Plates and truths are spinning on BoJack Horseman's dark night of the soul
TV Reviews BoJack Horseman
“BoJack, tell us every bad thing you ever did.”
“…This is gonna be a long night.”
A show with as much knowledge of television tropes as BoJack Horseman is no stranger to the device of the bottle episode. On more than one occasion it’s found the value of shutting its characters away in one location, turning up the pressure to force them into emotional breakdowns and reluctant resolutions. Season three’s “Best Thing That Ever Happened” is the best example of the series doing this with the dissolution of BoJack and Princess Carolyn’s relationship in the swiftly declining Elefante. Season four’s “Underground” took the concept a step further, sending Mr. Peanutbutter’s entire house toward the center of the earth and taking a full party to the edge of fire-scorched madness.
“Sunk Cost And All That” doesn’t technically qualify as a bottle episode, given that the action is split between two sides of the United States. But it does earn the distinction of “bottles episode,” limiting its acton to one location on each coast, a restaurant in Hollywoo and an office in Connecticut. And while that two-for-one deal is another likely consequence of BoJack Horseman running out of time to tell its story, each half pulls its weight and gets that story to where it needs to be in its final hours. It clears the table of some major pending reveals and resolutions, and it sets the stage for BoJack to finally own up to the things he’s done.
The East Coast action picks up immediately in the wake of the past two seasons, as BoJack passed out in the wake of his devastating phone call with Charlotte. If there’s one positive of this circumstance, it’s that it’s occurring in the company of his old friends, who are able to drag him back to his office and push away inquiries from his students. Unfortunately, that requires a quid pro quo for him to explain why he fainted in the first place, which means that the truth of what happened in New Mexico has to be revealed for the second time to Diane and the first time to Todd and Princess Carolyn.
The truth has spent so long buried inside BoJack that it’s a surprise how anticlimactic that reveal is and how quickly everyone is willing to move past it. In fact it becomes an afterthought, as Diane is so attuned to media scandals after years of Crooshing it that she knows it can’t be the full story. All it does is throw some more rust on his already tarnished reputation, given that his weak excuse that nothing happened with Charlotte has the advantage of being true, and buying alcohol for minors is only a misdemeanor under New Mexico law. (Look it up!) Instead, it’s a canary in the coal mine—a gag that I’m surprised BoJack hasn’t used at this point—that there must be an even worse story out there.
To figure out what it could be, it’s back to the drawing board—or the whiteboard rather, the permanent “Professor Horseman” caption now expanded to “Bad Professor Horseman Stories.” It’s a callback to “It’s You” and the wonderful game of spotting just who Todd and Mr. Peanutbutter thought were deserving of Oscar nominations, only this time it’s a list of BoJack’s mistakes great and small. This is the sort of thing designed to reward the long-time viewers, remembering exactly how many times BoJack’s screwed up and even throwing in a few we haven’t seen on camera. And when Todd and Diane make their own additions to the list, it’s a reminder of the cost so often incurred by remaining BoJack’s friend.
Back in Hollywoo, the focus is on the opening of Elefino, the reimagining of Elefante brought to us by the triage of Mr. Peanutbutter, Joey Pogo, and Pickles. It’s a restaurant as ill-conceived as you’d expect, the three of them only able to be fixated on one aspect of the dining experience and not consider how they’d go together as a cohesive whole. Pickles brought in the idea of small plates for a personal dining experience, while Joey Pogo locked into lazy Susans for a fun experience—only for no one to connect that small plates don’t handle being spun around. Mr. Peanutbutter for his part had the brilliant idea of putting his face on the menu, a detail amusingly dismissed and discarded by other restaurant attendees.
Off to the side of the main dispute, Mr. Peanutbutter spends most of his time going around in circles with Paige and Max, who have tracked down who they ostensibly think is BoJack’s best friend—a misconception he’s perfectly happy to take on face value. Jonny Sun’s dialogue and Amy Winfrey’s direction keep this in the lighter territory, constantly spinning around the ugly truths that the reporters are digging for. You can tell this is where the danger lies, not because Mr. Peanutbutter’s an idiot but because he’s too damn trusting. Even without being distracted by Pickles and Joey’s fights, Mr. Peanutbutter’s incapable of writing off BoJack completely—his blowup in “Let’s Find Out” an aberration in their relationship—and genuinely thinks that the hints he drops to the reporters are signs of BoJack doing the right thing.
