Tessa James Elliott, more commonly referred to simply as Tessa, was the posthumous overarching protagonist of Murder Drones, as well as the inadvertent instigator of humanity's downfall.
She was the daughter of James and Louisa Elliott, who recovered numerous discarded Worker Drones from a nearby dump and repurposed them to be her friends and servants at Elliott Manor, growing especially close to Serial Designation N, V, J, and Cyn, who had the Absolute Solver's influence over her body.
Physical Appearance[]
Memory[]
Tessa is portrayed as a dark silhouette with white glowing eyes, akin to all humans in the series. She possesses a slender physique and a relatively tall stature, standing taller than the Worker Drones yet distinctly not resembling a full matured adult. Her hair is black and styled into downward twin tails, each secured with a hair band at the lower end.
Her silhouette suggests she is dressed in a short, dark dress with half short cap sleeves with ruffled cuffs, waist band with a bow on it, complemented by high heels, and a large tilted black double looped bow behind her hair.
Based on her hybrid appearance, it can be determined that Tessa had black hair and light skin, although her eye color is still undetermined. It also reveals that Tessa's dress is black and purple, has a corset like structure with purple lace, and a layered skirt with ruffled ends, as well as her bow possessing a purple centerpiece.
Astronaut[]
Disguised as Tessa, the Solver wore a tinted astronaut helmet that was decorated with a small rainbow and smiley face sticker on the top right side of the visor. She also wore a JCJenson branded cap (corroborating her false affiliation to them) and a large, slightly tilted black bow hanged up at the back of her helmet.
Her outfit consisted of a short-sleeved, white crop-top-like jacket with a shiny silver leotard underneath. She wore a pair of moderately long white gloves that were yellow at the ends and silver pants with knee-high strapped boots. Finally, she had a golden name tag that showed her name and occupation, and carried a broadsword on her back attached with silver straps. To her left hip, she also has a pocket where she sometimes holds her revolver.
Hybrid[]
Currently, Tessa and Cyn share the same appearance, given that Tessa's corpse is grafted onto the latter's Worker Drone body. The Cyn/Tessa hybrid's face bears gaping eye sockets which have been ripped/enlarged to make way for the drone's visor, where glowing yellow X symbols are displayed as Cyn's and Tessa's eyes. Cyn's hands also hang freely from her wrists, with Tessa's human hands draped on top. At the neck reaching to the ripped part of Tessa's corpse to reveals a code "1001" on her chest, similar to the ones of disposed drones bodies in the pile where Cyn was first awakened by the Solver. There is a black arrow pointing at it on the skin of Tessa's neck, on her left arm there are two black arrows, and on the left thigh there are two arrows that trail down to the end of where Tessa's knee would be. In both the show, concept art, and promotional material, various seams on her body that, instead of stitches, are lined with a symbol of four small arrows pointing towards the center, a symbol similar to the "scale down" computer icon.
Tessa still has the same hairstyle and attire as when she was a child. Three intestine-like tentacles protrude out of the hybrid form's back in a similar arrangement to the Absolute Solver Translate symbol, which she uses to stand and walk around on. Tessa's skin appears to be entering early stages of decomposition.
Personality[]
In her youth, Tessa was a very lively and kind-hearted individual, although somewhat morbid, hinted at by the décor in her room: shelves with human bones and skulls, bottles of blood, jars filled with chemicals and medicine with latin labels and lunar cycle, a small collection of giant baby doll heads, a large witch ornament made of sticks, bones, rope and with a hanging triangle and cross made of twigs, pinned-up sheets of texts that have been written over with glyphs, gibberish-squiggles, or occult summoning circles, pentagrams, and goetia seals - if they aren't written on the walls themselves, along with a larger demonic summoning circle written on the floor and surrounded by lit candles - and a neatly-drawn skull and crossbones on one of her walls. This personality is further hinted by her habit of digging up corpses for their hair to bleach and decorate her Drone friends with. This morbid interest is contrasted by her other more immature room decorations, such as a metal arrow sign with "Live Laugh Love", crayon drawings of childish things like a rainbow, a pink toy doll house with male swimsuit figures, a collection of books, a rocking horse, small plushies of a panda and a blue whale, two strings of mutli-coloured LED lights above her bed, and a bicycle.
