So as you might imagine, when I discovered in the cold open that the penultimate episode of Season Three was going to feature the same premise of BoJack and Sarah Lynn wrecking themselves with drugs, you can only imagine my disappointment.
I should've known by now just how far this show has come.
While it's true that "That's Too Much, Man!" has the two characters tripping on various drugs during the course of the episode, there's some dark undertones beneath the craziness that we can glean just from the cold open. Sarah Lynn wakes up with angelic music playing and hums a fairy tale-esque upbeat tune. She's 90 days sober and appears to be doing great until BoJack calls and asks her if she wants to party, to which she replies, "Oh thank God...YES!" and immediately begins pounding hard alcohol.
The pair go on a series of misadventures told with intermittent blackout periods, including crashing an AA meeting at which BoJack tries to top all the sob stories and "making amends" with all the people BoJack has wronged. Unlike previous iterations, no one is having any of it. Princess Carolyn simply walks back inside after seeing BoJack, Sarah Lynn and BoJack are completely unaware of Mr. Peanutbutter and Diane's presence at their house (in a particularly hilarious scene), and BoJack is too messed up to realize he's apologizing to a small child at the park instead of Todd. He's hurt all of these people many times (well, except Diane really) over the course of the series and it's a fresh turn to see that an easy return to normalcy isn't in the cards.
The only person that BoJack gets a real explanation from is Ana, who likens him to a drowning person that can't be saved and will only take you down with them if you try. Without the allure of a potential Oscar win, Ana has no desire to be around BoJack. She sees him for what he really is, a cancer to everyone else in his life.
But wait, the BoJack Horseman apology tour gets even more pathetic as he and Sarah Lynn drive all the way to Ohio to see how Penny's doing in college. There's few things creepier than a 50+ year old (horse)man attempting to sleep with a 17-year-old girl, but one of the things on that list is driving cross-country to stalk her at her college after said attempt. After they're mostly convinced that she's doing fine, BoJack accidentally stumbles into her view and she's immediately scarred by seeing him again. It was a horrible idea and the aftermath might extend just beyond re-damaging Penny. What if Charlotte finds out? She said that she'd "fucking kill" BoJack if he ever went near her family again, and she certainly sounded like she meant it. There were a LOT of pictures of BoJack taken at the scene. I have a feeling this isn't over.
On the way home, Sarah Lynn discovers a packet of "BoJack" heroin and this is where things start to get really dark. Wasn't there an image of some kind associated with that drug? Ahh...yes...here it is.
After they inevitably take the BoJack drug, BoJack starts to ponder just how much Sarah Lynn means to him. They're both broken, despicable people who can't stop getting in their own way and because each has sunk so low, they not only have a mutual understanding of one another, but also can't judge one another. They're each other's safe space. Armed with that feeling, BoJack's finally ready to drop the L-bomb on someone.
"I love you, Sarah Lynn."Sarah Lynn probably doesn't even hear that line, she's lying still on a crappy motel bed with BoJack. For a second you think she's dead from overdose, but she shortly comes to and they flip on the Oscars, where we get the twist of a lifetime. Apparently, Sarah Lynn wrote a song for The Nazi Who Played Yahtzee and won an award. It hadn't been mentioned beforehand; Sarah Lynn forgot she had even been nominated because she'd been on the month-plus-long bender with BoJack. She's thrilled for a hot minute, but then demonstrates to BoJack the horrible aftermath he'd been dreading since the first episode of the season, had he won the Oscar:
BoJack, I don't like anything about me. None of this is me. These boobs aren't me. This house isn't me. The only reason I wear this shirt is because some company paid me $8,000 to wear it. And I don't even need the money. I just liked that someone still wanted me to wear their shirt. What am I supposed to do? I don't know what to do. Am I doomed? Are you doomed? Are we all doomed?After hearing this, BoJack tries to comfort her by taking Sarah Lynn to the planetarium, the place she's been begging to visit the whole time. It's a genuinely peaceful scene as the two of them feel small looking at the beauty of all the stars in the galaxy. Making everything they do feel insignificant is probably the only thing that can lessen the pain of the shitty choices each one has made in their lives. For a moment, they feel great.
And then Sarah Lynn is dead.
Despite the heavy foreshadowing, I admit that I didn't see this coming at all the first time I watched the episode. It hit me hard as BoJack said her name several times after the show cut to black. The title of the episode, "That's Too Much, Man!" -- Sarah Lynn's playful Horsin' Around catch phrase -- suddenly takes on a dark meaning in of itself. Her overdose makes her the latest collateral damage of BoJack's neverending quest to feel good about himself, killed not only by his encouragement to accompany him on his substance abuse rampage, but also by a drug that bears BoJack's name.
It makes the idea of BoJack trying to sleep with a 17-year-old girl look pretty damn far from the rock bottom it seemed like a year ago.
Episode Grade: A
Bullet Points
- How did Sarah Lynn stay sober for so long if that's all it took to get her to take drugs?
- As expected, Todd and Diane no longer appear in BoJack's house during the opening credits.
- BoJack destroys a child's playhouse with his car. It belongs to none other than the son of Mr. Peanutbutter's accountant. Man, when is that guy gonna catch a break?
- "What's Diane's deal again? She's like an Asian Daria?" -- hands down my favorite line of the episode.
- BoJack and Sarah Lynn steal a box of spaghetti strainers from Mr. Peanutbutter's house. They keep alluding to a "payoff" regarding the strainers. The strainers simply have to figure into the season finale.
- "There's that old saying, 'Liquor before beer, never fear. Don't do heroin."
- The Cuddlywhiskers flashback with all the meta jokes made me laugh a little bit. It was weird, though.
- BoJack and Sarah Lynn sit on the same bench they sat on in "Prickly Muffin", the third episode of the series.
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