The details eventually make their way over to Wesleyan, and once the reporters’ focus is apparent the whole tone of things change. Diane’s smart enough to connect the dots, and with the floodgates opened BoJack finally reveals the entire truth about that night—and if you were waiting for the impact of his truth, you get in the way both Diane and Princess Carolyn’s expressions widen and waver at that reveal. These are the two women who know BoJack better than anyone, and even after all his shittiness he’s can still surprise them in the worst way. The moment where BoJack tries to take a step back and join the end-of-year superlatives is brilliant direction by Winfrey, framed in the doorway between Diane and Princess Carolyn as they try so hard to be happy in that moment.
Back at Elefino, there are tables turning in the literal and metaphorical sense. As I’ve mentioned more than once, I’m not a fan of the Mr. Peanutbutter and Pickles relationship, largely because it’s felt like a doomed cause from the start. If the two stay together it feels counterproductive to the series’ trend of gradual change, that Mr. Peanutbutter learned nothing from his past three marriages or his acknowledgment of not liking himself after sleeping with Diane in season five. And the revenge sex solution to their fight telegraphed its eventual results from the first minute it was suggested, something where consequences are apparent to everyone except the two people who came up with it.
All of those hints make the eventual hookup of Joey and Pickles in the Elefino walk-in freezer feel like an inevitability, but somehow it manages to pull some emotional payoff out of the result. For starters, it helps that Hilary Swank and Julia Chan are able to pack a lot of familiarity into their conversations despite only meeting a couple of episodes before, bonding over their respective love of the most trivial things. They’re on the same level of ridiculousness together, and they clearly make a better couple than Mr. Peanutbutter and Pickles. (Plus, there’s the wonderful background gag that their lovemaking was so energetic it thawed out most of the contents of the freezer.)
And to his credit, Mr. Peanutbutter faces up to the inevitability of it. As chipper and random as he is, he’s also an old dog who’s been through more than one heartbreak in his life, and isn’t going to stand in the way of a relationship that clearly makes more sense. It’s a wonderful little moment as he lets Pickles go, and then sinks back down into his stool with only his face on the menu to keep him company. Well, for a moment at least, as a passerby brings “Sad Dog” to life and BoJack Horseman brilliantly pays off this running gag.
Mr. Peanutbutter isn’t the only one who’s ending up alone. What “Sunk Cost And All That” makes clear is that BoJack no longer truly has the support system he relied on once upon a time, as his one-time friends no longer have it in them to support his mistakes. Todd sees BoJack’s vengeful streak coming out as he suggests digging up dirt on the reporters and decides right away he wants no part of it, excusing himself until “new BoJack” comes back. And when BoJack panics and takes Princess Carolyn’s suggestion to deny everything he can, Diane leaves the office to go finish the adventures of Ivy Tran because she can’t be complacent in his half-measures and prevarications anymore. You get the feeling that it’s almost a good thing for BoJack Horseman to be this close to its endgame, because it’s running out of reasons to keep its main cast in the same orbit.
Except, of course, for those held together by reasons no outsider would understand. I’ve cited “Best Thing That Ever Happened” a few times this review, partly because it’s one of my favorite episodes of the whole series and partly because it shows how vital the relationship between BoJack Horseman and Princess Carolyn is. Last episode I made the argument for the importance of Diane’s character to BoJack Horseman, but when it comes to the most important relationship on the series, they take that award without question. The history between the two is so loaded, vibrant, and scarred that any time they interact it elevates the episode around them. Will Arnett and Amy Sedaris pack so much into every conversation, and they do so here as well—particularly when BoJack asks that recurring loaded question of what is she doing here:
Princess Carolyn: “I have loved you for 25 years and I never loved anyone better. That kind of love, you only get it when you’re young and stupid. I’m not gonna get it again. And when I tell my daughter the story of the great love of my life, I want it to have a happy ending.”
BoJack: “Is it possible you letting me go is the happy ending?”
That’s a brutal interaction to witness, but one that’s fully in keeping with where BoJack spends the episode. His angry outburst about digging up dirt on the reporters aside, he’s acting like this is a fight that he’s already lost, and regardless of where things go whatever good work he’s done is being undone. And for that reason he agrees with Diane’s approach of full honesty, trying to validate whatever faith that anyone has left in him to do the right thing. It’s the right way to end an episode where everyone is emotionally done, and the only thing left is for the last one out to hit the lights.
Stray observations:
- Achievement in Voice Acting: There’s no easy wins this week, so I’m going to award it to the double act of Julia Chan and Hilary Swank for taking two ridiculous characters and managing to give some heft to their relationship, and leaving you happy these two crazy kids found each other. It’s absurd yet heartfelt, which is BoJack Horseman’s ethos in a nutshell.
