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Don't throw away your dreams for this child, don't let that man poison your life the way he did mine. You are going to finish your schooling and become a nurse. You'll meet a man, a good man and you'll have a family but please believe me you don't want this. Please Henrietta, you have to believe me. Please—don't do what I did.

Beatrice Horseman talking to Henrietta Platchkey


Introduction

Time's Arrow is the eleventh episode of Season 4 of the Netflix original series BoJack Horseman, and the 47th episode overall. It premiered on September 8, 2017, along with the rest of Season 4.

Synopsis[]

In 1963, young socialite Beatrice Sugarman meets the rebellious Butterscotch Horseman at her debutante party.

Summary[]

The episode begins towards the end of the previous episode, where BoJack is furiously driving Beatrice to a nursing home after finding out she had been putting weight loss pills in Hollyhock's coffee, which she overdosed on.

Beatrice tells BoJack, still referring to him as Henrietta, to slow down.

BoJack angrily tries to convince her that he is not Henrietta and that he is her son. She still cannot recognize him as BoJack and asks where they are going. BoJack sarcastically says they are going to a "magical place" where she will be locked up so that she can never hurt anyone ever again.

Beatrice demands him to speed up, despite what she just told him, and repeats her father's saying of “Time’s arrow neither stands still nor reverses, it merely marches forward." She asks "Isn't that right Henrietta?," and in place of BoJack is now a young brunette woman in a blue and white button-down dress with an animated black scribble over her face. She agrees with Beatrice's question.

Time's Arrow 20

Younger Beatrice with Henrietta Platchkey, the Horseman family maid

The woman hums as she drives the car as the background becomes a white void, and Beatrice is now seen as a happy, beautiful young adult. Henrietta stops the car and tells Beatrice they're here, confusing her. She looks in the rear-view mirror and sees her present-day elderly self. Disgusted, she recoils and swats the mirror away, breaking it. Beatrice steps out of the car, and is now a little girl in her school uniform. She looks up as the camera pans away from her.

Young Beatrice walks from the white void into a school playground on a grey, windy fall day. She has a bit of a cough and goes to climb up a slide's ladder, which is very tall and crooked, when a goose girl, accompanied by two human twin girls at the top, refuse to let Beatrice enter, as she claims they are an elite society of extremely young women, and she, Clemelia Bloodsworth, is the leader.

Clemelia and her two friends also call Beatrice fat and laugh at her, to which Beatrice protests she isn't and her father says she's just growing. She still tries to climb the ladder as she continues to cough, and Clemelia warns if she doesn't stop they will physically stop her. The two girls begin stepping on Beatrice's fingers, and she falls after Clemelia bites her. They continue to laugh as Beatrice starts crying.

Time’s Arrow 52

Young Beatrice being bullied at school by Clemelia Bloodsworth and her "gaggle"

The next morning, which is marked by Beatrice reading a book titled The Next Morning—Beatrice tells her father, Joseph, that she doesn't feel good, and that her throat hurts. Joseph believes she is just making it up to avoid Clemelia and her gaggle, and demands her to put her uniform on and to stop making books her friends because books build the brain, which takes away resources from the woman's breasts and hips.

But after Beatrice gets out of bed, she passes out. Joseph catches her and realizes she feels hot, then pulls down the collar of her nightgown, and to his horror, he finds a red rash on her chest, to which he replies "Dear Lord!". He quickly picks her up and rushes her to the doctor.

Time’s Arrow 89

"Say something dammit! What has become of you?!"

Later at night, Beatrice wakes up when she hears her father furiously yelling at her mother in the hallway (as the two are shown as silhouettes), that it is a mother's job to keep her children alive and she is constantly failing, and he questions how she didn't notice Beatrice had scarlet fever.

However, due to her lobotomy Honey appears to have gone catatonic and does not respond at all, even when Joseph violently shakes her.

Joseph then bitterly tells Honey he wouldn't have bothered getting her the procedure if he had known she would act like this afterward. He then goes to check on Beatrice after she calls him, as she appears frightened by the events in the hallway.

Beatrice asks if she's going to die, to which her father replies that one day she will, but for now she is fine, and he even shows optimism that her throat being nearly swollen shut could help her lose some weight.

Beatrice is now a young adult in the year 1963, and a female maid is trying to tighten her corset as she is getting ready for her debutante ball. As the maid goes to get a glass of water and a “pretty pill” at Beatrice's request, Joseph enters the bedroom and tells his daughter she looks well and says her party is very important - rather than end "nonsense" Beatrice is concerned about like poverty, war, injustice, or the civil rights movement, it will instead land her a husband. Beatrice at least takes solace in the fact that Medgar Evers's death means the FBI is on high alert so no one else will be assassinated that year.


