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Introduction
You know, sometimes I think I was born with a leak, and any goodness I started with just slowly spilled out of me and now it's all gone. And I'll never get it back in me. It's too late. Life is a series of closing doors, isn't it?

—BoJack Horseman, Horse Majeure


BoJack F. Horseman is the titular main character of BoJack Horseman. The show primarily follows BoJack and his life after his successful '90s sitcom, Horsin' Around

Design

BoJack is an adult, male, grade/thoroughbred cross horse weighing at 1,200 pounds as revealed in the pilot episode. He is around 6'7" feet (15.2 hands at the withers, 19.75 at the ears) tall and he has a fat belly.

He has brown (medium bay) fur and a black mane, with a white snippet on his snout that begins at his upper lip and ends underneath his eyes, a white diamond-shaped mark on his forehead, and bags under his eyes. He also has a pink spot on his nose and pointy ears near his mane. Despite being a horse, BoJack, like other animals in the BoJack Horseman series, is designed with human feet and hands and does not have a tail.

BoJack is typically seen wearing an unbuttoned gray sports jacket with a blue sweater underneath, cyan blue jeans, and red and white sneakers.

During his twenties-early thirties, he was much slimmer and he had a thicker mane that somewhat resembled a mullet. His fur also appeared lighter. On Horsin' Around, he wore an orange sweater with pink apples along the middle and a pink collar and cuffs, along with light blue jeans and red sneakers.

In the 80s, he wore a grey collared shirt with a white plaid design with a white tie, a light blue opened jacket, light blue jeans with a white belt, and red sneakers.

As a child, he wore a blue and white sailors suit and had small visible eyelashes.

As a teenager, he had a similar hairstyle as his young adult self, and he had pimples.

In Time's Arrow, he is seen briefly in 1999, at the age of thirty-five, He looks almost exactly how he does currently, although he does not have any wrinkles and his mane is mostly still thicker.

In Season 5, when he is shooting Philbert, he is seen wearing his costume for the show more often as the season progresses. He wears a beige trench coat over a grey collared shirt, a dark grey tie, dark grey pants with a black belt with a police badge attached to it, and black shoes.

History

Horseman Family portrait

The Horseman Family: Butterscotch and Beatrice Horseman with their son BoJack.

Background

Born on January 2nd, 1964, BoJack Horseman was born and raised in San Francisco, California, and grew up in a dysfunctional family. His mother, Beatrice Horseman, was a housewife and the heiress of the Sugarman Sugarcube fortune, while his father Butterscotch Horseman was a failed novelist from a working-class background, whom resented his wife's financial independence, and worked at a fish cannery until BoJack was six, which after that point he begrudgingly took a job for Beatrice's father's company.

Butterscotch was an alcoholic and regularly verbally abused, and sometimes even physically abused, BoJack while he was young. He was also often seen yelling nonsensical ultra-conservative hyperbole, usually to cover up his failures, and "easy comings" in the world, typically blaming it on Democrats, Jews, or Communists.

His mother, Beatrice, resented BoJack for everything he had done to her including being born, saying that she was beautiful before she got pregnant. To her, BoJack was a reminder of all of her bad decisions, and her tragic childhood did not help this fact.

Her smoking habits, forceful will, addictions, and constant bickering with Butterscotch made BoJack's formative years difficult, and eventually shaped how he turned out as a grownup.

To escape from his terrible home life, young BoJack reveled in the fame of Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner. BoJack grew fond of Secretariat and wanted to be just like him.

As BoJack became older he turned to comedy for solace after the 1973 suicide of Secretariat. In the mid-80s, BoJack left his parents and headed to Los Angeles and started working on his career as a comedian.

In 1985, while trying hole-in-the-wall comedy clubs, BoJack met Herb Kazzaz, and later Charlotte Moore, Herb's girlfriend. The three became good friends while BoJack and Herb tried to become big stars, with Herb mentoring BoJack on how to better his comedy.

Herb finally lands a show called Horsin' Around and confides in BoJack that he is to be the star of the show. Charlotte eventually moves to Maine and then to New Mexico where she starts her own family of husband Kyle Carson and two children Trip Carson and Penny Carson. BoJack did not see her again for decades. The next time they meet is at Herb Kazzaz's funeral.

Horsin' Around Still 1

BoJack on Horsin' Around

During the show, BoJack slowly becomes more and more depressed, bitter, and cynical, and also lets fame go to his head. He turns to smoking and alcohol just like his parents in order to deal with the pressure and loneliness of becoming famous in Hollywood, and his relationship with Herb became strained.

In the early 90s, BoJack's agent Marv told him that a Secretariat movie is in the works, and he might have the lead role if he can avoid scandals. However, around the same time Herb was caught doing lewd acts in public with another man, he talks to BoJack about how the executives are gunning for him and asks BoJack to back him up and threaten to quit. BoJack, at first hesitant due to what Marv told him, agreed.

Later, an ABC network executive talks to BoJack about letting Herb go. Although against it at first, BoJack finally agrees to stay while Herb is fired. BoJack doesn't talk to Herb after until Herb is on his deathbed. BoJack continues the show through the rest of nine seasons until its cancellation, and the Secretariat movie ended up going into development hell. The finale features the death of BoJack's character, The Horse, and the doctor telling his adopted orphans that he died of a "broken heart" because they didn't love him enough.

He really didn't get many roles for the next twenty years, with the minor exception of The BoJack Horseman Show (TV series) in 2007, which was critically panned and canceled. It was created by Cuddlywhiskers. BoJack refuses to talk about it in public to this day. Around the same time, BoJack’s father Butterscotch passed away.

On Halloween, 2009, during BoJack's annual Halloween party, he gets a call from his mother, who tells him that his father, Butterscotch, died from injuries he sustained in a duel.

That same night, a young slacker named Todd Chavez went to his party. After the party ended, BoJack laments to Todd, the on,y guest who stayed, that he thought he would feel something when this (one of his parents dying) happened, but he doesn’t. Todd offers to stick around for a bit, and BoJack agrees and tells him to stick around as long as he wants.

