Spoilers for TADC final act underneath! Read at own caution ⚠️
I have to ramble about this episode man, like so bad.
Okay first of all, let’s address the elephant in the room.. JAX IS A TRANS GIRL!!! I knew it! I knew she was! And she’s an emo?! Ohhh my gosh. But her being trans does not excuse her actions! And gangle had every right to have these mixed feelings. But I have a thought. The feminine (maid Jax) side of him (as shown in the abstraction scene) seemed to have had a teasing crush on gangle. While it may not seem genuine. I think it was an actual romantic interest on her. Maybe I’m reaching too hard but since Jax is SO deep in the closet the teasing could have just been another way to repress the gender trouble she was having. It could have been a case of “if boys tease girls when they have a crush on them” which is very stereotypical and may have even been a way of masculinization towards herself. So what if she really DID like gangle and was trying to keep the egg uncracked at the SAME TIME..
But of course this doesn’t excuse what she did to gangle. Gangle never deserved the horrible treatment she received and she had every single right to have complications about Jax’s abstraction. She didn’t cry and I understand why. I would not cry for someone whose main goal was to make me miserable. Also gangle is a brown girl let’s gooo but gangle wasn’t as focused on so I personally don’t have very much to say about her.
I loved the character growth, even if a bit rushed. But the movement of the stars implies that this happened over years on end as the circus was made to comfort the characters. Caine’s development was likely rushed because of the time crunch. But I like to see it as a moment of regret, I’ve had those before too. That right after it all happened you get what happened, you understand how you hurt people and you know what you could have done.
Pomni’s character arc was also amazing. I loved her fear growing into maturity and how she had helped others. Pomni really was a wake up call. But I’m saving my favorite for last
Ragatha. Oh dear Ragatha.. I cried so much for her. I understood completely. One example being the yelling scene with Jax. Of course ragatha is trying to diffuse things at first, but then Jax yells at her too. Tells her that she can stay with mommy. That immediately got me sobbing, she thought she had no freedom in the circus, that she was trapped. But reality set in. She wasn’t just trapped in the circus, she might have been trapped in her own home with her mother. Both worlds she would be left suffering with no resolve, which is why it hit even harder when she learned she had her own successful career! Ragatha was free, she was happy. Or at least Susie was. But that was enough to make ragatha feel a little bit more free too. And with Jax, again. Trying to be friendly and kind towards someone that hates you. That always seems to be horrible to you. Because you don’t want it to happen again, what did you do to mess up this time? To make them angry? You need to fix it. The part that hit me hardest though, was after Jax had yelled at Ragatha, and she just stood there. She was frozen, I can’t put it into words but she was trying to protect herself. I know the feeling all too well, getting screamed at by your own parents. Constantly. And all you can do is freeze, if you don’t move don’t do anything don’t say anything then you might be okay. Just face it, let them yell at you and don’t talk don’t move or get even worse of a reaction worse of a punishment more screaming. I can’t describe it more than this primal fear, you stare as things get out of focus and all you can hear is screaming, time warps and moves slower, everything gets blurry you can’t do anything but freeze on the person nothing but that and the fear in your head. I knew what it was when I saw it. It was portrayed incredibly. Even when she was off to the side I kept my eyes on her I couldn’t look away, I saw that all too familiar look. Like a scared animal.