I really wanna talk about Jax in this episode and the theories surrounding him.
Jax is so, so interesting in this episode. Beyond interesting. He clearly is in a mental state that is deteriorating even before the mentions of escaping came to him. The abstraction in this room, hallucinating Ribbit, being at piece with what he knows is abstraction, that all happens even before he meets Abel.
And when he does meet Abel and the entire plan to get out, he.. cooperates. He gives them the keys, opens the Chinese door, goes on the date with Caine, follows them the entire time despite his previous suspicions. He is helpful in ways he never typically is when he is forced to go along with an adventure or plan.
Before, I feel like Jax would have truly been annoyed the whole entire time, if he truly thought this was a waste, or if he truly didnβt want to escape.
I think Caine played on the existing fear in Jax, the fear of leaving, returning to a world he was mentally trying to escape even before he joined the circus.
But I donβt think Jax wanted to trap everyone else too.
I think those flashbacks were to make him feel desperate, afraid. Itβs not like Jax would have protested if Pomni was ready to push the button, and didnβt protest the entire time they were in Caines office, even if his nerves were shot. It was only when the arguing started, and maybe the distress of the moment mixed with Caines influence drove him to finish the adventure and choose the right option.
Then again, you could argue that Caine wanted the humans to choose him all on their own, and Jaxβs panic attack about leaving the circus happened to be the right catalyst to get them to stay.
But the regret on his face, not even sure why he would press the red button at allβ tells me that he doesnβt want to stay, or at the very least, didnβt mean to drag them down with him. It is like he is surprised he even made that choice.
So, the fandom is at a crossroads of what made him act. Was it Caine pushing him to make that decision based off of preexisting fear? Or is it Jax and the pure panic he experienced of leaving that drove him to make a choice he fully regrets?
All I know is that if he stays, he will abstract, if he goes, he returns to a world he was already running from. But he regrets the decision he made. And he never intended to press it in the first place if he had a sound mind.