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General
- Why does nobody living react much to the imps? Because, as indicated by Charlie's line about "fallen super heroes" it's a superhero universe and mutants or outright supernatural things are not unheard of.
- "Spring Broken" reveals that they are supposed to keep hidden, as Loona is shocked that she is the only one at I.M.P to have a human disguise. It is only through a combination of Refuge in Audacity, being mistaken for something other than an imp and the setting itself that I.M.P didn't get themselves exorcised by priests.
- Blitzo may come off as an oddball but then you look closely at the background when he’s taking the phone call with Stolas in his office and his harlequin-like appearance. Blitzo apparently used to be a circus performer so that could explain his strange behavior.
- Outright confirmed in "Loo Loo Land", where he's not only revealed to have originally worked as a clown, but that his workplace was the terribly crappy ripoff Loo Loo Land, where he was forced to work alongside the utter Jerkass that is Robot Fizzarolli, showing where both his bizarre behavior and heavy commitment to maintaining his paying job as a hitman came from.
- It is revealed
that sinners can only exist in the ring/circle of Pride. This means that Imp City, where I.M.P is located, has to be in the same ring as them otherwise they can't conduct business if their customers cannot even reach them. It seems rather odd at first, but there are multiple reasons upon thinking about it, both practical and symbolical.- Pride is considered mainly as the "original sin", effectively becoming a one-size-fits-all for every sinner when they were alive which saves the trouble of having to sort them out.
- a) This lines up with the kind of clientele I.M.P attracts. Every client has fallen somewhere in the Never My Fault category (from the Pilot's Ohio man who blames the jogger who caught him hiding the body of the wife he murdered, to even the sympathetic Mrs. Mayberry feeling cheated for ending up in Hell due to "one measley little massacre"), and their Pride is what Blitzo exploits for his business. b) In Christianity, it's believed that Pride is the worst sin of all, since Jesus would help even the most wretched souls if they were just humble enough to admit they did wrong and ask for deliverance, while those too proud to admit they messed up or ask for help (like, most famously, Doctor Faustus or Faust) end up in Hell.
- It keeps all of the sinners in a single place. As they make up the majority of Hell's population, the Exorcists in turn could do their job at max efficiency. It also prevents them from disguising as a native and hide in the other rings during the exterminations.
- It allows all sorts of sinners to enter I.M.P's doorstep with quick convenience. Having their more remote customers go through multiple circles of Hell just to reach them might dissuade any potential business.
- It also allows for the hellborn to have an escape for when the Exorcists arrive for the purge. If even the lowest of imps want to escape danger, all they have to do is relocate to another ring temporarily so they don't get caught up in the chaos with all the sinners. And presumably the majority of demon royalty, save Lucifer's family, don't live in Pride. So they're less likely to have any of their property damaged every year.
- Pride is considered mainly as the "original sin", effectively becoming a one-size-fits-all for every sinner when they were alive which saves the trouble of having to sort them out.
- Vivziepop has said that each of the Demon Princes have a circus theme to them—Asmodeus is the magic act, Beelzebub the animal act, etc. They also rule over one ring of Hell each, making them literal ringleaders!
- The roles of each sin and his motif also fits.
- Lucifer is Pride and his role is a Ringmaster. He essentially calls the shots and makes the presentation, not to mention is the one who interacts with the audience more often. Fittingly for pride, Lucifer would take the leadership position without a second thought.
- Beelzebub is Gluttony. Animals require a lot of food incentives to work and are far more dangerous than human artists. As gluttony represents indulgence, she needs to handle both the food and also be a bit of a thrill seeker.
- Asmodeous is Lust. Magicians are noted to play with the audience's expectative and their act is usually amongst the most flashy of them, bringing a pleasure within. Plus, many magician assistants often wear skimpy clothes, playing as well with Asmodeous' relationship with arousing the audience.
- Mammon is Greed. Clowns and jesters are presented as opportunistic and cunning occasionally, fitting for a shady businessman like Mammon. Clowns are also noted to be rather crass and carry many tools, the embodiment of greed certainly would like to carry many objects for his presentation.
- The roles of each sin and his motif also fits.
- Stolas being so powerful fits nicely into the world-building of the series if you know about his lore. According to Viv, angels are more powerful than demons which is why Lucifer is Hell's ruler and according to the Ars Goetia, Stolas himself is also a Fallen Angel who was cast down in Lucifer's failed rebellion. Granted, "The Circus" put that idea to rest but the overall point still stands as Stolas is still of heaven descent.
- It may seem strange that Imp City is located in the Pride Ring even though the imps are capable of traveling to any ring of Hell... but keep in mind that they're also at the bottom of Hell's pecking order. This means that higher ranked natural born demons are very likely going to treat them like trash due to their lower status. Sinners, on the other hand, are former humans which means that they wouldn't care that much about the imp's rank, so while they may be generally awful to everybody, they aren't going to single the imps out in particular.
- Reasons why I.M.P have been able to operate so openly without repercussions from the authorities in Hell, despite doing business 'less than legally' as Stolas put it:
- Blitzo and co. are clearly nobodies in Hell so it's very unlikely they are on any kind of watchlist. Not to mention Stolas is likely doing a bit of covering for them.
- It's easy to forget, but thanks to Stolas's grimoire, I.M.P most likely have far easier access to the mortal world than most demons, likely allowing them to completely bypass all of the more monitored ways that demons can go to earth.
- Surprisingly, Blitzo and co. have actually done a very good job of covering their tracks. Despite being literal Demons from Hell, the weapons and methods I.M.P use to carry out their assassinations are all entirely mundane; guns, knives, poisons, explosives, etc. In other words, all things that could easily be attributed to human killers. This becomes especially notable in "Spring Broken", as Verosika mutating a fish into a giant Kaiju with booze that clearly could only come from Hell is quite a bit harder to explain away as all the more mundane stabbings and shootings that Blitzo and co. have been doing.
- "Spring Broken" reveals that Loona was "almost 18" when Blitzo adopted her, yet he still treats her like his baby. So, why did Blitzo adopt a young woman about to become an adult, and then wonder why she acts like she doesn't need him? Well, in the pilot Blitzo implies he grew up in (at best), an authoritarian household (his dad crushed his musical theatre dreams), and Blitzo clearly wants to be loved and treats I.M.P like his Family of Choice. It's possible that Blitzo wanted to give a loving home to an older teen about to age out of the system, before they were too old to ever get one. (Especially if Blitzo ever secretly wanted to be adopted out of his shitty family but never did, and is now too old to join a new family, and so tries to make one with I.M.P instead.)
- Loona being adopted at an older age also explains why she's so reluctant to view Blitzo as her new dad, since her old parents might still be fresh in her memory. Overlapping with Fridge Horror or Fridge Tear Jerker, it may also explain her Hair-Trigger Temper, as whatever happened to her parents was recent enough that the trauma gave her serious attitude problems.
- Additionally, if Loona was put in the adoption system at an early age (whether due to her parents dying or abandoning her), in Real Life most foster systems are notorious for abusing/neglecting kids in their care, then leaving them out to dry the second they turn 18. Countless Real Life former foster kids end up homeless, couch-surfing, drug-addicted, and/or struggling in working poverty for years after aging out of the system. An adoption system in Hell would likely be even worse, especially since Hellhounds are treated as literal pets for demons to buy. So, Loona would likely have had to put up walls and learn to take care of herself from an early age, hence her "I didn't need you then, asshole. I don't now." Blitzo adopting her when she was almost 18, while well-meaning, wouldn't magically erase years of trauma, abuse, and/or trust issues that she likely experienced in the system, and Loona still needs time to learn to open up to Blitzo.
- Blitzo's dynamics with Moxxie and Millie are... odd. He alternates between treating Moxxie like a very close friend and a nuisance, and while he does show a lot of trust in Millie, he also has a habit of demeaning her. Why? Considering the heavy implications that Blitzo really wants to be loved, it's very possible that this has something to do with their deeply loving relationship. While he's trying to insert himself into their relationship (as shown by him barging into their home), sometimes his jealousy at their luck in love gets the better of him.
- Why is Blitzo so hostile towards Stolas? Stolas is rich, hot, and compliments him all the time! Because to Blitzo, Stolas is a walking reminder of his failures. It's heavily implied that he became an assassin because he failed to establish himself as a performer, and he was only able to take up killing mortals for a living because he has access to Stolas' grimoire. That "fancy book" is what enables him to work as a hitman, and he only gets to use it in exchange for sexual favors like a "day hooker", which he resents being seen as. Not helping matters is the fact that Stolas, despite constantly hitting on him, never says anything positive about who he is as a person, only his genitalia and his ability to pleasure him. At least in Blitzo's eyes, Stolas only likes him for his body, and doesn't actually care about him. Whether correctly or not, Blitzo probably thinks Stolas only sees him as a sex toy, an object to use to pleasure himself and ignore when he's not using him for that purpose. And that's not the kind of relationship Blitzo wants. This was even shown in his Disney Acid Sequence in "Truth Seekers", in where his hallucination of Stolas has him drag Blitzo by the neck and arms with gold shackles.
- Hell's currency being called "Souls" makes a lot of sense. Their money can very well translate to owning people.
- Traditionally, a Deal with the Devil would strip humans of their soul either immediately or after death, so most powerful demons are also the richest because they've literally accumulated their wealth out of thousands of years of being in business.
- Souls can also translate as "worker force" for those Sinners on the Pride Ring who might own their power to the Goetia nobles.
- As Vivianne has revealed, the souls of Sinners become part of Hell's very structure and landscape after the exterminations, explaining why so many things seem to be alive, so it's not unlikely that all of the upper class' material goods are literally made of Sinner Souls.
- Quite a number of imps we've seen so far have stereotypical Southern accents; Millie, Wally Wackford, the imp in the mascot costume and the cheating game operator at Loo Loo Land. This makes sense when you clean up the idiom used for an activity or event that's beginning to go poorly, or when anything looks to be in trouble in the very near future. Dirty, the idiom is that it's going to Hell. Cleaned up, it's going South.
- It could also be due to the fact that the Imps, being the bottom of the barrel of the natural hellborn, are typically born from families living in the Wrath ring. While not all Imps would necessarily be from Wrath, considering it seems to be largely a farming heavy area whose crops seem to supply the majority of the food in Hell, there would definitely be a lot of imps born there. Large families with multiple children like the one Millie is from may well be the general rule in Wrath, and thus eventually a bunch would filter out into the other rings when they get older if they decide to leave. Hence there would be a sizeable population of imps who share the same accent from Wrath.
- Why does Blitzo have a personal Flintlock Pistol he likes to use? Apart from Rule of Cool it's also the perfect weapon for assassins since, due to the lack of rifling in the barrel of the gun because of its muzzle-loading nature. The bullet can't be traced back to a singular weapon. Though it also has the drawback of being Awesome, but Impractical due to it only being a single shot weapon and it's minute long reload process if you miss. Which actually shows his ineptitude at the job since he only carries one while other assassins would probably carry 3 or 4 to counter the long loading process and to remove its biggest drawback.
- Sinners, AKA people who died and went to Hell being ranked higher than many kinds of demon originally from Hell makes little sense at first and at the same time goes against practically every afterlife portrayed. The reason for that is because Word of God has mentioned and shown in the series proper that hellborn demons like imps and hellhounds can generally be killed by pretty much any normal method (except fire as shown by Episode 1), no holy enhancement necessary while sinners can only stay dead when killed by holy weapons. This gives them a massive advantage over the hellborn. The reason behind such an advantage existing is likely due to the sinners' bodies being mainly comprised of their souls since they died and left their bodies behind while the hellborn's bodies are still physical in nature.
- Why does I.M.P tend to constantly be in need of cash? On top of their fairly small company spending an outsized amount of money on weapons, Blitzo has really poor financial literacy. He makes several frivolous purchases with the money from I.M.P's jobs (such as an electric eel tank or an overly expensive horse figurine), constantly breaks and loses smartphones instead of using cheaper burner phones, buys TVs just to shoot at them for fun, and tends to make questionable decisions when it comes to advertising his company. It's a miracle that I.M.P is still afloat!
- In the pilot episode, Blitzo, while espousing his love for musical theater, makes the comment that they're "basically doing a musical". He hasn't been wrong. As the entire series, there's rarely been an episode where a character or characters haven't burst out into some sort of song. Helluva Boss is basically a musical in webseries form!
- Many of the imps, hellhounds, and succubi have odd names like Blitzo, Loona, Moxxie, Verosika, Vortex, and Fizzarolli. Then you remember that most Western names are derived from Hebrew, the language of the Israelites, the people of God and the angels. Many names directly reference Biblical heroes, saints, and angels, while others praise God directly! From a human standpoint, this would be like naming a kid Satan, Judas, or Apollyon, so no wonder Hell has to get creative with what they name their kids!
- Why is it spelled "Loona" and not "Luna"? Because Blitzo—who can't spell worth shit—was the one to fill out her adoption paperwork.
- Despite generally being normal people off-duty, I.M.P still has few reservations and even less guilt over assassinating people. While it could just be Comedic Sociopathy and a Villain Protagonist status (along with being demons), they live in the afterlife where humans can only be permanently wiped out with angelic weaponry. It's no wonder they're so blasé about their hitmen job-death's practically a slap on the wrist from their perspective if you're not a naturally-born demon.
- There are many, in-universe and out, who question how Blitzo was able to pull Verosika, even if their relationship didn't last. Simple: Blitzo projects a lot of outward confidence and a devil-may-care attitude. Those go a long way in initial attraction, even if his deep insecurities and self-sabotage ruined any chance at a healthy long-term relationship before it had even started.
- Verosika's bitterness over how her relationship with Blitzo fell apart takes on a new dimension when one remembers that she's a succubus. She was ready and willing to go against her nature by entering a committed, monogamous relationship. It's easy to imagine that, for a succubus (or incubus), doing something like that is a very big deal. Which means the fact that Blitzo threw it away must have cut her deep.
- One of Blitzo's choice phrases is "Christ on a stick", which doesn't really make sense for a demon. However, using Christ's name that way is a minor blasphemy, so it could fit.
- While Loona being a hellhound has been confirmed many times, there's no denying that she looks a lot like an anthropomorphic wolf, especially since episodes like "Queen Bee" or "Seeing Stars" have shown that most hellhounds resemble domestic dog breeds. If Loona was based on a wolfdog (a mix of wolf and domestic dog), then a lot of her behavioral issues make even more sense. Wolfdogs are notoriously difficult to raise, because their wolf traits make them skittish, aggressive and less likely to cooperate with humans. They make terrible pets period, but the only person that could feasibly raise one is someone with experience and proper training, and someone who will always accept that the wolfdog will never be a cuddly pet and will always stay a little wild. If this is true in Loona's case, then her being adopted and given back multiple times would sadly mirror the way a lot of wolfdog adoptions go in real life- people want one as a status symbol or don't know how difficult raising one is, and then promptly surrender them once raising one proves too difficult. A lot of wolfdogs also end up with terrible behavioral issues like aggression due to severe neglect and lack of proper training, which once again mirrors Loona's problems in the show.
- It's also entirely possible that Loona is by hellhound standards improperly socialized. Her worst side seems to come out when she's dealing with other hellhounds in groups where existing pack dynamics are more important or when she's pushed back against by people she feels are beneath her. Or in dog terms Loona was raised in an environment of hostility where her interactions with other hellhounds were univerally hostile, she was never properly inegrated into a pack structure with a clear hierarchy given Blitzo treats her like an Imp teenager rather then any different, and she struggles with feelings of isolation as well as an ingrained anxiety around other hellhounds. Being around Bee who is the pack leader of all pack leaders and Tex who gives her more positive attention is probably a massive boon for her overcoming this.
- Both Bee and Asmodeus are pretty alright people despite being the embodiment of two of the Seven Deadly Sins. This could be on purpose as they both show great skill in tempting others to commit their sin by showing their sins as fun and okay to indulge in. It’s easier to resist the temptation of something obviously evil but the greatest temptations lie in something that’s fun until you indulge a little too much and the problems start piling up….
- The show has become criticized for increasingly making Hell less... well, hellish, showing that two rulers of Hell are actually relatively decent people who run their Rings as relatively pleasant places to live and giving the Hellborn a lot of humanizing moments (like Fizz using ASL for a deaf fan). But it fits in with its sister show's idea that nothing is truly irredeemable. And sure, the Sinners and their living counterparts may be shown as much worse than the Hellborn, but if the latter can be shown to have good qualities, then surely the former can too.
- In the sister show it was established that the yearly extermination had rules, and that hell-borne demons were off-limits. It goes a long way towards explaining why the likes of the Immediate Murder Professionals and their associates are not concerned about such. They're comprised of imps, a hellhound, a goetian, and full-tier Sins, all of which are off the Exterminating Angels menu. So neither cast has any reason to interact (yet), despite existing in the same universe. It could also explain why we rarely see any of their sinner clients after the job, some of them must get caught up in the annual purge. Likewise, Charlie and her hotel have no reason to seek them out and help them, they wouldn't be suitable clients for her redemption mission.
Pilot
- The commercial for I.M.P has a demon who was surprised to end up in Hell. This makes a lot of sense, because the first step to becoming a better person is admitting your faults, so the worst kind of people, the ones you would find in Hell, have a Never My Fault attitude. Furthermore, people like this would feel entitled to revenge and be the perfect customers for I.M.P.
- As horrifying as the implication is that someone in hell would want a child murdered, if you really think about WHY Eddie was the I.M.P's target things start to make sense. First of all, they only take clients from those in hell, and secondly Eddie is shown to not only be a jerk, but openly analytical about those he's around, with the capacity to plot just to save his own skin. Traits wholly in line with a schoolyard bully. It's entirely possible Eddie got someone killed and covered his ass well enough to come off scot free...at least until I.M.P got hired.
- Of course Blitzo doesn’t know what insurance is. Denizens of hell are extremely resistant and can’t be killed by anything that isn’t an angel’s weapon. They likely have no need for something like medical insurance because almost any injury won’t be fatal and will heal on its own. As for other types of insurance, well, Hell is full of jerks, the insurance companies wouldn't ever want to pay anyone.
- Alternatively, maybe Blitzo is so baffled by the notion of health insurance because even Hell wouldn't stoop to the tight-fisted depravity of a healthcare system that just leaves you to die if you can't pay.
- According to Faustisse on a stream, Hell doesn't have healthcare due to Lucifer not giving a shit about his subjects. So, one could say that Hellborn citizens wouldn't know anything about how any healthcare system works at all.
- There however, are hospitals, rehab and prescription drugs that are revealed to be in the Ring of Sloth and controlled by Belphegor.
- Alternatively, maybe Blitzo is so baffled by the notion of health insurance because even Hell wouldn't stoop to the tight-fisted depravity of a healthcare system that just leaves you to die if you can't pay.
- Of course Millie would verbally retaliate against Loona and not Blitzo even though both insulted Moxxie. Because the latter is her boss and the former is her co-worker. She'll get in trouble for yelling at a co-worker but she could be fired for doing the same to her boss.
- Actually, she's probably not at much of a risk for being fired; Moxxie himself has yelled at Blitzo once or twice during work, after all.
- Alternatively, Millie retaliates against Loona because she has beef with her for hanging up when she called after getting stabbed.
- She likely was used to Blitzo's insults, and knows that he isn't actually being serious. As opposed to Loona, who likely does actually mean everything she says, and has not been there as long as Blitzo has.
- Blitzo's position over Moxxie's body, just after he woke up from a bad dream, can be a reference to the old belief that nightmares were caused by monsters or demons sitting on top of you, as seen in Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare◊.
Just Look My Way
- In the music video, Blitzø is represented by the Moon, while Stolas is associated with the ocean, initially walking on it before being submerged in it. This is actually very symbolic of their dynamic. The Moon controls the tides, but at the same time, it orbits around the Earth. Blitzø relies on Stolas and is drawn to the force of his power that he needs to accomplish his goals. However, Stolas is controlled by Blitzø's gravity as well, to the point of drowning in his emotions for the imp. They both profoundly affect one another.
- Even the string that ties Blitzø and Stolas together is deeply symbolic. The majority is Stolas's blue, which is representing how much he's put into the relationship so far, as well as the massive amounts of feelings he's going through dealing with possibly losing Bitzø once he gives him the crystal. He has so much length to it because he's being so much more open about his feelings as well. Meanwhile Blitzø's red is barely there because he doesn't, and possibly can't, put more into the relationship than he currently does. He has so much self-hatred that it's almost impossible for him to love anyone romantically, considering he doesn't even love himself. That and he's scared to put himself out there only to be hurt. He shows so few emotions and so his portion of string is immensely shorter. And then when it snaps it all goes back to red on his end as all his trauma and repressed emotions about it flood back and envelope him in the moon once more.
