As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Why was Penny's encounter with BoJack so physiologically damaging? She came on to him while totally sober, he rejected her politely and gracefully, yet seasons later she's got PTSD from the encounter?
- He's over twice her age, had all the power, and was going to sleep with her after being rejected by her mother. That would mess anyone up.
- There's also so much surrounding that incident that would upset her. Her best friend nearly died of alcohol poisoning and she was told to just let it slide and lie about what happened. BoJack also stalked Penny to her college, drawing attention due to the presence of Sarah Lynn with him, and it's not at all a stretch for Penny to assume the worst about him tracking her down. Even if BoJack had never even agreed to the sex, there's already some damn good reasons for Penny to be so messed up from her time with him.
- Don't the other two kids in "Vincent Adultman" get bored of the "face" kid always getting do all the fun stuff?
- Maybe they're single minded triplets and each time "he" makes an appearance, the face is a different kid.
- Not to mention if the implications about them having sex with Princess Carolyn is true, then really only the middle kid has something to complain about. And who cares about him, anyway?
- I thought the triplets were a case of Older Than They Look
- That's just a sacrifice you make in a trench coat scam.
- Maybe they're single minded triplets and each time "he" makes an appearance, the face is a different kid.
- Did Todd do the commercial successfully? I thought I saw his face on a billboard for Burbourn in a later episode but I imagine he would have alienated the producers too much.
- They had to use someone.
- In a later episode, Todd mentions that people confuse him for others all the time, quoting people as saying he looks like the prince from Cordovia and that guy in the bourbon commercials. So yes, he did the commercial successfully.
- Did BoJack actually say what he said he did to Daniel Radcliffe? This is a show that really likes to show past events as flashbacks, and the only thing we have to go on is BoJack's, admittedly self-serving at times, word. For all we know, BoJack] could have been greatly embellishing at best and Radcliffe could be totally sincere in not remembering him.
- Does the food chain still exist in this universe? Would Cameron Crowe eat the smaller birds for example? Does the waitress (who's a cow) have to worry about being eaten?
- Well they do specifically have a throw-away gag with her giving someone who ordered steak the stink eye, so we have to assume yes. How that works in a world where animals are very clearly sentient and capable of protesting being eaten? No clue.
- This is explained, in a pretty disturbing way, in the season 2 episode "Chickens." There are "friend" chicken people, then there are "food" chickens that are genetically modified and injected with hormones from birth to make them, well, like real-life chickens, but with the same anthropomorphic bodies as all the talking animals. Presumably all the meat comes from animals like this.
- "Love And/Or Marriage" indicates that cats and mice typically don't mingle. If the mouse account of their history in "The Judge" has any truth to it, that history is a bloody one that may include cats eating mice, although that's never mentioned specifically.
- I've more or less figured that non-sapient animals also exist, we just don't see them, kind of like in Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, where Lorenda (a cow) eats a hamburger from a non-sentient (or magical) cow and we haven't seen the latter type of cow.
- ^ I disagree, after watching every episode is clear that this is one of the few shows that took care of never falling into Furry Confusion. Absolutly every animal life form is anthro, even the smallest insects like flees. That said, I think is clear also that animals do not have any biological or anatomical consistence in-universe in the same sense as aliens in Star Trek or monsters in Ugly Americans. Animals are more of an aesthethic choice in order to communicate some symbolism of particular traits, but they seem to interact as people in-universe judging by how they find each other attractive and can interbreed.
- Season 4 further explains the cat/mouse divide, explaining that a king cat enslaved mice centuries ago and thus mice have a lot of resentment against cats. It's not clear if the enslaved mice were also eaten, though.
- While carnivorism is acknowledged in a delightfully disturbing way, the food chain as we know it doesn't seem to exist. When a group of celebrities are trapped underground and debate cannibalism, there's no mention of which species are obvious targets or assumptions of anyone being off-limits. The one who winds up dying is a human, which seems to be because he was closest, and they plan to do the same to Mr. Peanutbutter, but that's because of politics.
- BoJack was offered a role as the new Bond villain "Goldhoof." How does the concept of hooves even exist when the horses in this universe has hands and feet?
- Err, Rule of Funny?
