History Recap / HazbinHotelS1E4Masquerade

* OhCrap: Angel has a string of these when Charlie shows up at the studio.

* WrongNameOutburst: Angel is in the middle of filming a scene when he notices that Charlie has come to his place of work, causing him to flub the take by exclaiming her name.

** During both songs, Valentino and Husk dance with Angel separately, but Valentino yanks Angel around with chains on his wrists while Husk takes his hands and gently guides him through it.

** During both songs, Valentino and Husk both dance with Angel, but Valentino yanks Angel around with chains on his wrists while Husk takes his hands and gently guides him through it.

*** You may also notice Angel’s bindings fall off first. Foreshadowing perhaps?

* FanDisservice: During "Poison", the sexual scenes of Angel enjoying himself (or pretending to enjoy himself) are undercut with the reality of how terrifying and unsafe his working life is under Valentino.

* LieBackAndThinkOfEngland: Referenced among the lyrics of "Poison" is Angel's numbness at being subjected to constant sexual exploitation day in and day out to the point where he simply does this in order to get through it.

** During "Poison", after hours upon hours of filming porn and bondage scenes, Angel returns to his dressing room and collapses in front of a balcony. Its railing fills up the screen, looking like jail bars.

* RuleOfSymbolism: During "Loser, Baby", Angel and Husk are tied in ropes that reflect their binds to the "psychopathic freak" they sold their souls to. These ropes reflect their relationship with their contractors in several ways:
** For one, it reflects Valentino and Alastor's respective personalities. Valentino is a serial abuser and PsychopathicManchild known for easily giving into his temper and desires. Thus, Angel's rope is tied in a wild and haphazard manner. By contrast, Alastor is a level-headed schemer who keeps his cool to ensure his plans go smoothly and is generally [[AffablyEvil affable]] as long as you don't piss him off. As such, Husk's rope is bound tightly and neatly.
** It's also an indicator of how difficult it would be for either of them to escape their contracts. For all of Angel's fear of Valentino, he does have friends such as [[MadBomber Cherri]] and [[BewareTheNiceOnes Charlie]] who are willing to stand up for him if Angel only lets them, with the latter likely being able to crush Val with ease if she really tried. By contrast, Husk has fewer friends and none of them, even Charlie, are likely to stand up to Alastor, if only because he is currently serving as the hotel's (mostly sincere) benefactor and has yet to anger Charlie with depravity of Valentino's level.
** You may also notice Angel’s bindings fall off first. Foreshadowing perhaps?

* {{Doublethink}}: When Husk criticizes the porn Angel stars in for being [[PornWithoutPlot cheaply made schlock]], Angel acts offended and argues that they're of genuine artistic merit and have brought him awards and recognition. However, when Husk further calls him out, Angel dismisses Husk as a "porn critic", implicitly attaching an [[invoked]] ItsNotSupposedToWinOscars mentality to his work. This is because Angel is deliberately trying avoid addressing the deeper implications that he is being indefinitely forced to churn out this pornography by Valentino against his will.

** For one, it reflects Valentino and Alastor's respective personalities. Valentino is a serial abuser known for easily giving into his temper and desires. Thus, Angel's rope is tied in a wild and haphazard manner. By contrast, Alastor is a level-headed schemer who keeps his cool to ensure his plans go smoothly. As such, Husk's rope is bound tightly and neatly.

* BreakHerHeartToSaveHer: In order to protect Charlie from Valentino, Angel lashes out at her just before she could go all out at his boss from seeing what the Overlord did to him. Framing what happened as entirely her fault, Angel deeply hurts Charlie with his words and a seemingly cruel look of disapproval enough that she breaks down and leaves running from the porn studio in tears. The moment she's immediately out though, it's made abundantly clear that Angel regrets putting up such an act.

--> '''Angel:''' You know what? You would be fuckin' lucky to get a chance to fuck me! You know how much I'm ''worth''? You know how many people would ''kill'' to have ''Angel Dust'' cum onta them?! Fuck you! Have fun bein' a lonely piece of shit.

* FanDisservice: During "Poison" the sexual scene's of Angel enjoying himself (or pretending to enjoy himself) are undercut with the reality of how terrifying and unsafe his working life is under Valentino.

