Does anyone realize the implications of the Caine trapping them in their worse fears means?
Ragathas button eye is because something, most likely caused by her mother, happened to that eye in real life.
Pomni got attacked, violently, by someone or something she trusted.
Gangle getting hit by the truck wasn't a metaphor, it most likely actually happened.
Jax was made into a laughing stock, stripped of dignity, or more likely, actually stripped (he's 20 or so, it could have been hazing).
And Zooble was straight up drowning in her own self identity, although, that's probably not as bad as the other ones.
Between Pomni, Gangle, and Ragatha, it wouldn't be inherently off the table that the whole reason they're in the circus, via headset as we see in the ep8 beginning flashback with ragatha, is because they were hospitalized and were offered the VR as an "escape." Potentially Ragatha was surrounded by friends when it got put on, which is why she calls out for "you guys." Although, we don't really see how zooble or Jax might be ended up in a hospital, it's possible that the overwhelming emotions from body issues/social issues led both of them to some sort of extreme hospitalization.
Also, since Kinger is so shocked by Queenie being in the circus, potentially she was a hospital patient they test ran it on. After all Kinger did say Scratch had crazy ideas, so if he had left some way to tell them to keep using it on extreme hospitalization patients, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility. Although, Caine does say "copy their mind files" during his breakdown in his office, potentially meaning that there are still living breathing versions of them, out in the real world, stuck in a hospital, completely unaware a copied version of themselves is going through essentially digital purgatory.
This is, of course, just a theory, but hey, why not.
