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Recap / Helluva Boss S2E5 "Unhappy Campers"

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When Moxxie gets to lead a mission for the first time, things sure do happen — namely, trying to win a popularity contest with some campers while Blitzo goes searching for his sister, Barbie.


Tropes for this episode include:

  • Acquired Situational Narcissism: When Moxxie attempts to bump up "Moxxine's" popularity, he tries to play to his strengths and sings a song. Unfortunately, it's a song all about "her" and how great "she" is, which doesn't do much for "her" popularity.
  • Actor Allusion: "Moxxine" has to defend “her” inhuman skin color from humans due to “her” Paper-Thin Disguise, just like another character voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz.
  • All Take and No Give: Part of Millie's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Moxxie involves how despite all she does to support him and make him feel better about himself, when it's finally time for her to get the spotlight, he's more wrapped up in his own fragile ego instead of being happy for her.
  • Attention Whore: Moxxie, or "Moxxine" in this episode, absolutely craves attention. As such, he gets pretty envious when Millie (under the guise of "Millerd") gets all the praise. This attitude gets Moxxie a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Millie, who argues that Moxxie takes a lot of support, but never gives Millie any when she needs it.
  • Attractive Bent-Gender: As Millerd, Millie gets the entire camp full of girls obsessed about "him", to the point that Millie even sings a song about how Millerd is extremely popular, and can't figure out why it's happening.
  • Bait-and-Switch: The episode opens with Blitzo sneaking into the hospital from the previous episode, leading viewers to assume he's visiting Stolas. Turns out he was trying to find his sister Barbie Wire, and is told by a rehab nurse she had checked out months ago.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Even without getting incinerated by the spewing flames, the camp counselor told "Millerd" to put Camp Ivannakummore on the map. One public make-out with "Moxxine" as supposed siblings later...
  • Bile Fascination: In-Universe. "Millerd" and "Moxxine" wind up having sex on stage in front of a live audience. Add the fact that they infiltrated the campsite under the guise of siblings, the act is seen as incest and described by a news reporter as "Too disturbing to look away... and we won't."
  • Bittersweet Ending: More on the bitter side than sweet. After spending at least a week searching for her, Blitzo's sister Barbie tells him in no uncertain terms that she wants nothing to do with him. Moxxie's first mission as lead ends badly, with Blitzo not helping matters by rubbing salt in the wound. Not even Barbie gets away scot-free, as she's now down a supplier. Though on the plus side, Moxxie and Millie do manage to fix their relationship back up after it got shaken up during the episode, and the target Moxxie was after did end up being killed in the end.
  • Brother–Sister Incest: Invoked. Since Moxxie and Millie's cover identities have characterized themselves as brother and sister, some of their behavior ends up appearing like this. When "Moxxine" lists "a body that won't quit" amongst "Millerd's" qualities as "she" introduces the concert, some audience members visibly get uncomfortable. Finally, in the episode's Dénouement, Moxxie and Millie, still wearing their disguises, get too caught up in the moment and start having sex in front of the audience, resulting in "Millerd's" sudden fame turning to infamy on live TV.
  • Cain and Abel: Blitzo and his sister Barbie have this dynamic, albeit Blitzo being the Cain in this scenario. While he sees himself as just being Barbie's concerned brother, it's made heavily clear Barbie wants nothing to do with him, having removed him from her visitor's list when she was still in rehab, and going to great lengths to make sure he can't find her when she gets out, it mentioned several times that his involvement in her life just made things worse.
  • Call-Back:
    • Blitzo's sister was mentioned to be in rehab back in "Spring Broken". This episode starts with Blitzo trying to visit her in rehab, only to be told she's gotten out a while ago.
    • Barbie uses an Asmodean crystal, seen in one of Stolas' books in "The Circus", to travel between Earth and Hell.
    • A similar shark to the one from "The Harvest Moon Festival" appears during Moxxie’s Failure Montage to maul him a fourth time.
    • The office's whiteboard has a drawing of Loona killing the doctor from the previous episode.
  • The Cameo: Loona is absent until the final shot, where she appears asleep on the meeting room desk.
  • Camp Wackyname: Camp Ivannakummore. As in, "I wanna cum more".
  • Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun: When Millie first spots Jimmy, he is trying to sneak around unnoticed in a trench coat while carrying a large sack. Despite how this all looks rather shady, Moxxie first tries to dismiss it as not strong enough evidence to finger him as the culprit. Millie, however, studies Jimmy closer through a set of binoculars and points out how Jimmy's sack is full of a mix of cash and what is clearly some sort of illegal drugs, and he is even wielding a drill in his free hand, which could have been used to poke holes in a boat. Moxxie tries to claim that this only circumstantial evidence, but Millie then points out that Jimmy is currently sneaking into the boat house, showing that he has access to the boats and could very easily have arranged the "accident". It is only because of Moxxie's clearly dismayed reaction that she decides to walk this suspicion back.
