Hazbin Hotel is back with its stunning animation, amazing music, killer voice acting, and of course, our favorite merry band of misfits, including but not limited to hell’s favorite girlfriends, Charlie and Vaggie.
Two episodes of the second season have dropped so far, and they gleefully lead you into what will be one hell of a season (no pun intended). The stakes are higher than ever for Charlie and her gang to prove to sinners that redemption is possible, all while heaven reckons with the fact that they didn’t have to have exterminations after all, and the Vees prepare to declare war on the angels. A very stressful time for all involved! Before I give you my thoughts on the season overall, let’s talk about the first two episodes that have dropped.
I can’t tell you how many screenshots I took of these two adorable idiots and how few I was actually able to fit in this review so enjoy this random one!!
The first episode of season two opens a few weeks after the first season ended, with Vox’s news network posing Charlie as a bloodthirsty fiend who wants to do more murders now that she killed an angel, and people are flocking to the Hazbin Hotel to get in on the angel slaying action. Vaggie (who has decided she wants to change her name since Adam named her Vaggie, but hasn’t landed on a new one yet) is running the hotel, greeting guests and the like, while Husk tends bar, and Alastor, broken staff in hand, does nothing but torment Lucifer. Angel Dust is “helping” by being a celebrity endorser, and Niffty is…doing her thing, but Cherri Bomb says she’s staying out of it because she’s just hanging with her friend Angel and is decidedly NOT a guest at the hotel.
In what will surely become a pattern this season, Vox’s reporters are asking things about Charlie like, “Is it true she drinks angel blood to improve her gay power?”, which overwhelms and frustrates, Charlie who doesn’t understand why people don’t understand what she’s trying to do. And none of them are giving her credit for even wanting to do it. Charlie isn’t a sinner, she was born in hell. She’s a demon, sure, but she didn’t commit a sin to get here, and theoretically couldn’t be redeemed up to heaven even if she wanted to. But she is so dedicated to making sure her people aren’t exterminated, she’s willing to dedicate her entire life to this idea she’s not even 100% positive will work just on the off-chance she can save some lives. It’s heroic! Even if she can sometimes be a little erratic or pushy or over-enthusiastic, her heart is in the right place, which makes what Vox and the Vees are doing seem even more cruel.
Charlie meets a new potential guest named Baxter, who reminds her of Sir Pentious (and actually knew him) so she puts on a smile and sings the first song of the season: Hazbin Guarantee. It’s a very Charlie song, promising that the hotel is the place to be if you want redemption, and involves some lovely harmonizing and flying around by Charlie and Vaggie. Erika Henningsen and Stephanie Beatriz’s voices really do go together well. It’s very sweet.
I love them, your honor.
It features a mini-crashout in the middle about how if redemption ISN’T possible, Charlie’s life’s work will have been a huge waste of time, though she eventually recovers. It also, adorably, incorporates the clapping song she made her guests do during one of her redemption exercises.
The song isn’t only Charlie’s though. The Vees sneak in and sing a song underneath it (“Trust Us”), and it shows another tantalizing offer the sinners face. The Vees grab a person from outside the hotel and show how they suck people in, glam them up, wring them for every click and penny they’re worth, then toss them out. They’re both promising the best afterlife you can get, but they look very different. This song also shows us a glimpse of what will trouble the Vees this season: Vox says “trust me…I mean us” and Velvette and Valentino do not seem amused by his slip-up.
We also get a look into the Vees’ general plans for the season: they want to organize an uprising against the angels. They want to take over heaven. They even sing a whole song about it called “Once We Get Up There.”
At the end of the episode, Emily manages to pop through a portal to tell Charlie that heaven is going on lockdown for fear of retaliation from the demons and that Sir Pentious has been redeemed and is up there with her. She then leaves Charlie in shock, and after a beat of silence, she just screams, and for some reason it makes me cackle every time.
Episode 2 takes place over the same period of time as the first, but it shows what was going on in heaven that whole time. It shows the angels deciding what to do with Sir Pentious before deciding he can stay, and even gives us a glimpse into his life as a human and what his sin was that got him sent to hell in the first place.
Emily shows Pentious around and tries to encourage him by telling him how unique and special he is by way of the song “Like You” (and I just have to say, Shoba Narayan is really NAILING Emily’s energy as heaven’s Charlie counterpart, and her voice is incredible to boot), but that is only making Pentious even lonelier; he misses his friends.
Sera is forced to grapple with the fact that she sanctioned exterminations when redemption was possible, and sings a stunning duet with the Speaker of God called “Sera’s Confession”, meaning it’s a Patina Miller/Liz Callaway duet, meaning it’s UNSPEAKABLY GOOD.
Liz Callaway was the voice of my childhood and Patina Miller is a Broadway GODDESS.
And also Lute has her own crash-out, but instead of a delusionally upbeat number like Charlie had, Lute’s is a rock and roll takedown number where she vows to kill Vaggie so Charlie can feel what Lute felt when Adam died. It’s called “Gravity” and it’s incredibly badass (and of course, is sung by the inimitable Jessica Vosk); even the choreography is amazing. The animation is beyond impressive.
Lute is scary but also hot? Scary hot.
And the episode ends where the last one ends, but this time when we see Emily leave to tell Charlie the news, we also see how sad Sir Pentious is all alone in heaven with his golden egg babies.
There’s so much packed into just those two episodes, and believe me when I tell you the rest of the season is quite the ride. With the battle of heaven vs hell on the line, everyone has more to lose, and too many powerful people are willing to risk a lot to get what they want; this is more than just angels vs demons. There’s the possibility of redemption battling fake news, overlords trying to besmirch the good name of the princess of hell, and two very different communities who have to let go of their preconceived notions of the other before they break out into all-out war.
And frankly, the season only gets gayer from here. We see Charlie (who later does clarify to a reporter that she’s actually bisexual) and Vaggie’s relationship get put under pressure as Vaggie takes on more responsibility at the hotel, for example.
The hotel, as represented by a cat, aka one of the gayest animals.
Also I wasn’t originally going to spoil this for you, but Erika and Stephanie did on the premiere red carpet so I feel like I can mention it: There is a very sexy sapphic duet coming your way. Also, unrelated, look how cute they are on aforementioned red carpet!
Photo by Valerie Terranova / Stringer via Getty Images. They also posted some less…professional…but more fun pics on Instagram.
The rest of the songs follow suit with these first five and are just incredible; there are some more familiar voices coming I think you’re going to love, PLUS we’ll get to hear some singing from characters we already know and love but haven’t gotten to hear much from yet. We get to learn more about Angel, see a softer side of Husk, and so much more. And, as a treat, we get to see into the human lives of more than just Sir Pentious!
I loved the first season SO much, and I was really worried that the second season wouldn’t be able to hold water to something so great. But I was relieved to find that this just felt like Season 1 (Continued) instead of a whole new show (you never know with shows like this that are getting different amounts of money and input from big streamers) and it was such a relief. Even the scores borrow from the first season — for example, “More Than Anything” playing softly under Charlie and Lucifer’s conversation in the first episode. It all felt familiar, and emotional, and hilarious, and silly and just…right. It really did feel like coming home to the Hazbin Hotel.
