyn is about to kill her former friends.
Uzi blocks Cyn's attack, cutting one of Cyn's limbs off in the process. Uzi then points the railgun at both J and Cyn. J's visor shows the words "PRIOR HAZARD," remembering the railgun from her previous death. Cyn then approaches Uzi for the final fight.
J stands with Cyn as the fight starts, until Uzi fires the railgun at her, the laser cutting her left pigtail short before tossing it at her. The railgun hits J in the head, knocking her down to the ground. Cyn launches "Tessa's" sword at Uzi, her tail grabbing J and using her as a shield to take the impact from the sword. J is decapitated and Uzi launches J's head back at Cyn.
Moments later, a regenerated J appears again when Cyn tries to trick Uzi into thinking she stabbed N, ready to attack Uzi from behind. V then covers for Uzi, exclaiming that J was on the wrong team as she shoots her, and N telling Cyn that there will be no more tricks. Her visor displaying the Disassembly Drone "X" J is sent falling down into the labs and doesn't appear again until the credits.
During the end credits, J can be seen fixing the landing pod inside the spire that she previously destroyed — presumably to leave Copper 9.
Abilities
| Ability | Function |
|---|---|
| Flight | Like other Disassembly Drones, J possesses a pair of large retractable wings with several long blades for feathers. They allow for high-speed flight and can be used to cut and impale targets. |
| Corrosive Nanite Acid | The end of J's tail has a syringe of Nanite Acid. |
| Extreme Agility and Strength | J is agile and possesses more strength than the average Worker Drone due to having Disassembly Drone physiology. |
| Virus Implant | J has a virus chip in case another Disassembly Drone becomes "corrupted." The virus is fatal and will kill the drone unless removed by an external force, such as another individual. She implanted one into N when he began to question JCJenson's motives during the "PILOT", but only for N to be saved by Uzi Doorman and survive after J had left the scene. |
| Interchangeable Hands | Similar to other Disassembly Drones, J can switch out her hands for various tools and weaponry as she is to have:
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| EMP Immunity | J is immune to electromagnetic pulses. |
| Absolute Solver | After J was destroyed beyond repair by Uzi's railgun, a mysterious backup program called the Absolute Solver appeared and began its directive of collecting material from Worker Drones to reconstruct J's form. |
Relationships
Allies
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Enemies
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Gallery
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Trivia
- J is the only Disassembly Drone to have been shown destroyed beyond regeneration and later reconstructed.
- She has artistic abilities, as shown in "Home".
- J is the only Disassembly Drone to be shown using their EMP generator.
- In the Season 1 Teaser, when asked the question "Is J dead?", Liam Vickers responded with nervous stuttering and an "Uh-oh!", implying her eventual return, which would come true in "The Promening".
- When asked about the characters' ages, Liam said they were intended to be in their older teens, meaning J is possibly 17-19 years old.
- As shown in the announcement video for the Glitch Inn, J was originally meant to be male.
- J, along with her teammate, V, were one of two characters to know before the reveal that astronaut Tessa was Cyn, as confirmed and heavily implied by their dialogue in "Absolute End".
- From Liam Vickers' perspective, J views herself as a competent leader and the responsible one among her trio with N and V. She believes that she has sacrificed a lot to keep the group together, seeing herself as a thankless leader and/or older sibling who does not receive the recognition she deserves.[1]
References
| Characters |
|---|
Worker Drones |