Trigger warning: This article contains discussions of mental health issues, abuse, trauma, and other potentially distressing content. Please exercise care while reading.
Content warning: This article contains spoilers for The Amazing Digital Circus.
As the title suggests, I do, in fact, have questions for The Amazing Digital Circus.
That’s not exactly new — The Amazing Digital Circus by definition is a show that provokes a lot of questions. Questions like, “What on earth is going on here?” Or, “Why does this digital circus’s sentient AI ringmaster have a disembodied pair of teeth and floating eyeballs for a head?” Or, “What’s the deal with this weirdly horny talking bubble?” Or, “Why does the moon want to get frisky with this sentient AI ringmaster whose head is a disembodied pair of teeth and floating eyeballs?”
Suffice it to say, if you haven’t seen the show, you’re probably a little lost right now, and if you have seen the show, you’re used to it.
Episode five of the indie animated hit dropped June 20, and it has indeed left me with a lot of questions. My questions this time, though, have less to do with TADC’s signature flavor of absurd chaos and more to do with the evolving dynamics between its characters — namely, what the heck is going on with Pomni, Jax, and Ragatha?
Episodes One to Four: The Story So Far
By this point, we’re four episodes deep into the deceptively colorful world of The Amazing Digital Circus. Ringmaster Caine (Alex Rochon), the sentient AI in charge of this primary-color purgatory, has shown that while he can generate all manner of “adventures” to occupy his players, there’s one crucial thing he can’t create: an exit. Thus, everyone is trapped in the circus indefinitely, embarking on adventure after adventure in an effort to keep themselves from “abstracting” and being imprisoned in the cellar — a fate that befell Kaufmo the clown in the show’s pilot when his sanity finally collapsed. An ongoing question among viewers has been which of the main cast will be the first to break down and transform into a black, many-glowing-eyed monstrosity.
Pomni (Lizzie Freeman), the circus’s latest addition, has — to put it simply, and incredibly mildly — gone through a lot. Over the course of the first three episodes, she’s been attacked by an abstracted Kaufmo, journeyed through the backrooms in a failed attempt to find an exit, befriended an NPC only to have him cruelly zapped out of existence, and been possessed by a rogue soul seeking release from hell. It’s been a rough adjustment, but the minimum-wage mundanity of episode four seemed a welcome reprieve for her, even as other characters each experienced their own unique torments.
After taking the first two episodes to find its footing and fully orient us in Caine’s bizarre, Microsoft-coded isekai, the show has slowly begun introducing us more fully to its characters. As Kinger (Sean Chiplock) accompanied Pomni through the bowels of a haunted manor in episode three, he opened up to her about his abstracted wife in a rare moment of lucidity that can apparently only happen in the dark. Meanwhile, back in the circus proper, a frustrated Zooble (Ashley Nichols) attempted to share their struggles with their body image with Caine in a therapy session, only for Caine’s own fears of inadequacy to turn the tables.
Most recently, episode four saw an unusually energized Gangle (Marissa Lenti) attempt to lead the gang through a shift at the fast-food restaurant Spudsy’s. Her (comedy) mask, though, began to slip when Ragatha (Amanda Hufford) called her annoying (albeit under the influence of some Stupid Sauce) and Jax (Michael Kovach) told her he liked her better sad.
Though Ragatha and Jax made strong impressions throughout the series, we hadn’t yet gotten to know them beyond the surface level. We’d gotten glimpses here and there, though, with episode four being the first indicator that there was more to Ragatha than her relentlessly cheery demeanor. Gooseworx, the show’s creator, had teased on Tumblr that episodes five and six would focus on Jax and Ragatha, with episode five being the “Ragatha episode.” Given how opposite Jax and Ragatha are in demeanor and how at odds they’ve been throughout the series, the idea of the two of them having intertwined arcs is particularly intriguing.
One thing’s for sure: We were promised lore, and the show sure delivered.
Episode Five: Recap
In the latest episode of TADC, Untitled (yes, that’s the title), Caine — fed up with the negative feedback on his adventure ideas and annoyed that he can’t satisfy everyone — sends the members of the Digital Circus through a Lightning Round of mini-adventures pulled from the suggestion box he never uses. These vignettes provide new insight into the characters, both through their choice of adventure and the conversations they have with each other throughout.
As the circus’s resident menace, Jax unsurprisingly gravitates toward violence and chaos, from hunting his fellow players for sport to throwing Pomni into a terrorist attack on the Oval Office without a script. Artist Gangle goes for a slice-of-life school anime, though it’s cut short when Jax threatens to expose some of Gangle’s more incriminating secrets.
Though we see Pomni’s frustration with Jax throughout the first half of the episode, she starts to reconsider her perspective of him during the stargazing adventure. After Jax unconvincingly denies that he cares about what other people like, Pomni asks him if he has any friends. Ragatha responds with this bombshell: “Not anymore.” It’s clear this strikes a nerve for Jax, who refuses to elaborate when Pomni asks and proceeds to express frustration with Ragatha’s attempts at positivity:
[If] you tell someone they’re loved and appreciated every day, it just kind of loses all meaning. It just feels like she’s trying to take advantage of you, you know?
It’s a rare moment of vulnerability and openness for Jax — masked quickly, of course, with his usual callousness — and one that triggers a shift in Pomni’s view of him.
