#author's thoughts

1. They are not leaving the Circus

The theme the show has been operating under since the Pilot is 'working together' and 'making the best out of what you have'.

Mostly, this has been shown through the Exit never once coming up in Epsides 1-6. In the Pilot, Pomni is all about the Exit, while everyone else is resigned ro there not being one, and in the end she also comes to that conclusion.

The rest of the series is then Pomni learning about her new world, bonding with different characters, trying to help them help themselves and those interactions causing ripples that spread through the group (ex.: Pomni -> Kinger -> Ragatha). And while everyone talks about their former lifes or about wanting to leave sometimes, none of them try to find a way out again, and it's usually not the main focus of the Episodes.

Episode 7 and the Able plot felt strange and out of nowhere (to me at least) because that's what they were. They were a sudden deviation from thr rest of the series and, of course, tuned out to be a Caine Adventure, not real, and culminated in the group deciding in Episode 8 to stick together, do their best with what they have and give up on leaving the Circus.

There is also the point in Episode 8 where Zooble and Gangle tell Kinger about them possibly having found an exit - while he is in the darkness of his pillow fortress - and he is visibly confused by that. Almost as if there is no exit, and he knows it.

Going back on that decision now would thematically feel off.

Also, how would this group of random people figure something out that the people who had a hand in building the Circus/program could not?

1.2 tackling the question of What they are?

I personally don't subscribe to the Brain Scan Theory, mostly because of three factors: The way the programmers in Kinger's flashback to Queenie were acting, and Kinger himself and what that would mean for the characters.

The programmers all seem convinced that the Circus around them is real. That what they are experiencing - being stuck there - is a thing. So, to them, it probably is. They found the AI they'd cut off (remember the beginning of Episode 8) had built something for itself and wanted to check it out. So they set up what should have been virtual reality glasses and 'hopped in' so to speak, only to find they were stuck there.

Kinger: Kinger, as a programmer on Caine and somewhat the Circus, should know if they are only brain scans or not. And yet, he sees Queenie's abstraction as very much her death, as all the other abstractions are treated. And he never speaks up to say that the Circus is just a scan. And we know he is sane enough that he should be aware of those things.

So, as far as I see it, C&A is one of those shady story companies, who had one of their AI go rouge and take out a bunch of their best programmers and covered it up, before shutting everything connected to Caine off. Some scrapper or thief raided the building years later, took some of those 'virtual reality' headsets without knowing their true purpose and sold them online/on the black market. Everyone else who got sucked in was just very unlucky.

The characters: If they all are brain scans, that would definitely be revealed, otherwise its irrelevant. But think about what revealing that would mean: none of them are actually human, none of them are 'real', nothing they ever tried/did held any sort of meaning. I think that if they were told this? That would be an incredibly cruel thing to do. I also think they'd all abstract then and there over that.

But I also don't think this is actually going to come up. Gooseworx is not going to give us a definitive answer on that, and we'll have to live with it.

So, what happens next? What could happen plot-wise?

2. The Circus is glitching/falling apart without Caine and they need to deal with that

We already see the Circus failing. The colour leaving, parts of the floor breaking away, the glitching. And that's only in the what, one minute since Caine died? We saw him and his emotions have an effect on the Circus before, beginning with his therapy session with Zooble and ending in everything glitching during his office breakdown. Caine and the Circus are connected on a deep level, and without him, it's falling apart.

There are two ways I see this going.

2.1 Bubble

Was Bubble deleted alongside Caine? It's not really shown and how things continue depends heavily on what Bubble actually is. So what could Bubble be?

2.1.1 Bubble is Able

In that case, the gang might find themselves being confronted with a new AI, one that had a large hand in Caine's crashout (not that they know that) and might not be very kind to them. After all, Bubble him/herself (them?) has been getting ruder and mouthier throughout the series. 'Able' might not be happy about anything, finally free and act on that.

In that case, Bubble would be the Final Boss, so to say, that they'd have to fight except...they tried that with Caine and it didn't really work?

How do you beat an all powerful AI?

With another AI.

This is the 'Caine comes back' route, except its the group bringing him back through Kinger getting access to Caine's office/a console, rewriting his code (and discretely putting him through therapy) and have Caine take over from Bubble.

Best case, Caine manages Bubble.

Worst case, two AI's are fighting while the group runs for cover. Maybe they lock those two away somewhere and just kind of continue on, knowing at least the AIs existence keeps the Circus alive.

2.1.2 Bubble is a Thought Bubble and also gone

Bubble is introduced alongside Caine but not as the Ringmaster, so I at first considered them simply Caine's assistant.

