6x11 Sunk Cost and All That

[7.3/10] Let’s start with the most important thing. I like that BoJack struggles with (a.) what bad thing some reporter might be trying to build a story around and (b.) whether to fess up to what happened with Sarah Lynn. With that, the show taps into what I consider the theme of this season, at least so far, which is reconciling the differences between the person you’ve become who means to do and be good in this world, and the person you were who’s caused untold harm and mostly managed to get away with it.

BoJack isn’t sure whether to try to wipe all of this under the rug so that he can enjoy the hard-won new life that he’s made for himself, or whether to face the music so that he can take responsibility for bad things he’s done rather than sidestepping them like he always has. The new BoJack would accept the consequences of his actions, but that also means sacrificing the “lifeline” that this job and this new chapter of his story has given to him. That’s an elemental struggle and worth the cost of admission.

But then there’s the Mr. PB/Pickles/Joey Pogo part of the episode, and it’s a drag. There’s a good impulse there. The idea that despite being kind of a drip and some initial friction, Joey is more Pickles’s speed, even if she doesn't realize it, is a decent one. And the metaphor for there being real compromise and connection via the small plates/lazy susan combo, while Mr. PB’s face on the menu is a figurative superfluous detail, has some staying power. The problem is that it’s not particularly interesting, and the whole constructed love triangle deal has felt like a misfire from the start.

Look, there’s something meaningful in Mr. PB being sad, realizing all of this, and sending Pickles off to become Joey’s social media manager despite the fact that he knows he’s losing her. There’s also something amusing about his continued blithe cheerfulness while he unwittingly gives away the dirt that will ruin BoJack’s life. But it’s just not as funny or attention-keeping as the other material going on in the episode. The good news is that maybe, hopefully, this all but wraps up this particular plot.

The same goes for Paige and Max. The show at least wrings some minor romantic tension out of this whole His Girl Friday spoof, with Max and Paige arguing about what’s happening in Mr. PB’s relationship when they’re really talking about theirs. At the same time, there’s a decent idea in the two arguing about focusing on the Sarah Lynn angle vs. connecting it to a bigger pattern. But it doesn't really go anywhere and trying to tack on some real meaning to it at the end doesn't really work when it’s been played for laughs for four episodes straight.

Still, once we get back to the Bojack material, business really picks up. The show puts BoJack in the room with his three closest friends, the one who’ve been there since the beginning -- Todd, Diane, and Princess Carolyn -- and one-by-one sends them out of BoJack’s office. There’s a metaphor there to, to the idea that this office represents the plane that Diane talks about, one where BoJack can be the person he always wanted to, but that it’s leaving and everyone is going to jump off sooner or later.

So Todd jumps off when he realizes that BoJack is minimizing his harms to others and trying not to own up to them, something that’s been a wedge between them before. Diane jumps off when she refuses to be a part of him spinning this as something other than acceptance of responsibility. Princess Carolyn doesn't want to jump off, and talks about him as her great love story, one she wants to tell her daughter has a happy ending, but eventually steps away when BoJack tells her he doesn't want her “wriggling out of this” skills and thinks the happy ending might be letting him go.

And eventually, BoJack himself walks away, leaving us with the empty room, that represents the popped dream bubble that was BoJack’s life for this semester. There’s real pathos in his speech to his students, telling them to savor this. He knows better than anyone how quickly that joy and glory can go away.

That feels right. BoJack is, in some way, rewarded for the progress that he’s made, for the better person he’s become. He gets this year or six months or however long (it’s not especially clear), to bask in doing something well, to helping people, to being at a sort of peace. But eventually, he still has to leave that behind and face the repercussions of the horrible actions that led him to the wake up call and the path to recovery.

That means choosing the hard parts of new BoJack’s life, the parts that don’t just mean turning a corner, but facing your misdeeds and trying to make amends rather than half-hearted non-apologies. It’s a tough choice, like the ones in all great stories, and only time will tell whether his can still be one with a happy ending.