  • Complexity Addiction: Deconstructed. Moxxie invented complete backstories for his and Millie's disguises, which were rendered immediately pointless as soon as they arrive and see their target; despite this Moxxie insists on not investigating the suspicious-looking guy who's lugging around drugs and a drill that could be used to put a hole in a boat and instead wastes a week trying and failing to insinuate himself in with the campers (something Millie does effortlessly) so he can pump them for information he already has. Even the very idea of disguising as opposite genders and going in as siblings did nothing but cause trouble for the duo.
  • Continuity Nod: Moxxie during his song casually walks through the campfire, recalling how it was established in "Murder Family" that demons can't be hurt by earthly fire. Unfortunately, the makeup he's wearing is still ruined, which doesn't do him any popularity favors.
  • Contrived Coincidence: The person Millie and Moxxie are looking for just happens to be in the exact same place on Earth that the person Blitzo is looking for, so the three imps end up in the same place despite having different objectives.
  • "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The whole plot could have ended quickly had Moxxie and Millie just killed the camp counselor who killed their client from the start after Millie spots him the moment they arrived at the camp, but Moxxie insists they handle it the "right way" and makes sure he's the right counselor and Millie only humors Moxxie so he can feel good about himself. Moxxie is even later called out by Millie and Blitzo for taking too long to complete the job even when he knows who the target is.
  • Cover-Blowing Superpower: Subverted. During Moxxie's "Everybody Look At Me!" segment, Moxxie steps into the campfire, which shows that he's immune to fire (it still ruins his make-up), but this somehow doesn't out him as being an imp in disguise. Millie also shows off her supernatural strength at various points in front of the campers during the episode, but still doesn't get outed.
  • A Day in the Limelight: While Moxxie is still involved and his relationship to her is somewhat important, this is the first episode where Millie is the one amidst the two to get the lion's share of focus and character exploration, something she lampshades when calling out Moxxie for how much she supports him and yet he isn't supporting her here. Even Moxxie's own insecurities and issues in this episode are mostly framed from Millie's POV and are treated as more like a nuisance she has to deal with and rightfully calls out.
  • Death Glare: At the end of the episode when Blitzo seemingly compliments Moxxie, only to immediately take it back and call him a "fucking disgrace", Millie is seen glaring angrily at Blitzo for speaking this way to her husband. Notably, this is the first time Millie has ever shown any kind of annoyance towards Blitzo instead of amusement.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: Much like how I.M.P. being assassins is seen as "honest work" in Hell, Barbie getting clean yet still dealing heroin on Earth is similarly seen as her successfully turning her life around. It helps that, according to Blitzo, heroin is no more effective on the denizens of Hell than over the counter headache medicine.
  • Deconstruction: Along with deconstructing Millie's Satellite Love Interest status, investigating mysteries are also deconstructed. With Moxxie being given his first hit to lead, he believes that to prove himself he has to be thorough like in crime shows. But as soon as he and Millie got to the camp, she ID'ed the target immediately (He had money, drugs, and a drill with a trench coat in the middle of summer), but Moxxie says the first suspect is never the real culprit, so because of this he ignores the target to investigate elsewhere. What happens is a week is wasted with pure humiliation every step of the way while Millie gets beloved in her disguise. And Moxxie never finds another suspect because it wasn't some genius killer like in Columbo or Monk, but a horny idiot. It took Millie calling out Moxxie for how unsupportive he's been for him to realize he's been wasting his time.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Partially justified since he was panicking, but while trying to keep I.M.P. away from him as they're struggling with Barbie, Jimmy throws a kilo of heroin at them. All this does is briefly get them and Barbie high, and cause all three of them to focus their now erratic behavior on him, forcing him to back away in fright and putting him at the perfect spot for a stray rocket to blow his head up.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Millie admits to Moxxie that she feels like a third wheel when compared to him and Blitzo and that all anyone seems to think she's good for is killing, a meta-commentary on how the fanbase views her as a Satellite Character to Moxxie, and otherwise is only good at killing things.
  • Easy Road to Hell: Again we see that it's incredibly easy to end up in Hell, as the client of the episode is a teenager who ended up in Hell for no apparent crime whatsoever. All we know about the poor guy is that he was murdered for stumbling upon a heroin smuggling operation. At least with I.M.P.'s former clients there was some obvious criminality in their backgrounds.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • When Millie recites how her persona likes "fucking bitches", Moxxie states that they should leave that part out, considering the campers are younger than he thought.
