Remember this scene? It was foreshadowing a later part of this episode.
Pomni: What's with the corn thing?
Pomni: Why are you afraid of corn? And don't say that you're not. You literally jumped out of your seat twice when you saw some.
Jax: Heh, not gonna let me out of this one [proceeds to explain his phobia].
Pomni directly confronted Jax about his phobia WITH PROOF. He tried to deflect at first, but Jax relented and chose to tell her about his major fear. He has trypophobia; a fear of lots of holes.
Then, we have this scene where Zooble shoots Jax and Pomni after Jax opened the door to Zooble's room, as well as opened the door to his heart by telling Pomni about a deep fear of his and singing Daisy Bell together.
They both got hurt because Jax chose to open that physical and metaphorical door. What were the consequences?
They both lost a life. And what did the bullets leave behind?
The camera then pans over to Kaufmo's and Ribbit's doors.
Jax makes these faces before running after Pomni. Jax was triggered by Pomni getting hurt, then seeing lots of little holes (his phobia), then seeing the doors of his abstracted friends. Ragatha also triggered him earlier when she accused him of trying to corrupt Pomni.
Trigger= "a specific stimulus or event that elicits an intense emotional reaction or behavioral response in an individual"
In this episode, everyone (but especially Jax) is faced with their triggers ... and they're literally pulling the triggers of their guns.
Once Jax and Pomni win, Jax tries to push Pomni away. The fight symbolizes Jax's tendency to mask, deflect, and bully people to avoid addressing his triggers.
Jax trying to get Pomni to use the gun on him to separate the two of them. Jax uses physical violence to push away everyone else and to make sure they don't ask questions about him. Jax is hiding A LOT.
Note that Jax doesn't use the gun on himself, meaning deep down, he doesn't actually want to push people away, but he feels like he has to. That's why he gets other people to pull the trigger for him.
Jax uses hurtful words on Pomni again and again. He accuses her of coming on to him, saying that he doesn't take her seriously, and gaslights the hell of out her. All of those things have been shown to hurt Pomni deeply.
Finally, Pomni touches on Jax's biggest fear and the thing that caused him to behave the way he did: Abstraction
Though it was clear Pomni wasn't accusing him of causing abstractions, when she said "Have you considered this is what causes people to abstract in the first place?," that's how he took it. People say Jax's fear of corn (trypophobia) is linked to his fear of abstractions, and I agree.
Besides the abstraction triggering his literal fear of lots of holes (some people with trypophobia are also afraid of multiple eyes like this), it also triggers his much larger fear: the fear that he causes abstractions. Pomni caught this right away, because nothing else broke his mask.
And then she asked the big question
Pomni figured it out but she had to know for sure. She thinks he's pushing her away because he's terrified of hurting her and losing her to abstraction. She tried to talk it out but he deflected, despite opening up to her earlier.
Now Pomni is obviously very hurt about what he said. As shown in the dream sequence from episode 2, Pomni is terrified of being forgotten.
In her dream, Jax was the one that forgot her, which was a bit of foreshadowing to this moment.
Pomni isn't just upset about Jax's words; she's devastated that he completely shut her out again, just like everyone else. SHE continued the friendship that he initiated, SHE took his advice to do whatever she wanted, and in the end, that kindness towards Jax bit her in the butt.
At this moment, Jax pulled the metaphorical trigger on Pomni and Pomni pulled it on Jax. Pomni just had to make sure if she should actually give up on him or if he's putting up a front.
Even Jax recognized that he crossed a line and hurt her feelings. Pomni was supposed to get mad, to abandon him, and to give up. She wasn't supposed to take his words to heart.
Despite being physically violent so many times before, Jax refused to fight Pomni. He tried to run away and she wouldn't let him. She forced Jax to confront how his coping mechanisms hurt other people, even if they temporarily ease his own anxieties.
Jax practically admitted that he refused to hurt her because he cares about her. His last-ditch effort was to go on the very cringe speech about how everyone is his play thing and how he doesn't care about them.
Considering both of their faces at the end of his speech, neither of them believe him. He knows he's been caught in the lie in which he bases his ENTIRE existence around; the lie that he doesn't care and that he thinks everyone is not human. If Jax was really the villain that he said he was, he would have shot Pomni at the very beginning of their victory.
Jax swears twice; something that he NEVER does up until this point and apparently (according to Goose) it's the only time he swears. It's a great indicator that his mask is completely broken.
And the hand thing... why is he so traumatized by that hand? I'm guessing there's some sort of history there involving that had that we haven't seen yet, but it's also the hand that pushed Pomni and hurt her feelings initially. He is SO ashamed that he pushed away the affection HE sought out. He knows it isn't fair.
This is my favorite line from this whole episode:
"There's nothing more to me, so please, just stop looking."
We all know it's not true. There's so much more to Jax. I suspect he's hiding more than just his past trauma. I think Jax is going to drop an absolute bombshell revelation having to do with the his place in the circus. I don't think he's just another random human.
Let's jump back to that trypophobia conversation from earlier. Pomni asked him about the corn thing, Jax denied it, Pomni pressured Jax with proof, and then Jax relented and became vulnerable for Pomni. I think we're watching that same process unfold right now, but on a larger scale. Jax hasn't relented yet, but if we take the earlier scene as foreshadowing, he will in the future.
If we put the pieces together that corn=trypophobia=abstractions, then Jax is going to open up about why he's so utterly terrified of abstractions.
At the end of episode 5, Jax talks about showing Pomni "that thing in the hall." Maybe it was Ribbit's door, maybe it wasn't, but we're certainly supposed to make the connection to Ribbit since the only hallway scene in this episode is this one.
This was our first introduction to Ribbit, and, like I mentioned earlier, Jax is terrified of abstractions. Therefore; Jax is going to open up to Pomni about his relationship with Ribbit; something that's very clearly taboo to even imply around him.
Jax can go in two directions right now: abstraction or healing. There is no room for masking anymore. Pomni shattered his world and forced him to face his fears. He can either let himself be consumed by it or he can face Pomni again and work through his issues.
Personally, I think it's the latter since it's been foreshadowed a lot that Pomni and Jax will become very close. This is a great way to develop that friendship.
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