S4E11 Corbin arrives to Beatrice

Beatrice at her debutante ball with her chaperone and potential suitor, Corbin Creamerman

Joseph changes the subject and talks about her chaperone, Corbin Creamerman. It cuts to Corbin at the ball awkwardly making his way through the crowd (who all have blank faces) trying to bring a glass of champagne to Beatrice. Corbin is an awkward and shy gentleman, who struggles to make conversation with Beatrice, which he awkwardly admits to not being good at, and tells her she looks nice multiple times, which doesn’t impress her.

As she takes a sip of her champagne, she glitches back to earlier her in her bedroom with her father when she was still getting ready, and her champagne is now her water glass. Her father is explaining that Corbin's father, Mort, is the owner of Creamerman's Creamy Cream-Based Commodities, which offends Beatrice that he's marrying her off so it will be good for business. Joseph thinks a Sugarman and Creamerman will be advantageous, he even came up with a potential jingle for their partnership and tells Beatrice she could have a lot of free ice cream...to give away.

Time’s Arrow 154

Beatrice displeased with her father

Beatrice tells her father common Americans don't want to see him on their TVs because he's a reminder of the unequal distribution of wealth, claiming ”poor people find that dreadfully gauche”. Joseph in return announces his disappointment that he sent her to Barnard to get her MRS "from a fine upstanding Columbia man", but instead, she returned with a bachelor's degree and a mouth full of sass. He scoffs ”What a waste” and storms out of the room, and Beatrice sighs in annoyance. We hear Corbin tell her that she looks nice again, and Beatrice is seen back to later in the night at her ball, and she thanks him.

A now grown-up Clemelia Bloodsworth approaches Beatrice with her partner, and the two speak to each other condescendingly. Clemelia, in a smug manner, expresses how great it is that Beatrice is finally debuting—and comments on how it's “better late than never." Beatrice replies she's only doing it for her father's old-fashioned views on women and pities Corbin for having to chaperone, although the latter tries to claim he does not feel that way, and thinks these parties are “garish, self-serving wastes of money. She tells Clemilia her ball must have been particularly horrendous. Clemelia spits out her drink offended and storms off, finding her comments "repugnant."

Beatrice glitches to the bar, to her confusion, and she orders a scotch on the rocks. A young, suave male horse eating an apple glitches and appears by her—and Beatrice questions if she knows him. He says he's just crashing some dumb debutante's party. She in return asks if he's talking about the party or the debutante because she'll either agree with him or will be offended. The horse is embarrassed to realize she's the “dumb debutante." Beatrice introduces herself and welcomes him to her "dumb party." The young horse introduces himself as Butterscotch Horseman.

Time’s Arrow 207

Beatrice meets Butterscotch Horseman

Butterscotch explains he crashed the party for the free alcohol because he's saving for California, so he can join the beatniks such as Ginsburg, Cassidy, and Squirrellengetty, whom Butterscotch thinks are the greatest minds of their generation, and he thinks he's one of them too. He boastfully tells Beatrice he's writing the next great American novel.

However, he only has a vague idea about it, as he claims it's about truth, war, and the twilighting frontier of the lives that were promised us—but admits he does not yet have characters or a plot developed when Beatrice asks him about them, claiming he never said he had the whole thing figured out. Beatrice makes fun of his book idea, sarcastically says it sounds like a best seller.

Butterscotch in return jokes about how she won’t be able to get a husband at her own ball with a sarcastic personality like hers, to which Beatrice compares to how her father feels. As Butterscotch gives her one of his cigarettes he teases about her disapproving father and her rich lifestyle. They laugh, and Beatrice admits he teased her as well as she teased him.

Butterscotch teasingly asks what must her mother think of her. Beatrice solemnly says she doesn't think much, and it quickly glitches to a silhouette of Honey with her lobotomy scar highlighted in white, and then back to Beatrice who continues her sentence by saying her mother doesn't think about anything anymore.

Mom Lobotomy

Butterscotch apologizes and asks if she passed. She says, “No, not exactly." Butterscotch admits his mother died, and Beatrice says she’s sorry to hear that. He tells Beatrice he was little when she died, so he doesn't really remember her, although he does remember she had a Diamond just like hers, he saw it in a picture once, and strokes Beatrice's diamond a bit as he says this. Beatrice looks flattered, but then suddenly she hears someone say “Yes, this is my mother."

Time’s Arrow 272

Current events affecting Beatrice’s memory

To Beatrice's shock and confusion, what is happening presently is affecting her memories, as BoJack and a nurse are next to her in place of Butterscotch, and BoJack is talking to the nurse to check Beatrice into the crappy nursing home. Beatrice puts her hand on her head in confusion.

Corbin then appears and awkwardly tells her it's time for her to be presented. Beatrice excuses herself from her and Butterscotch's conversation. An announcer introduces Joseph and Honey presenting their daughter, Beatrice, and her chaperone, Corbin. Beatrice is in the spotlight with Corbin with her father standing outside of it (for a few seconds he is seen pulling Honey, still obscured by darkness, next to him).

