The assistants of Hollywoo go on strike. BoJack tries to help Dr. Champ. When Todd learns that his mother needs a kidney, Diane comes up with a plan.
Tropes:
-
Broken Aesop: The episode ends with Todd's stepfather realizing that Todd is fine just the way he is, and it's presented as "education and career success aren't everything"... until he adds that it's actually because Todd has white privilege and can get away with slacking through life while anti-Latino racism makes it impossible to get away with even half the things Todd does. - Biting-the-Hand Humor: PC wonders if they can somehow give the assistants what they think they want instead of what they actually want, "like how we satiate TV creators by giving them little vanity cards at the end of episodes, then sell the episodes to streaming networks that auto-skip the end credits so no one even sees the vanity cards". Netflix is of course one of these networks and Raphael Bob-Waksberg has been quite outspoken
in his criticism of this practice. - The Bus Came Back: Judah, who hasn't been seen since the Season 4 episode "Ruthie", returns in this episode as part of Princess Carolyn's plan to end the assistants' strike and stick it to Turtletaub at the same time.
- Freudian Excuse: Horse characters have been extremely uncommon throughout the run of the show, with even background character horses being a rare sight. Doctor Champ confronts BoJack with the idea that BoJack is explicitly going out of his way to avoid contact with horses because they remind him of his parents.
- Heel Realization: On the cusp of total victory over the assistants, Princess Carolyn suddenly realizes that she's doing the same things to them that was done unto her when she was an assistant. So she slips them Judah's number so the assistants can actually get some deals out of the strike.
- Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: Jorge's plan to get both he and Todd inside the White Whale building relies on this; Todd hides inside a garbage can while Jorge pushes it to the door pretending he's a janitor who only speaks Spanish. Fortunately, the security guard doesn’t understand a word of Spanish, so he just lets Jorge go inside so he wouldn't hold up the line any longer.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Todd's stepfather isn't wrong that Todd is a lazy, irresponsible, unmotivated freeloader who just coasts through life without any effort or forethought, just expecting things to work out for him. However, even he points out at the end that they usually do... because he's white.
- While Doctor Champ does unfairly place all the blame on BoJack for accidentally causing his own return to alcoholism, he's not entirely wrong that the entire mess with Doctor Champ getting drunk had started because of BoJack bringing contraband into his place of work and not thinking to dispose of the vodka anywhere else other than out of his window.
- Never My Fault:
- Doctor Champ fully blames BoJack for his return to alcoholism despite the fact the vodka ending up in his hands was a complete accident, BoJack did everything he could to keep the whole affair private, and it was Champ's own choice to go on a drinking binge at the bar afterwards, even knowing how much damage it did to his marriage and family beforehand. It's also strongly implied that Champ drank the vodka in the first place willingly (at least in part), as he chugged it all in one go while BoJack took one sip and spat it out in disgust, since it's really hard to chug an entire bottle of vodka accidentally and thinking it's water. (And, while most vodka has no distinct taste, there is a stylistic difference in brands is their texture on the tongue which makes it difficult to confuse with water).
- To a lesser extent, Todd also holds a grudge against his parents for kicking him out and not calling for ten years, yet seems to forget they only did that because he was a Lazy Bum who just played video games and mooched off them after dropping out of high school (rather than finish high school, go to college, get a job, or pay rent, or move out on his own), and he never even learned to stop mooching since he just switched to bumming off BoJack and then Princess Carolyn for years, and he never called them either. Sure, his stepdad was too strict with him growing up and his mother not only throwing him out but never calling or making sure he was okay for ten years was callous, but Todd still shows no remorse for the very mooching behavior that drove them to evict him in the first place.
- Organ Theft: Played with. Todd needs to recover his kidney, but he actually sold it consensually and has to steal it back when his mother needs it.
- Save the Day, Turn Away: Platonic parent variant that is played with. When Jorge asks if Todd would like to see his mother, Todd is averse to the idea, and plainly states that she has his number and leaves the hospital.
- Shout-Out: Dr. Champ isn't a therapist, he's just a horse (a therapy horse). He even says "I'm a horse!" as justification for being unable to help BoJack.
- Spoof Aesop: If you're a NEET Lazy Bum and you just want to skate through life mooching off other people (sleeping on their couches rent-free and forgo any kind of higher education, gainful employment, technical training or paying rent), everything will work out perfectly fine for you... if you're white.
- Terminally Dependent Society: Played for Laughs. After one day of the unionized assistants going on strike, a highway has already caught on fire because none of the people know how to do... well, anything.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Played with, Dr. Champ and BoJack part on negative terms as Dr. Champ fully blames BoJack for his downward spiral back into alcoholism despite the fact that BoJack did everything in his power to try and protect Dr. Champ's secret and get him sober again. As a side-effect, his career and marriage are both likely ruined. BoJack for his part does not dispute his role in all of this since technically, his holding on to the contraband vodka that Dr. Champ mistakenly drunk led to all of this in the first place.
- You Are What You Hate: Drunk Doctor Champ helped BoJack realize he has an internalized hatred of horses due to his parents (pointing out that all his friends are humans, cats, and dogs) and feels the need to be punished but, due to his position, never gets punished, which spirals things. BoJack tries to refute this, pointing out his relationship with Hollyhock, only for Champ to point out that Hollyhock doesn't represent his parents, she represents the horse he hates the most: himself.Bojack: Okay, you got me! My parents gave me an internalized self-hatred of horses.So, my horse body is a prison that I can never escape. This manifests in rotten behavior because I subconsciously believe I deserve to be punished, but being famous, I'm never punished, so I act out even more. And since this pattern is so woven into my identity, it is unfathomable to me that it can ever be curbed, so instead, I drink!