- There's some color symbolism to the music video. The constellation representing Stolas is blue, the one representing Blitzø is red, and most of the planetary objects are purple, a color created by mixing red and blue. However, in the version of a tender healthy relationship dynamic, Blitz is yellow. Red, blue, and yellow are primary colors, meaning there's no other blend of colors that can create them, meaning for their relationship to become healthy Blitzo has to change his "stars" or his old ways of being. The crystal in the beginning that will break their contract is orange, a mix of yellow and red showing Blitzo has the potential to be either healthy or toxic depending on his choices. There is also an absence of green which would be a mix of yellow and blue or a "healthy relationship" suggesting the outcome is not fixed or known yet.
- Pay attention to the size of the moon. At first the moon was small, that is, these "walls" were thin or insignificant (this can be recognized from the childhood of Blitzo and Stolas, Blitzo was full of enthusiasm and hope, but now it is slowly fading away). Previously, Blitzo was more open, but after many events in his life, his walls began to increase (he was used by his father for profit, his best friend Fizzaroli suffered because of him, etc.), and eventually became huge and impenetrable (he does not share many things, not even with his own daughter, and he's afraid to trust Stolas on purpose). Even Stolas, with his tall stature, cannot compare with them. This literally shows that Blitzo can't trust anyone. And Stolas sees this and tries to break through them, but until they talk, the walls will not be possible to get through. It is precisely because this "barrier" cannot be destroyed that Stolas will give Blitzo the opportunity not to depend on him because of some kind of grimoire. The Moon's increasing size may also indicate that Blitzo is becoming a significant figure to Stolas. That he wants to be with Blitzo not only physically (by type of sexual attraction), but also emotionally. In other words: Stolas fell in love with Blitzo seriously, not in childhood, when it was just sympathy, but real love, which is difficult to get rid of.
- The symbolism of Blitzo as the Moon is very reflective of his and Stolas' relationship. Not only is it a callback to the fact that they mostly see each other once a month on a full moon to do “the deed”, but it it's also just a great metaphor for Blitzo as a character. Humanity has been fascinated by the Moon for a long time and tried to reach it for centuries and it was only in 1969 (relatively recently) that they managed to do it. The moon had always been this gorgeous, desirable, yet unreachable thing and that's exactly what Blitzo's love is from Stolas’ perspective.
- Stolas' love for Blitzo is represented by the moon. First small and bright, something he can hold close and dear. Then larger, something harder to hold but something still fully within his grasp. Then at the end, impossibly large while also just out of reach.
- The moon also mirrors the power dynamics between Stolas and Blitzø, at the start with Stolas holding all the power, then Stolas putting himself at Blitzø’s level when he finally tries to look deeper and see what Blitzø needs and his walls. Then the moon grows larger than Stolas as he intends to give Blitzø the crystal so he doesn’t have to depend on him anymore. And now the power in the relationship shifted towards Blitzø. Whether the relationship continues is now up to him.
- The symbolism that Blitzø is the moon of Stolas's universe has yet another layer. Stolas sees a full, bright moon, he sees the situation to what it actually is: Blitzo hurting because of how Stolas has treated him. Yet Blitzo is shrouded by the dark side of the moon, he is in the new moon stage - nothing is clear, everything is dark, Blitzo has no idea just how much Stolas loves him.
- Blitzø's love situation also fits the Moon arcana tarot, be it in upright or reversed love readings:
- Upright shows "complicated romance and uncertainty about love or relationship". The whole relationship is being set back by the emotional baggage of both parties, with Blitzø's lack of self-worth and Stolas' own passivity at the situation.
- Reversed shows "deception, fear and paranoia regarding love". Blitzø's thinks that the whole relationship from his end is that of a pet rather than an equal. Stolas is shown to be let fear of rejection by others get the better of him and preventing him from setting things right.
- When Stolas plunges into the ocean, his tears are mixed with the water. This can be taken as a reference to a mermaid's tears being lost to the sea, and therefore undistinguishable from any other water. The biggest barrier between any positive interactions with Blitzø is his inability to get his feelings about him out properly, showing him drowned out by his own emotions.
Season One
Murder Family
- Why are there firefighters in Hell despite Lucifer not caring enough about his subjects for insurance to be a thing? Because if buildings get destroyed by fire, the higher-ranking demons like Stolas might complain, and Lucifer's own properties and belongings might get damaged or even destroyed.
- Bonus: both firefighters are Imps. Who better to have as firefighters than creatures that are naturally fireproof? The firesuits are probably for if they encounter hellfire, which as later established is able to hurt them.
- Blitzo himself appears completely unconcerned by the fire caused by his electric eels, more about the eels themselves, and most everyone else appears only mildly surprised at best. Which makes sense considering who everyone is. Ms Mayberry is already dead and cannot be destroyed except in extreme circumstances, and the Imps are all fireproof, as shown in the episode proper. The only one who appears more than mildly concerned is Loona, whose vulnerability or lack thereof to fire as a Hellhound is not yet known.
- Afterwards, Blitzo is surprisingly angry at Moxxie for causing the fire. Aside from his stated reasons to Moxxie, his inquiry whether the grimoire "is still intact" heavily implies that the book itself isn't (proven to be) fireproof. If it was burned to ash, not only will I.M.P lose the only thing that makes their whole business even work, it will piss off Stolas. In light of this, can you blame him for being pissed?
- Blitzo threatening to fuck Moxxie and his wife makes sense as he doesn't want to actually hurt them and mostly likely views fucking as a power move.
- The episode "Loo Loo Land" implies that Blitzo fantasizes about having a threeway with Moxxie and Millie, so the threat adds another layer: either Moxxie gets better at his job, or Blitzo gets an excuse to live out his fantasy. A win-win for Blitzo.
- When you look at the family's situation, the moment I.M.P barged in on them, getting blown up by the police chopper is best way to deal with them.
- If Moxxie left them alone, the remaining family members would have continued their Satanic cannibal ways, just with Martha out of the picture. Sooner or later, one of their victims will end up asking I.M.P for a hit job on them, making it a "Shaggy Dog" Story.
- If the police actually followed protocol and tried to arrest them, the family could have possibly resisted and resulted in a shootout that would kill not just the family but other policemen as well, taking even more lives.
- If they did get arrested with no resistance, there is no future for convicted satanic cannibal murderers, not with all the evidence in their home. The father will be given the death penalty while the children are sentenced to life imprisonment. However, it is possible that the children, being minors and clearly influenced by their parents, would have been sent to a psychiatric hospital or other similar institution. After years of psychological treatment, their rehabilitation would have been possible, as Moxxie said, the children were the only ones who had a future. Given what the setting is suggested to be like, however, the latter is very unlikely.
- Alternatively, it's entirely possible that the police already had an astounding amount of evidence which pointed towards the family being cannibals, and Moxxie's tipoff was just the excuse they needed in order to execute them within legal manners. Perhaps the guy who last had sex with the wife reported the entire family to the police.
- Moxxie having a surprising amount of morals for a literal devil makes a bit of sense when you consider that imps are born in Hell rather than being sent there as an afterlife punishment, so they might have the potential to turn out good despite the literal hellhole they're raised in. This is later proven with "Exes and Oohs", where being raised by his good mother prevented him from attaining a more ruthless nature as an ex-mafiaso.
- There are hints that Mrs. Mayberry isn't as nice as she appears, even in her first very idyllic scene. One of the kids is constantly sitting in the corner wearing a dunce cap, hinting at her Hair-Trigger Temper. And then she gets reminded about her husband's birthday...
- When Mrs. Mayberry confronts her husband and his mistress in the video with a chainsaw and gunshots, the kid with a dunce cap flinches and shivers in terror while the other kids just watch in stunned silence, which implies that the dunce kid has experienced her Hair-Trigger Temper before, while the other kids haven't.
- Considering the fact that the kid even knows her husband's birthday it's possible that he's closer to Mrs. Mayberry than the other students. If he and probably also his parents got invited to the previous birthday, then this would make sense.
- There's also the fact that Mrs. Mayberry managed to throw a kid into a roof which at first, just seems like Rule of Funny considering the type of world this is, but it's likely meant to serve as a true indicator of her strength.
- When Mrs. Mayberry confronts her husband and his mistress in the video with a chainsaw and gunshots, the kid with a dunce cap flinches and shivers in terror while the other kids just watch in stunned silence, which implies that the dunce kid has experienced her Hair-Trigger Temper before, while the other kids haven't.
- Martha has bright blonde hair yet brown eyes. While this allows her eyes to appear red when her true character is revealed, when you take into account her her husband and children are all brunets and she's a serial adulteress, in-universe she probably dyed her hair blonde.
- Even if it isn't dyed, there's a decently high chance of her kids being born with brown hair anyway. Genetics wise, blonde hair tends to be a recessive trait. So unless her husband had a recessive blonde trait tucked away in his genetics, it's much more likely for their children to come out brunet like him.
- The reveal the family is a bunch of serial-killer cannibals may explain why Ralphie appears unconcerned by the fact Martha was shot in the middle of cheating on him with another man - such families luring their victims with a sexually attractive member in one way or another is a common trope. It may be people she was sleeping with she would eventually lure to her house as a next kill.
- Unsettling implications for the fate of the red-headed man she's seen with in the "You're a hero" montage. The photos in the background make it clear they're at her place.
- Ralphie being aware of Martha's affairs also explains how she survived Mrs. Mayberry's assault: he was likely nearby monitoring Martha and her next, went to investigate when he didn't see anyone leave the house after Mayberry returned, and anonymously called emergency services after finding his wife seriously injured.
- There are a number of factors that may have contributed to Mrs. Mayberry being sent to hell. The first is (obviously) not just the murder of her husband and attempted murder of his mistress, but the lack of remorse for it (given that she decided to put a hit on the mistress instead of being relieved that she could return to her own family). Furthermore, Mayberry regrets accidentally traumatizing her students by making them watch the murder, but ends up scarring them further by not stopping the video call prior to taking her own life.
- Mrs. Mayberry's dunce cap-wearing student is the one who reminds her that it is her husband's birthday. Given that he clearly isn't the best of her students and the birthday of one's spouse isn't the kind of information a teacher would just give their students willy-nilly, it's likely that the dumb student had to repeat Mrs. Mayberry's class at least once and found out it was Mr. Mayberry's birthday the previous year.
- Adding to this, he is voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz, who is famous for voicing idiot characters.
- It's not uncommon for "troublemaker" children to act very informally around authority figures such as teachers. Some may go as far as calling their teachers by first name or prying into their personal lives and talking about them like they aren't in a position of power. Which might also explain why the boy would have no issue blurring out information like the date of her husband's birthday in the middle of class.
- Why does Millie try to reassure Moxxie at the end that "killing people is okay if they try to kill you right back," rather than bring up them being cannibalistic serial killers? Because Millie (and Blitzo) never found out about that: they scattered after the family got out their guns and only learned they were Satanists when Martha and Ralphie tried to burn them alive. Moxxie was the one who saw their human skins, trophies, decor, and dinner before breaking free to rescue Blitzo and Millie.
- Why did Mrs. Mayberry specifically reference Hitler and Epstein in her rant? Because, like them, she committed suicide.
- The most likely reason as to why Mrs. Mayberry's demon form is purple is to reflect her death in life. Since she committed suicide, her skin being turned purple might be a slight reflection upon that fact.
Loo Loo Land
- Stolas taking Via to a dying solar system is more than mere atmosphere: he was showing her that stars and planets die while telling her that even he would be gone one day, but reassuring she would okay.
- Adding to that, even if he's no longer physically so, he will still be with her; stars when they die create new materials that can still be useful to the universe, just like how the essence of demons becomes one with the land of Hell when they truly die.
- Stolas' first line in the song he sings Octavia is "It always seems more quiet in the dark..." Indeed, when little Octavia goes to sleep, it's the middle of a quiet night. The Jump Cut to her teenage years takes place with sunlight streaming through her windows, and a cacophonous argument going on many rooms over. Intentional or not, it's a nice parallel.
- Loo Loo Land burning down can be read as Via's childhood being destroyed by, tellingly enough, Blitzo's intruding in her family's life.
- Loo Loo Land can also be a parallel to Stolas' marriage. The picture in the kitchen implies that the park has seen better days, or at least tried harder to keep up a facade for the public, but now it's breaking down due to lack of maintenance, just like his marriage with Stella living on due to appearances. Blitzo entering the scene just accelerated the process of its imminent falling down.
- Back in "Murder Family", Stolas refers the living world as the "mortal realm" rather than "mortal world" or "Earth". It is because his grimoire allows him to access the depths of space and other worlds with the right magic and spell.
- Mammon is the Demon Prince of Greed—Lucifer is the Demon Prince of Pride. Not only does this explain why Mammon would create such an obvious tourist-trap of a theme park in the first place, it also explains part of why Lucifer hasn't shut it down despite it ripping off one of his own properties. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all.
- Adding to that, the fact that Lucifer has an entire theme park named after himself also feeds into the whole Pride aspect.
- Also, with how dilapidated and crummy Loo Loo Land's condition is, keeping it open would just make Lucifer's theme park look even better by comparison.
- Stolas hiring Blitzo as his bodyguard for his day out with Octavia works for several reasons. There's the obvious fact that Stolas lusts after Blitzo and wants him close, but there's also the fact that I.M.P, for all of their strange quirks, are still very good shots and more than capable of taking care of any threat. And while Stolas can easily take care of himself, as seen near the end of the episode, he would rather focus all of his attention on making his daughter happy rather than constantly fend off attackers.
- It makes sense for Loo Loo Land to be so inferior to Lu Lu World beyond the fact that plagiarism often results in a worse product. Mammon is the lord of greed, so to get as much bang for his buck as possible, he cuts corners and has his employees rip off visitors to maximize his profits. Lucifer, on the other hand, is the lord of pride, which means he's less interested in making money and more interested in boosting his ego. Having the best and most successful amusement park in Hell would definitely be a major ego booster.
- It might also explain why Loo Loo Land is primarily staffed with imps. Since imps are the lowest class of demons in Hell, the price for their labor would be significantly cheaper than any other option.
- The Pride ring has most of Hell's population, since all the sinners are trapped there. It makes sense for that ring to have the best theme park, since the most customers are there by default.
- Stolas arrives at the park already wearing thematic clothing. He probably bought the outfit back when he took the then-five-years-old Octavia there. This reinforces the idea that he's stuck in the past, trying to recapture the magic that's no longer there.
- Fizz rips off part of Charlie's song "Inside of Every Demon" during his performance. Since Loo Loo Land is an obvious ripoff of Lucifer's Lu Lu World, it makes sense the park would rip off his daughter's songs as well.
- Of course Stella's priorities over Stolas' affairs are more on the "who you sleep with" than the "you cheated on me"; after all this is Hell, the place where all vices are indulged left and right (In Hazbin, Travis got Angel's services and he even send his regards to his missus). But let's remember this is Hell: a place where not even being the very daughter of the head honcho could earn Charlie some semblance of respect. In this world, you can only get ahead and/or retain your place in society by power, fear and money. Stolas' power and wealth can keep Sinners and Overlords looking at him in high regard, but other demon royals share (and probably some surpass) him in all categories; if the scandal is made public, he will lose the fear factor thanks to becoming a joke among nobles, and they will start to look down upon him and probably make his, Stella's, and even Octavia's life more difficult.
- She became completely livid when Stolas said he thought on getting to a motel for his initial affair with Blitzo; not only is it beneath him as a nobleman, but what if he was seen by, say, paparazzi?
- Another reason Stella would be angry at Stolas cheating on her, despite demons not conforming to Christian morality re: marital fidelity? Stolas is an owl, one of the few animal species that are naturally monogamous. While Stella is likely a peacock demon since her brother Andrealphus is one, she probably expected Stolas to stay faithful because of this.
- Of course little Octavia loved Loo Loo Land—if the portrait in the kitchen area is any indication, then Stolas and Stella at least made it look like they were happy when they went as a family. Even if it was just to keep up appearances for the public, Octavia would have learned early on that a trip to Loo Loo Land meant at least one day where her mom and dad weren't fighting.
- If you take a close look at the portrait in the kitchen, you can see Stolas happily looking over a cheerful Octavia. But Stella has her arms crossed, rolling her eyes and can barely manage a genuine looking smile. This gives credence to her's and Stolas' marriage being rocky since the beginning and/or how much she hates going to a low quality, spin-off theme park surrounded by "plebeians".
- Given how blue-blooded the Goetia family is and what a shameless rip-off Loo Loo Land is of Lucifer's far more popular Lu Lu World, why was young Octavia's favorite theme park the cheaper, shoddier knock-off? Because she takes after her father in another big way: Stolas' interest lies with imps (or at least Blitzo) even though they're of far lower status and being involved with one would be a scandal. Likewise, young Octavia genuinely loved Loo Loo Land even though it was a cheaper, shoddier knock-off of a more respectable theme park. While Stella is implied to be concerned with status, Stolas and Octavia love what they love authentically and without reservation.
- Octavia is shown eating cereals without milk, just putting the (presumably corn) flakes directly from the box into her hand and pecking them. It makes sense: they are owl and thus bird demons, so she is eating like a bird would.
- Looking at the Loo Loo target when Millie "wins" the game, it's designed to tip forward when it falls—if it's shot in the front, where the target is, it should fall backwards. Even without the mechanism in place to keep it still, the way the hinge is set up makes it LITERALLY impossible to win the game if you play as intended. Sneaky Mammon!
- Why does it take Moxxie so long to realize he’s being had with the carnival game? By his own admission earlier in the episode, he had never been in Loo Loo Land before, as theme parks have always disturbed him. He likely never became familiar with the Open Secret that many fair/carnival/amusement park games like it are often rigged to be impossibly hard to win, even if it looks incredibly simple to do so at first.
- Millie misses the game target at almost point-blank range, but manages to pull off a headshot on an imp attempting to harm Stolas a short time later, at a much farther distance. She may have not cared that much about the game, seeing as it was part of her “fun” time with Moxxie at the amusement park, but I.M.P was at Loo Loo Land to protect Stolas & Octavia first and foremost, and as established in Murder Family, she takes client requests seriously, no matter what she might be feeling on a job. When Blitzo told her and Moxxie to make sure Stolas was okay, it was time to get back to work.
- Also, after likely watching Moxxie hit the same target over and over for a long time, she logically must have thought the only remaining option was to miss it completely. And she was right!
- The I.M.P crew is clearly injured and burned up after the arson at the park, despite the last episode showing they're fire resistant. But Blitzo said "Your fire", ergo Earth fire. Hellfire on the other hand is even a different color so it's likely that this sort of fire can actually hurt imps.
- Stolas' last name is revealed in this episode to be Goetia, which makes it clear that his Grimoire is literally just a copy of the Ars Goetia, the book of Demon summoning.
- The final Loo Loo Land ride seen being ridden is an endless circular loop, symbolising Stolas and Octavia's problems and how it is still ongoing due their insistence on just bearing with it as their response. It is only when they come to terms and actually talk about their problems with each other that they finally find a way out for both of them. Cue leaving the ride.
- Why exactly would the Goetia family take their daughter to a theme park at all, let alone the clearly inferior Loo Loo Land rather than Lu Lu World? Well, it's highly likely that the Goetia family is either closely tied with Mammon and/or live in the second circle (which is Mammon's). Octavia can be seen eating a Mammon product for breakfast for example. All this taken into account, the family is likely at least partly subservient to that demon lord. Thus, having their daughter show up there would be a good publicity stunt and show of support. This might also explain why they suddenly stopped for years going there (to the point where Stolas outright misses his daughter growing out of such things) once they went often enough to stroke Mammon's ego and get all the free advertisement out of it he wanted, they really had no reason to go back to that unsafe pit of plebeian rabble.
- A meta example: Robo Fizz is or appears to be a Shout-Out to numerous characters from other franchises. Obviously he's a reference to Beetlejuice, but within less than 48 hours of the episode being posted, viewers started comparing him to Spinel, Sonic The Hedgehog (based on his rolling spin-dash attack which Amethyst and Jasper also have), Pennywise, Jevil, Dimentio, and the animatronics at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The animatronic band that accompanies him is reminiscent of the Country Bear Jamboree. Even in-universe, the theme park he works at is a ripoff of the more popular, more expensive Lu Lu World, and Robo Fizz's song has lyrics stolen from Charlie's product pitch for the Happy Hotel. He's ripping off characters both in- and out-of-universe!
- Dogs have a very acute sense of hearing, roughly four times stronger than that of a human. This is why Loona screamed at everyone in the office to shut up. The noise from Blitzo's megaphone, reverberating through their tiny office, was probably unbearable for her.
- Alternatively, it may have been because she was hungover.
- Early in his Parental Love Song, Stolas mentions to young Octavia that he "thought love would be fun." Awful Wedded Life with Stella aside, this helps explain why he's always so clingy, flirty, and horny with Blitzo. It's probably the first time in ages, if ever, when he was in a relationship that actually made him feel happy, and where he could be fun and flirty.
- Robo-Fizz has jerky, mechanical movements and sparks constantly flying from his seams in Octavia's flashback. In the present, however, he sparks less and has more fluid motions while the other circus animatronics are in even worse shape than before. Since Fizz is the star of the show, it makes sense that Mammon would shell out the money to upgrade him but not the supporting band.
