Recap / Bojack Horseman S 6 E 15 The View From Halfway Down

"Is it...terrifying?"

"But this is it, the deed is done
Silence drowns the sound
Before I leaped I should have seen
The view from halfway down!"

— Secretariat

BoJack has his recurring nightmare of attending a dinner party at his mother's house — a party where all the other guests are dead family and friends. Only this time, he can't seem to wake up from the dream.

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Tropes:

• Actually Pretty Funny: During the dinner party, BoJack suddenly coughs black tar out and onto the table, much to everyone's surprise...which is quickly followed by everyone (except for Secretariat) laughing at the strange scene. Even Beatrice joins in.
• Afterlife Antechamber: BoJack appears to be in one of these in the form of a lovely mansion where deceased friends and family hold a dinner party together before "Moving On" through a black door. Of course, once BoJack realizes what's happening to him, Herb points out all of this is a dream conjured up by his brain as it struggles with processing the fact that it is dying and there's no such thing as any of this.
• All for Nothing: It's revealed that Crackerjack enlisted in the army willingly rather than have his number drafted, and that he never actually killed a Nazi. All his kills were in friendly fire, and he never helped free a single person. Meaning his death and the three generations of abuse it kickstarted on the Sugarman/Horseman family were for naught. However, the entire episode is a dream BoJack, who never met his uncle, is having, so it's uncertain whether these details about Crackerjack were true.
• Ambiguous Situation: While the Rule of Symbolism explains almost everything in the episode, the significance of the red silent bird is never made clear. Two popular theories are that it's simply an omen of death (which is a real-life superstition) and that she's meant to represent BoJack's heart (first fluttering, then flatlining).
• Beneath the Mask: Butterscotch/Secretariat initially gives off a nihilistic opinion of his suicide, actually taking pride in the fact that he was able to die on his own terms. But then when he later performs his poem, he ends up losing composure as he realizes that this will be the end for him.
• Blank White Eyes: The bird's eyes eventually turn to the white eyes of death.
• Bottle Episode: While taking place in BoJack's Dying Dream, the entire sequence takes place in a dream version of Beatrice's house.
• Call-Back:
  • BoJack mentioned having a recurring dinner party nightmare in a session with Dr. Champs in "A Little Uneven, Is All".
  • Early in the series, BoJack is irritated at the idea of there being no one around when he kills himself.
  • BoJack's chosen method of suicide (trying to drown himself) is one to "Downer Ending", where he talked about wanting to go for "one last swim" when he would get too old to take care of himself.
  • Also from "Downer Ending": BoJack hallucinates Diane and she tells him "It's never too late". Now he hallucinates Diane again, but this time, she tells him "It's too late".
  • The culmination of Herb's introduction for BoJack is calling him a "stupid piece of shit".
  • Callback to "Free Churro": When Secretariat (as Butterscotch) tells BoJack how he actually did care about him and his mother deep down, but hid it beneath a gruff exterior, it calls back to BoJack's monologue in "Free Churro" when he wishes his parents would reveal they really did love him to justify the years of abuse. Since this is all just a dream though, this is just another extension of that wish.
  • Also from "Free Churro": BoJack mentions his mother "taking flight" during her dance numbers at the parties she used to throw. Here we see her literally take flight during the performance.
  • And also from "Free Churro": BoJack said he felt like he and his parents were drowning together. When he's seated between his parents at the dinner table and looks up, he sees the world as if looking up from underwater — as if they are indeed drowning together.
  • Beatrice wants BoJack to perform the infamous Lollipop Song.
  • BoJack vomits black tar in a nod to what Charlotte said to him when he was young (in a flashback seen in "The Telescope"): "Hollywood's a real pretty town that's smack on top of all that black tar. By the time you realize you're sinking, it's too late".
  • Herb wears the same clothes he was wearing when he told BoJack that he would be the star of Horsin' Around, which he later switches for a suit similar to the one Mr. Peanutbutter's during his tenure hosting "...Let's Find Out!" (albeit in orange instead of pink). Sarah Lynn's final outfit is the one she wore to Herb Kazazz's funeral, but in white and black instead of all black. Beatrice is wearing her debutante ball gown from the night BoJack was conceived.
