REVIEW: Redemption Really Is Possible In Season 2 Of ‘Hazbin Hotel’
- Jessica Haight-Angelo
- 4 hours ago
- 8 min read
Disclaimer: This review contains minor spoilers for Season 2 of Hazbin Hotel.
In the beginning, there was Patreon. That is, the popular crowdfunding website, circa 2014, where Hazbin Hotel creator Vivienne Medrano (‘VivziePop’) first pedaled her wares - that is, a proof-of-concept pilot episode that was animated entirely by freelance artists for what would eventually become “the highest global viewership for a new animated title” on Amazon Prime circa early 2024. Likewise, following Hazbin’s YouTube pilot (currently boasting 118 million views) and the series premiere via Amazon Prime Video, the spin-off series Helluva Boss joined its sister show on Amazon roughly a year later. Both shows have been renewed for at least four seasons each, with the highly anticipated Season 2 of Hazbin Hotel premiering on Prime Video on October 29th.
The bulk of both Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss take place in Hell, under the premise that all human Sinners are trapped in Hell’s Pride ring, ruled over by the fallen Archangel Lucifer (Jeremy Jordan) after collaborating with the Biblical Lilith, following her escape from the Garden of Eden. In contrast, the Winners who make it to Heaven also cannot leave, but neither are they subjected to an annual angelic Extermination designed to prune their numbers - as one might expect, it seems much easier to make it to Hell than Heaven in the VivziePop Hellaverse. The Hazbin Hotel pilot and series feature Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen), Lucifer and Lilith’s Hell-borne daughter, and her attempts to help Sinners redeem themselves enough to become Winners via her Hazbin [‘has-been,’ though it was initially called the ‘Happy Hotel’] Hotel.
In Season 1, Charlie, alongside a motley assortment of damned-but-loveable characters, often pulls double duty, advertising the hotel to Sinners (who are often less than receptive, particularly given that there is no official decree from Heaven that the proposed redemption process actually works) while attempting to legitimize it around Heaven’s presumably indestructible Exorcist angels’ brutal Exterminations, which double in frequency after one of said Exorcist angels is mysteriously killed during the previous Extermination. The knowledge of this incident naturally immediately raises Hell’s stakes not only regarding its likelihood in preserving more Sinners’ afterlives, but also as viable contenders to potentially take over Heaven. Season 1 concludes with both the deaths of Adam (Alex Brightman), Lilith’s Eden counterpart and leader of Heaven’s Exorcist Army, as well as that of Sir Pentious (also Alex Brightman), a serpentine Sinner whose surprise redemption through the hotel involves him becoming friends with many of his former turf war rivals, though it ultimately culminates in him sacrificing himself while trying to take out Adam with one of his inventions.
“That’s the Hazbin guarantee!”
There are many mysteries to reveal about and within the Hellaverse. Perhaps the biggest unknown is Lilith herself, who notably has been absent from Hell for seven years by the pilot episode - some fans speculate that this is also when the Exterminations began. Similar speculation about Lilith’s whereabouts, agenda, and even parenting skills abound in both canon and fanon, e.g.: Is the Exorcist Army simply the latest ploy by Adam to stick it to his first wife and/or were Lilith and Lucifer, et al a legitimate threat to Heaven’s relative peace? Her absence, punctuated in both the pilot and series by Charlie’s increasingly strained voice mail messages to her mom, speaks volumes, though Lilith does not speak at all (yet). Viewers likewise can only suspect whether Lilith had relationships with Hell’s other Overlords, including Alastor (Amir Talai), a deer-coded Sinner whose above-average otherworldly abilities somehow (another ongoing mystery) have enabled him to defeat several big names in Hell - whether this involves destroying their souls as entertainment for his popular radio program there and/or taking ownership of them via binding handshake deals seems to be Alastor’s jurisdiction - and who notably shows up at the hotel in the pilot episode following one of Charlie’s phone calls to Lilith. In addition, Lilith’s absence seems to have caused strife between Charlie and Lucifer, the latter who grumbles often about Sinners and his lot following being cast out of Heaven and sealed below; in Season 2, Lucifer murmurs wistfully when the topic of Lilith gets broached that he misses her “every second of every day.” During Steven Universe’s own animated heyday, the backstory for the title character’s own mom, Rose Quartz aka Pink Diamond is notably told “in reverse,” allowing her “complex, contradictory” actions and considerable “shame and self-hatred” to be meted out respectfully and thoroughly across the series. Thus, it is likely that Lilith’s full story and motivation will be revealed in a similar strategically sporadic fashion.