Spring Broken
- Blitzo is annoyed that Verosika is still bitter about him maxing her credit cards and running to the Wrath ring with her car, even openly telling her "Goddammit, whore you will NOT let that go!" . Well, why should she just "let it go"? Blitzo didn't do anything to make it up to her, he didn't even apologize and he certainly didn't pay her back! Verosika's grievance is legitimate.
- If you think about it, everyone, including Blitzo himself, has good reason to laugh at Blitzø's threat to call HR on Verosika.
- 1. It's Hell, and everyone is allowed to be as cruel and vicious as possible.
- 2. HR is human resources, and everyone present is some kind of hellspawn.
- 3. Even if HR departments did exist in Hell, they're just that: departments within a company. Verosika and crew, being un-affiliated with IMP, would be outside of HR's jurisdiction.
- 4. HR is generally pretty useless in most cases.
- Why does Hell want to hide its existence from living humans? If people don't believe that Hell exists, more people will sin, and thus more people will be damned after death.
- And from the looks of it, it works too well, which is another good explanation for the overpopulation crisis.
- Why didn't Loona ask about their human disguises when I.M.P left for the job in "Murder Family"? Firstly, it is supposed to be a covert assassination in a remote cabin, meaning that they would've stayed hidden from start to finish unlike the crowded beach in here. Secondly, all the humans who saw them are either their target (Martha) or are killed by the collateral (Martha's family).
- Verosika's vanity license plate, "SUCK 4 LIFE". Succubi and incubi are demons mythologically known for draining life force from humans via having sex with them. They literally "suck" life force from people to live themselves.
- While heavily intoxicated, Moxxie resorts to punching the fish monster's uvula when he gets eaten. At first this seems to be just an indicator of him being drunk, but it is implied that Moxxie has sobered enough to attempt triggering its gag reflex to puke him out.
- So why did Vortex instantly recognize Loona in her human disguise when a random incubus didn't seem to? Simple: like Loona, Vortex has a superior sense of smell!
- Also Vortex is the only member of the entourage to have met Loona.
- Why are I.M.P able to get so many clients for a 50% off Spring Break special? From what we see of Spring Breakers, most of them are pretty rotten people in general, who think nothing of stuffing innocent animals into beer kegs, or getting so blackout drunk that they'd wreck stuff or sleep with random strangers. Blitzo even points out that Spring Break is a prime time for crime of all kinds. It's likely a number of denizens of Hell would want to get back at these Spring Breakers for past discrepancies, whether past Spring Break shenanigans, wild parties, or something else.
- One can also suppose the people who were intrigued by the flyer were pleased by the promise of a bargain as much as by the potential for self satisfaction. People in Hell, one might assume, would typically be selfish and wouldn't want to make a deal unless it benefitted them the most. And one can assume I.M.P would charge a decent amount for the service of going to the surface to kill someone. That price might make it unappealing to anyone who does have a grudge but doesn't want to pay good money for it. But given the chance to have someone killed for what can be seen as a bargain, regardless for what the actual cost is, those people would be more inclined to take it.
- While the deal helps them with the numbers needed for their Demon Duel against Verosika, it also benefits I.M.P financially. They're making less money per head, but they're also killing a multitude of people all at once in the same location (and every victim won't put up a fight). Rather than presumably the price of one or two people per client in different areas which they would have to study for maximum killing efficiency, they're killing a large number of people in the same place over the span of one day, making the money made per kill more efficient.
- We see multiple Imps also interested in the poster despite them being born in Hell and having no reason to have a grudge against Humans. Unless they had friends who were Sinners and were paying to get their grudges killed, either as a gift or because what they had heard about the living person pissed them off.
- One can also suppose the people who were intrigued by the flyer were pleased by the promise of a bargain as much as by the potential for self satisfaction. People in Hell, one might assume, would typically be selfish and wouldn't want to make a deal unless it benefitted them the most. And one can assume I.M.P would charge a decent amount for the service of going to the surface to kill someone. That price might make it unappealing to anyone who does have a grudge but doesn't want to pay good money for it. But given the chance to have someone killed for what can be seen as a bargain, regardless for what the actual cost is, those people would be more inclined to take it.
- Early in the episode it's revealed Verosika (and Blitzo's sister) were in rehab. With the knowledge that rehab exists in hell, it makes sense why everyone laughed at Charlie's plan to rehabilitate sinners to get into Heaven in Hazbin Hotel. People in hell HAVE tried to rehabilitate themselves but, obviously didn't make it to Heaven so there's no reason to think why the Happy Hotel would be different.
- There is also the fact that rehab clinics are only for hellborn and not for dead sinners; Hell has been shown to be ultra-capitalistic and based on deal-making. The rehab clinics are there to make the demon useful for whoever owns them and to turn said demon into a Functional Addict, not to make them completely clean and sin free. Basically, Verosika was there because she is so addicted to alcohol she couldn't perform on stage and whoever is in charge let her out on probation to do a job for them. Which makes her words technically true: Verosika only got the probation deal because she is a bigger star than Blitzo's sister and thus more valuable to whoever holds her contract. That leads to another bit of fridge brilliance: the reason Verosika accepted Millie's blackmail about the hell-booze is because she didn't want to be sent back to rehab and that's literally the best case scenario for her: if she causes enough problems for Hell's higher ups, they might conclude that she is more trouble than she is worth and cannot be rehabilitated enough to be useful. As a consequence, they could decide to cut their losses and kill her, even making it look like an accident for that sweet insurance and fan money on merchandise that would roll in after her "tragic" death.
- Drunk Moxxie actually makes a good point when he tells Verosika; "A human called me a possum.... I am NOT a possum!". All the humans are so drunk or high that they are unable to make sense of what the Imps really are, mistaking them as a leprechaun and a possum, so they technically upheld the Masquerade much better than Verosika did. She performs a loud, obvious concert after quickly taking over a public venue (her banner on the stage is a crude tarp instead of something more professional), instigates a very public orgy that caught the attention of the police, and causes some giant and Hellish sea monster to nearly rampage through a coastal town. I.M.P.'s kills can be easily passed off as Spring Break crimes and any witnesses are "obviously" hallucinating, but that sea monster can't be explained away.
- Verosika's drink turning the sea creature into a monster is likely a subtle pun on how alcohol can turn people into monsters.
C.H.E.R.U.B
- The jingles for I.M.P and C.H.E.R.U.B sound remarkably similar, to the point it almost sounds as if one was based on the other. This is the case out-of-universe, but it's highly unlikely anyone in Heaven would want to rip off a struggling small-time Hell business like I.M.P. However, we know Blitzo; is behind the I.M.P jingle—we also know he used to work for a crappy knockoff of a far more successful and well-known business. The work environment must have rubbed off on him a little bit.
- Wally's so desperate in his TV spot because I.M.P burned down his last job, and ripping people off isn't the most lucrative business scheme outside of a carnival setting.
- The tour guide mentioning how famous people about to murdered by three tacky stalkers happens all the time could really be commonplace in such a Crapsack World... or it could instead be incredibly common for I.M.P to get hired to kill famous people and they keep picking disguises that make it blatantly obvious how they're assassins.
- In "Spring Broken", Loona called out the confused imps for not using human disguises while on Earth. So, in this episode, they begin using various costumes to blend in. Unless the book Blitzo borrows from Stolas has a spell to give them the same transformation ability as Loona, this can confirm that the imps of the company (or imps in general) cannot afford or perform such a spell due to their status.
- Loopty didn’t have enough time to build the many contraptions coming out of his body, seeing how he mentions he just died and went to Hell. It’s likely his body in Hell was constructed like that due to his personality and talents when he was human. It’s possible this is one other hint to how Alastor attained his power and went on a rampage through Hell the moment he fell there.
- While not damned (yet), the C.H.E.R.U.B trio loses access to Heaven after killing their target, Lyle Lipton, by accident in a fight against I.M.P. There are several possible reasons for that:
- "Thou Shalt Not Kill/Commit Murder" is one of the Ten Commandments. C.H.E.R.U.B is tasked with saving and protecting lives. Even if it was an accident, they still broke this.
- Wrath is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and the trio hits their Rage Breaking Point after I.M.P interferes one too many times. In a climactic shootout at the theater, an angry Cletus' stray arrow shoots down the stage's scaffolding, which catapults a piano that kills Lyle. They might have been forgiven if I.M.P killed Lyle under their watch while doing their job, but since Cletus did so when his group lost their temper, Lyle's blood was on the cherubs' hands.
- The fight that ultimately killed Lyle was started by C.H.E.R.U.B and had several bystanders perish in the crossfire between the cherubs and imps. If C.H.E.R.U.B had refused to engage with I.M.P. on their level, they would have minimized loss of life while attempting to carry out their duty and Heaven likely wouldn't have minded as much about Lyle dying under their watch. Due to their anger starting the fight in the first place, and Cletus' arrow causing the chain of events that directly lead to Lyle's death, C.H.E.R.U.B is responsible for all the carnage that took place.
- Like Hell, Heaven too must have some rules about their denizens meddling in the lives of humans. They likely broke a lot of those rules.
- Many forms of Christianity teach that angels have a higher intelligence than humans, not bound by the weakness of flesh. As seen several times throughout the episode, C.H.E.R.U.B does not demonstrate this form of higher intelligence, and their lack of it may have caused the other angels to take advantage of I.M.P trying to kill Lyle as a means to get rid of the trio:
- The commercial was a bad idea from the get-go, as commercials are meant to advertise services and goods while making the advertiser look good. C.H.E.R.U.B should have realized commercial-making is a prideful act and that their service technically offers indulgences into Heaven. Furthermore, the montage of people dying at the commercial's beginning goes against C.H.E.R.U.B's mission; if they really were model guardian angels, C.H.E.R.U.B would have saved them as well instead of using the idea of saving human lives as a selling point.
- The members of C.H.E.R.U.B easily lose arguments against Blitzo and the gang. Had they used their higher intelligence, they would have realized that getting in a fight with I.M.P would have caused some collateral damage.
- Blitzo being nervous about telling Loopty they failed the job makes more sense when you realize he had already spent the money Loopty gave the company, and thus couldn't refund him for the botched job.
- Loopty also threatened to kill Blitzo if they failed, as we can see from Blitzo's text messages near the end.
- Why did Loopty claim that he wanted revenge on Lyle despite actually wanting to see him again? Simple: I.M.P is a business for revenge. Blitzo probably wouldn't have tried to do the job or cared about it had he known Loopty's real motive. So Loopty lied to them and paid them, not revealing the truth until after the job was complete.
- With this in mind, there's a moment in Loopty's introduction that makes a lot more sense on a rewatch: when Blitzo asks Loopty why he wants Lyle dead, he pauses, like he's been put on the spot.
- Also note the Exact Words, he never says he wanted to hurt Lyle. When Blitzo warns him that Lyle may end up in Hell and be with Loopty forever, Loopty just says "I'm counting on it...", then showed off the weapons he had. He never actually says he'll hurt Lyle.
- Loopty's reasoning for why he wants revenge is very flimsy at best. This because he doesn't actually want revenge on Lyle and just came up with what he could think of so that I.M.P would take the job.
- Why didn't C.H.E.R.U.B think that their meddling in the lives of humans makes them hypocrites? Ever heard of the term Guardian Angel?
- Also consider, since C.H.E.R.U.B are meant to be an opposite version of I.M.P, whose business is very under the table at best, outright illegal at worst, their business may be sanctioned by Heaven and thus perfectly legal by their authority's laws. Thus they feel perfectly entitled to do their work because it's Heaven approved.
- The opera still being heard during the fight between I.M.P and C.H.E.R.U.B despite the singer being accidentally murdered by Blitzo earlier isn't just an audio gag. It is a play on the phrase "It ain't over till the fat lady sings", a saying which means don't assume the outcome until the process is actually over. In this case, "It ain't over until the old man is dead/saved."
- It's a common joke regarding operas that a main character never dies instantly, with them always getting one last aria before truly biting it.
- Blitzo considers cherubs to be "Heaven's table scraps", implying that they are possibly low ranked in the Angelic hierarchy, which puts them on the same level as imps in Hell. Judaism ranks Cherubim as second last on the list to Ishim (mortal) angels. C.H.E.R.U.B is tasked with helping and protecting people, and cherubs in biblical text help mortal people with dealing with their sin in hopes of being closer to God. Ironically, Christianity ranks Cherubim second highest to Seraphim angels, making them one of the top ranks and closest to God than others, and are tasked with worshipping Him. If the Jewish version is any indication, it would explain why Deerie casually decides to kick Cletus, Colin, and Keenie out of Heaven, implying that cherubs can be treated the same as imps, if not a little bit better.
- Of course Deerie would treat C.H.E.R.U.B. like this. Imps, who are already at the bottom of Hell’s social ladder, don’t care about knocking each other down a peg because there’s nowhere lower for them to sink and everyone in Hell is already a Jerkass anyway. Heaven, on the other hand, has been implied to be a repressive Crapsaccharine World with strict rules. Cherubs are their own society’s “table scraps” but they are able to fall from grace at any moment, even inadvertently. Naturally in this environment they would be passive aggressively nasty to each other. Higher tier angels likely stomp all over them in the same way, so to see their peers fail is probably one of the few forms of entertainment they get to have!
- Why are so many angels lambs? In real life, sheep and lambs are very prominent in Christianity. Also, remember what happened to the lambs when the 10th plague arrived in Ancient Egypt. Saving all those Hebrew children must have earned them a place in Heaven.
- On that note, and pointed out by the HB wiki, the C.H.E.R.U.B trio all have names from a country known for shepherds and sheep—"Cletus" is Greek in origin, while both "Keenie" and "Collin" are Irish names.
- When Wally crashes into the I.M.P headquarters, he pronounces the O in Blitzo's name. It seems odd since only Blitzo's enemies have been shown doing this, and Wally doesn't seem to harbour any ill-will towards Blitzo in particular. But maybe Wally wasn't trying to be cruel after all — in his first appearance, he worked for or in Loo Loo Land, and we know Blitzo has a history with the place. Chances are Wally knew Blitzo back when they worked together and the O wasn't silent. He just didn't get the memo.
- Collin seems to generally be the only one in group with actual pure intentions, but is still treated poorly by I.M.P and even his own group. Could Collin actually be the Black Sheep (or White Sheep since they're Fallen Angels now)?
- Why C.H.E.R.U.B doesn't accept money from clients?
- Accepting money would bring to mind the possibility that you are Only in It for the Money, leaving a bad impression.
- Heaven doesn't need any form of currency to contrast Hell which has its own currency (see Moxxie when he was trying to win Millie a prize in Loo Loo Land) and/or mortal money is no good there anyway.
- Given how ridiculously stringent Heaven is regarding their entry conditions, the silver lining to all this is that the people who do make it there must have been absolute saints. Asking them to pay for the services of C.H.E.R.U.B would make Heaven as a whole hypocritical regarding the phrase "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God". That and not having to pay for their services is part their hard earned reward.
- I.M.P not killing Lyle directly may seem unusual considering their line of work. But remember, this was an unusual job. Before, I.M.P was just killing with no stipulation on where the soul went. This job specifically requires Lyle to end up in Hell, and suicide is considered by some as a one way ticket. I.M.P trying to convince Lyle to commit suicide is not them being lazy with the job, it's the only way to guarantee Lyle ends up in Hell.
- This may also be why I.M.P thought they failed initially. Just before his death, Lipton declared his newfound desire to live. Depending on how much they heard over the brawl, I.M.P may have thought his declaration meant he had fully repented, thus his death would send him to Heaven instead. Thankfully for them he is an unrepentant Rich Bastard and thus had an automatic ticket to Hell to begin with.
- Loopty's story also made them openly doubt that Lyle had done anything strictly evil, so while they had a bad opinion of him, they needed him to sin before they killed him or it might've been a toss-up on if he ended up in Hell.
- Given their dismay at the realization that agents of Heaven just descended to earth, another reason for I.M.P not attempting to just straight up kill Lipton when C.H.E.R.U.B shows up, is that they know they are inherently outmatched by holy beings (even if they are just "Heaven’s table scraps"), and that the cherubs would likely rush to defend Lyle against the imps. When the cherubs finally lose their temper and instigate the shootout at the opera, the only thing that allows I.M.P to fight toe to toe with C.H.E.R.U.B, is that they are Crazy-Prepared, resourceful professionals, like their company name states. Despite this, the cherubs' ability to fly and instantly conjure holy weapons with unlimited ammo would have turned the fight against the I.M.P crew in the former's favor... had they not been in a location where the imps could swing & jump around with ease to avoid them.
- Despite I.M.P winning the "competition", their fight against C.H.E.R.U.B actually ended in a draw. Had it gone on long enough, the cherubs may have actually won, as the imps have limited ammo.
- While both Loopty and Lipton seem to share semi-robotic forms as demons as a way to show how their robotics empire got them in hell, Lyle Lipton's demon form has one trait unique to him. Upon close inspection, robo-Lipton's teeth look like piano keys. And how did he die? Being crushed by a falling piano!
- In the C.H.E.R.U.B jingle montage, there's a human helped by the group who seems to have just gotten into a car wreck. There's actually a hint as to the cause of the wreck, too! In the passenger seat to the left of the driver, there can be seen what looks to be a bottle labelled "The Holy Spirit", as well as a turned on phone with "Chirper" on it. Looks like someone may have been drinking, texting, and driving.
- Why is Lyle's mansion lacking in any form of security for a trillionaire? He most likely fired them all as he is hoping that one of his many enemies made during his career would take advantage of his old age to kill him. Also, security ain't cheap.
- Moxxie pulls an absolutely ridiculous amount of weaponry out of his coat when offering Lipton a way to off himself. Aside from being Crazy-Prepared and the weapons expert of the group, there's another reason for him to be packing that many weapons. In the jingle in the pilot there's the phrase "we'll even let you keep the knife". He probably keeps a lot of weapons on hand so that, in the event that a client requests to keep the weapon that killed the object of their revenge as a souvenir, he can hand it over more easily.
- How did Loopty find out about I.M.P almost immediately upon arriving in Hell? In the previous episode, the imps performed a lot of assassinations both swiftly and for cheaper prices, so naturally they built a rep for good results amongst Hells’ denizens. That or Loopty simply saw the billboards shortly after arriving. Either way, I.M.P’s actions (ad campaign or simply word-of-mouth) are making them a household name in the Pride Ring. Which also means that Blitzo's impulsive way of running his business isn't completely crazy.
- Many viewers wondered why Lyle didn't try to use the machine to make himself young again. It is proven to be working correctly, the only mistake they made was because they used the wrong setting. However, when you look at the Loopty's flashback again, you notice that the machine worked too well. If Lyle tried to use it again, he would be reduced to a fetus if the machine is stopped one millisecond late, making it a risk that he is not willing to take unless he wants to use it to kill himself.
- Having an "Old" setting in the first place seems like a rather blatant case of Inventional Wisdom for two tech geniuses. They probably installed it in case they made themselves too young. You can't exactly run a corporate empire if you are a little baby.
- At first it seems odd that C.H.E.R.U.B. seems to make no attempt to uphold the masquerade, never bothering to hide the fact that they are glowing babies/lambs with wings, but then you realize that Hell's fridge reason for upholding the masquerade applies conversely to Heaven; if people know that Hell is real, then they'll do everything in their power to avoid eternal damnation, but if they know Heaven is real, then people will do more good deeds trying to get their eternal reward.
- This in turn, might also be another reason why there are so many people in Hell as well. Because people think that Heaven is real while Hell is made up, this gives them free reign to do whatever they want in life with no morals because everyone is going to Heaven anyway, unaware that Hell is also real and they just damned themselves there instead.
- The entire episode is essentially Lyle being guided by angels and devils on his sides.
- Keenie calls the imps "nothing but dirt that shitty dead people tread on!". At first glance, this is simply her Fantastic Racism at work. However according to Word of God, inhabitants of Hell who died become part of the local landscape aka dirt that shitty dead people tread on! What she is saying isn't hyperbole.
- When Loopty gets near and the ground starts shaking, Loona is the first one to notice the ruckus. Well, dogs tend to notice earthquakes happening faster than people!
- It might seem weird that Keenie and Collin get kicked out with Cletus when it was the latter's stray arrow that ultimately killed Lyle. But not only did neither of them try to stop him, Keenie was the one who started the fight by attacking Millie while Collin helped Cletus escalate things by shooting at Moxxie and Blitzo. While Cletus fired the shot, Keenie and Collin were just as responsible for what happened by helping it get to that point.
The Harvest Moon Festival
- From what we see of Wrath, it makes some sense why so much of Hell's farmland is there. It has volcanoes and fire all over, and volcanic soil is among the most fertile on Earth (or in Hell).
- As a bonus, volcanoes are sometimes seen as a form of Nature's wrath.
- Earlier, in "Spring Broken," Verosika mentions Blitzø took her credit card to the Wrath ring for horseback riding lessons. If Hell's farmland is in Wrath, it makes sense that that would be the best place to find horses.
- Moxxie and Millie hailing from the Ring of Wrath explains why both of them are so into violence, both as a job and as pleasure.
