Thoughts on what went inside Venjix’s lair when the grumpy Sibs and the Boom Twins were captured??
There have always been a few questions I've had in terms of how Venjix technology works, it's vague at times and a little confusing so pardon me if I take liberties with my concepts. Also, fair warning, my theories are not PG rated in the slightest and might be a little disturbing concept-wise.
I'm going to give you a run-down of a timeline of some of Dillon's main flashbacks. The Tables - AKA: Dissection, Study, and Early-Stage Experimentation
In flashbacks we do see some of the inside of Venjix's lair. In episode 20, we see Flynn drop a socket wrench on the ground, the sound causing Dillon to have a flashback. In his flashback, we see him amongst others in rows on tables (Tenaya is also there). The noise that the socket wrench reminded him of was a grinder dropping some sort of plier-type tool. We see grinders hovering over many sedated humans, all wrapped in what looks to be those insulated thermal blankets. There are wires and tubes attached to all of them, and we even see a grinder holding what looks to be like a different type of pliers or tongs. So, what does this mean?
In my opinion, it implies that whatever they were doing in that area likely involved dissection. Yes, you heard right. Venjix was making its grinders dissect human captives. This could have been for various reasons, from studying and understanding, testing the durability of subjects, and even early-stage experimentation on them.
I do have a theory that there was a sort of cattle-herding type area before the tables, but we never see any canonical evidence of that. It's just a theory of mine that they were all gathered up, herded into a tight space and then lined up, slowly picked out, sedated, then thrown down onto the tables. Now, if they survived that then I'm guessing they were moved to other places. Bringing us to our next part.
Here's where it gets tricky, this story is literally told in broken blurry fragments so bear with me here.
The Cells - AKA: Individual Experimentation and Manual Upgrading
It is revealed that Gem and Gemma shared a cell next to Tenaya. Now you might be wondering "Where is Dillon??? What about his escape?". We assume that likely Gem and Gemma were captured after Dillon escaped. This is likely true, or at least they were in earlier stages of capture when Dillon got out. Whether or not Dillon got to the cells is up for debate, he could have been put in the cell with Tenaya and that is when they made their escape attempt, but that's not what I personally believe. Personally, I think that Dillon escaped off the table and took Tenaya with him. And this is when they made their escape attempt. However, it obviously failed, and they were separated.
This is the moment Venjix chose Dillon to be its next attempt at creating a human hybrid. Everything before was just tests, measurements, and Dillon was strong enough to endure all of that torture and escape. What Venjix did to Dillon was a punishment but also what I theorize to be the first successful attempt at making a human hybrid.
At this point Dillon's memories are "taken" by the SatBot (I don't believe this to be true, but I won't get into it here) and he is upgraded. Meanwhile, Tenaya is sent down the tunnel. Now I know you're probably thinking "But wait, wasn't that the moment Tenaya got upgraded?". I would assume so too, except when Gem and Gemma meet Tenaya in the cells, she's blind. So, I'm guessing whatever that was, was kind of a bluff? Just to kind of torment Dillon further, and maybe crush his idea of rescuing his sister? I don't know, Venjix is weird as hell. I don't understand it.
This is where I just make shit up. I believe after Dillon's memories were taken, Dillon was sent to be further opened up and have Venjix technology implanted inside him manually. Tenaya is sent back to the cells and that's where Gem and Gemma come in (I'm not sure if they confirmed that Gem and Gemma were hybrids or not??? I'm still rewatching right now, but either they got out before being manually upgraded or they got out after). Shortly thereafter, Tenaya is upgraded as well because her upgrades and Dillon's were of the same generation, seven.
Now this is where the confusion comes, because I always wondered how Dillon got out.
He got captured, didn't he? Memories removed and upgrades implanted. And they want me to believe he just got out? That can't be right because how did he get the watch and the key? Only his key specifically, not even Tenaya's, so obviously he didn't go back to that cell where they were because he would have found Tenaya or at least her key. I believe that Kilobyte purposefully released Dillon at this point as a latent and dormant attempt to infiltrate Corinth City without Venjix’s knowledge, causing him to be exiled. To give him just enough humanity to seek out the only city nearby, to seek answers in civilization. With the knowledge that eventually the latent nanotechnology inside of him would take over.
Anyways, thanks for the question I love talking about this stuff lmao. Hope it isn't too long and rambly.
Oh shit this essay is everything!! Thank you!