Following Hell’s Season 1 victory regarding convincing Heaven to cancel future Exterminations, Charlie and Lucifer have bonded considerably over shared goals of a more harmonious afterlife for all, though the increased interest in the hotel and continued strife between Heaven and Hell in the wake of Sir Pentious’ redemption challenges and isolates many of the main characters. In particular, Charlie begins Season 2 still processing the emotional fallout of recent events while her fallen angel girlfriend, Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz) - currently kicking around the perfect replacement name to the one given to her by Adam - takes up the mantle of keeping the hotel running. While Alastor is still along for the ride, his grumpiness during the Season 1 finale regarding whomever it is that still owns his soul, coupled with annoyance at the mundane reality of running the hotel, and even everyone else’s emotional frailty carrying over into Season 2 all seem to encourage his scarcity at Hazbin, something which becomes even more apparent when the Vees, Hell’s infamous trio of multimedia moguls, begin sniffing around the hotel.
“‘Cause redemption is possible, I really really hope!”
Meanwhile in Heaven, Sir Pentious receives a rather rude welcome as those in charge debate how he got there. Eventually, a stressed Seraphim is encouraged to calm down by the ethereal Speaker of God (Liz Callaway), and Pentious is encouraged to talk about his life and afterlife. Complicating things on Heaven’s end is Lute (Jessica Vosk), Adam’s lieutenant - thus far, there has been no mention of Eve, leading some fans to presume there is a potential connection between her and Lute - who finds herself now under the command of Adam’s eldest son, Abel (Patrick Stump), a pacifist who gets nosebleeds when stressed. Sir Pentious is likewise encouraged to allow Emily (Shoba Narayan), Seraphim’s assistant angel, to help him assimilate into his new home, though he misses his newfound friends in Hell terribly, including love interest Cherri Bomb (Krystal LaPorte), who likewise has complicated and intense feelings about Pentious previously sacrificing himself for her. Nonetheless, Pentious becomes a friendly ear for many new Heaven acquaintances, and serves as a parallel to Baxter, an anglerfish Sinner and fellow inventor whose stay at the hotel is punctuated by his research into whether redemption is possible.
This review would be remiss not to check in with fan favorite characters Angel Dust and Husker (Blake Roman and Keith David, respectively), whose personal and professional inner demons make waves throughout Season 2. Fans who are invested in their relationship will likely appreciate the emotional core of their respective and occasionally dovetailing arcs while simultaneously griping about their limited screentime, which is admittedly quite compartmentalized around everything else going on. On the other hand, fans of the Vees and especially Vox (Christian Borle) will almost certainly be enraptured by their frequent limelight-stealing. Case in point, in the already released Season 2 premiere episode song, “Hazbin Guarantee (Trust Us),” Charlie and the Hazbin Hotel gang trade verses with Vox, Valentino (Joel Perez), and Velvette (Lilli Cooper), which Vivienne Medrano credits to “the boys” and calls “genius,” noting that “It’s one of my favorite songs they’ve done,” in part due to its ambitious scope. As both Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss function as animated musicals, songs are a big deal in the VivziePop Hellaverse. Those who still have “Stayed Gone,” “Respectless,” and/or “Loser, Baby” earworms will almost certainly appreciate Season 2’s musical offerings, including the aforementioned “Trust Us,” as well as “Gravity,” an angry showstopper featuring Lute that also debuted on YouTube prior to the season premiere. Likewise, Christian Borle’s singing chops are on display a number of times during several Vox-heavy tracks.
“See how great your afterlife could be!”
