My biggest issue with the first season of Hazbin Hotel was the pacing.
It often felt like important events and character moments were skipped or rushed because of the limited eight-episode runtime.
So, after learning the second season was also eight episodes, I was concerned the issue would repeat itself.
Well, after seeing the final two episodes of Hazbin Hotel Season Two, I can happily say that I was wrong because the pacing this season has been great.
The penultimate episode, “Weapons of Mass Distraction”, follows up from where “Scream Rain” left off, with Lucifer being lured into a trap set by Vox.
Lucifer is immediately captured with the use of Angelic weaponry, but he is more antagonized by Alastor than Vox.
It is quite humorous to watch Vox’s captives have more beef with each other than their literal captor.
Not only that, but it leads to one of my favorite songs of Hazbin Hotel, “Brighter”, which fully reveals Vox’s backstory.
In life, Vox was named Vincent Whittman, a weatherman so envious of those around him that he killed again and again to reach the top.
Eventually earned a cult-like following, this all culminated with him giving a speech in a pool, ranting about being “baptized into a new era of entertainment.”
Overlooking the pool are dozens of suspended TVs, which turns out to be a rather poor decision design wise because one of these TVs falls and crashes onto Vox’s head, killing him and sending him to hell for his murders.
Vox’s death is both gruesome and ironic, considering his hell-form has a TV for a head. 

It also may explain how Vox became so powerful in Hell because, when the TV kills him, it also electrocutes all of his followers standing in the pool as well.
So, when Vox arrived in Hell, he already had a group of loyal followers to use.
Through this, we can see that Alastor is actually right in his understanding of Vox.
He always has a desire to be “brighter,” never satisfied with what he has, but relies on others to gain his power, whether that be his followers or the Vees.
We see this with him hypnotizing Angel Dust into publicly bad mouthing the hotel and supporting the Vees.
He uses this event to unveil his weapon, powered by Lucifer, which he fires at Heaven, destroying Sera’s barrier.
Although terrifying for Heaven, it was funny for me, what with the shot of Peter being spun around when Vox’s weapon punches through the pearly gates. 

Vox gives Heaven 24 hours to surrender, and the turmoil this causes leads into the episode’s second song, “Live to Live”, where Pentious advises Sera on her next move, with a great callback to last season’s “It Starts with Sorry.”
While this is happening, Vox continues to fall into Alastor’s trap, further distancing himself from the Vees, and is also manipulated into inviting Charlie to his party.
Following Vox’s invitation, Emily arrives to help Charlie, and the group formulate a plan to rescue Angel Dust and stop Vox.
Baxter is key to this plan, and more than willing to help, showing his role in the season.

The newfound confidence of the hotel results in the final song of the episode, “When I Think About the Future”, which calls back to multiple songs sung previously in the season, before setting up the big finale.
That finale, “Curtain Call”, kicks off with the hotel crew going through their plan to stop Vox, free Angel from mind control, and show everyone that Pentious was redeemed.
Two things, though.
First, it feels like a scene was skipped over where the characters realize Angel was brainwashed, since in the final scene of Episode Nine they were confused about him siding with the Vees.
Second, I still find it pretty convenient that Pentious is not allowed to leave Heaven.
They just say he is not allowed to leave and provide no reason why. 

At Vox’s party, Baxter attempts to provide a connection with Heaven to show Sir Pentious’ redemption, while Cherry and Husk go to save Angel Dust, and Charlie distracts Vox.
The plan quickly goes awry because, although Baxter is hilariously able to silence Vox, Velvette and Nifty fight around him, while Cherry and Angel Dust are ambushed by Valentino.
The fight quickly grows, and Charlie is unable to get a signal to prove her point, leading to the best scene of the finale.
Vox mocks her and, in his moment of triumph, orders her to admit his power.
Unexpectedly for Charlie, Alastor chimes in, using their deal to force her to admit that Vox is the strongest sinner in Hell.
This breaks Alastor’s contract with Rosie and, to top it all off, Vox celebrates his victory by landing his hands on Charlie, breaking his contract with Al.
Alastor’s laughter as Vox falls right into his trap was great to see.
You can see how he perfectly planned all this right from Episode Four and it went off without a hitch. 