Young Tessa was asocial, having little to no interest with other humans and didn't know how to interact with them, exclaiming that she had "only ever yakked to robots." Despite her parent's dismay, she had an affinity towards drones and preferred to spend her time with them instead. While Tessa was usually seen close to J, N appeared to be her favorite drone. As proven in her description on Prime Video, she spent her early days fixing old Worker Drones to become her friends and servants, and she had a habit of giving them names and human hair, something other humans disapproved of.
As an adult, Tessa (really the Solver impersonating her) was first portrayed as a rather serious and intimidating individual during the ending of "The Promening". From the way the Solver portrayed adult Tessa, she seemed to be overly confident, exclaiming "Human-made security this human can control!" with pride and confidence, despite not actually having control over the Sentinels. Adult Tessa also retained a bit of an immature streak, grabbing and spinning N around as she did when she was a child, which yet again makes sense as this was what the Solver was exposed to.
However, when it was revealed that Tessa's body was grafted onto Cyn's, the Absolute Solver completely dropped the imitation act.
Prime Video Introduction[]
Tessa is the cheerful lonely daughter of the rich Elliots. She spent her early days tinkering on old worker drones to become her friends and servants inadvertently setting off the events of the series. She mysteriously appears again on Copper 9 one day, her intentions seeming rather....unknown?[1]
Biography[]
Pre-series[]
Tessa Elliott was born to Louisa and James Elliott. Not much is known about her early life, other than that she was part of a wealthy family and lived in a manor with her parents. It's heavily implied that she was mistreated by her parents, such as with Louisa shackling Tessa with a chain in her bedroom whenever she misbehaved (which happened frequently enough to leave Tessa with a sensitive wrist). Tessa didn't know how to interact with other humans and her only real friends were Worker Drones.
Tessa was fascinated by Worker Drones and would go out to repair and refurbish discarded Worker Drones from the nearby scrapyard to be her friends at the manor. She would even dress up her drones and give them names and wigs varying in hairstyles of her dead relatives. Other humans, such as her father, James, found this behavior creepy, with her mother even calling J, N, and Cyn "dumpster pets."
Season 1[]
Heartbeat[]
Tessa makes her first appearance in a flashback at the beginning of the episode, when N has a dream about his past life as a Worker Drone still working on Earth as a butler in Elliott Manor.
While N is front of him, and before N encounters Tessa herself, Tessa's father, James, says that they "need to curb her trips to the dump" and wonders where she's getting the hair for her drones, saying it's creepy. Later, J kicks down N and then cuts herself off to greet Tessa when she notices her slightly glitching (from the expression that J gives upon noticing her, Tessa appears to be somewhat of a boss to the various drone maids and butlers around Elliott Manor). Tessa is accompanied by a small newly-repaired Worker Drone, hiding behind her for assurance as she smiles at N, who feels an ominous presence coming from the new maid drone.
The Promening[]
Tessa makes her first present-day appearance at the end of the episode, where she arrives at Copper 9 via landing pod. After her pod lands gracefully, Tessa, now an adult woman and a certified JCJenson technician, jumps out and decapitates a Worker Drone on sight with a sword. A rebuilt J follows shortly after, tossing her the keys to the ship. Tessa then claims that she and J have "maintenance work" to do.
Cabin Fever[]
Despite not physically appearing in the episode, Uzi sees a vision of young human Tessa (the Absolute Solver wearing her skin) briefly standing in the corner, with her back turned to Uzi. However, upon looking back, the apparition is gone and instead, Uzi notices a human hand appear behind the corner, shocking her until she realizes that she is alone.
Home[]
During the events of Home, Tessa is shown through N's memories of his life on Earth, which are being accessed by Uzi through hacking. There, she is shown to see J as her partner while being enamored by N due to him being a "cute butler." Tessa, however, is wary of Cyn since she knows something is wrong with her, secretly working with J to have her locked in the basement because of this.
Tessa first appears with J in the gala room, distraught over not knowing how to talk to humans. She flinches and touches her wrist when she and J clink glasses. Tessa immediately runs to and spins N around when she notices him, but is dismayed to see he brought Cyn with him. Cyn reveals that Tessa and J have been locking her in the basement.