I think you’re right about the entire thing with the tables and the dissections. I’ve wondered a lot about that myself. It’s laid out pretty neatly in the ask.
That thing about Dillon? What you mentioned in the last paragraph about him just ‘getting out’ would be stupid; Venjix is complicated as heck and as we’ve seen he’s got plans for everything and everyone. Your explanation that Dillon was sent in to infiltrate feels right. And additionally I think it’s a little fuzzy in the series because of the intended finale that they never went through. The entire thing was that whole conspiracy theory that Ranger Black was supposed to be the finale/penultimate episode where it would probably be revealed that Dillon wasn’t Dillon all along but just a subject (and the memories of Tenaya being his sister were also supposedly fake~ so there’s that) and probably a sleeper agent sent to infiltrate the ranger base.
And then halfway through they scrapped that storyline and went with the “everything we know is real” bit. This was neat too, but a lot of things make more sense when you look at them that way.
If you don’t mind me asking; I was wondering how many of the Corinth citizens were actually sleeper agents (that includes Higgs too) and those people were they also experimented on, and converted to hybrids? Did they also infiltrate? And if they did, then When? Somehow it doesn’t make sense that Dillon would be ‘the first’ to me?
But more than that, your analysis of everything that went on in the fortress was perfect!! Thank you so much!!!
As for the scrapped storyline, that could have been pretty cool. Specifically finding out that Tenaya wasn’t even his sister, that would have been really interesting to explore. I was always extremely disappointed that we never found out who Dillon and Tenaya really were. We never even got their real names (I personally named Dillon ‘Dennis/Denny’ lmao).
I believe when it came to the realization that there was a huge population of hybrids, that Venjix had infected everyone during the big battle in the start of the series. I think they said something like a 1/3 of the population was hybrids. My thought is that Venjix’s technology had to do with nanotechnology, which would explain how it could ‘grow’. And that means that he could have slipped that stuff into damn near anything, like a gas, and just blasted it everywhere. So anyone who was out in the field when it all happened were infected. I have a theory that the Venjix virus Dillon was infected with, and that which all the others were infected with had nothing to do with Dillon and Tenaya’s original upgrades. Their original upgrades were put into place fast, likely instantaneously and manual, while the ‘virus’ version of it (the nanotechnology) took time to grow and develop organically. Like a seed growing into a plant. So, Dillon having the nanotechnology in him was just like a booster to the stuff put inside him.
The people in Corinth were just people infected during the attack, I’m assuming. But as for all the prisoners Venjix held captive and likely turned into hybrids. I’m not sure what could have happened to them, who knows, maybe a lot of them died. If they were sent in to infiltrate, they probably could have. That dome was filled with holes, they could have infiltrated at any time. From the way Ziggy acted in episode one, it seemed like outside civilians did get into Corinth. So I mean maybe they got in then? In Go for the Green we see the guard scanning Tenaya and it keeps scanning positive for Venjix hardware and he says “Sorry, this has been giving me false positives all day”. Which might be seen as just a coincidence, but maybe they just assumed it was because there had been so many positives showing up in newcomers. Who knows?
Oooooh yeah!! Deffo. Dillon’s real name isn’t Dillon he just came up with that to shut Ziggy up. (D-44 is what he was actually assigned so that probably says that his first name actualy did begin with a D, possibly the forty fourth of the people they were listing whose names began with a D. Ive had THAT Headcanon for a while) and I really wish we gotta know Doc K’s real name too while we’re on the subject.
Okay so that means the venjix virus in itself would be in the form of nanobots… and that kinda opens up a shit ton of new possibilities firjdjdhjdnfndn. I do like the idea that Dillon and Tenaya’s techs were different from the other sleepers and that the nanobots only served to multiply it within them. That also means that probably Tenaya was also going through the same problems as Dillon was? With his body being taken over by the virus slowly, in percentages. But in Tenaya’s case Venjix would’ve probably told her that it was good, that it was the best thing that could happen to her. Doesn’t explain how she didn’t bleed in the beginning but did in the end. But ok. Power rangers weirdness. Like an undiagnosed disease.
Wasn’t there an episode where they found some of the Venjix prisoners?
That chink in the armour you mentioned with the guard scanning Tenaya and it coming out positive though. I hadn’t noticed that. That’s making me think now. Venjix hardware— that might imply the infected people OR the actual cyborgs with machine parts for body. Now THAT is interesting~
