VHSMEAT || 3/4 COMM SLOTS OPEN!!

For some other bonus extended thoughts: I think Caine had two main things he needed to learn. The first was "you need to make an effort to understand/care about other people," and the second was "you are also a person, who exists outside of your programming and function." I think Ep 9 Caine has figured out how to empathize with others, but is still early on the path to recognizing his own personhood and his own capacity to love/be loved [see his scene with the moon, and her advice that "all good things take time."] He's still treating himself as a tool for the humans to use-- but will slowly learn to see himself as a person as he spends more time genuinely befriending kind & empathetic people. I like that Ep 9 Zooble is both more at peace playing with their digital body,  and also at peace with the idea that their life can be meaningful through the impact they have on a few lost & lonely people [even if they can never do anything that "changes the entire world."] Their IRL counterpart running an alternative clearly queer bar feels like a piece they were missing; they're someone who may not be changing the entire world, but is changing the world for the people who get to find the community they build. I also have a lot of thoughts on Caine & Zooble's dynamic throughout the show: Mainly that the circus has trapped Caine in a state of forced eternal infantilization, and he's resented Zooble because they've made him confront his own immaturity. I think that Zooble's bar in the real world really highlights how Zooble manages to do what Caine wishes he could--  build a place that people want to be a part of, serve people in a way that actually makes them happy, and become a sort of "pillar" in a community.