Episode 4 of the viral animated series The Amazing Digital Circus delves into the masked character known as Gangle, sparking deep discussions among fans about the meaning of the story.
“Fast Food Masquerade” sees the long-suffering inhabitants of the Circus tasked with working a grueling shift in a fast-food restaurant, which proves even more demoralizing than the haunted house from the previous episode.
What Happens In Episode 4 Of ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’?
After finally taking notice of the Circus suggestion box, Caine (Alex Rochon) opts to send the gang on a low-intensity adventure, working in “Spudsy's,” a McDonald's-like fast food place, and tasks Gangle (Marissa Lenti) with the responsibility of shift manager.
Gangle’s mood is defined by her comedy and tragedy masks, and her comedy face always ends up shattering—happiness is a fragile state, after all. Luckily for her, Zooble (Ashley Nichols) is always working on their mix-and-match body, and offers Gangle a new happy face.
Zooble points out that the new face is made of plastic—it’s tougher, but artificial.
Once the gang are in Spudsy's, Gangle embraces her role and transforms into an annoyingly chipper, control freak of a manager. Jax (Michael Kovach), expected to ride out this adventure by doing nothing, and is shocked by Gangle’s newfound assertiveness.
Amusingly, this is the first time we’ve seen Jax truly demoralized; the rabbit is usually as unflappable as Bugs Bunny, but even Jax is no match for the relentless monotony of a fast food shift.
Ragatha (Amanda Hufford) gets unintentionally intoxicated for her kitchen shift thanks to a squirt of “stupid sauce,” and tells the gang what she really thinks of them, while Pomni (Lizzie Freeman) suffers the horrors of customer service.
Pomni quickly realizes that the customers are all NPCs from previous adventures, but with their minds reset. Even Gummigoo, the NPC from episode 2 who suffered an existential crisis and an untimely death at the hand of Caine, is alive and well.
Thankfully, he remembers nothing of Pomni, or his ordeal (although, Pomni doesn’t seem to want to be forgotten, even if her memory is traumatizing).
Each episode of Digital Circus thus far has delved into one of the characters, and the Spudsy’s shift offers a look behind Gangle’s mask.
Gangle’s happy, fake face is making her manic, and she’s clearly struggling to perform the role; she can embrace the rules of the restaurant or be herself, but she can’t be both.
Interestingly, Gangle shows an interest in drawing in this episode, and mentions how her dreams of creating a webcomic are unrealistic, and must be crushed in order to pursue her fast food career.
The plight of the creative person stuck in a deeply unfulfilling job is surely a relatable one for many viewers, and watching Gangle force herself to perform is genuinely uncomfortable.
There’s no life-threatening situation in this adventure, only the mundane drudgery of maintaining a fast food place, and when the shift is over, the gang is defeated; Jax is so exhausted that he forgets to be cruel, and Pomni is still shaken by her Gummigoo encounter.
Ragatha never sobered up, but surely had the best time out of all of them, while Zooble grudgingly picks up the slack, keen for it all to be over. Pomni, however, notices that Gangle is becoming visibly depressed, and offers to finish her shift.
Gangle joyfully throws away her responsibility and her plastic mask, running gleefully into the night, embracing her true self, before being hit by a truck and transported back to Caine.
Seeing as she left early and almost died, Caine gives Gangle a B+ for her “performance review,” but offers her a higher grade if she wants to blame the others.
Gangle refuses—the control freak and perfectionist inside her is gone.
Gangle then self-isolates, fearing that her annoying behavior has alienated her from the gang, but is brought back into the fold with the encouragement of Zooble, who tells her to keep drawing.
What Is Episode 4 Of ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’ Really About?
“Fast Food Masquerade” is about masking—literally.
Gangle puts on a happy face to try and fit into an environment where she does not belong, which distances her from the people she really cares about.
The plastic face might be resilient, but Gangle is better off with her fragile porcelain masks; at least the comedy one is authentic to her, even if it’s constantly falling apart.
The episode also does a nice job showing the camaraderie of workers stuck together in a grueling shift; struggling through it, helping each other out, and even taking a splash of “stupid sauce” to ease the unrelenting boredom.
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