If you’re like me, you’ve probably been having trouble sleeping for a while. There’s a question that has been on the tip of your tongue and in the back of your head, but you haven’t been able to put it into words. That’s what I’m here for. The question that has been in the inner recesses of your mind and soul has been…

What’s going to happen in season six of Bojack Horseman?

Diane and Bojack will date

No! I don’t ship these characters and I think they work better as friends. However!

Mr. Peanutbutter’s (or Mr. P, his rapper name) positivity is what attracted Diane to him initially but beyond that they weren’t very much alike. Yet, if Bojack, whom the show has established is on the same wavelength as Diane, was positive, in a less extreme way as Mr. Peanutbutter (or Mr. PB&J, his sandwich name), surely he would be the perfect partner for her. Someone who would give her the positivity her family never did and the depth to her relationship that Mr. Peanutbutter (or Mr. PJs, his nightwear name) couldn’t give her.

This new relationship would cause Diane to stop her affair. It would give the writers further opportunities to explore the flaws of Mr. Peanutbutter (or Mr. Hazelnut-Chocolate-Spread, his copyright-strike avoiding name) by seeing how he deals with jealousy and anger towards Bojack, due to Mr. Peanutbutter (or ‘I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-Mr. Peanutbutter’, his off brand vegan name) still having feelings for Diane as shown throughout season five. This would flip the tables from the first season where Bojack had feelings of jealousy and anger towards Mr. Peanubutter (Mr. PC, his electronic device name) due to him being with Diane.

Overall though, this pairing would be more to emphasise that they wouldn’t work well together. Diane, having stopped going to therapy, and Bojack just being out of rehab would be disproportionally matched in terms of negativity. This would lead to the titular character feeling drained and breaking it off as Diane starts to bring out his old destructive tendencies like she did when she hid in his house in season two. Bojack implying that Diane was the issue in the relationship would cause Diane to resent Bojack and cause a major rift that wouldn’t allow them to go back to being friends.

Diane dejected and rejected would find her way back to Mr. Peanutbutter (or Sally, if he was born a woman) leading to the two of them being left with nothing but each other, wallowing in sadness.

Princess Carolyn’s last season as a main character

She’s got what she’s always wanted, a baby, a family and she’s determined to keep it and to do it alone. I believe her arc this season will focus on her re-learning that she can’t do everything herself and it will lead to her ending her career and giving all her time to her role as a mother or at the very least learning that, like Rutabaga, she has to prioritise her family over her work.

I imagine that this will lead to a b-story where Todd, as her roommate, volunteers to help P.C by babysitting but immediately loses her child and has to chase it around town in a Baby’s Day Out-esque adventure. It will be this close call that causes P.C to revaluate her priorities. If I’m being honest this one is more of a wish than a prediction. But Todd seems to be returning to his professional career of couch-surfing. So he needs some sort of story to setup his comedic shenanigans to offset the darker elements of the other characters stories.

Back to P.C, her arc of relearning that she can’t do everything herself will lead her back to Ralph. It always struck me as odd in season five when they met up only to have P.C tell him she “Has plans now and you’re not in them”. Throughout their interactions they establish that they’re still attracted to each other. P.C says she wishes he had stayed with her when she told him to leave and the reason they split in the first place was because P.C was annoyed that Ralph suggested adopting. But P.C has no issues adopting now, nullifying the issue.

It just seems P.C was being stubborn and staying in that mindset that she doesn’t need anyone despite learning that it’s okay to ask for help at the end of season four when she asked Bojack to do the ‘Philbert’ show. Overall the pair’s story just doesn’t seem to be finished. It felt that Ralph was rushed out of the story so P.C could continue her story in season five of balancing her work and trying to adopt a child.

However, it is possible that this would ruin the image of P.C as an independent woman if running to a man is what fixes all her problems. However, if any writing team can pull it off so that it makes sense logically in the story as well as retaining the strong characteristics of P.C, it’s this writing team. Once P.C has a satisfactory end to her story it will free up a spot for…

Hollyhock as a main character

Again maybe more of a wish than a prediction but can you blame me? Season four was where we saw the most growth for Bojack and the reason for that was Hollyhock, plain and simple. Bojack is a better person when she is around. Hollyhock is a character with massive potential that wasn’t fully explored in season four. In this season with every action he’d take there’d be that extra pressure of ‘what will Hollyhock think?’, presuming she’d stay with him after he gets out of rehab. Plus, as a main character we’d get to see her interact with the other main cast members. She’d have her own stories independent of Bojack.

