Confronting Mortality | 'The View from Halfway Down' Explained

The View from Halfway Down is one of the most incredible half hours of television I've ever seen. It's easily the best episode of BoJack Horseman Season 6, and arguably of the entire series. In this video I breakdown all of the bits, pieces, callbacks and references that make it so incredible, while analyzing the overall message, and what it means for BoJack Horseman as a character AND as a TV series.

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Thumbnail by Ravioli!

Music:
Johnny 2 Cellos Theme Music - Norman Marston

Video Used:
BoJack Horseman (2014-2020)

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted.

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[JohnnyCellos]

At 2:39 I say "Alkali is a chemical compound that's typically corrosive" which IS WRONG AND BAD SCIENCE and all of the science commenters are rightfully mad at me about it. Alkali is a class of chemicals, not a chemical compound itself. Thanks for calling me out, yall.

[AshrujitGhoshal]

I think Secretariat reading 'The View from Halfway Down' in the episode is the strongest anti-suicide message I have ever seen.

[sprytefox]

The darkness is a metaphor for darkness.

[alejandroalvarado]

Bojack realizes that he's drowning in the pool exactly at the minute 17, the same time that he waited to call for help for Sarah Lynn.

[liv-bvpl]

The fact that he brought sarah lynn to the door as a symbol of him literally leading her to her death is perfection.

[jorgeaguilar]

Also, bojack constantly mentions that his bottle of water tastes like chlorine, pools have chlorine, it's what he's drowning on, his "last drink"

[manofcorn]

Not sure if anyone mentioned this yet: When Secretariat is giving his poem he goes from 3rd person, to 2nd person, to 1st person.
3.. 2.. 1..

[drko]

You forgot that Hydrangea is poisonous to horses

[smurfcooper]

I think Sarah Lynn’s song starting very innocent and then very quickly turning into very sexualized and provocative is a really good metaphor for her life

[Just-another-stone]

"Oh Bojack, there is no other side. This is it."

Absolutely haunting. That moment, the gentle delivery, and the way the darkness consumes him leaves me feeling so so hollow, and grim.

[wishyrater]

I actually just noticed that the setting where Sarah Lynn is sitting under the table and Bojack gives her a harsh lesson is EXACTLY the same position young Bojack sits in when Beatrice tells him to sing the lolipop song. They truly nailed how abuse, neglect and depression becomes cyclic.

[liagem]

“I wish someone would have told me about the view from half way down” is my favorite line in the whole show

[danoconnor]

One thing that I just realised is that Sarah Lynn’s implied abusive stepfather is a bear. Male bears have no parental instinct and often kill their cubs.

[bluekeeper]

In my opinion, one of the easier-to-miss but more powerful things: Diane's last line. Her day was good. She's been grappling with sever depression all season, constantly struggling just to feel ok, much less good, and yet there it is. In what he has accepted as his last moments, all BoJack wants is to think that his friends are good.

[weather]

notice in the two episodes where bojack jump into the pool, in one Mr. pb saves him and in one from the view from half way down, he calls for diane, the two people who always looks down the pool in the intro when bojack jumps in it.

[norm]

Bojack: yeah, i dont think the creators actually put that much thought into it

Todd: But isnt that the point of art, what ppl take out of it?

[spockman]

I know some people complained that Bojack should have died here, but I think it’s far more important that he lived. Two of the most recurring themes of this show is that you can’t escape the consequences of your actions and you can’t always find closure. But in terms of the story that would have given the audience both of those things. Bojack would never face the consequences of his actions and we the audience would have gotten closure on the character because he died. It would have been an “ending” to Bojack’s story, something that show stresses doesn’t exist in real life. Even when Bojack goes to jail, they say that he’ll be out in a few months to show that even that “comeuppance” will end and he’ll keep having to move forward. I would argue that “Life’s a bitch and then you keep living” is one of the biggest messages of the show as a whole.

[Dylan-xteh]

I just realised how Sarah Lynn actually ages throughout the episode and bojack says his water tastes like chlorine. The detail put into this series is one of a kind

[cousinmajin]

It's really haunting how the tar consumes Herb slowly piece by piece, like how he was painfully fading away when he had cancer

[leprechaunsteve]

This episode was just nominated for an Emmy. Needless to say it deserves the nomination AND the win.