- Not to mention the picture of horse shoes, hanging right over BoJack's bed, as seen in the intro!
- Hooves are likely their feet only in this world.
- Also, why does nobody in the series appear to have a tail?
- The lack of tails has been chalked up to Author Appeal, with the character designer being known for designing anthro animals without tails. It's also easily explained by the fact that every living thing in the series is human from the neck down, so of course they wouldn't have tails.
- What was Mister Ed like in this universe?
- Princess Carolyn even makes a reference to Mister Ed's theme tune: "Of course, of course, that's what you get when you fall for a horse."
- Mister Ed does appear in season 3.
- The existence of Disney in this universe raises so many questions. For starters, how can Pluto (who Todd mentions by name) even exist in a universe where no one has pets and never did?
- He might just be another anthropomorphic dog like Goofy is and instead of being Mickey's pet, he's just another one of his friends.
- Fridge Horror, but the films might have darker overtones or be made for adults, but marketed towards kids. Diane calls Katrina "Cruella" so in this world, Cruella could be a human woman who runs a sweat shop that uses young children as textiles.
- Why was Diane's book written from a third person perspective? Wasn't she just supposed to be a ghostwriter on his memoir?
- It was, her changing the book was why BoJack was upset at her and fired her in the first place.
- Do they consider the minotaur from Classical Mythology (most commonly depicted as having a bull's head on a human body) to be just a complsetely ordinary guy in this universe?
- Since bulls and men are separate species in BoJack's world, they might still consider a man with the head of a bull to be a monster, although from our perspective the difference is subtle.
- Mixed species don't seem to be a thing. We don't see any just walking around (except for the fact that all animals are bipedal and anthropomorphic). Charlotte and Kyle have one human boy and one deer girl. Henrietta lovingly says "It's a baby horse" about her ultrasound, and untitled Princess Carolyn Project is porcupine like her father.
- Or, rather, they don't exist in the way that the minotaur might and probably exist in more "of a one or the other" or a Gender Equals Breed thing.
- BoJack knows a thing or two about baby birds leaving the nest too soon, cut to him consoling a grieving mother. Just Who was that Grieving Bird?
- This seems to be one of the only times the show has had anything resembling a throwaway gag. Not only does the bird never come back in the series, BoJack is genuinely empathetic, something he's not known for.
- In other words, chalk it up to Rule of Funny and Early-Installment Weirdness.
- It's been theorized the baby bird could be the bird in "The View From Halfway Down" but that's just a theory.
- Why was there no Dragon Ball Z reference when things got spacy in One Trick Pony. Were they unaware of the name?
- Dragonball has absolutely nothing to do with this show, so it's safe to assume they were unaware.
- Most likely, unaware, though BoJack does share a name with a DBZ char, however that universe' "Bojack" isn't too well-known.
- Dragonball has absolutely nothing to do with this show, so it's safe to assume they were unaware.
- So, barring a lot of unknown factors isn't BoJack the heir to the Sugarman Sugar Cubes fortune or has something canonically countered that conclusion?
- BoJack's mother is still alive.
- Heir is the operative word. Is there anything barring him from inheriting that fortune other than his mother's continued existence?
- A Freeze-Frame Bonus shows the company was sold to a Japanese conglomerate, so there is no inheritance from the current company. The money from the sale would have gone to Beatrice, but BoJack states outright in "Free Churro" that one reason Beatrice resented Butterscotch was for wasting away all their money. On top of all that, BoJack became famous and wealthy in his own right from his acting career about a decade before his father's death, meaning he has little interest in persuing that money anyways.
- What happened to that manatee reporter in the season 3 premiere? Ana told BoJack she "took care of it" after he accidentally leaked some information to her, and she was pretty evasive when pressed for details. I assumed she murdered her, but there wasn't any follow-up.
- The reporter's name is Heather, and in a later episode Ana speaks to her on the phone, so she didn't have her killed. Fan theories include bribery, some sort of counter-blackmail, or Manatee Fair and Secretariat sharing a parent company that wouldn't want any bad press about its potential Oscar-winner.
- Season 5 also confirms that Ana got a hold of the recorder. It's still unclear how she got it, though.
