BoJack Breakdowns: Season 1, Episodes 9-10
Bridge episodes that remind us that things are permanent in the BoJack Horseman universe
Because last week’s post was already quite long, I left out the final scene of episode 8. As Diane and BoJack are leaving Herb’s home, BoJack has a panic attack and pulls over on the side of the road. Diane tells him that she won’t include that interaction in her book if BoJack doesn’t want her to, and BoJack says that nothing matters, so she should include it. Diane tells him that he was brave and then BoJack kisses her. So we end the episode where BoJack leaves a friend he betrayed to immediately go on to betray another friend.
In episode 9 titled “Horse Majeure,” BoJack decides that he needs to stop Mr. Peanutbutter and Diane’s wedding. Even if he’s not in love with Diane, he can’t stand that Mr. Peanutbutter could have something that he can’t, so he puts his energy into sabotaging their wedding. Once again, he hires esteemed character actress Margo Martindale to stage a bank robbery to try to get the couple to break up. His plan backfires and Mr. Peanutbutter and Diane decide that instead of waiting a year to get married, they should get married right now.
BoJack then enlists Todd to get close to Mr. Peanutbetter to try to get inside information. Todd lands a job as Mr. Peanutbutter’s driver, and he learns that both Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter have doubts about this wedding. But before Todd can share any of this with BoJack, he sees Martindale being arrested and realizes that she was the same woman who pushed him to buy the video game that ruined his opportunity to have a successful rock opera. As such, he does not tell BoJack that, and we can see the beginnings of a rift between Todd and BoJack.
At the end of the episode, Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter get married. BoJack ends the episode talking to Princess Carolyn’s new boyfriend, Vincent Adultman.
“You know, sometimes I feel like I was born with a leak, and any goodness I started with just slowly spilled out of me and now it’s all gone. And I’ll never get it back in me. It’s too late. Life is a series of closing doors, isn’t it?” ~BoJackEpisode 10 is titled “One Trick Pony” and in it, BoJack is playing Mr. Peanutbutter in a retelling of the story where Mr. Peanutbutter stole the Hollywoo D to give to Diane, directed by Quentin Tarantulino. Naomi Watts is playing Diane in the production and Wallace Shawn is playing BoJack Horseman, and there is a pretty great “who’s on first” type moment when the cast is trying to figure out who Tarantulino is trying to speak to. BoJack realizes that Todd has figured out that he ruined his rock opera, and as things deteriorate on the set for BoJack, he believes that it’s Todd sabotaging him for that. Todd tells him that while that might have been a good idea, that’s not what he did. But he also doesn’t think things are okay with the two of them.
But while this episode is largely centered around the movie, it is also the episode where Diane finishes her book on BoJack and when he reads it, he realizes that he comes off in a much less flattering light than he had hoped. BoJack tells Diane that he will not allow the book to be published, so Diane leaks the first few chapters to her ex at Buzzfeed. Those chapters go viral as everyone is talking about BoJack and at the end of the episode, he fires Diane.
These two episodes really serve as a bridge from episode 8, which is a low point for BoJack, to episodes 11 and 12, which are even lower points. We continue to see that BoJack has little ability for self-reflection and nuance, and that for him, everything has to be cloaked in some kind of grand gesture. Todd can’t just be mad and let that sit, he has to have a massive plot in mind. Diane couldn’t have been writing a look at someone who is more complicated than the 90’s sitcom he was famous for, it has to be a total teardown because she’s mad at him for making a pass at her.
BoJack’s actions aren’t explained until much later in the show, which is, in my mind, one of the downfalls of season 1. I understand revealing his life in pieces, but I think if his motivations were explained sooner, it might have helped capture folks a little better. So I’m going to write about them here, at least a little bit.
BoJack grew up in an abusive home, and his only escape was television where every problem would be wrapped up in 30 minutes. He then spent his years as a part of a sitcom where the same happened. In his mind, no matter how bad he is, everything is supposed to be okay by the end, but that’s not how real life works.
This is one of the things about this show that I love. It creates some of the most absurd situations you can imagine, but when it comes to the actual relationships, it shifts into a more realistic take. A movie turning into a bi-monthly box of curated snacks is wholly ridiculous, but Todd leaving things unresolved as he works through his hurt at finding out BoJack wrecked his chance to produce his chance at independence is much more real.
It’s also what differentiates this from other television shows. As I mentioned before, creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg wanted things to have permanence in the show. So when things are broken in the show, they stay broken. When characters leave, they stay gone. And when someone is hurt, that hurt doesn’t magically go away for the next episode. BoJack wants easy resolutions to complex situations because that’s what he saw on TV, but real life often doesn’t have simple answers.
Next week I’m going to write about the final two episodes of season 1. The penultimate episode of each season is usually pretty rough, so buckle up!