BoJack Horseman burns down a kitchen and its oldest relationship
“I do love you, by the way. As much as I’m capable of loving someone. Which is never enough. I’m sorry.”
The inherent risk in any long-term relationship is that by opening yourself up to one person, you’re also opening yourself to be hurt more than anyone else can hurt you. You’re trusting them with a lot of yourself, trusting that they’re going to support you and look out for you. That can be a strength, but it’s also a threat where if things go south and a fight ensues it’s going to be ugly in a way that no other fight is. They know all of your weaknesses and know exactly what to say to hurt you, and more likely than not have a quiver stored up of things that they’ve thought better of saying in happier times. And even more dangerous, you have the exact same thing.
The fight between BoJack and Princess Carolyn that forms the action of “Best Thing That Ever Happened” is one of those fights. This is an episode that pays off close to three seasons of watching the up and downs of BoJack Horseman’s two main characters, three seasons of sniping and support and hookups coming to an ugly head. Their professional relationship is shattered, and by the end it appears a foregone conclusion that personal relationship is going the same way. It’s the sort of episode you watch with breath held and through a couple fingers, just waiting for the next words that can’t be taken back.
In keeping with the structurally diverse impulses of season three, “Best Thing That Ever Happened” is BoJack Horseman’s first bottle episode, taking place within the walls of Elefante. After the series of mishandled deals in “Old Acquaintance” that screwed up BoJack’s involvement with Flight Of The Pegasus, Jelly Belle, and Ethan Around, BoJack—with a bit of prodding from Ana—has decided it’s time to seek some new representation. It’s a rough move but it’s also one that’s certainly justifiable, given that even with Gekko Rabbitowitz double-dealing Princess Carolyn bears her share of the responsibility for the way things panned out. Both parties know what’s coming, and they prepare or duck in ways we’d come to expect: BoJack reading from cue cards that are intermixed with his jokes for the roast of January Jones, Princess Carolyn using fake calls from kings and 23rd anniversary cakes.
But once the firing becomes official, the tone of the episode changes almost immediately, shock and hurt feelings giving way to deep cuts. From the very beginning of BoJack Horseman the relationship between BoJack and Princess Carolyn has been its most complicated, Princess Carolyn’s early assurance that personal and professional lives are kept separate long since thrown out the window. Time and time again she’s stood up for or stood with him, and time and time again he’s disappointed her. Season one’s “Say Anything” gave us the first serious example of this codependence, and “The BoJack Horseman Show” flashbacks reinforced the pattern would repeat itself in vicious cycle manner. The latter becomes even more relevant with the cold open’s return to 2007 and Princess Carolyn going back to BoJack against her better instincts, a wistful plea not to break her heart going unanswered.
With the professional relationship terminated, there’s nothing keeping things from getting personal, and they get there. This is over two decades of frustration, resentment, and hurt feelings coming out to play, and both of them know exactly what buttons to push with each other and with what words to cut deepest with in some of the nastiest insults directed on BoJack Horseman:
“You’re right, BoJack. This is for the best. I no longer have to lug your talentless, self-centered, self-sabotaging, dead-weight carcass of faded talent around my neck.”
“You’re thrilled to have me out of your life? Know what I think? You like being there to rescue me. You like it when I’m a mess, because it makes you feel good about yourself.”
“‘BoJack, you wasted my thirties!’” “…I never said you wasted my thirties.” “Didn’t have to. You’re always saying it.”