S4E11 Joseph pulls Honey next to him

Beatrice being presented. Honey appears briefly mostly obscured by darkness

Beatrice then begins to perform as if she were in a horse competition, jumping over hurdles and trotting as the announcer comments on how gracefully she does it and her good form, she even blows like a real horse at one point.

As Beatrice ends her performance and curtsies, she sees Butterscotch exiting. She runs out to him in the parking lot, telling him it's rude to leave without saying goodbye to the hostess. Butterscotch invites her to leave with him, to which Beatrice scoffs at the idea of leaving her own party with the lowlife who wasn't even invited. Butterscotch then bates her with a dare she can't refuse, saying “Yeah. But I suppose Daddy wouldn’t like that would he?” Beatrice leaves with Butterscotch and the two have sex at a lookout point in his car.

Two weeks later, which is again marked by the title of the book Beatrice is reading, Joseph enters Beatrice's room and announces Corbin is here to take her on a Sunday stroll. An irritated Beatrice insists she is not interested in him.

Joseph snaps and angrily slams the door, says he does not give a damn what she wants. He is mad that Beatrice ditched her own party, and admits he would marry her off to literally anyone at this point, saying he would put jellied beans in a jar and marry her off to the man who can closest estimate the amount. He demands that she accept this second chance with Corbin and be civil to him, to Beatrice's irritation.

On their stroll through the park, Corbin bores her with him talking about his company's products, and the colors around them are grey and dulled. He feels bad about boring her and says he just gets excited about food chemistry and explains you take a thing you thought you knew and discover there's so much more to it than you possibly could have imagined, "like magic", which does capture Beatrice's interest.

Corbin reveals his father does not feel the same way and only cares about the money. He is upset that he cannot be any more than what his father wants him to be, which is similar to Beatrice's relationship with her own father. Beatrice is able to connect with Corbin through this, and the color around them becomes bright and normal again. Corbin even takes his glasses off to reveal he has big, beautiful blue eyes. Beatrice begins to tell Corbin that maybe they aren’t so different...and then she suddenly throws up on the ground and then onto him, which causes him to scream.

Beatrice nervously paces back in forth in front of a set of lower class apartments. When she is about to give up, Butterscotch, taking out his garbage, sees Beatrice and asks what she's doing here. She says she had to look him up in the phone book because the number he gave her was for a pizza parlor in Brownsburgh. Butterscotch sheepishly tries to deny this. Beatrice then drops the bombshell: she's pregnant.

A shocked Butterscotch asks if she's sure it's his, to which Beatrice replies “Well who else’s could it be?!” Butterscotch starts to panic and asks, or rather implies if she could get an abortion: he’ll even do the gentlemanly thing and pay for the cab fare.

As the camera focuses on Beatrice, the scene suddenly changes to a baby horse doll burning in a fireplace. It changes back to Beatrice, and she says she cannot, to which Butterscotch replies that doesn't give them a lot of options. Beatrice declares herself a ruined woman, which Butterscotch tries to deny, telling her she looks more beautiful than ever, and the two then both admit they did have a pretty great night together.

Time's Arrow 434

Beatrice and Butterscotch narrate their possible future together

As a metaphor for the two of them and their possible future together, Butterscotch tells Beatrice the story of a couple who moved to San Francisco, saying they hardly knew each other, but had a lot in common, and moved west to a town that could accommodate three horses.

Beatrice says she does know this story, and the two begin to narrate what their future could be: They'll buy a house in San Francisco, Butterscotch will get with the beatniks and write his great American novel, and Beatrice will care for the baby and marry Butterscotch, if, as Butterscotch says, “a beautiful creature like herself could love an oaf like him." Beatrice agrees, asking “Well isn’t that how the story goes?” The two passionately share a kiss.

A montage of four photos is seen as Bob Kelly’s Love Really Happened to Me plays. The photos show Butterscotch and a pregnant Beatrice leaving town, arriving in San Francisco, and getting happily married.

The montage ends with baby BoJack crying in his crib in the middle of the night. Beatrice, who is in bed with Butterscotch, tries to quiet him by rocking the crib, which is at the front of the bed, with her foot. Butterscotch angrily tells her to quiet the baby, because if he can’t sleep he won’t be able to work to support them and write his novel. Beatrice laments that if anyone wanted to pay him for what he wrote, he could afford her a nanny and a maid.

Butterscotch is revealed to have been rejected by the beatniks he admired, and as a result has turned against them and his past ideals, calling them "Comme-Liberal-Jew loving rejects." He works at a fish cannery for low income, despite numerous offers for a cushy office job for Beatrice’s father. When Beatrice angrily questions why he won’t take the job for her father, Butterscotch angrily compares working for her father and getting paid for it to slavery (to which Beatrice shouts is the opposite of slavery).

Time's Arrow 499

Beatrice and Butterscotch's honeymoon phase comes to an end as the realities of parenting quickly cause their shot-gun marriage to crumble

Baby BoJack cries throughout all of this and Beatrice begs him to be quiet. Butterscotch angrily tells her, “You wanted that baby. Never forget that," and he goes back to bed. Beatrice, desperate for quiet, takes a cocktail of pills with water that were on her nightstand. She becomes woozy and disoriented as she walks over to the crib, and in her familiar spiteful voice she tells baby BoJack, “You better be worth all this.

