(Whole 9 episode run is on youtube for those curious)
I thought it was a solid 5/10 ending. Tied up most of the loose ends but lacked brevity in a way that was highly noticeable. It could’ve been 30 min realistically. I think the whole show is closer to a 7/10. If you know any teenagers/young adults who would enjoy “baby’s first psychological horror” “what if psychological horror but it was for gamers and lesbians” this is a good recommend.
I really disliked it because Jax is insufferable and the episode being fully focused on him only made him more so. The reduced pomni to coddling an abuser while giving him a lackluster backstory. Everybody else got sidelined and the lore just got practically ignored. Huge disappointment to me.
She wasn’t “coddling an abuser.” Jax was complicated. He was scared and lashed out all the time. That makes him an asshole, sure, but there is a reason his abstraction was a tragedy.
While it was still an okay end for me, your points are also what I didn’t like about it.
While I appreciate the internal look into the psyche of why somebody can become such an asshole, he was getting off too lightly in my opinion. His opening up to ribbit was well acted, I liked the portrayal of that.
I don’t think the lore dump was necessarily bad. But I think that stories should try to not meander.
TADC finale spoilers ahead
The way I see Jax, you can really do only a few things in the finale as it is currently structured:
Mostly the same, but she de-abstracts/is on the path to doing so after spending half the runtime on emotionally saving her.
Have the major flashback, then abstract her, putting her in the current “nigh unsaveable state”
In the former case, Jax (alongside Caine), would have to actively earn back the group’s trust, because you’re right, she’s been quite hurtful. But in essence, beyond the moral implications, the narrative structure itself leaves something to be desired in this regard.