Courtesy of TVLine
It is impossible to express what “BoJack Horseman” can mean to people without discussing the kinds of people who find themselves drawn to this show. “BoJack” is a show that offers us a mirror to reflect our worst selves. It gives us the opportunity to confront some of humankind’s ugliest aspects and forces us to confront the fact that some things can never be forgiven. “BoJack” lets us see the worst of ourselves, either in the dysfunctional horse who can’t help but make things worse, the high-functioning cat who poured everything into a career that gives her nothing in return or the human woman who wrestles with a very real depiction of depression. The show that sold itself in the first season as a goofy little cartoon featuring a washed-up horse became a place for people to realize that they aren’t alone – that Hollywood stars and celebrities can be just like us, even when that’s a bad thing.
Spoilers from here on out.
The last half of the sixth season of “BoJack Horseman” came out on Friday, Jan. 31, picking up where the first half left off in October. We see BoJack (Will Arnett), who is now sober, teaching at Wesleyan University, attending AA meetings and trying to connect with his sister Hollyhock (Aparna Nancherla). Hollyhock has just found out BoJack’s darkest secret, which he’s been running from since the end of the second season: He gave three teenagers liquor, abandoned one of them drunk in front of a hospital and almost had sex with Penny (Ilana Glazer), the 17-year-old daughter of his longtime friend, Charlotte (Olivia Wilde).
Season six fixates on this moment and what it does to the people involved. It refuses to let BoJack off the hook for his actions as two investigative journalists track the story down. The season shows viewers how he hurt Penny and it shows how BoJack’s friends can’t pretend that what he did was okay. This show has consequences for its characters and, despite all the times the show has viewers pitying BoJack for his tragic childhood or mistakes that are out of his hands, one can’t help but want to see him get punished for what he did to Penny and the other women in his life. With all of this in mind, though, the audience also can’t help but worry. We want BoJack to get what he deserves, but don’t want to watch him slip back into alcoholism or opioids.
In the end, BoJack does face consequences. The audience sees him experience a poetic dream in the second-to-last episode, “The View from Halfway Down,” which features some of the most beautiful animation ever created for the show. This episode takes us into BoJack’s mind as he confronts death and sees the people he has lost in his life. His cold mother Beatrice (Wendie Malick), his oldest friend Herb Kazzaz (Stanley Tucci), his horrible family that set him on his path of self-destruction and Sarah Lynn (Kristen Schaal), the young starlet for whose death he feels responsible. Throughout the series, BoJack screwed over many of these people. However, none of their sickening behavior toward him makes his wrongdoings right – it just makes it so there’s more wrong in the world.
BoJack wakes up from this dream after being pulled out of a swimming pool and gets sent to jail for breaking and entering, but as BoJack himself says, “I think it was kind of for everything.” This is how “BoJack Horseman” handles consequences. It is real in the way that it tells us that celebrities don’t face the consequences we normal people face for our sins, but they instead face the ever-shifting and unpredictable jury of the fans and public perception. The people in his life who knew the worst of what he went through don’t just forgive him no matter what, but they also can’t pretend they don’t love him in a screwed-up way.
The show ends with BoJack and his longtime friend Diane (Alison Brie) sitting on a roof, as they often did in the early seasons. It’s clear she doesn’t trust him anymore and that she hates the things he put her through, but she still can’t bring herself to hate him. They sit in silence, staring into the night, digesting the last thing Diane says: “Sometimes life’s a bitch and you keep living.” And therein lies the moral of the show – that no matter how much the world beats us down, we can simply keep going.
