Episode Highlights: Bojack Horseman Season 4, Episode 2 - The Old Sugarman Place

Well, that was bleak, brutally raw, deeply disturbing, and absolutely gorgeous.

Bojack Horseman is known for its third-act descent into despair and/or horror; when episodes 10 and 11 roll around, the audience knows by now to brace for impact. So for the second episode of a season to hit quite this hard... we weren't ready. That made it so much worse. And better.

THE HOWLERS:

This episode did take a seriously dark/dramatic tone, but, being Bojack Horseman, it still has some amazing one-liners.

Crackerjack: "And then after a long day of killing Nazis, we'll sit in the beer garden and enjoy a pint!" Yes please.

Photographer: "All right, this is for posterity, so don't forget to look faraway-sad!"

Ed: "How about fixing your door instead of my metaphor?"

THE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Bojack's traveling montage, set to a soulful "Horse With No Name" cover by show composer Patrick Carney and Michelle Branch of the Black Keys. The part where he looks up at the night sky--the wide-open space full of glittering stars, very much like a planetarium--doubles as a heart-punch.
• Devastating content aside, the 40s flashbacks absolutely nail the atmosphere, from the exaggerated, quippy dialogue to the period-style spot-on piano duet. If you can instantly tell something is set in a past era without a written cue on the screen, the writers and art designers have done their job very well.
• And this carries over into the characters themselves, as they display the vintage sexism we like to think we've moved beyond. "As a modern american man," says Joseph Sugarman, "I was never trained to deal with a woman's emotions. I was never taught, and I will not learn." The casual misogyny is everywhere, and little Beatrice is inundated with it from both parents: "don't pick that up, you'll strain your uterus," warns her father, while her mother forbids her ice cream or pancakes: "lemon with sugar, that's a healthy girl snack."
• The only thing better than the flashbacks themselves is the way they're artfully blended into the modern-day story. The fading back and forth between time periods, with music seamlessly framing the flowing parallels. Paul Giamatti sings the Horsin' Around theme song before Bojack's phone rings, playing a ringtone of the same song. Special mention goes to Ed the dragonfly and Honey dueting on the song she and Crackerjack played... 60 years apart. In a show full of well-done episodes, The Old Sugarman Place in particular makes the most out of its animated format, using the medium for some truly beautiful filmmaking and storytelling.

• This exchange:

Bojack: "Well, call me a kit-kat bar, because i'm already broken."Ed the Dragonfly: ”Kit-kat bars aren't already broken, that's the whole point.”

On the surface it's just a light throwaway bit, but it really sounds like a callback to Beatrice's devastating words to Bojack last season: “you were born broken. That’s your birthright.” Here it seems like Eddie’s telling him no… he’s not. (That’s the whole point.)

• Bojack finally calling Diane and instantly feeling better, ragging on LA and the webseries-pitching dorks who live there. Their connection is so palpable and real in a way that's hard to do with animation.

THE HEART-PUNCHES:

… Oh wow. This one is basically one big heart-punch, but a few do stand out as especially powerful. Let's #recap.

• There's one in the first actual second. Before we even see a thing past the black opening screen... we hear hoofbeats. And everything from Season 3's devastating finale comes rushing back, like a herd of wild horses.
• Bojack clearly wants to follow, and takes a single step after them--before his phone rings. Fidgeting with it, a small detail revealing an inner struggle. His thumb hovers over 'pick up,' but then... he misses the call. Just like his one step after the horses, he tries to take a positive step but just barely misses his chance.
• Bojack's first actual spoken line in this season: "I don't need any help, thanks." Significant? Yeah. Later, to Ed: "If it means so much to you, I will let you help me." A hopeful heart-punch, but one nonetheless.
• The hardware store girls grilling Bojack about last season's traumatic (and media-circus-ed) events. Through this, we indirectly learn more about the night Sarah Lynn died: Bojack rushed her to the hospital, but it was too late. "So you were with Sara Lynn when she died, right? TMZ said you held her hand. Did you cry?"
• And then Bojack watching the Sarah Lynn miniseries in the freezing, breaking-down, no-electricity house as his family returns after Crackerjack's death. As the past and present blend together, we see history repeat itself, even if Bojack wasn't there for the first tragedy.

