BoJack Horseman season 6 episode 7 review: BoJack goes home

“Nothing’s changed so how am I supposed to?” This question unseats BoJack and viewers as he roams the country looking for purpose in the seventh episode of the final season of BoJack Horseman.

On the penultimate episode of this run of Bojack Horseman, BoJack is finally home after a six-month long stay in rehab. While he was getting clean at Pastiches, he was also very importantly avoiding the unpleasant, difficult memories of who he was before.

Of course, once BoJack is home, it doesn’t take long for him to leave his sad, dirty, empty house and head to an AA meeting (which is really saying something).

At AA, he sees Sharona, the hair stylist who first introduced him, and thereby Sarah Lynn, to alcohol on the set of Horsin’ Around. BoJack tries and fails to apologize to her (he blamed her for getting Herb Kazazz fired) and soon leaves. Restless and aimless, BoJack finally decides to go see Diane in Chicago.

Since we last saw her, Diane’s previously alluded to depression has taken full force. She isn’t writing, she’s wearing the same sweatpants every day, and generally isn’t doing much. She has a prescription, but won’t take it because she doesn’t like the way it makes her feel. A very sweet and gentle Guy encourages her to try the pills as he leaves for an extended shoot.

When BoJack arrives, Diane hides the apartment from him–it’s become a total mess since Guy left–taking him to a restaurant instead. Diane, of course, tries to pretend like everything is fine–what could she have to be depressed about? But when BoJack asks to crash at her apartment, he sees the truth, and Diane confesses she’s depressed.

Diane’s monologue about her depression is particularly affecting. It’s not that she’s cuddled up on the couch crying all day, though depression can certainly look like that. The point is that depression looks different on everyone. For Diane, it’s a crushing sense of apathy and nothingness. Diane, who has always been so driven and purposeful, is completely rudderless.

In perhaps the sweetest that BoJack has ever been, he tells her that he came all the way to Chicago to thank her for supporting him and getting him the help he needed when she did. After sleeping on her dirty couch that night, BoJack wakes up and cleans Diane’s apartment, then leaves for Connecticut to see his sister, Hollyhock.

While visiting, BoJack learns that the drama teacher at Wesleyan, where Hollyhock goes to college, quits and decides to apply. When he flies back to LA, BoJack makes his next visit on his “apology tour” and visits Princess Carolyn. In typical BoJack fashion, it doesn’t take long for him to ask her for a favor–a reference for the job.

And now, just like anyone else applying, all BoJack can do is wait and two months pass. He heads back to AA and finally apologizes to Sharona who tells him he was her rock bottom and forgives him.

She asks to cut his hair one last time for old times sake. In a big reveal, it turns out BoJack has been dying his hair for the last twenty years. Sharona gives him a throwback Horsin’ Around style silver shag just as BoJack gets the call that he’s hired at Wesleyan and flies out.

On his way to Connecticut, BoJack’s plane lands in DC due to ice and extreme cold weather. He has nothing to do other than see the sights and happens to run into Mr. Peanutbutter who’s there to testify before Congress as the National Face of Depression. (Of course, unlike Diane, Mr. Peanutbutter isn’t actually depressed, but that’s besides the point.)

Continuing his apology tour, BoJack goes with Mr. Peanutbutter to a museum. His sweater from Horsin’ Around is there, but so is the kitchen from Mr. Peanutbutter’s house. BoJack grudgingly and kindly gives an overly enthusiastic Mr. Peanutbutter the crossover episode he always wanted.

As the episode ends, Princess Carolyn calls Judah to offer him a job as the new VP of Operations now that they’ve finally settled negotiations for the assistant’s strike, so she can spend more time with Ruthie. A quick glimpse of Diane reveals that she has gained some weight (potentially from the anti-depressants) and she looks truly happy and picks up Guy from the airport.

And BoJack goes to some kind of Colonial Williamsburg thing for horses, a reenactment of church. It’s a call back to the season three finale when BoJack drives along the highway, letting go of his car and ready to kill himself after Sarah Lynn overdosed, only to see the band of shirtless wild horses running alongside the road.

As Dr. Champ astutely, and drunkenly, pointed out, due to BoJack’s internalized hatred of horses because of his abusive parents, he has essentially cut himself off from horses (a psychological trait common to many abused people). Both scenes show a different kind of catharsis for BoJack.

While the season three finale allowed him some kind of hope after the ultimate rock bottom, the church seems to represent some kind of continued healing as BoJack works to find ways to be better. With one episode left in the first half of season, the question is whether the world is ready to welcome back a better BoJack.

BoJack Horseman is now streaming on Netflix.