| “ | I'm at a place right now where I never need to grow as a person or rise to an occasion because I can constantly just surround myself with sycophants and enablers until I die tragically young. | ” |
Prickly-Muffin is the third episode of Season 1 of the Netflix original series, BoJack Horseman. Prickly-Muffin, along with the rest of Season 1, premiered August 22, 2014.
Synopsis[]
BoJack reconnects with his troubled former co-star Sarah Lynn, who moves into his house and creates pandemonium.
Plot[]
BoJack's relationship with former child co-star Sarah Lynn is shown during a taping of an episode. BoJack cruelly advises Sarah Lynn, that no one will love her—except for her fans, and to never stop giving them what they want.
Twelve years after the conversation, Sarah Lynn has become a pop singing sensation and sex icon.
Claiming she will be young and sexy forever, at an interview, the scene cuts again to another twelve years later to show Sarah Lynn at thirty years old.
She has developed a severe drug addiction, people have lost interest in her—for newer and younger pop singers such as Sextina Aquafina.
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Back in the present, Todd accidentally breaks BoJack's bed, and the two head out to buy a new one. At a furniture store, BoJack is reunited with Sarah Lynn, as she is out shopping with her boyfriend Andrew Garfield.
Andrew takes the opportunity to break up with Sarah Lynn on the spot. He claims doesn't know who she is anymore since she has become unsuccessful and that breaking up in public would prevent her from making a scene.
Sarah Lynn responds to this news by promptly swallows an entire bottle full of pills, stabs herself with a bayonet in anger, and defecates on a sofa made from a reclaimed propeller. She is taken to a hospital and rehab center by BoJack.
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During BoJack's next memoir interview session with Diane, Sarah Lynn shows up at BoJack's front door after leaving the rehab center prematurely. She asks BoJack to let her hide out at his house, instead of confronting her problems, and BoJack agrees.
He asks both Diane and Princess Carolyn if they think he's doing the right thing. Diane suspects BoJack of compensating for his past treatment of Sarah Lynn by letting her stay, to which he defensively replies he is "not trying to play out some weird, sick dad fantasy, or resolve a deep guilt for past neglect." Princess Carolyn simply cuts off BoJack when he reveals Sarah Lynn has fired her previous agent.
Sarah Lynn begins to throw wild parties at BoJack's house, causing destruction and mayhem, while Princess Carolyn attempts to solicit Sarah Lynn to be her agent. Diane and Todd tell BoJack he needs to set boundaries with her, but BoJack says she simply needs some love. To accomplish this, BoJack sets out to spend quality time together with Sarah Lynn and gives her his TV Guide Award to show how much he cares for her. These attempts fail miserably.
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Sarah Lynn then reveals to BoJack that Herb Kazzaz, creator of Horsin' Around and BoJack's old friend, has developed colon cancer and has six months to live. The TV Guide Award is found the next day at a pawn shop, where Mr. Peanutbutter finds it and calls BoJack. Angered, he confronts Sarah Lynn, and the two get into an argument that ends with sex—when they realize they're not actual family members.
Diane and Todd tell BoJack he is making the situation worse, Diane claims BoJack is taking advantage of Sarah Lynn's situation more than she is taking advantage of BoJack since she asked for help first. BoJack relents, and tells Sarah Lynn he won't let her stay anymore, because she needs to get real help.
Sarah Lynn casually accepts while blowing off BoJack's advice, stating she feels she's "at a place where she doesn't need to grow as a person and can constantly surround herself with sycophants and enablers until she dies tragically young."
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Before she leaves, she tells Princess Carolyn she will hire her rival Vanessa Gekko to be her agent due to Princess Carolyn's pestering. Princess Carolyn acts shocked, only to reveal she had planned for this to happen, to set Andrew Garfield to meet with her instead—once Sarah Lynn has left the house. The episode ends with two paparazzi birds conspiring while holding the incriminating photos they took of BoJack having sex with Sarah Lynn.
Cast[]
| Actor | Character | |
|---|---|---|
| Will Arnett | ... | BoJack Horseman |
| Amy Sedaris | ... | Princess Carolyn |
| Alison Brie | ... | Diane Nguyen / Olivia |
| Paul F. Tompkins | ... | Mr. Peanutbutter / Andrew Garfield |
| Aaron Paul | ... | Todd Chavez |
| Adam Conover | ... | Ethan / A Ryan Seacrest Type |
| Mike Hollingsworth | ... | Partying lemur |
| Kristen Schaal | ... | Sarah Lynn |
| Dave Segal | ... | Robin Paparazzi |
| Nicole Sullivan | ... | Fan Girl |
| Aisha Tyler | ... | Sextina Aquafina / Sarah Lynn's Mother |
Trivia[]
- A rough draft of this episode's script from BoJack Horseman: The Art Before The Horse reveals that the episode (and the song Sarah Lynn sings) was originally titled "Sexy Sex, Sexy Boobs," BoJack didn't give young Sarah Lynn his speech about how she has to give the people what they want, and BoJack and Sarah Lynn would film each other having sex with the latter's phone, and a scandal involving their sex tape would be teased.
- This is similar to how the Paparazzi Birds tried to blackmail BoJack throughout the next few episodes until Say Anything, but they failed every time and BoJack never even knew about their plot.
- Todd's fascination with Sarah Lynn's revelations that Andrew Garfield loved to eat lasagna all the time and hated having auditions on Mondays are a reference to the newspaper comic strip Garfield created by Jim Davis.
- During the first scene of Sarah Lynn's party, On Fire Again by Circuit Shaker plays in the background.
- This is the first time a licensed song is used in the show (albeit it only appears in the background).
- The drug seen being crushed and snorted by Sarah Lynn called "dexitriathylphenolbarbatol" is not an existing drug in real life.
- Sarah Lynn's mother tells her during a flashback "Mommy didn't do what mommy did to that Star Search producer so that you could be an architect." Coincidentally, Star Search featured prominently on a Season 3 episode of Full House, and Britney Spears was a contestant on Star Search at age ten. Horsin' Around and Sarah Lynn are likely parodies of Full House and Spears, respectively.
- BoJack attempted to check Sarah Lynn into a Promises rehab center, the same one Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan attended, whom Sarah Lynn is likely a parody of.
- Netflix announced its own weed strains titled after episodes and items from various original shows. One of them was titled "Prickly-Muffin."
- The subtitles for this episode misspell Vanessa Gekko's last name as "Gecko" whenever she is mentioned.
- When BoJack asks Sarah Lynn where she got her pills from, she says she got them from "Dr. Who" at Adam Levine's Halloween party. At this point, it is implied that her drug dealer was simply in costume as the character from the British TV series, and it is not until Downer Ending that it is revealed Sarah Lynn was referring to an actual doctor, Dr. Allen Hu, whose last name is "Hu."
- The boardwalk pier sign advertises "Fish Racing" and "Gull Wrestling."
- The music video for the song Prickly-Muffin is planetarium-themed, which may be foreshadowing for the significance of the planetarium in That's Too Much, Man!
- Sextina Aquafina's dubstep song can be heard in the background of the house party at BoJack's house and again later in BoJack Kills, instrumentally.
Intro Differences[]
- None for this episode.