Well you’re not," Beatrice, smoking, as usual, says to BoJack, six years later, as the two sit on the couch in their shabby looking living room. BoJack, who was previously playing with some string, is confused by what she means by this, to which his now jaded, bitter mother replies she's tired and demands that he tell her a story, but as he begins this she shuts him up again because his father is home.

Butterscotch storms in as Beatrice condescendingly asks how work was, to which he replies was awful. Beatrice says she burned dinner again, and she goes on a rant about Butterscotch's never-ending novel, their “simple” and “filthy” child, and their low income, working-class lifestyle, ending it with proclaiming they'll all “keep waltzing through this goddamn proletariat dream."

Butterscotch angrily claims if the baby wasn't crying all the time he could finish his novel, although BoJack is now six and he even says this to defend himself, pointing out that he can now speak in complete sentences.

Butterscotch shouts that he can't live like this, and Beatrice shouts back she should have married Corbin Creamerman because he would have been kind to her and would stop being a stubborn ass and take a good job for her father's company. Butterscotch angrily agrees to take the job and claims it's her fault if his book ends up bad because he can no longer remember what it's like to be working class. He storms out and slams the door. After he does, Beatrice smiles as she realizes they're going to become wealthier.

A montage occurs to show the next twenty-nine years. It shows Beatrice using the family's new wealth through Butterscotch's new job to slowly and slowly remodel the living room. BoJack grows up and leaves for Los Angeles, Beatrice and Butterscotch growing older, and Beatrice firing a few maids. Beatrice and Butterscotch continue to have the same arguments as before as if "time itself has stood still."

The montage ends in 1999 with Beatrice telling her maid, Henrietta, seen at the beginning of the episode, to lift a painting for her, as she wants to give it to BoJack. Henrietta turns around to reveal her face is still concealed by a violent black scribble. She is revealed to be a pleasant, naive young woman—as she cheerfully says she loves paintings, they're like TV without all the talking and music. Butterscotch enters the living room and declares his disgust for the painting.

Time's Arrow 618

Beatrice and Butterscotch in 1999 with their maid Henrietta and a painting from the recently deceased Joseph Sugarman

Beatrice reveals it was her father's, and it quickly flashes to Beatrice standing by Joseph's opened casket at his funeral. Butterscotch still voices his disdain for it, saying art should be straightforward and utilitarian, like his novel. Henrietta cheerfully says she can't wait to read it. She loves books because the words tell stories.

Beatrice is annoyed by her and demands that she move the painting, saying she shouldn't have to tell her twice. Butterscotch tells Beatrice she could be nicer to her. Beatrice bitterly says no one is ever nice to her, and that he's only asking her that because he likes Henrietta for making him feel like a “big smart man," saying things not worthy of conversation and letting him help her study for nursing school, during which time Beatrice can hear him flirting with her when he's supposedly working on his novel.

She suspects Henrietta is falling in love with him, for being such a "sensitive misunderstood artist", and says she'll be disappointed.

The scene glitches to Beatrice with the painting at BoJack's house in L.A. BoJack questions why she and Butterscotch won't just get a divorce. Beatrice says that's just the Hollywood way, and when she lists off petty reasons why people get divorced, such as running out of mustard and feeling a little sad, she ends up describing her own situation with Butterscotch, which BoJack points out actually is a legitimate reason to get a divorce.

S4E11 Beatrice and BoJack 1999

Beatrice delivering the painting to BoJack

Beatrice retorts “Well who else would have me now, after what you did to my body?," which BoJack retorts back “What I did?". She asks if he wants the painting, saying it belonged to his grandfather—who she claims was “a man who knew what marriage was,” as we see the earlier scene of Joseph shaking his lobotomized wife back and forth. BoJack agrees to take it, and Beatrice angrily says all he does is take. BoJack, deadpan, asks how long she's staying, she replies to just pour her some wine and she'll be on her way.

As he does this, revealing his fridge to be depicted of being full of lemons and sugar, Beatrice tells him she heard his show was canceled, although BoJack points out that it's actually been three years since the network pulled the plug on Horsin' Around. Beatrice says she never saw the appeal of those “silly stories”, since they never did her any good, and that it just depresses her that she made so many sacrifices so that he could do that. BoJack just blankly thanks her for the painting and sarcastically says he'll always have something to remind him of this conversation before he starts to drink from the bottle of wine.

The camera focuses on Beatrice as she slowly inhales from her cigarette. A few scenes that have a red filter over them flash by as she does this: a burning baby horse doll, the lake house where it is raining, back to her smoking, Honey after her lobotomy trying to play the piano, her young adult self yelling in pain as she is about to give birth, a fire in a fireplace, back to her smoking, her little girl self falling off the slide, the fireplace again, and then back to Beatrice smoking. She blows out smoke which fills the screen and ends the scene.