Tessa's mother Louisa arrives, displeased to see the drones. Tessa, J, and Cyn are chained and locked in Tessa's room during the gala by her mother (in Tessa's case, by her wrist), and, due to a further comment from Cyn, N is chained to a tree in the swamp for the crows to devour his parts.
Angered, Tessa blames Cyn for N being punished in her place, only for the Solver to reveal its eldritch form and reassure her that she won't have to discard her pets nor will it have to discard her, as she warns her to stay away from the gala. Horrified that Cyn will slaughter everyone present, Tessa speaks to J about the former committing work-related taboos such as "wanting paid time off" and "attending a union negotiation;" enraging the workaholic J into breaking her and Tessa's chains.
The duo discreetly pass through the upper floors of the mansion, avoiding the guests as they search for a way to murder the "robochild." They come across a night stand with a revolver on it and an authentic medieval sword held by a suit of armor nearby, which they momentarily swap, until N finds them and warns them about V being under the Solver's control. The two help N to get the key to the basement and stay behind to hold off V.
Tessa and J rush to the ballroom where they encounter Cyn. Tessa tries to shoot Cyn and proceeds to throw objects at her as the latter tells Tessa that she didn't have to see this. Cyn reveals her true Absolute Solver form and takes control of J, who shuts the door, trapping Tessa. The Absolute Solver then proceeds to kill everyone off-screen - Tessa can be heard screaming and calling for her mother by N from the basement.
Later, back outside in the present, Tessa and J meet with Doll, who obtained the Keybug from Uzi as part of their deal to take her with them to Cabin Fever Labs. Tessa shoots at Doll to make sure she wasn't like Cyn, to Doll's annoyance and anger. Regardless, the trio proceeds to head out until they're stopped by N, V, and Uzi, who confront them for answers as the episode cuts off.
Dead End[]
The scene picks back up at the beginning of the last episode where N recognizes Tessa, surprised that she is still alive. She joyfully tries to pick him up and spin him around like when she was a child, only to momentarily choke on "toxic air". Tessa is initially teasing of Uzi's presence with N, and in response has her finger bitten by Uzi, who questions why she and J are here. Tessa and J elaborate that Cyn had allegedly disappeared on Earth a while back (with J elaborating that Tessa apparently "ran away", much to the latter's fluster), with her last known act being sending the Disassembly Drones to the human exoplanets.
Doll promptly betrays the group by snatching the Keybug and sprints to the lab before them. J and Tessa pursue her, but are unable to stop the Russian drone from escaping underground. Tessa then promptly orders J to explain part of Cyn's plan, chiming in explain that Cyn wants to enter the Cabin Fever Labs. Then she tosses J the keys to her ship, and tells her to leave. Upon being questioned by Uzi, Tessa explains that Doll believes her parents were experimented on by JCJenson, and that she corroborates this belief. She then promptly swan dives into the labs.
The four (N, Uzi, V, and Tessa) come across a room with pieces of destroyed Disassembly Drones, where Tessa explains there is a security system designed to counter them. After typing on a computer for a moment she claims that as a human, she can control the security system, but awkwardly trails off a laugh and hides a paper saying "ACCESS DENIED". As they locate the labs' secret elevator, Tessa steps on a trap and is dragged away.
Tessa next appears bound to a bed while Beau cuts into N. Tessa easily cuts herself free and waits for Beau to leave so she can get the code to the door, then helps N escape. Afterward Tessa accesses a computer to show N how Earth looks, and explain what became of it. While Tessa elaborates on how the Solver took control of Cyn and destroyed Earth, a photograph of what appears to be an injured (yet seemingly alive) young Tessa after the gala massacre appears. Tessa sympathetically takes N's hand in hers and states that her mission is to enter the labs, find the list of infected drones, and implies she will have to destroy them. She pleads with N to choose the universe over saving Uzi.
