[Loved Trope] The one random episode that doesn't follow the main characters

[u/BagOfSmallerBags]

Heated Rivalry Episode 3 "Hunter": The show stops following Hollander and Rozanov's love story to follow another hockey player, Scott Hunter, and his romance with a smoothie store employee.

The Last of Us S1E3 "Long Long Time": Joel and Ellie need a car. So to explain why there's a car waiting around for them to use, they show us an incredibly heartbreaking love story lasting 20 years between two men Joel knows. They have a car.

Doctor Who S3E10 "Blink": With no explanation given, this episode begins with a character we've never met, one Sally Sparrow, poking around an abandoned building. Our lead character, The Doctor, is glimpsed seemingly randomly on TVs. What is going on? Did that statue just move!?

MythicQuest S1E5 "A Dark Quiet Death": Rather than continuing to follow our lead characters as they develop an MMORPG, we flash back many years to witness the history of a couple who start a videogame company, and how over the years the pressure to drive sales causes them to give up on their artistic integrity.

[u/prince_javi]

Bojack Horseman has one “A quick one while he’s away”. Showing how his actions have repercussions for a lot of side characters we have met so far.

[u/Suspicious_Clock_133 → u/prince_javi]

Season 4's first episode mr. Peanutbutter run is also counts in this list.

[u/SteelBeetles → u/Suspicious_Clock_133]

It doesn't though? It's still following the main cast, just without Bojack around after he bailed at the end of the previous season.

[u/aboysmokingintherain → u/prince_javi]

I also liked the episode where it shows Princess Caroline's industry rivals and frames them as the heroes of their own story who get their happy ending at her expense.

[u/The_Throwback_King → u/prince_javi]

Really good episode at showcasing dread in the absence of the character.

After so many seasons of wanting Bojack to become a better person, struggle with finding stability, and maybe almost finding it.

Once we’re finally divorced from his perspective, we finally see just how fucked he really is.

He may be the master of escaping self- accountability but that snowball never stopped rolling and it was headed right for him

[u/DuelaDent52 → u/The_Throwback_King]

I don’t know, I get real mixed messages from that episode. On the one hand I love seeing the consequences of what he does and how just because he can be better doesn’t mean he’s entitled to forgiveness or can erase what he’s done, but on the other they emphasise over and over and over again that Bojack’s tragic past doesn’t and shouldn’t excuse his cruelty in the present and ultimately no one else but him is responsible for his cruelty at present... but when Gina turns cruel from her trauma, we’re meant to take it as exclusively Bojack’s fault and she bears no responsibility for her behaviour towards others?

[u/The_Throwback_King → u/DuelaDent52]

I’m confused by what you mean in the last part.

Because Gina IS responsible for her own actions. She develops a reputation as a “difficult” actress and that cost her certain roles.

Bojack caused her trauma but her decision to bottle it up for the sake of her career has led to it manifesting in other ways

Shows another example of Bojack’s unhealthy actions leading to lasting damage on another performer.

At the end of day, in spite of “how far” Season 5 Bojack “had come”, he was still JUST as capable of Inflicting the same kind of trauma that harmed Sarah Lynn on Horsin’ Around

Ultimately both Gina and Sarah Lynn both bore personal responsibility for how they handled the trauma and bore partial blame for the shitty things they did as a performer

Although by all accounts, the primary author of their downfall was certainly Bojack
One of many examples of the women in his life that he trampled on his own selfish road

Which we see reflected more succinctly in the Biscuits Braxby interview