Reasons I personally didn’t like tadc episode 9
MAJOR SPOILERS
MAJOR SPOILERS
MAJOR SPOILERS
MAJOR SPOILERS
You have been spoiler warned.
In the first five minutes, Kinger casually lets the rest of the cast know that they aren’t real. They’re digital copies.
First off, this takes away all stakes, and the goal the MC had from the beginning. Pomni’s goal was to leave. Everyone’s goal was to leave. This goal is revealed to have been NEVER obtainable and therefore on a rewatch, the characters are simply wasting their time. There was never a good ending where the characters weren’t human, as we were told they are humans from the beginning. Everyone was told they were humans, Caine said they were humans, it was an established fact in episode one that these were humans trapped in a digital world and their goal was to escape.
Every escape plan, every moment, was a waste. And rewatching, I’m going to think exactly that.
Especially episode 7 feels unwatchable imo now, despite the fact that I adored that episode. What’s the point?
Not only was Abel leading these characters on, but he knew. Caine knew all along that they weren’t real. Which brings up major issues for how much I liked Caine.
I suspected throughout the series that Caine either:
A. Knew they were humans and lied about the exit because he adored them (like a little boy watching his beloved bugs die because they’re kept in a jar) and wanted to convince them to love him too.
Or
B. Didn’t actually know how to make an exit. He literally didn’t know what to put behind the door. The escape adventure was an attempt to make them happy despite not having the knowledge he needs to let them actually go anywhere.
Both of these are false, as it’s revealed that Caine knows they are mind files, he knows there is no exit, and he led them on intentionally and selfishly. It is revealed that he knew what he was doing and did it intentionally.
He messed with their minds. Episode seven was an early form of torture.
By episode 7, everyone seemed happy. They went to the beach and had a good time, Zooble spoke to Jax, and yes Jax may have abstracted but it wasn’t related to the others. They were reaching out to him.
It was after this emotional rollercoaster of episode 7, that in episode 8 everyone in the circus accepts that they can’t escape. And they band together. Including Jax.
If Caine actually had all-seeing eyes, like he said he did, he would’ve known this. If he would’ve been paying attention to his collection of people instead of having an egotistical tantrum he would’ve known this.
But no.. he torchers the people in the circus, then it finally gets revealed right after his death that they’re all just copies and aren’t real people.
Caine as good as murdered Jax in my opinion.
… Just like he murdered Abel.. the blue dot.
Out of jealousy.
This much was obvious, simply by the way episode seven showed him. He was caged, he was abandoned, and he was jealous, so he attacked the second AI.
That simple fact shows Caine’s character will do drastic things because of how he feels (which is amazing in itself, because similar to AM from IHaveNoMouth, he feels things. He has emotions. As an AI, he’s not supposed to.)
Caine doing things on a whim because of how he feels is shown throughout - he doesn’t listen, he ignores advice, and he has a huge yet fragile ego, even calling himself their god.
It is later revealed that the blue dot, Abel, was the evil one and that he was influencing Caine. So Caine just pops him out and is like “bye bye”
Mind you, the audience gets to know this. The characters don’t.
I love how forgiving everyone is, yes, but Caine shows back up at the end like “hehe hi guysss I messed up big oopsies! I’m just gonna sit here and be a lil sad bc you all hate me and I deserve it :(“
And they all let him back in and suddenly everything is okay and they’re rebuilding and-
How did Caine come back? It’s never stated. Why didn’t bubble come back with him? Never said!
Let’s get back on topic.
The reveal for this big drop, where they’re all copies, had no build up. Kinger saw a file, and simply told everyone. Like ‘o yeah also after I accidentally deleted Caine I saw that we were all fake lolz’
Jax immediately attacks Kinger over this. Yes, Jax has bad moments, but throughout this episode he looks like the awful person a lot of people claim he is, despite the fact that he has had character development. In the last few episodes, he has grown, even if slightly, but it wasn’t slight. Letting himself stay with the group wasn’t slight. Distracting Caine for the others wasn’t slight.
Jax’s behavior especially in the flashbacks really bothered me too. Overall, Jax seems worse before he met Pomni??
Then, despite everyone in the previous episode caring about Jax enough to make sure he won’t abstract, reaching out, everyone does the opposite and leaves him completely alone.
