"Believe it or not, time's arrow neither stands still nor reverses. It merely marches forward."
"Why, I have half a mind..."
— Honey Sugarman
Starting from That Went Well, going off the grid, BoJack returns to his family's summer home in Michigan, where he meets an old dragonfly who's also haunted by the past.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: Discussed, but actually subverted. BoJack and Eddie spend eight months restoring his old summer home to pristine condition, only for BoJack to have it demolished after their falling out. That said, the experience helps BoJack to start letting go of his past and properly reconnect with his family and loved ones.
- Anachronic Order: The episode moves back and forth between BoJack and Eddie fixing up the summer house in 2017, and Beatrice's family spending a summer there in 1944 and 1945, right before her brother Crackerjack is deployed to fight in the Second World War and the summer after he dies. Occasionally these two things even appear to be happening at the same time, as if the place is haunted by ghosts of the past. At one point Honey and Eddie even have a duet... while everybody stares at them, because in-universe each is only performing half the song.
- Artistic License – Medicine: In the year that Honey was lobotomized (about 1945), lobotomies were done through a cut above the hairline so regrown hair can cover the incision. Honey's lobotomy leaves her with a big, garish scar right across her forehead, which is admittedly much more dramatic.
- Bittersweet Ending: After spending the entire episode refurbishing the house with Eddie, BoJack decides to have it demolished... but the months spent working on it with Eddie has clearly had a positive impact on BoJack, and he leaves for Hollywoo less shackled by the past.
- Blaming the Victim: The scene where the Sugarman family is mourning the death of Crackerjack has Joseph blame the Jews for starting World War II by "peeving Hitler off so bad." This is especially jarring as, not only is that politically incorrect even by 1940s standards, it's the only time Joseph ever says anything anti-Semitic in the whole episode.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: BoJack uses Sarah Lynn's catchphrase to tell Eddie off before leaving Michigan.BoJack: Well, as a great woman once said: "suck a dick, dumbshit".
- The Cast Show Off: Well, what else are you going to do when you have Tony winners Jane Krakowski and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Tony nominee Colman Domingo, guest starring? Have them sing, of course.
- Cerebus Roller Coaster: A lot more than usual this episode. However, the crowning moment would be when we're treated to a quick succession of Honey's nervous breakdown and BoJack fighting off crabs with a pair of tongs.
- Cliffhanger Copout: What did the wild horses mean to BoJack? As it turns out it seems he was about to join them, but he gets distracted by a phone call from Diane and misses his chance.
- Continuity Nod: When Eddie and Honey sing their "I Will Always Think of You" you can see a couple boxes of Guten Bourbon in the background, the same urban German bourbon Todd makes a commercial for in "Say Anything".
- Culture Blind: Eddie is completely unaware of the tropes and television conventions that BoJack's life revolves around, to the point where he doesn't even know what the phrase "series wrap" means. Needless to say, BoJack is baffled by this.BoJack: Are you serious?! Oh my God, what am I even doing in this backwash of a town? Do you even get Showtime here?
- Dark Reprise: When we first meet the Sugarman family, Honey and Crackerjack sing a cheery and tongue-in-cheek version of I Will Always Think of You, even with Crackerjack rhyming "You" with "Drink a brew", signifying how happy they were as a family. Later on, Honey duets a somber and melancholic version of the same song with Eddie, both the past and present superimposed with each other, as they mourn their loved ones, Crackerjack and Lorraine. Notably, Eddie's sings more parts of the song than Honey, thus sounding more complete, which is why the crowd from 1945 look more confused compared to the present day crowd who enjoy his performance, especially since no one is playing the piano in Honey's time and she’s singing by herself unannounced. This could potentially represent that Eddie, despite still having emotional baggage from her death, has had time to heal and properly grieve Lorraine, while Honey hasn’t and feels incomplete without her son, and after she’s done singing she has a breakdown that results in her getting lobotomized.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance:
- Most if not all of what Beatrice's parents say (especially her father) is not so much Deliberate Values Dissonance as Caricatured Values Dissonance. For a start, both of Beatrice's parents forbid her from eating ice cream because "it's a boy's food". Said no other 1940's parent ever!
