Obviously this episode was coming for a while. Another look at Beatrice's sad life to try to make her look more sympathetic than the monster she was.
However, that does not really work for me. Yes, the real monster of the story is her father, no doubt about it, though even if it's seems so horrible now, his line of thought was probably pretty mainstream at the time (except for the lobotomy part obviously, and maybe not even that obviously ? It's been done). So sure, what happened to her mother was a real trauma, but we already saw that earlier. Apart from that, what ? And her father was an asshole trying to mould her in the family values of the time ? He burned her doll ? She got bullied by another girl at school ? That's it. After that she clearly got over it while growing up, got educated, understood her father's action for what it was and rebelled against that. And then ? She just goes with a guy because he said that her father wouldn't like that. Has unprotected sex in a car (though the times might not have been big on protection), wants to keep the baby (because of her burnt doll ??) and escape with this random loser. She's her own woman at this point, making these choices. Then basically the only horrible thing that happens is that the baby cries and she can't sleep ??? Well boo hoo, that's what babies do ! Next time we see her she's already a heartless mother in an unhappy marriage. I still don't think it justifies nor is enough to explain her attitude toward child Bojack.
That being said, the storytelling of this episode is incredible. The way the sequences flow and blur into each other, mixing the timeline, dropping in some of her lines from previous episodes to put them into her mind's context, that's just wow. This is a superb depiction of what it must be like in her mind, how lost and confused her sickness has made her. This is not without parallel with Bojack's drug/alcohol bender with Sarah Lynn.
Now that Hollyhock is actually Bojack's half sister is a very clever turn of events (which I think should have been revealed immediately by the DNA test, but hey). This explains the whole Henrietta gimmick. We also get why Beatrice was so attached to that doll a few episodes ago.
As for the ending, it's cute but it kinda makes no sense. We just saw the sad life of Beatrice, which if it does not excuse her actions at least gives us a little sympathy for her and for her current state of mind. But Bojack did not. For him, she's the same woman he dropped in this dump a minute ago, she's the same woman that just poisoned and sent his daughter to the hospital. It's very touching that he tries to make her more comfortable, but its is 100% incompatible with Bojack (even if he changed thanks to Hollyhock). It's 100% incompatible with what he was doing 30 seconds before. It's 100% incompatible with his current state. Remember, she just poisoned his daughter and he's been told he'll never see her again, all because of her.
Review by FLYVIP 2BlockedParent2020-12-03T23:09:40Z
Obviously this episode was coming for a while. Another look at Beatrice's sad life to try to make her look more sympathetic than the monster she was.
However, that does not really work for me. Yes, the real monster of the story is her father, no doubt about it, though even if it's seems so horrible now, his line of thought was probably pretty mainstream at the time (except for the lobotomy part obviously, and maybe not even that obviously ? It's been done). So sure, what happened to her mother was a real trauma, but we already saw that earlier. Apart from that, what ? And her father was an asshole trying to mould her in the family values of the time ? He burned her doll ? She got bullied by another girl at school ? That's it.
After that she clearly got over it while growing up, got educated, understood her father's action for what it was and rebelled against that.
And then ? She just goes with a guy because he said that her father wouldn't like that. Has unprotected sex in a car (though the times might not have been big on protection), wants to keep the baby (because of her burnt doll ??) and escape with this random loser. She's her own woman at this point, making these choices.
Then basically the only horrible thing that happens is that the baby cries and she can't sleep ??? Well boo hoo, that's what babies do ! Next time we see her she's already a heartless mother in an unhappy marriage. I still don't think it justifies nor is enough to explain her attitude toward child Bojack.
That being said, the storytelling of this episode is incredible. The way the sequences flow and blur into each other, mixing the timeline, dropping in some of her lines from previous episodes to put them into her mind's context, that's just wow. This is a superb depiction of what it must be like in her mind, how lost and confused her sickness has made her. This is not without parallel with Bojack's drug/alcohol bender with Sarah Lynn.
Now that Hollyhock is actually Bojack's half sister is a very clever turn of events (which I think should have been revealed immediately by the DNA test, but hey). This explains the whole Henrietta gimmick. We also get why Beatrice was so attached to that doll a few episodes ago.
As for the ending, it's cute but it kinda makes no sense. We just saw the sad life of Beatrice, which if it does not excuse her actions at least gives us a little sympathy for her and for her current state of mind. But Bojack did not. For him, she's the same woman he dropped in this dump a minute ago, she's the same woman that just poisoned and sent his daughter to the hospital. It's very touching that he tries to make her more comfortable, but its is 100% incompatible with Bojack (even if he changed thanks to Hollyhock). It's 100% incompatible with what he was doing 30 seconds before. It's 100% incompatible with his current state. Remember, she just poisoned his daughter and he's been told he'll never see her again, all because of her.