BoJack Horseman Season Four, Episode Three: "Hooray! Todd Episode!"

The writers of BoJack Horseman have always had their work cut out for them when it comes to the character of Todd Chavez. The first six episodes of the series made me think that the show was mostly going to consist of frivolous humor and Todd was the biggest goofball of them all. Todd was created as BoJack's naive deadbeat roommate whose silly antics were usually good for a laugh. His stories were largely on the periphery of Season One and as the show drilled heavier into the characters of BoJack, Diane, and Princess Carolyn, it seemed that Todd was just going to be used as a comic relief character.

Of course, the show has evolved to take all of its major characters seriously. That gets tricky at times with Todd, a character who once built his own amusement park out of trash. Todd's penchant for screwing around means that we spend most of his screen time thinking "what sort of kooky caper will he cook up next?" BoJack Horseman somehow has to balance that image with its desire to treat Todd as a person with feelings that we're supposed to care about. That's tough to do, but they've been able to pull it off, especially of late.

"Hooray! Todd Episode!" is the latest installment that threads the needle perfectly. Since near the beginning of Season Three, the show has done a great job of developing the "Todd is asexual" story and despite all the goofy dancing and obtuse behavior, they manage to make us the serious moments resonate. His reunion with BoJack, who has either backstabbed or left Todd hanging in at least one major moment in each season, perfectly encapsulates all the pain that he's experienced as a part of that relationship. His coming-out-asexual moment really feels like a strong moment after all of the B-plots he's been given over the last season or so that have been building towards it. In hindsight, though, it makes all his attempts to connect with women over the internet in Season One seem out of place, so I do wonder whether this was intended from the beginning or whether that's something that the writers will spin in hindsight as Todd trying to figure himself out before he actually found himself with a real live woman in Emily who was interested in him.

Aside from the serious stuff, this episode is great fun as Todd and his typically-helpful demeanor tries to fulfill the demands of his various friends while BoJack's probable daughter Hollyhock enters his life to complicate matters. When we first caught a glimpse of Hollyhock late in last season, I was thinking that we'd get some broken girl who had never felt complete because she'd never met her father (and since we just met Hollyhock, I'm not completely ruling it out), but instead we get a total waste of space who has inherited most of BoJack's worst traits. Todd puts it best when he says, "Um, we may not need that DNA test."

In addition to being a great Todd episode, we get a couple nuggets that set up the plot for later. Obviously, BoJack connecting with his daughter is going to be the big one, but the pending conflict between Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter feels inevitable. Diane's back in activist mode, and despite what she takes from her encounter with Todd-as-Channing-Tatum, you can't help but feel that exploiting her husband is going to be a tempting way to get people to read her articles.

Bullet Points

• It feels like Princess Carolyn has been taken out of focus for the most part this season. I bet she'll be featured heavily in a soon-to-come episode

• I legitimately did not know what fracking was before watching this episode. Is that bad?

• "It's me, Channing Tatum. I'm busy channing right now, but you can come back...Tatum?"

• "Less of course."

Episode Grade: A-