| Introduction |
| “ | Those limp dicks are about to find out what savvy film and television viewers have known for years. Character Actress Margo Martindale ain't afraid of NOTHIN'! | ” |
—Margo Martindale, That Went Well | ||
Character Actress Margo Martindale makes cameo appearances in several episodes of BoJack Horseman, as a recurring character. She is an exaggerated version of her real-life counterpart Margo Martindale. Her first appearance was in Zoës and Zeldas, in Season 1.
Physical Appearance
Margo is a human woman who is on the curvy side with dark brown curly hair above shoulder length, slight wrinkles, thin eyebrows.
She wears a dark maroon scoop neck shirt, light red cardigan, grey pants, strappy black flip-flops, a red beaded necklace, and a silver bangle on her right arm.
Personality
Margo Martindale is easily angered, violent, and arguably criminally insane. She is capable of committing crimes, ranging from theft to murder, with little to no remorse.
After the cargo ship incident, Margo has become mute and possibly amnesic due to the trauma of nearly drowning, she is clearly still traumatized as she screams in terror at the sight of the Philbert balloon.
Background
History
She is a close friend of BoJack's and together with him, she is often involved in illegal activities.
Season 1
Margo first appears in Zoës and Zeldas, where she helps BoJack persuade Todd to purchase a video game that will distract him from writing his rock opera.
In Horse Majeure, BoJack convinces Margo to stage a bank robbery in order to steal Diane's engagement ring. He is hoping that this will delay their wedding plans, but the couple instead decides to get married even sooner. Margo is tackled and arrested by a SWAT team.
Season 2
She serves time in the Hollywoo Hills Super-Max Prison. The parole board released her during The Shot. They claimed she was a model inmate, as she only bit one inmate's finger off, only started two riots, and made delicious pruno.
Two minutes after being released from prison, BoJack picks her up in his car, and she agrees to help him with a break-in.
She, along with Todd, Princess Carolyn and Alan break into a gallery to distract the police, while BoJack, Kelsey Jannings, and Mr. Peanutbutter break into the Richard Nixon Presidential Library nearby.
When the cops show up, claim to be fans, but fail to remember her name, Margo draws her gun and a shoot-out ensues. She is last seen taking multiple gunshots in the arms as the police surround her.
Season 3
However, in an episode of Season 3, through a flashback, it is shown that Margo, in fact, survived the gun battle and fled.
In the episode The BoJack Horseman Show, which takes place in 2007, she is seen during a table read of the show's pilot. This may be where BoJack knows her from.
She later returns in Stop the Presses where it is revealed she has taken up residence in BoJack's boat while on the run from the police. Eventually, she decides to take the boat out to sea as the police close in on her location.
Seventy-five days after becoming seaborne, she crashes the boat into a cargo ship carrying imported pasta. She survived the crash, ending up sinking underwater, along with the crew of the cargo ship.
Season 5
In Head in the Clouds, a nun is upset because she can't get the woman she'd found by the shore to speak, which is what she has been advised by the Mother Superior to do.
She takes her back to the water but fails to get her to speak. She pulls the mysterious woman's hood, and it's revealed to be Character Actress Margo Martindale.
The nun questions who she is and a terrified Character Actress Margo Martindale repeatedly shouts "BoJack" and then points to the sky, where a giant balloon of BoJack is floating above them.
Season 6
In A Quick One, While He's Away, on a convent on an island, Mother Superior and Sister Margurite are walking together. Sister Margurite is telling the Mother about how a hummingbird smiled at her on her walk. She then says such simple pleasures remind her of the Lord.
Sister Margurite hesitates and the Mother tells her to let it out, saying to hesitate is to waste time which is a sin when they could be praying, or handwashing Monsignor's Tuscani's 1962 Alfa Romeo, gesturing towards a red convertible another nun is washing, saying washing it is in itself another form of prayer.
Margurite starts talking about her past regrets. The Mother tells her she has no past because she has already confessed. She wonders about the people she may have hurt and the lives she may have ruined. She wonders if those are washed clean as well. The Mother tells her that her regrets are of no benefit to the Lord. She tells her that ruminating in so is solipsism unbefitting to a sister of the cloth. Margurite says one might argue cloistering oneself from the world is itself a form of solipsism if one were being ungenerous. The Mother reminds her of when she didn't talk for two years and Margurite tells her she will trouble her no further. The Mother prays for help with dealing with such a vexing pupil.
The Mother then hears the car engine start. Sister Margurite is sitting in the driver's seat and pulls of her robes to reveal she is actually Character Actress Margo Martindale. She tells Mother to look her up when she gets to heaven because she won't be there but her movies will as she drives off.
In Angela, Margo is hired by Todd to stage a fake kidnapping to get his mother to speak to him again.
Maude and Todd are seen at their apartment with Character Actress Margo Martindale who is reading off cue cards. She tells Helen to bring her famous Frito pies under a bridge. After hanging up Todd thanks Margo for her help. Margo then tells him it's the least she can do and expresses remorse for making Todd buy an addictive video game that sent her down a ruinous path.
Under the bridge, Margo pretends to hold Todd ransom for the Frito pies. Helen begs Margo not to hurt her son and says she never got to make things right with him. Helen goes into a panic attack and Todd admits it was a "classic Todd shenanigan" to get her to speak to him again. Todd then explains Margo Martindale is just an actress and Margo says she was too convincing.
Later, in court, Margo tells the judge her mission was to bring Todd and Helen together again. The judge is about to sentence her to prison for killing a lot of people when Nicole Holofcener walks in and says she needs Margo to act in her new movie. The judge then finally agrees that sounds good and lets her go.
Relationships
- BoJack Horseman (good friend)
Memorable Quotes
- "I do tire of the limitations of stage, film, and television."
- "When I get there, I'm gonna find the meanest, hardest queen bitch of the yard, and I'm going to bite her finger off."
- "I'm a wild card."
- "This isn’t just for me. It’s for John Carroll Lynch, C.C.H. Pounder, and all the other character actors who live in lucrative obscurity. The blood I spill today is for us all!"
- "Bo...BoJack? BoJack! BoJack! BoJack!! BoJack!"
- "When you go to heaven, look up Margo Martindale! I won't be there, but my movies will!"
Trivia
- Margo Martindale starred in the real world film Secretariat released in 2010.[1]
- Margo Martindale also appeared with Will Arnett (voice actor for BoJack Horseman) in the 2013 television series The Millers.
- She enjoyed being in prison.
- In the second episode of Season 3, The BoJack Horseman Show, Margo Martindale can be seen with BoJack at the pitch meeting for the show Mitch's Life (later renamed The BoJack Horseman Show, originally named The Life And Loves of Mitch McFadden And His Family And Friends) starring as a character named Angel. This scene is set in 2007.
- In the first episode of Season 4, See Mr. Peanutbutter Run, it reads on the breaking news ticker: "Dangerous fugitive and highly acclaimed Character Actress Margo Martindale still lost at sea, presumed dead."
- In Season 6, it is revealed by the Mother Superior in A Quick One, While He's Away, it's been two years since Character Actress Margo Martindale washed up on the convent island.