- What was Diane's objection to the party in "After The Party"? She explains that she's unhappy with her life, but what does that have to do with the party?
- She was done for the night. Once stimulation becomes excessive it stops being fun and starts to get obnoxious/annoying.
- Also, as shown in season 1 (and later in the season 4 finale), she hates grand gestures, hence why she gets so angry at Mr. Peanutbutter after their fight- the party comes across as selfish because it's what he wants for her, not what she wants, and suggests that he doesn't listen enough to what she wants.
- Sir Paul McCartney makes a cameo appearance and he's clearly human. However a later episode shows that Sarah Lynn has a poster of The Beatles in her room, and they're anthropomorphic beetles. So was McCartney ever a member of The Beatles/Beetles in this universe?
- Maybe The Beetles are an all beetle tribute to The Beatles.
- Or maybe just as The Beatles in the real world went through various public personas through out their careers the members of The Beetles dressed up as beetles during a part of their career for some reason but were actually human.
- The real Paul McCartney, who was a beetle, died back in the 60's, but the record company covered it up by having a human impersonate him ever since.
- If Bojack wasn't nominated for the Oscar, why did the Academy have a slide of him that says his name like the other nominees for Best Actor? It makes less sense when he was nominated in every other award show so it makes even less sense for him not to be nominated.
- It happened to Amy Adams in real life. She was announced as being nominated for Arrival, but then the Academy gave it to Meryl Streep. Also, people nominated in other ceremonies don't automatically get called for Oscars, like Idris Elba for Beasts of No Nation for example. Not saying it's fair or just, but stuff like this DOES happen.
- That's Too Much Man! — Bojack spends a lot of time driving extremely recklessly around LA, causing a lot of property damage and near-accidents (at point he actually hits a skateboarder who goes up and over his bonnet). Where the hell were the cops (or Fuzzyface at least) while this was happening, and why didn't this make the news (two celebrities on a drug-fueled bender terrorising LA in an increasingly banged-up car would be a pretty big story in real life)? For a show which is about exploring the realistic consequences of behaving like a jackass, it seems like a big goof. Also, how is Bojack not in jail in the next episode? Like I mentioned, he caused a lot of damage and injured (killed?) that skateboarder, and there would've been plenty of eyewitnesses (like the meerkat accountant and his son - he crashed through their playhouse and came within inches of killing them), plus he would've had to have dealt with the cops/paramedics if he reported Sarah Lynn's death... unless he panicked and fled the scene when he realised she was dead...
- According to the second episode of season 4, BoJack took her to the hospital, holding her hand.
- It's important to note that the series has made a habit of letting BoJack, among others, get away with quite a lot out of his status as a celebrity.
- Pretty much. After watching this series, it's clear the police force are far from being that competent.
- Season 6 retcons this. Bojack called an ambulance, and Fuzzyface did arrive to take his statement. Bojack claimed he got a call from Sarah, who went to the observatory alone, and Fuzzyface took him at his word. They don't mention the witnesses (and victims) or their cross-town rampage, but presumably there was no follow up investigation by the police when they thought they had the facts.
- If Bojack's fanclub president is telling the truth, then Bojack really did have an illegitimate child given up for adoption, even if it wasn't Hollyhock! Are we ever going to learn more about this in the future?
- Bojack's fan club president is a Stalker with a Crush. There is ample reason to believe she's simply lying in order to keep BoJack close again.
- What became of Ethan Around? We never hear about it once Bojack gets back to L.A., at which point it's been a year since he ran out on the taping for the first episode. Did they just outright cancel it when they couldn't get a hold of him?
- Thoroughly ruining the guy's life after lulling him into abandoning everything to come to L.A. would be among the darkest things BoJack has ever done, I'm not sure the show wants to revisit it, and would rather just write it off as something that might or might not have worked out ok for Ethan. Fortunately, the turtle character realized the error of Ethan's ways and had an insurance rider put on BoJack for his next project because he's a flight risk.
- Been rewatching season 4, and something came to me. Let's say that Bojack told Hollyhock his shitty childhood regarding Beatrice, why would Hollyhock not be at least a little sore about Beatrice because of it? Is it due to Beatrice's dementia and that she cannot be angry at a person in that state, or is it because she never knew her that enough to be even angry?
