"How did I not see it? All this time, I thought you were a terrible parent. And you were. But I blew it even worse. It turns out being a parent is... impossible. So I guess I can't be that mad at you."
— BoJack to Beatrice
Jessica Biel's climb in the polls forces Diane to come up with a way to derail her campaign. Princess Carolyn finds a new purpose after her recent losses. Todd tries to prevent his clown dentist business from shutting down. Hollyhock comes down with an unexpected condition.
Tropes:
- Anachronic Order: Similar to "After the Party", this episode is told in three parts, with some parts of the other stories happening in the background. For example, during the vox populi outside Parrotmount Studios, you can see Princess Carolyn parkouring, which pays off in her story.
- Asshole Victim: Referenced when Tom initially misunderstands where Governor Woodchuck's hands came from. He is told that they came from a pedophile-murderer and responds with "Well, if you gotta murder somebody".Katrina: No Tom, not a pedophile DASH murderer. A pedophile ''SLASH'' murderer!
- Brick Joke: Hollyhock mentions earlier in the season that her adoptive fathers are all in a polymorphous gay relationship. In this episode, we see all eight of them in the same place.
- Call-Back:
- In "Yes, And...", BoJack bails on his Secretariat filming after dealing with some frustration against the director and Wanda. Lenny still remembers this and plans to make a binding contract that forbids, the horse from doing this again during the making of the new Philbert show, if not limit it.
- Also an implied call-back to the "Halloween in January" store from Season 1. See the Halloween Episode point later.
- Continuity Nod: That line from one of Hollyhock's fathers about her being rail-thin? That's not a throw-away line - she'd been getting progressively skinnier
since Beatrice started making her coffee, with it beung the most noticeable at the begging of the episode where now her clothes don’t fit. - Contrived Coincidence: An aspiring writer comes to Princess Carolyn pitching a TV Show. As Princess Carolyn is in the middle of pointing out that the odds of getting someone to take interest in a random script someone presents to them are a million to one, she notices the name of the script is Philbert, the same as her unborn child and she becomes passionate about the project on that fact alone.
- Foreshadowing: Back in episode 8, Hollyhock is seen with her coffee cup in almost every scene she’s in, randomly switching TV channels, having put all the loose change in the house in alphabetical order by year, and having no appetite for ice cream or pizza. It could have been attributed to her being recently left by her Miles and being generally dorky or maybe eccentric, or that BoJack unintentionally repeating that she called herself a “blob" earlier when warning her about Miles May have led her to develop an eating disorder, but now it's revealed she has been secretly drugged with amphetamines for weight loss through her coffee for months. She also appeared a little skinnier in that episode.
- Freak Out: BoJack suffers a panic attack under the thought of Hollyhock getting hooked on amphetamines to the point of hospitalization while under his care, especially after he sees his spilled medications in his bathroom and thinks she was taking them when in reality it was because she was dizzy from overdosing while trying to get a bandaid.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The contract PC gets BoJack to sign has specific provisions against disappearing for more than three days to "find himself" or "face his inner demons", along with a number of other jokes.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Downplayed, but BoJack takes a break from having nothing but contempt for his mother to play a rousing game of Uno with her.
- Halloween Episode: Invoked. Apparently, Todd's dentist clowns are so accidentally creepy they would be a viable option to choose only as "a spooky experience" in October. Unfortunately, the episode is set in January. Double as a Call-Back with the "Halloween in January" store that Todd and Mr. Peanutbutter founded in season 1. And even triple as Foreshadowing, since at the finale of the season, Todd's will somehow think it would be a good idea to recycle this as a motivational situation, but between the idea in itself being dumb, the fact that Todd's is in charge and unsupervised, and the fact that in a word half full of animal men rabies — the disease who possibly could be the origin of the modern vampire and zombies mythos — is even more contagious than IRL, it will go Horribly Wrong. It stil won't stop Todd.
