Free Churro

Lore & Background

The episode opens with a cold open flashback where Butterscotch Horseman (voiced by Will Arnett) drives his young son BoJack home from soccer practice, complaining that his wife Beatrice has locked herself in the bedroom after seeing the Henrik Ibsen play A Doll's House. The moral of Butterscotch's rant, he says, is that one needs to realize that nobody else will look out for them. In the present, BoJack gives a eulogy for his mother at a funeral home. He begins with a story of how he stopped at Jack in the Box on his way to the funeral, and the cashier gave him a free churro when BoJack explained where he was going. Throughout the eulogy, BoJack banters with the organist, imitates the gruesome face his mother made when she died, and tells stories about his life, his mother, and TV shows like Becker and his breakthrough show, Horsin' Around. At one point, he tells what appears to be a nice story about Beatrice, only to reveal that it was not true and that he had taken the story from an episode of Maude. Many of his anecdotes detail the abuse he endured from both of his parents, as well as his father's death in a duel. Additionally, BoJack tries to parse out the meaning of his mother's final words, "I see you." At the end of the episode, BoJack realizes that Beatrice was reading the letters "ICU" on the intensive care unit where she was admitted. Upon discovering that his mother's last words were meaningless, he becomes angry, saying that the cashier who gave him a free churro showed him more kindness than Beatrice ever did. After calming down, BoJack realizes that while he will never have the good relationship with Beatrice that he always wanted and that he does not understand what she wanted herself, she deserves the open casket that she requested. He finally opens the casket, realizing that he is at the wrong funeral and that he has been eulogizing to a room of geckos.

In Their Own Story

The primary challenge of the episode was in maintaining audience interest across a twenty-minute monologue. For inspiration, Bob-Waksberg watched the Maude episode "Maude Bares Her Soul," which consists almost entirely of the title character, played by Bea Arthur, speaking to her therapist. Bob-Waksberg said that watching the episode showed him how to construct "an A story and a B story and a C story" within a single monologue. BoJack's attempts to understand his mother's final words became the "A story," the point to which the monologue kept returning. As the eulogy takes place in one room, with BoJack standing behind a podium, Winfrey selected three discrete camera angles, one for each style BoJack employs in his monologue: "talking about his mother, riffing on things, and telling funny stories." Wanting to let Bob-Waksberg's script and Arnett's voice performance anchor the episode, Winfrey made only "sophisticated, simple choices" that would complement the writing and voice acting. Due to the limited setting, motion, and camera angles, Winfrey and the other animators focused most of their attention on what Bob-Waksberg calls "face acting," or the animation of facial expressions. The creative team worried that it would be "boring to watch a guy talking for a half hour," and considered replacing some of the animation with flashback sequences set to Arnett's narration, similar to the re-enactments in the Comedy Central series Drunk History, but the idea was dismissed in favor of rendering the episode "purely." Although the funeral attendees are not seen until the final shot, the sound mix was tweaked to indicate that there were other people in the room after executive producer Noel Bright said that the original mix felt more like a one-man show than a eulogy.

Reader's Guide

"Free Churro" was released to critical acclaim, with multiple reviewers proclaiming the episode as the highlight of the season. Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone and Rachel Syme of The New Republic referred to the episode as season five's "greatest triumph" and "apex," respectively, while Don Trumbore of Collider told readers that, "if you never watch another episode of BoJack Horseman, make it this one." The Guardian's Rebecca Nicolson praised the execution of the episode's concept, saying that it is "a rare series that can dedicate 30 minutes to a monologue and not test viewers' patience." Writing for the Observer, Lester Fabian Braithwhite said that the tragicomic balance struck by BoJack's eulogy "encapsulates what makes Raphael Bob-Waksberg's animated Netflix series one of the best shows on television." Some reviewers directly mentioned the episode's approach to its dark subject matter, with Rebecca Patton of Bustle saying that "Free Churro" "nails" the experience of mourning an "awful person" like Beatrice Horseman, while Vulture's Daniel Kurland voiced his approval for the way that the episode "eloquently comments on how nobody really has the answers when it comes to death." Arnett's voice performance was also the subject of praise, with Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter saying that his work is "as good as voiceover work gets," and Greg Cwik of Slant Magazine proclaiming "Free Churro" to be the "apogee of Arnett's career." Emily VanDerWerff of Vox said it would be "a bigger travesty than usual" if Arnett did not win an Emmy Award for his performance. The A.V. Club's Les Chappell gave the episode an "A" grade, stating that one "can hear every last bit of forced levity, resentment, and genuine pain as BoJack tries to find some way to come to terms with Bea's death, and his feelings or lack thereof about the matter."

Did You Know?

• Will Arnett is the only voice actor to appear in this episode, voicing both BoJack and his father Butterscotch in the cold open.
• The episode's title comes from a story BoJack tells about a cashier who gave him a free churro when he explained he was going to his mother's funeral.
• BoJack's mother's final words, 'I see you,' are revealed to actually be her reading the letters 'ICU' on the intensive care unit where she was admitted.
• The episode ends with BoJack realizing he has been eulogizing at the wrong funeral, having spoken to a room of geckos.
• At the 46th Annie Awards, Will Arnett won the award for Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Television / Broadcast Production for his performance in this episode.