  • Sarah Lynn performs the Dark Reprise of "Don't Stop Dancing", dedicating it to BoJack and singing that it's "a song you taught me when I was small". As seen in "Prickly Muffin", the song's title comes from a life lesson BoJack tries to impart on a very young Sarah Lynn:
    BoJack: No matter what happens, no matter how much it hurts, you don't stop dancing, and you don't stop smiling, and you give those people what they want.
  • When Sarah Lynn drops through the door, BoJack repeats the "Sarah Lynn? Sarah Lynn?" from "That's Too Much, Man!".
  • Before reading the poem, Secretariat says "A poem. Original, obviously" — a callback to BoJack's "Horseman, obviously" Character Catchphrase.
  • The chair BoJack sits on during the show is from his AA meetings, and the stage is from his and Herb's stand-up days. The kitchen in the house is the kitchen from Horsin' Around.
  • BoJack's phone call with Diane echoes their conversation at the end of "Yes, And" ("He'll just say: 'How was your day?' And I'll say: 'My day was good.'")
• Cessation of Existence: Still wanting to believe he is in an actual Afterlife Antechamber, and standing at the door to the Afterlife, BoJack tells Herb that he'll see him on the other side, to which Herb has to remind him again that this is all a dream, there is no other side. To drive the point further, instead of going through the door, the void of the door seeps out of it like a black liquid and consumes Herb. Whether there truly is no afterlife or if it's just Bojack's mind racing to survive is truly unknown.
  BoJack: (standing on the edge of the door) Is it... terrifying?
  Herb: No, I don't think so. It's just the way it is, you know? Everything must come to an end. The drip finally stops. (extends one arm into the door, and the void begins covering him)
  BoJack: See you on the other side.
  Herb: (sadly) Oh, BoJack, no... there is no other side. This is it. (is entirely consumed)
• Cliffhanger: The episode ends right when BoJack seemingly flatlines, only for the credits to provide some hope when the monitor starts beeping again. We don't find out if he died for real or not.
• Composite Character: In-Universe; in BoJack's Dying Dream, Butterscotch is mashed together with Secretariat. While he's physically presented as Secretariat, his voice and mannerisms are those of Butterscotch, and the character is able to switch between the both of them as far as thoughts and failed dreams.
  Butterscotch/Secretariat: I know this part is confusing, because I'm Secretariat, and also your dad for some reason, but speaking as your dad...
• Crashing Dreams: A dark variant; it turns out the tar that keeps dripping onto BoJack is symbolizing the water getting into his body after he drowns himself.
• Dark Reprise: Three of them.
  • Sarah Lynn sings a reprise of "Don't Stop Dancing 'Til the Curtains Fall", Gina's song from "The Show Stopper", that starts straight, but then segues into the EDM melody and beat of "Prickly Muffin" from the episode of the same name.
  • Beatrice does an interpretive dance while Crackerjack plays "I Will Always Think of You" on the trumpet.
• Double Meaning: BoJack's first words in the episode are "Thanks for having me, Mom", which could mean having him over for dinner or giving birth to him (as his mother was always talking about how she never should have had him).
• Dream Episode: Specifically a Dying Dream. BoJack is unconscious, because he is currently drowning in the pool outside his old house, and this is all inside his head.
• Dream Tells You to Wake Up: Inverted; when BoJack realizes that he's dying, he tries to find an exit and wake himself up. When that fails, he remembers he called Diane and thinks that she'll save him. The other characters bluntly tell him he's not going to get out of this one.
• Driven to Suicide: Butterscotch/Secretariat and, as the episode slowly reveals, BoJack.
• Dwindling Party: The group of BoJack's family and friends gets smaller as more of them enter the black door after their performances.
  • Sarah Lynn is the first to go after singing a reprise of "Don't Stop Dancing". She stands at the edge, turns around, holds her breath, and falls in backward.
  • We see Corduroy swinging around on a cloth as BoJack and Herb talk about the door, ending his performance by literally hanging himself with the cloth and his body swinging into the doorway.
  • Zaff Braff is the most comedic. BoJack interrupts his speech, tries to stop the show and pushes him, causing him to glide back toward the door on his skates as he lists all the things he wanted to do before he falls through.