Then, a sentinel appears and attacks N. Tessa is shocked for a moment but then attempts to calm the sentinel, improvising and asking the sentinel to "be a nice dingo, please?" The sentinel appears perplexed when its boot-loop light doesn't work on Tessa and instead resorts to biting her. Tessa screams and holds her injured wrist, repeatedly yelling "bad dingo!" At the sight of her blood, veins, and arteries, the sentinel freaks out and slams its head into a wall and drops to the ground. As other sentinels approach Tessa, Uzi's Solver abilities destroy the doors' control panel and allows access to the room, Alice, Uzi, V, and Beau are in. Tessa is seen awkwardly scratching her wrist when the sentinels abandon her in favor of the group.
Tessa is next seen with N when she wakes him up from being bootlooped, as V drops down from the ceiling and angrily confronts Tessa about her not being able to control the sentinels. Uzi wakes up and hugs N, as V looks at Tessa and her irritation quickly turns to concern/fear. The sentinel that bit Tessa earlier wakes up (now with red eyes), as the group looks on from above. The group then see an unconscious Doll holding the Keybug at the end of the hallway. Tessa ignores the group and goes for Doll right away, exclaiming that the suspicious circumstance was "Bloody convenient!"
After failing to access the Keybug she then asks Uzi not to "date her robot" when she sees her and N holding hands. Doll then wakes up, takes the Keybug and puts it on the reader, revealing her trap. She releases sentinels on the group and drops down the elevator shaft. Tessa immediately moves in front of the rest of the group, protecting them and attempting to deter the sentinels with her blood like she did before. The red-eyed sentinel however has now developed a thirst for blood, and regurgitates a severed disassembly drone arm which it uses to shoot at Tessa, only for V to deflect the bullet. Tessa drags N and Uzi into the elevator as V fights the sentinels before cutting the elevator cables to allow the three to continue.
Mass Destruction[]
Following the end of the previous episode, Tessa, N, and Uzi find themselves in a cave after exiting the elevator. After an outburst from N, Tessa protects Uzi and tells him they'll save V after they're finished with the labs. Tessa then sweetly tells Uzi to "sit this one out", has N back her up when Uzi gets confused. When N tries to calm down Uzi, he tells Tessa again that they won't hurt her, to which Tessa does not respond. Uzi's Solver powers activate, causing a tunnel collapse and separating the group.
Tessa next appears at the lockers and, after using her fingerprint to pass the security check, uses the computer to check the Cabin Fever database. She sets the terminal to self-destruct, and watches it burn. Doll then emerges and confronts her about the Crucifix Patch, which Tessa either feigns ignorance of or was genuinely unaware of. She learns that Doll needed it to patch herself to keep the Solver from influencing her, with Doll declaring that she would not let the Solver use her to destroy the planet. Tessa taunts her, saying that the Solver doesn't need her before distracting her and vanishing into the darkness.
After Uzi is done watching the video of the Solver controlling Nori and attacking the scientists at the Cabin Fever Cathedral, a moribund Doll appears and collapses in front of her, with her visor saying "FIGHT BACK" in Russian. Tessa then appears at the entrance, framing Uzi for Doll's death while stating that "someone's been busy." Tessa approaches Uzi as the latter attempts to explain, but quickly realizes Tessa is also a Solver host. Tessa waves off Uzi's panic, stating that there were no worries between them and that she'd expected there to be more solver hosts anyway. Tessa effortlessly knocks Uzi to the ground and impales her with her sword, but is swiftly stopped by N before she can deal the killing blow. N puts a blade to her neck and demands that Tessa elaborate if she knew about the patch, yet still insisted on killing Uzi anyway. When Tessa doesn't answer, N decapitates her.
Later, after N and Nori Doorman battle a Solver-possessed Uzi, a headless Tessa reanimates and reattaches her head, then proceeds to discard her suit which flops onto the ground in a pool of her own blood. After doing so, she walks over to Doll and proceeds to eat her core, revealing that Tessa was assimilated all along, and under the suit was nothing more than her mangled self melded with Cyn. Tessa does not directly appear again for the rest of the series.
Absolute End[]
When Uzi melts the Solver's core in the sun, Tessa can briefly be heard screaming. After Uzi eats the Solver's singularity core shortly afterward, the Cyn-Tessa hybrid falls to her knees and melts away. Once the flesh, oil and drone parts break down, several of Tessa's innards such as her ribcage, femur, jawbone and hands, are left in front of Uzi while others fall below.
