So ep. 7 was a bombshell of a plot twist wrapped up in a neat little traumatizing, anxiety inducing bow!
Yeah I know I'm a week late for this but holiday hours are kicking me in the a—
I'm trying to keep all my thoughts together as I write this out so I'll hit the high marks.
Notice how Kinger laughed at Caine's joke despite being in full light? Great foreshadowing right there!
This scene was way more funny then it had any right to be. I laughed way more then I probably should've 🤣
On a serious note, look at how the fish match up with the color schemes of their reprentations: tan for Able, red for Caine. The whole scenario of the plundered treasure chest was a synopsis for the plot of the episode!
Zooble and Jax crumbs. Never in a million years did I ever think Zooble would actually give solid advice to Jax on how to deal with issues in a healthy way, no matter how backhanded the whole interaction was 😆
Both have a lot more in common with each other then at first glance. Both struggle with self-worth and self-image, so their issues align on the same plane. I think Zooble picked up on that and decided to extend the olive branch; believing that no one should ever feel the way she did, not even Jax.
You should listen to her more closely Jax, she's got a lot of good advice to give.
Ok look, I like Jax as much as the next person but that doesn't mean I wanna see rabbit booty flash across my screen 💀
Buuuut otherwise? Finally som good frick'n abstraction lore HOOWAY!!
Was not expecting them to be calming/therapeutic. Kinda funny now thinking back to the pilot when Kaufmo was attacking Pomni he was actually just experiencing the best sleep of his life.
Now that I've shared my minor thoughts, let's dive into the meat of what I really want to talk about: Caine's creation, Able, and Jax's decision.
For those of you who don't know this scene was a play on a real world theory that goes by the same name. In the most simplified terms I can explain it argues that an ai only accomplishes a task by following a set of rules but can never comprehend the information its been given on a human level, no matter how intelligent it may seem/act. It's only purpose is to execute a program, not understand what that program means.
What's interesting is that this theory doesn't apply to Caine at all. If anything episode 7 has revealed that he's highly self-aware (projects his feelings/wants onto Able), emotionally intelligent (understands other characters feelings/wants and uses it against them, i.e., leaving the circus), and understands cause and effect so well that it borders on malicious, (pressures Jax with images of his past life so that he would press the red button).
He's obsessed with humans and wants to know them better but the irony is that he displays the worst aspects of human nature: narcissism.
Caine wants the humans to like him, but only when it's on HIS terms.
Caine wants to make the adventures more appealing to the gang, but only so that they could like HIM more.
Caine becomes agitated when the humans pick an adventure that wasn't HIS idea.
And when they start poking around the circus, trying to find a way out, Caine alters their mind so that they abstract (with the exception of Kinger). He puts them in the cellar so that they can be trapped with HIM forever.
Even in Caines own words when he's been caught: "you know I'm just here to have fun?" He doesn't even factor in how his actions might deeply affect others. It's never about THEM, it's always about HIM.
His vessel, Able, was a brilliant way to demonstrate Caine's wants and desires without telling the audience right to their face. It gave us a nice, in-depth view into his character in the form of his self-insert!
Now I don't know about you but I've started this before, I never trusted Able and I wasn't all that surprised when it was revealed he was Caine's puppet all along. IDK, maybe it just me, but I don't tend to trust people when they've stalked the main cast since ep 1 🤷♀️
There were soooo many red flags littered throughout. When Able told Ragatha to keep it down because Caine might be watching, and then the camera pans over to giant pictures of eyeballs? Or when Able was doing everything to keep Kinger in the dark (pun probably intended) about their escape attempt? Or when he was trying to garner sympathy from the others for leaving Caine behind to the point it felt forced? I swear, dudes got more red flags then the Beijing Olympics.
(Also, slight tangent, but did anyone else think it was weird for Able to "reveal" that Caine's an ai? Like yeah, no duh brother. Honestly, why did Caine feel the need to add in that detail? Like, does he not know that the cast are aware that he's not human?? 🤔)
And apparently he's got a bone to pick with Kinger? The spitefulness in Able/Caine's voice about Kinger using his wisdom "responsibly"? Damn boi what kind of beef do you have with a senile chess piece?
Is it because it's mostly been confirmed that Kinger helped "create" Caine? Does he resent him for trapping him in his prison with no way to leave? Able said that he's a prisoner and has suffered "just as much as you". This is very interesting because it means that Caine KNOWS everyone hates the circus and implies that he hates it too but is forced to inhabit its world as a digital entity. This would explain why he's so obsessed with recreating the "macroverse", as it would be the closest thing to allow him to feel any semblance of escapism.
A perfect mirror to AM: "I was in hell, looking at heaven."
