SammySinner

So it’s obvious Jax has many issues (that was clear as day) that’s he’s obviously not worked out since both Ribbit and Kafumo’s abstracted. As such he’s been actively pushing away the others as a way to cope and not think about those difficult emotions. He’s put up walls around himself to shield him from his crumbling reality that he’s championed to himself. That, overtime has been steadily chipped away at, notably and significantly by Pomni in the prior episode. Though he’s good at hiding it.

It’s fairly easy to see now that’s clearly failing him.

Which is only exemplified in his “abstraction” sequence. It’s been speculated that the process to abstraction is that of a breaking point being reached for a cast member in which they can mentally no longer take it anymore. Something spelled out clearly by Ragatha in the pilot.

However in this instance it would seem as there are other ways of falling victim to the phenomena.

In this case, Jax has a vision of a distorted Ribbit and disassociates so hard that he slips into a colorful visage of his, Ribbit, and Kafumo’s faces. The sequence is abruptly cut short, but as it reaches a crescendo, glimpses of the void are seen in the distance. And as he awakes, his eyes bear a resemblance to those that have abstracted.

But we now know why this bitch don’t want anyone in his room. Poor mf acts so macho and brutish but gets stuck in a room adorned with stars and rainbows, I don’t blame him for being a hardass.

Getting back on track

Like Zooble stated prior, having those connections, especially in a place such as the circus, is crucial. In this literal purgatory, he has all the time in the world to make good on that, something that he did at point have, but more significantly, something he clearly did not have in real life, as Zooble questions him on that.

To which he answers.

Nearing the end, we get more significant peaks of that. It’s evident that he dearly misses either Kafumo and Ribbit (or both), and looks back on that time they had very fondly, shown no better as he watches a globe depicting an adventure (presumably given the presence depicting the candy candy Kingdom that Pomni stares at) of a cabin in a snow covered area with several voices being heard among the winter winds. Perhaps this is one that he had experienced with them and remembers well, his face is telling of that.

In the final sequence Jax breaks down at the very thought of leaving the digital circus. As he’s spiraling, we catch blips of his memory showing the outside world from the perspective of the front seat of a car. One showing a residential neighborhood at dusk, and another that of a road shrouded in darkness with trees lining the road, the only light source being the brights of the car.

What I personally gathered from this is that Jax must have just ran (drove) away from his problems, and went off to the woods to flee the real world. Whether that was to escape something troubling or not is unclear. But as expressed earlier, perhaps he just had no one in real life that truly cared about him. A feeling that many his age (he’s 22 canonically btw) know well, and I’m sure those know, there is a quote that goes.

"I wish I could just leave everything behind and go live in a small house in the woods."

In this literal sense, it represents escapism.

He desires to run away from these problems despite deeply desiring that connection he once had. that must be how he found the circus, and now that he’s trapped here, he has everything he could ever want.

Or so he thinks. As everyone besides himself want to leave this place, a thought he cannot come to terms with as he pushes the other aside and hits the button to remain in the circus, much to the horror of the others.

But before they can do anything to Jax, Caine appears and reveals this to just be one whole epic adventure that was to prove that he is cared about by the cast (more specifically Jax given earlier scenes). The cast, understandably, are left in total disbelief as Jax explodes into maniacal laughter as he realizes he was right about the adventure being fake but more so furious that he had shorn genuine care to his fellow cast members here, a prospect that quite literally breaks down the walls he himself put up as he vents his frustrations to Caine concerning their own autonomy, a fact Caine pays no mind as he simply doesn’t understand as he flees the scene.

And those are my thoughts on him, I don’t exactly see how this episode would “split the fandom” but it was nonetheless very cool to see this much character drama and struggle explored. I might do one of these on Kinger soon as he has some great characterization here too.

📋 ✧ :: Dandy's Daycare AU !