Floating From Reality | "The Showstopper" Explained

The Spectacular is one of the most tragic episodes of Bojack Horseman and, like many other episodes, represents a major turning point in Bojack's life as Bojack's vices take hold, his life begins to bleed into the fictional life of Bojack. his television counterpart, Philbert, and vice versa. His guilt overwhelms him, his paranoia worsens and, like so many other times in his life, he drives away the people closest to him, but the episode is brilliantly constructed, a fever dream that combines aspects of his life, his television show and his story in an incredible program. stop the performance in many ways, the show is the culmination of all the mistakes Bojack has made and how the weight of that guilty conscience falls violently on him and the people around him, same, same, same, you could say one.

One of the brightest aspects of the spectacular is the way Bojack's story parallels what happens in the corresponding Filbert episode. Obviously, one of the main aspects of the entire fifth season is the way Bojack's real life begins to blend with that of his character on the set of the show he is identical to his house and he is even dating the actress he plays to his girlfriend on the show so as the episode continues they start to play with the

reality

that bojack lives in, sometimes he thinks he's on set when he's actually at home i really think.

We should go to the set, aren't we on the set? Sometimes he thinks he's at home when in

reality

he's on set. What time is it do I have to go to set? uh, we're on set and all of this is obviously exacerbated by his drug abuse, which creates an incredibly engaging atmosphere. story structure if you look closely at the color palettes you will be able to tell what reality we are in when the colors are duller bojack thinks he is in filbert's world when they are more vibrant bojack returns the episode even begins with the title sequence of filbert instead of bojack's traditional opening and quickly exposes the show's mystery.

They are searching for Filbert's former partner, Fritz, who has apparently returned from the dead and is now strangling people to death. Dead at the same time, Bojack receives a blackmail note and races to find out who it could be, who's trying to take him down, who said this, what do they know, what do they know, let's find out, and the cool way they tie these ideas together. Put together is that, in a way, the two mysteries have exactly the same answer, what we discover in the end is that Fritz, Philbert's partner, did not come back from the dead, he was not strangling anyone, it was actually Filbert all the time. time the person Filbert was looking for.

Meanwhile, we learned that there was never actually anyone trying to blackmail or sabotage Bojack. What he thought was a blackmail note was actually just an advertisement from Philbert and was even something that was used directly in the Filbert series, so Bojack found out that the only person who sabotaged Bojack was Bojack and that Sabotage came in the form of drug abuse and the weight of a guilty conscience. The reason Bojack was able to convince himself so easily that someone was trying to blackmail him is because he left so many people hurt in his Awakening. The weight of the guilt he feels for hurting so many people over the years makes it difficult. easy for your drugged mind to think that these mistakes will come back to haunt you.

This whole show is designed to reveal my secrets and destroy me. creates a handy cork board filled with the people he's hurt. The first person he thinks of is Diane, probably because her fight was the most recent. This leads him to go to Diane's house and approach her about the note that her guilt even pushes him to call Charlotte. although this was the last thing she said to him and if you ever try to contact me or my family again I will kill you, this leads to a rather awkward conversation with her husband Kyle, who thankfully doesn't realize that the corkboard includes people Like Abe and Catfish, whose relationship with Bojack has been rocky since Bojack insulted his job in the Secretariat movie, there's Bradley Hitler Smith who plays Ethan on Horseback and Around and Bojack is probably guilty of running out of Ethan in the spin. -off in season 3.

There's Tom Jumbo Grumbo, who has always been quite critical of Bojack on his news show, Lenny Turtletop, who has generally had some friction with Bojack throughout their working relationship, and of course, with Kelsey Jennings, who was fired as secretary in season two and also helped sink a passion project of his that he was supposed to work on, why did I get my hopes up? Why do I keep letting you get my hopes up as his paranoia worsens? he adds more and more people to the list people who are actually close to him flip mcvicker princess caroline mr peanut butter and even diane again the weight of this guilty conscience returns in full force later in the episode life is when bojack succumbs completely to her hallucinations she imagines a huge musical number the spectacular headline the musical number is performed by gina in reference to her dreams of being in a Broadway musical that came into play at the beginning of the season, the song she sings is called Don't Stop Dancing and this has a deep connection to Bojack and his insecurities.

Nobody gives a damn what you feel. I have an audience out there and they want to hear you sing this attitude was what shaped Bojack's entire life and the lyrics of the song reflect that life is a never ending show my friend a twisted show ever changing the audience They are everyone you know. my friend leaves them with a smile when he goes and, as expected, the sequence is full of actors playing everyone bojack has heard over the years hollyhock diane sarah lynn kelsey princess caroline charlotte wanda todd everyone is there It's also worth noting that every character who dropped an f-bomb on this show is in this sequence the following images connect directly to many of those mistakes and regrets Bojack has the interior of the planetarium where Sara Lynn died the exterior of the planetarium where Herb He told them what they were going to do, walking together through Bojack's house where many things have happened, the escape from the the boat that Bojack bought in the episode of the same name, the horse in a roundhouse itself, the d of the Hollywood sign that Bojack stole. in the first season while pining for diane and the dick cavett show where the secretary gave bojack that advice he never gave up.

