Definitely late to be party with this but I decided to finally watch the finale after already following the whole series. I enjoyed the first eight episodes and I liked the attempt from Goose (even though the writing was pretty low throughout from start to finish, why would Pomni immediately start freaking out the second she pops into existence if she was knew she was real?). I thought the community was gay with aids and sucked it off too much, looking to much into it but it was fine in a popcorn turn-your-brain-off kind of way. That said, the verdict for the finale is and can only be:
What a load of dogshit. Intensely bad. How did nobody say anything about this?
As others have mentioned, many plot threads and tensions are resolved within the first 8m29s of the film. Oh they're Brain scans? Ok so nothing matters when it comes to escape, the reveal that "there is no escape" is basically a throw away line where Jax (who stopped the first attempt at "escape") punches the wall and goes "fuuuuuuck I know what it means!". Then Jax abstracts off screen and everyone is wailing to themselves and then Zooble also punches the wall as if she's upset about it. Half the cast hated Jax from the first episode, I don't understand why they're trying to force the cast to boohoo over this. It felt like watching a really bad fanfic for someone who wanted to show their thinly veiled fetish for transing characters and maid outfits.
I don't see where this was suppose to be inspired by IHNMAIMS, even aping any aspect of the that story falls through. I know the premise was if AM was "just a silly guy" but there was no flip until episode 8 and then, once again, it gets resolved immediately in a way that required nothing from the characters ultimately. It's just a bit bizarre. The brainscans concept could have worked if it tried to do something alla IHNM. For instance: Caine goes full AM at retard clown and troupe but somehow manage to over come Caine, despite suffering immensely and not leaving unmarked from the fight mentally or physically (digitally?), and discover an "exit" though someone needs to stay behind to hold Caine off. Pomni selflessly takes that initiative and the others go into the light/exit as the world is crumbling around them. Caine, in his last-ish moments and filled with spite and hate, lets Pomni know that they are all brainscans and that the "exits" were really deleting those files. Caine then disappears or dies or w/e and the remnants of the circus stablize but Pomni is left alone, knowning she is a brainscan, having effictively "killed" her friends, and must roam marred forever by the battle with Caine (Caine might still be alive or ends up torturing pomni for her transgressions) etc etc.
Would have at least been a bit more interesting but even in that off-the-top write up, there's the glaring hole of the SOMA style ending kind of leaving everything prior as meaningless and without stakes, abstraction makes no sense or who cares because they aren't real. Goose really wrote himself into a weird corner with how he set things up if this was his ultimate goal and it seems like instead of figuring it out and making it satisfying, he decided to just creatively spurt into a tissue while gooning to a maid oc. Very sad and gay end to a potentially fun popcorn show.
