At the "Philbert" premiere party, Princess Carolyn deftly negotiates a deal, Gina steps into the limelight, and Diane confronts BoJack.
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Diane calls out BoJack on his It's All About Me attitude towards his awful actions:Diane: So you're the victim here?
Bojack: Yeah, and I know that's not the woke, progressive, intersectionally appropriate thing to say, but I would say, yeah! I'm the one who has suffered the most because of the actions of BoJack Horseman.
Diane: You've suffered?
BoJack: Yeah, I have!
Diane: The most?
BoJack: The most!
Diane: Really? More than, say, Sarah Lynn?
(BoJack flinches hard) - The Big Damn Kiss: Played with; BoJack comes to kiss Gina at the premiere, and it is played as such by the visuals — they kiss in front of a crowd and a large fountain as fireworks go off behind them. However, it's clear that BoJack is spiraling from Diane's rejection and argument with him.
- Book Ends: Bojack conviced Diane to join Philbert by telling her she helped him change for the better, and this episode Diane quits the show after Bojack tells her he hasn't changed at all and is okay with that.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Diane borrows the catchphrase of Mr. Peanutbutter's Philbert character.Diane: Barf me a river.
- Both Sides Have a Point: BoJack and Diane have their disagreements about who has suffered the "most" because of BoJack's actions largely because they have two different understandings of what "most" means.
- To BoJack, he's suffered the most consistently. While most of the people he's hurt or traumatized, some more than others, were able to move on with their lives and not let what BoJack did to them dictate all of their decisions from that point on, BoJack is forced to live with the shame of what he's done every day of his life, and it's something he had to do entirely on his own because there's no good reason for anyone to be sympathetic to him when all of his internal struggling is his own fault. Even if help was available for him, he wouldn't begin to know how to accept it.
- To Diane, BoJack hasn't suffered the most because he hasn't suffered the worst. Feeling sorry for yourself is far from the worst someone can go through and, unlike Penny, Sarah Lynn or Herb, he wasn't almost a statutory rape victim, he's still alive and his best friend wasn't indirectly responsible for getting him blacklisted, respectively.
- The Bus Came Back: Esteemed Character Actress Margo Martindale is revealed to have survived her collision with the pasta cargo ship, washing up somewhere near a convent of nuns, but has been unable to communicate with them. The first words any of them hear her say are "BoJack", due to the sudden appearance of the Philbert balloon.
- Call-Back:
- Diane finally confronts BoJack about what happened in New Mexico.
- When trying to justify what happened in "Escape From L.A.", BoJack points out that Penny was 17 at the time (the legal age of consent in New Mexico) and sober enough to consent, the same excuses that Penny used in trying to get him to have sex with her by reassuring him it would be legal. Like Charlotte, Diane doesn't accept this as an excuse for BoJack to have had sex with someone young enough to be his daughter, even if it only nearly happened.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: BoJack and Diane have a huge, nasty fight that ends with both of them seeking romantic/sexual comfort with someone else immediately afterwards, as if needing a rebound after the wedge they just drove between themselves.
- Downer Ending: After her feud with BoJack, Diane finally washes her hands off him, not wanting to see him again and quits Philbert as a result.
- Funny Background Event: At one point the synchronized swimmers from the first episode of Philbert can be seen in the background having drinks, and their drinking is perfectly synchronized.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Diane expresses some concern that the title character of Philbert won't be read as a flawed, interesting but ultimately morally objectionable character, rather he'll become a role model for toxic people to excuse their own morally objectionable behavior. This is a concern the creators of Bojack have expressed about the title character of their own show.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Discussed by Diane to BoJack, who throughout the series has used her friendship to validate himself and his horrible actions rather than go through the grueling work of bettering himself. She argues he can't keep doing terrible things and then rationalize that Diane is his friend, so he must be a good person, so he shouldn't feel bad or seek help for his terrible behavior.
- Morality Pet: Discussed, defied, and deconstructed by Diane to BoJack. Throughout the series (and especially this season), BoJack often commented how he feels like a better person around Diane, and she's changed him for the better. During the Philbert screening, Diane calls him out on how he continues to fall off the wagon (like abuse prescription opioids) and do horrible things that ruin other people's lives (like trying to sleep with Penny, and causing Sarah Lynn's untimely death) whenever Diane is not there to act as his conscience.
- Once More, with Clarity: After three seasons of ambiguity, we find out that Penny was the one to make the first move when she was with BoJack in his boat in New Mexico.
- Political Overcorrectness: Discussed. Part of BoJack's frustration about Diane and others not thinking that he's the biggest victim of his own shortcomings is because a wealthy, cisgender, heterosexual man like him is considered too privileged to possibly be a victim of anything. This is contrasted with a blatantly sexist line in Philbert getting cut because the executives at the website thought it would be insensitive to people that don't know what time is it.
- Take Our Word for It: Everyone comments on how good the first episode of Philbert is, but the audience never gets to see more than a few seconds of it.
- That Came Out Wrong: When BoJack attempts to explain what [nearly] happened between him and Penny, he says that "nothing happened yet". Unfortunately, Diane catches the "yet" part. BoJack tries to do a Verbal Backspace to clarify this, but she was already walking out.
- Verbal Backspace: When BoJack is explaining what happened in New Mexico:Bojack: ...So then she came onto my boat. Charlotte, I mean, and she walked in, and I was with her daughter. But again, nothing had happened yet.
Diane: "Yet"?!
Bojack: Nothing happened.- Happens again when Bojack tries to dismiss their entire shouting match as the two of them "just saying things".
- We Used to Be Friends: By the time this episode ends, BoJack and Diane's friendship is tarnished.
- What You Are in the Dark: Diane calls BoJack out on this, by reminding him of how he continues to do horrible things when people aren't around to reign him in (like when he tried to sleep with Penny until Charlotte walked in, or got Sarah Lynn hooked back on hard drugs). She spells out for him how if he wants to get better he has to do it of his own volition, not just when Diane or Charlotte or anyone else is around to witness.
- Writer on Board: Diane saying that the title character of Philbert shouldn't be a role model for people like himself is more or less the writers telling the audience point-blank how not to interpret BoJack himself.
- Wrong-Name Outburst: During the introduction to Philbert, BoJack accidentally calls Flip "Herb".
- You Didn't Ask: When Diane asks BoJack why he didn't tell her about the incident of him in New Mexico, he replies that he never asked. She retorts by saying that she's asking him now, and demands that he tell her.