We then see some stand-up props showing more of Bojack's lowest moments throwing his mother's doll off the balcony in front of Hollyhock almost sleeping with Penny in new clothes. Mexico and the aftermath with Charlotte later, when Bojack had Shirona fired from the horse and which we learned more about in season six and the Hollywood transportation in season one, after this Bojack stands at the old Sugarman's door Place of the season. 4 episode of the same name, the prop house quickly collapses, obviously in reference to the fact that bojack himself had the house torn down in that episode, which seems like something he might feel guilty about.

We also see a ton of hazelnut merchandise in the The next segment mirrors a scene we saw earlier with Todd, who sold a bunch of unsuitable advertising opportunities to pharmaceutical companies, but this in itself, of course, reflects a larger problem with fame. and success and the ways in which they can compromise their personal integrity. Why not sell his sadness as a brand, this clearly weighs on bojack the next sequence features an actress playing beatrice who tap dances around bojack before dancing backwards on a coffin. There are some really interesting details here, we know from the free churro that Beatrice used to dance for her guests. at parties and that made a big impression on bojack.

I was always aware that this moment of grace meant something that would, of course, come back to play in season six. In the middle view, we also see that Beatrice is wearing the same outfit she used to wear to those same parties, as seen in the downer ending, the same outfit she wore when she instilled the "don't stop dancing" mantra in the young girl. bojack mind In fact, this entire sequence represents Beatriz literally dancing on her grave. Don't stop dancing 'til the curtain falls The musical number continues with Gina in a line of popsicles dancing, which is a reference to the mystery of the popsicles that Bojack doesn't seem to understand.

We later learned that this is all because Flip stole a popsicle prank. stick and i used it on philbert this is less about that actual mystery and more about how bojack's paranoid mind is transforming his suspicions. The end of the musical number shows Bojack's giant hazelnut balloon exploding and crashing into Bojack before he wakes up from his dream. I'm sure there are many interpretations of this sequence, but for me it all comes down to the way Bojack has lived his life, the way he internalized what Beatriz told him as a child: as long as you have an audience, you have a duty. . keep acting i think this has driven a lot of the decisions bojack has made consciously and unconsciously just before the musical number starts gina says this you don't want that so everything is okay how terribly boring obviously the whole sequence is in bojack mind so this represents his own subconscious which seems to be telling him that without any drama or conflict there is no more show there is no more audience there is no more performance there is no more reason to dance generating more conflict even unconsciously bojack can continue dancing until the curtain wins You will not fall until for the program to end at some level.

Bojack was manufacturing the mystery and I think this is reinforced at the beginning of the episode. Bojack is reflecting on how well his life seems to be going, but he ends it with "I still have this rancid little itch" he says. something's not right it's like there's always something lurking just beyond the horizon even when things are going well bojack's mind continues to prepare for the worst case scenario because without it the curtain falls the big talking point for the spectacular is What the balloon represents, I think this was intentionally left up to the interpretation of the viewer because well, but the goal of art is less what people put into it and more what people get out of it, but that being said, I have my own opinion.

The balloon and what he represents Throughout the episode, Bojack continues to take pills at almost any chance he gets. When he does so, two things happen: one, he appears in dark dream sequences, sometimes for moments, sometimes for entire musical numbers, and two, he begins to see the balloon. in several places almost chases him in the episode before this, the real balloon is accidentally untied by Diane, so the question is when Bojack sees the balloon in real life, is this a hallucination or is it the balloon we really know is? was released? I'm not sure we're ever supposed to know it or Bojack, but I think it represents Bojack's disengagement from reality.

There is a line in Filbert. I keep coming back to Gina. She asks Bojack why she still has a landline or maybe I like things that are connected. to the wall, so I'll hold on if I start to float, that was my wife's landline. I think this is worded very interestingly if he starts to float. This landline for Philbert represents him holding on to someone he loves and cares about, and me. I think this was also what kept Bojack from metaphorically

floating

over the course of the episode. Bojack has intense paranoia about even those closest to him.

In Bojack's mind, his friends were being pushed further and further away thanks to his own suspicions and then completely confronted by this in the musical dream sequence at the end, the only bondage Bojack has left is Gina, but then she discovers his drug problem and his anger drives her away too leaving him alone once again there was nothing left to keep bojack grounded and that's when he floated away metaphorically of course their realities completely intersect and the anger bojack felt towards Gina in real life was transcribed in her hazel performance that ends with well, we all know, when this ends, she returns to her dark dreamscape and finally ascends to these heavenly skies. steps that followed him throughout the episode.

I think this final location, while not realistic looking, was meant to be reminiscent of heaven. Bojack is completely free and now he and the balloon float above the earth above reality with nothing to pull them down. I think the saddest part of the show is that Bojack's motivation throughout the entire episode was to protect Gina. He was trying to save her from the repercussions of her mistakes in a way that he was trying to protect Gina from himself and in the end he couldn't do it. Throughout the spectacular Bojack questions everything in his life, from his relationships to his reality to his own sanity, the weight of his guilty conscience weighed on him, leading to abuse and paranoia, but fortunately for Bojack, he didn't. all thethat he rejected had given up on him.

I think it's fitting that the person who untied his balloon in the first place was also the one to bring him back to earth and provide him with the help he needs, but not before the damage was done. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Bojack. breakdown if you like this video let me know in the comments and of course let me know which episode you want me to cover next. If you can, please like and subscribe because it helps me and I'll see you next. peace time