- Moxxie's desire to get in good with the in-laws makes sense after Vivienne said his mother hailed from Wrath, and that he always felt closer to that side of his heritage. If he can fit in with Wrath imps, he can prove—to himself, at the very least—that he's got more of his mom in him than his dad.
- Of course it was Stella who hired a hit out on Stolas. It's the only place he could've gotten the gun! No commoner could have easily gotten their hands on a weapon capable of killing royalty. Not unless they were connected to another royal. Only royals would likely be allowed to own such weapons, as safeguards against other royalty.
- Striker could have gotten the rifle (and his pistol seen at the end of the episode) off the black market, since there's a thriving trade of reforged angelic weapons in Hell. All the better for Stella so there isn't a trail leading back to her purchasing/acquiring said weapon/s.
- It seems rather convenient that Blitzo just happens to show up to stop the assassination attempt when he was just going to the house to get away from the crowd, considering that he was completely in the dark about Striker's true purpose when we last saw him. He probably discovered it by accident just like how Moxxie did with the gun's glow attracting his attention and was probably was planning on asking Striker what happened to his two now missing employees, apparently since he was the only other imp shown in the house.
- Or alternatively, Moxxie told Blitzo everything after he escaped, which explains how Blitzo figured Striker was going for Stolas and was able to intercept him before Moxxie. Besides, the way Blitzo switches his expression when Moxxie arrives implies that he was just playing along to distract Striker.
- Many of Striker's lines and actions are accompanied by the sound of a rattlesnake. A subtle and deliberate sign that he's a lying snake.
- Moxxie’s tangent about angelic technology being used in Hell’s weaponry is Played for Laughs because he’s being a gun nerd in front of his disapproving in-laws. But this foreshadows the reveal of Striker’s holy weapons, making this a literal Chekhov's Gun setup.
- Stella yelling into the phone about Stolas' assassination is Played for Laughs, but think about it. Why did Stolas invite Blitzo and company to the Harvest Moon festival? It could have just been to flirt with Blitzo, like last time. Except last time, he invited him to protect himself, just like how he protected Stolas this time. He probably already knew about Stella's assassin from her phone calls, since she clearly doesn't even try being subtle about it, and brought I.M.P to find the assassin.
- And since it was officially a friendly invitation and not an official hiring, he doesn't have to pay them (money, anyway). That's clever.
- There’s also the possibility that Stolas just wanted to spice things up. He says early on that the Harvest Moon festival is “The same every year” with an almost disappointed tone. So he knows what happens at the festival, like the Pain Games. Stolas could’ve banked on Blitzo partaking and add a bit of excitement to the predictable events. Look at how excited he is at watching Blitzo wrestle Striker to the ground. Guy couldn’t be happier with the outcome thus far.
- Striker's dialogue offers Rewatch Bonus for the episode after the reveal. Him laughing at Blitzo's joke ("I'm good at killing people, might as well get paid for it.") and Striker replying that not many imps have the guts to start their own business. He is talking about assassination business.
- Also good for a rewatch is Stella's Five-Second Foreshadowing—she doesn't say "I want that asshole dead!", she says "I want this asshole dead!"...while staring right into the camera, and thus directly at Stolas seated across the table from her.
- Moxxie is several times stated to be from the Ring of Wrath, so why is he so proficient with guns, which aren't especially appreciated from what we see? Well, the Ring of Wrath is clearly based on the Old West, and a key element to any western movie would be gunslinging. Moxxie is probably from a different part of the ring based around that aspect of the wild west.
- Then again, the very obvious dislike Millie's parents have for Moxxie - not to mention everything else we know about the guy - seems to indicate that Moxxie was one of those unfortunate kids who "came out a little different" despite growing up in a rough-and-tumble rural community. Being born and raised in a place is never a guarantee you'll fit in there; Moxxie, who loves musical theatre and is an avid student of the history of warfare and modern weaponry with little care for hand-to-hand combat, probably knows that firsthand.
- Alternatively, Wrath seems based on the Deep South, which has a strong class divide and a quasi-aristocratic upper class that was fond of pistol duels before it was outlawed.
- "Exes and Oohs" reveals that his mother from Wrath got married to a mob boss in Greed, where he is got his skills and his inability to fit in Wrath. While he may not be from the "gunslinging" part of the Ring or moved to Greed as an infant, his mother might have been, which explains why would she marry a mob boss in the first place.
- Striker trying to kill Moxxie by suffocating him might seem a touch odd and maybe even personal for someone he looks down on, when he could just as easily kill him with a knife or somesuch. But remember, all throughout the episode, Striker has been associated with snakes (hence the sound of a rattlesnake rattle in so many of his scenes). Though not a method of killing for rattlesnakes, what's another method commonly employed by snakes on their prey? Constriction to cause suffocation!
- Additionally, the venom of some species of rattlesnakes actually causes death via respiratory paralysis.
- Not to mention he might not have actually wanted to kill Moxxie. When he has him and Millie at his mercy, he locks them in the storm cellar rather than finishing them off, implying he just wanted to knock out Moxxie and take him captive.
- When Striker refers to Blitzo as a "rodeo clown", it's not just a reference to one of the latter's past jobs. A rodeo clown is a performer whose job it is to distract a bull, thus getting the rider out of harm's way. This foreshadows how Blitzo (clown) ends up protecting Stolas (rider) from Striker (bull).
- A small one, but notice that Blitzo dropped his flintlock pistol in the beginning of his fight with Striker. When he and Moxxie corners Striker later, Blitzo reaches into his vest to procure his gun again (he wasn’t shown retrieving it). A fluke in the animation perhaps, but it is also likely Blitzo learnt to keep another gun on him in case he has not reloaded it like he did in "C.H.E.R.U.B." when he tried to shoot Cletus and it just went “click”.
- Blitzo and Stolas share what could be a joint in the first scene. An old nickname for marijuana was "the devil's lettuce".
- Picking Stolas to be the sort-of Goetia ambassador for the Harvest Moon Festival is a really smart move- Other than his abilities that would let him "curse" the festival with the use of his grimoire, he has an established affinity for imps, the main species inhabiting Wrath. This makes it less likely that he will start a dangerous (mostly for him) situation with a snooty comment or visible disgust due to closeness to such a "plebian" species. In the first scene, Blitzo clearly doesn't see the festival as anything worthwile and calls people of Wrath "Inbred chucklefucks", while Stolas considers the celebration "charming", proving that he has a much more positive outlook on the festival than even an actual imp.
Truth Seekers
- Why can't Loona read the grimoire when the lights are flashing red? Dogs, like most non-primate mammals, have dichromatic vision and can't see into the red range. Secondly, the grimoire itself is written in red. In this situation, she might as well be reading a blank piece of paper.
- The times where I.M.P wasn't caught on camera was when Loona was wearing her human disguise. Looks like Loona's complaint is very much valid. This is even proven at the end of the episode where the demons' undisguised rampage being caught on camera gets used as indisputable proof.
- This episode gives us another reason why Loona stays behind in Hell. Someone needs to stay in Hell with the grimoire to read it, as I.M.P can't risk losing it in the human world, in order to open the portals and that role is shown throughout the previous episodes to be part of her job. As for why it is only her instead of another employee like Moxxie or Millie, she is also the one out of the quartet who is the least willing to go on missions. Combined with her overprotective dad, this makes her the perfect choice as gatekeeper. "Spring Broken" is the exception because she brought the grimoire with her.
- It's also practical to keep someone in the demon world with the book because out in the field may not always be conducive for opening the portal. Such as the flashing red lighting in the interrogation room making it impossible for Loona to read it. We know that Blitzo can contact Loona in the demon world by phone (as he did in episode 1 to let her know the mission was complete), and Loona said Blitzo told her to not open the portal until some point, though Millie interrupted her and demanded she open the portal anyway. So it's likely the normal plan is for Loona to wait for Blitzo to escape and call her for the all clear to pick them up when it's safe. And that if she doesn't hear from him, it means he's either 1) dead, or 2) in a position where rescuing him would be too dangerous regardless.
- This episode explains why Striker decided to retreat when Loona showed up since the fight revealed that she may be the most dangerous member of I.M.P.; Striker may be Strong and Skilled for an imp but not as strong as a hellhound. This also explains why Blitzo was so quick to back down when Vortex confronted him.
- The truth gas literally made Blitzø and Moxxie face their inner demons.
- Blitzo's dream reveals much about his psyche along with why he acts the way he does:
- Take note of how Hallucination!Verosika treats Blitzo. Striker and Fizzaroli throw around and mock him for his loneliness, while she crawls towards him and calls him out for pushing away those that get close, at most grabbing his face for emphasis. This hints heavily that Verosika really loved Blitzo and Blitzo knew, but then he sabotaged the relationship.
- The hallucinations of Striker, Fizzaroli, and Verosika speak with Blitzo's voice rather than those of their voice actors. Blitzo is criticizing himself for his own insecurities and toxic behavior.
- Adding to the above, Moxxie's voice is unchanged—his body, however, flickers between his normal art style and the crude, childish drawing style Blitzo's used in the past. While the other hallucinations speak to Blitzo's insecurities about himself, Moxxie just blathers on in overly-fancy language without really saying anything of value. Much as Blitzo wants to think that that's how Moxxie is, he knows it isn't true, hence the flickering between real and unreal.
- Why is Moxxie phasing in and out of Blitzo's drawing style? Looks like Blitzo is still upset about Moxxie criticizing his art skills...
- None of Blitzo's family shows up during the hallucination, not even his disapproving father who would presumably be a big source of Blitzo's insecurity. That's because his interactions with Robo-Fizz, Verosika, and Striker were all very recent, meaning that the emotional wounds they inflicted were still fresh in Blitzo's mind. Not to mention that the Truth Bomb gas dissipates fairly quickly. It's possible that it could have dredged up Blitzo's family had it lingered for longer.
- Blitzo's mind is drenched in mud. Aside from signifying how Blitzo feels lower than dirt, mud in dreams symbolizes insecurity, uncertainty, and an inability to find your footing. All things that Blitzo has been struggling with. The mud disappears once Stolas arrives, though some of it coats the staircase for a little longer. Stolas is a reassuring presence in Blitzo's life on some level, but Blitzo still isn't one hundred percent sure if he will stick around.
- Blitzo climbs the golden stairs to get away from Fizzaroli, Verosika, and Striker only to see Stolas waiting at the top, being fanned by two clones of himself. Rather than run in another direction though, Blitzo keeps climbing, almost crawling towards him. The clown outfit that Blitzo had been wearing is replaced by his normal outfit, but golden chains form around his wrists and neck, led by a chain pulled by Stolas. This single scene explains so much about Stolas and Blitzo's relationship to one another; Blitzo gained a new life and dignity (the clothes) thanks to Stolas, but his entire assassination business is now dependent on Stolas' grimoire, making Blitzo feel trapped (the chains) under the owl's whims. Stolas might actually be in love with Blitzo, but because of this dynamic, Blitzo feels like it's nothing more than a master toying with their pet. It also explains why Blitz seemed so reluctant to be near Stolas in the past: his self-deprecation and tendency to push people away makes him believe that once Stolas grows bored of him, he'll discard him and he'll lose everything, so he doesn't want to get attached.
- Moxxie's dream also reveals a few things about him:
- Unlike Blitzo's dream, which is heavily populated, Moxxie's dream only has Blitzo in it. And, much like in Blitzo's dream, Moxxie needs to climb a long flight of stairs to get to him. It shows that, for all of the personal questions and harsh critiques that he endures, Moxxie still considers his boss as one of the most important people in his life.
- Blitzo is dressed as The Phantom of the Opera. It's quite a fitting outfit for him, considering that the Phantom is described as a man who hides his true self behind a mask, while only wishing to be loved. Moxxie is aware of this side of his boss and even calls him out for pushing people away with his "toxic routine."
- Moxxie is shown climbing the stairs throughout the entire song whenever he blames or insults Blitzo. It's only when he admits that he hasn't been honest about his feelings and his fear of rejection that he's able to come close and sit next to Blitzo, with the two promising to be better to one another.
- Moxxie's hallucination of Blitzo is noticeably less caricaturized than Blitzo's of Moxxie - complete with Hallucination!Blitzo calling Moxxie a bitch and taking time out of their duet to tease Moxxie about his wife pegging him. Even still, Moxxie resolves to be a better friend to Blitzo, and his hallucination mixes encouragement with teasing by telling him that "the world is [his] anus, so peg it with honesty," showing that for all of their chafing, Moxxie is able to accept Blitzo and call him a friend with the whole of his personality taken into account.
- When Blitzo starts climbing the ornate staircase with white feathers scattered all over, it easily comes across as angelic imagery for a split second. Then we remember that Stolas is basically I.M.P's angel investor. In this case, more of a One-Winged Angel investor, but still.
- Stolas making Agent 2 do an Exorcist Head isn't just a pop culture reference. He is also doing it as an owl demon who can naturally rotate their heads past 180 degrees.
- Why is Blitzo's go-to question for Moxxie whether or not he gets pegged? Blitzo has repeatedly shown interest in a more physical relationship with the couple and wants to know logistically where in the arrangement he would fit.
- And it's another Call-Back to a line from episode 3!
- It may seem odd that D.H.O.R.K.S. isn't taken seriously despite all the footage they have, and some may question why they think the footage they collected during the episode would be enough for them to be taken seriously this time, but there may be an explanation. What we see before are random, out-of-context, low-quality snippets along the lines of the controversial Patterson-Gimlin bigfoot footage which are too inconclusive to definitively prove anything and could be brushed off as fake. The footage they collected during the episode, however, is in-depth, clean, and extensive, not only showing the whole of I.M.P. in a combat situation, but also Stolas in both his regular and more powerful form. Overall, what they have now is something that could be accepted as definitive proof far more easily, unlike what they have before which many could dismiss as flimsy or even a series of hoaxes, and which even people inclined to believe in demons would probably say isn't solid enough evidence to prove their theories even if they think it's likely genuine. Not to mention it would be hard to brush off the corpses and destruction in the facility.
- Why does no one in D.H.O.R.K.S fight with guns? Because they’re dorks who believe Edo period Japanese weapons are much cooler than firearms for purely aesthetic reasons. Hence why no one takes them seriously.
- Why does Loona bother keeping up her human disguise while she's inside the D.H.O.R.K.S. facility? She's not supposed to be in there either way. Maybe she was planning to steal a uniform but never got the opportunity.
- Loona probably wanted to keep up the disguise as long as she could just in case. Say, if she pretended to just be a normal human girl being forced to help a bunch of demons escape, she might get in trouble but has the opportunity to escape and come up with a new plan if she and Millie got caught. As Millie is the one to do most of the fighting on their way in, Loona would always have some plausible deniability. Loona only returns to her true form, presumably the one she can fight best in, when it's time to actually bust in and save them.
- Blitzo's plan to make the agents too angry to think straight worked perfectly when you think about what happens after Blitzo tells Moxxie his intentions. The agents pump truth gas into the room, but they're so focused on trying to humiliate back the imps that they completely forget to use the opportunity to question Blitzo and Moxxie. Secondly, thanks to the subsequent Mushroom Samba leaving Blitzo and Moxxie incapacitated, the agents couldn't interrogate the imps even if they wanted too.
- Why isn't Stolas worried about Agents 1 and 2 spilling the beans about Hell and the agents of it that go into the mortal world even though he should know those monitors were connected to cameras recording the facility? Because he has connections in the mortal realm that can make such evidence, and probably the two agents, disappear. He mentioned an associate in the pilot that could benefit from a climate change activist being killed, so either a fossil fuel businessman or a government leader. On that note, the rich and powerful might not care about Hell since they’re already probably satanists, and have more reason to keep knowledge of Hell away from the general public.
- Stolas going through the trouble of summoning himself through a possessed Agent 2 isn't just for horror. According to general demon and Ars Goetia lore, the demon lord summoned is at the whims of the summoner while being trapped in the summoning circle/symbol. By possessing Agent 2, using her as the "summoner" while placing her in the symbol, Stolas summoned himself and escaped the summoning circle at the same time, keeping his own free will. Original source.
- Moxxie and Blitzo are directly responsible for getting truth serum sicced on them. Moxxie explains to Agents 1 and 2 that physical torture is a terrible interrogation technique, but he doesn't even attempt to dissuade them from using psychological torture (despite the fact that Moxxie was the one who brought up the topic of psychological torture to begin with). Blitzo then seals their fate by admitting on camera that his strategy against the Agents is to mess with their heads. These two were practically asking for it by the time Agents 1 and 2 retaliated with their own psychological warfare.
- When Stolas was asked regarding how he knew I.M.P is in danger, he said "I have my ways". It is highly likely that he was spying on Blitzo in his bathtub like in "Murder Family" watching the carnage and decided to help when I.M.P could no longer bail themselves out. While it is Loose Canon, Blitzo also posted his selfie with the dead agent head on his blog and Stolas may have seen it.
- There's a subtle focus on Blitzo's face and the symbolism behind it in this episode.
- His The Phantom of the Opera appearance in Moxxie's hallucination isn't just a clever shoutout and reference to the figurative "mask" he wears (see above). Apparently when imps get scars, they appear white on their skin. Blitzo's facial scar resembles the Phantom's mask and is also on the left side, so of course Moxxie (being the musical theater buff he is) would make that connection. An I.M.P office poster in earlier episodes shows that Blitzo didn’t have this scar during his circus career, so it’s symbolic of not only the “mask” he wears, but also of his new life and identity.
- Blitzo's hallucination has the white scarring show more prominently on the left side of his face because it's in the form of circus clown makeup (there’s even a teardrop mark under his eye on the left side). The visual split on his face shows the opposing sides to his personality. He's aloof and clownish but he's deeply sad inside. He craves affection but pushes people away. He has strong ambitions but is self-destructive.
- Both Blitzo and Moxxie's hallucinations show Blitzo with a broken heart forehead mark instead of his regular one. Even Moxxie can tell Blitzo has some sort of a heartbreaking history.
- When Blitzo starts making out with Stolas, the left side of his face is turned toward the audience. His scarred/masked side. He's fully "Blitzo with a silent o" again and whatever his inner feelings are, he's content with it for the moment. He even resembles Stolas to a striking degree while they’re flirting and kissing: Blitzo’s white scarring matches Stolas’ facial coloring and their character designs both happen to have similar eyelid markings. It just hammers home how in sync they are for once.
- While Millie states she's only five years older than Loona when being called an "old lady", Loona might have been thinking in dog years, which'd make Millie about 35 years older than the Hellhound. Sort of a stealth Furry Reminder.
- Blitzo mentioning having taken a load of tranquilizers in college has an extra meaning to it, as it’s not just used in drug abuse, but tranquilizers are also a prescription drug used to treat anxiety, fear, tension, agitation, and mental disturbances (such as psychosis). For Blitzo to take the drug medicinally while attending college (where it’s a great advantage to be functional enough mentally to even get an education) makes perfect sense, especially since he exhibits several symptoms of the ailments in the present.
- This leads into the realm of Fridge Horror, when remembering that Blitzo’s taken so many tranquilizers that he’s developed a resistance to them, and thus likely aren’t taking them anymore, or any other anti-psychosis drug for that matter. Suddenly a lot of Blitzo's behavior and character traits begin to make a frightening lot of sense. Even the follow-up comment of being "strapped nipples first to a car battery once" could have been an impromptu attempt at ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy) which is used against mental disorders.
- Blitzo tells Stolas to unclench his "bird puss". As ridiculous as his choice of words are, it's pretty in line with how you'd expect someone to describe a cloaca if they had slept with an anthropomorphic bird person several times without ever really learning the correct terms for avian biology.
- The confirmation that Moxxie is into getting pegged makes Loona's "sit on a dick" insult from the pilot take on a whole new meaning.
- Moxxie immediately guessing that the interrogation room was filling with a truth serum is pretty out there. However, he was already under its effects, which made him blurt out the first thing that came to mind.
OZZIE'S
- Why doesn't Stolas defend his relationship with Blitzo during the song?
- He is still unsure of the kind of relationship he has with the latter. Blitzo already confirmed his view in "Truth Seekers". Stolas has yet to do the same and was probably trying to use the date to figure it out.
- Blitzo, meanwhile, reminds him that their relationship is strictly beneficial, not intimate. Stolas had set this up gets some love and excitement in his life from the imp that his wife couldn't provide, and Blitzo has access to his book for his job.
- If we follow Ars Goetia lore, Asmodeus is numbered much higher than Stolas numerically wise (Asmodeus is number 32 while Stolas is 36) and in the hierarchy, he is a King of Hell (1st tier) compared to Prince (3rd tier) Stolas. Stolas' Oh, Crap! when finding out that OZZIE'S is ran by Asmodeus leads credence to this.
- This even leads to a Stealth Pun about the hierarchy and why a lot of Demon Royalty are avian: there's a strong pecking order within their upper class circle.
