Fridge / Human Resources (2022)

• Cat is completely different from Kitty in that he doesn't try to make his client wallow in his depression, but actively tries to take steps in order to help Barry. A depression kitty's job isn't to make their client depressed, but to help them manage it. But, much like how different hormone monsters are shown to have a lot of leeway on how they do their jobs, the kitties can vary from helpful people like Cat who try to find healthy ways of coping, and ones like Kitty who try to pressure their clients into more destructive habits.
  • Cat also represents those who have dealt with long-term depression using those experiences to empathize with and helped their loved ones through things after they themself have become more stable. Barry met Becca at a very low point in his life, and as Cat put it, she helped get him out of his head so he could move on from that dark place. And while it takes a while for him to get through with Emmy, it's, again, him using examples of the past experiences with finding love despite his depression that helps to bring Emmy around to seeing Barry in a better light, and helps set them on the path to healing Barry and Becca's marriage.
• A fridge mixture of Tearjerker and Heartwarming: In "It's Almost Over", Walter is the only one left on Yara's team up until she passes away. That means at the end of her life, Yara was motivated by love, be it her zest for life or the love for her family (in real life and in her memories). She was able to pass on with love and happiness in her heart, not dread.
  • Also devastating is the running joke of Yara thinking Natalie is 'Lindsay Lohan' as patients with alzheimer's often have trouble remembering later developments in life, such as their family members transitioning. And again heartwarming, as Walter's appreciation for Natalie shows that Yara was feeling love and pride in her granddaughter in her final days on earth.
    • Yara: [In Arabic] I had the best day, I ate candy with my friend 'Lindsay Lohan'
  • Based on Walter's descriptions (and memories) both of Yara's granddaughters take after her in different ways. She's mischievous and fun-loving like Natalie, ambitious and romantic like Nadja.
  • After Yara's passing, Walter implicitly becomes Natalie's new Lovebug. Love was the last thing that Yara held with her in her life, and the love she leaves behind is meant to help comfort and guide her grieving granddaughter. Once she “gives” Walter away to Natalie, she is free to pass onto the afterlife.
• Each one of the named Lovebugs represents a different type of love that can be seen across their clients and their personalities:
  • Walter represents love when it is overwhelmingly passionate, and how that passion can reach extremes to the point of irrationality. He encourages big gestures of love that typically backfire, and wants to fuel the love in spite of any negative consequences. This can be seen in Nick's huge confession song to Jessi, Brent staying in a dead marriage over a cat, and Yara living in her lost memories instead of loving her family now. All of these characters act on impulse, but they are passionate about life and living it to the fullest. They also do not take rejection of love well, but learn to overcome with outside help (Nick with Nick Kroll and Yara with Amir).
  • Sonya represents mature and mundane love, but how staying mundane can lead to a desire for more and cause the person to make mistakes. Sonya is the most professional out of the Lovebugs, and encourages her clients to take time with their feelings. However, this patience and constant focus on the love/job made Sonya feel exhausted to the point she impulsively started a forbidden romance that got her fired. Jessi and Becca, her two clients, slowly develop healthy, positive loves with their partners. But like Sonya, it leads them to neglect problems they had a hand in due to hyper-focusing on what they want; Jessi ignores that she kickstarted Missy's hate spiral, while Becca became impatient with Barry trying to help her through her pregnancy and ignored his personal feelings.
  • Rochelle represents love fueled by childish beliefs and fantasies, which misses the critical importance of maturity and considering the feelings of your loved ones. Rochelle herself impulsively starts a relationship with her best friend's ex, feigns innocence, and believes she's entitled to it because of love that she herself isn't confident about. As a Hate Worm, she tricked Missy into believing that Ali and Jessi were being spiteful on purpose and deserved to get revenge. She gets Doug to sign away on a credit card and customized car that would take several years to pay-off, without thinking of Pete's logic or Donna's possible reaction. For Nadja, she encouraged the girl to ditch her dream school for a high school romance without considering the long term chances of young love. Without consulting Danielle's feelings on the matter, this leads to Nadja's public humiliation and a nasty breakup.
  • At first, it seems as though Emmy represents one's first exposures to love and trying to navigate/make sense of your uncertainty in it. But at the start of season 2 its shown that many of her clients have dropped her because she's TOO inexperienced, making no-brainer mistakes such as switching up clients. Instead, her clumsy optimism seems better suited for repairing relationships that have been tried by hard times, as seen with both her season-long cases. She is initially meant to fill in for Sonja to help Becca bond with her baby, but once that is done she also helps rekindle the romance between her and her husband Barry. In season 2 she's seemingly called in to turn Sara's hookup into a full-blown romance, but spends most of the season trying to heal Sara's trauma at losing her mother and repair her relationship with her father. Considering her personality and reputation as a disaster, it seems as though Emmy actually represents love that is messy and has made its mistakes, but is still worth fighting for.
  • Flanny represents openly affectionate and caring love that sticks by a partner no matter what, but can be excessive if the partner isn't receptive. Flanny is an excitable Love Bug who encourages open love between coworkers and only wants to help others by spreading positivity. But his passion to help can make people uncomfortable, such as making Rochelle and Emmy hug when their friendship is seriously strained. His client Barry is a bit of a goofy Manchild who is sometimes Innocently Insensitive with Becca's struggles. But he is incredibly patient with her, and his goofish yet caring love is exactly what she needs when she struggles with postpartum depression. And as Sonya says back when she and Flanny meet at the start of Barry and Becca's relationship, his style of "emotionally smothering" love can be a benefit for a client whose lover is someone with a history of relationships where affection is withheld.
• In the Season 1 Finale, a Hate Worm Walter angrily abandons the main cast for making him transform in the first place, saying that he "hopes the writers kill [them] all off". This is a tongue-in-cheek reference to how his actor, Brandon Kyle Goodman, is one of the show's writers, who does have a say in which characters live and die in the episode.
• The hate division is full of gremlins, whereas Petra is the only one 'upstairs.' This is possibly because spite is a powerful motivator, but Petra's clients are motivated by pride and getting things they want.
  • However considering Lovebugs and Hateworms are technically the same species, its possible that every monster has a 'hate' version of themselves, but we just haven't seen them yet. Hormone monsters certainly have a lot of room for hate, (Especially Connie) and Maury is shown to get hairier and more monstrous whenever he chants 'Rage, rage, fucking rage' indicating he can also transform into a hateful version of himself.
• Keith from Grief takes the form of a thick, fluffy, slightly misshapen knit woolen sweater. As anyone can tell you, a knitted wool sweater can be hot, itchy, ugly, and uncomfortable at times, and sometimes you'll do anything to avoid wearing one. Just like processing feeling of grief. But, just like Amir, sometimes accepting and fully embracing this feeling, and the sweater, at the right time can provide a great comfort and warmth that's direly needed. Hand knitted sweaters are also often made by loved ones, as they can take so much time and focus to make, and are thus a very sentimental and loved gift. So it makes sense to give this form to a creature whose very being is focused around processing losing someone you love.
• Van seems to represent a toxic type of logic as opposed to Pete whose logic is more healthy. She encourages Sarah to be cold and distant from others by making logical points on what doing otherwise entails, which isn’t healthy for people emotionally.