RAPHAEL BOB-WAKSBERG: Yeah! That’s an interesting question because we’ve always explored—it’s been a pet theme of the show–figuring out where he’s from and why he is the way he is. It did feel like we should particularly go off of what BoJack says at the end of season three, “I come from poison and I poison others.” So it felt like as we introduce this new relationship with Hollyhock, the audience by now understands BoJack’s fears and what he’s afraid he’s going to do to her and that relationship.

At the same time though we wanted to explore not only where BoJack is from, but more than that, to also explore what he’s from is from. We’ve seen his mother before through flashbacks and what she’s done to him, but now we see that she has her own story. So we explore that and this idea of how every beginning has a beginning and that there’s no true origin for this pain or this wound. You could probably go back to her father and see what things were like there and then go back a step even further…But also, does that stuff matter? Can you just move on from it all? It’s not necessarily about who’s fault it is, but just the idea of learning to forgive. We talked about that a lot this season.

Absolutely. And you do a good job at showing both sides of all these relationships. The season’s also not just about BoJack, but really about the whole Horseman and Sugarman lineage and this history of abuse that you explore in a really poetic way. Mrs. Sugarman even has this one line where she says, “I can’t be with people and I can’t be alone. I don’t know how to get better. Please, fix me.” It’s so easy to picture that line coming out of BoJack.

Oh definitely. I think that was a big thing that we were dealing with regarding BoJack, especially in that episode. He gets out of last season feeling like he’s poison and that he can’t be around other people. Clearly his only solution is to isolate himself until he realizes that that’s not a permanent solution either. That’s not who he wants to be. What he needs to do is find a way to reconnect with the people from his past and be better to them rather than just run away and jump on grenades.

Another thing that I really liked about this season is seeing how BoJack is segregated from most of the cast. It feels like everyone needs him less when he suddenly needs them more, which is an interesting dynamic for the series to find itself in.