Then Bubble begins deteriorating - rudeness, cursing, general strangeness and acting out - while the humans grow more and more unhappy and Caine sprints towards his breakdown, so I theorised that Bubble is an indication of that:

Bubble is a thought bubble, basically Caine's intrusive thoughts/emotions given a face. And in this case, Bubble would have been the glaring red flag of Caine not doing well.

And here, with Caine gone, Bubble is as well.

2.1.3 Bubble is a virus

I'm...honestly not sure how that would work or influence things, except maybe then Bubble would continue trying to take over and destroy they Circus? The way Bubble kept multiplying in Caine's office, and the group being faced with more and more Bubble-forms that can now theoretically cause them harm they can't heal/regenerate from?

Maybe here, Kinger would have to gain access to a console to stop the virus from spreading and 'kill' Bubble, while the rest has to survive until then.

2.2 The Sacrifice

If the Circus needs an AI/someone to run it, and Caine is gone, then someone else has to do it. And the humans can conjure things.

2.2.1 Kinger codes a new AI

Kinger, with input from the others, taking what he remembers from creating Caine and creating a new AI.

This new AI would be influenced by all of them, given more/different directives to Caine and take over the Circus.

Basically, this would be the group raising a baby AI on how to keep them and itself alive, though I think this is highly unlikely.

2.2.2 Pomni taking over the position and becoming less than human in the process

Pomni, as the main character, the one who has been emotionally connecting with the group at large and who led the angry crash out against Caine, might feel responsible.

She is also the most sane and as of yet unaffected of the group, so her taking over wouldn't have too many disastrous consequences.

If the group is in danger from say - the Abstractions breaking out* - she might keep them focussed, safe and be the one to bring up Caine's office, where, once they hide there and find they need to replace Caine, she would make the decision to do so herself. This could either be somw kind of manually plugging herself into a console through wires (?) or using her ability to conjure things to break off from the others and make herself 'less human'.

If she does:

Ragatha has a breakdown and looses her positivity.

Jax abstracts, then and there.

Kinger will never forgive himself for Pomni sacrificing her life and existence for his mistakes and looses the rest of his sanity.

2.2.3 Kinger taking over the position and becoming less than human in the process

Kinger killed Caine.

Kinger had a hand in designing the very Circus they're trapped in.

Kinger already feels guilty over killing Caine and, when faced with the imminent deaths of the rest of his found family, would probably gladly step up to 'fix his mistakes'.

Kinger also has the most knowledge and experience with programming and code and conjuring, so him replacing Caine would be logical. He'd also be kinder and more understanding of what the humans need.

Ragatha would still cry, Pomni would too. But I think in general - because he was mostly an insane recluse - the rest of the group would handle his sacrifice a little better.

(These last two are heavily influenced by the TADC Replacement Code AU, by calsifer323 on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWoLHz_DR1h/?igsh=bjdzNW1pZHh4cWJn)

3. The Abstractions

The Abstractions are going to break out and cause additional chaos for our group.

We see the Circus beginning to break down with Caine's death and he was supposedly the one keeping them in the cellar.

We know they still exist (maybe the darkness helped them calm down a little the way Kinger said it did for Queenie? That could explain why there weren't any known attempts of them breaking out until now) and aren't dead/deleted. And we've already seen - with Jax's almost Abstraction in Episode 7 - that there is a history there of these people.

I'm guessing, that we are going to get Jax' background through this, mostly due to him being closely connected to Ribbit and whatever happened to her/him(?).

4. Backgrounds

We already had some backstory in Episode 5, for everyone but Kinger and Jax.

Kinger then talked about Some of his live before the circus in Epsiode 8, though I think - especially if the Abstractions come into play - that we might get more there, including What exactly Scratch was trying to build and how he abstracted.

I'm thinking Scratch, with his brain tumour, wanted to build a program where he could upload his consciousness and exist after his death, but with full access to the outside world. Instead, he ended up trapping himself and his co-workers, and that, combined with the tumour, drove him to abstract.

As I said before, I'm also pretty sure we're getting Jax' backstory in Episode 9, first the Ribbit connection and then spiralling into his former life.

If we're very lucky, the background might involve a glimpse of their human forms and some more information there.

I think it's interesting that not one of them talked about 'having someone waiting outside'. Zooble throws that in Jax' face when he jokes about it, but they didn't name anyone either. None of them did. The closest we got was Ragatha mentioning her mother but...that's not a good relationship. And Kinger remembering Queenie, but that was already in the Circus and she's gone. So what if they talk about it again? And about how they got their headsets? I think that would be interesting.