- Hollyhock probably did have an idea of how Beatrice was to BoJack, but she didnt want to hold it against her because she was senile with dementia and there would be no point. She even tells BoJack (I’m paraphrasing a bit since I can’t remember the exact thing) “Whatever beef you have with your mom you have to let go, because now she’s just a sweet confused old lady”.
- In "Downer Ending", BoJack recalls his disastrous final meeting with Herb during his drug-induced freak out. However, in the hallucination, Herb is chewing out the 1980s BoJack and not the present one. Can this be interpreted that BoJack, even at some of the more happier moments of his life, still suffered from extremely low self-esteem and self-worth?
- I see it as a combination of both the present and past versions of Herb in BoJack's memory as, while he strongly remembers the chew out he got from Herb, he most likely remembers Herb more in his prime that what he saw of him in the present.
- "Time's Arrow" shows that Beatrice Sugarman had her debutante ball in the early 1960s. If she was a child in the 1940s, she would have been at least in her mid-20s by then. Wouldn't that be considered too old?
- She went to college and got a bachelors degree (so she has to be at least older than 22 at this point), so I think that's why it was delayed, because Joseph sent her to Barnard to find a husband. She would have been around 18 when she left, so he figured she'd have a husband by the time she graduated, but of course that didn't work out. I think the latest you can have a debutante is 25, which would probably be considered too old, so that's probably why Joseph was so anxious to marry her off.
- "Free Churro" revealed Beatrice was born in 1938, so by the time of her debutante ball she was 25 or 24, so time was running out for her (in society’s eyes), so that's why Joseph was anxious to marry her off.
- Do names work differently for each species? Mr Peanutbutter appears to have no first name at all - his own wife calls him "Mr Peanutbutter". Other dogs also appear to have only surnames and no given names. Princess Carolyn is named "Princess" and... has no last name? Or is her father Mr Carolyn?
- Maybe it's more of gag referring to how people tend to name their pets "Ms", "Mr", or some sort of variant, in which case Mr. Peanutbutter is, well, Mr. Peanutbutter. In the case of PC, it might be case of Two First Names (the first first name being more of a title)and, from what's implied, "Carolyn" is her surname. Similarly, you have BoJack's family members being named, Crackerjack, Honey, and Butterscotch, the names that one might expect to give horses (from my observation, anyway).
- Mr. Peanutbutter's first name actually seems to be "Mister" - his brother is called Captain Peanutbutter, and Captain's children call Mr. Peanutbutter "Uncle Mister". Otherwise, yes, naming patterns seem to be species-dependent, and dogs and cats follow the Formally-Named Pet trope.
- It's also confusing that when the older brother is considering the possibility of dying he tells Mr. Peanutbutter that he'll become Captain Peanutbutter.
- There's also more confusion given Princess Carolyn's mother is not named Carolyn at all, but Cutie Cutie Cupcake. Different animals may have some sort of cultural precedent that formats their names to be similar to those of their real-life pet equivalents.
- Rutabaga refers to PC as "Carolyn" at one point, so it's likely her full name is just "Princess Carolyn."
- For Mr. Peanutbutter, yeah it really just seems like his name is just "Mr." Especially because Katrina and Pickles (when he's engaged to her) are referred to as having/going to have the last name "Peanutbutter." It's possible that it just sounds weird to just call him "Mr." so they say his full name which also happens to sound like they're only using his last name.
- Adding on to the idea of it varying by culture, it brings to mind Mr. Mistoffelees from CATS-people sometimes name their pets with titles like "Mr," "Mrs," "Princess," etc, in the same way people will name horses things like "Honey" or "Butterscotch." It does bring to question why PC doesn't seem to have a last name though.
- Maybe characters that would be regular housepets (like cats and dogs) in real life don't have last names. Since Mr. Peanutbutter AND his brother were both given "title" first names ("Mr." and "Captain") it's possible that, similar to PC, those are just their full names and they just happen to share "Peanutbutter" as part of those names. Considering most of Mr. Peanutbutter's wives were human, that would explain why they still took his last name.