- Full list of BoJack’s sins: Penny, abandoned/wrestled Herb, stole Hollywood “D”, closed all-you-can-eat fro-yo place, didn’t act in Secretariat, tanked Ethan Around (twice), blew up taffy factory, got Dr. Champ fired, ruined lizard funeral, made fun of Katy from Spanish 1, lied about “getting” Radiohead, pretended giant Todd head was passenger for carpool lane, took muffins from Navy seal, slept with ____ and ghosted her, hit deer with car, broke into Nixon Library, ruined integrity of Booty Academy, threw up on Elle Fanning in bounce house, stole Daniel Radcliffe’s fruit basket, habitual bad tipper, lied about dating Natalie Portman, Scott Wolf vendetta, sneezed on Marisa Tomei, keyed Kenan Thompson’s Kia, fobbed Elon Muskrat’s Tesla, Gina.
- Additions by Todd: Slept with Emily, destroyed my rock opera, left me in prison.
- Additions by Diane: Fired me while writing your book, broke into my house and made a mess and stole my favorite jacket, also stole my scarf, told Mr. Peanutbutter about “Cry-Anne.”
- Paige and Max’s constant sifting and winnowing is obviously hiding some form of affection between the two, and it’s again a testament to how good this show is that it can take two people so knowingly goofy and still leave you bummed out when Max is left alone at the Elefino valet station.
- “Just goes to show, you never know how much time you have with someone. So you should always say the bad stuff first.”
- “True too, we showered together one night when the tank broke and the hot water was scarce, but other than those mild inconveniences, the fact-finding mission went as fine as the print at the bottom of a contract.”
- “I can proposition some young men on set. That should end well.”
- “Okay, let the cat out of the bag so my curiosity can kill it.”
- “Manual labor featuring me is not a productive collab.”
- “No, they were closer than thieves! They were thieves, actually. They broke into our house together, like great friends do, and stole our clothes! Ask Diane, she never got that jacket back. But she was able to find another one shortly thereafter that looked exactly the same.”
- “Exactly like dim sum, but with white people food, so it’s more accessible.”
- “Oh my God! They’re all making out out here! Go back to your dorms! You have rooms!”
- “I think the party’s over.”
- Today in Hollywoo signs:
46 Comments
“I’m still here, BoJack.”BoJack has never done a single thing in his life to make him worthy of a friend like PC.
PC so gradually evolved into one of the most heartfelt characters into the show that you barely even remember how generic she was in the early season 1 episodes.
She’s loyal to Bojack despite everything because that’s PC’s gift and her curse: she fights for a cause no matter what. She refuses to let go. All her miscarriages still made her desperate to conceive a child for so long. She was blatantly dating three kids in a trench coat, but was happy for a while, so she could see past that. She literally has an infant that she can’t physically touch, but puts on gloves and loves her with all her heart. Bojack is often a needy, emotionally destructive piece of shit that treats her like garbage, but she can’t let him drown.
The moment the show started transitioning from Family Guy But With Animals to what it eventually became was when, fresh off of BoJack getting the call from Herb and abandoning his plans to get back together with Princess Carolyn and not giving her a ride home (oh man, that’s so BoJack! Can’t change this guy, am I right?), we follow Princess Carolyn back to her office, where she’s alone, staring at the night sky, and her phone reminds her that it’s her 40th birthday, and we just feel her clock ticking. It was the show’s first truly heart-breaking scene.
The Telescope rightfully gets acclaimed for being the episode that set the series into overdrive, but that proceeding episode about PC that you mentioned laid the groundwork for what a beautifully made tragedy this show could be.
God I hope we get to see Vincent Adultman one last time.
A lesser show would have annihilated Vincent with constant gags and appearances. Bojack understood that Vincent was great but let his story resolve and retired him after one funny cameo (As Mr Peanutbutter’s accountant I believe). The fact we miss Vincent is a testament to the restraint the show had.
It’s a testament both to how long this show has run for and for how long their memory is that I’d forgotten some of Bojack’s more extreme crimes. Seeing trivial stuff like “stole muffin from war veteran” alongside “slept with Todd’s best friend” was both hysterical and deeply sad.
