Reeling from the discovery that he didn't get an Oscar nomination and left truly alone, BoJack calls his former costar/squeeze/friend Sarah Lynn as they go on an alcohol and drug-filled bender around the USA with a surprising ending.
"That's Too Much, Man" contains examples of:
- Aesop Amnesia: Once more, BoJack forgets that simply saying sorry won't make the horrible things he did, or the consequences that follow, disappear. Princess Carolyn ignores him, and Penny drives him away.
- Art Imitates Art: Sarah Lynn has a parody of Sir John Everett Millais' painting, Ophelia hanging over her bed with herself in place of Ophelia.
- The Bus Came Back: BoJack and Sarah Lynn track down Penny from Escape From LA so that he can apologize to her. Needless to say, she doesn't want to see him.
- Chekhov's Gun: The drugs and title from episode 3, Bojack Kills.
- Crossing the Burnt Bridge: This is what BoJack and Sarah Lynn do while on their drunken bender. To say that they did not mend any fences would be an understatement.
- Dashed Plot Line: BoJack and Sarah Lynn's bender goes on for weeks* , but the audience only gets brief snippets between his blackouts.
- Downer Ending: Sarah Lynn, one of the few people BoJack has left, dies in his arms. And he's partially responsible.
- Everyone Has Standards: Not only was Sarah Lynn shocked to find out what BoJack had done in New Mexico, she even tries (and fails) to dissuade BoJack from finding Penny Carson in Ohio to apologize to her, a surprise act that ends up with Penny further traumatized.
- Foreshadowing: The episode opens on a painting of Sarah Lynn as a dead Ophelia, hung above her bed. She's dead right before the episode ends.
- When Sarah Lynn and BoJack are strung out on a motel bed, Sarah Lynn looks like she's asleep and doesn't respond when BoJack asks her something and then nudges her, leaving him (and the audience) to fear for one wild moment that she's dead. It's not the first time it happens this episode.
- BoJack and Sarah Lynn attend her AA meeting (while high as kites), where various speakers talk about what their rock bottom experience was and what prompted them to finally change. BoJack and Sarah Lynn boo and hiss at the time, but Sarah Lynn's death at the end of the episode ends up being the true rock bottom point for BoJack in the entire series. Her death shakes him so much that it's the final push he needs to start improving his life for real, which he slowly but surely starts doing over Season 4.
- "That's Too Much, Man!" is practically a Spoiler Title given what viewers have seen over 3 seasons. The show is cynical and ironic, about depressed people going downhill, and this is the season finale. The title is the catchphrase of the one character as messed up as BoJack, so it will feature her heavily and dramatically. And the catchphrase itself refers to events being emotionally "too much", suggesting a traumatic event such as death, as well as referencing Sarah Lynn's mental health problems and drug addiction becoming "too much" for her.
- Heel Realization: When Sarah Lynn sees that she won an Oscar from the television in their motel room, she suddenly realizes that fame doesn't make her happy, her life is a lie, and she hates herself. Leading to...
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: A possible interpretation of Sarah Lynn's death. In the motel room it seems to finally dawn on her just how much she hates herself and her life, and how little her drug binges will ever fix it; then when BoJack finally agrees to take her to the planetarium she reveals that the real reason she wanted to go was because she loves domed buildings; then she sighs contentedly while leaning on his shoulder, "I want to be an architect." It's possible Sarah Lynn was on the verge of giving up fame and drugs to live her childhood dream - to do the one thing she's always wanted to do that would give her real happiness - and then she dies of a drug overdose before she can.
- Here We Go Again!: We see Sarah Lynn continuing her sobriety until BoJack invites her for another epic bender. She quickly agrees and throws away all of her hard work.
- Hope Spot: When he goes to Oberlin to apologize to Penny, BoJack is spying on her and sees that she's apparently fine and no longer traumatized, so he decides to head back home. But when he goes to pee, he accidentally bumps into Penny, which inflicts emotional damage on her, as it seems from her perspective that he's stalking her.