  • Secretariat performs his poem "View from Halfway Down". But as he realizes he doesn't want to die, the door inches closer to him till ultimately he falls through.
  • Beatrice and Crackerjack perform together, the former a ribbon dance and the latter a trumpet rendition of "I Will Always Think Of You". They end their turn with Beatrice jumping into the air and cocooning herself in the ribbon while Crackerjack goes to the door, ties the ribbon around his waist, salutes, and jumps through. The goop from the door seeping onto the ribbon, when it unravels, Beatrice is gone and what's left of the ribbon snags Crackerjack's trumpet and is pulled through the door.
  • Herb delivers a eulogy of sorts to BoJack and introduces him on stage. While they talk, Herb calmly puts his arm into the door and the goop eventually envelops him.
  • When BoJack tries to find a way out, the bird tries to lead him to the same window he chased her out of, but eventually the goop catches and envelops her too.
  • Finally BoJack realizes what's happening and goes back to the area where Secretariat and he talked, having one final "conversation" with Diane on the phone as the goop envelops him.
• Dying Dream: The entire episode is a near-death hallucination BoJack has while he is drowning in his pool and it involves him reuniting with his dead friends and family (and Zach Braff).
  BoJack: Has anyone ever come back from this place?
  Herb: (deep sigh) BJ... There is no "place". It's just... your brain going through what it feels like it has go through. Now, sit back and enjoy the show.
• Face Death with Dignity: At the end of the episode, BoJack stops running from the black goo and lets it consume him entirely while having a last conversation with an imaginary Diane.
• Flatline: After BoJack is swallowed by the ink-like substance at the end of the episode, we hear a flatlining heart monitor as the credits begin to play. It's ultimately subverted when the ECG begins beeping normally, meaning that BoJack survived falling into the pool.
• Forgiveness: Herb is much gentler with BoJack here rather than how he was in life when calling out the horse for his betrayal. Though as he puts it, he's not the real Herb but a manifestation that BoJack needs before he dies.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Corduroy performs by doing acrobats using ribbons, and as BoJack and Herb argue in front of the void door, he suddenly appears as if he's hanging himself in the background before swinging towards them.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: The episode's fade to credits.
• Homage:
  • To All That Jazz (see Whole-Plot Reference for more details).
  • To No Exit, with the afterlife setting and the door out appearing and disappearing at random.
  • The phone call between BoJack and Diane in the episode's final moments has shades of the Montauk scene in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind where two characters share a made-up goodbye as the mental landscape disintegrates around them:
    Clementine: What if you stayed this time?
    Joel: I walked out the door. There's no memory left.
    Clementine: Come back and make up a good-bye, at least. Let's pretend we had one.
• Hope Spot: Once the severity of his situation hits BoJack, he remembers that the last thing he did was crawl out of the pool and call Diane for help. He spends the rest of the episode clinging to the belief that she was coming to save him, only for his final talk with an imaginary Diane to reveal that his call went to voicemail and he reacted by getting back in the pool. The imaginary Diane even points out that she's in Chicago, much too far away for her to reach him on time even if she did answer the phone.
• Ironic Echo: Back in "It's You", Diane warns him that he would be so miserable that he will likely kill himself and, because he keeps driving people away, no one will be left to stop him. Here, it would be revealed that he finally goes through with it. And no one is around to stop him. Though the episode after shows he was saved.
• Last Request: Each of the meals being eaten at the dinner party is the last thing that person ate before they died:
  • BoJack — Pills and chlorinated pool water (served in a water bottle).
  • Sarah Lynn — A burger, fries, and a soda.
  • Beatrice — A meal from the retirement home (served on a paper plate).
  • Herb — Peanuts.
  • Crackerjack — An Army C-ration.
  • Corduroy — A lemon and a protein shake.
  • Butterscotch — Fried eggs, coffee, and a bottle of Jack Daniels.
  • Zack Braff isn't given a symbolic meal to eat like the others; instead, he takes the role of a butler who serves the others their meals. He died by being set on fire and then eaten by other celebrities during the cave-in caused by Mr. Peanutbutter's fracking. One could say he was serving the guests himself.
