TADC spoilers, mentions of abstraction, mentions of lesbian ragatha
Really outlandish and stupid and most totally not canon theory, Do you know how Goose revealed someone was going to abstract by the end of the season? She never specified it being someone we already know, or it being human.
It's plausible that we'll be introduced to a new player who will immediately abstract upon entering the circus, completely unable to handle the circumstances. That will add the element of horror that more and more people are joining the circus more rapidly than before.
Take a look at Zooble, for example. They're still considered new, besides Pomni. Look at their behavior in comparison to the pilot to now, they were much more hostile and closed off, calling Kinger a motherf*cker for an honest mistake and telling everyone to fuck off. This is the behavior of someone who has not yet grown accustomed to the circus and the inhabitants trapped with them.
It's implied that only recently, a little before Pomni joined, they have been avoiding Caine's adventures. Is this due to Caines' bandaid solution in regards to their body dysmorphia? A problem that didn't pop up out of nowhere but has been apparent since their arrival. I think Zooble only appeared a few months ago, Circus time, and has since only just began to warm up to her companions.
Touching up in my mention of it possibly not being someone human, we don't know how abstraction effects NPC's. When we saw Koufmo land on and inevitably battle the Gloink Queen, we don't get a clear answer to what has happened to her afterwards, her appearance in episode 4 might as well be a copy of her original model (I'm still a vehement defender of the theory gummigoo's memories may remain intact and the memories of the NPC's isn't something Caine manually resets)
We even see some NPC's hiding from Kaufmo in the pilot (Or maybe they're hiding from Caine? Caine DOES let a few NPC's roam freely, but what if that's a lapse in his memory and he completely disregards their presence as an intentional feature?)
Another theory is that Ragatha is a Lesbian, don't come at me-
Edit ;; I completely skipped over where it said "episode 9 theories, so I'm so sorry for the misunderstanding (/´△`\))