History Recap / HazbinHotelS1E4Masquerade

* BeYourself: Husk tells Angel to drop the persona he puts up in front of others because the people at the hotel care for Angel as a person. He also works it into his song.

* TakeOurWordForIt: As Husk is explaining everyone's DrowningMySorrows, he stops at Niffty, who is smiling devilishly, and decides no one needs to know what her deal is.

* TakeOurWordForIt: As Husk is explaining everyone's DrowningMySorrow, he stops at Niffty, who is smiling devilishly, and decides no one needs to know what her deal is.

* IResembleThatRemark: Angel accuses Husk of playing the part of the 'wise old bartender who's seen it all'. Husk immediately response with an answer that sounds just like the typical 'wise old bartender' line, about how Angel won't find solutions to his problems at the bottom of a bottle.

--> '''Angel:''' Oh, I ''forgot'', you're the "[[TheBartender wise old bartender who's seeeen it aaall]]"! Get the fuck over yourself and pour me a rare drink.\\

* AngerBornOfWorry: At least some of Angel's angry yelling at Charlie is born 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.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The lyrics of "Poison" can obviously be read simply as Angel singing about Valentino forcing him to perform all sorts of depraved acts for him unwillingly, along with all the drugs he's given. But their heavily sexually charged innuendo can also very intentionally be read as [[SexSlave Angel being forced to fellate Valentino]], with the "poison" in question being Valentino's seminal fluid. Even some of the visuals play into this.

** Turns out most people at the hotel tend to this, so Hsuk knows what everyone's issues are.

* TakeOurWordForIt: As Husk is explaining everyone's DrowingMySorrow, he stops at Niffty, who is smiling devilishly, and decides no one needs to know what her deal is.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Valentino browbeats and gaslights Angel into kicking Charlie out of his studio, but Charlie really ''was'' being somewhat of a nuisance by barging in said studio and bothering the employees in the middle of a film shooting and accidentally starting an electrical fire that nearly burned the whole place down (though the poor power set-up did not help matters). It doesn't make Angel feel any less guilty over telling her off, though.

** A few seconds later when angel demands Husk make him a drink, as Husk goes to make it you can physically watch Angel code-switch from the physically exhausted and mentally hopeless wreck he really is back into his charming and carefree persona with an adjustment of his hair tuft.

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: When Angel returns to the Hotel after his long night with Valentino, Charlie can be seen in the foyer behind him curled in a fetal position and moving to say something to him but pulling back at the last second.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Charlie heads to Valentino's studio to convince him to give Angel more hours off. However, this only makes things worse, as Valentino thinks Angel is using Charlie to get out of his contract, causing him to physically assault Angel.

* UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode: Up to this point, the series has been a slightly twisted but still lighthearted HorrorComedy with over-the-top violence and spooky imagery. This episode, however, thrusts the viewer into uncomfortably realistic abuse of every kind. We finally see the extent of the abuse that Valentino is putting Angel through in gruesome detail, and it is not PlayedForLaughs in the slightest. Notably, this was the first episode to be rated 18+ instead of 16+ on Prime Video. The controversy over the episode was so bad that they eventually added a warning to the beginning of the episode and upped the rating for the whole series.

* UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode: The series was nothing but a slightly twisted but still lighthearted HorrorComedy with over-the-top violence and spooky imagery. This episode, however, thrusts the viewer into uncomfortably realistic abuse. We finally see the extent of the abuse that Valentino is putting Angel through in gruesome detail, and it is not PlayedForLaughs in the slightest. Notably, this was the first episode to be rated 18+ instead of 16+ on Prime Video. The controversy over the episode was so bad that they eventually added a warning to the beginning of the episode and upped the rating for the whole series.

* UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode: We finally see the extent of the abuse that Valentino is putting Angel through in gruesome detail, and it is not PlayedForLaughs in the slightest. Notably, this was the first episode to be rated 18+ instead of 16+ on Prime Video. The controversy over the episode was so bad that they eventually added a warning to the beginning of the episode and upped the rating for the whole series.

* ShoutOut: Angel's best porno won him a Sex-x-xy Award, possibly a reference to the Saxxy Awards from ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''.

* AnAesop:
** You aren't alone in your suffering. There's always someone out there who's going through something as bad as you are, if not ''worse'' than you, and opening up to them is ''immensely'' more helpful than putting up walls and isolating yourself.
** Inserting yourself into a situation that you don't fully understand, even with good intentions, can [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished backfire]] and [[NiceJobBreakingItHero make things worse]].
** You can't sugarcoat everything. Sometimes, helping someone means [[BrutalHonesty being blunt with them]].

* HardTruthAesop: Sometimes people are trapped in bad situations with no easy, straightforward solutions, and the only thing they can do is confide in others sharing similar experiences as a means of coping.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Valentino browbeats and gaslights Angel into kicking Charlie out of his studio, but Charlie really ''was'' being somewhat of a nuisance by barging in said studio and bothering the employees in the middle of a film shooting and accidentally starting an electrical fire that nearly burned the whole place down. It doesn't make Angel feel any less guilty over telling her off, though.

* DoubleEntendre:
** A bit of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanaclasis antanaclasis]] is used during the porn shoot. "Do" is used first in its usual sense, and then in the sense of "have sex with".
--->'''Angel:''' Oh, no. So many burglars... And only one me! Whatever shall I do? I guess I'll have to do... all of you!
** When Angel is trying to usher out Charlie, his calling out to Valentino that he's "coming" (meant literally) gets responded to as if it were meant in the sexual slang sense:
--->'''Valentino:''' Angel! What is the fucking holdup?\\
'''Angel Dust:''' I'm... coming!\\
'''Valentino:''' Not off-camera, you're not!

* WhamEpisode: We finally see the extent of the abuse that Valentino is putting Angel through in gruesome detail, and it is not PlayedForLaughs in the slightest. Notably, this was the first episode to be rated 18+ instead of 16+ on Prime Video. The controversy over the episode was so bad that they eventually added a warning to the beginning of the episode and upped the rating for the whole series.

* ToplessnessFromTheBack: When Charlie comes to Valentino's studio, the first person she stumbles into is a wolf-demoness taking off her bra. While Charlie sees her front, the audience only sees her bare back.