The Hollywood ofBoJack Horseman(or “Hollywoo,” as the famous sign reads after a certain equine pilfers the D) is populated with incredibly complex individuals who just happen to have fur, feathers, and names like ‘Mr. Peanutbutter.’Related:What ‘BoJack Horseman’ Taught Us About ForgivenessThe creators of this animated dramedy, which ran from 2014 to 2020,delved into thetraumas of the main characters, and took equal care in making the supporting players seem like multifaceted human- and animal-beings who had full lives outside the scenes they shared with the main cast. But it’s one thing to convey a full emotional life when there are plenty of episodes to devote to the character’s arc. It’s quite another to make a one-appearance character indelible. In very little time, these seven characters made quite a lasting impression.
1. Jogging Baboon
Although technically this athletic marsupial can be spotted in several episodes running up and down the hill outside BoJack’s house, he makes his most vivid appearance in the Season 2 finale “Out to Sea.” BoJack attempts to improve his physique and perhaps, through doing so, his entire crumbling existence by tackling the steep incline just beyond his driveway. Huffing and puffing, he bemoans the terribleness of exercise before collapsing in a wheezing heap at the side of the road.
There, the Jogging Baboon (Jason Beghe) offers a piece of advice that applies to so many aspects of life: “Every day, it gets a little easier. But you gotta do it every day. That’s the hard part.” From a character whose disciplined jogging routine was well-known to viewers but who never had said a word, this utterance of wisdom proved a lovely payoff.
Throughout most of the Season 4 episode “Ruthie,” it looks as though the cat delivering a class presentation about her great-great-great grandmother is indeed a descendent of Princess Carolyn. At this point in the series, audiences were very familiar with Princess Carolyn’s career setbacks and infertility issues, so the appearance of a pink feline wearing Princess Carolyn’s signature necklace and talking about her impressive relative seemed to indicate that Princess Carolyn eventually would have the baby she so longed for and become a lasting success as a Hollywoo agent.
Ruthie, voiced byKristen Bellwho is starring in her own Netflix show this year, certainly seems like the offspring of Princess Carolyn, with her can-do attitude and command of the room. But then comes the gut-punch: this poised kitty from the future who so idolizes her great-great-great-grandmother is simply a fantasy Princess Carolyn has concocted to make herself feel better about her life. Audiences would have to wait until Season 6 to have their hearts repaired: Princess Carolyn successfully adopts a baby porcupine and chooses a name for the child that expresses her optimism for the future: “Ruthie.”
3. Ivy Tran
Though Diane sets out to write a book of essays about her dysfunctional upbringing, what ends up flying through her fingertips and onto the computer screen is a YA book about a teen mall detective. Like Diane, Ivy Tran (Maya Erskine) is Vietnamese-American and recently has moved to Chicago from Southern California. But Ivy, by her own declaration, is “fun and popular,” as well as “a little sardonic, but not so much that it’s off-putting” - all characteristics Diane feels she lacks.
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Ivy can crack a case in the space of a couple hundred pages, while Diane sees her career path and relationship issues as utterly unsolvable puzzles. How can this idealized character and her antics, possibly say anything about the messiness of real life? But by the conclusion of the Season 6 episode “Good Damage,” Diane begins to understand the merit in writing about this plucky Galleria sleuth; Ivy’s world may not reflect real life, but it’s a world that alienated teens, and perhaps even adults, would want to escape into.
The Season 4 episode “The Old Sugarman Place” features a widower dragonfly who, like his temporary neighbor BoJack, copes with pain through sarcasm and avoidance. Ever since his wife died in a flight-related accident he believes was his fault, Eddie (Colman Domingo) refuses to use his wings.
Fixing up the Horsemans’ Michigan-based summer cottage is something BoJack does to take his mind off of the people he has hurt and the career opportunities he has obliterated, and Eddie too uses the project to distract himself from loneliness and guilt. But when Bojack tricks Eddie into flying - forcing his pal to face the kind of demons BoJack won’t personally confront - Eddie’s anguish bubbles to the surface. “I don’t want to live,” he weeps, a sentiment that causes BoJack to back away from him. He fled Los Angeles to avoid feeling the thing that Eddie is talking about, and Eddie’s honesty and raw emotion hits far too close to home.
5. Cutie Cutie Cupcake
Despite her fluffy face and adorable name, there is nothing soft or cuddly about Cutie Cutie Cupcake, voiced by authorDavid Sedaris. A lazy and sharp-tongued alcoholic, Cutie Cutie Cupcake takes no responsibility for her drinking or the fact that, besides Princess Carolyn, her litter of children wants nothing to do with her.
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The Season 5 episode “The Amelia Earhart Story’’ depicts Cutie Cutie Cupcake in all her freeloading glory - a woman who lives off her daughter’s wages while declaring drunkenly that it’s foolish and overconfident to strive for better - and it gives Princess Carolyn’s workaholic, caregiving tendencies a root. Of course Princess Carolyn now feels compelled to prop up self-sabotaging addicts like BoJack and ill-at-ease when she’s not juggling multiple responsibilities at once. She might have clawed her way out of her mother’s dismal little house, but the habits she learned there are harder to get away from.
6. The Closer
One never sees the face or body of this L.A. Gazette employee from Season 3’s “Stop the Presses,” which seems fitting, as she serves in this episode as the voice of BoJack’s conscience. When BoJack calls the periodical to cancel his deliveries, The Closer (Candice Bergen) pries about what changed in his life to make him suddenly hate the sight of his daily paper. She behaves like a therapist, asking the sort of leading questions that draw out BoJack’s confessions and force him to examine why he continually sabotages relationships with the people he cares about.
BoJack admits that the paper, which Todd long had been using to create a paper mâché Todd-head, reminds him every morning of his transgressions against his friend, which in turn reminds him of how he can’t seem to stop ruining every good thing that comes his way. Canceling the paper is an act of control, he declares, but the Closer offers a gentle but firm rebuttal: “The whole idea of control is a myth.” Whether it’s because BoJack agrees with this statement or because he simply wants to continue torturing himself with reminders of his misdeeds, the subscription goes uncancelled.
7. Mary-Beth
With a flair for tongue-twisters that rivals that of Princess Carolyn, as well as a gift for choosing goofy but strangely accurate pseudonyms, corporate mediator Mary-Beth, voiced byWanda Sykes, makes quite the impression in Season 5’s “Int: Sub.” Her wife Indira, therapist to Diane and BoJack, uses aliases so that she may freely discuss her workday without breaching doctor-patient confidentiality. Mary-Beth, on the other hand, seems less concerned with keeping client anonymity than she is about sharing in the false-name fun, giving Todd the handle “Emporer Fingerface” and dubbing Princess Carolyn, devastatingly, “A Tangled Fog of Pulsating Yearning in the Shape of a Woman.”
Many of the one-episode figures that appear inBoJack Horsemanare memorable because they teach one of the main characters a lesson or demonstrate why a lead has become the sort of person (or cat) that they are. BoJack and Princess Carolyn may be the stars ofBoJack Horseman, they’re only bit-players in these two women’s lives. Even though, between them, Mary-Beth and Indira appear in only twoBoJackepisodes, they prove delightful enough to warrant their own series.
