Recap / BoJack Horseman S5E8 "Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos"

"This is going to be the best Halloween ever!"

"Why do all these idealistic, vivacious women eventually turn bitter and cruel after being with me? What’s the common denominator?"

— Mr. Peanutbutter

At the annual Halloween party at BoJack's place (that Mr. Peanutbutter has been throwing for 25 years with only BoJack's dubious consent), Pickles gets a crash course in Mr. Peanutbutter's romantic history — and some advice from Diane.

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Tropes:

• Age-Gap Romance: Diane points out to Mister Peanutbutter that this is what all of his relationships have had in common; the women he's been involved with have all been younger than him, and as they get older and more cynical, they eventually outgrow his Manchild antics and break up with him. He also starts noticing how the age difference is starting to get him uncomfortable when Pickles — who is as old as the Halloween parties he throws — insists that they start posting on social media and go to a second party with new costumes.
• Amicable Exes: Mr. Peanutbutter and Diane maintain a nice relationship following their break up, with Diane even shining a light on him about how his relationships have failed. She's also willing to help out his new girlfriend Pickles, rather than resenting her for being the new object of his affections. This is notable when comparing to the utter disdain he has for Katrina and Jessica Biel.
• Anachronic Order: This episode jumps around the same Halloween party from four different time periods; each focusing on Mr. Peanutbutter and his four significant others.
• Bottle Episode: Aside from the Cold Opening, the majority of the episode takes place inside BoJack's house,
• Celebrity Paradox: One of the partygoers at the 2018 party is dressed like Zoya the Destroyer from GLOW (2017), which stars Alison Brie (Diane).
• Complexity Addiction: Practically a Running Gag this episode.
  • Mr. Peanutbutter probably could have prevented Jessica Biel from seeing BoJack dressed as a mummy if he had just slipped sideways through the door (he was dressed as a giant notebook), instead of getting stuck trying to go through it forwards, and calling out an overly long and confusing celebrity reference for her not to turn around, causing her to (naturally) turn around going "Huh?"
  • Diane made a very obscure and convoluted Halloween costume based on a number of movie references people have to intuitively guess and say out loud to get the pun. It doesn't take long before she gets tired of having to explain her costume over and over again at the party.
  • Poor Gina decides to cobble together a costume at the Rite-Aid across the street when the party starts. When she finally returns, she's wearing a very elaborate witch's costume from many parts (including a toilet paper skirt) that took so long to put together the party ends by the time she gets back. She probably could have just picked out a witch's hat and wand and gotten back much sooner.
• Counting Sheep: One of the party guests seen in the episode is a sheep wearing pajamas with the numbers "1, 2, 3" on them. He is eventually seen sleeping on the couch.
• Disaster Dominoes: BoJack's Halloween parties inevitably seem to be the tipping point where Mr. Peanutbutter's relationships start falling apart, but the one with Jessica Biel takes the cake. A teenage Todd and his friends try to trick-or-treat at BoJack's house, but Princess Carolyn turns them away, motivating them to cover the place in toilet paper as a prank. Meanwhile, BoJack failed to prepare a costume, so PC grabs the toilet paper to turn him into a mummy. Unfortunately, Jessica Biel is afraid of mummies, and Mr. Peanutbutter has spent most of the party distracted from her. By the time he notices that things are about to go wrong, his attempts to reach her are hindered by a cumbersome costume (born from a misunderstanding about the theme of their couple's costumes), and he wastes so much time with one of his usual belabored references that he can't even get a warning out fast enough.
• Double-Meaning Title: The title deals with Mr. Peanutbutter's ex-wives (or ex-boos) and the Halloween parties they attend together.
• Easy Evangelism: Katrina's politics shift from fairly neutral to hard-line conservative after one conversation with Tim Allen and Ben Stein.
• Flashback B-Plot: The episode has four stories going on simultaneously, each following one of Mr. Peanutbutter's Halloween parties from four different years, with him dating a different girl in each year.
• Forgotten First Meeting:
  • Parodied when it's revealed that Diane and BoJack first met at a Halloween party in 2009, but she was rather awkward about introducing herself and BoJack was distracted by a phone call about his father's sudden death. Diane feels like she made a fool of herself, but Mr. Peanutbutter tries to assure her that he likely won't remember having met her anyway.
