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Introduction

Henrietta Platchkey is mentioned numerous times throughout Season 4 by Beatrice Horseman and shown through flashbacks in Time's Arrow.

She was the Horseman household's maid in the late 1990s, Butterscotch Horseman's former mistress, and the biological mother of Hollyhock, who she conceived with Butterscotch.

She is currently a nurse in Minneapolis.

Her face was never shown, and she never made any appearances outside of flashbacks and mentions from other characters.

Personality[]

From everything seen, Henrietta seems to be a kind and friendly woman.

In Time's Arrow, even though her face is scribbled out, she speaks in a sweet, friendly manner, and acts pleasant and innocent, while also being somewhat nervous and introverted.

Although a very kind and sweet woman, she appears to be a naïve and not so bright foil to Beatrice, who is sharp, cold, and clever by comparison.

She displayed the tendency to point out the most obvious, describing paintings as "TV without all the talking and music" and her love of books because "the words tell stories." Beatrice finds this somewhat annoying as it does not make for a very stimulating or intellectual conversation.

Physical Appearance[]

In her debut appearance in flashbacks to 1999-2000 in Time's Arrow, Henrietta is depicted with medium length brown hair with bangs going across her forehead, a tan skin tone, and she appears to have wide hips, a similar body type to that of her daughter.

She wears a blue button-down collared dress with white trim and collar, two large pockets on the side, and yellow buttons, white tennis shoes, and white socks.

Beatrice, who has dementia, does not want to remember Henrietta, as she is upset about Butterscotch's affair, and appears to regret taking Hollyhock away from her. This is why in Beatrice's flashbacks, Henrietta's face appears only as large black scribbles.

Her face was never shown, although according to the official lead artist Lisa Hanswalt, her face in concepts was designed to be "horse-like."

Background[]

History[]

Nothing is known about Henrietta’s past, other than she was raised in Newark, California.

In order to pay for nursing school, she became a maid for Beatrice and Butterscotch Horseman, BoJack Horseman's parents, circa the late 1990s.

Henrietta appears in Time's Arrow, which shows flashbacks to Beatrice's life from her point of view, and are affected by her dementia. As a result, Henrietta's face appears as animated black scribbles, and at times her presence glitches.

Beatrice disliked Henrietta due to her cheerful and naïve personality, and the fact she could tell she and Butterscotch were developing a romantic interest in each other, something she somewhat pitied the girl for. Beatrice says, "won't she be disappointed" when referring to how she believes Butterscotch to be the "tortured misunderstood artist" his narcissistic, delusional personality claims himself to be.

Butterscotch did eventually have an affair with Henrietta in December of 1999, resulting in pregnancy. He tells Beatrice, who was angry about the affair, pleading her to help fix the situation. He even got to the point where he breaks down crying, saying "I know you hate me Bea, but please just think of the poor girl."

Beatrice agrees to talk to Henrietta. After telling her she's fired, Henrietta pleads how sorry she is, and that Butterscotch was kind to her. Beatrice interrupts and guesses he told her she reminded him of his dead mother. Henrietta said Butterscotch told her she had hair like his mother’s, he saw it in a picture once—a similar line he used on Beatrice when they first met.

Henrietta wanted to keep the baby, a female horse, but she had trouble paying tuition. She believed if she just finished school and gets a job, everything will be OK. Beatrice then bluntly shuts down this reality by questioning "Who’s going to raise the baby?" Beatrice knows Butterscotch certainly won't.

After Henrietta broke down crying, Beatrice told her she'll pay for her tuition, under the condition Henrietta gives up the baby for adoption. Henrietta objects to this at first.

Beatrice told her not to make the same mistake she did, giving up her life for the baby, and letting Butterscotch poison her life. Henrietta finally agreed when Beatrice pleads to her "don't do what I did." Henrietta was frightened, young, and naive at the time and does not see any other alternative.

