Jax's backstory didn't feel that connected to the main story overall
My main problem with Jax's backstory in ep9 is that it really just has nothing to do with the circus itself.
So let's summarize: He has issues with presenting his real self to people. As a result of his trauma caused by his mom, he has an everlasting paranoia of letting people see his true "self." He thinks that by trusting people with the knowledge of his identity issues, they could secretly be using that to hold it against him later, just like his mother did. So the instant he realizes he let Ribbit in, he pushed her away as much as he could to avoid reliving the trauma that affected him for years and even caused him to eventually become homeless.
Let me be clear: that is a very well written characterization and the identity issues presented were stuff that I've seen a lot of people relate to, which is great. However, my problem is that it pretty much has nothing to do with the circus. I felt like being in an endless digital hellhole with no escape was already a good enough explanation for Jax being an asshole, but the reveal that he was an asshole because of things entirely unrelated to the circus makes me question why the Digital Circus was even necessary as a setting in the first place, other than to have the characters isolated from the world. It feels like you could've just put the cast in a deserted island and the finale would barely change.
For me personally, a more interesting version of the finale already existed in the episode, and it was the sequence where Jax is envisioning himself if Ragatha abstracted. In this, he witnesses the aftermath of the most hopeful member of the circus dying, which makes him realize that there really is no hope in the circus and he drops all pretenses of sanity. He's telling himself that they truly aren't real and he should just do whatever he wants to cope, and that hurting people (Pomni) will have absolutely no consequences. I felt as though this was a better follow up to the setups in the previous episodes that primarily focused on himself putting on a mask to cope with being in the circus. I think his issues with gender/identity weren't as prominent, (the only example I can remember is the maid dress) which kind of led to me thinking they were more of a symptom of his main issue, not the actual driving force of his character. I think that's partially why a lot people were so caught off guard by the reveal. Let me be clear again, I don't have an issue with gender identify issues being in the show, but I feel as though it does makes Jax's story just a little too divorced from the main premise of the show. I think that's also why a lot of people are taking such issue with the segment taking so much of the runtime.
I feel like Jax's story could've just been a show on it's own, where he was the protagonist from the start and it was able to focus on his gender identity issues in a more fitting setting.
Let me know if you think I'm just being stupid and didn't pick up on things