Even when they’re all starting to work together again, they seem to forget he exists. No one looks at him. No one looks FOR him. No one reaches out again, despite knowing he’s in a bad state like the rest of them..
Which seems out of character, specifically for Pomni. You’re telling me that this girl who has been attempting multiple times to reach out to Jax, taking any opportunity she can to help him join the group, and is very very emotionally aware for the entire show…
Sees Jax wants to say something to her, while he is obviously struggling, and says literally nothing to him at all.
Then she narrates to tell us she wished she would’ve pushed harder. ((Yeah.. Girl, you didn’t push at all..))
Since when does she do that? Pomni doesn’t narrate at any other point in the entire show, and it not only felt out of place, but also a great example of telling instead of showing unfortunately. I would’ve preferred even that she tells Ragatha later what happened, ex; “he reached out and I didn’t even say anything to him. And now he’s..”
Boom. Jax is abstracted. There it is folks, what everyone expected. Despite everyone reaching out to him, despite him seeming to take their hands, he abstracted.
Then Pomni and Ragatha hug which is sweet and cool and I love them.
Anyways, then my favorite scene came on. I actually adored the whole scene with Pomni coming in with a gun, shooting out the lights, and hugging Jax. I loved watching her meet his multiple masks/personalities he’s made for himself.
My favorite scene pt. 2 is when she finally gets to the real Jax. He is broken, he is hurting, and he basically says “I am bad, you shouldn’t care, you shouldn’t love me,”
(Even outside of shipping, I love their friendship, I love how forgiving she is. I love how he doesn’t deserve that forgiveness but she is there anyways, and there she is again, doing the impossible and walking inside his head, reaching out despite the seeming impossibilities, and she finally makes it through.
He finally returns her hug and decides he doesn’t actually want to go. This would’ve been a great moment to show that abstractions aren’t permanent.
But this is meaningless. Despite not being dead, despite being in there, Pomni can’t do anything.
She basically just like.. spoke to him on his death bed? I guess? Despite him already being ‘dead?’ Is abstraction a metaphor for suicide? Because that is my least favorite headcanon, I think that’s awful. I’d much prefer abstraction to be something they don’t choose to do, but it seems everyone just kinda,, gives up? Choose to abstract and then can’t come back.
Jax wants to come back but no.
Jax runs into a flashbang, and Pomni is pulled from the abstraction by her friends.
She never tries again.
That’s where my favorite scene ends. This is where I believe a happier ending for Jax would’ve been more satisfying as a viewer.
Watching a character who has struggled so much, hurt so much, been tortured in the previous episode, and trying to face his struggles on his own - watching him finally acknowledge Pomni and admit he doesn’t want to go?
Watching him not be able to come back from that was incredibly unsatisfying.
I thought here, possibly, the others would help pull Jax from this too. Together, abstraction didn’t have to be permanent. Pomni doesn’t have to reach out alone.
But no. They put him under a tent to calm him and now he’s their odd pet.
..
…
Unfortunately between my favorite scene(s) we get Jax flashbacks and they are a major letdown. It’s simply ‘Jax has trauma and therefore is a jerk to everyone.’
First off, I was hoping Jax was awful, currently, because of a past thing, ex; he shoves Pomni away because he doesn’t want anyone else to abstract because of him. He doesn’t want to get close, he doesn’t want to get hurt again or hurt anyone again so he’s a jerk. We know he secretly does care about everyone “do you think Gangle is capable of being happy?”
But no, in his flashbacks he was awful for no reason, and possibly worse.. no one noticed? Ragatha didn’t see Jax ignoring Ribbit? The two seemed so close before Jax showed up??
KAUFMO? The trio’s third? Didn’t notice anything?
Everyone feels as dense as Miraculous characters and that is saying something. No one sees or notices what’s in front of them, at all. No wonder Ribbit would feel so alone - when Jax stopped paying attention to her so did everyone else lol. That’s stupid.
Then Caine is there. How? What? He wasn’t deleted? Uhh..
So Kinger was wrong about deleting Caine, I guess.
But bubble is gone, Jax is gone, and everyone is a mind file.
Then we get Caine flashbacks, see him get rid of the blue side (apparently it was that easy? Like releasing a butterfly. A very.. angry butterfly.)
We see him create the circus characters from the mind files.