- Even within the show's universe, Asmodeus is also one of the Seven Deadly Sin royalty, a group that answers only to Lucifer himself. (And Lucifer is one of them, as the embodiment of Pride)
- He is still unsure of the kind of relationship he has with the latter. Blitzo already confirmed his view in "Truth Seekers". Stolas has yet to do the same and was probably trying to use the date to figure it out.
- The difference in responses between the two heckled couples' respective loves foreshadow how their night would end. Millie who rose up to defend Moxxie and finish the song together only got them kicked out after it is over. Stolas hid throughout the rest of the song after being torn into emotionally, which led to both him and Blitzo bummed out in their own homes rather than in each other's embrace.
- To elaborate, one viewer noted the difference between the Moxxie/Millie and Blitzo/Stolas parts. The former couple just kept to each other, no matter how much the outside world wanted to influence them. The latter pair kept piled on by outsiders, being afraid of what the others think until all they could do is shut up in embarrassment. Eventually, the former couple won as they finished their song that is only meant for each other, resulting in The Big Damn Kiss to a cheering audience. Meanwhile, all the latter pair could do is quietly leave in disgrace.
- To elaborate, one viewer noted
- Moxxie's song includes the lyrics "You cast a special Satanic spell over my heart..." While Satanic can be shorthand for demonic, traditionally Satan has been the Prince of Wrath—the same ring Millie's from.
- Why did Blitzo turn down Stolas' offer to stay at his mansion for the night? The latter not defending the former when he was being heckled likely confirmed to Blitzo that Stolas really does just see him as a sex toy and nothing else.
- There might be another reason, as well. Look at Blitzø's face when Asmodeus brings up how thoroughly the affair has wrecked Stolas' life. It looks as though this is the first time Blitzø has been made to realize what an impact his deal with Stolas has had on the prince. Maybe he was trying to put some distance between them in an effort to protect what status and reputation Stolas has left?
- Adding to this, Blitzo is also a father himself. So finding out that he contributed to Stolas's relationship with Octavia deteriorating probably added an extra layer of guilt.
- The crowd may have been heckling Moxxie's song not just out of derision, but jealousy. Life in Hell is generally miserable for everyone with compassion and emotional vulnerability being seen as a weakness. Many of the demons at the club likely either don't have healthy, loving relationships like Moxxie and Millie's, or they do but can't show it for fear of being ridiculed by Hell's society and powerful figures of authority like Asmodeus. The fact that there was applause following Moxxie's performance shows that there were at least some demons brave enough to praise this display of genuine affection.
- The symbolism behind the scene in Stolas' front yard. As a viewer stated, Blitzo climbed up the staircase towards Stolas in his hallucination only to end up in chains in "Truth Seekers", while in here Stolas ends up at the bottom of the staircase, cause he was ready to get down towards Blitzo, offering him comfort, only to be pushed away.
- Fitting how the episode to villainize the physical embodiment of lust is the one to boil down the characters and relationships to their real components, when they are unable to hide behind sex jokes and innuendo.
- Moxxie and Millie's relationship is constantly the butt of jokes about Moxxie's sexual ability. But in the end, Moxxie and Millie truly love one another, being one of the only married couples in the show. Their marriage is held together by love, not lust.
- Stolas and Blitzo's relationship, on the other hand, is only held together by making love. Stolas is quite fond of talking down, and dirty, to Blitzo, and Blitzo repeatedly states he is only using Stolas for the book. This relationship seems to only be held together by lust and sex. Or so they believe.
- Blitzo was confirmed in the last episode to be afraid of intimacy, yet also crave it. He is also implied to have a Dark and Troubled Past. This is why he denies any romantic feelings towards Stolas, out of fear of being judged or hurt, even when strongly implied to have romantic feelings about him. At the end of the episode, we see exactly where this left him. Alone and crying.
- Stolas's half of the relationship has been mostly flirting and dirty talk, but there have been strong implications that he feels real love for Blitzo, and in this episode, it is finally revealed without a doubt that he is smitten with him. He wants to have something real with Blitzo, but hides vulnerability behind sex jokes, unless Blitzo shows interest first. This is why he wasn't nearly as teasing as regularly, this was his first real opportunity with Blitzo. Too bad Blitzo was only using him. Blitzo himself probably realised that by using Stolas, he himself was contributing to this relationship by using Stolas to sneak into his employees' anniversary.
- It seems like a simple case of Hypocritical Humor for Asmodeus to seem so distraught at Fizzarolli getting hurt when the two of them have been mocking Moxxie relentlessly for showing affection to Millie, but it makes perfect sense when you consider what we know of demon royalty. For the elites in Hell, appearances are EVERYTHING. After all, Stella is willing to have Stolas assassinated merely because his flings with Blitzo could ruin their reputation. Considering that Asmodeus and Fizzarolli sit in the same booth to watch Moxxie perform, seem genuinely happy to sing a duet together, and are cuddling in each other's arms at the end of the song, it seems like the two have a romantic attraction for each other. However, Asmodeus is the Lord of Lust, and since appearances are everything, he can't be seen showing romantic affection, nor can he allow it to be sung about uninterrupted. Therefore, to everyone else in OZZIE's, Fizzarolli is merely a showman and Asmodeus is simply his boss, and while it's usually pretty easy to hide their real relationship, Fizzarolli getting hurt allowed us to see beneath Asmodeus' mask.
- Reinforced in The Circus where it's revealed that the Goetia are assigned their role and don't have any say in the matter. It's Asmodeus's job to be the embodiment of Lust, and any personal feelings are moot in the face of that.
- While sinners are mostly to blame for them being in Hell and staying there, if Asmodeus' attitude towards love is a hint, it means the demons higher up will actively encourage sin and punish any display of goodness like real love. So even if the sinners weren’t being their own worst enemies, the very cultural environment of Hell created by demons like Asmodeus will make any possible Heel–Face Turn far harder to accomplish.
- Asmodeus guilting Stolas by complimenting his lust shows that nobody is safe from Hell's tortures. In Hell, even the demons are tortured with the sinners.
- Why doesn't Asmodeus flay Moxxie and Millie alive for daring to show love in a place of lust while only telling them to get out? After all, he is among Hell's top demon royalty which wouldn't have been out of character. It is because the whole performance was applauded by his customers and in the grand scheme of things, it is just one instance of love in a ocean of lust. To keep up appearances as a host, he had to let them leave unscathed but not before probably banning them for life. If he did attack them, he would look like a jealous/ungrateful host who is angry over an act he allowed to happen in the first place. After all, he is the Embodiment of Lust, not Envy. Speaking of envy, he may have been secretly jealous that the lowest of the low can openly display what they actually feel while even he, one of the Seven Deadly Sins, has to hide his own true feelings.
- It also helps that Fizzaroli bounced back fairly quickly after getting hit by Millie. Had he been more seriously hurt, then Asmodeus would have had more of a reason to get violent.
- Moxxie and Millie also ended up actually disproving part of Asmodeus' critique of their relationship; early in the song, he mocks Moxxie for having an "unsatisfied bride"; not only does that result in Blitzo finally having enough and standing up to him to explain they make even the most basic sex look exciting, Millie brained Fizz so that Moxxie could finish the song; as much as they mock the sentimentality, Asmodeus and Fizz can tell there's actual passion there, which at least means they get the idea. Hence, just letting them off with a warning.
- Fizzaroli not knowing that Blitzo was the one to burn Loo Loo Land down makes sense when looking back at how the fight with Robo-Fizz went down. Blitzo's shooting at an assassin scared away the crowd, meaning that nobody else was inside the tent to see Blitzo and Robo-Fizz's confrontation. The fire that broke out shortly afterwards caused further panic and everybody was probably too busy running from the flames to pay attention to their fight. And to top it off, Robo-Fizz is eaten by a dragon, so there was no way for the Loo-Loo Land employees to examine his memory banks for the identity of the attacker/arsonist.
- After getting cleaned up for his date, Stolas has a more pronounced grey streak in his hair just like the female imp from the Hella-novella he was watching earlier. And also like her, he ends up being spurned by his lover.
- Asmodeus isn't exaggerating when he said Stolas selling his life “for a thrust" is the spirit of lust. What's more valuable for the demonic embodiment of lust - the rampant indulgence of carnal desires by two (or more) consenting individuals without the attachment of feelings, or a person being so consumed by the need to fulfill their base urges that they don't consider the potential consequences of doing so? You just need to look at all the sexual scandals in society to see how much damage lust can actually cause to a person's life and why it's considered a deadly sin.
- All the way back in "Loo Loo Land", Blitzo calls Fizzaroli "an overrated sellout jester". Here, it is revealed that the latter became a showman for a club in the Lust Ring, supposedly under the thumb of another demon.
- What's more, during "Loo Loo Land" the Robo Fizz heckled Blitzo for not doing a very good job working as a clown at that establishment. In Blitzo's drug-induced epiphany in "Truth Seekers," Hallucination Fizzarolli taunted him for "trying to go it alone," only to end in failure. Given that Blitzo was a Circus Brat and his phone Photo Montage reveals that Blitzo and Fizz were Childhood Friends (if not teenage boyfriends), there might also be a level of jealousy and resentment to his "overrated sellout" comment: Fizzarolli wound up being far more successful in both his career and love life (a rich, famous, beloved jester; and lover of one of Hell's most powerful demons) than Blitzo ever could have been.
- When Asmodeus sees Stolas as Blitzo's date, he wastes no time airing his dirty laundry in public; pointing out how Stolas gave up his marriage and life for an affair with a lowly imp. So, how did Asmodeus know all this off the top of his head? Well, Stella being a Rich Bitch Socialite who isn't exactly quiet about things that annoy her, it's possible that she complained to anyone who would listen that she was leaving her husband because of his cheating, but would have left out that it was with an imp to save face. However, once Asmodeus (another powerful demon in or near her social circle) spotted Stolas at his lounge with an imp shortly after he and Stella split, Asmodeus would put two-and-two together and realize this was the one Stolas cheated on Stella with.
- It makes perfect sense for Verosika to accuse Blitzo of being a bad lover. After all, they were at a sex-centered restaurant in the Lust Ring. Regardless of what other ways he might've made a substandard boyfriend, sex is what the others there would've been interested in. She wasn't just insulting him to vent, she was insulting him to damage his reputation.
- Extra brilliance here: They are in the Lust ring. The highest "virtue" in that ring is doing everything and anything to satisfy your lust. Therefore, helping somebody else satisfy their lust is also a virtue and expected behavior. So doing opposite of that, denying somebody their satisfaction, is the greatest sin one can commit in the Lust ring. Add in that they are in Hell, which is looking at most things through the lense of transactions, and the behavior of which Blitzo is accused makes him look not only inattentive substandard lover but straight out thief and fraud. Because Verosika did her expected part of the deal and Blitzo didn't do his. Nobody in Lust would care if he stole her money and car, but breaking her heart ("heartbreaking freak" part of the song) after not giving her anything in return for all the things she did to satisfy his lust? Horrible "sin" in that ring.
- When Asmodeus is mocking Stolas during his song, he mostly focuses on Stolas's crumbling marriage rather than the fact that Blitzo is an imp, and almost seems proud of him for it ("You sold your life for a thrust! Now that's the spirit of lust!"). Apart from the fact that Asmodeus is just doing his job as the King of Lust, the pictures in Blitzo's phone show that Fizzarolli is an imp too. Of course he doesn't care that Stolas is with an imp; he's doing the exact same thing.
- So far, it doesn't appear that Asmodeus has a spouse and a child/children. As far as he is concerned, he isn't ruining the lives of his loved ones by being in a secret romantic relationship with Fizzarolli.
- Loona opening a portal by setting a booze bottle on a page of the Grimoire shows why they need the book so badly. It's not a book of spells so much as a collection of touch-activated sigils.
- With "OOPS" revealing that Fizzaroli and Blitzo hadn't spoken in 15 years, it might seem strange that Fizz would no about Blitzo's poor love life. Then you remember that Verosika is employed by Asmodeus, meaning that Fizz has most likely met her and she may have vented to him about her relationship with Blitzo.
Queen Bee
- For all her friendliness, Bee's lyrics noticeably contain one rather worrying line: "I'm what you want, not what you need." This is a subtle way to remind viewers that, despite how incredibly friendly and benevolent Bee may seem to be in this episode, she's still the Queen of Gluttony. All the things she gives people are things they want, but not what they actually need.
- This is also reflected in her song, Cotton Candy, and her seeming preference for it; cotton candy, while delicious, has basically no nutritional value, and is actively bad for you given the amount of sugar it contains. Appropriate for a being of Gluttony...
- As a bonus, the sugar rush induces an instant high. In other words, a buzz.
- On that note, how perfect is "Sour Cream" as Bee's offensive nickname for Loona during the scene when she gets angry and huge?
- It could also imply that she's fully aware of the difference between a person's wants and their needs, such as later in the episode when she notices Blitzo isn't partying for fun, rather to drown his sorrows.
- This is also reflected in her song, Cotton Candy, and her seeming preference for it; cotton candy, while delicious, has basically no nutritional value, and is actively bad for you given the amount of sugar it contains. Appropriate for a being of Gluttony...
- Back in "OZZIE'S," Moxxie's song mentions the lyric "...more than Beelze- loves her bub". In this episode, we see that Bee is dating a Hellhound, one of the lowest classes in Hell. Depending on how many people know about the relationship, it's possible the "bub" mentioned in the song isn't Vortex, but short for bubbly—Bee is well-known for drinking and having a good time, so an affinity for champagne makes sense.
- Bee, the Demon Lord of Gluttony, serves as a Foil to Asmodeus in several ways.
- Firstly, the two episodes they feature in are Simultaneous Arcs, both featuring Blitzo to boot.
- As noted above, Bee's line "I'm what you want, not what you need" shows that she is aware of the difference between wants and needs, and she doesn't consider her own domain, Gluttony, above the importance of well being. This is in stark contrast to Asmodeus, who actively discourages displays of non-sexual love, and even encourages putting sexual desire above other relationships, such as family.
- The sins they represent are opposites as well. While Gluttony and Lust are most commonly defined as desire for food and sex respectively, the former is literally the want for physical consumption, and the latter the want for immaterial things.
- The blatant disclaimer behind Bee's lyrics ("what you want, not what you need") spells disaster for Blitzo. They echo his disregard for consequences and the general vibe during OZZIE'S. These realms are all fun and games for those who are hungry (for fun, sex, food, etc.), but those who are emotionally starving are in for a bad time.
- Though in a more subdued manner than the absolute beatdown he faced during OZZIE'S, the past comes back to haunt Blitzo when some members of Bee's party recognize him. It's kind of amazing that Blitzo has managed to lead a life significantly removed from all of his past baggage for a while (as far as we've known him, at least).
- Bee encourages people to get drunk...or buzzed, if you will.
- Both of the things Loona refuses when offered—the sweets Bee conjured, and the alcohol—are things that can cause nausea or even full-on vomiting in excess. Considering the embarassing photo Vikki has on her phone, and the fact that Bee's powers almost force excessive consumption, it makes sense Loona would be looking to avoid any potential triggers for a repeat event.
- Unlike many of the past members of Hell's royalty that we see, Bee is very down to earth and sweet. But then you realize that, while she is a Ring Monarch, she's also physiologically similar to Hellhounds, one of the lowest classes in Hell. She is able to empathize with the lowest of the low in Hell, which makes her much more able to be so down to earth compared to the other Ring Monarchs.
- A second reason might come down to how she does her parties. She has an interest in catering to her party guests, and if the party we see is any indication, most of her guests are Imps and Hellhounds, so she has to be able to see them as individuals and understand them if she wants to make the best party possible.
- It's a common misconception that dogs don't know when they're full, and will continue eating as long as someone puts food in front of them. It's likewise a common misconception that the sin of gluttony refers to eating a lot of food, even after you've had your fill. Small wonder the Gluttony ring seems to attract so many hounds.
- Why does Tex still work for Verosika, a succubus idol, despite the reveal in here that his girlfriend is the Lord of Gluttony? As shown with Blitzo and Fizz, relationships between (vastly) different social classes is frowned upon in Hell and Hellhounds are considered just as lowly as Imps. Vortex and Bee mostly hang out during the latter's parties in where the partygoers, who are Imps and Hellhounds, are too busy indulging in food and/or drugs to notice while her passes at him can easily be taken as part of her general extroverted self. Vortex signed up as a lowly bodyguard to act as his alibi when not partying to prevent bringing any scandals to Bee. This could be also the reason why aside from being a party guest, he doesn't seem to ask for anything else from her which will definitely get noticed by others.
- Considering Verosika enjoys Bee-elzejuice, Vortex may have met Bee while Verosika was at such a party, and he maintains the job as a cover (as the above point presents) and/or for other reasons.
- Back in "Spring Broken", Vortex says that his girlfriend throws the "sickest parties". Now we know how.
- At first it seems that Bee breaks the Circus theme that the Seven Sins seem to have, but then you realize she can also represent the confectionery and candy sellers you often found in circuses and fairs. And just like candy sellers, while part of the circus, they're not considered as important as the Ringmaster and the Big Tent attractions, just like Bee, as despite being a Deadly Sin, she's also resembles and acts like a Hellhound.
- It is later clarified by Viv that she represents the animal acts of the circus. What better way to fit this by being similar to the one race that is treated like an animal in Hell?
- It is later clarified by Viv that she represents the animal acts of the circus
- At first it seems like the Alpha Bitch mocking Loona said "oh my god" after she was called a bitch, but actually she said "oh my dog". It's brilliant in three ways: not only she avoids mentioning God in hell, but also "dog" is "god" spelled backwards, and it's appropiate because she's a hellhound.
- Bee's specialty seems to be producing sugary treats and candy, and most of her party guests are dogs. While dogs are omnivorous and have sweet taste buds, sugar is (while not toxic) not recommended for them to eat frequently. So Bee is actually indulging her guests in a literal vice that can be detrimential for them.
- Bee isn't seen making a lot of chocolate pastries during the party; chocolate is highly toxic for dogs
- During her song, Bee says "your Queen Bee brings the sweet stuff, so keep making me that mother fucking honey!" All her guests are partying inside a rave building designed like a "hive" and they're producing tons of good vibes because of their consumption and fun, so they're basically acting as her worker bees by helping her to create her "honey", which are her special confections and Beelze-juice. Bee can literally "taste the flavor of people at [her] parties", so it makes sense that these emotions would be her nectar for the creation of honey.
- Bonus: what are gods known to eat? Ambrosia and nectar! So not only is Bee feeding everyone around her, she's also always being fed and kept happy, like a real queen bee.
- This can also explain why Bee-elzejuice is so addictive to other demons. It is literally liquid fun and happiness!! Of course, since this is demonic happiness, this only applies to other demons. Just ask the unfortunate fish in the "Spring Broken".
- Beelzebub makes honey like a bee but looks more like a butterfly. Beelzebub is traditionally called the "Lord of the Flies", which could cover multiple flying insects. It also references the old saying about catching more flies with honey than vinegar, which also ties into her being affable.
- Why does her parties mainly consist of only Imps and Hellhounds? Not only do the other demons not want to associate with them, given how informal and rowdy her parties are, the higher class would also consider it too plebian and "politely" refuse to go. This also drives away any nobles who might want to get any dirt on her like say, discovering that she has a Hellhound boyfriend.
- Bee's sigil is that of Bael, one of the Kings of the Ars Goetia. They aren't the same figure, but they are both derived from the same entity, the Canaanite god Baal.
- Why is Loona's usage of "bitch" considered bad while Bee can use it and no one bats an eye? The former is intended as an insult while the latter is a casual greeting. That difference was what really set the others off.
- Queen Bee's design is very over the top compared to the other characters. You can say that her design is overindulged.
- If this is Loona's first time at a party by Queen Bee given that she no idea who the latter is, where did the picture of her vomiting come from? The previous party she attended was likely held at another place without Vortex's invitation.
- Why are Bee and Tex more open and affectionate than the other two Unequal Pairings seen in the series? Financial independence.
- Fizzarolli is an employee of Asmodeus, he acts at Ozzie's club, his likeness turned into sex bots, he's sold himself body (which Ozzy has partially replaced) and soul to the Prince of Lust. Even if there is some love between Fizz and Ozzy it's secondary to their employee-boss relationship.
- Vortex on the other hand works for a demon in an entirely different ring from the one his girlfriend rules. If they broke up he'd still have his job.
- Blitzo and Stolas don't have a direct employee-employer relationship, but Blitzo's business would not exist without Stolas' grimoire. We saw in "Truth Seekers" that Blitzo is worried about being chained to Stolas (like Fizz to Ozzy), and he won't admit that their relationship is anything more than Sex for Services as seen in the previous episode. Even when Stolas tries to take their relationship further the grimoire hangs over them.
- Gluttony being primarily populated by hellhounds makes sense to anyone who has had to care for a dog. Dogs love to eat and will beg for human food despite it not being good for them.
Season Two
The Circus
- It makes sense why Paimon is Stolas's father in the show's setting. In the Ars Goetia, Paimon is a king and Stolas a prince. The son of a king is a prince.
- Being raised by a staff of servant imps and even having an imp-like plush doll to sleep with may have contributed heavily to Stolas's affinity for them.
