Western Energy

"I seem to have been stolen by that little cowboy friend of yours."

- Stolas, to Blitzo when he got kidnapped by Striker

Western Energy is the fourth episode of the second season of Helluva Boss and is the eleventh episode overall. It premiered on May 20th, 2023, on Vivziepop's YouTube channel.

Synopsis
Striker returns, things sure do happen!

Plot
The episode starts at a cafe where Stolas has a meeting with Stella and her brother Andrealphus regarding their divorce. after a back and forth of Stella and Stolas insulting each other, Andrealphus states Stella needed more compensation, adding Stolas technically cheated on her, while Stolas defends himself because Stella never cared about him during their arranged marriage. It's at that moment Striker barges in causing Stolas to flee, but not before getting captured.

Later he calls Blitzo who was on his way to the Sloth ring to get Loona's five year shot. Stolas tells him about his current ordeal as he was currently tied up with blessed rope and couldn't do anything, and Striker hangs up. Moxxie volunteers for him and Millie to rescue him, as they had a score to settle with him, to which a reluctant Blitzo agrees.

Blitzo and Loona arrive in the hospital where he schedules her appointment, but the lady on the counter is illiterate, and constantly calls Blitzo as spelled, much to his annoyance, while Loona is terrified of getting her shot.

After a western style musical number, Striker takes Stolas to his lair where he is tied to a train track, noticing the cliche of it. He also questions the statue of Striker which he made (with an erected penis) before Striker starts stabbing him with a blessing tipped knife. Striker claims how the royal clan always take over everything and doesn’t care who get hurt or dies. Stolas points out Striker’s hypocritical claim saying how Striker himself is working for a royal and kick him in the face. Striker responds by stabbing Stolas’s leg and even breaking it but Stolas managed to subdue the pain saying Blitzo torture him better in bed.

Meanwhile Moxxie and Millie arrive at the gas station where Millie asks the whereabouts of Striker, while Moxxie tangles with a motorcycle gang because the leader points out his hat, which Millie had given him earlier, was the same as his. When Millie gets the help they need, they head off, but not before the gang leader gets killed in the process.

With Stella and Andrealphus, they relish how Stella had sent Striker earlier, but Andrealphus questions the situation, as he points out that if he dies, Octavia will have his throne as she was the current heir, and Stella would get nothing out of it, so reluctantly she agrees to tell Striker to call the kill off. However, Striker decided that since Stella didn’t say what kind of condition Stolas has to be in, he decided to cut out Stolas’s eyes as a trophy.

At the moment Moxxie and Millie come to the rescue, as it frequently cuts to Blitzo trying to get Loona to hold still so the doctor could give her the shot. Ultimately it ends with Millie chopping the statue down on top of Striker, but he gets away. But a horrified Moxxie and Millie saw how badly injured Stolas is and is now unconscious.

Later, they take a badly injured Stolas to the hospital as Blitzo and Loona walk out, with the latter wearing a doggie cone. A crowd of people trample over him as they get Stolas inside, and after being told what happened, is surprised that Stolas could get hurt that easily. In his hospital room, Stolas gets a message from Blitzo to get well soon. when he texts back that he would be in the hospital for a while, and he could visit anytime, he gets no response. The episode ends with Stolas setting his phone on the counter, where all the petals from one of the hell roses have fallen off.

Characters

 * Employees of I.M.P
 * Blitzo
 * Loona (non-speaking appearence)
 * Moxxie
 * Millie
 * Goetia Royal Family
 * Stolas
 * Stella
 * Andrealphus (debut)
 * Octavia (mentioned)
 * Striker
 * Doc (debut)

Locations

 * Hell
 * Pride Ring
 * Richest Cup
 * Andrealphus' mansion
 * Wrath Ring
 * Striker's house
 * Sloth Ring

Objects

 * Blessed Knife
 * Blessed Rope

Songs

 * Ballad of Striker
 * Whatcha Thinkin' About?

Trivia

 * This episode has scenes shown in animatics from the trailer for season two, to which some shots were completed and improved.
 * As of this episode, due to Norman Reedus' busy schedule, Striker is voiced by Edward Bosco.
 * This episode features the guest music of Silva Hound and Andrew R. Butler, who both produced the pop song "Whatcha Thinkin' About?" and with the latter producing Striker's theme song "The Ballad of Striker". Silva Hound previously produced and written the song ADDICT based on the Hazbin Hotel pilot. Joel Perez and Blake Roman, who provided vocals for "The Ballad of Striker", would also become cast members on the Hazbin Hotel series.
 * Loona did not have any dialogue in the episode. The reason of this is because her voice actress, Erica Lindbeck, was coming to terms with the loss of her boyfriend, Billy Kametz, who died last year during the time when this episode was still in production. Because of this, Erica was unable to do voiceover work for Loona as she took some time off from work on episodes 3 and 4 of Season 2 to process through the matters of her loss.
 * According to background designer and Spindlehorse' HR leader Sam Miller, some of the swear words (e.g. "cunt") were censored due to YouTube's restrictions on sexual content and profanity. As a result, some of the profanity in this episode were either spelled out or hinted somewhat with mondegreens.
 * Blitzo restricting himself from calling the nurse a "retard" (a nod to the pilot episode), in which he backtracked into saying that he can't say "the word anymore" was written for the same reason.

Cultural References

 * According to the episodes' lead animator Mel Mzorak, the exterior shot of Bombproof roaming in the dessert was inspired by "" specifically the scene where Simba roams through the desert. Mzorak pitched the idea to the crew, dubbed it "The Lion King shot" and it was approved for the episode.

Continuity

 * At the end of the episode, it is shown that Stolas made various text conversations with Blitzo to make things better between them, specifically from their unfortunate night in "Ozzie's".

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Gallery

 * Western Energy/Gallery