YMMV / Helluva Boss S2E5 "Unhappy Campers"

• Accidental Aesop:
  • Sometimes, the most obvious choice is the right one. Millie almost instantly fingers the culprit as soon as she and Moxxie arrive at the camp, but the latter, in his desire to do things the "right" way, shrugs it off because the first suspect is never the correct one, even when it is in this case. Had he listened, he could have saved himself a lot of humiliation and trouble. In short, Occam's Razor.
  • Moxxie's attempt at emulating stereotypes as "Moxxine" and becoming Hated by All is a good reminder about how many stereotypes have become dead horse tropes, and trying to emulate them is more than likely to get you derision than actually fitting in.
  • Fame takes ages to build and seconds to destroy.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Blitzo taking back his praise of Moxxie at the end of the episode. Did he actually think Moxxie did a poor job and just wanted to build his hopes up? Or did he believe Moxxie did a good job but blame him for Barbie still being mad at him? Or does he just not want anyone else to be happy at the moment considering how upset he was?
  • Barb being angry about Jimmy killing the other counselor — was she genuinely mad that he'd stoop that low or was she just mad that he'd jeopardize their plan like that? The latter becomes especially likely depending on whether or not Barb was aware of her brother's business.
  • Blitzo clearly has no objection to Barbie selling heroin, but absolutely refuses to spare Jimmy. Is this because he regards his business as Serious Business, or was he hoping to make Barbie dependent on him?
  • Blitzo was able to overpower the dealer, and clearly knew what the Asmodean Crystal was. Why did he not simply take it? Was he so caught up in the hunt for Barbie it didn't occur to him? Was he afraid of retaliation? Does he no longer want to be independent of Stolas? The lack of any mention of Stolas or his recovery in this episode makes it even more uncertain. On top of that, his reaction arguably strengthens the theory that he only dated Verosika to get her crystal.
  • Barbie's job seems to be transporting heroin from Earth to Hell, where it's a much milder drug. While the show has never established the relative spending power of Hellish currency vs. Earthly currency, it seems strange that heroin would be worth more in Hell. Was this truly a for-profit endeavor? Or was someone with ulterior motives subsidizing it? And if so, why? Were they trying to get heroin out of the hands of humans to undermine either Beelzebub or Belphegor?
• Broken Base: Unhappy Campers is considered one of the most divisive episodes in the season, if not the whole series. To this day, people argue over several focal points of the episode:
  • Whether or not the episode was considered a 'Millie' episode, with defenders saying that Millie was given some depths with her insecurities, and detractors arguing that it came off as forced, due to the infamous lack of development. Further arguments state that the episode was more about Moxxie, with the episode being more about him learning to not be jealous. Defenders who speak out against that claim argue that Moxxie is the episode's antagonist, with his jealousy and attention-seeking being portrayed negatively through Millie's perspective, and that Millie is the one who the climax focuses on with her spectacle-filled concert.
  • Moxxie. Many felt the episode did his character a dis-service, turning him into a Glory Seeker attention whore who flat out ignore the obviously guilty Jimmy out of wanting to do things the 'right way', finding it a major far cry from how he is depicted in previous episodes and felt this was only done to justify the plot. While some would defend that Moxxie always had snobbish qualities (such as his coffee order), the detractors argue that it was never to this degree. Another point of contention was 'Moxxine'. While others love the design of Moxxie's persona, others loathe it, finding Richard's 'valley girl' accent to be grating. The Humiliation Conga he is put through in this episode did not help either.
  • While some fans enjoy this episode because it gives Moxxie and Millie's relationship more development, others hate it because of how much humiliation Moxxie had to suffer.
  • Barbie Wire. Blitzo's sister was one thing people were looking forward to in the Lvl Up Expo trailer in the episode. While she was a highlight within the episode when it was released (especially compared to the Moxxie and Millie plot), many felt disappointed that she only had a limited screen time (roughly 2 minutes). Some people though were not as impressed with her, finding her to simply be an angrier and less likable female Blitzo, who despises him for a currently unknown reason^note though theories suggest it has to do with the circus fire mentioned in "Oops", and were really not pleased with her sexual manipulation of Jimmy (Word of God stated that Jimmy was of age, but Jimmy's voice didn't convince people).
  • The Blitzo and Barbie Wire dilemma. The episode began with Blitzo trying to find Barbie Wire after she checked out of rehab, despite being warned to stay away. This had divided people: one camp argued that Blitzo should have respected Barbie's wishes to leave her alone, and defying her ended up costing her job. The other camp however rebuts that Blitzo had a right to be worried, being a concerned brother for his sister who was dealing drugs (something she was in rehab for), and Jimmy's death wasn't his fault (it was a wayward firework from Millie's performance).
