Alright. So I have my thoughts on episode 9 compiled. Buckle in, this is going to be a long one. Under the cut for spoilers reasons and because it’s gonna be LONG. And again, MASSIVE SPOILERS, DO NOT READ TIL YOU WATCH THE FINALE.
So. Let’s begin with the positives, what I liked about the episode and what I thought was done well.
First. I thought Ragatha and Pomni’s hug was very sweet, very cozy. I did think that the camera focusing on them so long after while they looked at each other walking away was a bit too long and drawn out but, this show loves uncomfortably long shots like that so it’s not exactly out of the ordinary.
Second, congratulations to the lesbians and the abstragedy shippers, you all won the entire fucking show. Zooble immediately going into defensive mode when Caine came back and trying to protect Gangle was extremely sweet.
Kinger teaching everyone how to conjure and helping them get it right was also very sweet. It was nice to see everyone get closer over the course of the episode.
I thought that, before it went south, Jax, Kaufmo, and Ribbit’s friendship was super sweet. The way they all hung out together, made going to the cafe a weekly ritual, clearly had a very tight knit dynamic between them, it was so nice. It just hurts that Jax did what he did after such a nice moment with Ribbit, and especially her accepting him and his.. complex relationship with gender. Her putting the bow on his ear was extremely cute.
Speaking of which, I don’t know if he’s fully a trans girl or just like… some flavor of genderfluid/gender nonconforming, it isn’t made completely clear, but… either way, I don’t care. I love Jax for Jax, no matter what gender he ends up as. Which, on that note, I know some people are switching to using she/her for Jax, but since they never really do that in the show and his human self is still using he/him, I’m not going to switch over. Plus, and more importantly, I wouldn’t want to swap pronouns if that isn’t a step he’s ready for. Like especially in my own selfshipping continuity, Nova wouldn’t want to force him to deal with that before he decides he’s ready. So no swapping from me, but I do see there’s something distinctly not cisgender happening here and whenever he’s ready to tackle that, Nova would be willing to help him navigate it.
And the mural at the end for the abstracted. That was nice to see, a sort of memorial for those who had gone.
Alright. Now. Onto what I *didn’t* like about the episode.
Let’s rip the bandaid off and get the big one out of the way. I very much do not like how Jax’s abstraction was handled. Off screen? Really? I know there’s a precedent to not show the process on screen, but for a main character? It feels like some emotional weight was taken away from the moment by doing that. And I didn’t even process that it was him until one of the others said who it was, I thought one of the ones in the cellar escaped. I thought that, since it happened only like ten minutes into the episode, they were going to build up to him coming back. Especially with the bits of progress he made the previous episodes, hell even the progress he made this episode in almost apologizing. He just needed a little more push.
But they don’t. It looks for a moment like they just might get to unabstract him when Pomni is in his mindscape trying to talk and they hug and he has a moment of actual vulnerability, but his abstracted body in the circus steps on that fucking flash bang and forces the connection she has to him to cutoff early and undoes all of that. It feels narratively harsh and too bleak for what the overall theme of the show is supposed to be. I get that not everyone wants to be helped and you can’t do much when they don’t, but like. He was nearly there just before he stepped on the flash bang. When he hugged Pomni, it showed he was still capable of change and growth. If he hadn’t stepped on it, I do think Pomni might have been able to guide him back from the brink. It feels cruel to somehow just rip tragedy from the jaws of hope like that.
I know that this is the ending Gooseworx wanted to happen. It’s the story she planned to tell from the beginning. And I fully respect that as a fellow creative, certainly won’t be harassing her about it like some people have been.
But I don’t agree with it or like the way it happened. I believe there was ample opportunity to truly let him begin healing. Hell they didn’t have to show the whole thing or even resolve all his issues with the others in the episode. But showing him coming back and recognizing he has a lot of work to do would have just… felt more narratively satisfying to me. It’s harder than the “he abstracts and that’s it” route, because healing always is harder than running, but it’s more rewarding to me to see the growth and truly give everyone the best ending possible. It’s still bittersweet even if Jax is present, cause they all know they’re brain scans now and have their own individual reactions to that and how they handle that revelation. I just think adding Jax’s abstraction and not letting Pomni guide him back was too bleak.
Another thing I wasn’t a huge fan of. Caine’s reintroduction back to the group felt… rushed. Like this episode seemed to have a fair amount of pacing issues, I think the show needed another like.. 1-2 episodes to cook, maybe 3, but his redemption and reintroduction felt a little hamfisted. I do think that it was nice that he was able to reflect on his past actions and realize he needed to change, but that should have taken longer. And I didn’t like how it felt like he was sliding into Jax’s empty chair. Just felt gross.
And I do kind of agree that this episode turned into the Jax show just a little, and I selfship with the guy, I love him, so if that’s coming from me, then yeah. Don’t get me wrong, we needed to see it, but we also needed to see more of the rest of the cast and have their arcs highlighted a bit more.
The only thing that gives me some semblance of hope is the very end where Caine asks if they want help with Jax (i.e do they want him in the basement) and Pomni says “Not yet, we’ve got a plan.” Because to me, that says that she thinks that he can be brought back with enough time and effort. He’s still in there, just stuck in his grief and trauma. So there might be a way to bring him back if she keeps constantly visiting him in the tent and giving him the connection he needs, giving him a reason to fight the abstraction, potentially leading to another mind dive that sees her finally bringing him home.
I know goose has said before that it’s irreversible, but with the revelations in this episode, I think that may have been another goose lie. Cause like, nobody has tried to help an abstracted person unabstract before. And in the text of the show, there’s nothing strictly saying that reversal is impossible. I just think the exact nature of abstraction is left open ended enough that there’s a lot of space for fans to write fix it fics if they want. In my own stuff, that is exactly what I’m going to be doing.
So! Next steps. I don’t know if I’ll take the “make it so he never steps on the flash bang so Nova can be there in his mind to guide him out without getting pulled away” route or the “make it so he does step on it, but they take point in caring for him until he finally comes to a point where he’s almost lucid, maybe with a second mind dive to find him and help him fully break free of it” route but I will be fixing this, cause frankly, I’m tired of tragedy when it doesn’t have to be one. Hell, the first 27 years of my life were a tragedy, it’s time for some hope and joy. It’s gonna take a lot of work and doing and planning, but I’ll happily do it if it means he has a chance at coming home and being happy.
Unfortunately, I do think this means I have to scrap my original long fic and start over. Think I pulled the trigger a little too early with making the divergence point be in episode 6, no pun intended. So, that kinda sucks, but it’s okay.