Because that’s one of the unanswered philosophical questions of the show. Can you ever really change and become better even though your actions caused people to get hurt? Bojack can inspire and lead teenagers, but that Sharpe is still on his whiteboard forever.
of all the background gags in this show I don’t if I’ve ever laughed harder than when I saw “lied about dating Natalie Portman”. goddamnit, this show never misses a trick
I think my favourite was lying about getting Radiohead. Relatable, BoJack.
that was a killer one. very Community
I think it’s interesting that this show’s finale is happening at the same time as the Good Place. They both deal with the idea of people realizing that they have done wrong and been bad people and trying to be better. But the GP focuses on the mutual work and hope of improvement. BoJack raises the point that, even if you do succeed in becoming a better person, you cannot undo the harm you did. And, if what you did feels unforgivable, how do you go on from there?
and both are about people repeating patterns over and over again until they figure things out.
Meanwhile, one of GP’s biggest flaws is that it (mostly) doesn’t take place on Earth anymore, so it’s caught in this weird limbo (har har) where everybody is insisting that “being bad” matters, even though, by every sane and earthly metric, it doesn’t. Because, you know: not on Earth anymore. If Hitler dies and gets sent to his own private paradise universe where he never interacts with any other sentient/sapient creatures ever again, what is lost? If he’s sent to capital-H Hell and tortured forever but none of his bad acts are ever reversed or mitigated because of that torture, what is gained?Bojack Horseman is undertaking a WAY more difficult dive than GP is. Much credit for that.
Well not really, because the GP is not actually about the after life. It’s using the fantasy world of an after life to explore and portray what a “perfect” life-life would be. It’s conclusion is that an ideal world would be one where every human had the resources (time, social, monetary, emotional) to become the best, most-fulfilled versions of themselves (with the call to action to try to make this world as close to that unreachable ideal as possible). BJH isn’t exploring what an ideal world would look like, it’s saying, “This is the horribly imperfect world. What does it mean to try to be a good person in this world?”
I don’t follow your logic? BH doesn’t take place on “earth” in any meaningful sense of the word.The Good Place has stakes of literal eternal torture— so Hitler isn’t going to his individual paradise: he is getting his penis flattened and his butthole filled with butthole spiders. Fresh ones.Both shows focus on the consequences of actions—not reversing them. Torture—literal or figurative—is the consequence and motivation for change, not the method to reverse prior actions.The motivation for improvement is the foundational difference. TGP has points and objective punishment for rated behavior: Improvement due to third party punishment/reward. BH is about changing because you see and experience the consequences of your bad behavior on friends and loved ones: Improvement due to you punishing yourself—and 3rd parties punishing you—for that behavior.I thought they were both phenomenal series and somehow fitting that they end the same week — and that BH explicitly calls out, There is no other side.
Ssomeone in that classroom has nail polish remover. Nothing is forever.And the question is unanswerable because ‘better’ is subjective. Not in the ‘good and evil are just concepts’ sense but in that even if we agree on the broad details of moral behavior we will still have slightly different hierarchies, priorities and values we assign to different people, situations and outcomes such that there will always be room for disagreement between even people arguing in good faith from the same starting principles.
Death is pretty forever. He can’t bring SL back from the dead or give her back the parts of her childhood he destroyed. He can’t even apologize to her for the harm he did. The past is fixed.
That part was a joke. Acetone, the main component of nail polish remover, erases permanent markers.
Hey now, don’t downplay the fact that Bojack would steal a meal from Neal McBeal, the Navy Seal.
His downward spiral truly begun with that moment (I’m not even kidding, that immediately showed both his pettiness and his refusal to consider the well being of another individual)
I dunno, I took Bojack’s side on that one in the same way Larry David is usually right on Curb. Neal McBeal was also kind of a twerp
BoJack was completely in the right over the muffins.
Having watched through the penultimate episode… I had to turn it off, and I’m not sure I can watch the finale. Holy cow.
You should.
bojack always hits us in the penultimate episode. you’ll be alright.
This comment belongs here: https://tv.avclub.com/bojack-horsemans-excellent-penultimate-episode-gazes-lo-1841331350
What people so often miss/get wrong is that it’s a sunk cost fallacy. The idea being that sunk costs are not recoverable either way so you have to make the best decision going forward. Like overeating to “get your money’s worth”.
The writers here know that. The characters don’t.
I liked all the boards that kind of go over all the bad things Bojack has done. I probably will re-watch the series at some point…my memory of all events over 6 seasons isn’t the best. If Bojack is a shitty person, it’s bc he led Sarah Lynn to her death, sabotaged Todd’s rock opera and also betrayed him, and lastly constantly took Princess Carolyn for granted. At least this is how I quickly summarize it in my mind. It’s heart-breaking to see that Todd has never really re-entered Bojack’s life as a friend after their one monumentally awful fight.It’s his bad interactions with Diane that I have a harder time remembering, and how he was awful to her. Maybe it’s bc I felt like Bojack is his most honest, earnest version of himself when he’s around her.