After a delightfully wacky (and surprisingly revealing) intermission sequence (more on that later), the cast end up in a bar — an adventure suggested by Zooble, who was a bartender and a tattoo artist before the circus. This turns out to be the most revealing scene yet: We learn Pomni was an accountant who would vlog about exploring abandoned buildings in her spare time — likely how she ended up in the circus in the first place. Gangle dropped out of community college for graphic design, probably due to depression and/or anxiety. Ragatha, meanwhile, grew up in a wealthy family with an overbearing, emotionally abusive mother — most certainly the root of her people-pleasing tendencies.
Jax refuses to share his actual past, but we do learn that he’s afraid of corn. He also apologizes to Pomni, in a move that seems questionably genuine and designed specifically to further irritate — and alienate — Ragatha. Ragatha’s awkward attempts at winning Pomni’s favor only seem to emphasize Jax’s assertions that Ragatha’s positivity — though trauma-induced — is off-puttingly insincere. Jax’s (exaggerated and inaccurate) reminder of what Ragatha told Gangle in the previous episode doesn’t help either.
The final adventure, Ragatha’s idea, is softball, with Caine pitting the cast against evil versions of themselves (except Gangle, who’s replaced by an evil version of Orbsman the NPC). The brewing tensions come to a head as Pomni encourages Ragatha to let herself be more of a jerk once in a while. When Ragatha finally lashes out at Jax for forcing his mean-spiritedness onto Pomni, however, Pomni tells her to calm down. Ragatha rightly calls her out on the contradiction, only to become unnerved at Pomni’s negative reaction and immediately apologize. She also apologizes, begrudgingly, to Jax — “for bringing up that thing earlier.” In a single masterful second of animation, Jax’s mask falls away completely.
By the time they return to the circus, Pomni seems to have bonded with Jax, who takes her aside to show her something in the hall they’d discussed during the game. As Zooble, Gangle, and Kinger also head off together, Ragatha watches them go before leaving, alone, with a sigh. (But she’s not the only one — a mannequin lurks ominously behind one of the walls, quickly retreating out of sight.)
Interspersed between these moments of character development, of course, are plenty of gags and goofs. Naturally, the internet went feral over Jax in a maid outfit, but Disappearing Guy has also garnered plenty of fans — myself included.
The Reaction
The fan reaction to Untitled has been interesting, to say the least. Many of the initial comments on the episode expressed excitement to see how this developing friendship between Jax and Pomni would unfold. My own sentiments, meanwhile, have been echoed on Tumblr: skepticism, and a bit of concern. Why would Pomni choose Jax over Ragatha?
Much of the fandom discussion around this has astutely pointed out a double standard in the treatment of these two characters. Jax, the snarky, Tumblr-sexyman-coded jerk, shows a slight glimmer of humanity, and people fall over themselves at the possibility of redemption. Ragatha, meanwhile, opens up about her trauma and attempts to overcome her fawning response, only to end the episode alone. Her characterization in particular has hit home for quite a few neurodivergent viewers who relate to being told to change their behavior but are still criticized when they do so because they haven’t done it the “right” way.
(Imagine being Ragatha, seeing someone who abandoned you when your life was in danger and who seems to be bonding with everyone else in the circus deciding to strike up a friendship with the guy who threw you in a deep fryer, of all people. I’d be mad, too.)
Viewers have noticed that when Ragatha apologizes to Jax, her hair glitches. While some have chalked this up to an animation error, others speculate that it might mean Ragatha will be the first of the main cast to abstract. Certain promotional posts from Glitch Productions have lent credibility to this theory, from the photoshoot for the Ragatha cardigan in their merch store to the photo below, posted to their socials to thank viewers for watching the episode.
There’s also the question of Jax and Pomni — not only how their relationship will develop, but how much more we’ll learn about the past Jax refuses to disclose. When the players held a vigil for the recently abstracted Kaufmo back in episode two, Jax noticeably did not attend. Meanwhile, eagle-eyed viewers have noticed that during the intermission, Jax is shown running down a hallway past Kaufmo’s door and another door with a mannequin’s head on it before skidding to a stop in front of a door with a crossed-out frog’s face. Gooseworx has previously said on Tumblr that the last person to abstract before Kaufmo was named Ribbit. Many fans think that Ribbit is the friend Ragatha alluded to during the stargazing adventure, and some even believe that Jax gravitates toward Pomni because she reminds him of his lost friends.
It seems Pomni has warmed to Jax because of the genuine vulnerability he’s displayed and because it seems that beneath his jerkish exterior is someone very hurt who might hold potential for change. We’ve seen this dynamic play out elsewhere, and I’m admittedly a little weary of seeing morally dubious male characters receive grace that their female counterparts don’t. In Gooseworx’s hands, though, the results should be interesting — especially since she’s previously called Jax “irredeemable.”
Of course, the show’s given us a lot more to ponder than just Ragatha, Jax, and Pomni. The instability Caine displayed in his therapy session with Zooble seems to be returning, which could spell trouble for the crew. There’s also the mysterious mannequin who appears at the beginning and end of the episode, who, it seems, will play a larger role in the future. Gooseworx has called episode five “the silly before the storm,” and with only four episodes left in the series, it’s sure to take a dark turn very quickly.
As always, TADC and Gooseworx’s cryptic hints on social media leave a lot of room for interpretation and fan theories. TADC fans, we’d love to hear your thoughts: Where do you think episode six is headed? Let us know on Instagram, Bluesky, or Facebook — and in the meantime, you can rewatch The Amazing Digital Circus on YouTube and Netflix.
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