Season 1

Twenty years later, BoJack has fallen into a cynical depressed life of couch living while watching reruns of his has-been show. Todd is still living with him. BoJack actually cares for Todd, despite saying otherwise. He didn't want Todd to leave him, for fear of loneliness, and sabotaged his rock opera.

BoJack also begins to date his agent, Princess Carolyn, in an effort to not be alone, although their relationship is an on-again-off-again one. He also must deal with Mr. Peanutbutter, whom also had a TV Show in the 90s called Mr. Peanutbutter's House, which BoJack claims copied Horsin' Around's premise, this assumption turns out to be correct as the working title was Untitled Horsin' Around Knockoff, as revealed in Season 4. Due to this he considers Mr. Peanutbutter a rival, whereas the latter is constantly energetic and cheerful around BoJack, considering him a friend, which just annoys BoJack even more.

Reaching utter despair, BoJack is approached by Pinky Penguin of Penguin Publishing, to write his biography. Believing to be up to the task, BoJack promised to write the book himself. Unable to, they forced him to hire a ghostwriter, Diane Nguyen, the writer of his hero Secretariat's biography. Already hating her for her supposedly "unpronounceable last name", he doesn't meet her until late into a party hosted by Todd. Attracted to her immediately, he is disappointed when she reveals that she is dating Mr. Peanutbutter. He grows to like Diane, even having a crush on her at some point, and attempting to stop them from getting married and almost tries to sabotage the wedding.

BoJack also reunited with Sarah Lynn, who played Sabrina, the Horse’s youngest daughter, on Horsin’ Around. A few years after the show ended she became a successful pop singer, but her later album tanked, she showed erotic behavior, turned to drugs and alcohol, and after turning thirty her fans lost interest in her for younger pop singers such as Sextina Aquafina.

After meeting her and attempting to check her into rehab after a public meltdown due to her boyfriend, Andrew Garfield dumping her, he lets her stay with him for a while until everyone tires of her throwing chaotic parties. However, at one point she reveals to him that Herb Kazzaz, his former best friend has “ass cancer”.

Shortly after this, BoJack attempted to reconnect with Herb, who had been diagnosed with terminal rectal cancer and traveled to see him, with Diane and Todd traveling with him. Herb never forgives BoJack, demanding he leaves the house, things get physical, and they fight over a telescope Herb gave to BoJack as a gift breaking it, the broken telescope being a further metaphor for their broken friendship which they never manage to amend.

He continued to work with Diane, and eventually, she was ready to publish the book, However, BoJack discovered that Diane honestly portrayed him as a person that was flawed, yet relatable. He angrily demands to Diane that she rewrite the book, and she in return goes behind his back and leaks early chapters of the book on Buzzfeed, which led to BoJack firing her.

BoJack tried to write the book himself with the help of doing drugs with Todd and Sarah Lynn. This leads to BoJack having a long drug trip where he realizes how psychologically messed up he is and it could be too late for him to change that, and he has a dream where he went with Charlotte to Maine, had a daughter with her and lived a long happy life together.

When he wakes up Princess Carolyn calls him to tell him all he write was random stuff and gibberish. BoJack goes to a ghost writer Q and A that Diane is at and he agrees to publish the book. The book won a Golden Globe, for Best Comedy And/Or Musical despite not being either, not even being a film. He decided to do more with his career, he got the life long dream part of Secretariat, his childhood hero.

Season 2

In Season 2, he attempts to better himself, acting more like Mr. Peanutbutter, however, this prevents him from being a good actor. After remembering Herb and talking with his mother, he realized he couldn't be something he wasn't and wasn't an actual actor, and he was “born broken” and nothing will ever fill the void.

He meets Wanda Pierce, an owl woman who had just woken up from a thirty-year coma and therefore had no idea who he was and finds himself to be not only attracted to her but actually caring for her and wanting to spend time with her, rather than mainly sex. They begin dating.

He reconnected with Horsin' Around crew during Herb's funeral, including Sarah Lynn, Joelle Clarke, and Bradley Hitler-Smith. He also reunited with Charlotte, who revealed that she only lived in Maine for a month in the 80s, and that she currently lived in Tesque, New Mexico.

She gives BoJack her business card and tells him he can visit her if he's ever in New Mexico. He continued to try and make himself a better person and continued his relationship with Wanda, and showed his care for her, even saying " I Love You" to her however the idea of being actually in love scares him and he almost detracts this statement as soon as he says it.

He was also motivated by Kelsey Jannings, the director of Secretariat. He convinced her to go out and shoot the Richard Nixon scene of the film that was cut, for being too dark and gritty, they both didn't like the direction the film was heading in and shot the scene behind the producer, Lenny Turteltaub's back. Kelsey got fired for this and was replaced with another director, Abe D'Catfish.

BoJack was upset and over stressed with this, and the director was upset that BoJack had insulted the film, thus he continued to pack BoJack with repeated re-shoots of the same scenes. He was so stressed, he got into a fight with Wanda, and they broke up, with Wanda saying she couldn't be with someone as negative as him.

He left California, and traveled to New Mexico, to see Charlotte. He finds out that Charlotte is married to a man named Kyle and has two children with him: a seventeen-year-old deer girl named Penny and a thirteen-year-old human boy named Trip. The business went crazy without him, and Princess Carolyn kept giving excuses to cover him up. He lied to Charlotte, and her family, telling them he was there for a boat show. He really went to see Charlotte.

He got along great with her family, especially her daughter Penny. He made himself at home and even took Penny and her friends to prom when her crush failed to ask her out. He encouraged them to drink, and when one of her friends, Maddy, passed out, Penny and BoJack took off and returned home leaving Maddy with Penny's other close friend Pete Repeat in the Emergency Room.

Penny wanted to have sex with BoJack, to which he initially refused. He talked with Charlotte, reminiscing about the fun times they had in the 80's with Herb, and BoJack confesses he cannot run away from his problems, and especially himself, it's a tender moment that causes BoJack to kiss Charlotte and asks her to run away with him, confessing he loved her all this time, and wanting her to leave her husband and life for him.

Charlotte refuses and gets angry, saying she has worked hard for this life for her and her family, and BoJack depresses her. She tells him he can stay for one more night but must leave the next morning.

