Exactly the kind of reaction one makes whenever watching these bombs...note
While Wham Episodes are standard for every show to have at the very least once in their lifespan, BoJack Horseman stands out among them since, unlike most who have two or three tops per season, at least half of the episodes every season (mostly in the second half) happen to be Wham Episodes incarnate, back-to-back.There are massive unmarked spoilers. Don't read this page unless you're willing to have entire plotlines ruined for you.
- Reaching the climax of the first season, "The Telescope" delivers some of the most devastating moments in the seasonnote , finally shifting the tone from a simple Sitcom into a full-blown Dramedy. As it turns out, the calls that BoJack has been trying to make and has received are from his former comedy partner and friend, Herb Kazzaz, whom he fell out of touch when taping Horsin' Around. Herb is dying of cancer and the horse wants to mend the fences, so he goes alongside Diane to Herb's house. After a rough start, the two pick back from where they left off and seem to eventually leave on better terms. However, when BoJack insists on Herb to forgive him, he refuses. Eventually, it escalates into a fight in which Herb calls out BoJack on not even caring about what happened to him in 20 yearsnote As Herb tells him, it's not the fact that he was fired, it's the fact that BoJack never visited or cared about him afterwards. Two very brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech later and on their way Diane and BoJack go. After a badly timed comment from Diane, BoJack nearly breaks down at the side of the road. Diane consoles him, leading the horse to kiss her. She returns speechless to the car, leaving BoJack alone again. Roll credits.
- Season 2's 11th episode, "Escape From L.A" has the penultimate-episode-of-the-season clause strike at full force. This is a heavy one, guys, not lying in the least. Upon visiting, BoJack discovers Charlotte has a family now, yet still insists on staying there. While Charlotte is happy to welcome him for the time being, her daughter Penny is less than enthusiastic about it, until a heart-to-heart talk leads to both becoming quite close. Eventually, BoJack ingratiates himself with the whole family...AND THEN HE COMPLETELY FUCKS IT UP. How? He stays for more than two months and eventually starts to corrupt Penny without intending to: After escorting a date with Penny and her friends for the school prom, he gets them a better quality booze than Red Bull & Vodka, which causes one of them to get alcohol poisoning, requiring a trip to the hospital. Being the responsible adult in charge, BoJack panics and instead of leading her to the emergency room and taking responsibility for his actions, leaves the poor girl at the entrance along with her date with instructions to not incriminate him. Then, when he and Penny arrive at her home, he kisses Charlotte and tries to subtly coerce her into eloping with him, her family not withstanding. When she refuses, BoJack, at the end of his rope, accepts the request of sex he had rejected previously from Penny, ''a 17 year-old legal girl'' in Tesuque. When Charlotte finds this out, she puts a stop to it before it's too late and warns him never come back to her place again, or contact any of her family or else she will "fucking kill" him.
- Season 3's "That's Too Much, Man!" spends the episode building up Sarah Lynn and BoJack's familial bond as he takes her on a wild bender, only for her to die of an overdose next to BoJack in the planetarium at the end of the episode. This incident horrifies BoJack so much that it motivates him to actually try and escape his bad behavior so he stops ruining the lives of others.
- Season 4, Episode 2, "The Old Sugarman Place," gives us our first glimpse into BoJack's family history, as well as some context for why Beatrice treated him the way she did. Her brother Crackerjack died in World War II and her mother was lobotomized due to her Excessive Mourning, so she tells Beatrice, "Promise me you'll never love anyone as much as I loved Crackerjack."
- Season 4, Episode 11, "Time's Arrow". The episode takes place from Beatrice's point-of-view, who had developed a form of dementia or Alzheimer's since she last spoke with BoJack. As such, we don't see what's actually happening to her, but rather flashbacks to her early life, mostly young adulthood. The faces of all but a few characters in these flashbacks are gone. Written words during the flashbacks are misspelled. The cuts between the flashbacks are like glitchy, with random cuts to a fire. In one instance, a character just appears out of thin air. And rarely, the reality that BoJack is dumping his mother into an even worse home than the one she was kicked out of seeps in, confusing flashback!Beatrice. And the not-so-pretty story told through flashbacks shows how Beatrice became the person she is: her father was planning on marrying her off to the heir of the Creamerman ice cream fortune. She instead runs off with a party-crasher named Butterscotch Horseman. She gets pregnant with Bojack, they run off to California to get married, BoJack's shitty childhood ensues, and Butterscotch gets their maid Henrietta (a name Beatrice had been calling BoJack all season) pregnant. Two reveals happen: first, the fire was Beatrice's father burning all her childhood books and toys to try to reign in his young daughter's scarlet fever, then second: Henrietta is Hollyhock's mother. Then Beatrice takes Hollyhock away to put her up for adoption. It does end on a slightly more positive note, though. When we return to the present and Beatrice begins to wonder how they got to where BoJack took her, she recognizes BoJack. And instead of telling his mother to fuck off like he planned to, BoJack takes the high road and reminds her of better times. This serves as the resolution to BoJack's relationship with Beatrice, as she never appears again, dying offscreen in the next season.