• Meaningful Background Event:
  • The Hockney painting that BoJack used to own is seen on the wall in Beatrice's house, but the horse is no longer swimming and is instead face down in the pool. Later, as BoJack tries to escape the house, the drowned horse is no longer visible under the black goo, which is spreading from the painting to all the other paintings in the room.
  • When BoJack and Secretariat go outside to smoke, the facade looks like the top of a bridge. Secretariat committed suicide jumping off a bridge.
• Mid-Suicide Regret:
  • The title of the episode comes from a poem Secretariat reads during his final performance. He mentions how he first felt peace when he made his initial jump, enjoying one last view before his death. But as he fell and the view changed, panic set in and all he wanted was to be back on solid ground.
  • BoJack is hit hard by the same when he realizes that the reason why he does not wake up from his dream like he usually does, and even finds himself unable to force himself awake despite being aware that he is dreaming, is because it is a Dying Dream.
• Mind Screw: Besides the aging of Sarah Lynn, at one point, Beatrice briefly becomes the old decrepit version of herself from the end of her life, before reverting to the younger debutante Beatrice.
• Murder Water: How BoJack in his dreamscape views his drowning, via a dark ink-like liquid.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Zach Braff's presence in BoJack's Dying Dream is repeatedly pointed to as strange and out of place, as he, unlike the other guests, really didn't leave that much of an impact on BoJack's life.
• Near-Death Experience: As it is eventually revealed, while BoJack did drown in the pool, the episode ends with a heart monitor beeping again.
• Oh, Crap!: BoJack has one when he realizes what's happening while talking with Secretariat/Butterscotch on the bridge and the latter shows him the pool beneath them... and BoJack's lifeless body floating in it.
• Ominous Obsidian Ooze: The dream is plagued by a tar-like substance that drips from the ceiling. At the end of the episode, the black liquid consumes BoJack's entire dream world, symbolizing the water getting into his body after he drowns himself.
• Opening Shout-Out: Just like in the opening sequence, BoJack ends up in his pool while heavily intoxicated. The consequences are direr here, as BoJack starts drowning without anyone else to help him.
  • In the opening, Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter are seen looking into the pool while BoJack is drowning, because they are directly connected to his two suicide attempts: Mr. Peanutbutter saves BoJack at the Oscar party, and Diane is the one BoJack calls before his suicide attempt in this episode.
• Parental Substitute: BoJack's father is depicted as Secretariat, but with Butterscotch's voice and mannerisms. This highlights how much BoJack resented his real father and looked up to Secretariat as a paternal figure he could actually admire.
• Pet the Dog: Butterscotch/Secretariat apologizes to BoJack for not being the father he ought to have been, and said he loved his wife and son. Despite them both pointing out it's not real, BoJack feels a little better up until he sees his body in the pool.
• Psychopomp: Herb, as the emcee, fulfills this function, in particular nudging Secretariat and BoJack to enter the void.
• Pun:
  • Herb calling Corduroy "a killer hang".
  • "Wow! Beatrice Horseman! You know, she was gonna sing for us tonight, but apparently, she was a little...hoarse. Ha-ha!"
• Rapid Aging: Sarah Lynn noticeably ages throughout the episode as part of its overall Rule of Symbolism, showing her at prominent stages of her life: she first appears as a little girl from around the time Horsin' Around had started airing, then as a preteen towards the end of the show's run, then in her twenties when she was a famous pop star, and finally in her thirties when she had become a drug-addicted Former Child Star, which was when her life ended.
• Recurring Dreams: BoJack mentions that he has had the dream he is experiencing in the episode several times before, and he usually wakes up when the other guests leave the dinner party to go see the Big Show. He is quite confused when the dream for once turns out not to end there.
• Rejected Apology: BoJack tries to take the opportunity to apologize to Sarah Lynn for what he did to her. She tells him, "Ah-ah-ah! BoJack, this is my time".
• The Reveal: BoJack can't wake up because he isn't actually sleeping, but rather slowly drowning in his old pool.
• Rule of Symbolism: Since the entire episode is BoJack's Dying Dream as he drowns in his old pool, pretty much everything that happens runs on this trope.
