BoJack Horseman

BTW from my memory, it was the decision of Netflix and not the show's creators to end this at Season 6, right? I wonder just how different the finale would've been if they delayed it any longer.

There's something ironic in how one of Bojack's few close true friends at the end of it all is Mr. Peanutbutter, a guy he hated and resented at the start.

I gotta say, this was a more uplifting ending than I expected.

Ultimately, everyone ends up a better person than they were at the start. Even Bojack. It's not atonement or forgiveness for what he's done — the series has made a point that sometimes you can't atone for your mistakes and sometimes people will never forgive. But it is redemption.

Edited by M84 on Feb 1st 2020 at 3:35:15 AM

Though it's left ambiguous if Bojack will change for the better or not, he does briefly relapse into old Bojack when Princess Caroline says there might be acting opportunities once he gets out. PC even regretted bringing it up.

So uh guys, is it me or is the final episode extremely ambiguous about it actually happening or just being the second part of Bojack's dying dream? The way it's framed, the absence of background music and sounds, the way the characters just appear one by one and never meet in group, the way Diane acts....

At least its much better than what happened to me today. I genuinely thought the PREVIOUS episode was the last episode! I was so terrified and depressed about it!

×2

The only thing ambiguous is if Bojack really did change this time.

I'm almost done with part 2 of season 6. I'm finishing episode 14 right now. So many feels! I love it!

I really don't buy the theory that the final episode was Bojack's Dying Dream or the afterlife or something like that. The episode before that made it pretty clear that there is nothing after death. One life is all you get. Herb says as such, "There is no other side". That explanation fits the themes of the show a lot better; life may not have a grand purpose, but it is important because that's all you get. The things you do have weight because you can't go back on your mistakes, you can only go forward.

I mean technically the only way Herb would have special insight, rather than just being a hallucination reflecting Bojack's own beliefs, is if there is an other side and he's lying.

I can't imagine the last episode is part of BoJack's Dying Dream. The whole "Hollywoob" scene happens from PB's perspective, without BoJack being involved at all. And he's later confused when PC says "Hollywoob", which proves it wasn't just some scenario he imagined.

Edited by FawfulCrump on Feb 1st 2020 at 9:01:27 AM

Bojack publicly trying to blame Sharona and discredit her was horrifically cruel. I wonder if people looked her up and gave her shit because of it.

Yeah, that really showed he still has a long way to go.

There were too many things in the finale that Bojack wouldn't have known about if it was his dying dream: PC & Judah, Todd reconciling with his mom, Diane moving to Houston. There was even a billboard that showed Gina is doing the superhero with Kelsey movie afterall. Plus that would completely undermine the message "Life’s a bitch and you keep living"

Edited by SevenOfDiamonds on Feb 1st 2020 at 1:47:56 AM

Yeah I agree additionally I kinda feel like if the final episode was another part of Bojack's dying dream, it raises a lot of questions about exactly how long he'd been in that pool. True, maybe only 10 minutes passed but it felt like longer in his mind, but it feels like that would be pushing it.

Ultimately I kinda feel like having Bojack die would have taken away from the central messages of the show; that you have to keep moving forward no matter what setbacks there are in your way. I almost feel like having him actually die would have been the easy way out.

Edited by Zombie_Jack on Feb 3rd 2020 at 9:44:31 AM

It's funny to look at the forum right now. It's basically just a few words and tons of spoiler tags.

Yeah, I'm less convinced of my own theory now that a couple days have passed, even if I still think they designed the atmosphere of the last episode with the purpose of maybe putting that thought in the back of your mind.

That said, definitely a powerful experience. It wasn't the direction I hoped the show would go, but they executed everything impeccably. I still have gears spinning in my mind, thinking about it. Definitely need to rewatch it, though.

(Me and a few friends watched the whole last batch of episodes in a row, while keeping ourselves mildly inebriated so that we would feel everything more. That was the best worst decision I've made lately. Certainly an appropriate one )

Let's be honest, is anyone really surprised that Bojack's journey (as far as the show is concerned anyway) ultimately ended with a stint in prison?

Anyway, I think one of the lessons one can take from this show is that it's never too late to become a better person. Meaning there's no excuse to not try to be better either.

Yes, I was surprised. Because, especially with how episode 7 ended, I thought Bojack was going to die in one of the last few episodes, and the final episode would be exploring his impact and how ultimately everyone was better off without him, even if they do miss him.

Death or prison were both likely outcomes. The pool suicide attempt at least was foreshadowed by the friggin' intro sequence we've had all this time.

There's actually a lot of foreshadowing across the series about Bojack drowning. There's the part in "Downer Ending" where he suggests the book end with him drowning himself, there's his comments how his family "were drowning together" in "Free Churro", there's Bojack's Narcissus painting seen throughout the show, "Fish Out of Water" was about Bojack being trapped underwater and not being able to reach out to people, etc.

It makes me want to rewatch the show to see if there were any other moments that I may have missed.

If a show makes you want to rewatch it, then it has done something right. ;)

Would you say that this series is a Deconstruction of the Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist trope? In Season 1, BoJack was that trope in spades, but unlike most of those, he actually had to face the consequences for his bad deeds.

His character page already had someone call him a deconstructed Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, among many other deconstructed character archtypes.

The fact that the drowning had been foreshadowed so much is part of the reason I felt like it would have been to easy and predictable to just have Bojack die by drowning, since a bunch of fans had already theorized that would be the case, and a bunch of other fans already broke down why that would actually be a pretty disappointing ending.

I could have seen Bojack dying, but what actually happens actually strikes the show better to me. Because, despite everything, this show's message is more optimistic than an ending of "Bojack dies, never really having changed or improved, and everyone realizes they're better off without him."