Hi! It's been a long time. So... Caine is a god damn human.
YEAH YOU probably heard this elsewhere in the past but Episode 7 gives us the cleanest proof for this theory. Let's dive into that for a brief moment.
OBVIOUSLY THIS NEXT BIT CONTAINS HEAVY HEAVY H E A V Y SPOILERS FOR TADC EPISODE 7. PLEASE GO WATCH IT BEFORE YOU PROCEED ANY FURTHER. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
SO. Abel, right. Which, by the way, small side tangent - Kinger was in the dark when Zooble told him about Abel, and he was confused. If he really is a game dev for the circus then he'd know about his past coworkers and he'd remember an Abel, at least by face. The fact he doesn't is, to me, because it's his name, which he literally is made to not remember. Tangent over, Kinger is Abel, moving on!
The point of the ending when Abel was revealed to be an AI all along was kind of to defeat the illusion. To prove that everything that had been achieved to "leave the circus", which includes every "game abuse" induced by Abel, is essentially fake and was only a piece of the puzzle to get to the next step, a web of lies for the betterment of this adventure's immersion. This includes two things: Everything Abel has done physically, and everything Abel has affirmed as truth. Starting with simple things: His identity. Obviously Abel is not a human in a stickfigure body, he's an NPC with a name that means a lot to Caine (Caine & Abel). There's other things we absolutely can surmise are false, like the areas "revealed" by Abel, such as the Admin Area where they retrieve admin access, Caine's office... Even the Chinese Room was just a set-up, to distract and immerse. The "plans" Abel draws are also fake, simply showing the red line - a red herring - to follow for the adventure to reach completion properly. There's nothing of actual meaning here, it was a ploy to conduct the adventure.
Because of this... I'm easily conducted to how many times Caine is referred to as an AI. This is explicitly stated by Abel. Caine is an AI, if you shut the game off he won't be able to escape with you because he's an AI, etc etc. It's repeated a LOT, as if it was the most important part. If all that Abel has said and done for the adventure is fabrication, shouldn't we be led to believe that that was also a lie meant to lead the cast into error?
Also, just how much emotion Caine shows. First, his crashes - they're very similar to moments when Pomni or Jax have had zone-out moments, where their eye pupils would get kinda scribbly and they'd just zone the hell out. That's what's happening with Caine when he crashes, right? To a certain level that's what it looks like. But furthermore, how defensive he gets over the mind control thing. And the fact it's implied he looks at Kinger when he explains how dire the consequences of genuine mind control would be. Yes, implied, especially by the fact the camera pans to him then zooms in on him. It's evident, is it not? Caine has messed with Kinger's mind, and he regrets it. It's why he caters to Kinger so much, it's why Kinger seems to have such an easier time compared to the rest in adventures and whatnot: Caine regrets and is giving Kinger favourite treatment as a result to try and make up for it, ease the pain. Caine shows care in many a way, which is highly out of character for something that is claimed to be an AI. I'll also call back to the last episode where they just have guns and Caine just gives up, acting abnormally emotional over some decisions that Zooble disagrees with...
The last stretch for this is that maybe Caine's purpose for being here is higher. The office pictures? IRL places he genuinely misses. He tells Jax they're database images he wants to recreate the office from but in truth, he's obsessed with those photos, and he seems rather anger-filled when he mentions "them cutting him off". There's.. nothing supporting what I'm about to say so this is just speculation: Maybe Caine originally has a higher purpose. He went in the game as the Ringmaster to keep the players busy. Then, he was cut off, left in the circus trapped. Yet, he knew his purpose here was to keep the players busy, keep them from figuring anything out. He wants out, just as much as the other players, but he can't have out because he's needed here. Yet he's been left in the dark evidently enough, so he's just been winging it, which is why the adventures seem less and less creative, going from actual universes of fun to suggestion box to throwing guns at them to using the very concept Pomni explored in the first episode as an adventure in this one. He's scraping the bottom of the barrel, and for what?? Because he doesn't know what else to do. He's just as trapped here, but he can't just try to find a way to leave, that'd tell too much to the players who think of him as an AI, and it'd break the illusion. So despite his own knowledge of the Circus being the key out of here (you know, imaged by the Floppy Disk key coming out of his mouth), Caine is unable to speak as he's not supposed to, knowing that if he did anything off-course, it could ruin whatever bigger purpose he's obeying right now.
After all, doesn't Caine take inspiration from "I have no mouth and I must scream"? We're taking that phrase literally here, and highlighting the irony that he is a mouth. I have a mouth and cannot scream would be more accurate. Just remember this: If Caine turns out to be a human, the worst thing you can do to someone in the Circus is make them feel unwanted...
That's all for me, I've done enough insane rambling. Just wild theories I'm throwing darts on as the episode just came out!!
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