As the seasons progressed on the TV showBoJack Horseman, the series leaned into the sadness and emotional nature of the story, but there were a few episodes so devastating that they’ll stay with the viewer for a long time. Though the series began as a comedy,it didn’t take long for the tone to shift and forBoJack Horsemanto become an intense interrogation of celebrity,morality, and cycles of abuse. This resulted in some of the best episodes of television of the 2010s and changed the way many people viewed animated TV shows.
TheBoJack Horsemanseason 6 endingfeatures several episodes that go down in history as some ofBoJack’s saddest and most game-changing installments. However, an earlier episode has stuck with me more than any other part of the series. BoJack, voiced by Will Arnett, struggles to open up and reflect on how his traumatic past influences his self-destructive and often harmful behavior in the present.His relationship with his parents looms over the series and infiltrates many of his most vulnerable moments,making the audience desperate to learn more about what happened to him.
BoJack Horseman’s “Free Churro” Debuted 7 Years Ago & I Still Can’t Watch It Without Crying
This Is An Episode That I’ll Never Forget Watching
BoJack Horsemanseason 5, episode 6, “Free Churro,” is largely considered the greatest episode of the entire series. Almost entirely a monologue delivered by BoJack as he speaks at his mother’s funeral, the narrative is a masterclass in storytelling and character-driven plotting. Arnett anchors the entire episode, delivering BoJack’s poignant and heartbreaking eulogy with the unique blend of depression and humor that defines the series. The thrust of the episode revolves around the fact thatBoJack doesn’t have any happy memories to share about his motherin the wake of her death.
When the episode first aired, along with the rest ofBoJackseason 5, on Netflix, it was an unexpected and intense shock for audiences everywhere.BoJack has gone through a lot by this point in the series,and has done many terrible things to others that the viewer can’t forget. However, watching him go through something so uniquely human and unavoidable hits home, even for fans who had come to hate BoJack by this point. The episode demonstrates how skillfully the writers were able to appeal to the audience’s humanity throughout the show.
Why “Free Churro” Is BoJack Horseman’s Saddest Episode
This Episode Is The Most Vulnerability We’ve Ever Seen From BoJack
The setting of the funeral is sad on its own, but it’s the fact that BoJack is reckoning not just with his mother’s death but the impact she had on his life that hits so hard. Throughout the seasons, the audience had seen glimpses into the Horseman family history and been aware of how awful his mother was to him. However, in “Free Churro,“BoJack is defeated, certain that his mother never cared about him,and unable to find meaning in their final moments together, no matter how desperately he wanted to feel connected to her.
Some of thesaddestBoJack Horsemanquotesare said in “Free Churro,” as BoJack opens up about the terrible relationship he had with his mother and how her actions hurt him deeply. However, the most heart-wrenching moment comes when BoJack realizesher final words to him, “I see you,” were actually “ICU,” as she was reading the sign on the hospital doorfor the intensive care unit. This final twist of the knife, coupled with the emotional ups and downs BoJack has gone through in the episode, cements “Free Churro” as an unprecedentedly sad piece of television.
93%
96%
BoJack Horseman Became Known For Its Emotional Installments
WhileBoJackremained funny until the end, it was never a pure comedy,even in the earliest episodes. The darkness that followed not only BoJack, but all the characters in the series is what audiences and critics remember best about the show today. As the series gained popularity and leaned into more experimental territory in terms of structure and form, it also delved into the most difficult parts of its characters' lives. From divorces to deaths,BoJackbecame the kind of show that invited the viewer to reflect on their own experiences, for better or worse.
BoJack’s time mourning his mother was only the tip of the iceberg for the narrative.
“Free Churro” might have been the peak ofBoJackin terms of complexity and nuanced discussions of grief, but the series never let up, even as the story wound down by the end of season 6. BoJack’s time mourning his mother was only the tip of the iceberg for the narrative, as he had many more awful moments to go through before finding some sort of peace and path forward. An antihero, and sometimes villain, until the end,BoJack Horsemanstill never struggled to make us root for and feel for BoJack, even in the worst of times.