Relationships[]
Family[]
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Enemies[]
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Gallery[]
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Trivia[]
- Steph Crothers, her voice actor, has confirmed that Tessa is an Australian/Aussie.[2]
- The gun Tessa acquired in "Home" was a black powder Colt 1851 Navy Revolver, although it was treated as a cartridge-converted version in the episode.
- Tessa's model in Heartbeat and Home appears to have a larger and rounder head compared to all other humans in the show.
- Current Tessa's true identity being The Absolute Solver in disguise has been foreshadowed several times prior to the reveal in Mass Destruction.
- If one looks closely, Tessa and Cyn appear to share the same hairstyle (albeit in different colors), foreshadowing their later fusion of appearance and identity used to fool the main cast by the Absolute Solver.
- Tessa in Home is shown to be a Drone lover, yet when first appearing in The Promening, "Tessa" has no qualms in killing Reid despite him never showing signs of Solver infection or aggression.
- Astronaut "Tessa's" visor is completely pitch black beneath and never shows her real face.
- Tessa is denied access of the Cabin Fever Lab's defensive systems despite claiming that she, as a human, can control it.
- This may have simply been the security system requiring certain clearance or a password which Tessa did not have however, as she is seen typing on a computer beforehand, so this may not have been intended foreshadowing.
- Sparky is visibly confused by Tessa and does not understand why its bootloop light is not working on her.
- Additionally, Tessa is mostly unaffected by her injury which slowly heals over the course of the rest of the episode. This however may have just been an example of Murder Drones's "toon logic", or Tessa just has a high pain tolerance.
- When V saves Tessa from a bullet, the latter can be seen making a hand sign that vaguely resembles a Solver gesture, although this is more than likely just a coincidence.
- Tessa's crop top has an emblem on its right shoulder that shows Earth and six symbols which seem to represent the human exoplanets. The emblem has Earth and five of the other symbols crossed out, with only one (presumably Copper 9) left.
- There are a few discrepancies between Tessa's appearance in the show and her design in concept art:
- Tessa and Cyn are both depicted with small bows on the ends of their hair in the official art. However, there are no bows shown on them in the show.
- Tessa's hybrid form's tentacles appear serrated (and barbed) and in the official art, similar to the tentacles of the hearts of Solver-infected drones. In contrast, these tentacles are smooth in the show.
- During the flashback in "Home", when Tessa notices N in the gala room, she throws down a glass and runs up to him, grabbing him by his face as she spins him around. In "Dead End", Cyn, who at the time was there watching the entire interaction, mimicked this very moment while masquerading as adult Tessa - she acted as though she was glad that N remembered her from when he was a simple Worker Drone, but was cut off as she complained about the air being toxic despite wearing a suit to protect her from the elements.
- Although various Merch, concept art, and model appearances of Tessa's hybrid form shows she has clear skin, a few pieces by Liam have portrayed her as having freckles on her face, shoulders, arms and legs.
- Tessa's hybrid appearance was foreshadowed in the "It came from Copper 9!" poster revealed after the release of "Dead End". Behind Doll, there was an unidentified creature with an evil grin and X's on both eyes. This has since been revealed to be the Absolute Solver wearing Tessa's melded body from within Cyn.
- Liam Vickers stated that the hair Tessa used for her drones was actually hair that she'd collected from human corpses found in the swamp surrounding her home, or by digging up graves in the family cemetery built on the plot, which she later bleached. In the series proper, this is only briefly hinted at by the human bones in Tessa's room.[3]
- In the teaser image for "Home" in which Tessa appears in a portrait standing next to Cyn, she is holding a shovel, which also hints at her graverobbing habits.
- Despite being a disguise used by Cyn, merch videos portray astronaut Tessa as a separate character from Cyn.
- This spawned fan theories that Tessa was somehow still conscious within her fusion with Cyn, which ironically was further supported by the full version of Forever.
- It is implied in AJ DiSpirito's full "Forever" song that Tessa is still alive/conscious within Cyn's hybrid of her corpse (or simply within the Solver's consciousness in general) and is begging for death. However, it's unknown if this should be considered canon.
- The full song's vinyl being sold as official merch on the Glitch Store as well as having cover art drawn by Liam Vickers seems to imply that it is official.
References[]
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Worker Drones |