Beatrice was with Henrietta as she gave birth on September 24, 2000, even holding her hand through labor. After her baby was born, Henrietta pleaded with Beatrice to let her hold the baby, but Beatrice refused and left with the little foal. Beatrice said that holding the foal would lead to Henrietta getting attached, and that she was taking her away for Henrietta's own good. Henrietta screamed and sobbed as the foal was taken away from her, implying that she was still reluctant to give her up for adoption.

The baby was originally named "Girl Horse," and she was eventually adopted by eight gay men in a polyamorous relationship, and renamed Hollyhock Manheim-Mannheim-Guerrero-Robinson-Zilberschlag-Hsung-Fonzerelli-McQuack.

Hollyhock's conversation with Bojack at the end of Season 4 suggests that Henrietta was well-adjusted later in life despite being harshly prevented from holding her foal.

Season 4[]

In 2017, a seventeen-year-old Hollyhock travels to Los Angeles to find BoJack Horseman, who she believes is her biological father due to looking like him. It is eventually revealed they have matching DNA, and BoJack promises to help her find her biological mother.

In Thoughts and Prayers, BoJack and Hollyhock go to visit Beatrice in her nursing home. It is revealed a now elderly Beatrice has dementia, and as a result, she does not recognize BoJack as her son and instead recognizes and refers to him as "Henrietta." She continues to refer to him like this for the rest of the season until she finally recognizes him at the end of Time's Arrow.

In Stupid Piece of Sh*t, after BoJack takes away her baby doll, Beatrice calls him "a worthless waste of my husband's jzzim." This could initially be interpreted as her referring to her son, but after it’s revealed who Henrietta really is, Beatrice is actually referring to the fact Butterscotch got Henrietta pregnant.

In Lovin that cali lifestyle!!, Beatrice asks where "the girl," referring to Hollyhock, is. When BoJack says she’s gone, Beatrice replies "Oh yes, I took her didn’t I?" This question referring to the fact, she took away baby Hollyhock from Henrietta, after giving birth to her.

In What Time Is It Right Now BoJack further investigates Hollyhock's true parentage. When no Los Angeles courthouse had her birth certificate, he wonders if his dad "knocked up one of [his] maids?" He then travels to San Francisco, where he finally finds Hollyhock's birth certificate—by extension her mother's name, Henrietta. He looks up Henrietta on Facebook and finds her phone number.

BoJack goes to Hollyhock's hometown of Wichita, Kansas, and relays this information to her dads, who blame him for her overdose on amphetamine when it was actually Beatrice drugging her coffee. BoJack begs her fathers to give Hollyhock Henrietta's phone number. They agree on the condition he leaves.

Hollyhock finds out about Henrietta through their "dad speak," which she can easily understand. She spends time talking with Henrietta and in the last scene of Season 4 in What Time Is It Right Now, she is about to board a plane to go meet her for the first time.

Trivia[]

Henrietta Facebook post

Henrietta's Facebook profile picture

  • Upon getting dementia, Beatrice Horseman confuses Henrietta with BoJack due to seeing him with Hollyhock.
  • As an in-joke, Henrietta has an actual, "official" Facebook account.[1]
  • Since she was attending nursing school in 1999, it can be assumed Henrietta was in her early to mid-20's, meaning she was probably born in the mid to late 1970s. She would be in her early 40's or late 30's now.
  • Despite the personality differences, Beatrice and Henrietta are similar; both were ambitious, both were fed the same sweet line about Butterscotch's mother and both were unwilling to abort their unplanned pregnancies. The major differences were that Henrietta did get to fulfill her life goals, and her biological child did get a stable upbringing as well as a positive disposition.
    • Henrietta can be interpreted as a personification of Beatrice's former spark of youth and idealism, which would mean that Beatrice not wanting to remember Henrietta partially stems from the Sugarman heiress being reminded of how her own dreams were crushed by Joseph and Butterscotch.

References[]

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