Time's Arrow (BoJack Horseman)

"Time's Arrow" is the eleventh and penultimate episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series ''BoJack Horseman'', and the 47th episode overall. It was written by Kate Purdy and directed by Aaron Long, and was released in the United States, along with the rest of season four, via Netflix on September 8, 2017. Matthew Broderick, Majandra Delfino, and Wendie Malick provide voices in guest appearances in the episode.

The episode follows a non-linear structure, looking at the life of BoJack Horseman's mother, Beatrice, and her battle with dementia and deteriorating health.

In February 2018, "Time's Arrow" won the Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Animation at the 70th WGA Awards.

Plot

Beginning where the previous episode left off, a furious BoJack drives Beatrice to a nursing home after she spiked Hollyhock's coffee, causing her to overdose. BoJack continues to grow frustrated that Beatrice cannot recognize him, and tells her they are going to a "magical place where she can never hurt anyone again". On the car ride, through Beatrice's fuzzy memories, it is revealed how her father (Matthew Broderick) pushes her toward a potential suitor, whom she spurns in favor of the dashing aspiring writer, Butterscotch Horseman. She becomes pregnant by Butterscotch, marries him, and they move to San Francisco. Their marriage falters as their dreams fail to pan out; she becomes unhappy and bitter. Both drink heavily and take out their frustrations on BoJack. Butterscotch later has an affair with a maid named Henrietta, an aspiring nurse. Beatrice convinces Henrietta to give up the baby for adoption so that she can continue in nursing school. The episode ends with her reliving the traumatic memory of her father burning her toy doll in a fireplace. Just as BoJack is about to leave, Beatrice recognizes him as her son, asking him where they currently are. BoJack lies and tells her they are at the Michigan lake house, telling her she is with her family and eating ice cream, something she was never allowed to do as a child.

Production

Development and background

According to an interview with series creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg, writer Kate Purdy, and production designer Lisa Hanawalt, a key idea for the season was to " often theedges" of Beatrice, a character who has previously been shown as "horrible". Hints of Beatrice's failing memory and "soft" personality were incorporated earlier in the season, and some aspects were added "Time's Arrow" was written, mostly as minor "throwaway ines. An influence for the scene where Henrietta and Beatrice both give birth came from Purdy's own life, whose hospitalized great aunt repeatedly " skedfor her baby". Purdy bought her aunt a doll, which gave her the thought of the "very primordial" connection between mothers and child birth, an idea she incorporated into the scene.

Animation

The episode's extras proved difficult to animate, as many were designed without faces to emphasize Beatrice's failing memory. McDonnell (2018): p. 215. After "some back and forth", it was decided that blurring the faces of the extras would be the simplest solution. Hanawalt likened "Time's Arrow"'s use of a "static scribble" to a similar sequence from the episode Stupid Piece of Sh*t, in which BoJack repeatedly calls himself an idiot, a stylistic choice that Hanawalt described as "fun".

Animation director Aaron Long had a "lot of conversations" with the animation staff over how to accurately portray dementia through visuals, and the episode " rokesome of the howsrules" in an effort to do so. The scene in which a slide is portrayed as being "like a million feet tall" was conceived as such early in the episode's storyboarding, and an animator later made it "twisty". The slide was drawn in that way to represent Beatrice's "twisted, demented memory" of the experience.

Analysis

"Time's Arrow" explores themes of dementia and trauma. ''Vultures Jen Chaney identified the episode's animation as showing how "scrambled" Beatrice's mind and mental function have become. Chaney uses Beatrice's housekeeper, Henrietta, and her "jumbled scribble" characteristics as an example of this.

Reception

"Time's Arrow" received universal acclaim from critics, many of whom described it as one of the best episodes of the season and of the series. Les Chappell of ''The A.V. Club'', who gave the episode an "A", wrote that there was "no episode of television to simultaneously anticipate and dread more in the year than Time's Arrow" Julia Alexander, writing for ''Polygon'', described "Time's Arrow" as "TV's best episode of 2017". In ''The Atlantic'', Lenika Cruz noted the episode's effectiveness at its portrayal of female characters.

References

Book sources

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External links

"Time's Arrow"
on Netflix
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{{WritersGuildofAmericaAnimationScreenplay

BoJack Horseman episodes
2017 American television episodes
Works about dementia