BoJack returned to his boat that he purchased to keep the lie going, He found Penny there, still wanting sex, he tells her to go to bed and goes inside the cabin, but leaves the door opened. Charlotte, seeing a balloon with a glow stick, that leads to the boat, ends up seeing BoJack and Penny allegedly about to have sex. She orders Penny angrily to go to her room, and then tells BoJack that if she ever tried to contact her or her family again, she would "fucking kill him", which is the second relationship BoJack has permanently destroyed, the first being with Herb Kazzaz.

He took the boat back to Hollywoo with him. He found the film has been finished without him, as he was replaced with a computer-generated version of himself. His performance and the film are widely praised and he is offered for more and more roles, and hiring a new publicist, Ana Spanakopita, who promises him success with winning an Oscar, as that is what she is well-known for.

He jogs once again up a hill for exercise, and the Jogging Baboon told him it gets easier but he needs to follow a routine of doing it every single day which is the difficult part.

Season 3

In Season 3, BoJack is seen promoting the Secretariat film and gets annoyed with the several interviews. BoJack had hired Ana Spanakopita as his publicist, and they are working on getting him an Oscar nomination.

Most of the interviewers asked BoJack about Horsin' Around and he defended it. Ana told him to stop defending the show, claiming he was more than a sitcom star now. While in New York, New York, he decides to see a play by his old friend Jill Pill. They worked on the BoJack Horseman Show together. Jill asked him to visit Cuddlywhiskers, who created the BoJack Horseman Show.

Doing an interview with Manatee Fair, the interviewer got him drunk after he got upset about everybody asking him what he'll do next. They end up having sex in his hotel room, where he drunkenly talked about the incident with Penny and revealed that he is not in Secretariat, it's just a computer- generated version of him. The interviewer recorded the conversation. He wakes up the next morning to find she is gone, and panics. However, Ana Spanakopita manages to fix the situation somehow. Later, at a Q@A at a Secretariat screening, he decided to play Ana's game and doesn't defend Horsin' Around.

Back in L.A, he decided to visit Cuddlywhiskers with Diane, who was having marriage problems with Mr. Peanutbutter. They didn't find him right away, instead they finding a dead female whale in a pool. Her phone showed she had text someone, saying " BoJack is trying to kill me."

BoJack and Diane were interrogated but not arrested due to lack of evidence. They tried to figure out what happened, it turned out the whale was working at the sketchy Whale World, which was basically a strip club that did not use the term " Strippers" so it was " Family- Friendly".

The club was owned by Ritchie Osbourne, who played the character of Goober on Horsin' Around. He was a sexist person who was arrested previously for raping a dozen Laker Girls. It turned out BoJack was not being framed, but the stripper was addicted to a new type of drug made by Ritchie called " BoJack" because horse meant heroin and he's a horse. Ritchie was arrested. Later, BoJack met Cuddlywhiskers for the first time in eight years.

After returning a seahorse back to his family and unsuccessfully trying to reconnect with Kelsey in the Pacific Ocean while attending the film festival there, BoJack begins to worry when Secretariat is officially released. When the film is a success, he, along with Todd, decide to crash a random wedding-er, rehearsal dinner. Todd reconnects with his old girlfriend Emily.

BoJack takes over the dinner, but accidentally convinces one of the brides that they shouldn't get married if they don't know if that's what they want. BoJack also tries to set Todd up with Emily, unaware that he is asexual and does not want to pursue Emily romantically. BoJack eventually set the brides back together when he warns her not to let go of the people close to her, or as he puts it, " Find someone you can halfway tolerate and don't let go." That night, he ended up having sex with Emily, as she was saddened by Todd not wanting her.

BoJack slowly began to lose his confidence as he was losing award such as The Leonard Maltin awards and The Golden Snowflake awards. BoJack was trying to prank Jurj Clooners, who was considered the " King Of Pranks" but found out that Ana was his publicist. Upon finding out Ana was doing great work for other clients, he fired Ana in anger. BoJack hired Todd as his publicist, but he wasn't good at all. Ana fired all her other clients and BoJack hired her once more. Ana proceeded to give BoJack a handjob.

Since Todd and Emily had been working on their Uber-like business Cabracadabra they were stationed at BoJack's house. BoJack and Emily were nervous and tried to hide their sex secret from Todd. At the same time, BoJack was upset that he was constantly getting newspapers from The L.A Gazette, which he never subscribed to.

He vents to the closer who is trying to convince him to keep the newspapers. He keeps having sex with Ana but realizes he doesn't know her, and follows her home one day. He is depressed seeing her lonely life. He also picks a billboard advertisement for Secretariat that he likes, but it doesn't make much sense in that context. Oh, and Margo Martindale had been living in his boat for months, stealing the food from the house. He eventually agrees to keep the newspaper coming to the house.

On December 31st, 2015, BoJack was upset that Bradley Hitler-Smith, his old co-star from Horsin Around was making a sequel series to Horsin' Around titled Ethan Around and hadn't told him about it. Bradley was ecstatic BoJack is " Attached" to the series, although he didn't actually want to do it and was just mad Bradley hadn't told him about it.

Princess Carolyn gave him an offer to do a film called Flight Of The Pegasus. BoJack saw this as a chance to get out of Ethan Around. BoJack also got a chance to do another film about a girl who enjoys jelly beans. Even better, it was being directed by Kelsey Jannings!

Princess Carolyn tried to get him to do both films, as he wanted. Meanwhile, Bradley flew over to L.A that same day, telling BoJack about it. He didn't have the heart to tell Bradley he didn't want to do it. Princess Carolyn ended up accidentally blowing both film deals that night for BoJack.

Not only that, but Ana bluntly told Bradley he didn't wish to do Ethan Around. BoJack had nothing left to do. In early January 2016, roughly around BoJack's fifty-second birthday, he decided to fire Princess Carolyn as his agent for screwing up his film deals. After a long night, that included having them save the restaurant that BoJack owned, BoJack stuck to his decision to fire Princess Carolyn.

Sometime later, early months of 2016, Mr. Peanutbutter was asked to announce the Oscar nominations, but he lost the envelope to the nominations. He and Todd came up with their own nominations, and they included BoJack's performance in Secretariat. He ended up throwing a party and getting drunk and knocked out in a pool after fighting with Diane.