  • Secretariat's poem switches from third-person narration, to Second-Person Narration, to first-person, in an imitation of a "3...2...1" countdown.
  • BoJack arrives at his mother's house with Sarah Lynn in tow; just like in real life, he's literally brought her to death's door. Likewise, her Rapid Aging throughout the episode shows how she's getting closer towards her own death.
  • Likewise, Herb brings BoJack to death's door inside the house, much like he brought BoJack into Hollywood — an environment that fostered all of BoJack's worst qualities and led to his undoing. Also, BoJack's betrayal of Herb was his Start of Darkness.
  • BoJack brings hydrangeas to the house; the word hydrangea comes from "hydro" - "water". Later, the "water" flowers block his way back to the world of the living.
  • Each of the meals being eaten at the dinner party is the last thing that person ate before they died (see Last Request, above). All the characters partake, except for BoJack, because he's not dead yet. When he does try to eat the pills, he immediately throws up.
  • In the dining hall, BoJack's chair looks like the inside of a coffin, and the wallpaper is his face abstractly made into a pattern.
  • At the dining table, there's a chair and an empty plate set up at the end opposite BoJack. This place is for the audience, who don't get their last meal because they haven't died yet.
  • The tar dripping down may be a reference to LA being a tar-pit, as stated in the show.
  • The bird everyone tries to catch could be interpreted as trying to keep BoJack alive for as long as possible. Subsequently a bird dying in a house is likewise considered an superstitious omen for death. When BoJack and the others chase it out, it means he is still clinging to life. When it comes back, she's actively trying to leave. She nearly manages but the goop eventually gets her, signifying BoJack's time running out.
  • Crackerjack on solo trumpet while in military garb brings to mind a bugler performing "Taps" at funerals for dead servicemen.
  • Beatrice unravels, literally, after Crackerjack's death. Signified further when he ties the ribbon around his waist and jumps through the door. Symbolism of how her life went awry after his death.
  • The Margaret Keane painting of a crying young horse with a jester mask was previously seen in BoJack's childhood home and probably symbolizes BoJack, who utilizes performance and comedy to deal with his sadness and insecurities. This behavior led him into the acting profession, much like the painting transforms into a doorway leading to the sitcom kitchen.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: It isn't until after Sarah Lynn, Corduroy, and Zach Braff enter the door that things get really dire, like Butterscotch/Secretariat's poem and BoJack's growing desperation to leave.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Wham Shot of BoJack's body in the pool is styled after a Saul Bass poster.
  • Sarah Lynn calls BoJack "Old Sport", which is a nickname associated with Jay Gatsby, who died in his pool after the local mechanic shot him.
• The Stinger: The episode ends with the sound of BoJack flatlining, but, if you don't skip the end credits, you can hear the ECG start beeping again.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: BoJack remembers that he got out of the pool to call Diane, so she would save him. When he calls her in the dream, her imaginary self reminds him that she's in Chicago and nowhere near him, even if she had gotten his voicemail in time.
• Title Drop: The title is the name of a poem read by Butterscotch/Secretariat.
• Triumphant Reprise: The Horsin’ Around theme song briefly plays once BoJack gets the fire poker and everybody, minus Beatrice, have fun chasing the bird through the kitchen window.
• Wham Line:
  Bojack: Least we got the chance [to talk] this time before I wake up.
  Butterscotch/Secretariat: "Wake up"? Oh, you're not getting it, are you?
  • "Oh, BoJack, no... There is no other side. This is it."
• Wham Shot: After the exchange in Wham Line, Secretariat flicks his cigarette off the side to reveal BoJack's silhouette face down in his old pool.
• Whole-Plot Reference: This episode is a large Homage to the Dying Dream sequence of All That Jazz. Like the protagonist, Joe Gideon, BoJack has lived a drug-fueled, hedonistic lifestyle, hurting the people he cared about repeatedly along the way. Near death's door, they both experience a dying fantasy, summarizing their life and see performances from those closest to them.
• Your Worst Memory: BoJack faces the people who died indirectly or directly because of him: Corduroy Jackson-Jackson, Sarah Lynn, and Zach Braff. He also sees the relationships he ruined with dead people, like with Herb, and faces the what-ifs with Butterscotch/Secretariat.

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