Several months later, now in the year of 2000, Beatrice is reading as Butterscotch comes in the room looking guilty. He reveals that he got Henrietta pregnant and he can't talk her out of having the baby. He asks if she could do it for him. She angrily questions what she wants her to do, to which Butterscotch says it isn't easy for him to grovel to his own wife hat in hand, as a hat glitches into his hand.

He tries to blame Beatrice for not doing her "wifely duties;" Beatrice angrily deflects this back, saying “Don’t you dare." Butterscotch apologizes sitting on the sofa in defeat and pleads with her to fix this for him as he breaks down crying, much to the shock of Beatrice. Butterscotch then says to her “I know you hate me Bea, but please just think of the poor girl." Beatrice reluctantly agrees.

Beatrice and Henrietta sit in the kitchen. Beatrice tells Henrietta that, of course, she's fired. Henrietta tries to apologize, explaining how Butterscotch was so kind to her. Beatrice cuts her off and says “Let me guess, he said you reminded him of his dead mother." Henrietta reveals he told her his mother had hair like hers, he "saw it in a picture once." Which was very similar to how he flirted with Beatrice when they first met long ago. Beatrice asks Henrietta if she really wants this baby, and Henrietta says she thinks she does and shows her the ultrasound, revealing it's a female horse.

The whole situation puts Henrietta in a tough spot as she wants to go to school for nursing, but tuition keeps going up so she needs a job. She believes if she has a job and graduates everything will be OK.

Beatrice bluntly gives Henrietta a heavy dose of reality by asking her who's going to watch the baby while she's working because Butterscotch certainly won't. Henrietta starts crying, saying she doesn't know what else to do. Feeling sympathy for her, Beatrice agrees to help pay the tuition on the condition that Henrietta puts the baby up for adoption. Henrietta objects to the latter part.

Beatrice then tells Henrietta that she thinks this is what she wants, but she's wrong. Henrietta tries to say something but Beatrice continues by telling her not to throw away her dreams for the baby and ultimately let Butterscotch ruin her life the way he did hers. Beatrice tells Henrietta that she's going to finish college and get a job as a nurse, meet a good man, and ultimately have a family but her current route isn't the one she wants. Beatrice ends by pleading with Henrietta not to make the same mistake she did when she was young with her voice cracking a bit at the end. Henrietta agrees reluctantly through a tearful whimper, as she is young, scared, confused, and naive at the time.

Months later, on September 24, 2000, Beatrice is with Henrietta in the hospital while she’s in labor, holding her hand as she does it. The camera then goes to the left to reveal a flashback of a young Beatrice in the hospital also in labor, although besides the hospital staff she is alone. It then cuts to another flashback of Beatrice as a little girl sleeping as a servant takes her doll from her. She wakes up and questions where her baby is.

It goes back to Beatrice giving birth to BoJack, and then Henrietta giving birth to her baby, who turns out to be Hollyhock, revealing her biological mother and father. Young Beatrice finds her doll in a box along with her other belongings and she hugs it in relief. Beatrice and Butterscotch look at their newborn lovingly. Beatrice smiles and tells Henrietta she did it, much to her relief.

Young Beatrice hugs her doll and hums to it, but she stops when she sees the servers taking her other belongings. To her horror, they are throwing them into her fireplace. She starts sobbing and begging them to stop. Her father approaches her and says, “Beatrice remember what we say about crying...crying is stupid!” He then tells her they must burn her things for her own good, as her sickness has infected everything.

It goes back to Beatrice telling Henrietta the hard part is over and takes the baby from the nurse. Henrietta begs to hold her baby, but Beatrice refuses, saying she'll get attached and this is for her own good.

Beatrice is shown as a little girl again not wanting her doll to be burned, but Joseph cheerfully says “Oh yes, especially your baby!” He then takes her doll from her and callously tosses it into the fire. Beatrice is both horrified and traumatized and starts screaming and crying for her baby. This is juxtaposed with Henrietta pleading Beatrice to let her hold her baby as she walks away with it.

Henrietta screams in agony and cries as the scribble on her face proceeds to fill up the whole screen and then shrinks again to see young Beatrice crying again, now with fire surrounding the entire background. Her father calmly tells her to be strong and that she can't let her womanly emotions consume her.

He asks, “You don’t want to end up like your mother now, do you?” As he says this, a shadow of Honey approaches behind him with her lobotomy scar highlighted in white, and Joseph's ears somewhat resemble devil horns, hinting that he might do to her the same thing he did to Honey, and further showing the monster he was. Beatrice replies, “no” and her father assures her that one day this will "all be a pleasant memory."

Burning

Beatrice's flashbacks end as the final scene of the last episode is shown, where BoJack drops her off at her new, crumbling room. Just as BoJack is about to leave, Beatrice starts to recognize him, to his shock. Beatrice is confused and frightened by her surroundings, and BoJack bluntly tells her that this is where she lives now.

