Hazbin Hotel – Episode 2 “Radio Killed the Video Star” Recap & Review

Radio Killed the Video Star

In Hazbin Hotel Episode 2, Vaggie suggests that sinners might be desperate enough to come to the hotel due to the extermination.

They’re interrupted by Sir Pentious, who’s arrived to battle Alistor in hopes that the almighty Vees will acknowledge him as their equal once he’s slayed the radio demon.

The Vees include Velvette, Valentino, and Vox, who announces that his company Voxtech is producing Angelic Security to protect hell’s citizens from extermination. In reality, it’s something he just then came up with.

Vox tries to settle down Valentino, who’s upset that Angel Dust left him to go to Hazbin Hotel. He then informs Vox that’s also where his rival Alistor the Radio Demon has shown up after seven years gone (the same amount of time Lilith has been gone). Now Vox is the one who’s upset. A musical number enlightens us to the fact that Vox once invited Alistor to join the Vees, but he refused. Now Alistor is back and wants to take Vox down. Vox worries that a partnership with the princess of hell will help the radio demon to that end. So, he decides to send a spy into the hotel.

Newly defeated by Alistor, Sir Pentious arrives at Hazbin Hotel to be a new recruit, claiming he wants to be better. He’s secretly a spy for the Vees, but Charlie feels for him and takes him in. She calls him their “first real guest,” despite Angel’s presence there. “It’s just nice to have someone interested for once,” Charlie says to differentiate the two.

Sir Pentious goes through her program and excels, making Charlie proud. Observing from the sidelines, Angel feels unappreciated. He later listens to voicemails from Valentino, which swing from loving platitudes to harsh insults. His inner voice, sounding like Valentino, sounds in his mind. “You actually think you can change? Addict trash like you doesn’t change.”

While grabbing a drink from the hotel bar, Angel catches Pentious planting a camera and accuses him of working for the Vees. When the others come in, Sir Pentious is caught out as a traitor. He calls Vox to get evacuated, but Vox leaves him on his own (a possible trick to keep his spy in the game, but who knows?). Of course, Charlie won’t kill him. She instead encourages him to apologize and stay in the program.

Once everyone goes to bed, a grinning Alistor picks up Pentious’ discarded communications watch. He speaks to Vox. “You’ll have to try harder than that next time,” he tells his rival, laughing.

The Episode Review

Rather out of the blue, we’re given a conflict to chew on between the Video and Radio Demons. It seems like this could get interesting considering the scope of their powers, but for now presents like a simple, boring old guard/new guard clash.

The hotel drama thickens with the addition of Sir Pentious to the recruits. I see an interesting storyline forming where Charlie will have to reckon with the perils of Heaven (honestly, Adam should have given Heaven’s true nature away last episode). Right now, she groups very different personal morals together–like “apologizing when you’ve done something wrong” with “abstaining from sex before marriage.” Her morals are very black-and-white, something that clearly rubs Angel the wrong way as someone who seems to want to be a good person but can’t seem to vibe with Charlie’s way of doing things.

I think this will be a fascinating arc to explore with the two characters as long as the series can find a more fluid approach to its story and dialogue.