Masquerade

"This is my escape. Where I can forget about it all. How much I hate… everything. A place where I can get high and not have to think about how much it hurts. And, maybe, if I can ruin myself enough in the process... if I end up broken, I won't be his favorite toy anymore. And, maybe, he'll let me go..."

- Angel, dropping his facade for Husk

Masquerade is the fourth episode of the first season of Hazbin Hotel, and the fourth episode overall. It premiered on January 19, 2024, on Prime Video.

Synopsis

 * Angel struggles to juggle his work and his time at the Hotel. Charlie decides it's time to put her 'Princess' status to use with Angel's boss.

Plot
The episode begins with Angel Dust being tied to a chair by a Hellhound mobster, threatening to rape the information out of him if he doesn't tell him where the stash is. Angel tells him to "do [his] worst" before the Hellhound strips himself and starts "raping" him into submission.

The scene is revealed to be a amateur hardcore pornography movie shown by Angel for his part of Charlie's "Show and Tell" exercise. The other occupants are appalled that Angel is showing this, but Angel insists that it counts because it is his best work, winning him the Sex-x-xi award against "Tiffany Titfucker". Sir Pentious and Charlie both find the showing to be painfully uncomfortable, to the point where Charlie shields her eyes; Vaggie is more annoyed that Angel is showing them a porn movie; and Niffty appears extremely morbidly interested, and Husk doesn't seem fazed, calling Angel a fake for the movies unrealistic interrogation scene and insulting Angel for the poorly written scripts. Angel is offended by this and responds by insulting him back. Husk goes on to say that he knows everyone's issues because everyone vents to the bartender, and lists off every resident's problems: Sir Pentious is insecure and lonely, Charlie wants to solve all problems except for her own, Vaggie hates everyone because she hates herself, Niffty is sadistic, and Angel is fake. Just then, Valentino calls in for "emergency shoot" scene. Charlie tries to stop him from leaving because they need to finish the exercise and that Extermination is fast approaching, but Angel leaves because she cannot fix his problem with his boss, which gives Charlie an idea.

At the Porn Studios, Angel is working on a BDSM shoot involving burglars with a gangbang scene when Charlie arrives, much to Angel's shock and horror. He demands to know why she came to the studio, and she tells him that, as Princess of Hell, she has come to speak with his boss to get some time off for the hotel. He tries to make her leave, but Valentino notices her and invites her to have a role in his studio, but Charlie vehemently declines, and declares her wish to speak with him right after his work. This angers Valentino, who shoots a look toward Angel, but the shoot goes on. In the middle of the shoot, Charlie begins to try to invite some of the camera crew to the hotel, interrupting and further angering Valentino, and ends up causing a fire that destroys the set, before Valentino uses his moth wings to douse the fire.

Valentino takes Angel into his makeup room where he chews him out about having Charlie fight his battles for him, beating him and reminding him that he still owns him, showing the contract Angel signed where he sold his soul to him. Valentino threatens to kill Charlie unless Angel gets her out of his studio and out of his business.

Re-entering the set, Charlie notices Angel's bruise and becomes furious, partially revealing her demonic form, and threatening Valentino for his treatment of her friend. Valentino watches on with a smirk as Angel steps in between them, stopping her. He yells at Charlie to get out of the studio, angrily telling her that he didn't ask her to come (and looking over at Valentino as he says this) and to stop helping him because she's only making things worse. Despite Charlie's pleas and apologies, Angel forces her to leave, and Charlie breaks down crying before running out of the studio. Guilty, Angel expresses his suffering through a music video, Poison.

Angel returns to the hotel, exhausted after a long night of work, and consults to the bar with Husk at the counter. He demands to have the hardest drink Husk could make, and Husk knows that Angel wants the one where he can forget the night. Husk calls him out for being fake again, and Angel throws a tantrum before storming out. Vaggie and Charlie has Husk get Angel back safe because he's the one who started the argument, much to Husk's annoyance.

Husk finds Angel at the underground bar, drinking his miseries away with other loan shark gangsters. Husk gets himself a drink and sits to watch until he realizes that the loan sharks are spiking Angel's drinks with drugs from Valentino. He grabs Angel, fights with the loan sharks who were on Valentino's payroll, and drags Angel out. Husk accuses Angel once again of being fake and playing up an unnecessary persona and Angel states that it isn't him being fake nor is it unnecessary because it's what he needs to be in order to survive. Angel gets angry, telling Husk that between his workspace and the hotel, the bar is the only place he can escape, and to without the stress of dealing both at the same time, and that he doesn't mind if he gets drugged, high, or commits to any other self-destructive behaviors because of the hope that if he becomes too broken to work, Valentino would finally become bored of him and thus let him go free.