  • Lastly, the sex jokes within the episode. While not a problem usually, fans did not care for the fact that these jokes revolved around a summer camp with kids. From the name of the camp being 'Ivannakummore', to one of Mille's fans sending her a dick pic (her being disguised as a young teen boy), to the infamous 'incest' scene (Moxxie and Millie doing it while in their personas as preteen siblings), people were divided: some fans enjoyed them in a Crosses the Line Twice sort of way, while others felt the jokes were merely done for shock value rather than actual humor.
• Fanfic Fuel: Whatever Blitzo did to make Barbie loathe him so much isn't revealed in the episode, making it utterly ripe for fanfiction writers to jump on.
• Jerkass Woobie: It's revealed in this episode that Blitzo wants to take care of his sister, and spends most of it trying to convince her to stay with him. However, his sister, Barbie Wire, doesn't care one bit about it and coldly tells him to leave her alone.
• Misaimed Fandom: Some viewers felt more sympathy for Moxxie than Millie in this episode, relating his fragile ego to a desperation to prove himself as a result of his harsh upbringing under Crimson, causing them to feel pity for Moxxie and irritation at Millie's "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards him and allegedly being a Glory Seeker rather than supporting him. While Moxxie can be seen as pitiful for his behavior in this episode, the crux of the episode's plot only happens because he goes out of his way to do things "the right way" instead of going after the obviously guilty Jimmy as Millie suggested, and repeatedly takes Millie for granted in favor of sating his ego, getting jealous and resentful of Millie when she is beloved without even trying, and wastes a week doing this when he could've completed the job on the first day, epitomized by "Moxxine's" "I Am Great!" Song, "Everybody Look at Me!" Blitzo's calling him a "fucking disgrace" is likewise completely warranted, since Moxxie botched what should have been an otherwise easy job, and if anything simply reinforced the idea Blitzo shouldn't trust him to lead a job in the future.
• Squick: During Millie's song she mentions that people have been sending her, or rather "Millerd", unprompted nude selfies. Note that "Millerd" is meant to be a young teenager, probably 13-14.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • While there are no true problems with Millie and Moxxie's camp shenanigans in and of itself, fans generally agree that it overshadowed the Barbie plot a little too much, and Barbie's presence itself comes off as an afterthought.
  • The fact that the client didn't know who murdered him would have been a good setup for a whodunit-style mystery that Moxxie was planning on doing from the start, which could have given I.M.P a chance to flex some other skills or just made for an interesting detective story. This possibility was cut off when the culprit was immediately identified a few minutes in.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: While Moxxie can be viewed as a Woobie in this episode, his constant attention-seeking, narcissism, and jealousy make it clear he's mostly meant to be viewed in the wrong. However, some fans actually ended up sympathizing with Moxxie a lot more than Millie's pleas of finally feeling appreciated beyond being an assassin. This likely stemmed from how Moxxie's insecurities, backstory, and Butt-Monkey status have been shown and explored fully in previous episodes, while Millie's own insecurities were only really hinted at with minuscule foreshadowing, making some viewers think that it came out of nowhere and in turn not be as sympathetic for her. Furthermore, it did not help in the slightest that Moxxie was put through the wringer moreso than usual, coming off more mean-spirited rather than it being karma for his behavior.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Despite the implications in the following episode that Barbie Wire hates Blitzo for unintentionally starting a fire that destroyed their family circus, killed their mother, and most likely led to her developing a drug addiction, some still find it hard to feel sympathy for her since her first appearance depicts her as an antagonist and she can be seen as just an angrier version of pre-character development Blitzo, just female. Several also voiced their disapproval of her using her sex appeal to manipulate Jimmy, regardless of him being an Asshole Victim, especially considering the initial impression that Jimmy was a minor.
• Unpopular Popular Character: "Moxxine" is universally hated and mistreated by the other campers. In contrast, fans love this design for Moxxie, and were making fanart of "her" even after a single sneak peek.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: The unnamed client who orders the episode's hit has a very androgynous design and voice. So, several viewers wound up mistaking him for a tomboy or a non-binary person despite the episode referring to the client with male pronouns.
• The Woobie:
  • Poor Moxxie is given his big chance to impress Blitzo by leading his first mission, but his elaborate plans quickly fall apart despite his best efforts, and he spends a week trying fruitlessly to stick to it while Millie easily garners the adoration of everyone around her, causing Moxxie to become jealous (at least until his Heel Realization).
  • Millie gets a bit of it too. She finally gets praised and seen as something other than a killing machine, yet her husband won't support her in it (initially).

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