YMMV / Helluva Boss S1E1 "Murder Family"

• Accidental Aesop: Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Had Mrs. Mayberry not killed herself, she might have had a chance to atone for what she did and go to Heaven, instead of dying in sin and going to Hell.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Mrs. Mayberry kill herself out of horror when she realized she just scarred her students for life? Or because she realized they were witnesses to her crime and there was no way she could get away with it? Her tearfully apologizing to the children and requesting that they do their timetables before she ends her own life leads credence to the former interpretation.
  • Was Martha the same after her near-death as she was before? Virtually nothing of her is seen before she gets shot by Mrs. Mayberry, and severe head injuries have been known to change peoples' personalities. Given that the family's more horrible activities seem to have been going on for some time, it's unlikely though that it actually made Martha any worse than she originally was.
  • On another note, Martha acts loving towards her husband Ralphie, but has been shown to sleep with at least two other men. Is she only pretending to love him? Or is her love genuine and she just sleeps around for whatever reason? For that matter, does Ralphie know? If he does, what are his feelings on the matter? Is it possible that they have an open marriage? Or is she acting as bait to lure in victims for them to eat?
  • Did Mrs. Mayberry's students really consider Martha a "hero"? Or were they just acting like they did to conform to how other people saw her? And if the latter, why?
  • Was Stolas unaware of the danger Blitzo was in during their phone call? Or did he know about his peril and deliberately take advantage of it so he could more easily steer Blitzo into accepting the deal he offered?
  • When Blitzo threatened to "fuck" Moxxie and Millie if the former ever screwed up again, how serious was he? For that matter, did he mean it in a specifically sexual way, or in a more general sense?
  • Did the cops kill Martha's family out of general police overkill, out of outrage and horror at what they did, or to cover up that they somehow missed that the "local hero" was secretly a cannibalistic serial killer? Possibly some combination of the three.
• Broken Base: The scene between Stolas and Blitzo regarding the full moon deal is one that is steeped in heavy debate. Detractors argue that the deal comes off as Sexual Extortion as Blitzo needs Stolas' grimoire to keep his business afloat, not to mention that Blitzo was currently running for his life from Martha and hastily agrees to the deal to get Stolas off the phone, then looks repulsed when Stolas immediately launches into one of his signature Cluster F-Bomb rants. The fact that Stolas should have heard the gunshots and Blitzo tells him repeatedly it's a bad time and to get to the point does not help, as it comes off as Stolas not caring Blitzo is in danger and leveraging that to get him to agree. The power dynamic is also worrying because Stolas the demon prince could easily kill Blitzo the lowly imp if he wants and though the viewers know he wouldn't do that, does Blitzo believe it's just safer to keep appeasing him? Defenders insist that this is not the case, arguing that Blitzo was simply using his body to manipulate Stolas to let him use the book (even though Blitz never actively pursues Stolas sexually outside of their one night stand until the deal forces him to), or that Blitzo could have bartered with Stolas - he certainly couldn't have at that particular time, but it's true that after the mission ended there could possibly have been a better negotiation left offscreen because it would be hard to make funny. Debates around Blitzo's perspective on the deal can also get uncomfortably close to the "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization - that if he doesn't complain more about the deal that means he secretly wants to keep it going, even though it's an established aspect of Blitzo's character that he behaves in a hypersexual manner as a coping mechanism to hide his internal self-hatred, which Stolas is arguably making worse due to his objectification of Blitzo, especially in this episode and Loo Loo Land.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The entire montage of Martha being referred as a hero by various different people, including Mrs. Mayberry's students, given that the latter explained that Martha had slept with her husband, and miraculously survive her murder-suicide attempt. The montage is made even funnier with the knowledge that Martha and her family are revealed to be a clan of unhinged, cannibalistic devil-worshipping serial killers, making her FAR from being a hero.
• Fanfic Fuel: What do Martha and her family look like in Hell?
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Further to the above, Stolas making the full moon deal with Blitzo becomes much sadder after "The Circus" reveals that Blitzo's father sold him to be Stolas' playmate for a day even though he didn't want to be forced into spending time with a royal he had never met before. It creates a sense that the unhealthy relationship between the two in the present is repeating - the lower class Blitzo is having his body and time sold off and doesn't have an option to refuse due to the vast difference in their economic and social statuses. As a child he was guilt tripped into it to help his mother, as an adult he needs the book to keep his business running. This casts further complications on Blitzo's own feelings towards the full moon deal - in the real world the deal would be considered Sexual Extortion, but does the class structure of Hell mean that Blitzo has become deadened to being treated like property by the rich and powerful so he doesn't even realize the full extent of how exploitative the arrangement is?
  • Moxxie's initial unwillingness to kill Martha takes a sadder and much darker turn after "Exes and Oohs" reveals he was forced to take part in the mob business by his father (and heavily implies that his own mother was killed because of it). Similarly, Moxxie's reasoning if they have to kill a shitty dad or a mob family as understandable, since "Exes and Oohs" reveals he has issues with his mafioso father.
  • The scene where Martha attempts to burn Blitzo and Millie alive in a bonfire, only for it to backfire as Blitzo points out that Earth fire doesn't hurt them, becomes less funny after "Oops", where it's revealed that Blitzo's white facial scar was caused by a childhood Hellfire accident that also horribly crippled his friend Fizzarolli and killed his mother.

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