Beatrice Horseman

A tragic matriarch whose shadow looms large over Hollywood's most troubled star.

Beatrice Horseman is the mother of BoJack Horseman, whose life is explored through the lens of her dementia and deteriorating health in the episode "Time's Arrow," the eleventh and penultimate episode of the fourth season of BoJack Horseman. The episode follows a non-linear structure, looking at her life through her fuzzy, dementia-affected memories. She is shown as a young adult in 1963, having recently earned a Bachelors degree at Barnard College, and later as a bitter, unhappy mother who, along with her husband Butterscotch, takes out frustrations on BoJack. The episode reveals her traumatic childhood, including her mother Honey being lobotomized and her father Joseph burning her toy doll in a fireplace.

Quick Facts

Children: BoJack, Hollyhock

Lore & Background

Beatrice Horseman's life is marked by trauma and loss, as depicted in "Time's Arrow." As a child, after her mother Honey was lobotomized, Beatrice was bullied at school by Clemelia Bloodsworth and her posse, who called her fat and pushed her off a slide. She then caught scarlet fever, and her father Joseph initially ignored her complaints until she fainted. In an attempt to comfort her, he told her that her throat nearly being swollen shut could help her lose weight.

As a young adult in 1963, she earned a Bachelors degree at Barnard College and voiced concern about social issues and the Civil Rights Movement out of defiance towards her father. She took what she called "pretty pills" to stay skinny and had a debutante ball. She met Butterscotch Horseman at the bar, ditched her own party to have sex with him, and later found out she was pregnant. She married Butterscotch and moved to San Francisco, but their marriage faltered as their dreams failed and the stress of the baby took a toll.

They became unhappy and bitter, smoking and drinking heavily and taking out their frustrations on BoJack. In 1999, Butterscotch had an affair with their maid Henrietta, a young aspiring nurse. Beatrice convinced Henrietta to give up the baby for adoption so she could continue nursing school, and held her hand during labor. The baby turned out to be Hollyhock.

The episode ends with Beatrice reliving the traumatic memory of her father burning her toy doll in a fireplace, and as she sobbed he used her lobotomized mother as an example of what could happen if she lets her "womanly emotions" consume her.