New Bluey episodes are streaming – and leaving fans distraught

Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for season three of Bluey

We wait for new seasons of Bluey like we wait for Christmas in my house. There’s a breathless anticipation that reaches a fever pitch the closer we get to another fresh batch of bingeable, seven-minute-long episodes. And with the latest released on Wednesday on Disney+, even I was surprised by just how affected I was by one episode that left me in tears, having to explain to a five- and three-year-old why mummy is sobbing at Bluey.

The animated kids show – which The Guardian has called “arguably the best television series in the world” – is a tender examination of family life as seen through the eyes of six-year-old Bluey, the eldest of two blue heeler pups, living with her younger sister Bingo, dad Bandit and mum Chili. Life amongst this family of dogs revolves around joy, imaginative play and emotional vulnerability. It has tackled everything from sibling rivalry, jealousy, regret and technology addiction to miscarriage. It’s a cartoon that manages to engage children and yes, occasionally devastate their parents, too.

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This latest season is no different, with 10 new episodes that have captivated kids and one in particular that is driving countless conversations and arguments among adults online.

Episode 32 of season three (called Onesies) is, on the surface, a look at Bingo’s raucous imagination gone haywire, as Chili’s estranged sister Brandy finally comes to visit after four years. She arrives with two animal onesies, a cheetah for Bingo and a zebra for Bluey. Bluey is envious of Bingo’s cheetah costume but it doesn’t quite fit and Bingo has taken to her cheetah persona a little too intently. The outfits unleash a wild game of hunter and hunted, but throughout, Brandy seems uncomfortable, on the verge of leaving and seemingly full of unspoken regrets.

A sad fan theory confirmed

Eventually Bluey asks Chili why her aunt is so sad and why she’s only come to see them once before. As Brandy wrestles with a feral Bingo outside, we learn that much like Bluey’s desire for the cheetah costume, aunt Brandy had badly wished for something that no one could make fit and was ultimately not meant to be. Viewers extrapolated that Chili was talking about infertility, seeming to confirm fan theories around her own issues with child loss.