    • "H-8", which was what Barbie was previously hooked on, is apparently bad even by Hell's standards, with there actually being rehab clinics for addicts.
    • "Millerd" is disgusted when she finds out about the nudes sent to her. This is compounded by the fact that she is disguised as a minor.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
    • As screwed-up as Earth is in this universe, even they draw the line at (supposed) Brother–Sister Incest.
    • Zigzagged with Barbie. While she is pissed at finding out that Jimmy killed the I.M.P.'s client, she only defends him from Blitzo and Moxxie because he works as her supplier.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Exaggerated. Once Millie and Moxxie arrive in the camp, Millie immediately pegs a suspicious looking character. He's not only behaving incredibly shady by dressing in a trenchcoat and nervously trying to sneak unnoticed down to the boating house while carrying around several sacks filled with cash and what is blatantly drugs, but he even wields a drill that could be used to put holes in a boat, which is how their client died. But Moxxie is so dedicated to the idea of doing things "the right way" that he refuses to take the incredibly obvious suspect into account.
  • Fantastic Drug: Whatever "H-8" is, it is a supposedly even worse drug in Hell than Earth's heroin. Blitzo is audibly relieved that his sister Barb is taking the latter after checking out of rehab.
  • Follow the Bouncing Ball: Millie's song is accompanied by the bouncing "Millerd" head karaoke cursor.
  • Foreshadowing: The nurse who took care of Barbie refuses to tell Blitzo much about where she went after checking out of rehab; only that she has a job and a life and telling Blitzo not to "fuck it up" by finding her. She does have a job, in a sense, but alas, Blitzo does "fuck it up" after finding her.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Millie observes Jimmy entering the cabin early in the episode, there's an eye with a red pupil that can be seen for half a second. It foreshadows that Blitzo's sister Barbie Wire is here.
  • Fun with Subtitles:
    • During Moxxie's attempt at a song, as the song quickly gets derailed with Millie's banjo solo, the sing-along captions begin effectively commentating on the situation, noting "Millerd is real cool", "Wow you gonna cry Moxxine? Cringe", and "Not everything is about you Moxxine" in quick succession.
    • And during the Dénouement, the captions of "Millerd" and "Moxxine"'s passionate lovemaking is captioned as "[Noises of two lovesick imps about to raw dog begin]", "[Like it's so graphic]", "[There goes the tube top]" and "[Exhibitionism Activated]"
  • Gone Horribly Wrong: Moxxie's attempts at winning over the campers fail miserably because he goes overboard with playing the role of the Valley Girl and Alpha Bitch stereotype combined with his Paper-Thin Disguise making him come across as off-putting to the human girls he tried talking to. He doesn't make things better for himself with his "I Am Great!" Song, which includes blatantly insulting the other campers, earning even more of their ire and making him less popular than he already was.
  • Graceful Loser: A non-competitive example. Despite the errant firework from "Millerd's" concert being the cause of death for Moxxie's target and not him, he's proud of Millie, both for the kill and performing her heart out on stage.
  • Hated by All: Moxxie takes the cover of "Moxxine", a popular schoolgirl. Unfortunately, “she” is despised by everyone at the camp. Given how "Moxxine" is an incompetent Attention Whore with an obnoxious voice, you can't really blame them.
  • He Knows Too Much: Jimmy admits he killed the I.M.P.'s client because he found out about the drug dealings.
  • Hidden Depths: Millie is normally a very supportive and patient significant other to Moxxie, willing to put up with a lot of his neurosis' and help him out at any cost. This episode however explores how taxing that can actually be for her, how much she wants to be appreciated for once, and how she sometimes resents Moxxie for being unsupportive of her after all she's done for him.
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs: When Blitzo is getting irritated by Moxxie trying to convince him to take the case, he says "I swear on all that is evil, Mox..."
  • Hugh Mann: Millie's alias during her time in camp is "Millerd Realboy".
  • Humans Are Bastards: None of the campers nor the counselors care when Millie grievously hurts another camper with a too-strong volleyball spike, nor when she lands on him at high speeds. One counselor even says "First aid is for winners!" when the poor kid says he needs medical help.
  • Hypocritical Humor: The female campers mock "Moxxine's" supposed tan (actually just Moxxie's natural red skin that his disguise doesn't hide), but immediately gush over "Millerd" nearly identical skin tone as a beautiful tan.
