“Murder Drones” is a show created by Liam Vickers. It was released in 2021 by producers Glitch Productions, an Australian company founded in 2017. “Murder Drones” is an eight-episode-long show that follows the story of a Worker Drone named Uzi going against the norm.
Their planet, Copper Nine, suffered a disaster that wiped out biological life; only the worker drones lived. However, life wasn’t peaceful for long. Their parent company, JcJenson, sends Disassembly Drones to kill runway AI.
Uzi fights back against the Disassembly Drones but ends up accidentally saving everyone.“Murder Drones” is finished, but they are still creating new content, such as the recent music video with The Living Tomestone and a graphic novel on Kickstarter.
This article contains spoilers.
Episode one
When watching the “Murder Drones” pilot, my second-hand embarrassment had a hard time, especially if I was watching with others. What got to me were parts that were trying to be funny: for example, when Uzi said she was hormonal, or when J says N is worthless while he says thank you. However, I’m not saying it’s bad; I just get jumpy over parts that make me nervous, even if it’s the most normal conversation.
Episode two
I loved Eldritch J’s design and concept: the idea of something more powerful, able to use holograms to its benefit. Khan is learning slowly that he should be in Uzi’s life more, but is also confronting the teacher and telling him that he will install a door on his face. This showed Doll that she was more than a background character.
Episode three
I liked this episode. However, I don’t understand why V would put on the dress if she was just planning to kill the worker drones and not join the prom. Still, I guess V’s outfit did fit the theme of the episode. Another thing I loved about episode three was the deeper involvement of Doll. Before, Doll was a background character with Lizzy as her friend; at the end of episode two, we saw that Doll was deeper than just a background character. I understood Doll’s intentions; they didn’t make her want to fight randomly. There was a reason. Doll wanted to kill V because V killed her parents right in front of her.
Episode four
I learned more about Uzi’s mom, Nori, and how Khan met her. I loved Uzi’s solver design. With an x across her visor, wings, a tail and an inability to be in the sun, she looked more like a murder drone. The key bug is so cute, and I want to know how Nori got one when she was a test subject: the key bug had a pop-up that showed Nori’s number and her last few messages.
Episode five
The episode was okay; I loved how we saw Tessa and the past murder drones. However, I feel like it didn’t progress the story much. Uzi said she needed to restore the memories or N and V would forget everything, but there was nothing before that showed anything was happening, and they didn’t do much with the memories afterwards, only showing up once in episode seven for a few seconds.
The only thing that moved the plot along was when Uzi was interrupted when Khan asked her if she was having a sleepover or if she had invited Doll. Doll did get the key bug from Uzi after a little fight. Something that could have helped tie the memories to the story better is making it so they remember a weakness Cyn has. For a story, it is fun to know their past; however, if the only reason to know what happened is not of any use to the plot, then it’s filler.
I know episode five was meant to have Uzi fix their memories; however, if “show, don’t tell” was used more, then I would see why she did that. Show them being affected by their memories being erased in past episodes, which gives Uzi a reason to fix them, while maybe gaining knowledge about Cyn.
Episode six
This episode is my absolute favorite episode. It starts a bit slow, with Doll running with the key bug; however, once in the labs, around 5:20, my favorite section starts. The section starts with a baby drone with a pop-up of childgiggling.mp3 in a long hallway. The baby drone is Beau.
After climbing away from N, who was shooting at them, Alice shows up and knocks them unconscious. But we also get to see the anti-drone sentinels, the raptor-like scarcity system and boot-looping drones to stop them. The sentinels kill Alice and Beau. The main group has to fight the sentinels, but Uzi is starting to get possessed by the solver (also called Cyn) after getting tricked by Doll, whose trap was smart. Doll pretended to have been boot-looped by the sentinels with the keybug in the open. It showed V getting left behind with the sentals, hinting that they killed her.
Episode seven
This episode has my favorite start because we get to see more of Nori and Yava. Before, we only got glimpses of who they were. In episode three, with Yava being revealed to be Doll’s mother, and in episode two, revealing that Nori was Uzi’s mom. Nori was possessed by Cyn and created a hologram to trick the one intern that it was safe, only to cut off when the crucifix patch was thrown at his face, being a video on a screen.
Then we see a modern Nori: a core that looks like organic matter and tech mixed together. It seems that only a few solver users can have the core because Yava was killed, but the Solver should see the core version of her; it seems some of the powers are limited to some users. Doll could duplicate stuff, but Uzi couldn’t. It’s not shown, but every time the solver was trying to eat in the tunnels, Tessa disappears. When Nori asks N who the solver’s host is, both Doll and Uzi aren’t possessed. When Doll confronts Tessa, Tessa disappears, something hurts the doll fatally, but there is enough time to walk towards Uzi, warning her to fight back. After N killed Tessa, Uzi gets possessed by Cyn in a big fight against possessed Uzi and N with Nori at his side. This builds up to reveal that Tessa was Cyn pretending to be her, after coming back from N decapitating her.
Episode eight
The start showed places we have seen in past episodes, like episode three with Doll’s home and the bugs, episode four with Nori’s closet and another for episode four showing Rebecca and Braidon’s bodies at Camp 98.7. I also loved the space part because of how they added little audio to make it more realistic and immersive. It’s revealed that V survived when she came back with the red sentinel. It didn’t say, but the name of the red sentinel is Sparky, and they wear Beau’s hat. During the fight with V and J, Sparky terrorizes Lizzy, Thad and Khan.
The part when Cyn reached through Uzi’s chest and pulled out her core was very gruesome but cool: the thought of being pulled out of your body, dropping to the ground and trying to push your insides back into your body, all while having no hands. That part only lasted for a few seconds; however, I feel like it’s almost a wake-up call to Uzi that fighting Cyn could kill her. She did see Doll die, but wasn’t too focused on her death. She was panicking when trying to run away from Cyn while dragging N.