- Princess Carolyn's Limited Wardrobe includes a teal dress with yellow fish on it - non-anthropomorphic fish with a tailfin. How did a dress designer come up with that design in a world where fish have arms and legs?
- I kind of figured that non-anthro animals also exist in this world, where the design might have came from.
- Just a very creative designer I guess.
- Is there any specific reason why all the bears in the show cannot seem to speak, only growl?
- I think that was just Tina. Sarah-Lynn's bear stepdad was heard speaking on TV.
- Maybe the bears (besides the stepdad) are speaking but they're speaking their version of a foreign language, so, to the viewers, it comes out like growls. However, we haven't seen too many bears besides the ones in Beatrice's flashbacks and the stepdad, so we don't really know for sure.
- There was a bear in the episode where Carolyn was trying to help out a pregnant friend; when Carolyn was getting a chair for her to sit in (she took a chair from the bear's shop), the bear went to her speaking in grunts wanting her to pay for it. I take it the grunts are indeed a bear thing in this series.
- Word of God has said the reasons some bears don't speak English is the same reason some people don't speak English, so it basically is implied to be a foreign language. Which makes you wonder why no other animal has been depicted speaking animal noises as a second language, besides the Pacific Ocean City residents who also just speak in blubs.
- I think that was just Tina. Sarah-Lynn's bear stepdad was heard speaking on TV.
- If I'm not mistaken, the portly bald guy who'd been silently hanging around Todd's WTiIN office is the same guy who offers job to Henry Fondle in the end. So he's super rich and clearly doesn't work for site. Then what the hell was he doing there?
- So Wonder Woman is Wonder Worm in this universe? What does her long-time arch-enemy, Cheetah, look like? And is Kirk Langstrom just a normal bat who went crazy?
- Maybe Cheetah doesn't exist or she and Langstrom are viewed as racist stereotypes, like Wah Wah of the Chicago Baby Humans.
- The existence of domesticated species in this universe. We know for sure that there are different breeds of domestic dogs and cats, and there is also livestock, like cows and chickens. Did these animals somewhat evolve out of their wild ancestors by themselves or were they domesticated like in our world? We know for sure that wolves exist, so they aren't just considered "ancestors", like we would look at cavemen for example. Are wolves looked down on because they're not as "civilised" as dogs? I know the simplest explanation is "artistic choice", but the implications of this universe are killing me.
- I guess that's just how the show is. There are plenty of other shows where animals live as equals with humans. Considering it's normal for the animal characters to be dating the humans and hell, there are cases where animals give birth to humans (not hybrids mind you, pure humans) and vice versa. I also find it interesting while the animals do retain certain features (like the birds being able to fly), none of them have tails. Like I said, I believe it's just the direction the show wanted to take by humanizing animals but keeping their traits and make it not that weird to have them date/marry humans.
- Philbert waxes? It took me a long time to figure out the problem with this, but then it suddenly hit me. Philbert is a horse. Horses are supposed to be covered in fur. This plot point makes no sense and Bojack seems to be the only one that notices.
- People are supposed to be covered in fur, too. If we weren't we'd have no reason to wax.
- How could Dr. Champ be so cruel and inaccurate about the reasons he fell of the wagon in Season 6? He knew that BoJack's whole reasons for being in there was self-inflicted hurt of other people.
- Because he's a frustrated alchoholic looking for someone else to blame. BoJack realizes this and recognizes how similar he's been, which is why he reacts the way he does.
- To be fair, Champ's reasons for why he fell off are probably more personal than "your ex-costar dying after a booze and drug bender" and, whatever it was, he probably wasn't ready to talk about it yet, so he resorted to projection
.I mean, they're both self-aware self-destructive/destructive people with deep-seated issues that they don't really want to face, much less have to, though BoJack seems to more apt to help other people w/ their problems vs facing his own, supposing he's not outright enabling them, that is.
- To be fair, Champ's reasons for why he fell off are probably more personal than "your ex-costar dying after a booze and drug bender" and, whatever it was, he probably wasn't ready to talk about it yet, so he resorted to projection
- Because he's a frustrated alchoholic looking for someone else to blame. BoJack realizes this and recognizes how similar he's been, which is why he reacts the way he does.