- Hypocritical Humor: Sarah Lynn goes to an AA meeting to get her nine-month chip despite the fact that she's been partying with BoJack for over a full day.Sarah Lynn: That's no reason for me to not get my chip.
BoJack: That's literally exactly the reason you shouldn't get your chip.
Sarah Lynn: Nowhere in the twelve steps does it say to not drink. That's not actually one of the steps. Loophole! - Ironic Echo: Diane tells BoJack last episode that winning an Oscar won't make him any happier. We then see Sarah Lynn experience brief happiness for winning an Oscar before falling into depression.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Major Injury Underreaction: While brushing past Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter in their bedroom, BoJack accidentally re-breaks Diane's arm, to which she gives a casually frustrated "Aw, come on!" Though given the reaction and the fact Diane was in a cast for only a few more episodes (she'd been in the previous cast for most of the season) it probably was a less severe injury than a full on fracture.
- Mood Whiplash: When going to pee, BoJack knocks over a few choir boys, who all let out their noises of surprise in a choir fashion. This humorous moment is made short when this causes Penny to notice BoJack, setting up a tense moment.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: BoJack decides to pay Penny Carson a surprise visit in Ohio, to apologize to her over their incident back in New Mexico. The surprise visit ends up with Penny terrified of BoJack's presence, and being forced to relive the trauma she had developed from said incident.
- Off the Wagon: After being sober for nine months, Sarah Lynn, who never wanted to be sober in the first place, agrees to go on a massive bender with BoJack in a heartbeat. She dies from it by the end of the episode.
- Once More, with Clarity: Subverted. We don't have any better idea of what happened between BoJack and Penny here than we did at the end of "Escape To LA." The most we get is BoJack bragging about almost having her at Sarah Lynn's AA meeting, but he was probably just being his usual Attention Whore self. Penny stutters she "didn't know what she was doing" when she sees BoJack, but doesn't say if she's referring to coming onto him or not turning down his advances.
- Please Wake Up: How BoJack and, ultimately, the audience realize that Sarah Lynn just died.
- Real Award, Fictional Character: Sarah Lynn ends up winning the Oscar for Best Original Song.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: When a shocked Penny notices BoJack, she frighteningly wonders if he came to Oberlin to find her. While technically true, as he went there in the first place to make amends to her, she is worried that he actually came there to stalk and try to have sex with her again.
- Rhymes on a Dime: The Cold Open has Sarah Lynn waking up like a Disney Princess, and greeting everyone in rhyme.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The whole episode is about Sarah and BoJack making amends; by the end, Sarah is dead and BoJack has almost no one left.
- Shout-Out: The last scene has BoJack and Sarah Lynn in the planetarium's theaters, with their black silhouettes appearing against the screen.
- Stepford Smiler: In a flashback to 2007, Sarah Lynn tells BoJack quite directly that she may look happy, but "the light inside me is dying," and that showbusiness is slowly sapping her happiness away. Then, just before dying, she reveals that, like BoJack, her entire adult life has been her pretending to be happy in the hopes that someone would love her.
- Take That!: Sarah Lynn's bear stepfather, who is implied to have molested her as a child, is modeled after photographer and alleged rapist Terry Richardson.
- Tragic Dream: She wanted to be an architect...
- Trauma Button: Penny is absolutely shocked to see BoJack again after almost having sex. To be fair, however, she never expected him to turn up at her campus.
- Wham Line:BoJack: Right, Sarah Lynn?
(Beat)
BoJack: Sarah Lynn?
(Still nothing)
BoJack: [Worried] Sarah Lynn?? - Wham Shot: After the events of the previous episode, the shot of BoJack's apartment in the opening is completely empty, highlighting just how alone he is.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: And how. BoJack experiences drunk blackouts for increasingly alarming periods of time, from minutes to hours to days, possibly weeks, and has no idea where he is when he comes to. He only finds out about all the atrocious things he's done in those timeframes through Sarah Lynn, including telling an entire AA group about what happened with Penny, and later tracking down Penny's college to spy on her.