- Played for Laughs when the bartender comments on Honey's intoxicated and hysterical state, saying that she should have one more drink to steady her nerves before driving home with her young daughter.
- Desert Skull: Parodied. As BoJack drives through a desert, we see a cow skull with the rest of the skeleton still attached...and it has a wristwatch on its arm, sunglasses in its palm, and the remnants of clothing on its body.
- Distant Duet: "I Will Always Think of You". Honey and Eddie are singing the same song some seventy years apart, but both are doing it in the same place and for the same reasons — they are still reeling from the loss of a loved one. This is represented by them singing together as the visuals intersperse the 1940s with the 2010s.
- Drowning My Sorrows: At the party, Honey quickly becomes drunk in order to numb the pain of losing her son in the Second World War.
- Drunk Driver: Subverted. Honey's too drunk to drive, so she makes her little daughter drive them home. They are involved in a crash with minor injuries, but Honey ends up begging her furious husband to "fix her" so she won’t be in emotional pain anymore, and has a lobotomy.
- Empty Shell: Poor Honey Sugarman. She even has a visible scar in the middle of her forehead! From what we see of her in episode 11, she eventually became completely brain dead.
- Fair for Its Day: The flashbacks to 1944 seem to suggest that this was the case with the Sugarman family, but once CrackerJack is killed in World War II, things jump down the slippery slope into aversion. Even by 1940's standards, Joseph Sugarman would still be considered a Straw Misogynist.
- Flashback B-Plot: The A-plot has BoJack, having impulsively fled Los Angeles, spend a year fixing up the abandoned house with help from his new neighbor. The B-plot flashes back to the 1940s, when Beatrice spent summers there with her family, and the trauma that her family endured when she was still a child.note
- Foreshadowing:
- As he did in "That Went Well", BoJack momentarily looks as though he's considering joining the herd of horses running across the desert, but misses his chance. It's the first sign that he's no longer going to run from his problems, although it's immediately followed up by him doing exactly that.
- At the beginning of the 1940s sequence, Honey and Joseph Sugarman use the idiomatic phrase "I have half a mind to..." (meaning to be partially inclined to do something). After the war ends and Honey almost kills herself and Beatrice in a car crash, she undergoes a lobotomy, which involves tampering with the prefrontal cortex of the brain. And in case it wasn't obvious, her last line in the episode is "I have half a mind..." before trailing off.
Honey: I've half a mind to kiss you with that smart mouth!
Joseph: Well, that half you can keep!- In the 1944 flashback, young Beatrice is saddened that they must leave the summer house. Joseph reassures that the house will remain, "just like polio and blackface". Considering how those two subjects no longer widely happen (at least in America) or are considered acceptable respectively, it hints at BoJack demolishing the summer home.
- Played for Laughs when, after catching Eddie looking at an old tape, BoJack goes into a long explanation about how his dead wife is obviously the reason behind him refusing to fly. He's right.
- Freudian Excuse: Beatrice Used to Be a Sweet Kid, but her mother's lobotomy will clearly inform the woman she becomes.Honey: Love does things to a person, terrible things. Beatrice, promise me you'll never love anyone as much as I loved Crackerjack.
Beatrice: I promise. I won't. - Furry Reminder: The crab brothers can only walk sideways, which makes them unable to catch BoJack and Eddie after they steal back the Sugarmans' weather vane.
- Hysterical Woman: Deconstructed. Joseph calls Honey hysterical when she has a breakdown the summer after Crackerjack's death and dismisses her "womanly emotions", but this is clearly depression that Joseph, as a self proclaimed "modern American man", is clearly unequipped to handle. So, instead of giving her the support she needs, Joseph slacks off and takes the easy way out.
- Immediate Sequel: Picking up right where "That Went Well" left off, with BoJack staring at the herd of horses.
- It's All Junk: After spending eight months restoring the old family home to pristine condition, BoJack seems to come to this conclusion and has the house demolished anyway, leaving toxic sentimentality behind and moving forward (whether he's aware of the Sugarman family's history there or not). Subverted in the sense that the home came to hold almost no meaning to him in the presentnote , and the restoration project started as an pragmatic attempt to have running water in a bathroom with a solid floor.
