Bully

*Bully* is the sixth episode of the second season of Living Free. Written and Directed by Mike Barkhoff, it premiered on April 29th, 2022, and was written by Barkhoff to be "somewhat of a sequel to Doppelgang".

## Plot

Mike is working on an autobiographical novel titled "What I Learned From Philip E. Clarke". Struggling to write it, Mike falls into a suit of depression. He notices that the novel has been edited while he was asleep, and he talks to Ron, asking for advice. Ron ponders that perhaps the server isn't the strongest, or Mike shared it with someone. When Mike refuses both possibilities, Ron suggests setting up a camera. Mike likes the idea.

Mike hears typing when he acts like he's going to sleep. He confronts the typer, who is a future version of himself. They begin to talk about Philip Clarke, a screenwriter who helped a younger Mike hone his skill before demanding fourteen year old Mike begin to pay him.

Present Day Mike is adamant that Philip was a bad man and needs to see someone stand up to him, suggesting that artists need to help other artists for free. Future Mike, however, tells Present Day Mike that he is misunderstanding it, not thinking it through, and, most importantly, becomes similar to Philip in the future.

Present Day Mike stops and considers all that he hears, as Eminem's "Bully" plays.

## Production

Barkhoff partially wrote this episode to follow-up left off plot lines of Doppelgang, but also because he knew he needed a "spacer" to move the season from Point A to Point B, as the first half saw Barkhoff struggling to write a script, and the second half was "different than that".

The episode is titled after Eminem's unreleased song, "Bully". Barkhoff revealed after this episode that all episodes of Season 2 are named after songs - a fact that he thought the audience would figure out by this episode, as the last two episodes both ended with their song playing.

Two days after this episode aired, Barkhoff launched his new company CreateMore. This episode discusses the livelihood of the very company. Barkhoff admitted this was merely coincidental, and instead attributed his decision to launch the company sooner than later to his excitement of a new Kendrick Lamar album, realizing how long he'd been working on the company without "pushing publish".

## Reception

The episode garnered a 9.1/10 on IMDb. It was considered a strong entry, but some elements were criticized, such as the pacing and the camerawork. Clarke Accloades joked that the camerawork seemed to be still on vacation with the series, but otherwise noted that "'Bully' might be the strongest entry of Living Free in terms of message, but it's means of convey are at times short sighted." He continued, "the acting is noticeable here. The writing is admirable (how Barkhoff knew I wanted a sequel to Doppelgang, I don't know..) but it does a really great job of planting it's feet and carrying Season 2 from one arc to the next, in a huge oppose from Season 1's third episode." Clarke Accloades settled with a score of 8 out of 10.

Notably, the IMDb received less ratings initially than most episodes, but the viewership regained numbers following the prior episode's smaller amount. This episode managed to match 2nd Chance in viewership for the first two days.