His response was to put her through a multi-game gauntlet, the first of which she failed because the game was just to smash her with boulders.

Episode 6 was wild and I loved it! Can't wait to see the entirety of the digital circus crumble because Caine can't comprehend adult fun time.

Now he doesn't want to risk becoming friends with anyone he might lose to abstraction, doesn't want to give up the idea of archetypes because then he'd have to face the reality that he is the reason his friends are gone.

Jax likes fun with an edge, I wouldn't be surprised if he feels guilt for maybe goading the other two into exploring the abandoned building and getting them all trapped inside the circus.

BUT I do think that Jax is the reason why he, Ribbit, and maybe even Kaufmo were in the circus. I am getting 3 Stooges vibes from those guys.

For the life of me, I can not find a reason for Gangle and Ragatha to be there though. If I am reaching for ideas, maybe Ragatha, as a realtor, was curious about the property? Maybe Gangle and Zooble showed up at the same time and went together?

Pomni and Zooble are in the circus because they liked to explore abandoned buildings, and who wouldn't be confused about wandering into a working computer lab set up while exploring. They couldn't have known trying on a headset would trap them.

He has been there longer than anyone else, right? Maybe he was looking after the program, for some reason, when he got trapped in the circus. And with no one around to tell others NOT to put on the headset, welp.

Kinger is someone who worked on Caine's programming. Subconsciously does things while in the digital circus that benefit others (Health Butterfly for Ragatha)

Tay A.I. type shit, if anyone remembers THAT fiasco.

So, obviously: Caine is a rogue AI. That much is clear. Bubble, I think, is actually an AI program that predates him though. MUCH less focused, think weird twitter AI bots that just learn to say ANYTHING.