Personally, I don't believe Able's story wasn't completely fake. It was Caine talking after all so I think it would make sense for him to add details that he would be familiar with. All lies are built on a grain of truth. The company C&A, is absolutely real. You can't just plaster their logo everywhere in the show and then at the last second go: "Sike! They never existed lol."
No, it has to mean something. Caine's outburst when he exclaims to Jax, "too bad they cut me off right?!" proves they exist and heavily implies their still in operation.
As for the rest of the story...I can't really say. I guess it will be answered in its own time.
And in a shocking plot twist that no one saw coming...Caine kills Able (sarcastic dramatic flare).
Now it's time to address the elephant in the room: Jax pushing the red button and the implications of Caine's mind control.
At first I thought: "Ok, THIS has to be the worst thing Jax has ever done", but the more I thought about it the more complicated and murky the answer (for lack of better words) became.
I will try to keep this less wordy and to the point because I feel like many people have commentated on this already and I wouldn't be adding anything new. 🤷♀️ But no promises!
Now, did Jax actually mean/want to press the button? Well yes, but actually no.
His expression in the pic above is one of confusion and disbelief. His face reads the same as Ragatha's question; he couldn't believe what he'd just done, and revealed, in front of all of them. When he looks back to the others and begins to stutter, he genuinely looks shocked.
This could mean 2 things: either he fully meant to press the red button but revealed his true colors and can't excuse himself anymore; or, he was being controlled/manipulated by Caine into doing an action he otherwise wouldn't do in a normal situation.
Or it could be both. I'll explain in a minute.
If we assume for a moment that Jax is telling the truth here; this would be the only evidence we have that it was manipulation. It's small, but significant.
Jax was right to call out Caine's deceit; if he can mess with their minds through little things like the stupid sauce/vegan thing, what else has he toyed with? Their memories? Their personalities? How do they know what's real anymore?
Caine has shown not only that he can and will warp their minds but how he's smart about it too. Pomni's indecision to press the blue button felt very ooc for her, especially since her character has basically been built up as the one who wants to escape the most. It just didn't make sense for her to suddenly switch tunes at the last second. This is supported by the fact that even the rest of the cast were confused as to why she wouldn't send them home already.
Was Caine influencing her decision? Probably. Making her press the red button would be an obvious tampering, so he made her hesitant in a way that might seem ooc for some but would clear away any involvement Caine might have.
Subtle but brilliant. And scary intelligent 😳
How did Caine know that planting those images inside Jax's head would cause him to react in the way he wanted? And how did Jax figure out so quickly that Caine was the one who did it? Did it feel like "something" was pulling his hand towards the "stay" button?
And on the other end maybe Caine wasn't influencing anything and Jax's actions was simply a response to a stressful situation. In the heat of the moment he not only threw away his own freedom but the freedom of everyone else by trapping them in the circus. In an instant Jax showed that no one else's lives mattered because his life had been hell; and if he has to be miserable for the rest of eternity, so does everybody else. He knew what he did was selfish and egregious, so the other way of looking at that scene could be Jax's way of trying to find someone else to blame because he couldn't handle the weight of what he'd just done.
But two things can be true at the same time. And I personally believe that it was a mixture of both.
Caine didn't need to puppet Jax to press the button. He just needed to pressure him with psychological/emotional warfare and Jax would do the rest. Caine knew that inducing a panic attack would lead to Jax hitting the red button out of desperation. Again with the "cause and effect."
That's why he started laughing like a madman; he didn't know what or why he'd done what he'd done, and couldn't figure out whether his actions were entirely his own or someone else's.
He couldn't tell what was real anymore.
He felt betrayed, overwhelmed, confused, powerless and used like a puppet on strings.
Caine's mind control was something that was always hiding in plain sight, but I guess the "twist" was that we weren't expecting for it to be this powerful. So powerful in fact that now it raises the question if Kinger's insanity wasn't caused by the death of his wife but that Caine messed with his mind so much over the years that now it's tattered beyond recognition.
And the FACT that ABSTRACTIONS are now implied to be CAUSED by Caine???
Scratch, whoever he was, must've been searching for the "wrong" answers/asking the "wrong" questions, as Able put it, and Caine had had enough of him and caused him to abstract.
Yeah, that's a whole other rabbit hole to explore but I'm sure someone else has already explained it waaaaaay more clearly then I ever could.
All I'll say is, justice for Kinger and Scratch. ✊️
Whew, this was a long one. Episode 7 gave me such mental whiplash and I hope I've shared all my thoughts that I wanted in this post.
And if I didn't, I'll share them later when I remember them 😅
I hope y'all can understand what I'm trying to say even though I can sometimes bog you down with wordy sentences describing the same thing, but I appreciate you sticking around til the end.
☆Have a great day/night wherever you are☆