  • "I Am Great!" Song: Moxxie as "Moxxine" attempts get one going, when Millie offers to help him out by putting a musical performance. But since "Moxxine" is Hated by All, it falls completely flat, and people quickly get more interested in "Millerd's" amazing banjo skills.
  • I Resemble That Remark!: When Barbie says that human teenagers are easy to manipulate, Jimmy objects... only to get back to loading the boat when Barbie waves her rear at him seductively.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex: Tied into his Acquired Situational Narcissism, Moxxie's fragile ego rears its ugly head here, obsessed with trying to do things "the right way" so as to prove he can lead a mission himself, only to easily get upset when his "Moxxine" persona becomes Hated by All while Millie's "Millerd" persona gets all the attention, to the point he runs into an outhouse so he can cry alone.
  • Internal Deconstruction: Millie’s status as a Satellite Character is portrayed rather realistically in this episode. She expresses how she never has any moments to shine, and for how supportive she’s been toward Moxxie, he hasn’t been supportive of her own ambitions. As such, once Millie gets a lot of popularity as "Millerd" among the campers, she revels in the attention.
  • I've Come Too Far: Moxxie has been too focused on his way of completing the mission to simply follow Millie's advice. After reconciling and allowing her to have her moment to shine, he finds the target she suggests only to learn he is a drug supplier hired by Blitzo's sister Barbie. Even after she refuses to let Blitzo and Moxxie have their way, Mox vows to finish the job after spending a week at the campsite.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Blitzo calls Moxxie a "disgrace" at the end of the episode for how he handled the mission, and Moxxie can't help but be ashamed. Moxxie had the opportunity to investigate a camp counselor who was acting super suspicious with a lot of evidence to prove he's the one who killed their client. Instead, Moxxie chose instead to handle the job "the right way" by trying to infiltrate the camp and investigate the area to be sure that camp counselor is the right person, letting a week go by in the process. Moxxie's lack of retort against Blitzo's insult shows that Moxxie agrees that Blitzo has every right to be angry.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • After spending an entire week trying to find her, Blitzo has a less-than-happy reunion with his estranged sister Barbie. Despite this, he outright tells her he was worried about her and makes an attempt to reconnect, even inviting her to dinner so they can catch up. Barbie, still pissed at the fact that her supplier is now dead, responds by spitefully telling him that she, in no uncertain terms, wants nothing to do with him.
    • After the mission is over and they're back at headquarters, Biltzo tells Moxxie that he did a good job... only to immediately take it back and call him a "fucking disgrace". While, as mentioned above, he did have every right to be angry, this could be him just lashing out at Moxxie because he's still hurt by what Barbie said to him.
  • Leave No Witnesses: Counselor Jimmy's motive for murdering IMP's client in this episode was that the client had found out about his and Barbie Wire's heroin business. Jimmy feared he would expose the whole operation, leading him to arrange a drowning "accident" by drilling holes in the client's boat.
  • Morton's Fork: Implied - even if Blitzo hadn't been actively searching for Barbie, her supplier being one of I.M.P's targets means he probably would have ruined her job anyway.
  • Never Found the Body: Judging by the posters declaring I.M.P.s client "missing"...
  • Noodle Incident:
    • What exactly was damning enough for this episode's client, an actual teenager, to be marked a Sinner and condemned to Hell is unexplained, as there's nothing to suggest he did anything wrong, and the only hint would be if his behavior was comparable to that of the other counselors that displayed Humans Are Bastards levels of crappiness. Of course, since other episodes have shown how easy it is to get sent to Hell or kicked out of Heaven, it's likely another trope is at play as well.
    • Something happened between Blitzo and Barbie that had the latter hooked on "H-8" and sent to a rehabilitation center. Even after coming out clean, she claims she has been doing everything she could to distance herself from Blitzo and is furious that he went out of his way to find her. She warns him to stop shortly after her drug supplier is killed.
  • Offstage Waiting Room: The kid whom Millie nailed with the volleyball is still in that crater after a week has passed.
  • Overly Stereotypical Disguise: Moxxie's idea for an undercover identity is as "Moxxine" a Valley Girl Alpha Bitch, but when he attempts to fit in with some of the female camp attendees his performance immediately veers into heavy Large Ham and Most Definitely Not a Villain territory, so all he manages to do is convince them that "Moxxine" is some sort of "freak".