- I'm confused at to what the show's trying to say about Sarah Lynn possibly having been molested by her stepfather. Watching Season 6, I believed the show was trying to retcon what it had previously implied by showing her mother loved her at least enough to threaten to sue when she learned Sarah got drunk on set, and having Sarah Lynn not be allowed in her dressing room because her stepfather is "being weird." But then I read the updated Fridge page, and it uses the "being weird" bit as further evidence of the crime. What is her stepfather "being weird" in her dressing room supposed to imply? Wouldn't a molester want their victim to stay with them in a private place?
- "Sarah Lynn was sexually abused by her step-father" is a piece of Fanon. There is zero canonical evidence of it. The show had more than enough time to have wanted to go in that direction but they didn't, at the most they put in very vague implications or allusions. The writers most likely didn't want to overtly get into one of the few traumas/abuse they hadn't covered, because child sexual abuse is an exceptionally dark topic. Even for a show like this. I imagine at some point in the future one of the writers or showrunners will be asked about it and only then will we get a real answer.
- While it's never explicitly addressed, there are implications of the stepfather being abusive, such as her knowing the taste of bear fur because of him and his design being explicitly based off of alleged sexual abuser Terry Richardson. The "being weird" part indicates that he did want her to stay in the dressing room for some "weird" reason, but Sarah Lynn either left or was removed by somebody concerned for her safety.
- Unfortunately, many former child actors have said that child sexual abuse is all too common in Hollywood. Todd Bridges, the actor for Willis in Diff'rent Strokes, was abused by his publicist, yet was forced by the producers to appear in "The Bicycle Man", which focused on Arnold and Dudley being preyed upon by a family friend. Like the troper above is saying, the show could be alluding to the fact it is all too common, but not going in deep because it's a super dark topic topic and because in real life, it's not something you're often able to openly say.
- The "being weird" thing might be because Sarah Lynn, for one reason or another, can't openly say it. Or because she was a child, she didn't understand what was going on, as many kids in her position often don't realize it is abuse until they get older.
- Also I don’t think the show was trying to ‘retcon’ anything by having Sarah’s mother threaten to sue. Even abusive parents are capable of showing “some” concern for their kids’ wellbeing, and the show often goes to great lengths to show its characters being complex and nuanced. Not to mention the possibility that Carol worried the incident would curtail her daughter’s showbiz career, or she was jumping on the opportunity to cash in. In the same way that Sarah Lynn’s stepfather acts like a concerned nice guy in his appearance- abusers often put on a kind and compassionate public persona in order to gain credibility and mask their true deeds, and can also demonstrate a twisted sort of care towards their victims.
- The cashing-in angle occurred to me, but I figured if that was her motivation, she would have just sued (or contemplated suing, but decided against it in private), not threatened to but given them a relatively easy escape hatch of firing an employee, which wouldn't benefit Carol in any way. As as for character nuance; sure, a mother who ignores their child getting molested but is willing to end their showbiz career that they prize so much over a sip of alchohol could exist, but a side-character whose only known character traits are parental negligence and greed? That we can call inconsistent writing for the sake of narrative conflict.
- How does Bojack still have a drivers license in season 6? He's been unquestionably at fault in several accidents, most due to blatant drunk driving. The usual "he gets away with it because he's rich and famous" explanation doesn't work here, since Mr. Peanutbutter lost his for much lesser violations.
- He could be losing and getting his back offscreen or the accidents happen in a way that, while he would be at fault, the evidence could point the other way.
- He could also just be driving without a license.
- In BoJack's Dying Dream we learn a lot of things about CrackerJack, including the exact circumstances of how he died, and that he volunteered for the army, and had a miserably bad track record as a soldier, his only confirmed kills being from a friendly fire accident. But the fact it happens in BoJack's mind raises a lot of interesting questions about how close to reality these facts actually are. Is it just BoJack's own imagination and self-loathing filling in some blanks to make CrackerJack look like a failure like the rest of his family? Or did BoJack at some point decide to do some research into the mysterious uncle he never met, yet managed to cast such a huge shadow over the lives of his mother and himself, only to end up being less than impressed with what he found out?