Mr. Peanutbutter saved his life, but it was revealed what actually happened, BoJack was never nominated for an Oscar. Ana was not at the party, she was nowhere to be found and did not answer BoJack's calls. Todd returned home the next morning. Emily had abandoned the Cabracadabra project and told Todd that neither she nor BoJack hadn't been very good friends to Todd.

Todd and BoJack argued once he returned. BoJack eventually revealed he had sex with Emily. BoJack tried to apologize and give an excuse, but Todd didn't want to hear it, saying “You are everything that is wrong with you. It’s not the drugs, or the alcohol, or the shitty things that happened to you in your career, or when you were a kid, it’s you”. He then said “Fuck, man. What else is there to say?” and leaves BoJack alone.

BoJack, with nobody still close to him, decides to drink and do drugs with Sarah Lynn after she had been sober for over eight months. They go on an epic bender for a month and end up visiting Ohio State University, where Penny is attending.

They spy on her to see if the incident with BoJack messed her up at all, but she appears to be ok and having a good time at college. However, she ends up seeing BoJack and she becomes terrified. Fans and paparazzi also see BoJack and Sarah Lynn, and the two flee as Penny disappears into the crowd. Sarah Lynn and BoJack return to LA and break down emotionally after doing heroin, and BoJack tells Sarah Lynn they’re going to the planetarium.

While watching the show, Sarah Lynn rests on BoJack’s shoulder and says she wants to be an architect. BoJack then gives a speech about being small specs in the large universe, saying it doesn’t matter what they did in the past or how they’ll be remembered, all that matters is now. Sarah Lynn does not respond. BoJack says her name and nudges her. Sarah Lynn died from a drug overdose at age thirty-one.

BoJack is deeply distraught over Sarah Lynn's overdose. He stays home and watches old episodes of Horsin' Around. Diane visits him after he returns from her funeral and tells him how much Horsin' Around comforted her as a child. He says people need a show like Horsin' Around in their lives.

This inspires BoJack to call Bradley and tells him that he does want to do Ethan Around. BoJack seems to be getting his life back on track. They film the first episode, but when Chloe, the little girl in the show, tells BoJack her dream is to be like him, he panics, remembering Sarah Lynn and flees the building. He drives up the highway, and speeds the car, trying to commit suicide, but he sees several horses running, and he watches them in the distance.

Around this time, while at her new office Princess Carolyn learns from her assistant, Judah, that someone is trying to contact BoJack, and that it sounds like a teenage girl. Princess Carolyn tells him to ignore it, as she doesn’t work for him anymore. We then see who was on the other line: a teenage female horse, who looks sad at not being able to contact BoJack.

Season 4

Season 4 begins with the reveal BoJack has been missing for a while. In the second episode it picks up at where Season 3 left off. BoJack gets a call from Diane, but ignores it. After watching the wild horses leave, he drives further up the highway, across the country. He arrives in Harper's Landing, Michigan, staying at the lake house he and his mother stayed in during their childhood summers, which has become run down and depleted in the last few decades.

He stays there for over a year, not revealing his identity and becoming a legally missing person. He meets Eddie, a dragonfly who lives next door. Although a bit of a grump, he helps BoJack fix up the house. He doesn’t leave the lakefront because he refuses to fly although BoJack says he could take a plane.

By the end of summer the lake house is almost finished, all that’s missing is a weather vane that was stolen by a local restaurant in a barn. While BoJack goes to get the weather vane Eddie distracts everyone by singing I Will Always Think of You on the piano, and at the end, he breaks down crying. BoJack is seen by the owners and the two run off in BoJack’s car. Later, while BoJack puts up the weather vane, he purposely falls off the ladder to get Eddie to fly and catch him. Eddie does end up flying, which enrages him.

He picks BoJack up and they start flying higher, with Eddie revealing he got his wife Lorraine killed because he made the, fly too high and she got sucked into a plane engine. Eddie attempts a murder-suicide with BoJack by trying to get them sucked into a plane engine, but BoJack gets loose and the two fall into the lake. After BoJack rescues Eddie, the latter asks BoJack why he saved him and breaks down crying saying he doesn’t want to live.

BoJack leaves Eddie and goes back inside and calls Diane. He apologizes to her for everything and tells her where he is. He says he can’t come home because he doesn’t belong anywhere. Diane reassured him that everyone belongs in Los Angeles, it has no barriers for entry.

BoJack jokingly agrees with her that LA will let in literally anyone. The two then admit they missed each other. The next morning BoJack calls in a demolition team to destroy the lake house. When Eddie asks what's going on, BoJack tells him that he has decided to stop wallowing in the past and move forward in life. As the house is torn down, BoJack drives back to Hollywoo.

Shortly after BoJack returns to Hollywoo the teenage horse girl who tried to contact him over a year ago also arrives. She knocks out Todd with chloroform, and after he wakes up she introduces herself as Hollyhock Manheim-Mannheim-Guerrero-Robinson-Zilberschlag-Hsung-Fonzerelli-McQuack.

She has eight last names because she was adopted by eight gay men who all live in a gay polyamorous relationship. She explains that ever since she was a baby people have always told her she looked like BoJack Horseman, so she came to Los Angeles to see if he is her biological father. She came to Todd first because BoJack said they lived together in his book.

Todd says they don’t live together anymore, but he agrees to take her to BoJack’s house to find a DNA sample, a strand of hair, to get tested. However, they discover BoJack has returned, and he is passed out on his couch, in his underwear and surrounded by garbage.

BoJack is in a deep enough sleep for Hollyhock to yank out a strand of his hair. Hollyhock says “Ok, let’s blow “ and the word blow wakes up BoJack, saying to save some for him. BoJack asks who she is and she introduces herself. Todd says she’s his new maid. BoJack starts to thank Todd and tell him how grateful he is for him, but Todd says they haven’t spoken in a year, and that actually has been working for him. BoJack sadly agrees, but then begins to question why he got him a maid. Hollyhock knocks out BoJack with chloroform and tells Todd to take the hair to get it tested.

However, when Todd gets to the lab he finds out he needs a sample from Hollyhock too, and, after going to a restaurant with Courtney Portnoy he goes back to discover she has not cleaned up at all, instead she has been going through BoJack’s stuff to learn about him.

