Hazbin Hotel Season 2: Episodes 1 and 2 Recap and Review

Heads up: this will contain spoilers from seasons 1 and 2. If you haven't watched last season or these first 2 episodes, I recommend coming back after catching up.

That being said, let's start with a recap of the end of season 1.

Hazbin Hotel season 1 recap

Charlie and the gang faced off against Adam, Lute, and the exorcist army. After a brilliant back-and-forth between the 2 sides, Hell succeeds in defeating Adam. Lute orders the retreat of the exorcist army and the gang mourns the loss of Sir Pentious, who sacrificed himself in the battle to save his friends. The gang comes together to convince Charlie to rebuild the hotel. After a fun musical number and some help from Lucifer, the hotel is rebuilt bigger and better than before. The Vees are ready to power grab whatever happens next, and to everyone's delight, Sir Pentious' soul is redeemed. We see him appear in heaven. Emily is excited, while Sera looks horrified. Lute talks to Lilith, telling her she needs to go take care of Charlie if she wants to continue residing in heaven.

Hazbin Hotel S2 E01: New Pentious

Recap

The hotel is up and running, and we see the lobby full of sinners, but it looks like most are there for the wrong reason. The hotel's mission hasn't changed, and there is still hope that the hotel can redeem Hell's citizens and help them get into heaven. They have no idea that Sir Pentious was redeemed and that the hotel actually worked. Vaggie is seen helping run the front desk, greeting sinners, and helping with the check-in process.

The rest of the staff is present and, while some are helping, others are kind of just... hanging around. Guess that's nothing new. Husk is busy slinging drinks, Niffty is still cleaning, and Angel is still celebrity-endorsing the hotel. Alastor is present, but his less-than-helpful attitude from the first season has gotten even worse. Vaggie asks him to help as the host of the hotel, but instead just disappears and leaves Vaggie to deal with it.

We see Charlie still mourning with the egg boys over the loss of Sir Pentious. The girl clearly needs some therapy after watching her friend die before her eyes. She is worried whether the hotel can actually redeem sinners and help them go to heaven. After talking with Vaggie, she goes downstairs to talk to reporters.

We meet our first new character for the season, Baxter. A mad scientist, and don't you dare compare him to an inventor like Pentious. Charlie can only see him at first as the new Pentious and welcomes him to the hotel.

We get our first new song of the season, "Hazbin Guarantee (Trust US)".

It's a nice tune that represents the current state of the hotel, as well as reintroduces the Vees as probable antagonists. While Charlie and the hotel look to redeem sinners, Vox Tech and the Vees want to corrupt, abuse, and exploit the sinners of hell.

The Vees, aka Vox, are going for a power grab now that they know angels can be killed. He wants to be a deity and rule both heaven and hell. Our second song of the season, "Once We Get Up There", is a catchy show tune about their ambitions and what we can expect from the Vees for the rest of the season.

At the end of the episode, Emily surprises Charlie. She doesn't have much time and talks like an infomercial speaker before disappearing back through the portal and back to heaven. Sir Pentious is in heaven! She finally learns that her friend was redeemed and that their hotel works! Charlie, like any person who has been through Hell (no pun intended), screams. Is it joy, is it fear, is it excitement? Maybe a little bit of both.

Hazbin Hotel S2 E02: Storyteller

Recap

We begin the episode with Sir Pentious in heaven. Though seeing him in chains was not something I was expecting (probably should have, seeing as heaven had sent an exercist army every year to kill demons).

We are seeing the fallout of what happened at the end of the first season, but from heaven's perspective. There is still a lot of confusion and misleading when it comes to Sir Pentious and whether he was redeemed. Many believe he has forced his way into heaven. Sera is still of the mind that redemption is not possible. Despite Emily arguing and standing up to Sera, she refuses to believe what is in front of her eyes.

