Bojack Horseman returns one final time to close out Bojack’s possible redemption story. His journey to becoming a better man after all his past errors ends with these 8 episodes and after the premiere, it’s clear that Bojack’s biggest obstacle is still to come.
After the first eight episodes were released last October, Bojack (Will Arnett, Arrested Development) finds himself as a college professor at Wesleyan University. He continues attending his AA meetings and tries his best to connect with his half-sister Hollyhock (Aparna Nancherla, A Simple Favor) by watching her play rugby. It’s heartwarming to see Bojack try so hard to learn the ins and outs of the sport simply for her. However, Hollyhock knows about Bojack’s excursion to New Mexico years ago, a fact of which he is very much unaware. Their relationship is still rocky after her experiences with the drug–addicted actor but now it seems like she has to start all over with him once more. She does handle it well but it’s clear the tension between them will only rise as the season progresses.
While Bojack adjusts to being a professor to optimistic and eager actors, Todd (Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad) has his own misadventure. Still Princess Carolyn’s (Amy Sedaris, At Home with Amy Sedaris) sitter for her baby Ruthie, Todd wanders around campus taking care of her. He then stumbles upon a science experiment that asks Ruthie to abstain from eating a marshmallow for fifteen minutes. Except Todd hastily eats it the moment the scientist leaves, forcing him to find a replacement. Viewers have come to expect Todd to eventually find the marshmallow and “pass” the experiment.
However, while this all does happen and Todd does appear to get an outrageous reward for his time, it’s all for the sake of a joke. Todd replaces the treat and is told by an eccentric man that he has won the college because he followed the rules referencing the ending to the classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Seconds later, two additional scientists appear to inform him that no, he did not win the school and that this person was dosed with LSD in the name of science.
Unlike most of the other plots dedicated to Todd, this one actually subverts what we come to expect from a Todd-centric story and is all the more hilarious for it. We’ve seen Todd become the head of companies, the governor of Hollywoo, and go to prison after a misunderstanding before and didn’t question a thing. If he did become the dean of the school, it would fit right in with his character and the luck he’s had throughout the series. The fact that he didn’t and the show points out how ridiculous something like that would be is a great bit of self-referential writing.
In typical Bojack Horseman fashion, that instinctive feeling that something will go wrong lingers right until the episode’s anxiety–inducing final moments. Just as his acting students’ showcase ends, Bojack gets a call from Charlette (Olivia Wilde, Richard Jewell). For viewer who may not remember, Charlotte was his former friend who now only wants to him out of her life after
Bojack stayed with them for months and potentially slept with her underaged daughter. Just seeing her name on Bojack’s screen immediately brought him and viewers a sense of dread, knowing that whatever she was calling about could not be good. We felt as frightened and unsure of what to do as Bojack did once he was told about the reporters that were close to unveiling his story at the end of the first half of the season.
With just seven episodes to go, Bojack still has one thing he has to face: all the mistakes of his past. He’s accepted that he’s done some terrible things before and viewers have seen him try to and potentially succeed in changing for the better, but he has yet to actually face the consequences of those actions. The final few minutes of the Bojack Horseman Season 6 Part 2 premiere foreshadowed all of Bojack’s past misdeeds coming back to haunt him, and he panicked. He is terrified of these things he’s done, which he’s been running from throughout the series. Even his prewritten intro speech to his acting course talks about becoming someone else and using acting to distance oneself from the real you.
But that’s not what creator Raphael Bob Waksberg seems to be aiming for with these final episodes. He wants Bojack to face the consequences head on no matter what they may be. And if it is anything like the past seasons of this incredible show, it’ll be hilarious and most certainly heartbreaking.