  • Subverted with Todd and Princess Carolyn. They first met when Todd was trick-or-treating as a teenager and PC turned him away for being too old for that, yet too young to join the party. It cuts to the party five years later when he appears, straight up asks “How about now?” and PC lets him in no problem.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The Celebrity Stealing Club walks into one of the parties and walks out with a painting.
• Furry Reminder: Mr. Peanutbutter shakes off water next to Katrina after the conga line walks into BoJack's pool. Pickles laps the water that Diane offers her.
• Group Costume Fail: A flashback to Halloween 2004 in "Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos" shows Mr. Peanutbutter failing to coordinate costumes with his then-girlfriend Jessica Biel. She wanted to go as characters from The Notebook, but Mr. Peanutbutter dressed as an actual notebook.
• Halloween Episode: And it takes place at a Halloween party, no less.
• Innocently Insensitive: This episode shows that this trope is a big reason why Mr. Peanutbutter's past relationships have failed; he would be too distracted by having frivolous fun to remember things like Katrina's request not to leave her alone at a party full of strangers, Jessica Biel's fear of mummies, or Diane's general dislike of parties, and this would eventually lead to a downward spiral in their relationships.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Mr. Peanutbutter swears to Jessica Biel that he won't let her see any mummies. Cut to BoJack talking about the girl who freaked out that one time because she saw a mummy.
• Manchild: Deconstructed in Mr. Peanutbutter's relationships. Because he has, essentially, the mentality of a 20 year old, he can only date women that are around that age, and eventually they outgrow him and leave him since he's mentally stopped growing but they haven't.
• The Missus and the Ex: In the present-day party, Pickles (new girlfriend) is nervous that Diane (ex-wife #3) is also at the party. However, instead of things being awkward between them, Diane helps her sober up and gives her advice about Mister Peanutbutter.
• Sequel Episode: This episode is both a prequel and a sequel to "After the Party", as it tackles the same themes and also isn't told in chronological order.
• Sexy Whatever Outfit: One of the guests at the present day (2018) party is a girl dressed as a sexy Handmaid from The Handmaid's Tale. Which was also Ripped from the Headlines.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mr. Peanutbutter paraphrases Dazed and Confused, "So what you're saying is, they all grow up, but I stay the same age?" He then follows it up with the real-life catchphrase of Matthew McConaughey, (who said the line in said film): "All right, all right, all right!"
  • After Katrina, who was previously speaking with Tim Allen, yells at Mr. Peanutbutter that she’s not having fun, Mr. Peanutbutter makes a very Tim Taylor like grunt. This is followed by a scene transition befitting Home Improvement's own transitions from their Halloween episodes.
• Start of Darkness: What made the originally happy-go-lucky Katrina into the colder, cynical, right-wing woman that the audience knows? Turns out she was forced to talk politics with Ben Stein and Tim Allen for several hours after Mr. Peanutbutter abandoned her at the party.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: BoJack manages to figure out Diane's obscure and convoluted Halloween costume immediately. From what we see, nobody else manages to figure it out on their own.
• Too Old to Trick-or-Treat: 13-year-old Todd goes trick-or-treating with two other teens in 2004 and all three are brushed off by Princess Carolyn for being too old:
  13-year-old Todd/Kids: Trick or treat!
  Princess Carolyn: You're way too old to be trick or treating and way too young to be a guest at this party. Come back when you're five years older or when you're three years younger.
• Trauma Button: Spoofed for Jessica Biel's fear of mummies. As it turns out, she has a Dark and Troubled Past regarding mummies. She auditioned to play The Mummy (1999), and... and... she didn't get the part!
• Visual Pun:
  • 2009 Diane dresses as a cyborg tennis player with a pacifier hanging from her neck: i.e. Baby Bjorn Borg. BoJack is the only person who gets it.
  • The DJ at the party is a beetle dressed as Beetlejuice. Also an example of Limited Wardrobe, since he apparently never bought another outfit ever since 1993.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Jessica Biel's mummy trauma stems from not getting the part to play in The Mummy (1999). It was very traumatic for her career-wise, okay?!
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Jessica Biel is revealed to have a fear of mummies, which stems from how she didn't get a part in The Mummy (1999) when she auditioned for it. Mister Peanutbutter's failure to take this into account turned out to be part of the reason why they divorced.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Diane spends the whole party having to explain her confusing costume to people, near the end she meets someone who gets it the minute he see's it but it's Bojack, who's in no mood to talk since he just heard about his fathers death.

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