BoJack Horseman season 6 episode 6 review: Parents just don’t understand

In the sixth episode of the final season of BoJack Horseman, Todd reunites with his estranged stepdad in a classic Todd caper to help his sick mom.

While Hollywoo is thrown into chaos over the assistant strike (simply because they don’t want to be “treated like garbage”), BoJack deals with the repercussions of the contraband vodka bottle in episode five.

After a rough night of relapsing, Dr. Champ sneaks out of the window of Pastiches to go home and shower (using a rope of sheets tied together — callback!) with the help of BoJack.

With officially nothing else holding him back, BoJack calls a Cabracadabra (a reminder of how weirdly successful Todd is) to go home, but on his way there, notices Dr. Champ’s car outside a bar.

Meanwhile, Todd’s stepdad, Jorge (voiced by the wonderful Jaime Camil), shows up to Princess Carolyn’s apartment to report that Todd’s mother needs a kidney. Unfortunately, Todd sold it last week to buy sock puppets (because of course Todd did).

Todd proposes they go to the organ store (which sells pipe organs and body parts) to track down his kidney. It turns out Jeremiah Whitewhale (the very evil rich guy) has bought all the organs to hoard because he wants to live forever.

While Jorge thinks this is a dead end, Todd takes some anesthesia from the organ store and knocks out Jorge to take him to Chicago, enlisting the help of Diane who is luckily still on the Whitewhale payroll. (She’s taking the man down from the inside one unstaffed paycheck at a time!)

Diane is clearly invigorated by the distraction of a Classic Todd Scheme. Guy pulls Diane aside to question whether this is the best use of Diane’s time with the book on her plate, but Diane insists that, by living her life, she is working on the book.

Elsewhere in Hollywoo, Princess Carolyn and Lenny Turtletaub devise a convoluted way to end the assistant strike without actually giving into the demands. They decide to promote the key people in the strike so the leaders buckle.

Finally, it’s down to the very dumb Stuart (voiced by the great James Adomian). At the last minute, Princess Carolyn stops him from signing it as she remembers her horrible beginnings as an assistant. Brilliantly, she calls her former assistant, Judah, in to start the negotiations in earnest.

It’s a nice callback for Princess Carolyn fans, and hopefully, throughout negotiations, she can find a way to reunite with her formerly devoted assistant.

Back in Chicago, Todd and Jorge go to sneak into a big Whitewhale party. After Todd fails to pass as Diane with her ID at the door, Jorge hilariously puts Todd in a trash can and speaks Spanish until the guard lets him in, playing the “racism” card to his advantage.

Todd and Jorge make it to the Kidneys & IT floor at Whitewhale (Jorge distracts the guard by telling him he saw someone putting ketchup on a hot dog). While they wait for the kidney to come out of the elaborate delivery mechanism, Todd and Jorge finally begin to — maybe — deal with their issues.

In a conversation that feels very real and raw, Todd asks his stepdad why he can’t be proud of him on his own terms. While Jorge sees Todd as a failure who abandoned his mother, Todd sees his parents as people who never understood him and didn’t want him around.

Diane, who’s keeping watch from the parking garage (and excellently distracting herself from working on her book), tries to warn them that the guard is returning — but it’s to no avail since Todd and Jorge don’t have the other walkie talkie.

The guard comes in and they hold their hands up. Of course, Jorge immediately gets accused of perpetrating a crime against Todd, because racism! Todd takes the kidney and they get out of there.

Once they get the kidney back to Todd’s mom, Jorge apologizes to Todd for being so hard on him. While he had to earn everything and work hard, life has been easy for Todd because he’s white. It’s a funny joke, but it also feels like a bit of a throwaway explanation for the deep issues in the relationship, especially considering that Todd decides to leave when his mom wakes up from surgery without seeing her.

In many ways, much like with other Aaron Paul characters, Todd is the moral center of the show. It’s great to finally get more depth with his backstory and family. (I’d always wondered why he was white with the last name Chavez, for example.)

But it also feels like a bit too little, too late. While Todd also serves as the comic relief in many ways, it would have been great to have seen this storyline explored much earlier in the series. Maybe, before the finale, we’ll get to meet Todd’s mom…

While BoJack tries to get Dr. Champ to sober up at the bar, Dr. Champ accidentally gives BoJack a breakthrough. Dr. Champ tells BoJack he’d never accept therapy from him because he’s a horse, and BoJack has internalized horse phobia because of his dad (and maybe that’s why he keeps Hollyhock at arm’s length, too).

After Dr. Champ blacks out again, BoJack checks him in to another rehab, telling him he can’t help anyone at Pastiches until he gets better. Dr. Champ lashes out, telling BoJack it’s all his fault and that he’s ruined his life — he’ll never work at Pastiches again, his husband will leave him, and it’s all because of BoJack’s contraband vodka.

“I want you to remember everything you did to me,” he tells BoJack as BoJack turns to leave. “I remember everything. I’m sober now,” BoJack says. And finally, BoJack is home…

Now that BoJack is finally home and out of rehab, the real work begins. With two episodes (in this first half of the season) left, there’s no telling what could happen next…

What do you think will happen now that BoJack is home from rehab? Sound off in the comments.