Ricky Church reviews the final two episodes of Hazbin Hotel season 2…
For the purpose of this review, I’ll be reviewing both the seventh and eighth episodes of Hazbin Hotel‘s second season as ‘Weapons of Mass Distraction’ feeds right into the finale ‘Curtain Call’. While the former episode is good on its own, both serve as quite a nice double-sized finale especially with ‘Curtain Call’s extra long runtime.
Beginning with ‘Weapons of Mass Distraction’, it wasted no time in Vox’s plan to trap Lucifer and use him as a power source for his new weapon, ultimately firing the first blow against Heaven and threatening them with their own Extermination. The penultimate episode was well paced and the flashback to Vox’s human life in ‘Brighter’ – which is a very catchy song sung by Christian Borle – showed just how little Vox has changed between his human and afterlife. The only difference he seemed to make was his thwarted partnership with Alastor as shown in ‘It’s A Deal’, which is the only time he’s ever shown himself to be even a little emotionally vulnerable. It shed new light on his villainous side as he has always been an egomaniacal murderous villain who simply gets to unleash his true self in Hell.
The episode also saw many of the season’s themes and character arcs come together as both Charlie and Sera were finally listening to and taking in other advice. Sera’s struggle with her guilt over the Exterminations led her to make some terribly ill-guided choices in how to deal with Hell throughout the course of the season and it was appropriate that Sir Pentious of all people, using lessons he learned from Charlie, was the one to give Sera enough hope for preventing a full-scale war. ‘Live to Live’ was a great duet between Alex Brightman and Patina Miller with a very nice callback to season one’s ‘It Starts With Sorry’ and ‘When I Think About The Future’ was a fantastic medley of most of this season’s songs with all of the ensemble pitching in.
‘Curtain Call’ was every bit as exciting and tense as could be expected with what was at stake. Rather than have everything an outright battle, the heist-like plot the Hazbin staff came up with to stop Vox was a welcome sight as everyone was utilized for specific tasks. It again showed how Charlie had learnt from her previous mistakes and was leaning on the others for help instead of thinking she alone could fix it all. Nifty and Baxter proved to be quite an unexpected great pairing while Husk and Cherri Bomb showcased their skills in their fight against Val. The animation on Husk’s magical tricks was smooth and well choreographed and Nifty vs. Velvette was a very entertaining sequence, showing Nifty is a lot more skilled and powerful in her own right instead of just being a crazy psycho.
Of course, the real scene stealer in the episode’s battle was the rematch between Alastor and Vox where the former revealed just how well he’d been conning Vox ever since his captivity began. It should be no surprise Alastor’s ability to play the long game paid off. After all, this was the demon who kept the secret of the angels weakness to himself until it could benefit him last season, another factor that paid off as he put the “one simple favour” Charlie owed him to good use. Getting out of three deals in the span of minutes was a masterstroke on Alastor’s part, not to mention how his wordplay was a crucial part in Vox’s undoing as it emphasized Vox’s inability to look past his own ego and truly examine the details. Amir Talai’s delivery of Alastor’s excitement and menace and Borle’s vocals of Vox’s breakdown was a large part of why this moment stands out as much as it does among the finale’s memorable moments. Despite Alastor’s questionable motives and feelings regarding Charlie and the hotel, you can’t help but cheer when Alastor freed himself from his deals with Rosie and Vox.
The animation throughout the finale was among the best of the series with its excellent choreography, vivid colours and emotive characters. The effort Vivienne Medrano and the animation team put into the finale is absolutely clear as the visuals are fantastic from start to finish. Even with the action though, the character development still held a strong focus as Charlie tried to prove again, this time with Heaven’s help, redemption is possible. The shift she and Emily made to save as many sinners as possible once Vox started using his weapon against Hell just to take out Alastor is a nice moment as it continued Charlie’s push to finally put other’s concerns above herself after all of Vox’s slander.
It all led to ‘Hear My Hope’ which is a denouement of the season’s overarching theme. After everything Vox and the Vees had done to spread division and discord throughout Hell and Charlie pushing her allies away, it all culminated in Charlie, her friends and several of the Overlords coming together to prevent Vox’s weapon from destroying most of the pentagram. The song is a beautiful ensemble worthy of a finale piece with its slow beginning building up to a boisterous melody by the end. The fact it also held payoffs to other characters, such as Abel finally taking command with Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump getting his own great little single within the song, added to the character driven nature of the lyrics. It really is a worthy and meaningful capstone to what the season has been building to.
Of course, not everything was tied up nicely in victory with all the cliffhangers for season three. Angel’s trauma of being a brainwashed spy for who knows long has greatly effected him, forcing him to go back to Val and push his friends away out of concern for their safety. Blake Roman sold Angel’s broken spirit while Keith David’s whimper as Husk tried to get Angel to come back was full of heartbreaking emotion in just three words. Meanwhile Alastor, free of Rosie’s deal and seeming to have made a new deal with her for his fixed staff, looks poised to make a power play himself as our last shot of him is literally with Lucifer in his sights. After Alastor’s more villainous and manipulative side was showcased this season, does this put him in a spot to be next season’s antagonist or in conflict with Charlie? To that end, why is Rosie still so interested in the hotel and seemingly Charlie’s safety? And the biggest cliffhanger of all with Lilith finally making contact with Charlie, it all leads to some very interesting possibilities for what Medrano has planned in the future.
Hazbin Hotel‘s final two episodes were absolutely fantastic with its sleek animation, tense fights, great songs and meaningful character development. ‘Hear My Hope’ is not only incredibly catchy, but serves as the exclamation point in season two’s themes with its powerful ensemble. It ultimately was a very impressive season that leaves plenty of room and questions for what lies in store for Charlie Morningstar and her friends.
Rating: 9/10
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