Hollyhock also ate a box of doughnuts, got sleepy, and took a nap, which makes Todd certain the two are related. She doesn’t want to yank out a strand of hair because it sounds painful and asks if they can just use Todd’s hair. The doctor tells him no and Todd runs back and gets a hair sample from a comb she has.

BoJack complains to Todd his new maid isn’t doing her job and he’ll fire her, and Todd convinces BoJack to get drunk and fall asleep, and while he does that he’ll get the maid to clean. However, Todd ends up cleaning the house while Hollyhock eats, reads a magazine, and goes on her phone, and watches TV. When Todd has to leave again, he tells her to stay there and he’ll get the DNA test later, but he sees that she has fallen asleep.

After multiple shenanigans, the hair is able to be tested, and it is confirmed the DNA is a match. Todd later goes back to BoJack’s house looking for Hollyhock, but instead, he only finds BoJack. Todd tells him that Hollyhock is his daughter. BoJack laments about how he’ll just hurt her like everyone else in his life, like how he hurt Todd by sleeping with Emily, The only person he’s ever seen him in love with. Todd says he doesn’t think he ever loved her and thinks he doesn’t deserve to love. BoJack tells Todd he’s a great person, and he got more of him than he deserved.

Todd confesses he thinks he may be asexual. BoJack says there’s no problem with that, and Todd officially accepts himself as asexual. However, Todd rejects BoJack’s offer to stay at his house again and says he’s not ready to be best friends with him again yet, but they can be more than not friends. Todd welcomes BoJack back before he leaves, and after he leaves Hollyhock returns to BoJack’s house, leaving the two alone.

When BoJack tells her he’ll be a terrible father, Hollyhock reveals she doesn’t want another dad, she wants to know who her birth mom is. While BoJack claims he banged a lot of chicks in 1999, he suspects a woman named Marcie, because she was a “poking holes in the condoms type”, although she was “a nutter” and “a good lay”. BoJack agrees to take her to Marcie’s apartment the next morning to meet her, and Hollyhock says after that she’ll leave him alone. However she is able to guilt him into letting her stay at his house for the night instead of her hostile, which is in a bad part of town.

The next morning, BoJack wakes up to find that Hollyhock has set the microwave on fire for trying to make him breakfast, a Pop-tart, to thank him for letting her stay there. She put it in tinfoil to make it “popcorn style “. He forgives her however because making food is impossible . He also eats the charred Pop-tart on the way to driving Hollyhock to Marcie’s place.

BoJack explains Marcie was the president of his fan club. They arrive at Marcie’s apartment, and she tells BoJack she knew he would come back and says she did give a baby up for adoption seventeen years ago. Hollyhock hugs her “mother”. Marcie says she tied to call BoJack but the number he gave her was for a sandwich shop in Temecula. BoJack lies and says he would have called her, but 9/11 happened.

Later, Marcie shows them a scrapbook of all the women BoJack had been with and their home addresses due to the fact she was so in love with BoJack and he never called back, which made her jealous. Hollyhock excuses herself to use the bathroom and then calls BoJack into the bathroom telling Marcie it’s a dad bathroom thing.

Hollyhock tells BoJack that Marcie is not her mom, because she found a photo of her from the premiere of the movie Autumn in New York, which premired August of 2000. Hollyhock was born the following month, in September, and Marcie does not look a woman would be showing at eight months pregnancy.

She tells BoJack they have to get the scrapbook, as it has every woman BoJack slept with and that will help them find her mom. BoJack agree to distract Marcie, but as Hollyhock sneaks into the living room to get the book, to her horror and disgust BoJack and Marcie are having sex behind the couch and BoJack is quizzing Marcie on random Horsin' Around trivia.

The next woman they go to is Tilda Madison, a hairless cat who is the Time Medium on CBS. She did, in fact, get pregnant, but she got an abortion, with BoJack sending her a check for half of it. BoJack says that’s good because you don’t want any little BoJacks running around because the last thing the world needs is more of him. Hollyhock is offended, and BoJack says he likes her but he would go back and try to prevent this. Hollyhock storms out angrily at this comment.

While driving away from Tilda’s set, BoJack tried to apologize, Hollyhock sarcastically apologizes that he has to interact with the women he was shitty to. BoJack says he doesn’t know why they’re doing it because she’ll never switch bodies with her mom or anything. Hollyhock commands BoJack to pull over, and she says she can find her mom on her own now that she has the book. She leaves and tells BoJack to have a bad life. He responds with “Joke’s on you! I already have one!”

However, BoJack returns home and misses her, so he goes to every woman he slept with and asks them if he got them pregnant and gave a baby up for adoption seventeen years ago. Neither he or Hollyhock find her mom.

Late in the day BoJack finds Hollyhock and tells her what he did. Hollyhock says this was stupid and that she shouldn’t have come here because she doesn’t need a Mom because she did great with eight dads.

She gets upset over wanting a mom because that means her dads weren’t good enough for her, but they were. BoJack tells her to give up for looking for enough, because it’ll never be enough. Hollyhock starts crying and he, not knowing how to comfort her and asks what her dads tell her. She says they tell her it’s OK to cry and she shouldn’t feel bad about feeling bad. BoJack tells her she can stay with him a little longer, but Hollyhock questions how they’re going to find her mom.

BoJack lies and says her mother is “Carla Mercedes Benz Brown”. Hollyhock says that’s a weird name, BoJack retorts by saying Hollyhock is the one with a weird name. Hollyhock hopes that the first thing she and her birth mother could talk about when they finally meet for the first time.

However, he promises that he’ll do everything he can to help her find her birth mom, but from his experience with his mother he says moms aren’t that great. Hollyhock asks if she could meet her, and BoJack lies that she’s dead. He then confesses a few minutes later that she isn’t dead. Hollyhock says she wants to meet her and asks where she lives. He tells her she lives in a luxurious nursing home, but he cannot remember the name, which offends Hollyhock. BoJack reluctantly agrees to take Hollyhock to visit his mother, and he says he won’t lie to her anymore.