Lute, with a new cool arm, probably has the biggest chip on her shoulder and keeps derailing this trial. She wants to focus on revenge. She wants to make all of hell pay for what happened to Adam. Able, son of Adam, is introduced to us as a new character and rightfully brings the court back to focus, that Sir Pentious is here.

Sera is still having a hard time believing he was redeemed. It's not until the Speaker of God appears that Sera starts to listen to those around her. The speaker frees Sir Pentious from his shackles and asks him to tell his story.

We get to see what Sir Pentious was like when he was alive. Turns out he lived in London in 1888. (Hmmm, wonder what was happening in London in that time period). He tells his story from his perspective, and we find out why he was sent to hell. He was ashamed, he could have saved the lives of at least 5 other women if he had just spoken up. But, he put his own safety first, never revealing the killer of those women. This time, when his friends were in trouble, he decided he would do something for once. Making the ultimate sacrifice, he was able to save his friends and was redeemed for the sin he had committed in life. Is this the key for the Hazbin Hotel to succeed?

The speaker then welcomes him to heaven and promises that he will be safe there from now on. Sera is now open to the idea of redemption, but is clearly upset by her past commands and her part in the slaughter of the citizens of hell. Lute is struggling with everyone being okay with this. She again tries to convince that she and Adam were correct and that everyone in hell should be exterminated. She is put in her place by Sera and Able after they reveal that Able is the new leader of the exorcist army. She starts to fight back, but Sera commands her to follow orders, or it would be seen as treason. She begrudgingly obeys.

Emily is charged with looking after Sir Pentious and making sure that he feels welcome from here on out. Though he is happy to be free, he is more concerned with his friends and wants to check in on them. Emily informs him that he can't contact them, but she is determined to help him find friends and feel welcomed. Emily starts singing the first song of the episode "Like You," a fun, upbeat track that totally matches her personality, even though the song has the opposite effect on Pentious, and he feels even more alone and isolated.

We see Sera struggle with what she has done. She is starting to question how she has been ruling. She wants the speaker's help with guiding her on what she should do, leading us into the second song of the episode, "Sera's Confession". At the end, she still isn't sure what she should do. She tries to enlist the help of Able and Saint Peter. However, they offer no guidance, and Sera is still stuck on what to do. Emily cheers up Pentious by creating him some new egg boys.

Lute is very upset. She is bumping into and pushing people on the street as she breaks down. She is crying, sad, and angry. She becomes so worked up that she starts seeing Adam. Who quickly tells her that he is just in her head and not real. He eggs her on into thinking that she still has something to do. That even if she is being ordered to do nothing, she has to do something about it. Meanwhile, Able comes to his dad's office, where Lute has ended up. He asks if he can have one of his dad's old guitars to help remember him by, and Lute scares him out of the office. We see Lute be vulnerable and admit that she had feelings for Adam. She can't let what happened to him go. She will stop at nothing to get her revenge. Lute sings the third song of the episode (and my favorite song so far), "Gravity".

The episode ends with Sera claiming she is shutting down Heaven and enacting security protocols to protect Heaven until she can decide what to do with Hell. Sir Pentious asks Emily if Charlie should be told what's going on. Emily races off to tell Charlie everything, leaving Pentious wanting, begging to see his friends. We end with him crying, cuddling with his egg boys because he is so distraught about not being able to contact his friends.

Review

What a start to the new season. I love how the first two episodes take place at the same time. Hell is rejoicing, heaven is confused and reeling from the last exorcism: exactly what I imagined it would be like. Everyone is trying to figure out what's going to happen next, what the next steps are now that everything has changed.

The songs are nice, but feel a little less catchy than the songs from the first season. It's also nice that they aren't doing the same thing they did in the first season. I love "Gravity"! I can't stop listening to this heavy metal, headbanging anthem. I could definitely get behind the new songs if there are more like this.

What do you think of these first two episodes back? Overall, I'm pleased.

Let us know in the comments.