Well, I think too, Diane is showing how you don’t need to hurt someone for them to distance themselves from you. Diane has born witness to the effect Bojack has on those around him. I wouldn’t want to be friends with someone who routinely hurts others, even if that person wasn’t specifically hurting me.
I forgot about half the things he’s done or accused of doing.I can’t remember what exactly happens but I think Diane just realized she’s got to take care of her own shit and that Bojack was weighing her down. It wasn’t even necessarily something he did but they kind of had a toxic, dysfunctional, almost codependent relationship and she broke away from it. Their friendship was based on the fact that they were the only two characters on the show who had serious mental issues and so were able to understand each other in ways they couldn’t with other people.
If you notice, most of the stuff on the board was trivial stuff, like lying about being into Radiohead. All of the things he did too Diane and Todd, truly crappy things, he never brought up and had to be added in by Todd and Diane
Yeah it’s really interesting that even when he’s supposed to be listing the most horrible things he’s done, these mostly trivial things are what comes up. To him everything is a part of that grand hatred of he was then
This has probably been pointed out before but Paige & Max are every screwball comedy from the 30’s, especially My Girl Friday, in which somebody’s about to get married (usually the woman) only to have somebody else (usually Cary Grant) sweep them away right before they did get married. Max was finally about to pronounce his love and then Bojack completely subverted the trope (so far) by having Paige run away to the wedding. So far.I love Paige & Max because I love those screwball comedies and the fact Bojack can create those types of characters in it’s sixth season and then turn them into major characters is why this show is so amazing
I love you.Oh, of course you do Max. Everybody does! I’m Paige Sinclair!
I believe Princess Carolyn has a poster for “His Squirrel Friday” in her house.
“Oh my God! They’re all making out out here! Go back to your dorms! You have rooms!” Yep, they got cast parties right at least.
Just watched Mr. Peanut Butter’s chair magical disappear at the 17:40 mark.
Love that we’re seeing the selfie-taking monkey.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_selfie_copyright_dispute
I like Todd’s characterisation here: he cares enough about BoJack that he wants to helps him as soon as he realises the guy’s in distress, but will leave when he sees the same old self-destructive tendencies on display, with a willingness to come back if BoJack stops acting like that. He’s still got that Todd Chavez generosity and kindness, but he won’t be taken advantage of anymore.I also appreciated him very quietly adding BoJack’s transgressions against him to the whiteboard.
I do like that about Todd. But all of the characters, Todd irks me because I find his sense of superiority unearned, in light of the fact that he has not once ever acknowledged the ways in which he used Bojack. Yes, ultimately Bojack liked having him around to avoid his loneliness, but that doesn’t mean that Todd didn’t freeload off Bojack for years with very little sense of gratitude or self-awareness of his own complicity in Bojack’s shittiness until it didn’t benefit him any longer.
Todd adding to the board is a very pointed moment despite ostensibly being in the background of the scene; you see his disappointment that BoJack hasn’t really acknowledged anything truly awful he did to his friends, and that BoJack, despite having changed a lot, still hasn’t changed quite as much as he thinks he has. It’s remarkable how ever since their big fight, Todd has been the lead character who most consistently calls BoJack out on his shit, and he does it here once again asking him if he’s really changed. Their relationship may be the most strongly changed of any of the main cast, and the only one that hasn’t really ever recovered from a fallout. Todd still offers some meager friendly support to BoJack, but it’s pretty clear he does so out of pity rather than a true desire for close friendship. Todd has completely grown past any need to be BoJack’s friend, and ironically he may in some ways be the most mature of the five lead characters on the show. He’s the only one who doesn’t seem to be holding back any aspects of himself anymore, completely confident in who he is and what he does in a way that even his disappointed parents can’t shake. It’s absolutely fascinating to see how far they’ve taken what was initially a mere comedic relief character.
“Okay, let the cat out of the bag so my curiosity can kill it.” Line of the episode.
Boy am I glad they got rid of Joey Pogo. He always seemed like he had just been introduced in [latest episode] and went nowhere, and his apparent appeal – even to this straight female viewer – never made any sense as someone another straight female character would want to engage with.
I think that, in amongst the other revelations this season has dropped, by far the most surprising for me was finding out that Joey Pogo is male.
I never liked Pickles and am glad they got rid of her relatively quickly. Never really got Joey Pogo either, is he supposed to be a trans man? Why is his voice actor a cis woman? I thought the show would be more sensitive and actually cast a trans male actor after the whole white woman as Diane thing…