While driving, BoJack calls Princess Carolyn for the first time in over a year, to her surprise. He apologizes for his behavior and treatment towards her, but then changes the subject and asks her where his mother’s nursing home is. It is learned she lives at Walnut Springs nursing home in Santa Barbara.

At the nursing home, the two find a now elderly Beatrice, but she doesn’t recognize BoJack and calls him “Henrietta”. BoJack is annoyed by this and thinks she is just pretending to not recognize him due to her bitter attitude she always had towards him. However, she somehow recognizes Hollyhock, saying “Oh hello! It’s You!”. BoJack is distraught that his mother cannot recognize him. Hollyhock sits down next across from Beatrice and tells BoJack she’d like some orange juice as well.

Later, when BoJack comes back with the orange juice, he sees Hollyhock talking with Beatrice. Beatrice tells Hollyhock she can’t believe she came back, and that she looks “just like him”.

A male doctor tells BoJack that his mother has dementia, and their visit has made her the most responsive she’s been in weeks, and them visiting on a daily basis will help her. BoJack refuses, but the doctor says she will not live for another 10 years. BoJack is fine with this and tells Hollyhock it’s time for them to leave. Hollyhock demands they visit her every week, because she’s his mother, and dementia is hereditary, so they might have it one day and they would want someone to take care of them. BoJack reluctantly agrees.

The next week, Beatrice shows Hollyhock a photo album, with BoJack still bitter about the fact she can’t remember him. After he leaves out of boredom.

A week later, BoJack brings a DVD set of Horsin' Around and he puts on the episode “I'm Ready For My Close-up, Mr. Dementia" to learn how to deal with Beatrice. To his shock, Beatrice recognizes BoJack on the TV and laughs at the episode, despite in the past criticizing and dismissing it.

During their next visit, BoJack remembers the limo ride to his father’s funeral with his mother a couple of years ago, and how he felt regret over not saying everything he wanted to say to his father.

He goes outside upset over his situation with his mother. Hollyhock wonders how they can get her to connect the BoJack from the show to the BoJack that visits her every week. BoJack then gets the idea to put on a live episode of Horsin’ Around at the nursing home, and when his mother finally recognizes him, he’ll sit next to her, squeeze her hand, and say “Fuck you, Mom”. Hollyhock disagrees with this, but BoJack has already set his mind on it.

One week later, BoJack has set up a fake episode of Horsin’ Around, with Hollyhock playing Olivia by wearing a mop for a blonde wig. She is still skeptical and nervous about BoJack’s plan, but he tells her it’ll be ok, as long as she enunciates her lines. After Beatrice arrives they begin, but Beatrice is confused and scared by what they’re doing, and she ends up having a meltdown where she shoves other elders, and she is wheeled out of the room.

Beatrice is kicked out for being violent, and the doctor from before says due to her rapid deterioration, she should live with them. Hollyhock agrees and says Beatrice can have the guest bedroom and she’ll sleep on the couch. BoJack reluctantly agrees. While Beatrice is being moved in, with the help of her new nurse Tina Bear, BoJack goes out on his deck and Hollyhock follows. He says his mother is going to die and she’ll never know how much he hates her. Hollyhock says she probably did because she read his novel, and assures him Beatrice will have bad days and good days, and maybe one day she will recognize him. BoJack then puts his hand on Hollyhock’s shoulder, with some hesitation.

Bojackautograph

Season 5

BoJack stars in a new show called Philbert on the What Time Is It Right Now website. He's sleeping with his costar, Gina Cazador. He tries to help Gina's dream of being on Broadway come true by getting her a role on the show as a singer.

That backfires when he learns that she can't sing. BoJack inadvertently becomes a feminist after having made a face at the Forgivie awards when he didn't applaud Vance Waggoner when he accepted his We Forgive You award.

In reality, he made a face because he smelled some funky cheese. BoJack appears on The Squawk to try and clear the air but ends up going against Vance again. Princess Carolyn gets Diane to help make BoJack seem like the perfect male feminist. It backfires on him though when Vance tells the public that he walked away from starring in Philbert because the show was very anti-feminist.

BoJack goes to Diane and asks her how he can prove that the show isn't sexist. Diane tells him the show is sexist and that she can't help him. BoJack ends up convincing her to join the show as a consulting producer to make the show better. BoJack becomes hooked on opioids due to back surgery he had after an incident on set. He accidentally drove a motorcycle off of a building while Princess Carolyn was in Eden, North Carolina.

BoJack attends his mother's funeral where he talks about getting a free churro from a worker at Jack in the Box. He has this really long monologue where he reminisces about the past but in the end, realizes that he's been in the wrong room the entire time. BoJack becomes upset when Diane tells him that her therapist told her that she needed space from BoJack.

He storms into Diane's therapist's office to give her a piece of his mind but instead ends up having a session with her. He tells Diane about this but she tells him that she just wants the therapist to be hers, not his. He goes back the next day and tells the therapist that he will continue seeing her but behind Diane's back. Diane finds out and this drives a wedge between the two friends.

.Diane goes to apologize to BoJack but BoJack upsets her when he says that they are both the same person. Clearly not feeling the same way, Diane writes a script for Philbert that includes information about what BoJack almost did in New Mexico. BoJack realizes this while they're filming and he's confused about how they came up with the storyline.

At the end of the episode, he looks at Diane who glares back at him confirming that she knows what he did. BoJack has his annual Halloween party. BoJack picks up Hollyhock from the airport and takes her back to his house. She discovers his pills and throws them down the drain.

This leads to the two of them driving around Hollywoo trying to get BoJack more pills. They end up wasting the day that Hollyhock had to spend with him. After he drops her back off at the airport, BoJack drives his car into oncoming traffic. BoJack attends the Philbert premiere with Gina.

While at the premiere, BoJack and Diane get into a heated argument. Diane leaves but BoJack returns to the party and kisses Gina in front of all the paparazzi. BoJack has trouble discerning between what's real and what's fiction because of all the pills that he's taken. This leads to him getting into a fight with Gina when she discovers all the pills he has hiding around his house.

While on set, Gina and BoJack have to do a choking scene. BoJack, so high on pills, puts too much force into it and has to be pulled off Gina. BoJack doesn't remember any of this happening and Princess Carolyn sets up an interview so that they can clear the air. BoJack sees the footage and admits it was pretty bad.