Beatrice does not believe this and asks again where she is. BoJack starts to tell her again where she is and presumably give her his planned “Fuck you mom” speech, but he hesitates for a bit and says she's in Michigan, at the lake house. He then goes on to narrate a pleasant scenario at the lake house, which pleases his mother:

BoJack: And it's..uh.. a warm summer night, and the fireflies are dancing in the sky, and....your whole family is here...and they're telling you that everything is gonna be alright.

Beatrice: Yes, that's right. What else?

BoJack: The crickets are chirping, and the lake is still, and the night is full of stars.

Beatrice: I can see it, it's so clear! Wh...What are we doing here, BoJack?

BoJack: We're sitting on the back porch, and we're listening to your brother play the piano, and we're eating ice cream. Vanilla ice cream.

Beatrice: Yes, that's right! Oh, it's all so marvelous!

BoJack asks his mother if she can taste the ice cream. Beatrice's smile fades as she responds to this, as she never got to have ice cream, so she lies and says “Oh BoJack, it’s so....delicious."

Cast[]

Actor Character
Wendie Malick ... Beatrice Horseman
Will Arnett ... BoJack Horseman / Butterscotch Horseman
Matthew Broderick ... Joseph Sugarman
Majandra Delfino ... Henrietta Platchkey
David Walton ... Corbin Creamerman
Natasha Rothwell ... Clemelia Bloodsworth

Trivia[]

