When Glitch Productions announced the eighth episode of independent CGI-animated dramedy The Amazing Digital Circus (TADC) would be titled to “hjsakldfhl,” fans were confused. Was it an acronym? A secret code? Nobody knew what it could mean…and we still don’t know because series creator Gooseworx has yet to specify if that title has any meaning to it.
But that hasn’t stopped TADC fans from theorizing, especially now that the episode is out and the series has come to an end. Some of what fans predicted lined up eerily well. Other theories didn’t quite hit the mark.
What fans thought “hjsakldfhl” meant
When I saw what the title for episode 8 would be, I assumed the gibberish title was foreshadowing someone having a nervous breakdown, specifically Caine’s. Early episodes had hints of what to expect hidden in their titles. “The Mystery Of Mildenhall Manor” took place inside a haunted house while “They All Get Guns” is well, Caine gives the main characters guns so they can shoot at each other. They’re almost like chapters in a kids’ book, which is fitting since Caine likes to send the players on adventures.
After episode 5, the titles are more simple and less descriptive like “Beach Episode.” And now we have “hjsakldfhl,” an unpronounceable mess. It’s nothing but a string of letters you get when you’re mashing keys on your keyboard. Episode 5 is also when Caine starts to struggle with keeping the circus and its players under his control.
Some fans noticed how the letters can be broken down into pairs: h+j, s+a, k+l, d+f. The pattern falls apart at the end with h+l being out of order and s+a is reversed (it should be a+s). It’s clear that this sequence represents something is out of order and it’s throwing everything off-balance.
I figured that Caine would be the main focus based on the Truman Show-inspired teaser for “hjsakldfhl.” Jax would be a close second. “Beach Episode” left Jax pretty rattled. He’s depressed and closed off from the rest of the group. He nearly abstracted after experiencing hallucinations, and it’s hinted that Caine’s ability to manipulate minds is affecting his sanity. A lot of fans expected episode 8 to either dig into Jax’s backstory or push him right to the edge.
At the same time, Caine is having his own crisis. In “Beach Episode,” Caine tried to reassure himself that the humans actually love him. He devised an adventure where the group is given the chance to escape without telling them beforehand it was all a lie.
Naturally, this plan blew up in his face. With the group distrustful of Caine, the ringmaster AI finds himself experiencing his worst fear of the humans hating being trapped inside the circus with him.
What actually happened in “hjsakldfhl”
So how’d we do? It’s a mixed bag.
Caine did have his breakdown but not in the way people expected. The episode revealed Caine was replaced with a different AI during his development for being unstable, but he wound up absorbing his replacement.
From there, present-day Caine has one hell of a crash-out. He starts unraveling in his office, taunted by manifestations of his own insecurities with his assistant Bubble voicing every doubt Caine has about himself. He smashes his Rubik’s Cube, glitches out while screaming out that he’s a God. Then he snaps back to normal like nothing happened.
Later on in the episode, the group finally confronts Caine for how he’s been treating them. Pomni calls him a failure of a host, Ragatha accuses him of not caring for their well-being, while Jax calls him out for all his lies. Caine fully loses it and turns into a multi-armed monster. He tortures each character by preying on their insecurities and trauma. So yeah, “breakdown” undersells it a little. It’s closer to a complete collapse.
There wasn’t as much focus on Jax as I expected. He has a panic attack once he starts to accept that the circus is more “real” than he wants to admit, but his story is put on the backburner. It’s Kinger who becomes the episode’s deuteragonist. We learn about his past as a co-creator of Caine while working for the show’s shadowy tech company C&A.
What fans failed to predict was the ending. Kinger tries to hack his code to calm him down. However, he accidentally hits the delete button instead. Caine is seemingly erased from existence mid-sentence, just as he seems to realize he went too far.
Does “hjsakldfhl” have a meaning attached to it?
We’ll probably never know for sure, but “hjsakldfhl” as a whole feels like a commentary on mental instability and how some people cope with their failing mental health.
Caine doubles down on his belief that he’s entitled to the circus players’ affection. Instead of opening up to everyone on how lonely he is, he lashes out the second someone refuses to play his games.
Jax is clearly a deeply troubled individual who hides behind a jerkass clown facade to dissociate from reality. Rather than being honest with the group about his past, he gives into his belief that he might be a terrible person deep down and making everyone miserable.
Kinger is the only character in this trio who doesn’t use his mental instability as an excuse to hurt others. He has an almost paternal relationship with Ragatha from the moment he met her. He also bonds with Pomni by revealing how losing his wife Queenie to abstraction affected him. Because of friendship with Pomni, she’s able to help Kinger regain his sanity by putting a bucket on his head (darkness makes him more lucid).
It’s subtle but “hjsakldfhl” is a message reminding viewers that everyone will suffer from crushing lows from time to time. How you choose to respond to those moments is crucial in determining how your story is going to end.
All nine episodes of The Amazing Digital Circus are available to watch on Glitch Productions’ YouTube channel for free.