BoJack tries to apologize to Gina at the interview and that he's going to tell the truth about what really happened. She tells him not to because her career is finally taking off and she doesn't want to be remembered as the girl that BoJack choked. He asks Diane to write one of her "take down" articles about him but she says no. That he has to take responsibility for himself but he doesn't know how to do that. Diane takes him to a rehab center instead. BoJack walks in and checks himself in of his own volition.

Personality

A curmudgeon described by his ex-girlfriend as a "self-pitying masochist," BoJack Horseman is bitter, depressed, self-loathing, narcissistic, and sometimes self-destructive.

BoJack is often bad-tempered and irritable, with little patience for a lot of people around him (notably Mr. Peanutbutter or Todd), who although give BoJack plenty of attention, are constantly insulted and looked down upon by BoJack's very bitter nature.

Although being annoyed by his surroundings, BoJack ironically has a nasty habit of driving some of his closest friends like Princess Carolyn to distraction. Most commonly through his numerous schemes to get his own way, which usually ends up in a disaster. Despite these struggles and insecurities that he has, BoJack really does care about others. He does care about his friends, can even be insightful, doesn't really want to hurt anybody and has proven to be more tender-hearted than he seems to be.

BoJack is plagued by his utter self-loathing and struggle to accept himself, this depressed side to his nature often comes out when he is with Diane. However, his sentimental moods have been more common recently, even with people like Mr. Peanutbutter, most notably in season 2.

In addition, BoJack finds himself haunted by his past, on a regular basis, flashbacks are often seen of BoJack remembering his corrupted relationships - especially his mother and ex-best friend.

While he can seem hostile on the outside, BoJack does have a caring, and melancholic side to him, but rarely shows this side of himself to others, partly because of his insecurities to show any weakness others. Fearing that others will catch on that he dislikes himself, he feigns narcissistic behavior like having sex as he sees footage of himself and masturbating to his own image, or at least he says he does.

BoJack image

As a foal, he was inquisitive and keen to earn his father's trust, making him a card which his father referred to as "shoddy craftsmanship".  

As a younger horse, he was polite, cheerful, charming but also a lightweight, who consciously avoided all alcohol, in stark contrast to his current boozhound self. His attitude only soured in his forties.

Added to this, he is not very mannerly - on a date with Princess Carolyn in the first episode he preoccupies himself with eating the bread (nine baskets) and later on he belches while drinking beer and watching old episodes of his show.

In the third season, he belches again after raiding Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter's fridge. These episodes of gluttony can be seen as yet more failed attempts to handle his inner turmoil resulting in his appearing inconsiderate and repulsive to others.

In contrast to his perceived ineptitude at being responsible (in one context, for his own breakfast), BoJack has repeatedly demonstrated a masterful command over philosophy, political science, and history. Also, judging by the way his current home is decorated he also has good taste in horse-themed fine art.

This is ironic, considering that one of the main commentaries of the series is that Hollywood (or Hollywoo as it is known in the show) is a town of shallow, nihilistic people who would be completely incapable in any other industry or lifestyle. For example, in the episode, Let's Find Out, Bojack receives the question "To what extent was Feudalism a cause of the French Revolution?"

Even though he is distracted by Princess Carolyn to properly answer the question, what he actually wrote was quite competent. "A continent ravaged by war, coupled with the retreat of the church from secular life..." BoJack is also very principled about his perspectives, too; on one occasion, he sets off a media flame war to defend his critique of the public's automatic treatment of veterans as heroic without regard for their individual characters.

On another, when Ana Spanakopita explains to BoJack that the French are still annoyed with him for what he "said about them in the press," he states he stands by his criticism of revered French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Elaborating, he states, "His philosophical arguments helped many tyrannical regimes justify overt cruelty," a reference to Sartre's idea that "humans are condemned to be free," and his stated admiration for Stalinists and Maoists.

As the series progresses, BoJack clings onto the people who even remotely comfort him and goes out of his way to keep them around so he isn't completely alone. Ultimately, most characters avoid or even completely cut ties with him for his toxic domineer.

This seems to change slightly when he meets his half-sister Hollyhock Manheim-Mannheim-Guerrero-Robinson-Zilberschlag-Hsung-Fonzerelli-McQuack. He is very protective of her and she shows concern for him. The two agree to try to form a loving sibling relationship at the end of Season 4.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2016 Secretariat Secretariat Digitally added

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1987-1996 Horsin' Around The Horse
2007 The BoJack Horseman Show Himself
2015 Hollywoo Stars and Celebrities: What Do They Know? Do They Know Things?? Let's Find Out! Himself Contestant
2016 Ethan Around The Horse Unknown Results
2017 Felicity Huffman's Booty Academy: Los Angeles Judge Guest Judge

Memorable Quotes

  • "What are You doing here?"
  • "Y'know, sometimes I feel like I was born with a leak, and any goodness I started with just slowly spilled out of me, and now it's all gone and I'll never get it back in me. It's too late."
  • "Life is a series of closing doors, isn't it?"
  • "Nothing on the outside, nothing on the inside."
  • "What's great about Los Angeles is nobody cares where you're from or who you are. It's a superficial town where you can worry about stupid shit like keeping your pool clean, and what artisanal nuts to put on your salad."
  • "Shut up, Todd!"
  • "Clean up your shit, Todd!"
  • "Princess Carolyn, what are we doing?"
  • "Whaaaaaaa haha, get out of here!"
  • "Shiiiiiiiit…"
  • "WASSUP BITCHES?"
  • "CAN WE PLEASE GET SOME ALCOHOL INTO MY MOUTH?!"
  • "I can't do this again"
  • "Do you want to meet my imaginary friend?"
  • (To a young Sarah Lynn) "The thing is, you gotta give the people what they want, even if it KILLS you. Even if it empties you out until there's nothing less to empty"
  • "See, Sarah Lynn, we're not doomed. In the great grand scheme of things, we're just tiny specks that will one day be forgotten.So, it doesn't matter what we did in the past, or how we'll be remembered.The only thing that matters is right now, this moment, this one spectacular moment we are sharing together. Right, Sarah Lynn? ...Sarah Lynn?...Sarah Lynn?"

