BoJack Horseman Season Three, Epiosde Four: "Fish Out of Water"

BoJack Horseman's greatest asset is the fact that it has some of the best writers on television right now. A close second is the voice acting which does a stellar job of making you feel things that you never thought you could watching an animated show.

The writers decided to strip that second element from the fourth episode of Season Three by giving us a mostly silent adventure in an underwater environment. And you know what? It was one of the best episodes of the entire series.

I'd heard a bit about the infamous "silent episode" from a few sources before actually sitting down to watch it. Some said it was pretty great. My friend Jake said "you basically feel like you're high the whole time watching it." I've never smoked in my life, but I'm pretty sure I get that.  Needless to say, going in I was pretty excited about what it had to offer.

BoJack's heading off to an underwater film festival to "make a splash" and improve his Oscar buzz. After all the comments I've made so far this season about BoJack Horseman's supporting cast staying way in the background of the interesting stuff, I'm surprised that the best episode to-date was pretty much a BoJack-only story.  We don't even see Todd, Diane, or Princess Carolyn in the episode and Mr. Peanutbutter's only around because he briefly appears in an underwater TV commercial and sign-board ad for seahorse milk.

BoJack starts to dread the trip when he hears that Kelsey Jannings is going to be attending the festival. Kelsey has probably been the best minor character (outside of the main five) on the series and I'm very happy that they decided to at least return to the fact that she and BoJack really need some closure after BoJack pushed her to do the Nixon scene in "The Shot" last season, causing her to get fired.  BoJack wants to apologize to her, but it's painfully obvious that he has no idea how to do it. His attempts to write an olive branch letter range from the stupidly obtuse ("Kelsey, weird we haven't talked. Keep it real!"), to the nonsensical ("Kelsey! Long time no talk. So anyway, you're the Kelseyiest! Smell you later." to the dammit-he-sort-of-tried-but-she'd-slap-him-upon-reading-this ("Kelsey, sorry you got fired. That sucks for you. P.S., We're cool, right?").  It's pathetic on its surface, but we know that BoJack can have a hard time bringing the good out in himself to connect with people even when he tries pretty hard, so the ostensibly weak effort resonates.

Eventually BoJack falls asleep on a bus and winds up stranded in the middle of nowhere after witnessing the birth of five six baby seahorses.  One of the baby seahorses winds up stranded behind with BoJack. We know that BoJack's kind of a shitty dude and he actually contemplates leaving the baby behind because dammit, he's already 30 nautical miles away from where he needs to be and that youngun would be nothing but a hindrance. But of course, he's ultimately not able to abandon the infant and takes the little seahorse with him.

They embark on adventures that seem Looney Tunes-ish in nature. It could have been totally silly, but the music and animation makes their misadventures (including a trippy hop through light-up anemones) a bonding experience and by the time that BoJack is actually able to return the infant to its father, it's obvious that BoJack has really bonded with the baby and has found some fleeting happiness in caring for it.

In typical BoJack fashion, we get the rug ripped out from under us when BoJack gives back the baby at its home. The father seems to just robotically think of the baby as a statistic and shows little enthusiasm to have his child back. By the time BoJack leaves, the baby has already blended in with its identical siblings and he realizes that his brief but meaningful relationship with the little seahorse has ended.

To BoJack's credit, he channels the experience into something constructive as he finally has the words to write to Kelsey.

"Kelsey, in this terrifying world, all we have are the connections that we make. I'm sorry I got you fired. I'm sorry I never called you after."

But we get yet another gut-punch when BoJack successfully tracks down Kelsey's cab just to find that the ink on the note has become runny and illegible. Kelsey's not exactly patient enough to wait around for BoJack to explain himself. I'm hopeful that they'll return to this storyline, but for the time being, it's hard to watch BoJack do the right thing and have it not be rewarded.

In the absence of characters speaking, the episode's soundtrack is simply brilliant. Aside from it being serene and pleasant, it helps to set the atmosphere of each scene and often helps to convey BoJack's emotions. This was an extremely creative installment; the writers took a big risk and it's easy to see how this could have wound up a complete dud a-la Season One's "Downer Ending".  Fortunately, they really hit this one out of the park and we got another treasure of an episode that I'll throw right up there with "Say Anything" (s.1 ep.7), "Let's Find Out" (s.2 ep.8), and "Escape from L.A." (s.2. ep.11).

Episode Grade: A

Bullet Points

• "Also the French smell and I hate them."

• "I haven't been underwater since my mother tried to drown me in the bathtub when I was 22."

• Billie Jean is Not My Lover -- directed by Kelsey Jannings

• What fish in the right mind would want to watch "Naked and Filleted"?

• One nice touch that I caught upon re-watch -- it's pretty clear that Kelsey is not doing well. When BoJack first sees her sitting at her booth at the reception, she tries to awkwardly smile and wave at a passer-by to attract his interest in her film. She's pretty cold on her surface and she must be feeling pretty desperate to put on that kind of face.

• The thumbs-up thing and the "we don't care for your paper dollars down in this here ocean, mister" running joke were excellent sources of humor throughout the episode.

• The revelation at the end that BoJack could have talked the whole time had he just pushed a voice-box button on his air-helmet was one of the best laugh-out-loud moments of the series.