Rest assured, there is much more to Season 2 of Hazbin Hotel than what can be shared prior to the premiere, including a strong central plot whose somewhat anticlimactic conclusion nonetheless sets up ensuing seasons with plenty of emotional and dramatic throughlines with which to continue the overall story. Likewise, though some contrarian fans gripe that they prefer the freelance voice-over artists from the Hazbin Hotel pilot to the Prime series’ cast, the latter is likewise effective - Sir Pentious crying out to Emily about wanting to see his friends is a notable moment. Doubtless, some fans’ discontent about what Season 2 does(n’t) do with their favorite characters will color their (loud) feedback. Still others will be unable to hold space for the content of the show around recent news that SpindleHorse, Vivienne Medrano’s animation studio, was recently greenlighted to create an animated pilot for the similarly Tumblr-popular webcomic, Homestuck. That a “fan-maintained offline archive preserving Homestuck in its original Flash format after the official site became difficult to use” was recently taken offline prior to the announcement of the Homestuck pilot likely did little to smooth ruffled fan feathers. Unfortunately, there is likely little that Vivienne Medrano can do to avoid becoming a parasocial pariah to never-satisfied super fans (and critics) of her creations, particularly those without an appreciation for story structure and/or an aptitude for media literacy, to say nothing of the ship wars that ensue between fans of various romantic pairings in the show, some more canon than others. Likewise, Medrano has made it clear that “she already has the show’s entire story in her head and knows how it will end”; ergo, fan clamoring clearly has little to do with the creative process involved in bringing the Hellaverse to the small screen.
Fortunately, the upside to SpindleHorse’s impressive connections within the entertainment industry is that Season 2 of Hazbin Hotel is truly top-notch, with improved animation, quality songs (even Cyclopsian cleaning lady, Nifty, has one this time around!), intriguing lore and world-building, and character interactions that deepen the complexity of an oft-tread storytelling concept in exciting and original ways. Likewise, fans are being well fed in the lead up to the season premiere, including a four-episode Season 1 sing-along in movie theaters across the country, as well as the upcoming Hazbin Hotel: Live on Broadway event on October 20th that promises to feature both Season 1 and “not yet released!” Season 2 songs, to be filmed live at the Majestic Theater “and will also be released on Prime Video at a later time.” Likewise, the official Hazbin Hotel website is currently flush with shiny Season 2 merchandise. Overall, Hazbin Hotel is clearly in its prime as it effectively juggles Deviantart-originated character designs and color palettes with a surprisingly fresh angle on theology, plus memorable music that helps move the story along. Season 2 contains something for almost everybody - that’s the Hazbin guarantee!
Rating: ★★★★☆
About Hazbin Hotel Season 2
Premiere Date: October 29, 2025
Writer: Vivienne Medrano, Ariel Ladensohn, Adam Neylan, Adam Stein, Dave Capdevielle, Kendraw Cook, Raymond T. Hernandez, Maritza Medrano, Rachel Kaplan, Daniel MacDonald
Director: Vivienne Medrano
Production: Spindlehorse, A24, Bento Box Entertainment
Distribution: Amazon Prime Video
Cast: Erika Henningsen, Stephanie Beatriz, Blake Roman, Alex Newell, Patrick Stump, Liz Callaway, Kevin Del Aguila, Andrew Durand, Alex Brightman, Keith David, Kimiko Glenn, Amir Talai, Joel Perez, Jessica Vosk, Krystina Alabado, Christian Borle, Lilli Cooper, Jeremy Jordan
Synopsis: Following Charlie’s victory against Heaven’s army, the hotel is booming with new residents. Though, to her dismay, many are not there for the right reasons. As resentment against Heaven brews and sinners realise they can fight back, there are plenty of sinners looking to capitalise on the growing tensions: namely the overlord trio known as ‘The Vees’. Whilst Charlie struggles to maintain the Hotel’s goals and protect her public image, the Vees (led by Vox) make a plan to take over Heaven placing themselves at the top. Meanwhile, in Heaven, the angels must deal with the repercussions of Sir Pentious’s redemption and their own part in the previous atrocities committed against Hell."