- There's a lot of information in that episode BoJack couldn't have known, such as Herb thinking about suicide or Sarah Lynn's feelings of self-sacrifice. It's possible this is all inference on BoJack's part, that his mind made it up to keep the momentum of the dream going, or that he really was touching some theoretical hereafter contrary to Herb's insistence that death was the end. There's no way to really know.
- Actually, it's possible that, considering when his grandfather died (which was around 1993) and that he mentioned CrackerJack playing the piano in Time's Arrow, it's possible that he might have heard stories about CrackerJack from either Joseph or Beatrice in some form or another, so, taking The Old Sugarman Place into account, it wouldn't be much of a stretch.
- There's a lot of information in that episode BoJack couldn't have known, such as Herb thinking about suicide or Sarah Lynn's feelings of self-sacrifice. It's possible this is all inference on BoJack's part, that his mind made it up to keep the momentum of the dream going, or that he really was touching some theoretical hereafter contrary to Herb's insistence that death was the end. There's no way to really know.
- Why is Wanda included in the list of people Bojack dated that he had power over? She was the head of programming on a fairly well off channel, she had more power over people than Bojack ever had as a washed up former actor. She's also the only person Bojack has ever dated that's his own age. She's the only relationship he's had where really Bojack had no position of power over her and it could've been said was a healthy relationship.
- Because the optics are bad; she just got out of a 30-year coma, so while she was technically Bojack's age, mentally / emotionally she was thirty years his junior. We as the viewer know that she got over her coma ridiculously easily (more because the show treated it as a joke than for any other reason) and she was mentally / emotionally his equal until she outgrew and broke up with him, but the Biscuits Braxby doesn't know that, and she doesn't particularly care to find out. She's more interested in doing a hard-hitting takedown of a powerful man than she is in worrying about whether all of her accusations are 100% reasonable.
- I've gotten into several arguments with people about this: how responsible was Bojack for Sarah Lynn's death? He did encourage her to go off the wagon, but she was looking for an excuse and had cheerfully said in her debut she was fine with tragically dying young. Could he have plausibly been panicking for those seventeen minutes while high on drugs and forgotten that if he had called the paramedics then he wouldn't have gotten in trouble due to a standard Don't Ask policy? (Edit: Thank you for all the answers. I believed that Bojack was totally responsible and wanted to know if I was wrong or not.)
- Yes Sarah Lynn wanted to go on the bender, but BoJack took advantage of the fact she had no self control, keep in mind weeks earlier he begged her to stay sober, and there is no excuse for him waiting seventeen minutes, he said himself that phone call was to cover his tracks. Even if he wasn’t aware of how much time passed he still should have called 911 right away. I’ve seen people with medical knowledge say there was a very good chance she could have survived. Also that line about dying tragically young was probably played for laughs, Sarah Lynn confessed right before she died she essentially regretted her whole life I doubt she actually was ok with dying young.
- A big theme in the show is you can still be a victim, but that doesn't negate your role in the situation, ie it's true that Pete Repeat and Maddie were drinking vodka and Red Bull before Bojack and Penny picked them up, but they were still kids and Bojack didn't know them well enough to have the right to tell them to drink water and bourbon instead of what they already were. The Surprisingly Realistic Outcome section for Season 6 touches on why everybody is so mad: Bojack was panicking, true, but there's also the fact that Bojack thought more about himself than Sarah Lynn. It's tragic because like you're saying, there's a Don'tAsk policy (which generally speaking, can be broken, but beyond breaking into the planetarium, there is no criminal activity behind it that would push them to bring in law enforcement), Bojack is a celebrity so the judge might be willing to look the other way, and even then, the worst punishment he'd get would be to go to rehab or pay a fine. Pre-That's Too Much, Man!, even if Sarah Lynn was surrounded by sycophants and enablers or people who saw her as nothing more than a junkie, it didn't matter the situation, they still did the responsible thing and called 911 right away, as every second matters. It might also be a case of the straw that breaks the camel's back, since most everybody in Hollywoo hated Bojack or was wronged by Bojack. The revelation he tried to cover his tracks before he helped somebody he claimed to care about would be a Moral Event Horizon for most people.
