In the wake of episode 8 I’m left missing the excitement and interest that was built up before episode 6 with the favorite character awards game. That was such a fun period of time, and I really loved the energy and narrative we were creating as a fandom the longer it went on. About Caine, specifically.
Because like, we knew he was upset about getting last. We knew he was sad, he was desperate, he was doing everything in his power to get people to pick him as the Favorite. The website got glitchy, full of pop-ups and confirmations that prompted you to tell him yes you were sure you wanted to vote for that character instead of him dozens of times over before he finally relented. Even Glitch posted that render of him looking the saddest we’ve ever seen him, brought to actual tears over his placement. Whether the ads and promos are canon is, of course, debatable - but the point stands that he was upset. He was hurt.
The thing is… the Caine from the favorite character awards and the Caine from episode 8 don’t feel like the same character to me.
Like - yes, in both instances he gets super controlling over the thing that is upsetting him. He takes over the website completely, every portrait of him and him alone, taking away our ability to choose who to vote for; he lashes out at the circus troupe, showing them point blank how powerful he is and that they should be more careful about how they treat him.
But the difference here, I feel, is that with the awards show, it felt manic, desperate. He could tell that his control over the audience was slipping. He got anxious that he was unloved, that every single other person in the competition was worth more attention and praise than him, and so he tried to make himself more appealing to voters - and when that didn’t work, he descended into chaos, pivoting from begging for attention to outright demanding it. But that still came from fear. From a clear and noticeable desire to be loved. To be the favorite.
In episode 8, it’s just… vindictive. It’s sinister, it’s control for control’s sake. Even in the flashbacks - that quick aside of “Seriously.” to Kinger after joking that he better not abstract too? That doesn’t read as lonely and seeking connection to me. It doesn’t feel like the Caine we’ve seen up to this point. This episode doesn’t feel like someone who loves and loves and loves so strongly to the point of destruction, of torment, when he realizes that love is unrequited; it feels like a character crashing out because that’s what the show wants to happen next. It feels like Caine is dropping an act, which I refuse to believe is true.
I don’t think the Caine from episode 8 is really him. I don’t. Whether that’s because he was lashing out because he finally reached his breaking point, and his anger made him act irrationally; whether it’s due to the theory that something else got a hold of his mind, and that terrified moment before deletion is him regaining control of himself and realizing what he’s been made to do; whether it’s all just a result of bad character writing that led me to believe things that were never going to be true; whether it’s fully me standing in front of a corkboard of blurry images and red string and thumbtacks, insisting I’m not crazy.
I don’t know. I’m enjoying all of the new character analysis coming from the episode, and I think examining him the way the show presents him - angry and bitter and vengeful and cruel - has its merits. I do love looking at his actions in episode 8 from the perspective that it makes sense for him to act like this, that this was the logical next step, because it’s sparked some genuinely interesting discussion and deeper examination of character motives and feelings. But I also simultaneously feel like this isn’t right. Like something’s missing, here. Like the character I thought I knew isn’t… actually who he is. And it’s really strange.
All of my pre-ep8 fic wips about Caine feel out of character now. And I don’t mean because they’re set before his character progression; this episode somehow makes them feel like they were never in character in the first place. I’m really not sure how they did that.
jbbartram-illu
dededos
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
areudirty
jacobvanloon
2087
