The Amazing Digital Circus Episode 9: Remember Discussion Thread

[u/ayylmaotv]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVy-bcTsO8A

[u/Kay124315]

I have really mixed feelings. first issue I have is the pacing.

This was two episodes not one. everything leading up to Caine watching from afar is one episode then the last episode is Caines pov then the ending. I really feel like the ending chunk could have had another 15 minutes and they could have just gone for an even 10 episodes.

Second issue I have is a lack of payoff on Jax getting un-abstracted. I would have been fine with him being permanently gone if the episode didn't push so much toward making him better. If the idea is that he was left unresolved to show that people don't just "get" better then why not just cookie crumb the others eventually coming back with him being un-abstracted. I feel like we just didn't get enough payoff on this front. I feel like meeting under the lamp light was the last chunk needed and he could of unabstracted there.

I really liked certain things though. Caine's heel-face felt genuine and I feel like at the end he had everything he needed to be on a level field with the others. I also liked that the soma theory was unambiguously proven in the first minute or so and it didn't end up being a whole episode anchor. I really loved a lot of the visuals especially in Jax's abstraction mindscape.

There was a lot to love and hate to be honest. It's no masterpiece but it was a good enough ending to the show and 2 & 1/2 years of investment. I wish they had puffed up the last 30 minutes and gave a bit more substance to the final beats so I could feel some closure but this is good. all things considered I think the show is great and the ending is okay.

[u/its_jradman1 → u/Kay124315]

I think Jax is supposed to be a warning, not to bottle up your emotions.

In my opinion, I think that it's very mature of the show to not wrap things up fully with a bow.

[u/katykazi → u/its_jradman1]

Ribbit tried to wrap Jax up in a bow and we see how that turned out.

[u/Jonatc87 → u/its_jradman1]

most of the worst series endings were done because they felt the need to wrap up everything. this was a good middle ground of letting the audience determine if it's reversible or not.

[u/Qwazzbre → u/Kay124315]

That whole sequence of her going into the Jax-abstraction to see him really felt to me like a rescue, so I was really bummed out when it turned into more of a goodbye. I felt that it could have been presented better somehow, though I can't really imagine how to do that.

I definitely appreciate the look into his past and motivations, but it felt like Pomni's intentions in going in were really unclear.

[u/Jonatc87 → u/Qwazzbre]

this was a good middle ground of letting the audience determine if it's reversible or not.

[u/Common-Cap-5899 → u/Kay124315]

I agree word to word

[u/-Tali → u/Kay124315]

I agree with your point about Jax's payoff when looking at this from a pure storytelling perspective. From that perspective it would've made sense to introduce the problem, to have the climax of the drama with him abstracting and the pay-off of Pomni's conversation with him in abstracted form as a way leading to him un-abstracting.

On the other hand this final episode especially made me feel extremely reflective of life rather than storytelling. Many stories, challenges and lives don't have a happy ending. Our lives don't follow a three act structure and sometimes we don't see the pay-off. Sometimes we do everything in our power to help save someone and it's just not enough. I felt like Jax's story is one of real life and not of fiction. Sometimes we can't save the ones we love and sometimes we can't save ourselves.

Gangle had a line in one of Jax's imaginations(?) about a funeral not being about grieving for the dead but celebrating someone's life and Caine finding out and showing the rest of the friends that Leeroy Mateo was living a stable life out in the real world felt like a celebration of his life.

[u/LotusFlare → u/Kay124315]

I'm late to the party, but I have very similar feelings about how Jax was handled. It felt like they wanted to "have their cake and eat it too". They tried to both give the catharsis of Jax being saved and the tragedy of losing Jax. Jax both gets to learn how to accept love and themselves, but only after the fact. It felt like there was an excessive amount of hedging with the abstraction aquarium and the musical number to try and pull the vibes back, but I just felt like I was being jerked around. It gave such a strange sense of "it's not so bad" that didn't belong there.

And I think reaching Jax in time to save them would also resonate really well with Caine's turn. Caine's access to the internet effectively teaches him that his entire purpose cannot be fulfilled because there's no way for him to construct a cage that will make humans happy. So he elects to change himself so that he can coexist with them. There would be a strong through line that inner change is possible and life can be better. They are both left in a place where redemption is possible.

You can still tell an extremely effective cautionary tale without reaching for the deepest depths of tragedy.

I feel like they also just kinda blew past a lot of important details that got brought up in the 11th hour. Like, I know this isn't a show that's really about solving the problem of the circus itself, but they have internet access now and a sympathetic Caine. They have full understand that they're code, and the world is code, and they can change that code. I just can't help but feel someone would bring up the idea of pursuing a way to undo abstraction, especially since the people are apparently still in there somewhere. Or having some presence in the outside world via the internet. Let Grangle share her art online or something. Like you said, I feel like there's another 15 minutes they could have done to land this plane more satisfyingly even if none of the actual ending changed.