BoJack Horseman season 6 episode 15 review: Don’t stop dancing

The penultimate episode of Bojack Horseman is one of its bravest and most heartbreaking with a curtain call of all of BoJack’s dearly departed loved ones.

“Loss is a collaborative art between the people who leave us and those who remain.” BoJack Horseman is the only show that would give Zach Braff this kind of line to say — a thesis statement for the episode and a poignant reminder of why it has such a unique place in the culture.

At the close of the previous episode, BoJack had broken into his old house, stealing the new owners’ alcohol and pills, to watch the Horsin’ Around Blu-ray he would soon be edited out of.

“The View From Halfway Down” finds BoJack going to a dinner party at his mom’s house with Sarah Lynn (the age she was on Horsin’ Around). As viewers, we immediately know this must be either a dream or a flashback since both Beatrice and Sarah Lynn are now dead.

Things continue down the path of eerie as BoJack goes through the house with black liquid dripping on him, singeing him, a surreal element only to be one-upped by Zach Braff serving as his mom’s butler.

Beatrice and Sarah Lynn aren’t the only deceased guests at the dinner party: There’s also Herb Kazazz, his uncle Crackerjack, Corduroy Jackson-Jackson (BoJack’s one-time costar who died from autoerotic asphyxiation on set), and eventually his dad in the form of Secretariat.

It quickly becomes clear that BoJack himself is not entirely of the mortal plane anymore. Each of the dinner guests are served a last meal rather than traditional fare. For BoJack, it’s a pile of pills. For his mother, it’s a nursing home meal. For Corduroy Jackson-Jackson, it’s a lemon.

And, of course, they don’t even eat. (The dead have no use for food, do they?) Instead, they revisit their time on earth with a game of Best Part/Worst Part a circular BoJack way of discussing the meaning of life and ethical notions of mortality. All the while, the black liquid keeps dripping on BoJack’s head.

Dinner is just the beginning, though. A show follows with Herb hosting and Sarah Lynn opening on a lovely song suitable to every aspect of her persona. She keeps singing, “Don’t stop dancing,” when a one-sided doorway appears on the stage. She plugs her nose and dives into the darkness.

BoJack is startled and confused, so his dad takes him outside to smoke and tries to comfort him. For savvy viewers, it’s clear this is in no way BoJack’s dad. The man was never kind.

Instead, this is something more like BoJack’s psychic attempt to make peace with his departed loved ones who he was never able to patch things up with before he, too, is gone.

"BoJack: “We could never talk like this in real life. At least I got the chance this time. Before I wake up.”Butterscotch: “Wake up? You’re not getting it, are you?”"

As Butterscotch flicks his cigarette over the bridge, BoJack looks down and sees the swimming pool and his body, face down, floating, a mirror of the credits.

BoJack panics as he realizes what’s happened and that he’s dying. He thinks he remembers getting out of the pool to call Diane and tries to find a phone, but the door to the room disappears. They all tell him to sit down and watch the next act.

It’s Butterscotch’s turn. As a writer, he performs an original poem, “The View From Halfway Down,” lending the episode its title and an increasing sense of eeriness to the back half of the episode. He tries to avoid the door but it comes to him and swallows him whole.

BoJack’s panic grows, but it’s Beatrice and Crackerjack’s turn next. His uncle plays the trumpet while his mom dances. When she jumps, the camera pans up and reveals the pool is on top of them, or rather BoJack is trapped underneath it.

The metaphor is pretty clear:  the longer he stays with them, the further he gets away from his physical body, and the more trapped he is.

Crackerjack ties the ribbon around his waist like a rope and dives through the door. Moments later, the black liquid comes out and pulls Beatrice through, keeping her forever linked to her beloved brother.

Finally, Herb introduces BoJack to the stage. Instead of performing, BoJack simply walks up to the door.

"BoJack: “Is it terrifying?”Herb: “No. I don’t think so. It’s the way it is, you know? Everything must come to an end. The drip finally stops.”"

Herb sticks a hand through and the black liquid consumes Herb. Alone once again, and desperate to call Diane, BoJack runs for it as the liquid chases him through the house. The imagery turns from surreal to horrifying as the ooze consumes everything in its path–death comes for us all.

BoJack finally finds a phone to call Diane but realizes she never actually answered the phone. He went back into the pool and it’s too late.

In a moment that will mirror the final moments of the series, Dream Diane tells BoJack that none of it’s real, so he asks if they can at least stay on the phone since it doesn’t matter any way.

He talks to Diane in his subconscious as the black liquid consumes him, looking down over the bridge at his body, and a flatline beeps….

The final season of BoJack Horseman is currently streaming on Netflix.