The View from Halfway Down
"The View from Halfway Down" is the fifteenth episode of the sixth season of the American animated comedy-drama series BoJack Horseman. The penultimate episode of the series, it was released alongside seven others on Netflix on January 31, 2020, with Amy Winfrey directing and Alison Tafel writing. The episode places titular character BoJack Horseman in a vivid near-death experience, in the form of a dinner party and talent show featuring important figures from his life who have died. It was widely praised for its use of symbolism, animation style, and numerous callbacks to prior episodes.
| "The View from Halfway Down" | |
|---|---|
| BoJack Horseman episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 15 |
| Directed by | Amy Winfrey |
| Written by | Alison Tafel |
| Produced by |
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| Original release date | January 31, 2020 |
| Running time | 26 minutes |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
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Plot
A young Beatrice Horseman welcomes her adult son BoJack, and a child-aged Sarah Lynn, into her house. Herb Kazzaz, Crackerjack Sugarman, Corduroy Jackson-Jackson, and Zach Braff join them at a dinner party, even though all of these characters (except BoJack) died earlier in the series. As the guests discuss the best and worst parts of their lives, Sarah Lynn ages progressively, and BoJack notices black tar-like liquid dripping from the ceiling. A new arrival, introduced as BoJack’s father Butterscotch, has the appearance of BoJack’s childhood idol Secretariat. After BoJack coughs up some black liquid and the dinner conversation continues, Beatrice invites the guests to a show, at which point BoJack expects to awake from a dream.
However, BoJack remains in the dreamscape. In a theatre next door, Herb hosts a talent show featuring the guests, all of whom have their performances interrupted or ended by passing through an empty white door centre-stage. Following Sarah Lynn’s musical performance (a reprise of "Don’t Stop Dancing ‘Til The Curtains Fall") and Corduroy’s trapeze act, BoJack goes outside for an emotional conversation with Butterscotch/Secretariat. Looking down, BoJack sees a silhouette of a horse floating face down in a swimming pool.
Back in the theatre, Zach Braff falls through the white door as his roller skating routine begins. BoJack starts to remember details of his bender from the previous episode, recalling that he went into the swimming pool and called Diane. Secretariat performs a poem titled "The View From Halfway Down" that expresses regret over his suicide, fearing the white door as it moves incrementally closer. Disturbed, BoJack finds himself unable to leave the theatre. Herb suggests that BoJack is not dreaming, but processing his own death. Beatrice performs a ribbon dance, accompanied by Crackerjack on trumpet, ending when black tar emerges from the white door and engulfs her. As the tar washes over Herb too, he tells BoJack there is no "other side."
BoJack runs from the tar as it chases him. He finds a landline phone, calls out for Diane, and hears her voice through the phone. In their conversation, BoJack remembers that in real life, his call to Diane went to voicemail and he presumably drowned in the pool. Diane’s voice agrees to stay on the phone with BoJack as the tar envelops him.
During the credits, rather than any music, a flatlining heart monitor is heard; however, partway through, it starts beeping normally.
Reception
"The View from Halfway Down" received widespread critical acclaim, and has been called one of the best episodes of the entire series. The A.V. Club's Les Chappell gave it an A rating, writing that the episode "[slots] firmly in the pantheon of A-grade BoJack Horseman penultimate installments... [and] continues that second-to-last episode trend of impossibly finding a darker place to take the series, and it takes BoJack right with it."[1] Vulture.com's Scott Meslow awarded the episode four stars out of five, noting that the theme of drowning in a swimming pool has long been alluded to in the series' opening sequence, in which BoJack's friends look down on him in his pool.[2] The Chicago Reader's Taryn Allen called the episode "one of the best – potentially the best – episodes of the entire series", praising the callbacks to earlier episodes and the pacing.[3]
On July 28, 2020, "The View from Halfway Down" was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program.
References
- "BoJack Horseman's excellent penultimate episode gazes long into the abyss". TV Club.
- Meslow, Scott (February 2, 2020). "BoJack Horseman Recap: That Sinking Feeling". Vulture.
- Allen, Taryn. "BoJack Horseman's penultimate episode secured its legacy". Chicago Reader.