P.C would be an excellent role model/mentor to her, showing that over time hard work will get you the life that you want. Hollyhock could get a job as an assistant for P.C and be wooed by Hollywoo and perhaps use the job/internship as a reason to stay, setting her up to take over from P.C. (in the story and as an agent). This would fit nicely with last season where she said she was willing to take a year out of college to look after Bojack. Perhaps she could do that and end up staying in Hollywoo due to her job.

Anyone looking for Bojack would end up going to the last person who was with him before he went to rehab, Diane. Now that Diane is alone it could serve her well to have a roommate. This would also be a different perspective of Hollywoo from Hollyhock, the unglamorous side. Up until this point she’s mainly seen it from Bojack’s point of view which is a stark contrast to Diane and her current living condition. It would also open up opportunities for Hollyhock to learn more about Bojack, warts and all. Knowing more about Bojack as well as furthering her relationship with him would perfectly set the stage for a great emotional payoff when…

Bojack dies

With the caveat that this must be the series finale and if it is I believe life will imitate art. The art I’m referring to is the season finale of ‘Horsin’ Around’ which is in the show’s pilot. That’s right I believe they’ve been foreshadowing this since the very first episode.

In ‘Horsin’ Around’, The Horse, played by Bojack, dies of a broken heart. Seeing as one of the most prominent themes in the show is the characters wanting to achieve lasting happiness, to see Bojack have this happiness taken away from him in such dramatic fashion that it would lead to his death would be a depressingly appropriate ending. It would also mean the show would come full circle by having Bojack end up just like his character on ‘Horsin’ Around’.

The show within a show has always represented the happiest time in Bojack’s life and with him going to rehab at the end of season five it seems that the series is ramping up to a happier period again after he becomes sober. With Hollyhock apart of the main cast, the person who makes him feel the best about himself, Bojack will be at the height of his happiness. This will make his emotional decent to death via a broken heart even more impactful.

The writers are very familiar with Bojack’s mortality. They have flirted with the idea of his death multiple times over the course of the show. Yet, each time something has prevented it, whether it’s Mr. Peanutbutter (or Presidentbutter, his name in office) or the spotting of the herd of horses at the end of season three.

Even in Bojack’s suggestion for how his story ends, as he explains it in season one, he ends up in Maine at the lake house. When he gets too old to take care of himself, he goes ‘for one last swim’ and lets the water take him under.

Bojack’s only alive because of outside factors. If this is the final season then the way Bojack dies of a broken heart is slowly over the course of the season everyone important in his life will turn on him until he only as one person left, Hollyhock. When Hollyhock turns on him it will break his heart, and this will lead to Bojack once again attempting to take his own life. And nobody will be there to stop him.

If the writers wanted to hit the audience with one more heart-wrenching, tear-jerking gut punch, as they are known to do, this would be the way to do it. But why will Hollyhock turn on Bojack?

Penny’s reveals her story about Bojack

Bojack is going to have nobody left but Hollyhock and she’s going to turn on him after Penny reveals what happened between her and Bojack. She may be spurred on by seeing the leaked footage of Bojack choking Gina during the drug riddled blur between reality and fiction that his life had become at the time. Seeing it get swept under the rug during his talk show segment with Gina in season five will motivate Penny to reveal a story about Bojack that can’t be swept under the rug.

The reason I believe this will occur is because the show keeps reminding us of Penny and referring to her in each new season despite the incident between her and Bojack occurring in season two. We see Penny in season three when Bojack tracks her down in his drunken forgiveness tour. She is mentioned in season four in Bojack’s self-hating inner monologue of the people’s he’s hurt along with Herb and Sarah Lynn who, in case you missed it, are very much dead. He says that it’s ‘because he made them love him’. However, we hear no reference to Wanda who also loved Bojack. This is because the writers know Wanda’s story is complete.

It’s also further proved by her being the crux of the argument between Bojack and Diane in season five. Bojack is so ashamed of his actions that he can’t bring himself to tell Diane despite telling her everything else. This shows us that Penny is very much still an emotional trigger for Bojack, one he hasn’t made peace with.

This will be the final nail in the coffin in Bojack’s descent towards his death and will be the cause of Hollyhock turning her back on him. In trying to defend himself I’m sure Hollyhock would respond by making comparisons between herself and Penny, ‘what if she were in the same situation?’ This would add an extra layer of emotional destruction to the revelation of Bojack’s actions, turning Hollyhock away from in total disgust leading to Bojack dying of a broken heart.

Featured Image Credit