- In some flashbacks to the 1990s and early 2000s, Princess Carolyn has pink hair similar to a human woman. You could make the argument she grew it herself, but during flashbacks to her in high school, she has the same hair she has now, just slicked back? Was she wearing a wig? Did she just stop growing her hair and cut it?
- I’d assume it was real/styled that was for a time period, ie she has the Rachel in the 1990s.
- Even if you could chalk it up to Artistic License that Doctor Champ didn't have to follow HIPAA, wouldn't this not apply to the rest of the rehab center? The receptionist taking photos with the patients and posting them for all to see would almost certainly be in violation of HIPAA. Couldn't Bojack legally sue Patisches if he ever finds out Doctor Champ sold him out?
- For the photos thing yes, for the throwing him under the bus no, since Doctor Champ isn’t a real therapist
- Why is it that Mr. Peanut Butter's skiing instructor; Professor Thistlethorpe is an elderly man despite being a caterpillar. Shouldn't a caterpillar be the equivalent of a pre-pubescent especially since we saw in a doctor's office a poster of a butterfly breaking out of a cocoon with the slogan "talk to your kids about puberty?"
- Maybe Proffesor Thistlethorpe is a species of bug that has really long larval stage.
- I just finished watching Season 3 on Netflix, and I have some questions about Bojack and Todd's relationship.
- First of all, why is Bojack sleeping with Emily supposed to be such a big deal, and a betrayal of Todd? She and Todd weren't together when that happened, they hadn't even seen each other since high school, and Todd didn't even seem all that interested in Emily.
- Secondly, a more general question about Todd being the one to righteously call Bojack out from time to time (such as in S3 E10). What right does Todd have to call Bojack out exactly? Yes, Bojack is generally very selfish and has done some terrible things, but Todd among all his friends is the one that has the least to complain about. Bojack did let Todd, a grown adult who he didn't have any previous relationship with, and who is not even a relative or a love interest, live in his home rent-free for years and treat it as his own home. And it's not as if Todd has done a lot for him in return other than being just being present (compared to, say, all of Princess Carolyn's support and sacrifices over the years). The show keeps bringing up Bojack's motivation being loneliness or guilt as if that negates everything he's done for Todd, but that doesn't change the fact that Todd seems to be the only one among Bojack's acquaintances who regularly takes more than he gives in his relationship with the horse.
- Also a more trivial question, does Bojack's mansion have only one bedroom, or does Todd prefer sleeping on the couch, or what? Has this been addressed in the show?
- For one, I think this is a little too YMMV to be a Headscratcher. Todd is mad at Bojack because, while Todd is asexual, he evidently still feels possessive of Emily and saw Bojack sleeping with her as a betrayal. Selfish and unreasonable? Yes, but that is his motivation (and he is framed as right in the moment, but he does later acknowledge that he overreacted and stops being possessive of Emily). And as for how Bojack's hurt Todd: he sabotaged Todd's rock opera, which could well have been his one chance at not just becoming independent, but wholly successful (though thankfully, that wasn't the case), and got Todd sent to jail, where he was traumatized.
- Plus Todd admits in "Hooray! Todd Episode!” that the Emily situation was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.
- Re: the bedroom situation: When Diane moves in temporarily, BoJack offers her the guest room, and Todd is shocked to find out it exists. BoJack's issues center around craving intimacy but being terrified of it, so letting Todd have a room and treating him like a roommate is too formal and scary for him. If Todd is sleeping on his couch, then he's not a friend, he's just a guy crashing there for a while, and BoJack doesn't have to confront their relationship and admit his vulnerability.
- How does Bojack's swimming pool work? It's on a reinforced patio overlooking a cliff face. It looks like just a blue plane on a flat patio. Where does the pool's depth come from? Logically, the pool should be barely ankle deep.
- Is it really possible for a half brother and sister to be read as a father and daughter in a DNA test?
- IRRC, the test never said what their relation was, only that they had one. Bojack just (understandably) assumed that meant she was his daughter.
- Are sea anemones the only exception to the "no non sapient and non anthropomorphic animals" rule? We see a bunch of them in Fish out of water despite every other animal being otherwise sapient and humanoid.