  • Pædo Hunt: It's very brief, but during "Regular Joe", Millie sings about how she gets nude photos from what looks like an adult, which she is disgusted by when she realizes the implications. Keep in mind, Millie is disguised as a young boy. It's also rather concerning that the news show reacts badly to the alleged incest, but apparently no one cares about two preteens having sex in public.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Played with for "Moxxine" and "Millerd". Moxxie's disguise does an awful job at covering up his inhuman attributes, particularly his skin tone and hooved legs, both of which get noted by the campers when he tries claiming he got a tan and was in an accident. By contrast, Millie's disguise does a much better job, her pants and shoes covering up her legs, her beanie hiding her horns, her t-shirt covering up the white patches on her skin, and her own skin tone actually working as a "tan". This is also affected by how the rest of the camp perceives them. "Millerd" is highly loved by the camp, and as such they're willing to overlook her discrepancies. "Moxxine" however is Hated by All, and everyone is much more willing to point out his discrepancies to insult him.
  • Pelvic Thrust: When Millie explains her disguise as "Millerd" likes "fucking bitches" she does two quick pelvic thrusts to emphasize it.
  • Poor Communication Kills: The target killing the client and not telling Barbie about it leads to him getting killed when I.M.P. comes to investigate.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Millie rightfully calls Moxxie out on how much she works at making him happy and supporting him no matter what, but when it was time to support her he was too caught up in his own melodrama.
    Moxxie: All week, it's been, 'Oh, look at Millerd! Isn't he great? Look how talented Millerd is!' We have a job to do and you're off dancing for views! Why does it matter so much how these yokels feel about you?
    Millie: It doesn't. It matters how I feel about myself and for once, I like-like I'm important! Like I'm somebody to be proud of! And I had hoped that my husband would be there to support me half as much as I supported him this week!
    Millie: Save it, Moxx! You could have finished the job any time if you'd just listened to me, but you wanted to do things "your way"! So fine, finish the job, go home if you want to, but I'm gonna have my moment, with or without you!
  • Revealing Cover-Up: The client was murdered by Jimmy because he found out that Jimmy was involved with Barbie's drug dealing operation, but the killing just gets I.M.P. on Jimmy's tail and ends up getting him killed.
  • Running Gag: One kid in particular keeps getting made into a Butt-Monkey throughout the episode. First he gets spiked into oblivion by a volleyball, then he gets cratered further into the earth, then a beehive falls on him.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Millie hits one of the campers with the volleyball so hard that he ends up assuming the iconic Yamcha's Death Pose from Dragon Ball Z, complete with a crater.
    • When Blitzo is about to enter the portal to the human world, he's in the Marge Krumping pose for a single frame as he throws away the incubus who opened the portal.
  • Sparkling Stream of Tears: When Moxxie cries in the outhouse, many of his tears sparkle.
  • Stripped to the Bone: During "Millerd's" performance, one counselor is hit by a wave of flame and reduced to a skeleton in seconds.
  • Supermodel Strut: Moxxie deliberately walks with an exaggerated strut while pretending to be a sexy and popular Valley Girl, even swaying his hips from side to side.
  • Too Kinky to Torture: Blitzo gets tasered by a nurse at Barbie's rehab clinic, and the following conversation implies that he gets off on said zapping.
  • Vagina Dentata: The rehab nurse who zapped Blitzo is referred to by him as "Nurse Pussy-Face". Initially seeming like a simple insult uttered by him, it turns out to be more apt when she is shown from the front and revealed to have a vertical mouth that looks like a vagina with teeth.
  • Valley Girl: Moxxie assumes the attitude of a shallow and popular valley girl in his "disguise" as "Moxxine", even assuming the same vocal mannerism common to valley girls.
  • Whodunnit to Me?: The client knows that one of the other counselors killed them, as they're the only ones who have the keys to the boat shed to sabotage their boat, and also knew that they couldn't swim. Which counselor is what Moxxie and Millie need to figure out to know who the target is. The mystery, however, is very quickly resolved when Jimmy immediately upon Moxxie and Millie's arrival shows himself to be an incredibly obvious suspect. Moxxie still insists on treating it as a mystery, though.
  • Your Head Asplode: In the end, Jimmy is killed by one of the fireworks from "Millerd's" performance hitting his head.
  • You Were Trying Too Hard: The biggest issue with Moxxie's disguise as "Moxxine" is that he tries way too hard to endear himself to the other campers, and only makes things worse when he tries to sing about how great "Moxxine" is. Millie as "Millerd" immediately wins everyone over by being herself but not making a big deal about it, remaining humble and singing about how she's "a normal guy."

 
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"Everybody, Look At Me"

With the help of Millie, Moxxie as Moxxine tries to boost up his rep and popularity among the campers with a song. This backfires horribly as it's a vapid ballad about how great 'she' is further alienating Moxx and only further boosting Millerd's reputation.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (6 votes)

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Main / IAmGreatSong

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