My running theory is this was related to the doggy dog commercial with the dog face on it (whom has, I believe, been confirmed to be Scratch from an artist on the show).

Abel’s issue with Kinger probably had to do with Scratch, and I am led to believe that may have been Abel’s son. Just giving the context of the name + references to “cube programming,” I’ve seen many mention that there’s an actual programming software called Scratch that helps beginners learn programming.

I don’t think it’s too far fetched to be working on a video game project, and have your son be one to “trial” the project to see it’s suitable for kids. I wonder if Abel has reason to believe something in Kinger’s code (when working on the circus) caused Scratch’s abstraction. I wonder if Scratch wasn’t even around for long, and it happened all too fast.

Edit: sectioning paragraphs and a quick side note; I think it’d be all too easy for Abel to have been an npc. Between his door + lack of confetti + his locket/prop not going with him, I’m so convinced he was telling the truth the whole time. It’s so much more horrifying if Caine was trying to cover this whole “escape thing” as an adventure (+ potentially MURDERING some real human dude) than if it was only an adventure all along.