  • For the first five seasons, the 11th episode of the season is very significant and is usually very bad for BoJack. This is the first significant episode that is not centered around BoJack, instead, it is centered around Beatrice Horseman, and we learn about her troubled childhood, her pressurized debutante ball, and how she met Butterscotch Horseman and BoJack's childhood. In this episode, the existence of Henrietta Platchkey is revealed, who was temporarily the Horseman family's housemaid until she was fired for getting pregnant with Butterscotch's child and gives birth to Hollyhock. Due to her dementia, she calls BoJack "Henrietta" until she recognizes him in the same episode.
    • In Downer Ending, BoJack goes on a frenzy trying to get closure from Diane, which ends up ruining their relationship temporarily.
    • In Escape from L.A., BoJack reconnects with his old friend Charlotte in Tesuque, New Mexico and he becomes very close to her and the rest of the Carsons over the two months BoJack lives with them. But in the end, BoJack kisses Charlotte and tries to elope with her. She pushes him away telling him to leave as he makes her too sad. He leaves to his boat, and Penny follows him. Charlotte sees a glowing balloon floating and follows it and goes onto the boat, she opens the door to BoJack's room and sees Penny is about to sleep with BoJack. Charlotte says "If you are not out of my driveway in thirty minutes I will call the police, and if you ever try to contact me, or my family again, I will fucking kill you [BoJack]."
    • In That's Too Much, Man!, BoJack and Sarah Lynn go on a month-long bender trying to make "amends" for people they hurt. They visit Princess Carolyn, Ana Spanakopita, Diane, Mr. Peanutbutter, and Penny before going to Sarah Lynn's favorite place, Griffith Park Observatory, where they stare into the planetarium sky as Sarah Lynn lies on BoJack's shoulders, she overdoses on BoJack's heroin and dies.
      • Although it is worth noting that in Xerox of a Xerox, it is revealed by Biscuits Braxby that Sarah Lynn did not actually die resting her head on BoJack's shoulder that night, due to BoJack waiting seventeen minutes to call for medical help, she died at the hospital.
    • In The Showstopper, BoJack strangles Gina Cazador, his co-star on Philbert in a drug-induced rage, which leaves her cutting all ties with him.
  • This episode has received much acclaim from many critics. According to The Polygon, this episode is considered "The best animated episode of 2017."
  • In February 2018, Time's Arrow won the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Animation at the 70th WGA Awards.
  • This is the first of three episodes where only one of the main characters speaks:
  • Throughout Beatrice’s flashbacks, certain details are messed up due to her dementia:
    • Background characters have no faces, as Beatrice does not remember them since they're not important.
    • Characters who Beatrice doesn’t want to remember have their faces scribbled out, such as Henrietta and the maids and servants who burned her belongings as a child at the order of her father.
    • Honey Sugarman, her mother, is only seen in silhouettes or shadows, sometimes with her lobotomy scar highlighted in white. This represents that the lobotomy left her a shadow of her former self, and likely that Honey represents what Beatrice was afraid of becoming.
    • Signs glitch and change in the background:
      • The Hollywood sign in the 1999 flashback changes from “Hollwoo” to “Hollywood” after Beatrice says “Oh sure, that’s the Hollywood way,” as the “D” from the Hollywood sign was not stolen until 2014.
      • When Beatrice leaves her debutante ball to catch up with Butterscotch in the parking lot, the hotel sign glitches and changes twice.
    • When Butterscotch throws his apple away, and later his cigarette, they both make a glass breaking noise.
    • When Butterscotch slams the door off-screen when he arrives home from work in 1970, the wallpaper behind Beatrice and young BoJack shakes.
    • The slide young Beatrice tries to climb up at her school’s playground is very tall and crooked.
    • When young Beatrice cries for her baby doll and her father tells her to not let her emotions consume her, they are surrounded by fire.
    • More recent memories tend to have foggy or distorted backgrounds, as with dementia newer memories fade before older ones.
    • Butterscotch's hat glitches into his previously-bare hands when he describes himself as begging, "hat in hand."
    • In some scenes, the family portrait in Beatrice's living room continuously crossfades back-and-forth between the portrait of herself, Butterscotch, and young BoJack (which would've been the portrait that was actually displayed in that time and place), and the much older family portrait that was seen in the Sugarman summer home.
  • This episode reveals that Hollyhock's real father is actually Butterscotch, thus making BoJack her paternal half-brother.
    • This also reveals Henrietta, the name Beatrice kept calling BoJack, was a former maid for the Horseman's, and she is Hollyhock's mother.
  • It is revealed in this episode that BoJack was born and grew up in San Francisco, California.
  • This episode reveals how Beatrice and Butterscotch met.
  • It is revealed Joseph passed away sometime in 1999.
  • This is Beatrice's last appearance in the present day, she dies in October 2018 shortly before Free Churro. Her last major appearance would be in BoJack's dream in The View From Halfway Down.
  • It’s revealed Beatrice got a bachelor's degree from Barnard University, although her father only sent her there to get an MRS degree, which was slang during that period meaning a young woman who went to university solely to find a husband. At this point in time women still had limited opportunities and they were not encouraged to pursue university for furthering their education or careers.
  • It is strongly implied Honey went catatonic shortly after her lobotomy, as she shows no response or emotion when Joseph yells at her and shakes her, and later he has to pull her next to him.
  • Some time skips are marked by Beatrice reading books with the titles saying how much time has passed (The Next Morning, Two Weeks Later, Several Months Later).
  • When Beatrice vomits on Corbin while walking in the park, his screams mimics the goat in the viral video Screaming Goat'.
  • The painting from Joseph that Beatrice gives to BoJack is destroyed by Sarah Lynn in Prickly-Muffin, when she has holes drilled into the wall for a cocaine booth/sex closet.
  • In the flashback to Beatrice giving BoJack the painting in 1999, when he grabs a bottle of wine from the fridge we see that it is full of lemons and sugar. As a child, Beatrice was told to eat lemon wedges sprinkled with sugar in place of ice cream, as her mother Honey mentioned in ”The Old Sugarman Place” ice cream was a boys' food and lemon wedges with a bit of sugar sprinkled on them were a good healthy girls snack, further emphasizing how much the misogynistic ideals implemented into her mindset at a young age shaped her.
  • At her debutante, Beatrice “performs” to Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers.
    • This is the first time Beatrice's talent for dancing is shown. BoJack later mentions it in Free Churro, while also implying she wore the same beautiful white ball gown from her debutante, and she is seen dancing in The View From Halfway Down.
  • Part of "La Foret" by Primas Stefan And His Royal Tziganes plays during the twenty-nine year montage of Beatrice redecorating the living room after Butterscotch's new job.
  • "Lovers Land" by Margaret Lewis plays in the background during the scene when Beatrice meets Butterscotch.
  • "Mmm Love" by Bob Kelly plays in the background during the scene of Beatrice's debutante ball where Corbin tries to talk to her and when she insults Clemelia.
  • "Love Really Happened To Me" by Bob Kelly plays during the photo montage of Butterscotch and a pregnant Beatrice leaving for and arriving in San Francisco and getting married.
  • There is a Martin Amis novel titled Time's Arrow.
  • Before Butterscotch gets a job from Beatrice's father, their living room has a horse version of the Margaret Keane painting "Happy Mask, Unhappy Boy."
    Time's Arrow 583