- Stolas crying after seeing Stella's photo. Not only he's sad over the Arranged Marriage but, as seeing later in his knowledge of horse ailments, Stolas likes animals and Stella was strangling a dog in the picture.
- Blitzo's improv about a horse with laminitis could have been inspired by how much time he spends around the circus horses, one of whom might have even suffered from the condition. Given how rundown the circus appears to be, it's no surprise that the animals aren't being well-cared for.
- Blitzo speeding ahead of Stolas in the hallways as the young prince struggles to catch his breath. As a young acrobat, Blitzo would be well-accustomed to physical exertion. Meanwhile Stolas likely isn't used to so much exercise due to his more privileged upbringing and how he spends most of his time reading.
- Of course an anniversary party is called a "Not Divorced" party in hell: the sanctity of marriage surely is not acknowledged in hell, marriage is but a mere contract to produce pure blooded heirs, with actual love being a rare luxury; the fact that you managed to stay together with your Unwanted Spouse for so long, for whatever reason, despite the readily available option of divorce is something worth acknowledging.
- This episode gives some context to the phone call at the end of "The Harvest Moon Festival", or rather Stolas' lack of reaction to it. Stella's been shown to have a habit of badmouthing Stolas to party guests and over the phone, even when she knows full well that he's right there and can hear every word she's saying—after years of such nastiness, Stolas would have learned to tune it out once Stella got going.
- Stolas laments that he is an "owl in a cage". Owls in real life need large spaces to live in to avoid stress.
- Blitzo's fascination with pirates could be the reason why his Weapon Of Choice would be a flintlock pistol, the main firearm used by pirates in the The Golden Age of Piracy. His act is also the trapeze, something that emulates pirate boarding maneuvers. Combine that with all the crimes he commits...
- The lengths that Blitzo and Stolas go through for their daughters stem from their own parental neglect/abuse.
- Conversely, they seem to have repeated some of their father's mistakes too, namely the lack of consideration for their children. Blitzo's father interrupts Blitzo playing with his friend after a show to demand that he steal from the Goetia he just finished pawning Blitzo off on. Similarly Blitzo prevents Loona from socializing with Tex just so he can use her to win the bet with Verosika. Meanwhile, Stolas brings Octavia to Loo Loo Land under the misconception that it will cheer her up just like how Paimon took him to the circus. Despite Stolas being genuinely dedicated to making Octavia happy, he still overlooked just how much she hated being there like how Paimon did with him.
- From what we've seen, all of the Goetia demons are avian in form, despite the Ars Goetia describing them as coming in a variety of forms, from horses, to humanoids, to even a living pentagram. However, Paimon rapidly shapeshifting in his introduction implies he doesn't actually look like an owl, and this was just a form to communicate with Stolas in particular and he takes on a different guise when talking with his other children. Several of the forms he moves through are distinctly not birdlike, such as a hydra, a ram, an elephant, and a winged eyeball. His later comments on Stolas being "the owl boy" and him apparently siring "so fucking many" kids starts to make a bit more sense if an owl isn't his true form.
- During Loo Loo Land, compared to most other people, Blitzo treats Octavia with respect and gentleness. Since the only portrait Blitzo saw in Stolas's home where he was smiling was with Octavia, he likely surmised how much Octavia means to Stolas. Therefore, he's not as snarky nor deprecating with her.
- Blitzo tries to perform a Neck Snap on Stolas to steal the book. While it doesn't work because Stolas is an owl demon, it would have failed anyway because he's also a Goetia; like the Sinners they're above in Hell's totem pole, they can shrug off anything that isn't a hit from a holy weapon. It also makes sense why Blitzo would try to pull off that move since he kills humans, so he's most certainly murdered someone by twisting their head 180 degrees, plus imps can't survive that.
- Why does Stolas say that imps want his family's money and bodies back in "Loo Loo Land"? He is speaking from personal experience!
- While the difference in reception between Blitzo and Fizzaroli's acts shows just how the former is outclassed by the latter in the circus, another possible reason for the cold reception is that the audience thought that the whole thing is a double act and Blitzo's performance is just the first half. They are probably still waiting for the punchline!
- It's revealed that Stolas started to call Blitzo "Blitzy" the first time they had sex. By rule of first mention, it means that "Blitzy" isn't much a cute term of endearment, but Stolas' way to call him "Daddy". No wonder Blitzo doesn't like it.
- In Stolas' pictures, he is happy but Blitzo is annoyed. However in Blitzo's picture, he is happy but Stolas is asleep. They're both happy when the other is around, but neither of them can see that the other party is happy as well. A succinct visual metaphor for their relationship. Source here.
- The fact that Blitzo was apparently a small child a mere 25 years ago may be part of why Loona refuses to acknowledge him as her father. He adopted her when she was almost 18, while him being so young in the flashback suggests that he's probably in his mid-thirties at most in the present day; moreover, the implication that Loona has been living with him for a few years suggests that he was even younger when the adoption happened. The lack of a significant age gap between them may mean that Loona has trouble considering him as old enough to be her father, which can't be helped by how immature he can get at times.
- A character angrily yells up from the ground to their spouse at the window, and one of the couple is named Stella.
Seeing Stars
- Stolas might have been being catty about not knowing if Stella could spell, but if he's truly never seen her read it adds more fuel to the divorce fire. Stolas loves books and reading, and the fact that Stella doesn't seem to enjoy it at all would just distance the two further.
- When Octavia first arrives on earth, we see her regain consciousness, even though people don't normally pass out when they go through one of the grimoire's portals. She then looks up just in time to see the portal close, and not only is it several feet in the air, it seems to be parallel to the ground, rather than perpendicular. Via was unconscious because she fell through the portal and hit her head - because she was too inexperienced to make one that would align with gravity and the ground at her destination.
- As she scrambles to get up, she stumbles over a guy lying sprawled on the ground, apparently dead, probably because Via landed on him when she fell. Blink and you'll miss it, but he's wearing a pink polo and has large forearms and short brown hair. Well, now we know why Brennon Ragers wasn't on set when he was supposed to be...
- Stolas says his powers are limited in the mortal world without his grimoire. That might explain why he possessed Agent 2 and summoned himself in "Truth Seekers" as it counted as "in Hell."
- Stolas drinks from the water bottle and it's treated as regular water. But when he throws it onto the producer, it burns him because it's 98% acid. Given Stolas is a demon and has likely ingested far worse than acid, of course he'd be unaffected.
- People confusing Blitzo for Brandon Ragers goes a long way to explain why I.M.P didn't even realize they needed disguises; after all, the fact that Ragers doesn't have horns doesn't seem to phase his fans.
- "OZZIE’S" showed that Blitzo sleeps on the couch while the only bedroom in his apartment seemingly goes to Loona. Back at the hellhound adoption agency, Loona shared a cramped cell with other hellhounds and only had a wooden bench with a couple pillows to sleep on. Blitzo likely gave up his bedroom just so Loona could have a real space of her own to sleep after who knows how long.
- Octavia's disgust at the Kanye West stand-in making out with the Jeffree Starr stand-in isn't just another potshot at celebrities. Seeing a rich man whose relationship with his wife or girlfriend is on the skids getting sexual with another man would no doubt be emotionally painful considering her own situation at home. It doesn't help that the woman is also taking the child with her and the last thing Octavia wants is to be separated from her dad.
- A comment notes that Loona's circumstances before getting adopted explains her attitude towards Blitzo and Moxxie.
- Blitzo's adoption of her before she aged out ensured her eternal gratitude and was why she didn't leave him. But years of hardship have made it hard for her to properly open up to him.
- While not unwarranted, Moxxie's constant complaints subconsciously reminds her of the fat caretaker's constant belittling. As such, her first instinct is to lash out. Suddenly, her constantly calling him fat takes on a whole new meaning...
- Stolas' short back-and-forth with Blitzo after he complained about Stolas not memorizing a disguise spell have loads of fridge logic and brilliance.
- While it may seem ironic that Blitz can't remember Moxxie's phone number, people with cellphones have numbers saved on their phones, and Blitz has a stock of extra phones for emergencies, so he logically doesn't need to remember Moxxie's phone number, or anybody else's for that matter. That Blitzo responds with a "Fuck you" instead of a logical rebuttal is because it's his usual response to people talking back to him, angry cursing.
- Stolas on the other hand mainly uses a dial telephone, and would bother with remembering phone numbers. Likewise, Stolas doesn't need to remember a disguise spell for multiple demons as he normally works alone.
- Easy to miss on a first viewing (especially for younger viewers), but the little girl in the "Sweetie I'm In the House!" episode looks and acts an awful lot like Darla Dimple. No wonder she set Blitzo; off.
- At one point, Octavia walks straight through a grisly murder scene. While it was partially because she was brooding about the situation she's found herself in, she's also a native of Hell, where stuff like this is commonplace.
- Why does Loona keep referring to Moxxie as fat when he really isn't? This episode shows that his descriptions of her are very similar to those given by the woman who showed Blitzo around the orphanage/pound she used to live in, and that woman was noticeably overweight. She's most likely projecting her unresolved issues with that lady onto Moxxie.
- Moxxie's song for Millie in "OZZIE'S" features a line "I've always got you around/To laugh at my stupid jokes". In "The Circus" we can see that baby Stolas was the only one who found Blitz's "worm horse" routine funny, and now he was the only person who laughed when Blitz went off the script during the sitcom segment. Given that Moxxie's ballad was a manifest on how much he geniuinely loves Millie and being with her, it's possible that the song might also refer to Stolas' and Blitz's relationship in a metaphorical sense, and it might be what Blitz geniuinely feels for Stolas but is unable to spit out due to past bad experiences and being out of touch with his emotions.
Exes and Oohs
- Several demons in the Greed Ring, including Chaz, are shark demons. What's a criminal whose unscrupulous activity is primarily based around money?
- Moxxie says Crimson called Chaz a "friendless horsefucker" once, which Blitzø misquotes as a "horseless friendfucker". Thing is, given the context of the episode, Blitzø's actually more correct in his description—Chaz is deep in debt and living in his car (not likely to own horses), and he later fucks Blitzø (who can be considered a friend to Moxxie and Millie).
- Why would he get mixed up like that? Freudian Slip—Blitzø might still be turning the whole "slept with both my friends" thing over in his mind, hence the word swap.
- Another possibility: Blitzo has been shown to be quite fond of horses and displays a desire to get one of his own; he may have intentionally switched the words around to avoid speaking of his favorite animal in such a vulgar way (and because he sees not owning a horse as a negative).
- The "friendfucker" description of Chaz has an interesting double meaning: not only did he sleep with Blitzo's friend Moxxie, but he also abandoned him to get arrested. In other words, he "fucked" Moxxie both literally and figuratively.
- Chaz's outfit incorporates a skeleton motif, with one piece stuck sideways right above his groin. Because, yunno, he likes to bone.
- How was Chaz able to capture Blitzo the exact second after the latter found out about his plans? He was probably woken up by the "beep beep" sound when Blitzo clicked the car keys in the bedroom.
- Overlaps with Fridge Horror, but Moxxie's backstory explains why he was so afraid to kill a mother all the way back in “Murder Family”. Aiming the gun at Martha probably triggered a flashback to his own mother being killed.
- Also as far back as "Murder Family", when listing off who he considers to be acceptable people to kill, Moxxie briefly does what seems to be a generic Italian accent while mentioning a "Mob Family". Now knowing his familial background, that wasn't just a generic accent, he was specifically mimicking the way his father, a Mob Boss speaks.
- Right before this, he mentions "a shitty dad" as an acceptable target as well. Moxxie sees no problem killing an abusive dad because he already hates his own.
- Besides being an obstacle to the Arranged Marriage plan, there's another reason Crimson would dislike Millie. Being from Wrath just like Moxxie's mom, it's likely her accent, at the very least, reminds him of his wife.
- Moxxie is actually a better mobster than his father, due to his standards. One of the rules classic Italian organized crime adheres to is never abusing your wife, on pain of expulsion. While Moxx and Millie never have had this be an issue, Crimson is all but stated to have murdered his wife, if he didn't force Moxx to do it. In a classic mob family, it's very likely Crim would have been killed and his son quietly taken in by another made man, which explains why Angel Dust wants absolutely nothing to do with the organized crime even Hell is disgusted with despite having been a member of the Chicago outfit in life, who clearly don't even have his lacking morals. That and Angel Dust is proudly homosexual while Crimson is someone who decorated his house with dildos to insult his son probably isn't making Angel especially receptive to him either.
- Another big reason why Crim fails at this is that he makes the big mistake of trying to induct instead of just introducing his son to the family business when he is clearly too young for that, as shown in the flashback where Moxxie is already executing people at an age where his biggest worries should be getting cooties and Fs. Most of the successful crime families in history are noted to have even hidden their dirty business from their children until adulthood, some even reaching their forties before being taught about the truth. Others just straight up even encouraged them to go legit in exchange for some "special access".
- So why did he go through all the trouble? He saw Moxxie's sharpshooting skills and wanted to immediately capitalize on it without thinking it through. Like a certain Fire Lord, he did this early to erase Moxxie's goodness which he got from his mother to prevent it from getting in the way of work and mold him into a second Crimson.
- If Hell years work differently than Earth years (as indicated by Vivienne herself), Moxxie's "It's been 84 years..." line might not be an exaggeration or just a reference after all.
- It's impossible for it to not simply be a reference, otherwise it screws up the whole timeline. We know from The Circus that Blitzo was a small child 25 years ago, and he's an adult who had already adopted Loona when he and Moxxie meet in prison. The only way it makes sense if he meant 84 Earth years which seems somewhat unlikely.
- Before Millie begins her massacre, you can see that, unlike Crimson, Chaz is very clearly beginning to panic even before she starts killing people. He did date her after all, and thus would know about both her fighting skills as well as her fearsome temper meaning that he knew damn well that his and Crimson's plans were about to fall apart.
- A kind of Fridge Humor—of course Crimson's mad about Chaz's money being fake. Yes, he's probably upset he lost a lot of hired muscle to Millie's rampage. But the fact that he has neither Moxxie's assets or Chaz's under his control means that—whether it was Chaz or Moxxie he was trying to impress with the "decorations" in the walls and chairs—it was all for nothing. Homophobic Crimson now has a house full of fake dicks for absolutely no reason, and seeing Chaz choking on one probably reminded Crim of this fact. Anyone would be murderous after that.
- Way back in the pilot, Moxxie made a crack about wanting to get back to sleep as he found his dream of his parents being murdered comparatively more pleasant than Blitzo stalking him. After meeting his father, there's a roughly even chance he wasn't being sarcastic. In fact, this can actually go both ways now that we know what his parents were like:
- If he is referring to his mother, it is that he would rather dream of her drowned by his father than to deal with the stalking.
- If he is referring to his father, Blitzo just interrupted one of, if not the, biggest fantasy he is dreaming of.
- Being the son of a mob boss explains how in the hell Moxxie, as an imp, was able to enjoy the arts and higher life.
- Crimson's Control Freak tendencies are so bad, that his response to being saved from a fraud is to plan vengeance on the ones who exposed the fraud and saved him from being scammed. Why would he do so? Aside from the need to control, which can be justified by being a mob boss, it is because said exposure cost him at least a dozen of his men. That and, Moxxie didn't get to relinquish his assets (if he actually had any), which was the second reason for the wedding. It is noted that he himself clearly didn't like Chaz either. He must have really needed the non-existent money if he is willing to call in his abandoned son. So the whole affair left him worse off than before.
- The entire episode wouldn't have even happened if Crimson had just checked that Chaz was actually rich. That's another reason to silence Moxxie: he can't let it get out that he was swindled. It took Blitzø 10 minutes, maybe 15, to figure out that Chaz was in debt. Other crime lords would rightfully laugh Crimson out of the Greed Ring if they found out.
- Word of God reveals that Moxxie's mother is a Wrath ring native which may partially explain his attraction to Millie since it's common for people to gravitate towards partners who have similar traits to their parents. Millie's longer hair in her wedding photo even gives her a stronger physical resemblance to Moxxie's mom.
- Moxxie's lack of experience with hands-on direct killing as shown in the "Harvest Moon Festival" despite being born in the ring of Wrath is explained in this episode. While he was born in the ring of Wrath, he was raised in the ring of Greed for his entire childhood and most of his early adult life.
- May cross with Tear Jerker or Nightmare Fuel, but when he first meets Blitzø in prison, Moxxie doesn't begin smiling until the instant Blitzø mentions needing to get home to his daughter, who's been left with a sitter. Blitzø won Moxxie's loyalty by being a better father than Crimson.
- Blitzø mentions "the sitter will kill [him]" if he doesn't get back. Loona would be close to eighteen at this point if she hadn't hit it alteady, so she can take care of herself if the babysitter decides to call it quits when Blitzø doesn't come home. However, the sitter would then need to try getting paid, and with the parental unit in jail, it would be on Loona—moody, aggressive, misanthropic teenaged Loona—to pay the sitter. Not a chance many would dare take.
- Moxxie is told that his life as a mafiaso can never be left behind. Now consider all the shenanigans that remind him of that in some form throughout the previous episodes...
- Moxxie is forced to wear a wedding dress for the Shotgun Wedding rather than a tux or his usual suit. Now, the obvious main reason for this is because it comes right at the heels of Moxxie defying Crimson and refusing to play along, so Crimson probably wanted Moxxie to be married off not only Bound and Gagged to ensure his ”cooperation”, but also in a girl’s outfit to humiliate him for daring to stand up to him. However, there might also be a second reason; Considering just how homophobic and sexist Crimson is, he likely sees any couple, married or not, as having one designated ”man” and ”woman”, and while he thought Moxxie and Chaz’s relationship was ”sissy” overall, he probably found Moxxie to be the bigger ”sissy” of the two and therefore the designated ”woman”, thus the one who ”should” be wearing the dress. Which is probably one more reason why Crimson thinks of Moxxie as an Inadequate Inheritor, considering just how much the former looks down on women.
- During Millie’s massacre at the wedding, she’s in fully-focused Tranquil Fury mode rather than the frothing-at-the-mouth rage she’s demonstrated previously; Both earlier in the episode when finding out about Chaz ditching Moxxie during a heist, and when she lost it completely back when she walked in on Striker strangling him during the Harvest Moon Festival. This could be because (as far as she knew) Moxxie wasn’t in mortal danger this time around, or it could be a great showing of subtle Character Development; She probably remembered what happened the last time she blew her lid and didn't want a repeat of that.
- Millie's threats to Chaz that she was going to kill him ended up being true, just not directly. Her interrupting the wedding lead to Blitzo revealing the truth about Chaz being broke which in turn resulted in Chaz's death.
- Possibly Fridge Heartwarming: The sweater that child Moxxie wears is shown to have a small bowtie, or at least a bowtie pattern, on it. Since Crimson is unlikely to have cared enough about him to even do something as simple as getting him clothes, it's probably an educated guess that his mother is the one who bought/made that shirt for him. Furthermore, Moxxie is the only member of his father's mafia shown to wear a bowtie, at least on a regular basis. Moxxie's preference for the accessory might've been a way for him to pay tribute to his mother all along!
- Blitzo is pretty much useless during the final fight, which might seem strange considering his usual fighting prowess. However, if you consider the circumstances, it actually makes quite a bit of sense: Earlier, Chaz knocked him out with a drug, meaning he is likely still dealing with the effects from that, he smashed a car through a wall and he has no weapons on him at the time. All and all, it's impressive he was even able to do what he did during that brawl.
- Before Chaz starts his attempted serenade of Moxxie, he mentions that Moxxie used to love that back when he and Chaz were dating. Considering that it's been shown several times that Moxxie enjoys musicals and that he also enjoys serenading Millie, it's highly likely that he did, at the very least, appreciate Chaz's attempts to sing to him.
- Moxxie and Millie not realizing that the other dating Chaz as well makes a lot more sense when you realize that since both of their relationships with him ended on very bad terms, they're not exactly going to bring him up all the time.
- Chaz' demise at the end of the episode was actually foreshadowed in one of the "good times dating Moxxie" flashbacks before we get to see the last one about the failed heist. In there, the couple are referencing the famous Titanic scene of Jack painting Rose wearing nothing but a collar, with Moxxie acting as Rose and Chaz being Jack. Like Rose, Moxxie says the "It's been 84 years" line and gets to live at the end. Chaz, much like Jack on the other hand...
- It probably wasn’t a coincidence that Millie ran into Chaz at the beginning of the episode; Crimson most likely sent him to the Pride Ring to scout out the I.M.P offices and make sure that everyone, Moxxie in particular, was there so that Crimson could summon them to him.
- If one thinks about it, Crimson was ultimately His Own Worst Enemy when it came to his plan. Namely, he could have easily just married Chaz himself, taken his supposed wealth and then killed him as soon as that transaction was over. His homophobia and Control Freak nature caused him to drag Millie and Blitzo, two completely unknown variables, into the mix and that is what led to his plans failing even harder than if he had just done it himself.
