runaway gecko

I genuinely don't understand what they were trying to do with Caine and Bubble (who may or may not be the blue AI).

because right after being deleted - and I'm not even gonna say anything about the deletion somehow turning out to be a bon voyage into the void - Caine looks at Bubble, who has no face anymore, and sees himself in the reflection. the implication here seems to be that Bubble was, in fact, Caine (or a part of him). and at first I thought Bubble disappeared after Caine got rid of the blue orb, but no. we don't see him again after the reflection scene.

so it's STILL not clear if was Bubble the 2nd AI or not? or if the blue just manifested through him somehow?? I don't know, maybe I'm missing the obvious, but to me it never seemed like Bubble was anything more than a personification of Caine's intrusive/negative thoughts or smth like that. he didn't behave like he was sentient or had his own desires, emotions, etc. and I definitely hadn't suspected that there's some multiple personalities stuff going on. // I like the idea of Caine being plural, I just... don't think it was portrayed well in the show, if that's what they were going for.

when Caine "switches" (not sure if it's the right word), the "alter" still talks like Caine - I was abandoned, it's my turn to have fun. but the blue AI wasn't abandoned, Caine was. so if the blue one, who's supposed to be that alter, is taking over, why does it have Caine's perspective? and why is it so angry?

also, are we really blaming Caine's instability on the blue AI?? if anything, the beginning of ep 8 showed us that Caine is the unstable one. was it just a weird attempt to absolve him of his blame for crashing out and torturing everyone? but even Caine himself acknowledges that those were his actions, not someone else's. plus, he is so much more interesting when he makes his own horrible decisions. characters don't have to be innocent to be likable and/or relatable.

ok, maaaaaybe said instability was caused by the merge itself, or by Caine having too much power because of having another AI inside of him, idk. again, doesn't make much sense cuz of ep 8 - Caine was unstable from the moment he was created.

I really, REALLY don't wanna believe that the lame "blue orb evil" theory was right this whole time. but seems like it's exactly what is being implied in the episode. why create complex characters when you can just make them have an evil alter ego that they can get rid of at any moment, amirite?

because Caine kinda just... pulls out the blue orb from his head and he's suddenly stable now????? since when is he so perfectly reasonable?

I guess we needed to see some growth, but the thing with Caine's character is that he is very reluctant to change. him just magically realizing he was wrong and deciding to give control over the circus to the players feels out of character, even more so than his ep 8 crashout.

and it's so weird how he didn't get mad or devastated after he realized they basically killed him. he didn't even know it wasn't on purpose and you're telling me he doesn't have a proper reaction to that? as a character who wanted to be loved so desperately?

I mean, I guess you could explain it as him being hopeless and/or suicidal. he did literally just try to stay in the void forever after all, before accidentally stumbling upon a wifi connection(lol, relatable). like, "they killed me, yeah, but I kinda had it coming. and I kinda made peace with death after 21 years of suffering". but still. that's just my interpretation, and I've learnt the hard way that I often see depth when there's none. TADC is the prime example of this for me. so much of what I thought was meaningful turned put to be just a joke.

at this point, more than half of what I believe its characters to be is just headcanons, partly because the show doesn't explore them well enough. and the characters that do get development, rarely get a good one.

so, long story short. what did we learn from those scenes?

1. Bubble is...???

2. The blue AI is unstable/"evil"

3. Caine had an AI version of DID this whole time??

4. He fixed it by getting the blue orb removed (he could've done it at any point before but chose not to)

so, nothing. nothing is actually confirmed, everything is still vague. contradictions to the previous episodes. very questionable message. and that's without even talking about Caine's confusing revival and rushed redemption arc.