When Cyn does the call back ping while Uzi and N hide, it was very cool. I like how that part showed the suspense and their fear. The fight with Cyn and J vs Uzi, N and V was awesome; the song was fire. Uzi, N and V weren’t as scared of Cyn, but they were leaning against each other to stay calm. If one or more got downed, they were clearly worried and scared. When Uzi did get Cyn’s core, it was a bit scary, and the choking noises were gross, but seeing Cyn have the emojis in her eyes made me laugh.
Overall
During the credits, I started to question and theorise more. They show Doll’s silhouette. I did hear it wasn’t canon; however, I don’t know where that was said, so take it with a grain of salt. Doll possibly being alive or a ghost can open a lot for future stories. I’ve seen fan-made content using the idea.
The eldritch worm is still alive. I have multiple ideas. One theory is that the worm can be left over from Cyn, but she just chills with Uzi or is stuck with her with control of the worm. My second theory is that it’s Uzi. At the end of the credits, Uzi glitches like she was a hologram, like how Cyn did in episode five while warning Tessa about the gala. Cyn had a glitch effect; her upper body was normal, with her lower body glitching into a worm with the hologram projectors. If that is Uzi’s body now, she can’t hide her new body forever, so she puts it somewhere else to hide it. The part could also just be a reference to episode two.
Throughout the show, I noticed hidden parts that had code or popups in someone’s point of view. In the pilot, from N’s point of view and focused on Uzi, there was a pop-up saying Uzi had Plot armor or J having a monologue mp3. The hidden stuff in codes and pop-ups in characters’ POVs happened throughout the show. Some happened so fast that I needed to rewind and slow down the video to pause on the right moment. For example, in episode eight, when Uzi was about to faint after eating Cyn’s core, for a second on the bottom right, it says “RUS DOLL,” possibly meaning that Doll’s code or stuff is in Uzi, transferring Doll’s code to Cyn, then to Uzi after Uzi ate Cyn’s core.
Another thing that really scratched an itch was the solver symbols. I have done 3D modeling, and the solver symbols are the same as moving, rotating, scaling and editing. It’s a nice easter egg.
Throughout the series, there are hidden memes, like in episode seven, there is a thumbs-up emoji. Another one is in episode six. In the beginning, there were about four memes on the wall of the cubicle, all in some way about working.
Another thing I found interesting is that episode two had a scrapped idea of zombie drones; they used it for the music video instead. Throughout the series, it’s not very clear if Cyn is the Solver or if they are separate. Cyn was a regular worker drone before being improperly disposed of, causing the Solver to bring her back. What’s not clear is whether Cyn is the one controlling the Solver or if the Solver is its own thing in her body. The other Solver users, like Uzi or Doll, can control the Solver’s power, but they aren’t the admin, unlike Cyn. Uzi possibly becomes the admin of the Solver after eating Cyn’s core. After talking to a fan online, they said something interesting: N, V and J’s names all mean something that goes with their character, like N means nice, V is violent and J is job.
I love all the characters; there’s not one I hate. One character that stood out to me was Alice. I’m not sure why. She showed up for one episode, died, then when her number showed up in the next episode, the name that went with her number was Giam. I love that she is a drone that uses the limited resources around her to survive in a harsh environment. I wish it showed more on Alice before Copper Nine’s core exploded because she did know Nori and Yava.
She was in the background of the photo in episode six that Tessa put up on the computer. She was a part of the cabin fever labs experiments, possibly having Solver, but based on the PC in episode seven, the Solver wasn’t effective. Before, I thought it was because she had sharp teeth, but after rewatching “Murder Drones” again, normal drones could also have sharp teeth.
Another character I’m starting to get attached to is Amda. She shows up twice in episode six, once getting boot looped, and another time when she is dead after Alice decapitates her. This time, I’m not sure why I like her; she is barely even in the episode and has no voice lines other than breathing. An honorable mention is J. I also like her, but not as much as the other two.
The show was very well-made; however, there are some things I would bring up that don’t affect the series much. One is the drone age. N and Uzi are meant to be around the same age; however, the timeline is weird. When N is on Earth, Uzi is possibly not even born yet. They are drones, and age doesn’t matter much to robots; however, they do mimic human life: they have a school, and some have parents, so ages have to be somewhere within that. It’s possible that N was made into the age he is, but still had to learn stuff around him. It would be inconvenient for a drone to be a baby right out of the factory if they were made for work, but they wouldn’t know everything. Uzi was made into a baby drone. After the core collapse, she had to learn everything herself and be upgraded into the model she has now.
Another would be the pacing of the show. Scenes in the show seem to go fast. They kept changing the point of view to something else after a few seconds. When I watched with my dad, he seemed lost, even asking what was happening. Even watching with friends, they also seemed lost, needing me to explain. However, rewatching it did clear things up.
Some small details that make me a bit upset are J and V’s legs; there is no grip for their feet. If Cyn wanted to create drones good at murdering, wouldn’t they think of their grip? Copper Nine is snow and ice; they are going to slip, hindering their ability to move and murder. Though I have a few criticisms, don’t let it discourage you from watching
“Murder Drones”; the ages are confirmed for N and Uzi to be around the same age, and the pacing isn’t bad all the time.
Despite the show being over, the fans are still active. Glitch Productions has been making a music video, a graphic novel and new merch. I would recommend this to anyone who has watched Glitch Productions’ other shows, like “The Amazing Digital Circus,” “Knights of Guinevere” or “The Gaslight District.” There are also plenty of fan projects out there being made, like “Murder Drones Silents,” “Murder Drones System Failure” and “Murder Drones Instability.”