- Crimson insists that Moxxie is gay, even after the latter makes it clear that he's bisexual. While it's yet another case of him being a homophobic abusive parent, remember that Crimson is a mob boss. The Mafia have always had a very rigid and narrow-minded view of male sexuality, and any man who isn't "straight enough" (read: not 100% in some cases) is gay to them. By those rigid standards, of course Moxxie would be gay, since he's been in a long-term same-sex relationship before.
- Back in ”Spring Broken”, Blitzo mentioned that the nearest ocean was ”three rings down”. This could simply be a retconned throwaway line… But if you go by the chromatic arrangements of the rings, which is after the colors of the rainbow, the third ring below Pride (Red) is Greed (Green), so there being an ocean in Greed would certainly explain the shark demons’ presence in the Ring, since it’s implied that they are native to it.
- The thought of a place like Hell having a prison at all might seem rather strange, despite there apparently being some semblance of law and order (Small one, but still), and even more-so that it would be located in Greed. But then you remember that there might be a bit of Creator's Culture Carryover at play; The writers live in the US, a country whose prison system is explicitly for-profit - Of course Mammon would implement a prison system in his Ring if it meant that he could make money off of it!
- There’s also the fact that Mammon is probably greedy enough that he considers any crimes committed in his Ring as acts that deprive him of money - For example, a bank robber would probably be, in his eyes, stealing from him specifically. Hence, the prison - He wants to punish people who try to take what he considers his.
- Crimson seems genuinely confused that Moxxie doesn't enjoy having dildos everywhere. Keep in mind the only other queer person we know he's familiar with is Chaz, who won't stop talking about his own dick and, in the wedding scene, thinks the dildos in the chairs are awesome, and Moxxie was once in a relationship with Chaz. No wonder he has a skewed view of what "the gays" like.
Western Energy
- Andrealphus makes some disturbingly romantic comment towards Stella, his own sister. This makes some twisted sense, considering a certain stereotype surrounding royalty.
- With the Incest Subtext Andrealphus has towards Stella, Stolas has even more reason to be alienated from her; there is kink, and then there is just depraved, and he can tell Stella regards him as a third wheel to begin with.
- It makes sense that Loona's doctor is a Baphomet demon, and that, by his admission, he's "never had a problem" with treating Hellhounds. Baphomet (singular) is traditionally known as the Prince of Beasts.
- Why didn't Stolas use his stone gaze in the café? It would've petrified the other customers as well. By the time he got outside, he was bound by the blessed rope.
- Of course Blitzo could not comprehend the idea of Stolas getting actually hurt until now. The latter shrugged off anything that that doesn't involve holiness, including a full-on Neck Snap. This mindset was compounded by his father drilling in him about how big and tough they were and the fact that holy weapons are supposed to be illegal and rare. This also explains his disregard for Stolas' welfare in previous episodes, thinking that he can shrug off anything with his power and wealth.
- As for saving his life back in "Harvest Moon Festival" and knowing that Stolas is going to get killed, it seems like a Series Continuity Error at first. Remember that Blitzo only knew about the blessed sniper rifle which was taken by Moxxie, so he chalked it as an exception. He has no idea about the other holy weapons Striker has. When he was saying the statement "He can get hurt?", he was just realizing that this time, Striker had more holy weapons on him and Stolas was in real mortal danger.
- According to Blitzo, it took five years to get an appointment for Loona to get a shot she needs to get yearly. This is likely meant to be a jab at the real world process of scheduling medical appointments, but it makes even more sense when you remember that, according to the show's official Twitter account, the hospital is located in the Ring of Sloth. Aka, the sin representing laziness, procrastination, apathy and just plain giving up. Of course it would take far too long for them to schedule an appointment! This could also explain why the receptionist can't read or write — Sloth probably doesn't have the best education system. It would also explain why the doctor pulls out the syringe for Loona's Hellbies shot out of a bin of used needles.
- In a Do Wrong, Right, the hospital being in the Ring of Sloth probably makes some sense. When you are sick or injuried, one of the worst things you could do is over-exertion. A damaged body needs to concentrate the energy and nutriments to regenerate the flesh and attack any dangerous virus or bacteria inside. Resting is a crucial need whenever you are getting a medical treatment. Too bad the medical staff also decided to follow up and decided it'll be nice to "not over-exert" themselves either.
- The fact that Blitzo catches himself from using the r-word when he regularly uses arguably worse profanity makes sense when you realize that particular insult is increasingly associated with mocking autism; given how much of a Cloudcuckoo Lander he is, insulting the genuinely neurodivergent is probably one of the few lines Blitzo has, as a lot of that would be aimed at himself.
- In "The Harvest Moon Festival", Moxxie was stated and shown to not be a physical fighter, yet here, he takes on a gang of cowboys without a weapon. It's possible that, since then, Moxxie decided to train himself so that, if he was without a weapon, he could actually defend himself. Especially considering how "Exes and Oohs" went down for him.
- Stella's first attempt on Stolas' life had her just want him dead, yet now she wants him tortured before he's killed. Considering that Stolas stood up to her and is in the process of divorcing her, chances are that Stella is now even more pissed at him and wants him to suffer before Striker finally kills him.
- Overlapping with Fridge Horror. Striker's beef against the nobility of Hell and the social gap they created among the hellborn is reinforced in the second last scene. Blitzo who is an imp needed to book 5 years in advance for an annual jab for his hellhound daughter. When Stolas got hurt, even taking his condition into account, the hospital in the Sloth Ring immediately rushed him to a VIP suite with special doctors wheeling him in from the I.M.P van, complete with news reporters already on the scene. It is highly doubtful if anyone less than a Goetia would've gotten the same treatment if they underwent similar injuries.
- Loona's Giant Medical Syringe may simply be just a case of Rule of Funny at first. A more reasonable explanation would be that her dosage is increased exponentially due to it being her first time at such an advanced age. It is safe to assume that younger puppies would be given a much smaller shot.
- Striker having a more comedic tone in here is because we are seeing him in the privacy of his own home, where the only supposed witness (Stolas) to his less intimidating quirks is going to be dead anyway. Stella altering the hit dragged things out until M&M showed up. Suddenly, him gouging out Stolas' eyes makes a whole lot more sense. He doesn't want anyone else describing what his home looks like and how he acts outside of his professional side in "Harvest Moon Festival". "Oops" further adds to this idea, as, when he's back out in the field, he's much more serious and threatening once again.
- In this episode we see just how varied in size imps can be - some are tiny enough to need both arms to hold up teapots and fit inside of purses! It adds more context to how Hell’s aristocracy views imps as literal accessories to their daily lives and why it would be considered taboo to have romantic/sexual relationships with them.
- Blitzo not showing up to visit Stolas in the hospital becomes a lot more understandable considering "Unhappy Campers" and "Oops". Blitzo is shown to be repeatedly barred from visiting those he cares for when they’re struggling and dealing with major injuries, he was told by the rehab staff not to come near Barbie and actively kept away from Fizzarolli by unknown individuals. The other sad side of it, is that he simply couldn’t believe that Stolas would care enough about him to want to have him visit for anything else than sex.
Unhappy Campers
- In the pilot of "Hazbin" Angel Dust could buy PCP from a vending machine and in "Loo-Loo Land" Moxxie casually offered Octavia morphine in the same sentence as ibuprofen. It makes sense that heroin would also be a "minor" drug in Hell.
- This makes Barbie's "honest" job a little less hypocritical. If drugs like morphine and heroin are equivalent to ibuprofen in Hell, then Barbie dealing them is no less illegal or morally worrisome than a pharmacist selling aspirin.
- One of the things the campers criticize about "Moxxine" is "her" legs. In addition to wearing tighter, curve-accentuating leggings, Moxxie is digitigrade, with legs that curve like an animal's—it is very noticeable that something isn't quite human there. "Millerd's" legs are straighter and more human in design with plantigrade feet, leading to less of an uncanny valley.
- Also, it's much easier for an adult woman to impersonate the voice of a preteen boy than it is for an adult man to perfectly imitate a young girl—look at the voice acting industry in real life. Moxxie's falsetto was probably not sounding too convincing to the girls, while Millie's higher tones can be waved off as a boy going through puberty.
- The toxicity and scummy behavior we see in the camp would explain why the camp counselor who sought out I.M.P.'s services ended up in Hell in the first place.
- Why is Moxxie so dead-set on using disguises over sneaking around unseen? He's a fan of the theatre—of course he'd leap at the chance to dress up and pretend to be someone else, it's acting.
- Barbie's rehab clinic is located in the Sloth ring, as is the pharmacy where she works. She explicitly stated that she wants to be as far away from Blitzo as possible. Judging by the rainbow color scheme of Hell's rings, pink Sloth truly is the furthest one away from red Pride, which is where I.M.P. and thereby Blitzo is located.
- Also, we see Barbie using what looks to be an Asmodeus crystal in a bracelet design. The Lust ring is much closer to Sloth than it is to Pride, which explains why denizens of that ring would be more likely to use them for travel to Earth. It also explains why some Sloth creatures, like the Baphomet demon receptionist from the previous episode, would be hybrids with mixed features from Envy as well as Lust since members of those rings are technically neighbors (it's pretty heavily implied that the sea creature aesthetic is from Envy).
- Why doesn't Barbie's job just make the drugs in-Ring, instead of risking detection in the human world? Because it's located in Sloth—taking the route that requires less actual labor would fit the description perfectly.
- It's also possible that Hell just isn't able to make drugs of weaker strength - why would they? The whole point of Hell's culture is to make everyone get as messed up as possible - and therefore Sloth must rely on Earth's drugs in order to keep demon addicts stable.
- Why did Moxxie's attempt at singing fail? Aside from becoming narcissistic due to a combination of jealousy at Millie's popularity and his Valley Girl cover turning the lyrics into an "I Am Great!" Song, as talented as he is, not even he can sing like a completely different person.
- Millie's need for adoration from other people stems from the fact that the Wrath Ring deemed her a pariah for murdering at least nine people during the Pain Games, with only her family and I.M.P supporting her. As much as she enjoys killing people, she also wants to be seen as a normal person rather than The Dreaded.
- As frustrating as it is, Moxxie dragging out the hit for a week which led to a mutual confrontation was a Necessary Fail with Barbie Wire taken into context. If M&M went after the target immediately after Millie's discovery, Barbie would be pissed at losing her supplier and Blitzo's investigation would be All for Nothing as she has long left the camp. If they ran into Barbie (which is very likely as you can see Barbie's eye when Millie is spying the boat shed Jimmy just went into), the brawl might end with her dead without Blitzo informing them about their relationship and his reaction won't be pretty when he finds out. Moxxie may have taken a bullet to his self-esteem but he dodged the rocket that is his boss going after him and Millie. The only time where Barbie may not be around is when Jimmy is alone in his cabin as Millie suggested after her first song.
- Moxxie's Acquired Situational Narcissism, as frustrating as it is, makes a depressing amount of sense when you consider the circumstances of his life. From childhood to early adulthood, he was kept isolated and under Crimson's thumb, which implies that he had no friends growing up, with the only person showing him genuine affection having been killed by his father when he was barely out of toddlerhood. In the present day, he receives the lion's share of verbal and physical abuse and humiliation from Blitzo, Loona and other people alike, not to mention that his in-laws clearly don't like him, but just tolerate him for Millie's sake. In other words, even after meeting Millie, he's clearly not received much in the way of platonic love and appreciation in his life. The poor man must be so starved for affection and approval that he overcompensates when he sees a chance to get it - He just wanted to make Blitzo proud of him, and that desire most likely bled into his attempt at an Alpha Bitch persona to get the kids at the camp to like him.
- Moxxie doubles down on trying (and failing) to act like an Alpha Bitch despite it clearly not working out for him. Why doesn't he change tactics or even try to be himself when he sees that it works wonders for Millie? There could be two reasons;
- The first one is that, as somebody who is a fan of theatre and movies, he knows that the Alpha Bitch is a "popular girl"-type, so he probably tries to apply movie logic to his situation despite being unable to pull it off.
- As for the second one? Well, it's not like he's received much in the way of appreciation for being himself before, has he? And while it doesn't excuse or justify his behavior, it might explain why he gets jealous of Millie instead of happy for her: He sees her effortlessly blending in and becoming Loved by All simply by being herself whereas he seems to end up becoming a pariah or a punching bag no matter where he is and what he does. It must've done a number on his self-esteem.
- The small bit of Loona we see this episode, she's sound asleep at the conference table at I.M.P Headquarters. Aside from fitting her normal lazy worker personality, given the amount of medicine and chemicals that went into her system in the previous episode (in which Blitzo takes her to get her hellbies shot), it's not surprising she'd be drowsy and out of it not long after it.
- For as disturbing and unsettling it was for the humans to watch "Moxxine and Millerd" have "incestuous sex" on implied national television, it was the best course of action for I.M.P. Millie was in her way to become a human influencer; now imagine that suddenly a popular internet celebrity disappeared as fast as "he" appeared: people will wonder, investigate and try to find "him", which would reveal that "Millerd" doesn't even exist. Cutting off "Millerd's" budding fame with such a big of a scandal was the perfect way to be so cancelled, "he" won't only fall into obscurity, "he" will be erased from internet history. Not only that, such a scandal is the perfect excuse for "Moxxine and Millerd" to go off the grid, creating a perfect alibi for the lack of info on them online and cover their tracks.
- The reason why D.H.O.R.K.S wasn't around to investigate despite "Millerd's" visibility is because, as seen on "Truth Seekers", they can't look beyond the imps' Paper-Thin Disguise so to them, "Millerd" was a completely normal kid.
Oops
- It should come as no surprise that Stolas is a fast reader; taking into account he has two pairs of eyes, he's able to take in information at a much faster rate compared to someone who only has two eyes to read with.
- Additionally, reading fast may be a required skill thanks to the Grimoire.
- Also, Stolas has just been through a long and nasty divorce with Stella. And divorces require a lot of paperwork. So, Stolas is most likely applying his proof-reading from his said divorce.
- Fizz states that he's not a fighter and indeed, he wouldn't have much reason to be! His job doesn't have anything to do with violence, and he's the lover to one of the Seven Deadly Sins, who no doubt has extremely good security- and no one would dare attack him with Ozzie standing with him. Ozzie even states he can get him an escort at the episode's start, further pointing out that Fizz has no reason to develop his own fighting skills in his day to day life.
- One of Fizz's dogs is completely white, and disabled but getting around with the help of machinery—just like him.
- Blitzo working in Loo Loo Land with Robot Fizz may seem weird when you see the circus until you see the fire he started by accident. Blitzo was probably fired for this and went to work at Loo Loo Land because he had no other choice. No wonder he hates that animatronic.
- Given the reveal, one might wonder how Blitzo wasn’t severely triggered during “Loo Loo Land” since it involved a tent fire nearly identical to the one from his past and a burning murderous Robo-Fizz. We get our answer in this episode: he very likely was, but Blitzo is older, more experienced (especially with guns), and is able to spring into action even when reminded of his trauma, all in direct contrast to his younger self. As he said, this time he sticks around.
- Remember what happened in “Seeing Stars”? Blitzo had a moment while remembering Loona’s adoption and then went postal when threatened. But he was still lucid enough to protect Stolas and remember that Via and Loona were waiting. He still has issues but now he can use guns to protect those important to him instead of running away or doing nothing.
- It probably helps that Blitzo worked for some time at Loo Loo Land alongside Robo Fizz. He likely got used to the traumatic context whenever the robot performed so that later on he was able to freely shoot at him and focus on the rivalry with Fizz’s real-life counterpart instead of getting hung up on the circus fire.
- When we first watch Loo Loo Land, it seems like Blitzø hates the Robo-Fizz because it reminds him of the real Fizzarolli, someone he hates. This episode proves the theory Right for the Wrong Reasons—he doesn't hate Robo-Fizz because he's a Fizzarolli. He hates it because it's just a Fizzarolli, and not the real thing he can apologize or explain to.
- Also, in a meta sense, “Loo Loo Land” was already packed full of subtle exposition in the plot and Stolas was the main focus of the episode anyway. The audience got some hints to Blitzo’s past, but this didn’t take unnecessary attention away from Stolas and Via’s arc.
- Fizz's grand entrance into the Greed ring makes more sense after we see how popular he is in "Mammon's Magnificent Musical..."—he's a celebrity in his native ring, favourite face of the King of Greed himself. He's not drawing needless attention to himself; if anything, a big flashy entrance would be expected from Greed's top circus clown.
- Striker' Sanity Slippage makes a lot more sense when you look at his track record seen on the show. For someone who is shown to be and sells himself as The Ace, he has lost to a washed up circus clown turned gunman, two Imps he'd written off as weak and the same clown turned gunman while another clown kept him distracted. These are people who, on paper, Striker could snap like twigs and yet he just can't seem to win against them.
- To add insult to injury, Striker keeps getting relentlessly mocked with kink humor and it's all chipping away at his cowboy machismo. No wonder he's becoming feral with rage.
- Another reason why he loses to them is that I.M.P uses every trick both in and out of the book to get an advantage. He could do fine with against other serious opponents but against walking mental nutcases? He just keeps getting blindsided by their tactics and antics that no sane person would have done.
- Striker confirms that "Western Energy" took place the previous week, yet Stolas seems to be completely recovered, even though the ending of the episode had him in critical condition. It is entirely possible that the Grimoire or Stolas himself had some form of healing magic that he used in order to heal himself enough to speak with Ozzie.
- This episode also further establishes why Bee doesn't mind dating Vortex; while there are rumormongers in Hell bitching about Ozzie and Fizz's relationship, Asmodeus doesn't care, because he's still one of the Deadly Sins. Unlike what we've seen of the Goetia families, who seem to be extremely preoccupied with their reputation, the Sins are apparently too damn strong to be held to that same standard. This also explains why Asmodeus and Bee are much more benevolent than the Goetias; they can handle any assailant exploiting said benevolence, so they can afford to be so.
- There's also the fact that being in a loving relationship would be an issue for Asmodeus specifically, as his domain of lust is one were love would be seen as counterintuitive. Whereas gluttony has nothing to do with romantic or sexual relationships, so people would be less likely to give Bee or any of the other sins issues for being in a loving partnership.
- When Fizz begins to flounder during "Look At This," he pulls out some fake Italian and mentions his "Nonna Fizzarolli". If Hell's mafia is anything like Earth's, it also has roots in Italian crime families or the infernal equivalent—Fizzarolli was looking to make a personal connection with the mobsters, and it worked.
- Even funnier if we notice Crimson's bewildered face at the start of this gag. It's possible he's confused not because he doesn't speak Italian, but because he does and all Fizz is saying is pure gibberish.
- Despite being the symbol of lust, Asmodeus doesn't approve of non-consensual lust like giving a Love Potion to someone to make them sleep with you. As he says, there's no real excitement when you fulfill your base desires in such a quick and easy way. The real spirit of lust as he likely believes is a relationship like Stolas and Blitzo. Two consenting parties having sexual relations in secret despite the social consequences that would ensue if it gets out, unable to resist their desires as they continue sleeping together and digging themselves into a hole deeper and deeper until their secret inevitably becomes public.
- Ozzie believing in consensual lust implies he's also against rape, and with good reason: contrary to popular belief, rape is not just about fulfilling lustful desires, it's more of a violent action one commits upon another person out of coveting them like an object, something that's more in line with either Wrath or Greed.
- The next episode revealing Mammon, the Sin of Greed, is far eviler than Oz lends credence to the idea that the latter hates love potions for being more Greed.
- Even disregarding ethics, consensual lust would objectively produce more lust than one-sided lust, rape, or sexual assault. Both parties are consenting means that both or multiple people produce lust, which is what Ozzie wants.
- This also raises an interesting interpretation of Verosika's song in Spring Broken. It was assumed that her song had some kind of magically seductive effect effect on humans, but given Ozzie's disdain for forced lust, it could just be that she's such a good singer that she simply makes people horny.
- Which would explain why she was taken out of rehab earlier, despite the clear signs she was still addicted: she was right, she was taken out because she was still famous; she was too good of an asset for Asmodeus to keep off the stages for who knows how long.
- Ozzie believing in consensual lust implies he's also against rape, and with good reason: contrary to popular belief, rape is not just about fulfilling lustful desires, it's more of a violent action one commits upon another person out of coveting them like an object, something that's more in line with either Wrath or Greed.
- Genuine power level aside, Crimson thinks Asmodeus is the weakest Sin because his blatant homophobia makes him see anyone in a gay relationship as "sissy"—even the King of Lust himself. Building on this is the fact that the other two Sins we've seen-Bee and Lucifer-are both in Heterosexual relationships, meaning that, to Crimson at least, Ozzie would be the weakness due to dating a same sex partner.
- Crimson's lawyer reading slowly makes sense when we remember he's probably paid hourly...and Crimson's crew is from Greed. Stretching out those billing hours would be second nature.
- Why is Fizz's nose red unlike the rest of his white-scarred face? The clown nose he was wearing protected that area from the blast.
