History Recap / TheCupheadShowS2E8ReleaseTheDemons

* NeverMyFault: While informing his finest demons of their mission, he blames Cuphead and Mugman for [[spoiler: destroying his entire carnival]], when in reality, it was his doing.

After remembering a past event, Mugman wants to try and scare Cuphead in a haunted maze.

Meanwhile down in the Underworld, tormented by his failed attempts to take Cuphead's soul, the Devil is forced to send... not his finest demons, but a squad of demons nonetheless ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and King Dice]]) to go after the Cup.

* AccidentalHero: The only reason Mugman wasn't affected by the 4 Horsemen was that he had his back to them and he had just made a joke with Cuphead using a toy horse head. Mugman turned around to see what had horrified Cuphead so much and he accidentally scares the horses away, which knock the horsemen off their horses and into a pool of water. It's fortunate for Cuphead and Mugman that the Horsemen are too lazy to get their horses back.

* VillainNoLongerIdle: The Devil tries to get his demons, King Dice and the Four Horsemen to capture Cuphead so that he can finally collect his soul. When all his minions fail him, the Devil decides to take matters into his own hands. That is until Stickler shows up and tells him that he no longer has a claim on Cuphead’s soul.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Although he works for the Devil, Henchman is terrified of the Four Horsemen and thinks that sending them just to capture Cuphead to be a bit much.

* ColorFailure: In a flashback, a young Cuphead is terrorized by the scary horse mask, which drains him of all color. Later in the episode, Cuphead, King Dice, and the ticket guy freeze and lose their color when they see the four horsemen.

* GodzillaThreshold: Henchman considers the Four Horsemen to be this when the third-finest demons are all gone, leaving the Devil with no choice but to send them to Cuphead.

* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: The Devil turns to them when none of his demons prove effective in capturing Cuphead.

-->'''Devil''': ([[VillainousBreakdown Screams angrily]]) If you want something done right, I guess you have to (speaks in a deep demonic tone) do it yourself!

* ColorFailure: In a flashback, a young Cuphead is terrorized by the scary horse mask, which drains him of all color. Later in the episode, both Cuphead and King Dice (and the others) freeze and lose their color when they see the four horsemen.

* MyGodYouAreSerious: After the Devil sends out his third finest demons, King Dice butters him up on his orating skills, sure that he won't have to go and hunt the boys himself. Until he's ordered out, and is shocked that the Devil would do such a thing to his number one. The Devil gives Dice a FascinatingEyebrow, and he gets the point.

* ContinuityNod: The Devil mentions the events of the previous season as he explains to the demons why he wants Cuphead's soul, starting with Cuphead losing a game of Soulball, Mugman stuffing Cuphead's soul back into his body, and destroying the Carnival in the first episode "[[Recap/TheCupheadShowS1E1CarnEvil Carn-Evil]]", then how Cuphead lost on "Roll The Dice" by failing to identify "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (the Devil, however, didn't mention that Cuphead broke the dice by rolling them too hard) in the episode, "[[Recap/TheCupheadShowS1E5RollTheDice Roll The Dice]]", then how Cuphhead kept the Devil from stealing his soul by wearing an invisible sweater in "[[Recap/TheCupheadShowS1E8SweaterOffDead Sweater Off Dead]]" and "[[Recap/TheCupheadShowS1E9SweaterLuckNextTime Sweater Luck Next Time]]". The sweater from those last two episodes is revealed to have been given to Strickler.

Meanwhile down in the Underworld, tormented by his failed attempts to take Cuphead's soul, the Devil is forced to send…not his finest demons, but a squad of demons nonetheless ([[AndZoidberg and King Dice]]) to go after the Cup.

* ColorFailure: In a flashback, a young Cuphead is terrorized by the scary horse mask, which drains him of all color. Later in the episode, both Cuphead and King Dice freeze and lose their color when they see the four horsemen.
* ContinuityNod: The Devil mentions the events of the previous season as he explains to the demons why he wants Cuphead's soul, starting with Cuphead losing a game of Soulball, Mugman stuffing Cuphead's soul back into his body, and destroying the Carnival in the first episode "[[Recap/TheCupheadShowS1E1CarnEvil Carn-Evil]]", then how Cuphead lost on "Roll The Dice" by failing to identify "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in the episode, "[[Recap/TheCupheadShowS1E5RollTheDice Roll The Dice]]", then how Cuphhead kept the Devil from stealing his soul by wearing an invisible sweater in "[[Recap/TheCupheadShowS1E8SweaterOffDead Sweater Off Dead]]" and "[[Recap/TheCupheadShowS1E9SweaterLuckNextTime Sweater Luck Next Time]]". The sweater from those last two episodes is revealed to have been given to Strickler.

