I’ve been thinking this since I first watched the episode but I’m questioning if Abel really *was* an npc. He was watching them for a really long time, since the beginning. That’s a lot of buildup for one adventure.
I believe Caine found him and began controlling him at some point, either for the entire adventure, or just at the end after Jax pushes the button.
Potentially, the blue button really would have freed them, and Caine was trying to play it off like it wouldn’t have, to take away their hope.
And when Abel is revealed at the end to have been fake, his voice sounds a bit different, as my friend pointed out. Caine may have been controlling his mind to make him say those things.
My friend also pointed out that the pendant doesn’t disappear with him. Gummigoo’s hat disappeared with him when he was smited, but the pendant stayed, implying it was an external prop, not part of Abel’s character model. Though this may be looking into it a bit much.
My personal theory is that during the whole adventure, Caine had applied a “temporary modifier” to Abel. I believe Abel’s consciousness is from something more intelligent, perhaps an ai akin to Caine, that Caine wasn’t able to fully erase, as it’s a crucial part of the game. I believe the blue button wouldn’t actually have let them out, it was a trick. Caine wouldn’t just lead them to their escape if he was in fact controlling that adventure.
Lastly, I saw another post that pointed out the camera pans to the teams from episode 6 when Caine reveals he can control their minds. This implies they might shoot him. This leads me to believe that episode 8 could be where the cast attempts to kill Caine, which would fail and lead to Caine’s inevitable crashout.
Then in episode 9, the cast could manage to find the true Abel. Abel would know how to kill Caine, just as Caine did to him. The episode could end with Caine getting lobotomized Space Odyssey-style, and True Abel would grant them permission to leave, sacrificing himself as he is forced to stay alone in the circus with a vengeful brother who will never be fully dead, just as True Abel wasn’t fully dead.
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