- Why didn't anyone stop Fizz in his song number? Aside from Talking Is a Free Action, he was promised to be unharmed upon signing the contract. They can't risk injuring him which will nullify the only thing stopping Asmodeus from personally flaying them alive.
- Striker wanting to get hired by Crimson makes sense considering what we saw of his home life two episodes ago. He's not even living in a house, just an old mine tunnel, meaning that he's most likely well below the poverty line. By working for a mobster, Crimson could easily keep the jobs flowing and Striker would have a steady source of income.
- While Crimson needed Fizz alive so he could blackmail Ozzie, why bother keep Blitzo alive? Simple-he was most likely planning to use him to blackmail Moxxie into surrendering himself once he was done with Ozzie.
- Alternatively, he could have been waiting until after he was finished dealing with Ozzie so that he could take his time giving Blitzo a slow and painful death after what happened in "Exes and Oohs".
- Asmodeus being considered the weakest sin could be because he promotes an idea of lust that's mutually consented by all parties and from which all the involved manage to get pleasure, despite the consequences. In another lens, that sounds a lot like love, or at least friendship.
- This is reminiscent of The Divine Comedy, one of the show's influences, and its views on lust. According to the poem, lust is just loving someone way too much, to the point you forget about God, but since love is involved, it's considered the least harmful of sins.
- Also Lust is considered purely a sin of the flesh. Sins of the flesh are considered less grevious than spiritual ones in most Christian demomiantions and that's why lust is considered th less deadly of of all the seven sins.
- Blink and you miss it, but Blitzo's flintlock appears to be capable of firing more than one shot now. It seems he realized how Awesome, but Impractical having only one shot was and decided to upgrade it.
- Fizzaroli's lack of combat skills was foreshadowed all the way back in "OZZIES", where Millie was able take him out with only a single blow from above. While Millie's strength cannot be understated, the fact that she knocked him out so easily was an early hint about his lack of fighting skills.
- Several demons in Greed are reptiles. Since greed is about screwing over people monetarily, which is a more insidious and long-term form of evil, one would have to be pretty cold-blooded. Additionally, reptiles and greed are both associated with the color green.
- With the knowledge of how protective he is of Fizz, it makes sense why Asmodeus commissioned a line of robotic replicas of the jester; they can do Fizzarolli's jobs all across Hell while the actual Fizz can stay safe at performances where Asmodeus is present. Plus, it means their relationship isn't forced into becoming long distance by Fizz traveling to do his act.
- Stolas deciding to stay and assist Asmodeus in the safe return of Fizzarolli makes sense for a number of reasons:
- First, Stolas was a victim of kidnapping only a week ago and while he's not perfect, he doesn't hold the same level of contempt of imps like his ex-wife. As such, Stolas would feel empathy for Fizz and try his best to assist him.
- Second, given how badly kept Fizz and Ozzie's romance is, it's likely that Stolas is also aware. Plus, he's now trying to free Blitzo from their previous arrangement out of genuine love for the imp. As such, seeing another demon lord (a Sin no less) about to lose his imp lover, may have caused Stolas to try and help to prevent another similar pairing be separated.
- Third, since he was given a good view of the recording, it's highly likely he saw Striker, the man who kidnapped, tortured, and attempted to kill him very recently. And Stolas probably didn't want another person to fall victim to Striker's hands.
- Another could also be pragmatism. Since he failed to get the crystal from Asmodeus due to Fizz's hatred of Blitzo, perhaps he figured that helping Ozzie get Fizz back could make either of them grateful enough to change their minds.
- Fizzarolli can be seen wearing glasses at times in both this episode and in "OZZIES". Well, this episode reveals he was horrifically burned in a circus fire years ago; and those white patches on him are scar tissue. And said scars are around almost his entire face, including his eyes. As such, he most likely has some visual issues that require him to use reading glasses at times.
- Why did Blitzo get cold feet giving his confession on Fizzarolli's birthday, resulting in all the tragedy that happened afterwards? He saw how popular Fizzarolli was and felt out of place. He also saw how Cash is practically adopting Fizzarolli, with his "I wish you were my son" birthday card. If he confessed, it could've led to him committing incest in the future and made things awkward for everyone.
- Also, he may have gotten doubts about Fizz's answer. How can he expect Fizz to love him when even his own father doesn't?
- Outside of comedy, another reason why Blitzo's improvised and convoluted escape method works better is because even if Fizz somehow managed to get the remote with his arms undetected, there is nothing done about the henchmen guarding them.
- The fire accidently caused by Blitzo in the past broke the bridges with his family and friends. The fire intentionally caused by Blitzo in the present gave him a chance to mend bridges with said family and friends.
- Fizz tells Ozzie that he's learned he hates going outside, to which Ozzie replies he won't have to again, at least by himself. Fizz gets a strangely sad look on his face at that. A lot of viewers started speculating that perhaps Fizz was starting to feel stifled by his relationship with Ozzie after everything, and that Ozzie was trying to make Fizz more dependent on him. However, one of the things Fizz mentions doing while he's in Greed is the rehersal for the clown pageant we see in the next episode, run by his abusive, exploitative boss Mammon. Even when Fizz nearly faints after an encounter with a Loony Fan sends him spiraling into a panic attack, Mammon is only superficially concerned about his cashcow's safety, so he definitely wouldn't care about Fizz having recently been kidnapped and held for ransom by violent mobsters. And Mammon has been behaving this way towards Fizz for the better part of a decade, since we know that's how long Fizz has been both winning the pageant and under his employ. Suddenly, Fizz's sad look makes a lot more sense - it's not that he's chafing under Ozzie's protectiveness, it's that he was sure Ozzie wouldn't be able to keep him from having to go back to work as soon as Mammon wondered where he was. It's not a crack in his relationship with Ozzie, but with Mammon.
- The Freeze-Frame Bonus on the newspaper Fizz reads reveals that the main people complaining about his and Ozzie's relationship are the Goetia. Considering how Asmodeus is a member of the group according to the Ars Goetia and how people reacted to Stolas' affair with Blitzo, of course they would be up in arms about the highest ranking Goetia being in a relationship with a lower-level demon as well.
- Ozzie affectionately plays with Fizz' tail and Fizz clearly melts at it; his tail is about the only appendage he still has sensation in, since his limbs are robotic. Also note that Robo Fizz doesn't seem to have a tail - the tail is just for them. Aww.
- At one point, Fizz complains that Striker has bad breath. While intended as a joke, considering that "Western Energy" revealed that Striker lives under a volcano in an old mineshaft, it's possible that he doesn't really have plumbing and so only really brushes his teeth when staying in a hotel after a hit, which might not be that often.
MAMMON’S MAGNIFICENT MUSICAL MID-SEASON SPECIAL (ft Fizzarolli)
- Asmodeus standing up against Mammon becomes even sweeter if we assume Crimson wasn't lying about Asmodeus being the weakest of the seven Sins.
- Mammon not being Affably Evil like his fellow Deadly Sins like Asmodeus and Beelzebub makes sense because greed is all about taking things from others for yourself. It’s a purely selfish sin unlike gluttony or lust, which can be indulged in with others in more positive ways. Greed is also considered worse than both in The Divine Comedy.
- Another example of a sin being indulged positively? Fizz telling Mammon in song that he's done working for him. Quite the display of pride, wouldn't you say?
- Mammon deciding against fighting Asmodeus, the supposed weakest of the Seven Deadly Sins, could be because they’re currently in Mammon’s domain. Even if he could easily win the fight against Asmodeus, a fight between two Deadly Sins is sure to cause a ton of collateral damage, and he'd lose a ton of money repairing the damages to his own realm.
- Besides being a prideful SOB, why was Mammon so enraged at Fizz calling him out? The whole thing took place at the same pageant that inspired Fizzarolli to work for Mammon in the first place! If anybody in the audience had been inspired to join Mammon's talent search, they would be put off by Fizz saying what a bad boss Mammon was—Fizz wasn't just insulting the King of Greed, he was potentially denying him any future cash cows.
- Mammon is pretty quick to pivot on his stance about women not being funny, as Glitz and Glam continue to impress throughout the pageant. Considering he is the embodiment of Greed, his only real concern is whatever makes him the most money. Principles and previously held opinions carry no weight with Mammon when compared to making greater profits.
- Ozzie picking Blitzo to be a bodyguard for Fizz over someone on his payroll might seem strange, but considering that Ozzie knows that Blitzo was able to defeat mobsters and also had a past connection with Fizz, he would be the perfect person to not only tell if he was uncomfortable but also deal with crazy fans, which someone else may not be able to juggle.
- Glitz and Glam are presumably from Envy, judging from their fish-like form. Fitting for a pair that's jealous of Fizz's top spot and wants it for themselves.
- Fizz may have had an ulterior motive in naming the song "Two Minutes Notice" and repeatedly saying that it was his "notice." It made it explicitly clear that his employment didn't end until the song was over, and the song was thus work-for-hire. He was literally daring Mammon to monetize a song that's insulting him, and betting that Mammon is greedy enough to do exactly that.
- Mammon seems to exhibit an awful lot more sins than just the greed he holds dominion over. He gluttonously stuffs his face during the pageant, he flies into a wrathful fit when Fizz insults his pride, he inspires lust through the Fizzbots he sells, and he slothfully lets his performers do all the work while he rakes in the cash. Pride may be the original sin, but the want of money is the root of all evil!
- One could argue that he's even got envy in the bag through Loo Loo Land—nothing says "I envy your success" like a cheap knockoff!
- Why does Fizz know sign language? He learned it in the early years after the circus fire explosion which most likely damaged his vocal cords and hearing, as he took it point blank.
- Despite everyone in the show swearing up a storm, only one word gets censored this episode, which works in a meta-standpoint - it's the one swear that would get the episode demonetized, and Mammon wouldn't do anything to lose that profit.
- Mammon's main appearance, particularly his torso, makes him resemble a Christmas tree, which makes sense as Christmas is one of the most commercialized holidays in the world.
- And while it isn’t as obvious, his spider form is an Animal Motif, symbolizing both the Sin he embodies and how he ensnares his "victims" (unsuspecting hopeful performers like Fizzarroli or the people who buy their products) into his web of exploitation so he can “suck” them out of every cent they’re worth.
- Speaking of Animal Motifs, Mammon's spider motif is extra fitting when juxtaposed with his Australian accent — Australia is quite well known for being home to some of the world’s deadliest spiders.
- And while it isn’t as obvious, his spider form is an Animal Motif, symbolizing both the Sin he embodies and how he ensnares his "victims" (unsuspecting hopeful performers like Fizzarroli or the people who buy their products) into his web of exploitation so he can “suck” them out of every cent they’re worth.
- If Fizz just wanted to quit, why not try to run instead of publicly calling Mammon out? Three reasons: the first is that, at his heart, Fizz still loves performing and would rather go out doing one last performance. The second is that if he does it in a public way and Mammon tries to attack him, his fans might stand up for him (which Mammon would most likely realize would cost him quite a bit). Finally, considering that Glitz and Glam were massive assholes to him, he may have wanted to show them up.
- According to Word of God the imp kid Mammon ends up grabbing and stretching in the flashback is a young Wally Wackford. Considering Wally's personality in the present it sorta makes sense he'd be a Mammon fan as a kid, Fizz idolized Mammon for being a clown and became like him, Wally idolized Mammon for being a Corrupt Corporate Executive and did the same, Mammon even does the same Last-Second Word Swap Wally did in a previous episode meaning Wally copied some of his mannerisms from Mammon.
- Blitz's anger at Asmodeus and Fizz hiding their relationship being restricted to a seconds-long Death Glare makes sense when one considers A) he, like most of Hell, has eyes, and B) it was obvious Ozzie was hiring him to bodyguard and support Fizz for a reason. He already made his peace with it, he's just annoyed Ozzie was still keeping up the facade.
- Blitzo being the first, and probably only imp, to see Mammon for what kind of exploitive douchebag he is can be best attributed to having spent most of his young life under the care of Cash Buckzo. As shown in the season premiere, Cash clearly valued people around him based on how much money they could make for him, especially evidenced by his deeming five dollars and a condom a price worth selling Blitzø out to the Goetias for Stolas to have as a playmate. Worse still, he had no reservations with emotionally manipulating his son into stealing from the Goetia manor as long as he could make a quick buck off whatever loot Blitzo made off with while not caring about Blitzo’s concerns of getting caught in the act. A childhood of having to grow up under a father like that would undoubtedly make Blitzo wise to any slimeball’s attempts to play on something he loved (his family or performing) for the sake of profit. Mammon's claim that he'd be "like the stepdad who will love [the winner of his pageant] when it's convenient" likely didn't help Blitzo's impression of him either.
- This would also explain Blitz's attempt at trying to talk Fizz out of wanting to compete in Mammon's pageant. Given Fizz was obviously the superior performer compared to Blitz growing up, and therefore treated better by Cash for essentially being the circus' golden goose, Fizz probably never realized Cash's fondness for him was likely due to how many paying customers he brought in, nor how little Cash valued his own son in comparison. With this in mind, Blitz would definitely feel uncomfortable with the idea of his best friend working under another employer who placed more value on profits than who worked under them.
- Even when Mammon goes One-Winged Angel, Fizz clearly isn't afraid of him. This was most likely because he knew that, even though he just quit, his massive fanbase, who clearly hadn't turned on him for doing so, was still watching. Thus, he knew Mammon wouldn't touch him if he didn't want to lose a large profit from people seeing him attack/kill their idol.
- Blitzø asking who tops in Fizz and Ozzie's relationship serves the same purpose as his weird fixation on Millie pegging Moxxie. As seen in "Oops," Blitzø may have some lingering attraction towards Fizz, and wants to know where he'd "fit in" to any sexual fantasies.
- During "Two Minute's Notice", Fizzaroli slowly rips off specific parts of his outfit to show he's reclaiming and embracing the parts of himself that Mammon wanted him to hide to make himself more marketable:
- 1: Sleeves (his burn injuries/robotic prosthetics)
- 2: Cuffs (control of his own life)
- 3: Part of his shirt, exposing his midriff (a direct callback to Mammon's earlier comment about his figure)
- 4: His collar (his feelings of suffocation and his voice)
- In addition, the alterations he makes to his costume cause it to vaguely resemble the crop top shirt he wore when he first saw Mammon and decided to train for his pageant. And by the end of the song, he's made it clear he wants to start over from scratch, essentially returning to his roots and closing the book on the biggest mistake of his life: not seeing his idol for what he really was.
- The line "Money can't buy happiness, but it can rent you paradise" from the Glam Twins' song, "Klown Bitch", has a very profound double meaning. It motivates people to accumulate wealth in honor of the "virtues" of the Greed Ring, but also to consume in order to fill the void people most likely have, considering this is Hell. It also could tell how, in literal Hell, the only way to get a slice of "Paradise" is by the use of wealth to get ahead, as it's heavily implied in "C.H.E.R.U.B." that most people getting to Heaven are actually quite rich, and even in Heaven money is still recognized if not outright used (although rarely) as seem by the cherubs not accepting money for their guardian angel services.
- "Two Minutes' Notice" includes the line, "If I stick around, I'll be six more feet under the ground!" A nod to the fact that Hell’s already underground.
- Not only that, the the coffin that Fizz drops into during that section doubles as a reference to his voice actor’s role as Beetlejuice on Broadway, and the coffin heavily featured during the show’s opening number “The Whole ‘Being Dead’ Thing”.
- The moment where the Glam Sisters win Mammon over is during the balloon section, where their balloon, a crown, is simply piggybagging off the one Fizzaroli made of Mammon. In other words, he came to like them because they do the same stuff he does-stealing other people's ideas for their own benefit.
- The Glam Sisters and Fizz’s acts are more than a little risqué but as they say in business, “sex sells”.
- When Arick gets his head shot by Blitzo, the bullet also breaks the Mammon mirror in half. Considering Fizz quits afterward, Arick's death became Blitzo's unintentional way of saying "Fizz, follow your rooster's lead and GTFO of being under Mammon's thumb now!"
- The episode title only showing Fizz as an additional afterthought while fully propping up Mammon shows just how uneven the power dynamic between the two really is.
- The episode title makes a lot of sense when you consider the first Mammon performance, which was 90% hype and 10% actual show. The title is Mammon hyping up how amazing his show is, and then briefly mentioning the performer the crowd is actually there to watch.
- Fizz's nickname "Froggy" isn't just a cute pet name Ozzie gave him based on his "froggy" voice - it's his Animal Motif. Not only does he physically resemble one (his cheek circles and pointy-lipped grin bear more than a passing resemblance to a frog's mouth and "ears"), he shares their tendency for energetically springing and leaping around from place to place with his robotic limbs, and he has a croaky voice!
- Not only that, his upstaging of Mammon (whose Animal Motif is spiders due to ensnaring his "prey" in a "web" to suck them out of whatever money he can get out of them) with "Two Minutes Notice" is symbolic of how frogs are predators of spiders.
- Why is the crowd at the pageant so supportive of Asmodeus and Fizzarolli's relationship despite the stigma of an imp and a royal being together? Because this is specifically Fizz's fanbase, who’d already been shipping the two for years. If it’d been a crowd of random imps, they probably wouldn't care as much, and if it was a crowd of royals, the response would likely be much less pleasant.
- Pay attention to the runtime of "Two Minutes' Notice": the first time Fizz uses that phrase is at a point where there are approximately two minutes left in the song. Extra brilliance because the previous episode implied that Fizz helps plan Ozzie's schedule; of course he would be good at timing.
- As seen in "Oops", Fizzarolli has traumatic feelings towards fire, but doesn't have the same negative reaction during his performance or when Ozzie is engulfed in flames. Why? The fire that took Fizz's limbs was green, and the fire he's surrounded by now is blue and was conjured by Ozzie, his lover, so Fizz knows he won't get hurt.
- Arick’s Opaque Lenses aren’t there just as an easy way of broadcasting how much of an unsettling creep he is - they’re there to show how he can’t see beyond himself or how his behavior towards Fizz is wrong.
- Mammon, once he realizes what "Two Minutes' Notice" is about, doesn't actually threaten Fizzarolli until Fizz quits, even though he's clearly pissed about it. But then you realize that the crowd was eating up the song and Mammon would be the type of person that, if it made him money, would let himself be degraded for profit.
- Glitz is usually smiling while Glam is usually frowning. Judging by them being fish demons, they're likely from Envy, the domain of Leviathan. On Blitzo's phone screen, that Ring's app is EnVee, which has a stylized tragedy/comedy mask as its image.
- Ozzie openly and proudly admitting his love for Fizzarolli makes given it's a similar situation from the previous episode - His beloved boyfriend is being held hostage in some way (literal in "Oops", figurative here) by someone from the Greed Ring (Crimson in "Oops", Mammon here). And both greedy assholes used Ozzie's secret romance with Fizz as collateral. In "Oops", Ozzie was unable to do anything but is now able to protect his lover. His need to keep their romance secret nearly cost him his beloved boyfriend. Of course, he would openly confess his love to ensure Fizz's safety.
- Mammon does to a limited extent incarnates some (relatively) positive posture about greed: he's result oriented. Because he prioritizes whatever gives him the best results (AKA: Money and sales) he's willing to discard any potentially undesirable belief: he discards the idea of women not being funny once Glitz and Glam's play impressed him, his events have no arbitrarily entrance requirements so imps and lower classes can get in without a fuss, and avoids indulging in collateral damage knowing he'll have to fix the place aftewards. Contrast with the other sins which, if their incarnations weren't Affably Evil, would be capable of accept bigotry, short-sighteness or even pointless hedonism. Lucifer, Asmodeus and Beelzebub take a Do Wrong, Right approach; Mammon would reject indulging into discrimination or pointless destruction if only because those things are largely unprofitable, even if he's still not a good person at all.
- Related to the above, this might also be why Mammon openly admitted that his previous "women aren't funny" ideology was wrong. The Seven Deadly Sins are Empodiments of Vices, and openly regard their respective sins as good things; by extension, anything that would go against those sins would be considered bad. Mammon's apology might have been sincere after all... because his attitude pushed away female performers, costing him a ton of potential profits he could have gotten had he been more egalitarian. It's possible that Mammon considered his own actions as morally bad (for a Greed-based mindset) in addition to being personally disadvantageous.
- When Blitzo saves Fizz from the too horny fan that started humping him, it's during the "Too late to apologize" line, providing a great contrast between Blitzo and Mammon and their relationship with Fizz. Even under all the hate, Blitzo did want to make things right with Fizz while Mammon merely saw him as a product to market. While it may have been too late for Mammon, it wasn't too late for Blitzo to fix things because he saw Fizz as a person, not a product.
- It may seem odd that Fizz doesn't seem to have entered a Soul Contract with Mammon like some of the characters in Hazbin have, especially since it allows him to quit without any kind of magical repercussion. Then you realize that those contracts have to be mutual, meaning Fizz would get some kind of guaranteed reprieve or benefit. Naturally, the embodiment of Greed wouldn't want to give an inch to Fizz in terms of when he can and can't use him for financial gain, so Mammon would much rather emotionally manipulate him so he can have it all instead of being magically bound to give Fizz concessions.
