Full spoilers for BoJack Horseman Season 5. BoJack Horseman (Will Arnett) is sad. It’s his defining characteristic, and nothing describes it better than BoJack Horseman season 5’s “free churros.” His mother dies, and the protagonist delivers an incredibly lengthy eulogy, only to find that he's in the wrong room (the Lizard audience should have informed him, but alas). Through this monologue, viewers get a glimpse into BoJack's grieving process, grappling with the horrible person his mother is, and wondering why he's still heartbroken. While his reaction was angry and unorthodox, it was perhaps the best he could have done given his abusive upbringing.
BoJack's mourning style is punctuated with jokes and cruel attacks on his mother, which contrasts sharply with episode seven, when Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul Tompkins) realizes his mother didn't just go to the farm. "My dear mother has transcended this level," he told Philbert 's cast distraughtly. "I'm very vulnerable and need all the support I can get." He's open and vulnerable, affectionate and sad. Meanwhile, BoJack tells everyone to leave him alone because what he really wants is the same thing Mr. Peanutbutter is happy to ask.
BoJack keeps returning to several themes during his speech: The first is "Jack in the Box," which he stopped at on the way here. When the girl at the counter asked him if he had a "good day," he replied that his mom had died. She starts crying and he gets a free churro. "No one tells you that when your mom dies, you get a free churro," he told the funeral home. He later said the gesture was better than anything his mother had ever done for him.
The actor also recalled his mother's last words to him in the hospital: "I see you." He speculated on what that meant: Did she really see him? Wouldn't it make more sense for her to truly understand him? Is it a more sinister version of "I'm Watching You"? Or maybe she just wanted to say she was in intensive care. The third theme he returns to comes from the eulogy his mother gave at his father's funeral. "My husband is dead and now everything is worse," he recalled her saying.
"Beatrice Horseman. Who is she? What's her deal?" BoJack said. "Well, she was a horse, uh, she was born in 1938 and died in 2018. One time she went to a parade and one time she smoked a whole cigarette in one breath! I watched her do it and it was such a... Amazing woman," in which the actor sums up everything he knows about his mother.
It's been clear from previous seasons that BoJack doesn't have the best relationship with his parents. His father is a jaded writer who has written only one terrible book, while his mother is bitter because her husband has deprived her of the lavish lifestyle she wanted. Beatrice took out her anger on her son, and now BoJack is forced to send her off with a loving eulogy. Instead, he blames it on himself and the way she wronged him—the way she failed to express her love.
"I've been waiting," he said. "This proves that even though my mother was a strict woman, deep down she loved me, cared about me, and wanted me to know that I made her life brighter. Even now, I find myself "Waiting." The closest BoJack gets to his mother is in Season 4, Episode 11, "Time's Arrow." By then she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and her son comforted her with lies, saying she was really at her lake house in Michigan.
What's more, his mother's death forces BoJack to come to terms with his own mortality. In season five, he realizes more than ever that he's a bad guy. There are parallels between Philbert's and his own life, Diane (Alison Brie) discovers what happened on the boat in New Mexico and he literally strangled Gina, and the rider can no longer blame everything on him to his parents. Viewers this season also discover that BoJack has never been to therapy or entered rehab before. But maybe his mother's death was one of the reasons he allowed Diane to drive him to a facility at the end of the season. He realizes that if he doesn't change his trajectory, his legacy will be the same as his parents', and that scares him.
"If you're proud of me, knock on the door," BoJack joked while speaking to his mother's casket. Obviously, there is no answer. His mother died and now everything was worse.