Trivia

BoJack Horseman model sheet

BoJack Horseman model sheet

  • As of the setting of the series, BoJack weighs some 1,200 lbs (544 kg), and is 6'6 (198 cm) or 19.75 hands tall.
    • Despite being 1200 pounds, other characters do not have much trouble dragging BoJack or lifting him up.
  • According to the BoJack Horseman art blog on Tumblr (BojartHorseblog), BoJack is 15.2 hands at the withers, and is close to 19.75 hands tall if he is being measured to the top of his ears, which BoJack perfers.
  • Bojack's hair in the 80s and on Horsin' Around is reminiscent of the character Uncle Jesse from Full House, which Horsin' Around parodies.
  • BoJack is very similar to the character Duckman from the early 1990s show of the same name, both are alcoholics, had neglectful/abusive parents, smoke cigarettes, self-loathe and are narcissistic, politically incorrect and sexually deviant.
  • BoJack made 30K an episode on "Horsin' Around".
Baby BoJack model sheet

Young BoJack model sheet

  • The only episode BoJack has not appeared in is “See Mr. Peanutbutter Run
  • Based on its views of Downtown LA's skyline and close proximity to the Hollywood Sign (as demonstrated in Our A-Story is a "D" Story among other episodes), Bojack's house seems to be located just east of Hollywood Reservoir perched above Bronson Canyon. Incidentally the neighborhood is home to Sunset Ranch, which is well-known for horseback riding. It's also quite close to Griffith Observatory, which was of great sentimental significance to Bojack and Herb Kazzaz as well as the location of Sarah Lynn's overdose.
    • BoJack is neighbors with Channing Tatum and Felicity Hoffman, as revealed in “Hooray! Todd Episode” and “Stupid Piece of Sh*t”, respectively.
BoJack concept art

BoJack concept art by Lisa Hanawalt

  • The writers have stated that they only have someone say the f word once per season, and it only happens when Bojack has permanently ruined a relationship.
    • In Season 1 it was Herb Kazzaz in “The Telescope”, when he was going to die soon from rectal cancer and he rejected BoJack’s apology for abandoning him in the 90s after the network executives fired him for being caught in a gay related scandal. Herb wasn’t upset about getting fired, but the fact that BoJack betrayed him, and he says “Now get the fuck out of my house!”
    • Season 2 was Charlotte Moore in “Escape from L.A.”, after she caught him in bed (on his boat) with Penny, with Penny about to undress him. This scene happens after BoJack and Charlotte kiss and he begs her to run away with him and confesses he’s loved her all this time, and she rejected him and tells him to leave because he makes her too sad. After Charlotte orders Penny to go to her room she tells BoJack to leave in 30 minuets or she’ll call the police, and “if you ever try to contact me or my family again, I will fucking kill you”.
    • Season 3 was Todd Chavez in “It's You”, after BoJack reveals that he slept with Emily, whom Todd had been trying to figure out his feelings for. BoJack tries to apologize, but Todd says feeling bad for the shitty things doesn’t make them ok (which is what BoJack keeps doing). He also tells BoJack “You are everything that is wrong with you. It’s not the drugs, or the alcohol, or the shitty things that happened to you in your career, or when you were a kid. It’s you.” He then says “Fuck, man. What else is there to say?”
    • Season 4 is actually BoJack’s himself, in “Thoughts and Prayers”. He takes Hollyhock to visits Beatrice at her nursing home and discovers she has dementia and no longer recognizes him. He cooks up a plan to get her to recognize him, and he says when she does, he’ll squeeze her hand, get real close, and say “Fuck You, Mom!”, in order to tell her off for being a horrible mother to him.
    • Season 5 was Gina Cazador in "The Showstopper ", after BoJack, after having mistaken his show Philbert and reality for each other for the entire episode under the influence of pills and alcohol despite her best efforts, almost strangles her to death while shooting a scene. After they are pulled apart by the crew, Gina ends their relationship with a simple question "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
  • BoJack bears a strong resemblance to his late uncle Crackerjack, his mom's brother. The two share similar facial features, dark brown fur, and a white snippet and pink spot on their noses and lips.
  • "One Trick Pony", which took place in 2014, has BoJack reveal he is 50 years old, which also indirectly reveals he was born in 1964.
  • Stop the Presses reveals several things about BoJack through his LA Gazette account
    • He was born January 2nd, 1964.
    • He is a Grade/thoroughbred cross horse with medium bay fur and a star and snip marking.
    • He weighs 1,200 lbs.
    • He is 19.75 hands tall
    • He has a buck knee, splay foot, ewe neck, wall eye, pot belly, and sweet tooth.
    • His temperament is related 9/10, and is mentioned he is spooky, stubborn, unpredictable, and suffers from substance abuse.
    • He has had more than 100 sexual partners throughout his life.
  • One time, at a Christmas party, BoJack sneezed on Marisa Tomei. Embarrassed, he jumped off the balcony and ended up in a full body cast.
  • BoJack still has the sweater he wore on Horsin' Around, but now his stomach hangs out of it, due to him being much slimmer during those years.
  • In "Thoughts and Prayers", it revealed that BoJack played football when he was a teenager.
    • The episode also revealed that in 8th grade he was in choir. He describe his solo a bit "shakey", and his mother pretended not to know him and forces him to get a ride home from the pianist who according to BoJack, "liked to tickle more than just the ivories". When BoJack came home safe, his mother said "I guess nobody wants you."
    • This is why he is skeptical of her dementia at first.
  • Hooray! Todd Episode! reveals he has multiple strains of herpes.
  • He is currently in rehab.
  • Some of the medicine in BoJack’s medicine cabinet (as seen in "Stupid Piece of Sh*t" and "Lovin that cali lifestyle!!")includes
    • Menoxidil: forehead reducer. This is used for certain types of baldness
    • Heart Burn medicine
    • Avanafil, a medicine used for erectile dysfunction
    • Fluvastatin, a medicine that lowers high cholesterol
    • Bupropion, a medicine used to help quit smoking and/or help prevent types of depression, namely seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
    • The blue pentagon shaped pills are likely a form of dexamethasone, which treats inflammation
    • Pain Free, which is likely just ibuprofen (pain killers)
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