* KnowWhenToFoldThem: The Horsemen lose their horses after they are frightened by Mugman's horse mask. They decide to leave their assignment and have fun.

* MyGodYouAreSerious: After the Devil sends out his third finest demons, King Dice butters him up on his orating skills, sure he won't have to go and hunt the boys himself. Until he's ordered out, and is shocked that the Devil would do such a thing to his number one. The Devil gives Dice a FascinatingEyebrow, and he gets the point.

** The Devil releasing the demons to Requiem: Dies Irae. The first group of demons stumbles out of the gate (with the blind cyclops walking in the wrong direction), a panicked King Dice runs out to catch up with the demons after realizing he's on the mission too, and the 4 horsemen simply break through the gate before it finishes opening.

* StandardSnippet: Whenever the Devil unleashes his demons, they exit to the sound of the ''Dies Irae'' from Verdi's ''Requiem''.

* AccidentalHero: The only reason Mugman wasn't affected by the 4 Horsemen was because he had his back to them and he had just made a joke with Cuphead using a toy horse head. Mugman turned around to see what had horrified Cuphead so much and he accidentally scares the horses away, unwittingly defeating the 4 Horsemen by knocking them into a pool of water and because the Horsemen were too lazy to get their horses back.

Meanwhile down in the Underworld, torment by his failed attempts to take Cuphead's soul, the Devil is forced to send…not his finest demons, but a squad of demons nonetheless ([[AndZoidberg and King Dice]]) to go after the Cup.

* FlamingSkulls: The Four Horsemen have these, until they get thrown out of their horses and land on Apple bobbing tub.

* AccidentalHero: The only Mugman wasn't affected by the 4 Horsemen was because he had his back to them and he had just made a joke with Cuphead using a toy horse head. Mugman turned around to see what had horrified Cuphead so much and he accidentally scares the horses away, unwittingly defeating the 4 Horsemen by knocking them into a pool of water and because the Horsemen were too lazy to get their horses back.

* RuleOfThree: Before he sends the Four Horsemen to find and capture Cuphead, the Devil has Henchman rally his finest demons. Unfortunately, his rage burns the first two, leaving him with a third, not-so-stellar set. He sends them out before he loses his temper again so he doesn't have to deal with a ''fourth'' set.

* YouAreTooLate: Stickler reveals an interesting rule in the Devil's job called the "Soul Debt"; if he is unable to obtain the soul owed to him, i.e. Cuphead's, by a full month (30 days to be precise), he must forfeit the pursuit. Devil tries to do away with the accountant but, thanks to literal PlotArmor, he finally gives up since he is a day late and a soul short.

* BurningWithAnger: The Devil incinerates two sets of his finest demons to ash because, everytime he tries to explain their mission to them, his rage peaks at each recounting of Cuphead's victories over him and he bursts into flames.

* LostInTheMaize: As a little kid, Cuphead was terrorized by a scary horse mask in a corn maze, but in the present, he denies it ever happened. Mugman takes him back to the same maze to prove it did happen, but don't realize that a gang of demons is there too--and after Cuphead's soul.
* ModestyTowel: As Henchman is watching the demons' disastrous work, The Devil steps in wearing a pink towel (and another wrapped around his horns) to ask how they're doing.

* UncomfortableElevatorMoment: Stickler and The Devil awkwardly ride the elevator back down to the underworld when it suddenly gets stuck. Devil bemoans the situation, while Stickler starts singing "[[PlaygroundSong/NinetyNineBottlesOfBeer 999 million souls in the vault, 999 million souls...]]"

Meanwhile down in Hell, torment by his failed attempts to take Cuphead's soul, the Devil is forced to send…not his finest demons, but a squad of demons nonetheless ([[AndZoidberg and King Dice]]) to go after the Cup.

* RuleOfThree: Before he sends the Four Horsemen to find and capture Cuphead, the Devil has Henchman rally his finest demons. Unfortunately, his rage burns the first two, leaving him with a third, not so-stellar-set. He sends them out before he loses his temper again so he doesn't have to deal with a ''fourth'' set.

* YouAreTooLate: Stickler reveals an interesting rule in the Devil's job: if he is unable to obtain the soul owed to him, i.e. Cuphead's, for a full month (30 days to be precise), he must forfeit the pursuit. Devil tries to do away with the accountant but, thanks to literal PlotArmor, he finally gives up.

Mugman wants to try and scare Cuphead in a haunted maze. Meanwhile down in Hell, The Devil is forced to send…not his finest demons but a squad of demons nonetheless and King Dice to try and retrieve Cuphead’s soul.