Honey: "Oh, Joseph. I failed him.”Paul Giamatti as Bojack: "Oh, Doc, I let her down!"

• "It's only ghosts here in the winter." As Joseph ushers his family out on those words, the scene ends on a shivering bojack going to sleep in the dark house. He wakes up with ice clinging to his face--he very easily could have frozen to death if Ed hadn't fixed his door. We also see that he was only wearing underwear under a single blanket, in a freezing, power-less house where he knew the door was broken. Season 3 ended with one aborted suicide attempt. This really looks like another one.
• Honey's descent into traumatic grief and the resulting depression, her increasing desperation and erratic behavior, and finally hitting rock bottom. Kissing Sal, her son's army buddy while demanding to know what Crackerjack's final moments were like: "what happened when he got shot? tell me!" Getting so drunk little Beatrice drives home, as her mother screams, "faster, I want to feel alive again! I'd do anything to feel alive!"

• The reason Honey's deterioration is so painful to watch is that, like so many moments where this show deals with mental illness and trauma, it's so accurate. She tells Joseph: “I can't be with people and I can't be alone. And I don't know how to be better. Please fix me." As someone who lives with complex PTSD, depression, anxiety, and other super fun brain conditions, this was actually very hard to watch. In a good way. An important way. And it wouldn't have been, if it wasn't so truthful.
• Bojack purposely falling backwards to make Ed fly again... which he does. He's not happy. And he shows Bojack how Lorraine died, and almost gets them both killed the same way, sucked into a jet engine. "We're just tiny bugs, right?”
• They fall from the sky into a freezing lake. (There's a whole article on its own about how Bojack Horseman uses water/drowning for traumatic or significant moments.) Then, like Ed saved him from freezing by fixing his door, Bojack saves Ed from drowning--which Ed also isn't happy about. As Bojack walks away, he sobs: "why did you save me? I don't want to live!"

• Joseph telling his daughter what's been done to Honey... and with every word, the feeling of dread increases. "What's broken in the heart can never be repaired," he says. "But we have all sorts of science for the brain. She's a brand-new woman now." Beatrice goes inside to find her mother, sitting at the piano, listlessly pressing a single key where once she'd played and laughed with Crackerjack... with a lobotomy scar across her forehead, dead-eyed.

Honey: "Love does terrible things to a person. Promise me you'll never love anyone as much as I loved Crackerjack."Beatrice: ”I promise. I won't."Honey: "Why, I have half a mind..."

She trails off. Slow zoom out. Damn.

• Bojack having the completed house torn down and leaving Ed to watch. (Sure, he almost killed them both, so Bojack standing up for himself here is actually a positive step for Bojack! But they still had a real connection over 8 months, and it hurts to see that destroyed along with the old Sugarman place.)

Ed: “So what was it all for?”Bojack: “I dunno. Guess it was just one big waste of time.”

• His parting words are a howler and a heart-puncher combined.

Bojack: "As a great woman once said: suck a dick, dumb shits."

BLINK AND YOU'LL MISS...

• The small print on the sugar packet that inspires Bojack to go home in the first place: “currently owned by the Fukusaka Family of International Conglomerates.” (Foreshadowing? Or just a small detail of corporate takeovers?)
• This episode is just full of wonderful tiny art details that make it ring incredibly true--like the small cloud of dust when Bojack touches the rusted mailbox.
• Outside the hardware store is a sign reading "paint sale cancelled..." as Phil the Stock Boy mops with paint on the sidewalk. Good job, Phil.
• While fixing up the house, Bojack uses “Grackle-Brand” spackle. Nice.
• During the (gorgeous) season-changing montage, the winter gives us a swan, gracefully ice-dancing on a frozen lake. Get it? (Swan Lake!)
• Bojack telling Ed: "I'm the last of my line. Once my mom dies and I die, that'll be it." Well, there’s some foreshadowing. (Who do we meet, in the very next episode? ...Someone spoilery, if you're reading this without having watched. But take a guess.)

And that's it for Episode 2's #review! See you next time for Episode 3!