- Oh, Crap!: While listing potential stars for Philbert, PC unwittingly includes BoJack. Lenny didn't exactly want to work with him again, but states that he has enough "heat" due to his past antics and career. While Lenny wants the horse in, PC has deal with BoJack herself after being fired last season and insisted that she has moved on.
- On One Condition: Lenny approves of Princess Carolyn's pitch, but only if she brings in BoJack as the star.
- Papa Wolf: Hollyhock's fathers are understandably very upset about their daughter becoming hooked on amphetamines and overdosing, and they believe BoJack to be the cause of this, forbidding him from visiting her in the hospital, and eventually taking her back home. However, it turns out that it wasn't BoJack's doing, but Beatrice's. At which point, BoJack goes papa wolf on Beatrice, taking her to the worst nursing home he can find and sticking her in the worst room so she'll "never be able to hurt anyone ever again".
- Punctuation Changes the Meaning: When Katrina reveals that Woodchuck-Coodchuck Berkowitz got a hand transplant from a pedophile/murderer (as in, a pedophile and a murderer), Tom Jumbo-Grumbo assumes he was a pedophile-murderer (as in, someone who kills pedophiles). Katrina explains, "Not a pedophile dash murderer, a pedophile slash murderer!"
- Rage Breaking Point: BoJack already hates Beatrice for her mistreatment towards him over the years. When he discovers that she caused Hollyhock's overdose, which led to her dads banning him from seeing her ever again, he finally reaches his limit to sheer hatred, leading him to take her to the worst retirement home he can find, just to get rid of her.
- Red Herring: Everyone (including BoJack himself and the audience) thought that his not so gentle comments about Hollyhock's weight and Miles dumping her lead her to developing an eating disorder, which led her to take amphetamines and then pass out from overdose. In reality it was Beatrice who secretly tampered Holly’s coffee with “Chub-B-Gone” (a.k.a. weight loss supplements) to make her thinner.
- The Reveal: Beatrice had been putting weight loss supplements (something that she took herself did ever since she was young due to her own Weight Woe ) in Hollyhock's coffee.
- Running Gag: Once again, Mr. Peanutbutter is foiled by a banner."HOORAY FOR WOODCHUCK! AND IF HE DOESN'T WIN WRITE SO SORRY WOODCHUCK"
- Serious Business: Jessica Biel's campaign is ultimately sunk by her not liking avocado.
- Shout-Out: Two of Hollyhock's fathers, Fonzarelli and McQuack, are fairly blatant expies of The Fonz and Howard the Duck.
- Stealth Pun: One of Hollyhock's dads is a bear. "Bear" is also slang for a hairy, heavyset gay man, and he's the biggest and hairiest of them all.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Traditionally, hospitals prevent or limit random people from visiting patients, unless they are family or emergency contacts. BoJack had trouble finding proof that he and Hollyhock are related, even after he gives a heartfelt speech about what she’s like, which prevents him from seeing her. Plus, he never considered being a contact in case this happened. Her fathers, on the other hand, are able to.
- Take That!: As Princess Carolyn is outside the studio talking to Lenny, Mary from Imaginary Mary can be seen lying beside a dumpster.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: It turns out that Beatrice spiked Hollyhock’s coffee with weight loss pills to get her to conform with her outdated beauty standards. This leads to Hollyhock to pass out from an overdose. That proves to be the last straw for BoJack’s patience.
- That Came Out Wrong: Hollyhock texts “lovin that cali lifestyle” to one of her dads (Otto Zilberschlag) shortly before passing out from an amphetamine overdose. Her dads naturally assume this happened because of BoJack's lack of parenting skills. In fact, it was Beatrice's coffee mixed with weight loss pills.
- Toxic Friend Influence: BoJack assumes he is responsible for Hollyhock's overdose and throws pills he had in his bathroom out, believing them to be the culprit. Thankfully for him, this isn't his fault for once.
- Weight Woe: Hollyhock's concern about her weight (which had been insensitively addressed by BoJack as well) and Beatrice's obsession with thinness become a plot point.
- Wham Line:Beatrice: ...Who is that? BoJack?
