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What happend to Bojack's Grandma?

Zara Bakshi

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Remedial
Bojack Horseman has become a pioneer among millennials in unpacking and tackling existential issues in a box labelled dark comedy. Sticking to its guns, the fourth season of Bojack covers a myriad of issues yet again, trying to navigate heavy themes through comedy and satire. However, in episode two of the season something that especially stood out and raised a few eyebrows was the brief presence of Bojack’s grandmother, Honey Sugarman. Honey Sugarman with the distinctive voice of Jane Krakowski is an upbeat housewife. Much like today, sprinkled with hints of everyday sexism in the late 80’s, the Sugarman household appears to be in perfect harmony in the first half of the episode.

  

                       
                  Source: Retrieved from https://maiotaku.com/p/gundamu?before=1527827917

The later half of the episode tackles grief induced depression and its symptoms in a matter swiftly but effectively. It draws the audience in with just the right amount of details, not overstating the message they want to send across. In the backdrop of a flashback, hidden away in a tiny corner yet standing out so starkly, is the image of an exanimate Honey Sugarman, her ‘disease’ and ‘the cure’.

The disease- Joseph Sugarman is appalled by his wife’s inability to pull herself together and move on respectfully from their martyred son’s demise. A grief stricken Honey is unable to sustain her role as a domestic woman, leaving her husband at his wits ends about the outpour of emotions she is displaying. He therefore, takes some drastic measures.

“As a modern American man, I am woefully unprepared to manage a woman’s emotions. I was never taught, and I will not learn.” - Joseph Sugarman

The cure- While explaining the same to his daughter, Joseph says that her mother was going to be better as a result of an operation that fixed her womanly emotions. A scared Beatrice then goes in to meet a lifeless version of her mother who is staring into the abyss. In an unnerving moment of realisation both for her daughter and the audience we see what has been left of Honey is just an apparition. This is magnified by the nasty scar on her forehead, and her shadowed presence throughout Beatrice’s life.

Although, no direct mention of the word is used throughout the episode, it highlights the horrendous results of the practice of Prefrontal Lobotomy. The horror of the situation is best encapsulated by Honey Sugarman’s own words, “Why, I have half a mind…” The creators of the show were able to generate the chilling sense of discomfort with their words and images. The incapacitation of Honey was an acknowledgement of the thousands of botched procedures, which left each of the patients debilitated and many even dead.
Lobotomies once a surgical favourite, obstruct the connection of the emotional and intellectual centres of the brain. Women were the highest recipients of this procedure due to the common perception of hysteria being intermittently determined as the cause of any mental distress. Emerging from the word uterus, its symptoms included the shortness of breath, anxiety, sexually forward behaviour etc. Hysteria which is now often colloquially used has been historically viewed as being present only among women. In Stockton State Hospital out of 241 lobotomies carried out  85% were on women.

It is a testament to the effects of the procedure, the long lasting impacts it has on the quality of life of people who undergo it and also people who are surrounded by them. In a masterstroke, this episode flawlessly highlights the chilling realities of the stigma surrounding mental health and the benevolent sexism that sanctioned a life altering procedure. Societal norms dictate mental health practices, what seems unimaginable today was a common practice not too long ago.

Not only that, in consequent episodes we see the impact of the procedure manifest itself in the lives of Bojack and his mother. A withering Beatrice in her last days of suffering from dementia can only remember her mother, her scar, and a few of her words. Her depressed, addict son, Bojack listens to her rambling while driving her to a hospice care facility. This image is something that reminds the audience of the vicious cycle that began with the lobotomy first performed on Bojack’s mother. It highlights the importance of proper mental health care and the impact it can have on generations to come.

References:

Bob-Waksberg, R. (2014, August 22). BoJack Horseman. Retrieved from https://www.netflix.com/title/70300800/
Frontal Lobotomy: Zombies Created by One of Medicine's Greatest Mistakes. (2017, August 04). Retrieved from https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/frontal-lobotomy-zombies-created-by-one-of-medicines-greatest-mistakes/
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