The Doors of Abstraction
With the finale officially out to the public and a good 24-hour period since its release, I can do some good ol' fashioned analysis!
This will be heavily inspired and influenced by a comment I saw on youtube (so credits there), but with my thoughts and over-analysing tendencies.
SPOILERS AHEAD ↓
As we see Pomni enter Jax’s mind-scape, she comes across the different and bizarre scenarios of each members abstraction. Each of which represents the lost archetypes he'd assigned them in episode 6.
Door 1 | Ragatha "The Cheerful One"
Jax lost his cheerfulness. His rock. He would never admit it out loud, but Ragatha, even through her toxic positivity he condemned her for, was what kept part of his being intact. And with her abstraction, it is gone. Gone enough that the thing that made him spiral, hurting Pomni, did not matter anymore. Especially when Pomni was saying things that Ragatha could have said.
The significance of Ragatha and her cheerfulness he'd associated her with was also one of the last connections he had to the person he was when he first entered the circus. Significantly, it's the first scenario Pomni goes through, and maybe it was even trying to scare her off.
Door 2 | Zooble "The Grumpy One"
Jax lost his grumpiness, and subsequently his shame. It was exactly that part of him that ultimately didn't care about how he's perceived anymore. It is also quite interesting to note how he views Gangle in this scenario. "She likes it when I'm mean, though!" he had said in episode 5, and that mindset is quite present in this. And he believes it so. "I like you better when you're sad." he had said in episode 4, making it clear that the manager mask was not his preferred one, and yet a part of him knows this is the version of Gangle that can protect herself from him. That can stand up to him. It's the only version that has done so. With the unbreakable mask Zooble gave her, now in place of Zooble themself.
Door 3 | Gangle "The Sad One"
Jax lost his sadness. And in a world with no sadness, everything is goofy, more cartoon-ish. Like the old, nostalgic Looney Toons cartoons. It is the only one that's self-explanatory in its imagery. He can no longer be sad.
I can only add that Jax had clocked that Zooble and Gangle were more than friends.
Door 4 | Kinger "The Crazy One"
At first glance, it would seem that there was no Kinger scenario. Only for it to be this very scene. Jax has lost his craziness. And the result created the most sane version of himself in this room; the Jax that plays the piano. A version that is nicer, calmer, and is just playing Daisy Bell. What's interesting to note aside from the aforementioned, it's that he's chained to it, as if to be sane, he needs to be there.
There could be many interpretations as to why he's chained, the one I thought after the movie was because of the expectations placed on him, but I digress.
This version is the one that gives Pomni the key to the real Jax. He gives her his trust.
Door 5 | Pomni "The One Who Hasn’t Figured That Out Yet"
In a technical manner, this is door 3, but it's the only one that never gets opened. The one where no scenario comes out of it but a noise that the other versions yell, "Shut up!" to it. This isn't the Jax who's lost anything or at least, not an archetype. This is the Jax that knows exactly who he is, that has figured it out. And that version is the worst parts of himself that he cannot handle facing. Because Pomni, for the limited time she has known him and been there, has done more damage to his psyche than he can bear to face.
Door 6 | Jax "The Funny One"
And that's the end of it! I'm sure I'm missing some nuances, and there are others that analyze these things with different perspectives on the doors or whatnot, but I wanted to dip my hand in it just once. Hope it makes as much sense as the comment that inspired the spiral, lol.
The final door. The Jax that lost his funniness. The real Jax. Raw and depressed. Someone with no jokes to spare. The reality of him is so very lonely, with choices that weigh heavily on him. Choices in which he kept on making until he ended up here. The one that was never really funny to begin with, just lost. The one that, at last, Pomni finds.