Seeing Angel broken down, Husk reveals his past: he was a powerful Overlord, but the more power he obtained just by collecting and dealing with souls, the worse his gambling addiction became, and he lost it all, which made him desperate enough to gamble his own soul to an Overlord: Alastor. Husk knows what it's like to be trapped in the hands of a Overlord, and expresses this through a song: Loser, Baby. As they finished singing, the loan sharks came out to get back at Husk, and a gunfight ensures between Angel and Husk and the loan shark mafia. Angel and Husk kill them all, with Angel feeling a lot better and Husk saying that he likes this version of Angel more than the persona.

Angel and Husk return to the hotel, with a frantic Charlie apologizing for ruining his day and getting him in trouble with Valentino, and Angel apologizes back for yelling at her. Charlie cries with joy about Angel forgiving her, saying "it's so beautiful" as Vaggie looks on fondly and takes her away, and Husk invites Angel for a drink at the bar.

Characters

 * Employees of the Hazbin Hotel
 * Charlie Morningstar
 * Vaggie (cameo)
 * Husk
 * Niffty (cameo)
 * Alastor (flashback; non-speaking cameo)
 * Residents of the Hazbin Hotel
 * Angel Dust
 * Sir Pentious (non-speaking cameo)
 * Overlords
 * The Vees
 * Valentino
 * Vox (non-speaking cameo)
 * Velvette (pictured)
 * Travis (cameo)
 * Lucifer Morningstar (indirectly mentioned)
 * Loan shark demons

Locations

 * Hell
 * Pride Ring
 * Pentagram City
 * Hazbin Hotel
 * V Tower

Objects

 * Husk's umbrella
 * Husk's playing cards
 * Husk's dice bombs
 * Angel's sunglasses
 * Angel's tommy guns
 * Love potion
 * Beelzejuice (name only)

Songs

 * "Poison"
 * "Loser, Baby"

Instrumentals

 * "Loser, Baby"

Trivia

 * The film Angel Dust shows the gang at the beginning of the episode has him in his pilot outfit.
 * It is revealed that Angel Dust sold his soul to Valentino.
 * Additionally, it is revealed that Husk was once an Overlord, before going to Alastor for help with his losing streak in gambling. And, thus, trading his status and foregoing his soul to him.
 * Portions of the dialogue between Angel and Valentino in the former's dressing room were partially adapted from the fan comic "Red Smoke" by Raphielle II (credited as Arielle Somerville), one of the series' main storyboard artists.
 * It is revealed that Valentino's coat is actually his pair of moth wings that he keeps wrapped around himself.
 * Travis is shown to be one of the directors of Valentino's studio. It is unknown whether this is his job, and, if so, how he was hired by Valentino.
 * One of the poses Angel does on his bed during the Poison music sequence is a nod to the official artwork of his redesign announcement.
 * This is the only episode to receive a +18 rating (as opposed to the standard +16), as this episode contains graphic depictions of sexual abuse.
 * Additionally, when the episode originally aired it had no warning. Later, after its premiere, the episode is updated with content warning about graphic depiction of sexual abuse.

Cultural References

 * The episode title, masquerade, refers to a false display or pretense, referring to Angel Dust's facade.

Continuity

 * Angel joking about how Valentino has poor eyesight may be a reference to the ADDICT music video, wherein Valentino had exactly three paper bills he couldn't seem to stop counting.
 * The scene where Angel leaves with his sunglasses on is similar to an image the official Hazbin Hotel Twitter posted as a teaser during pride month.
 * The love potion, a collaborative effort of Velvette and Valentino, first shown as an easter egg in "Radio Killed the Video Star" makes a more prominent appearance in this episode.

Errors

 * During the scene where Angel Dust says he is going to "do all of you" his butt freckles disappear.
 * In some scenes, the black eye Angel received from Valentino earlier on in the episode disappears and suddenly reappears after he tells Husk that he knows more than just being a sex addict.
 * Throughout the scene where Valentino crouches to Charlie's eye level to talk to her, his neck appears and disappears.
 * When the Loser, Baby song starts, the puddle Husk put his feet into disappears.

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Gallery

 * Masquerade/Gallery