BoJack’s 1980s stand-up comedy is hilarious for so many reasons, so I’ll just pick one to start off the review: the Seinfeld-esque bass riff. Oh, how I love you, Seinfeld-esque bass riff.

In the beginning of the episode, we get a real solid introduction to Herb Kazaz, and it’s just about as loaded as possible. Kazaz heckles BoJack at a stand-up show, then offers to buy BoJack a drink. “Get cancer, dickwad,” says a young, be-mulleted BoJack. Herb Kazaz is a brilliantly drawn character. By which I mean: in all the flashbacks, Herb has a thick head of a hair, a big beard, and a stocky, thick build. When we see him on chemo later down the line (episode 8, off the top of my head), the sudden hairless thin-ness of Kazaz is genuinely shocking. In that way, it’s exactly like seeing someone you know going through chemo – it’s shocking what it does to their body, their appearance, etc.

But I’m getting way ahead of myself as usual.

I’m a big fan of Wyatt Cenac’s performance as Wayne – and not just because of the end monologue, which gives me chills every time. But he manages to fit right in to the rest of the established characters without seeming too out-of-place, and more importantly creates a good foil for both Mr. Peanutbutter and Diane. My only criticism is that there sure have been more animal-people than black people in the show so far. Wherefore hast thou been, Wayne?

Now let’s talk about the main plot: Todd has written most of a rock opera, which at first disgusts BoJack. However, BoJack gradually becomes more involved…until he realizes that Todd’s success could take him away from BoJack. At that point, BoJack concocts a complex scheme involving character actress Margo Martindale (played by character actress Margo Martindale).

(Side note – as a guy who writes Sci Fi/Fantasy as my main fiction squeeze, there’s a moment that really rang a little too close to home. Todd’s opening line is “traveling on a spaceship,” at which point BoJack says “I’m out.” IT’S BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU, MISTER HORSEMAN, THAT SCIENCE FICTION ISN’T TAKEN SERIOUSLY AS A LITERARY GENRE. YOU, SIR, ARE A DISGR-)

BoJack’s reaction to the entire rock opera got a spit take from me the first time I watched the episode – “That was – and I don’t say this lightly – worse than a hundred September 11ths.” That and the later line – “Imagine if the Holocaust happened every four years like the Olympics. I would rather that happened than your rock opera.” Man, they go there in this episode.

Speaking of which: in general, this episode is absolutely hilarious, more so than previous episodes. It moves quickly and builds a lot of energy with fast jokes – which helps build up to the cripplingly sad ending.

But we’ll talk about the ending in due time. Let’s talk about Mr. Peanutbutter. Wayne is writing a buzzfeed article about PB, and PB desperately uses it as an excuse to compare himself to BoJack. That’s a recurring thread in both this episode and the show as a whole – PB does things that imitate BoJack, even if they’re only subtle things. Look at their ringtones – BoJack’s is the theme from his sitcom, PB’s is the theme from his sitcom. On the surface, it seems right that the episode is about Zoes and Zeldas, because PB is definitely the Zelda (idealistic extrovert) to BoJack’s Zoe (cynical introvert). But there’s more at work here. I want to take the darkest lens possible to examine Mr. Peanutbutter, so let’s look at how he convinces Diane to go get burritos instead of seeing Diane Arbus: he belittles her idea (“your name is Diane, and her name is Diane!”) and, when Wayne says he can go to the Arbus show, PB leaps in with a brutally incisive comment (“you guys are perfect for each other! Why did you ever break up?”) It stifles the idea of Wayne and Diane together pretty quickly. I don’t know exactly what I’m driving at yet, but I just want to examine PB as though he were a manipulative psychopath – because I’m not convinced that he’s not.

This is another one of those episodes that reaches me on a personal level – mostly because I, too, have taken far too long writing my novel because of video games. Todd’s Decapathon VII binge hits pretty close to home.

So now that we’ve talked about PB as manipulative, let’s look at how BoJack manipulates Todd here. He is doing all the good-friend stuff on the surface – don’t buy that game Todd! you know what it does to you! – and makes for a pretty convincing supportive buddy. Of course, this is all a sham. BoJack is manipulating Todd to keep Todd close, and he succeeds at it. PB is manipulating Diane to keep Diane close, and he also succeeds at it.

At the end of the episode, we get to the final confrontation between Diane and Wayne. Wayne hits the nail on the head with his line “You’re trying to be a Zelda, but you’re so obviously a Zoe!” That’s really the message of the whole episode: everyone can be boiled down to a simple archetype, and everything else is just lacquer. BoJack can try to be a supportive friend, but at the end of the day he’s still going to manipulate people to get what he wants. Of course, that’s just Wayne’s perspective – and he’s such a Zoe. He would say that cynical stuff. But really, that’s where this episode takes a brilliantly clickbaity concept – TAKE THIS QUIZ ARE YOU A ZOE OR A ZELDA??? – and finds depth in it, the kind of depth that ties together the whole first season. Much much later, we’ll get Diane’s rebuttal to Wayne (the end of the last episode of season 1), but for now we’re left with Wayne’s assertion that “there’s a darkness inside you, and you can bury it deep in burritos as big as your head, but someday soon that darkness is gonna come out.”

So what else is there to say about this episode? Oddly, not much. It speaks for itself in most ways. The whole premise is the clash between cynicism and idealism, and that’s what we are presented with. There’s a deeper question: are we defined in unchanging terms? Is it too late for me, Diane? And those questions don’t get answered until the end of the season. Wayne’s monologue serves as a nice wrap-up to act 1 of the show: the premise is heavily established, the backstory is as established as need be, and we know the main cast pretty well. Next episode establishes some of the plots that will carry the rest of the season, and introduces us to everyone’s favorite bi-racial Bostonians.

I give this episode a B+. It’s straight-up funnier than the previous episodes (and to be honest, I think I should have given harsher grades to those earlier episodes. The Sarah Lynn one in particular; that’s really more of a C+ in my book. Whatever: it’s written on the Internet, so it is permanent and unchangeable). There aren’t really any off-moments for me, and the finale of the episode is dark and cynical and perfect.