| “ | Diane, I need you to tell me that it's not too late—I, I, I need you to tell me that I'm a good person. I know that I can be selfish and narcissistic and self-destructive, but underneath all that, deep down, I'm a good person and I need you to tell me that I'm good—Diane—tell me, please, Diane, tell me that I'm good— | ” |
Downer Ending is the eleventh episode of Season 1 of Netflix original series BoJack Horseman. Downer Ending, along with the rest of Season 1, premiered August 22, 2014.
Synopsis
BoJack embarks on a project in his typically gonzo style, leading to a drug-fueled revelation.
Plot
BoJack and Diane discuss the current status of the memoir with Pinky at his office.
Pinky expresses his satisfaction with Diane's work while imploring BoJack to let the book go to print since Pinky's publishing company is in dire straits having waited on BoJack's memoir's success.
BoJack stubbornly disavows Diane's work and states that he can write a satisfactory version himself before the publishing deadline in one week.
Back at his house, BoJack has a hard time beginning to write. He procrastinates by setting himself up with various distractions. BoJack ultimately decides to contact Sarah Lynn for recreational drugs to help jump-start the writing process. Along with Todd and Sarah Lynn, BoJack binges on the drugs and agree to split up writing the book among the three of them. The process seemingly begins well, but they soon lose sight of the task at hand.
BoJack fearfully confronts Todd again about his sabotage, and Todd tells him again that he has moved on, but has learned not to expect much from BoJack for fear of being dragged down with him. As the drug effects worsen, they begin to get violent, lose their sense of reality, and begin having extreme hallucinations.
BoJack experiences a multitude of hallucinations that explores his feelings for Diane, his fears, and a look into a life he could have had with his old friend Charlotte Moore had he left the entertainment business and moved to Maine with her. It shows they live in a secluded cabin house in the woods, and eventually have a daughter named Harper and happily watch her grow up.
BoJack awakens from the hallucination by a call from Princess Carolyn while he slept in a parking lot out in the rain during his drug trip. She tells him that his version of his memoir he sent her was mainly gibberish and unfit for publishing. BoJack acknowledges this and then goes off to find Diane.
At a small convention for ghostwriters, Diane sits at a panel to take questions from a sparse showing. BoJack shows up eventually and apologizes to Diane, saying she knows what she was doing and that he doesn't mind her version being published since he doesn't care what people think of him anymore. He only cares if Diane thinks he's a good person. He says he knew he did terrible things, but he needs to hear that deep down, he is a good person. He needs to know those things were the cause of his upbringing and terrible parents rather than himself.
However, in coming to terms with his faults and failures, BoJack asks Diane to tell him that he is still a good person inside and pleads with her to give him that sense of security. His question catches her off guard and the two stare at each other in silence, giving no answer.
Cast
| Actor | Character | |
|---|---|---|
| Will Arnett | ... | BoJack Horseman / Butterscotch Horseman |
| Amy Sedaris | ... | Princess Carolyn |
| Alison Brie | ... | Diane Nguyen |
| Aaron Paul | ... | Todd Chavez |
| Adam Conover | ... | Ethan / Guy Who Thinks Ghostwriters Write For Ghosts |
| Ken Jeong | ... | Dr. Allen Hu |
| Wendie Malick | ... | Beatrice Horseman |
| Patton Oswalt | ... | Pinky Penguin |
| Kristen Schaal | ... | Sarah Lynn / Harper / Tori Spelling Fan |
| Stanley Tucci | ... | Herb Kazzaz |
| Olivia Wilde | ... | Charlotte Moore |
Trivia
- "Downer Ending" is both a quote from the episode and a reference to how the end of the episode can be seen as a "sad" or "downer ending."
- BoJack's laptop's desktop icons are named as follows:
- HORSEDRIVE
- BOJACK FAN CLUB
- HORSIN' AROUND FAN CLUB
- "RESEARCH"
- NOT_PORN
- DEFINITELY NOT_PORN
- NOT_PORN_2
- LETTER TO EDITOR
- LETTER TO EDITOR 02
- LETTER TO MORON WHO WON'T PUBLISH MY LETTERS
- "No Love" by the Death Grips plays at several points during BoJack's drug trips.
- The "Dr. Who" referred to by Sarah Lynn from Prickly-Muffin is revealed to be a "Dr. Allen Hu," to which BoJack thought Sarah Lynn had been mentioning the character from the British television series and franchise.
- Prior to this reveal, Sarah Lynn says that Dr. Hu's drugs are "from another dimension," which is another reference to the Doctor Who TV series, which features sci-fi themes such as time travel and, occasionally, inter-dimensional travel.
- The characters' confusion about "Dr. Who" and "Dr. Hu" that ends with a simultaneous "Third base!" is a reference to the "Who's on First?" comedy routine by Abbott and Costello.
- BoJack's reference to "gremlin rules" is based off the 1984 movie Gremlins, to which Dr. Hu only warned against the first two out of three rules for taking his drugs:
- No bright light.
- Don't get [him] wet.
- Never feed him after midnight, no matter how much he begs.
- Todd's backward speech is "I'm talking backwards! Aaron Paul is dead," a reference to the Paul is Dead theory.
- The hallucination in which Diane gives BoJack advice is styled in the form of the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. More specifically, Diane parodies the role of the character Lucy giving advice from a booth.
- Drug-version Diane has Mrs. Beaversworth's syrup attached to her.
- This is the third episode in Season 1 that Mr. Peanutbutter does not appear in.
- However, he appears in BoJack’s hallucinations, including the Peanuts one where he takes the form of Snoopy.
- According to Princess Carolyn, what BoJack, Sarah Lynn, and Todd wrote on their drug-fueled binge was twenty pages of Doctor Who erotic fan-fiction, recipes of soup, five different 9/11 conspiracy theories, and embedded YouTube links that could not possibly be published in physical book format.
Gallery