And if you thought the fight between Alastor and Vox in that episode was hype, you have not seen anything yet.
Watching the two old friends turned rivals fight at full strength is greatly improved by some top-notch animation.
The budget for Season Two clearly went up after Season One’s success.
Vox predictably needs help from his giant robot shark, but this allows him to get back to his weapon and shoot wildly at Alastor.
This has the unfortunate side effect of decimating Pentagram City with an angelic blast, killing many sinners for good.
So, Hell’s entire population just saw their supposed savior annihilating a bunch of them.
Yeah, there is no coming back for Vox’s reputation after this.

Even the Vees are sick of Vox’s antics because, after their respective fights, they stop him from blowing them all up just to kill Alastor.
Valentino rips off Vox’s head before attempting and failing to leave with him and Velvette.
Say what you want about the Vees, but they do care about each other.
Well, Valentino and Velvette do at least; not sure about Vox at this point.
However, while Vox is finished, his weapon remains.
For a moment, it looks like Emily is going to sacrifice herself to save Hell, but this is thankfully instead used to build into the final song of the season, “Hear my Hope,” where all of Hell’s overlords band together to stop the explosion. 

“Hear My Hope” is a hopeful, and emotional song with two interludes.
The first sees Lute and Abel arrive, and the former attempt to get her revenge, only to be stopped by Abel in a moment of character growth.
While this moment is well sung, I kind of feel like it needed a little more build up, and it kinds of just feels thrown in there.
The second interlude of the song is far better, and sees Rosie confront Alastor, who threatens to let everyone die unless she fixes his staff.
What is interesting to me about this part is how Alastor says, “You’ll watch them die, unless you do,” making it seem like Rosie cares for Charlie and the others.
This adds more layers of mystery to Rosie, of which I have seen a few theories about.
One such theory is that Rosie is Lillith in disguise, which would retroactively make her talk with Charlie about Vaggie in Season One a lot more emotional.
Although, if Rosie is Lillith, then that raises the question of who the Lillith in Heaven is?
But that is just a theory.

Rosie fixes Alastor’s staff, and the two join the circle, along with Velvette and Valentino, much to Vox’s dismay.
The power of friendship puts an end to the explosion, saving Hell.
From here, Lucifer pulls himself from the remains of the weapon, Sir Pentious proves his redemption to Hell, and Angel Dust decides to go back with the Vees because he believes he is a danger to the hotel and his friends.
I originally did not like how Angel was playing very little role in his own rescue, but it seems like they are setting up an arc for Season Three here, so I will reserve judgement on that.
As for the Vees, Valentino has had to become the face of the organization.
Speaking of face, Vox is still just a head, and I think it would be pretty funny for him to remain that way for the foreseeable future.
He has had his time in the spotlight, but man did he ever shine brighter.
The writing team quickly proved me wrong with how much of a convincing threat Vox would prove to be.
For next season’s antagonist, I am pretty confident it is going to be Alastor, based on things Viziepop has said.
It makes sense too, what with Alastor having no more strings, and being free to do whatever he wants. 

Back at the hotel, it sees even more success, but for the right reasons this time.
Surprise, surprise, Vaggie has also kept her name but dropped the E.
Blitzo would approve.
Still, I am glad that this storyline did not take up as much time as I thought it would back in Episode One.
The final scene of the season sees Lillith finally call Charlie back, ending on yet another Lillith cliffhanger.
Hopefully, Season Three will arrive sooner than Season Two did, and keep up the quality.
Overall, Season Two was a vast improvement over the first.
The pacing, animation and songs were so much better.
Speaking of the songs, I am currently planning to do a top ten list of my favorite Hazbin Hotel songs.
So, you can expect to see that in the next few weeks or so.