How do you keep going when the entire world hates you? For BoJack, the answer seems to be: With an even greater dose of loneliness and self-loathing than usual.
A few months have passed since the fateful interview. In that time, BoJack has settled with Sarah Lynn’s family for $5 million and landed at No. 1 on a magazine’s list of the 100 Most Hated Men. He can’t get work (apart from a slot as Dead Body #4 on an episode of Birthday Dad). His friends are avoiding him. His pile of Horsin’ Around money is shrinking, and a potential lawsuit from the Xerox Corporation threatens to siphon off another $100 million. The situation is desperate enough that he gets badgered into selling his mansion.
And with the whole world against him, who is left in BoJack’s corner? Princess Carolyn, albeit reluctantly. Mr. Peanutbutter, with characteristic unquestioning enthusiasm. And Vance Waggoner, a Hollywood scumbag in the Mel Gibson mold, whom you might remember from his racist and antisemitic rants back in season five.
Back then, BoJack cynically took a public stand against Vance, recognizing that identifying himself as a male ally was a good P.R. move. Now, with the rest of the world against him, BoJack pairs up with Vance because he doesn’t really have anybody else.
What follows is a predictably bleak series of misadventures. As BoJack and Vance hang out at the Silver Spoon Diner — causing the other disgusted patrons to scatter — some casual riffing leads to a pitch for an awful-sounding sex comedy called The Horny Unicorn, with BoJack to star. After getting turned away from Todd and Maude’s housewarming party, BoJack and Vance head over to USC, where Vance screams at his daughter until an MRA-style frat guy, who looks at BoJack as a truth-telling, bomb-slinging hero, invites them to a house party. This is obviously a very, very bad idea for the sober BoJack, but the prospect of spending time alongside people who don’t despise him turns out to be too much to resist.
In theory, this is when BoJack could use a friend to pull him out of the spiral, as pretty much everyone — but especially Princess Carolyn and Diane — has done at one point or another in the series. But “The Horny Unicorn†mostly finds BoJack’s friends living their lives without him. Diane is making headway on an Ivy Tran, Food Court Detective sequel (and bonding with Guy’s son Sonny in the process). Todd and Maude are taking the first steps toward an actual, functional life together.
I suspect those people would be around for BoJack if he actually, earnestly asked for help, because we’ve seen them all do it before (and in the case of Mr. Peanutbutter and Princess Carolyn, within the scope of this episode). But BoJack is falling into the same ugly pattern set by so many powerful men who have been brought down by scandal: Falling into self-righteousness and self-pity, and eagerly embracing the few sycophants that are still willing to buy what he’s selling.
What BoJack really needs is someone who still wants him to be better. And that leads us to the ticking time bomb in BoJack’s pocket throughout “The Horny Unicornâ€: A mysterious letter from Hollyhock, who hasn’t been answering BoJack’s increasingly desperate calls. BoJack carries the letter around all day trying to work up the nerve to open it.
When he finally does, we don’t actually learn what it said — but given Hollyhock’s obvious disgust with the Penny story, it’s probably safe to assume that the rest of the interview was enough to make her cut ties with BoJack for good. Whatever the specifics, the letter is disturbing enough to BoJack that he sits through the rest of the frat party in a dead-eyed haze that consciously echoes the bleary ennui of the show’s opening credits sequence. And when some frat guy hands him a beer, it certainly looks like he’s ready to drink it.
Horsin’ around:
• So: What’s the deal with Todd’s never-seen, allegedly very sick mom? The most obvious answer is that she’s dead and Jorge doesn’t want to admit it — but if that were the case, why would Jorge encourage Todd to keep trying to reach her?
• That was Samantha Bee, voicing a bee named Samantha Bee on a TV network called T-Bee-S.
• Hollyhock’s dorm room is named after Bradley Whitford, who really is a Wesleyan graduate.
• Todd and Maude move into the Lapin Place apartment complex — named, appropriately, after the French word for “rabbit.â€
• At Mr. Peanutbutter’s House, BoJack borrows a PB Livin’ bathrobe — apparently a leftover from that very misguided company.
• Sonny and his friends order a pizza from Gnu Malnati’s, the BoJack-ified version of the joint that at least some Chicagoans would tell you is the city’s best deep-dish pizza.
• Mr. Peanutbutter is apparently the Pagliacci of the BoJack Horseman universe.
• Per Todd, the three phrases that elegant adults say all the time: (1) “I’m starting to think smartphones are actually making us less connected,†(2) “Well, that’s politics for you,†(3) “Sir, you cannot remove your shoes inside this Applebee’s.â€
• Princess Carolyn’s suggestions for an Ivy Tran, Food Court Detective sequel title: A Tran for All Seasons or Last Tran to Clarksville.
• Diane’s stack of books includes But… Her Females: American Women Who Should Have Been President.
• “I don’t think it’s wise to be burning Bridges at this juncture.†“I’m sorry, I just don’t like Beau.â€
• Of course the dumb frat guys have a Scarface poster on the wall.