- Season 5, Episode 4, "BoJack the Feminist". With a title like that, it's obviously a politically-themed episode with little to no bearing on the plot like "Brrap Brrap Pew Pew" or "Thoughts and Prayers," right? Wrong. Not only does this episode see the return of Ana Spanakopita, but she gives the tape of Bojack talking about New Mexico to Diane, revealing the secret BoJack had been keeping from his friends for years. This sets forward the conflict between Diane and BoJack for the rest of the season that would completely destroy Diane's trust in BoJack.
- Season 5, Episode 11, "The Showstopper", carries the eleventh episode tradition further. Addicted to opiates and constantly paranoid, BoJack has completely lost the ability to differentiate between reality and his television show, desperately trying to figure out who sent a note threatening to tell about a "bad thing" BoJack did. At the end of the episode, Gina confronts him, and we learn that the note was part of a promotional stunt for Philbert that BoJack completely forgot about. The line between reality and fiction becomes so blurred that BoJack loses control and nearly chokes Gina to death. It's notably the only episode in the entire show not to have any music over the end credits, just to highlight the dramatic weight of such a moment.
- Season 6, Episode 8, "A Quick One, While He's Away." After most of the first half of the sixth season gave the impression that BoJack could truly change for the better, we're treated to an episode that questions whether he even deserves to recover if so many of his victims can't. Notably, it doesn't feature BoJack at all, or any of the main characters. Instead, it focuses on everyone that BoJack has hurt, as well as two reporters who come precariously close to uncovering the true story behind Sarah Lynn's death. Not to mention Hollyhock finds out about what BoJack did in New Mexico—not to Penny, but to Peter and Maddie, two characters that many had forgotten about by this point.
- Season 6, Episode 9, "Intermediate Scene Study w/ BoJack Horseman": As hinted by the previous episode, BoJack's comeuppance was almost upon him. The real surprise is who he finds out from: not Hollyhock or the reporters, but Charlotte, who, last we saw her, threatened to kill him if he ever contacted her again.
- Season 6, Episode 12, "Xerox Of A Xerox" packs in a devastating Bait-and-Switch, kickstarting a whole series of Wham episodes. Bojack is interviewed by Biscuits Braxby about the reporter's story, but against all expectations, it actually goes well. For a brief moment, it seems like BoJack is in the clear... until he does a second interview. The reporters tell Braxby that BoJack waited 17 minutes before calling the paramedics to get Sarah Lynn so he could cover up his role in her death, completely changing the context of a scene that made BoJack seem sympathetic. The fact BoJack went against Princess Carolyn's insistence to not do another interview leads to her essentially cutting him off entirely, staying out of his business and going home to be with her daughter. The episode ends with the interview airing, which leads to BoJack being completely hated by the public.
- Season 6, Episode 13, "The Horny Unicorn": BoJack loses his house, his fortune, and his positive reputation. If that wasn't enough proof that his life is in shambles, he befriends Vance Waggoner, of all people. To top it all off, after discovering that Hollyhock has cut off contact with him, BoJack relapses.
- Season 6, Episode 14, "Angela". BoJack is called by Angela Diaz, the executive who convinced BoJack to fire Herb from Horsin' Around. We learn that not only does she have to cut BoJack out of the show, but now, he won't even be making money from it anymore. And in one of the most devastating reveals of the entire show, she smugly admits to BoJack that she'd been terrified he would call her bluff when she gave him her Breaking Speech about firing Herb and had to practice it over and over, because if he'd actually stood up for Herb she would have been forced to keep him on the show, meaning BoJack actually had the power to decide Herb's fate all along. So not only has BoJack lost the right to claim Horsin' Around as his only success, he's also learned he ruined his best friendship for nothing. And if that's not enough, Angela gives BoJack alcohol, causing him to go on a drunken bender. He breaks into the house that he had to sell and starts watching old episodes of Horsin' Around, all of which ultimately sets up his attempted suicide in the following episode. Meanwhile, every other character gets resolution to their stories: Todd reconciles with his mother, Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter find closure on their relationship, and Judah confesses his love for Princess Carolyn, confirming them as an Official Couple.
