*Spoilers for Hazbin Hotel Season 1 Episode 4*
Episode 4 of season 1 of Hazbin Hotel opens with Angel showing the rest of the hotel demons his most successful adult film. During that moment, Husk reveals that he hears everyone’s insecurities since everyone always complains about their problems to the bartender. Right as everyone is talking, Angel gets a call from his boss Valentino about having to go do a shoot. Charlie decides to follow Angel to his work to try and convince Valentino to let Angel spend more time at the hotel and not have to work. When Charlie arrives there, she is greeted by Valentino who is passive-aggressive towards her. Charlie ends up causing a fire on the shoot after tripping over a wire, making Valentino extremely upset. Valentino ends up threatening Angel and making him kick Charlie out, which he does by yelling at her and making her cry.
Valentino then has a private chat with Angel. During this chat, Valentino expresses his anger about Charlie showing up, and it is also revealed in this conversation that Angel signed a contract that ties him forever to Valentino. Angel breaks into a song after the conversation. In this song he talks about the poor choices he has made, and also refers to Valentino as poison. When Angel returns to the hotel, he goes straight to the bar, where he gets into an argument with Husk that leads him to run out of the hotel. Vaggie makes Husk go after Angel to make sure he is safe. Husk follows Angel into a random bar where he is hanging out with mafia demons. Husk sees one of the mafia demons about to poison Angel with a drink. Once Husk sees this he steps in and stops the mafia demon from being able to poison Angel, a fight breaks out and Husk and Angel leave the bar safely. When they both leave the bar, Angel is able to open up more about his life and his struggles to Husk, and Husk opens up about his life too, showing that he can relate to Angel. When Angel arrives back at the hotel, Charlie apologizes to him for showing up to his work and making things worse. Angel accepts the apology and forgives her to end the episode.
This episode was the most unique of them all thus far because it is only focused on Angel and his story. The writing is good in this episode. The emotions are stronger here than in any other episode because of how impactful the story of Angel is to the audience. The voice acting from Blake Roman as Angel is incredible; the audience feels all of the character’s emotions through the voice acting. Keith David as Husk is also good in this episode, especially in the scenes in which his character opens up more. The animation was good but doesn’t stand out, instead, it’s just good enough. The colors are still vibrant in the animation, but there are no bi-animated set pieces to elevate this episode further.
Overall Hazbin Hotel has continued to be enjoyable and entertaining for audiences. Continuing to expand character’s stories and their arc. Audiences will continue to be hooked on this fantastical story.
Rating: 6.5/10