It’s not good.
—-
Other misc thoughts about the episode:
Zooble and Gangle didn’t have a good scene.
They have had much much better scenes, in multiple different episodes, but their screen time felt wasted and boring. I loved watching their friendship grow and the characters become close, I loved so many of their moments, like Zooble inviting Gangle to the group, or offering to draw together. Gangle comforting Zooble over not being able to escape (in episode 8) was nice.
There wasn’t a good scene with them in this episode, though I appreciate Zooble at least not leaving Gangle to abstract alone like everyone did with Jax.
I expected a happy twist, somewhere, anywhere.
They find they’re not just mind files - maybe they are literally inside the game, maybe the files were on something else, maybe Kinger just saw something wrong, but no.
Maybe Pomni CAN make a difference. No one has been brought back from abstraction, but who tried? Did anyone ever get the chance to get so close to an abstraction besides Kinger? Even then, no one literally climbed inside and spoke to the abstracted beings.
Hey, that woulda been interesting, maybe previously, Jax could’ve spoken to Ribbit but she pushed him out and completely ignored him? Anything, anything to make that scene, where Pomni goes into the abstraction for Jax, make sense.
If Pomni can’t do ANYTHING, if Pomni being there adds nothing, why is she there? She can’t fix anything, she isn’t an exit, she isn’t the one who FINDS the exit. There is no exit, there is no helping, because Pomni isn’t a real person. (In world) It is all null. It is all for nothing.
Kofmo abstracted over Caine’s fake door. (Caine’s murder count: 2. 3 if you count blue dot/Abel)
These characters are nothing more than glorified NPCs with an uploaded file of memories from real people.
Fake beings with real feelings, like Caine. They’re cruel for Caine to make exist - at best. Also, he CAN control their minds, so why not just.. edit them a bit? Make them forget what makes them unhappy? Anything.
Caine is cruel. He has been cruel from the beginning it seems. As he is keeping these NPCs with awful memories and feelings as real as his.
At least in IHaveNoMouth the characters were real humans.
Jax was right. None of them are real. None of it mattered.
Also they totally pulled a Chloe (miraculous ladybug) by actually starting a redemption arc then going “lol no some people don’t change” and making the actual bad guy suddenly good instead?
There was no explanation for Caine’s return.
Bubble wasn’t in it. At all. He was a huge part of TADC and a fun part of every single episode, and he disappeared. It is theorized that he WAS the blue dot, but that’s not confirmed.
If Caine can access WiFi.. can the characters watch YouTube? Also, could they potentially communicate with the outside world? Could Gangle just like.. share her OCs online? Maybe even with herself?
I don’t know, it feels weird. All of that felt weird.
Who ‘cut Caine off’ as he told Jax in episode 7?
Seems to me he has access to the entirety of the internet. He can learn whatever he wants.
Goose once said “When this circus show comes out, I’m gonna have to ask all of you to sign a waiver saying that you’ll be a good fandom, and not a horrendously vicious annoying one. Otherwise I’m gonna have to make the show bad on purpose.”
It looks to me like that is what happened, and after falling in love with this show enough to get back into writing fanfics.. enough to make fanart, order merch, and genuinely have a great time enjoying this show, theorizing, and making up headcanons..
It feels like Goose looked over a bunch of theories on tumblr, threw the most popular ones (even if terrible) into the mix and called it a day.
Jax is awful? Sure. Jax abstracts? Sure. SOMA theory? Yep! And it continues.
The ending was genuinely heartbreaking, not just because of what was in it, but how it ended. The lore, the mystery, the facts we learned from previous episodes.. the finale doesn’t live up to how amazing 6, 7, and 8 had been.
I cried thrice during Sheep Detectives, but couldn’t manage to get emotional enough to even get misty-eyed for the finale of one of my favorite shows, simply because the way it was written and what happens in it was a major letdown, one after the next. The creators dropped the ball, and this finale was heavily fumbled.
I can pretend, I can cope by saying “hah, wouldn’t it be funny if due to the leaks they released this and then later released the REAL episode?” But that’s not what this is.
People spent their money. I spent my money. I spent my time. For this amazing project that in the end, was all for naught and a major disappointment.
If you think differently, please go ahead and lmk your opinions!! I wanna hear ‘em /gen