- Lazy Alias: BoJack goes under the alias "Hambone Fakenamington" during his time in Michigan. Somehow, Eddie buys into this.
- Lobotomy:
- Honey Sugarman, Beatrice's mother and BoJack's maternal grandmother, eventually undergoes a lobotomy due to her mental breakdown after losing her son Crackerjack. She's a shadow of herself afterwards.
- This comes back full force in a later episode, as Beatrice has her bout with dementia, Honey only ever appears in her memories as a shadow with the lobotomy scar in sharp white contrast, portrayed as a warning.
- The Lost Lenore: Eddie the dragonfly lost his wife due to him recklessly daring them both to fly as high as they could. His wife was sucked into a jet engine, leaving him filled with regret and keeping her belongings in their bedroom creepily intact.
- Love Is a Weakness: Honey tells young Beatrice that love does "terrible things" to a person, and makes her promise never to love anyone or anything as much as she loved Crackerjack. What's worse, this may well have been the very last thing Honey ever said to her daughter.
- Mad Libs Catch Phrase: Honey's is "Why, I have half a mind to [x]", which is given a very dark turn by the end of the episode.
- Meaningful Echo: Eddie's final line "Where are you going?" is the same question Brad asked him at the end of the previous season finale. While he couldn't answer the first time, BoJack finally has a firm answer to Eddie this time around: home.
- Red Herring: Beatrice's promise to never love anyone as much as her mother loved Crackerjack is a small one. While it certainly couldn't have done her any favors, the reasons for her present day coldness end up proving much more complex.
- Sequencing Deception: At the barnyard, when Eddie starts singing and playing the piano so BoJack can retrieve the summer house's old vane, his performance is interspersed with Honey singing in the same place back in 1945, right before she makes a scene and has a nervous breakdown.
- Sexy Sweater Girl: Joseph Sugarman's Sexy Secretary wears tight sweaters that he likes to comment on, as part of his "hard work".
- Small Role, Big Impact: Eddie only appears in this episode and he isn't even mentioned again. However, Bojack's eight months with the suicidally depressed dragonfly shows him the type of person he could become if he lets his grief consume him, and he is convinced to return to LA to face his past. Had it not been for Eddie, Bojack would have spent the rest of his days living in quiet anonymity at Harpers Landing, and he wouldn't have connected with Hollyhock or starred in Philbert.
- So Happy Together: While there are hints at friction, the Sugarman family is happy and content at the very beginning. The family photo is the last happy time for the household before Crackerjack's death breaks the family and starts the rot that will last generations.
- Soprano and Gravel: Eddie's voice is noticeably raspy during his duet with Honey.
- Stepford Smiler: Honey tries to invoke this, hiding her grief and "womanly hysteria" behind smiles and quips. It seems partly enforced by her husband, who cannot deal with emotions. As expected, the pressure of trying to pretend everything is normal eventually causes her to self-destruct.
- Tragic Keepsake: Crackerjack leaves behind his Security Blanket to his little sister Beatrice. After he's shot down in the war, Honey laments that he died without having taken his blanket and even demands the family go back to the summer house during winter so as to get it back.
- Truth in Television: Unfortunately, lobotomy was a relatively common procedure during the 40s and 50s until it was eventually replaced by antipsychotics, falling out of favor by 1964. That said, it was controversial even at the timenote because its effectiveness varied wildly from person to person. Many patients ended up practically brain-dead.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: BoJack bears a striking resemblance to his uncle, Crackerjack. Notably, while diamond shaped stars are shown to run in the family, they're the only two with snips.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Eddie expresses dismay at BoJack wanting to destroy the house that they spent months rebuilding together, BoJack points out that Eddie's attempt to kill him pretty much put paid to any togetherness they might have had.
- What You Are in the Dark: After he and Eddie fall from the air and into the lake, BoJack sees an unconscious Eddie and given the latter just tried to kill him, BoJack could've left him to drown. But, BoJack ultimately saves him from drowning and then performs CPR.
