The Amazing Digital Circus Ep 8 Review
By the time you are reading this, it will have a week or two since the penultimate episode of Glitch Productions’ hit indie series, The Amazing Digital Circus, premiered on YouTube. Yet it feels like the Internet is still trying to come down from the collective high we just experienced. Almost two million people tuned in to watch the premiere, myself included, and by the time the credits rolled, everything we just experienced could be summed up with just two words. Words that Zooble was more than able to provide us all with: “holy shit.”
Note how I didn’t censor the swear word, because the series didn’t do it, either. And that was just the last surprise of an episode that will likely be talked about for years. There were so many revelations that it will make a rewatch of the entire series feel different. We got some incredible character development from the main cast. And most exciting, and horrifying, of all, the moment that has been built up since the beginning finally happened: Caine crashed out. And he might have just given his inspiration a run for his money when it comes to psychotic AI.
I’m RJ Writing Ink, and since no one else has done it, I’m reviewing the penultimate episode of The Amazing Digital Circus. Because this NEEDS to be studied by future generations of creators!
Caine Came up with the Circus on His Own
The episode opens up on a rather surreal note, even by the standards of the Digital Circus. At first, we see a red dot in a blank space being fed images and then spitting out shapes. But as most of the audience quickly figured out, we were witnessing the origin of Caine. And it pretty much confirmed what we already knew about him: that he was an imperfect AI. He was a rough draft of what his creators actually wanted the final result to be, and so, he was eventually discarded in favor of a newer, more stable successor. In keeping with the biblical story, this new AI has been dubbed by fans as Abel. And much like in the story of Caine and Abel, Caine the AI grew jealous and killed his brother; or rather, he absorbed him into him, creating the Caine we know from the show. It is then that we see Caine create the Digital Circus, which Kinger later reveals was never even what C&A created for him to do. This was all Caine’s idea.
Those two pieces of lore managed to completely change how viewers saw the show before the episode even finished. The last episode had already revealed that Caine could, and likely had, been messing with the minds of the humans in the circus and lied about it. And if he lied about that, who knows what else he lied about. As a result, whatever trust the players, and the audience, might have had in him was gone. And that led to the events of this episode that I can only describe as tragic, horrifying, and totally awesome as Caine crashed out.
Caine Did this to himself
The tragic aspect stems from how things could have gone better had it not been for Caine’s own character flaws. He is fully capable of making people happy, as episode five showed. But his pride means that he’s unwilling to accept that someone else can come up with better ideas than him, as that would mean that he’s not as good as he thinks he is. One could argue that him being an AI means he’s unable to change, but that’s not true. We saw Gummigoo become self-aware and make peace with that thanks to Pomni, and Caine created him. If his own creation can change, Caine can do so. He just chooses not to, and instead starts considering the humans to be ungrateful for his “gifts.” For extra irony, they had just start to accept that they may never get out, too.
The Legacy of AM
The horrifying aspect stems from when we saw Caine reach the height of his crash out. He had already spent the episode physically tormenting the cast, but after they made him snap, he went full AM on them. He subjected everyone (except Kinger) to psychological torture tailored specifically for them. For all their complaints that he doesn’t listen, Caine KNEW how to hit them where it hurt the most, and it was terrifying to watch. Everyone in the chat was freaking out about it and calling Caine the second coming of AM.
The awesome aspect, though? That’s because of what both Caine and the cast do.
Pomni and the Others Finally Clap Back at Caine!
Do you know how many times I saw people posting clips of Caine singing his villain song before Glitch gave us the official video? At least a dozen, but I’m betting there are tens of thousands. It was just that great of a villain song! Alex Rochon should consider doing more musical numbers in the future, because he slapped! Everyone is saying how it was a better villain song than anything Disney has put out in years, and you know what? They’re right! It was Disney Renaissance-levels of good, oozing with charisma and showmanship while also showing how much of a threat Caine had become. As soon as it came out on ITunes, I bought it without hesitation.
What was equally as awesome, though, was the cast taking a stand against Caine. For the first time, they put all their differences aside to stand up to their captor. Even Jax, the biggest jerk on the show, stood with everyone. Kinger, the GOAT, got his chance to shine when he gave them a way to fight back against Caine. But none of it would have ended up working had it not been for Pomni.
This entire episode showed us just how far Pomni has come since she came to the Digital Circus. She returns to the office room that nearly drove her insane, this time without batting an eye and with more confidence in herself. But the best part? She leads the charge in calling Caine out on how much he sucks! She gives everyone the courage they need to finally call Caine out for all the suffering he’s inflicted. She knows that it won’t end well for them, but she does it anyway because she has nothing left to lose. And even when Caine has them at his mercy, we still see her glaring at him in defiance! If she was going to die, she wasn’t going to die scared of Caine.
Thankfully, that doesn’t happen. Because we get the moment that made me, the audience, and the entire Internet lose their shit: Caine’s death.
“Uh-Wait-“
Caine death is as sudden as it is shocking, especially because of how it happens. Kinger didn’t mean to delete Caine, just fix his code so he would chill out. But as viewers have gone back and analyzed, someone else interfered and made it happen. And the manner in which his death takes place is just as crazy. There’s no warning, no explosion, not even a sound effect. He’s just gone! And for added tragedy, his VA, Alex Rochon, says his last words were him begging to live. It was him realizing what he had just done and feeling guilty about it. But without Caine around, the world he created begins to fall apart, ending the episode on a cliffhanger.
I was reacting to this episode live, and when I saw that ending, my jaw almost hit the floor. Even after the video ended, the chat remained active for a good five or so minutes as people couldn’t shut up about what happened. We had just witnessed Internet history in the making, and we were trying to process what the heck we just watched. And that was just the immediate aftermath. In the days that followed, I’ve seen countless people posting their reactions, analyses, and overall thoughts about the episode and its themes. We set the entire Internet on fire, and for good reason. If this was the penultimate episode, then imagine what the finale is going to look like? I’ve even heard rumors say that the finale will be released in theaters in some locations! That’s how huge it’s going to be!
I honestly have no idea how this story will end, you guys. Maybe the cast will accept that they can’t leave and make the best of their situation. Maybe they will find a way to escape, but find they don’t have bodies to return to. They could build the circus into a world where they can live in peace. The other AI could come back and help or threaten them. They might even have to find a way to bring Caine back, but help him overcome his own flaws. There’s no telling how this will end, but on June 19th, it will come to an end. And it’s going to end up breaking the Internet when it does.