    Horse parody of Margaret Keane painting

    • Margaret Keane's husband took credit for her artwork in the 60s. The two of them and Beatrice and Butterscotch had troubled relationships with each other, and the title and imagery "Happy Mask, Unhappy Boy" may be an allusion to BoJack's abusive childhood, as the boy is sad and has tears in his eyes as he holds a happy mask next to him.
  • Butterscotch mentions beatnik writers Ginsberg, Cassidy, and "Squirrelinghetti," a reference to Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassidy, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
  • Butterscotch gives Beatrice a number for a "Pizza parlor in Brownsburg" after their one night stand, mirroring the running joke in both Commence Fracking and Thoughts and Prayers of BoJack giving people he doesn’t want to speak to again, such as one night stands and the nursing home his mother stayed at, the number of a sandwich shop in Temecula.
  • It is revealed Butterscotch worked at a fish cannery after BoJack was born, and later worked a desk job for Sugarman West when BoJack was six.
  • When Beatrice visits BoJack in 1999 he mentions having a date with Tanya Harding, calling back to her being one of his many one night stands circa December 1999 as revealed in Commence Fracking.
  • Its revealed Beatrice drugged Hollyhock with weight loss supplements due to her own lifelong body image issues stemming from being bullied for her weight at school and her father, along with the society and time period in general, further pressuring her to stay thin.
    • When she is getting ready for her debutante Beatrice asks her maid, who is trying to tighten her corset, to get her a "pretty pill," implied to relate with weight loss, revealing Beatrice took weight loss supplements herself in her youth. The original script has Joseph call them appetite suppressants.
    • This also explains why Beatrice was fixated on her image as she got older and believed having BoJack ruined her beauty and figure. Later in the episode in 1999 after BoJack tells his mother she has legitimat reasons to divorce Buttersvotch she says ”Well who else would have me now? After what you did to my body?”. Additionally in a flashback to 1973 in the Season 2 episode ”Brand New Couch” Beatrice told young BoJack she was beautiful before she got pregnant, and that he ”ruined her” - BoJack timidly replied ”I know” implying this isn't the first time she's told him things like that.
  • Beatrice mentions Medgar Evers was shot that week while she is getting ready for her debutante, placing her debutante around June 12.
    • She hopes that the FBI being on high alert means no one else will be assassinated that year, 1963. This is an allusion to the Kennedy assasination, which would take place in November of that year.
      • Joseph even seems to be aware of this.
    • This may contradict BoJack's birth, as he was born January 2nd, meaning Beatrice's pregnancy only lasted about six months and three weeks - it has not been established in the show if horses' gestation period is nine months like humans or eleven to twelve months like normal horses.
      • This could be excused by Beatrice's dementia confusing the dates, in that case her debutante would've been held sometime in April, or that BoJack was born premature.
  • This episode features the last appearances of Joseph Sugarman and Honey Sugarman through flashbacks.
  • It also features the only appearances Corbin Creamerman, Clemelia Bloodsworth, and Henrietta Platchkey through flashbacks.
  • Beatrice's full name is revealed to be "Beatrice Elizabeth Horseman (née Sugarman)."
  • Henrietta and Beatrice are shown being in labor juxtaposing their situations—both of them were impregnated by Butterscotch, and Henrietta is accompanied by Beatrice holding her hand, while Beatrice is alone, due to the fact it was not customary for the father or anyone else to be in the delivery room at that time.
  • The original script had several notable differences
    • Beatrice is stated to be 7 in 1947 and 23 in 1963, setting her birth year in 1940, when later on Free Churro confirms she was born in 1938
    • Beatrice originally walked in on Butterscotch and Henrietta having sex in the living roo,, after returning from BoJack's house. There she fires Henrietta with the same line she uses in the episode, "You're fired, of course", but then also says to first clean the mess up.
      • After this is when the scene of her smoking a cigarette in one long drag while her traumatic memories flash by initially was.
    • Beatrice originally talked to Henrietta at a restaurant instead of at the kitchen table. While there it’s mentioned Henrietta at this point is visuably pregnant, whereas in the episode she does not appear to showing. She would have been at least 18-24 weeks along in both versions as she knew the gender of the baby by that point.
    • BoJack didn’t mention Crackerjack when lying to Beatrice that they were at the lakehouse, instead saying they were listening to the radio
    • Beatrice did not throw up on Corbin, rather she kept throwing up and he, as usual, sheepishly apologized thinking he was the problem.
    • Clemilia's date was originally her husband, a Swedish man named Jan Bronson who was the heir to a furniture factory who made beds from horse hair. He also talked, only saying the lines "If I’m to be honest, yes" or "I should not be so honest". The script notes he says this "Swedish-y".
      • She mentions she attended Beatrice's debutante in the first place because their fathers are both affiliated with the same fraternal society, the Indianapolis Ooga-Boogas.
    • Clemilia is also mentioned to be 23, it’s unknown if this would’ve been changed with Beatrice's changed birth date.
    • Corbin is said to be 24, and Joseph is mentioned to be in his 50s in 1963, setting his birth year earliest at 1904. It’s unknown if these are still canon.
    • Joseph originally told Beatrice about marrying her off to Corbin right after the conversation they had when he initially entered her bedroom, rather than the scene of Beatrice and Corbin at her debutante being shown after the latter, then Beatrice’s memory glitching back to the scene of her in her bedroom with Joseph.
    • The scenes with Beatrice taking away Hollyhock from Henrietta and Joseph burning Beatrice's doll were initially not intertwined with each other. Rather the latter was shown after the former.

Intro Differences[]

  • Hollyhock, Beatrice, and Tina no longer appear in BoJack's house, but Beatrice's belongings by the TV and kitchen still remain, and so does Hollyhock's carrot pillow on BoJack's couch.
  • The collection of Hollyhock's pictures with her dads has been taken down, leaving bits of sticky tape on the deck window where the photos were previously.
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