--> '''Angel:''' YOU KNOW WHAT? YOU WOULD BE FUCKIN' LUCKY TO GET A CHANCE TO FUCK ME! YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I'M ''WORTH?'' YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE WOULD ''KILL'' TO HAVE ''ANGEL DUST'' CUM ONTA THEM? FUCK YOU. HAVE FUN BEIN' A LONELY PIECE OF SHIT.

* FanDisservice: During "Poison" the sexual scene's where Angel is enjoying himself (or pretending to enjoy himself) are always undercut with the reality of how terrifying and unsafe his working life is under Valentino.

* FanDisservice: PlayedWith intentionally during "Poison". The scene's constantly flicker between Angel enjoying himself (or pretending to enjoy himself) and the reality of how terrifying and unsafe his working life is since Valentino can force him to do whatever he wants.

* FanDisservice: The "Poison" sequence is pure, uncut this. Angel's workday of filming porno after porno, sex with Valentino and snorting drugs in-between is shown in ''excruciating'' detail. By the last lines of the song, Angel has retreated to his dressing room for a breather and is close to a breakdown. It's so explicit that the Amazon Prime Platform/YouTube channel uploaded "Poison" as a lyric video prior to the series being released, as opposed to "Loser, Baby" being a sing along to a clip from the show.

* BadBadActing: Angel is clearly a middling-to-low actor in terms of actual acting capability from what little we see of his films. Justified, as they are PornWithoutPlot and Angel is primarily valued for his looks and sex appeal.

-->--'''Angel Dust'''

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Even genocidal angels are given silly quirks to make them entertaining. Alastor is a serial killer creating conflict for fun but is polite enough to lend a hand, and Vox is a manipulative tyrant who’s charismatic larger then life persona makes him very entertaining. But Val? Valentino is a callous, thuggish pimp and rapist whose horrible abuse of Angel is shown to be the worst in the entire show. After abusing Angel into performing in his porn videos the entire night, it is shown Valentino repeatedly rapes Angel at his leisure in absolutely harrowing detail.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Husk calls out Angel Dust for being a "phony" with self-destructive behaviors that's always crossing his boundaries.

* RuleOfSymbolism: During ''Loser, Baby'', Angel and Husk are tied in ropes that reflect their binds to the "psychopathic freak" they sold their souls to. These ropes reflect their relationship with their contractors in several ways:

* ShowAndTellAntics: The episode starts with one of these at the hotel. Unfortunately, Angel’s idea of “Show and Tell” is to “show” them his best porn movie he starred, and “tell” them how he won the award for it. Everyone, except Niffty (who is enjoying it) and Husk (who is unimpressed), are left understandably grossed out.

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: This episode make a point of showing how reprehensible Valentino is for essentially using Angel as a [[SexSlave living sex doll]] which he can do anything he pleases to since he ''literally'' owns Angel. Contrast this with Husk's binding to Alastor, which while obviously not great still has Husk more or less allowed to go about his business freely as long as he tends the bar at the Hazbin Hotel, making his situation more akin to indentured servitude rather than the outright cruel and abusive slavery Valentino is shown to inflict on Angel.

* AngerBornOfWorry: At least some of Angel's angry yelling at Charlie is borne of misguided fear for her. After being abused by Valentino for so long, Angel simply cannot see any vulnerabilities in his tormentor and believes ''Charlie'' is the one in danger despite her being in an entirely different league than Valentino, exemplified when he begs Val not to hurt her.

* BerserkButton:
** Angel Dust hates his outward persona being called "fake", because he believes it's who he has to be in order to escape Valentino's abuse and as such it is ''very'' real to him.
** Hurt one of Charlie’s friends in front of her, and she’s going to give you a world of hurt. Too bad Angel interrupts her before she could do anything.

* DeathDealer: Husk can throw cards with lethal accuracy.
* DeathSeeker: A downplayed example, since he is already dead, but Angel reveals to Husk during their confrontation that he purposely gets himself high, because if he becomes too broken from his self-destructive tendencies, Valentino wouldn’t see him as his favorite sex toy anymore, and thus he might eventually free him from his contract.