Radio Killed the Video Star

"Alastor... came back, and he is with Lucifer's DAUGHTER...and that wasn't the first FUCKING THING YOU TOLD ME?!"

- Vox to Valentino after the news of Alastor's reappearance

Radio Killed the Video Star is the second episode of the first season of Hazbin Hotel, and the second episode overall. It premiered on January 19, 2024, on Prime Video, and a week earlier on the A24 app as part of pre-ordered packages.

Synopsis

 * The Vee's: Vox, Velvette, and Valentino rule their corner of Hell unchallenged, but Alastor's return to the airwaves may shake things up. Meanwhile, a new Hotel guest tests Angel's patience.

Plot
When Charlie, Vaggie, and Angel Dust are talking about the Extermination, suddenly Sir Pentious arrives at the hotel in his ship, breaking a wall of the hotel in the process, announcing that he is there to fight Alastor. Alastor asks who Pentious is, and Pentious introduces himself as "inventor, architect of destruction, villain extraordinaire.". Meanwhile, Vox, in V Tower, gets called by Velvette, who tells him that Valentino is having a tantrum and that he is destroying her department. Vox, going up the lift, meets with some reporters, who ask him about his opinion on the new deadline for the Extermination. Vox says that VoxTek was planning a new branch, VoxTek Angelic Security. After this, Vox meets Valentino in his room, who tells him that the reason he is angry is because Angel Dust moved to the Hazbin Hotel without asking him first. Valentino wants to go and shoot everyone at the hotel, but Vox manages to dissuade him, saying that it will be bad for the Vees' image if he goes "chasing whores around town". After being calmed down, Valentino reveals to Vox that Alastor is also staying at the hotel and shows him some footage from the Hazbin Hotel.

At the hotel, Alastor easily defeats Sir Pentious, but Pentious manages to rip off a piece of Alastor's coat. Alastor sends him flying away with an explosion, before announcing to the rest of the hotel's residents that he is going to the tailor to get his coat fixed. However, he leaves some of his shadow creatures to fix the wall while he's gone. Vox, angry that Alastor is back, begins a television broadcast where he denounces Alastor and says that shouldn't have come back. Alastor, coming out of the tailor, notices Vox doing this and begins doing a radio broadcast where he denounces Vox, saying that he only had power as long as he had the other Vees behind him. Vox, getting angry, glitches out and causes the entirety of Pentagram City to have a blackout. Alastor, going into his full demon form, tells Vox that he is “gonna make him wish that he'd stayed gone", before cutting the signal.

Later, the Vees have a meeting where they discuss Alastor, Vox saying that their primary concern now was that Alastor and Charlie never made a deal. The three of them together come up with the idea to employ Sir Pentious to act as their spy in the hotel. Back in the hotel, Charlie and Vaggie return from trying to find new hotel guests, having recruited nobody. Angel points out that people would rather spend their last days having as much fun as possible than staying at the hotel. Just then, there is a knock on the door. Vaggie answers it to Sir Pentious, who says that he wants to stay at the hotel. Angel attempts to stop Charlie and Vaggie from letting him stay, pointing out that he had tried to kill them 6 hours ago, but Charlie says that Pentious deserves a second chance and lets him in. She shows him around the hotel, saying that she is excited to have their first real guest. When Angel questions what he is, Vaggie says that he “constantly makes them look bad, sexually harasses the staff, and has literally never once tried to improve.”, causing Angel to look slightly guilty. Charlie then reintroduces Sir Pentious to Alastor, Alastor saying that he definitely remembers Pentious now that he ruined his coat. Charlie gets Pentious to apologise to Alastor, the former also returning the piece of fabric that he took off of Alastor’s coat. Alastor says that “not many people have managed to take even this much off of him” and that it must have meant a lot to Pentious, before burning it.

Characters

 * Employees of the Hazbin Hotel
 * Charlie Morningstar
 * Vaggie
 * Alastor
 * Husk
 * Niffty
 * KeeKee (cameo)
 * Clients of the Hazbin Hotel
 * Angel Dust
 * Sir Pentious
 * Egg Boiz (cameo)
 * Fat Nuggets (cameo)
 * The Vees
 * Vox
 * Velvette
 * Valentino
 * Overlords
 * Carmilla Carmine (mentioned)
 * Baxter (non-speaking cameo)

Locations

 * Hell
 * Pride Ring
 * Pentagram City
 * Hazbin Hotel

Objects

 * Sir Pentious' blimp

Songs

 * "Stayed Gone"
 * "It Starts With Sorry"

Trivia

 * According to Alastor in the song Stayed Gone, he was allegedly invited by Vox to be a part of his team prior to the events of the series.
 * According to Vox, Alastor has been absent for seven years prior to the events of the pilot, making him share the same number of years missing as Lilith.
 * As mentioned by Valentino, Alastor almost beat Vox one time.
 * As of this episode, Sir Pentious is now a client, and thus a permanent resident of the hotel and part of the main cast.
 * According to storyboard artist Nicole Rodriguez, the details of the voicemails Valentino sent Angel on the latter's phone has the ones where Valentino tries to coax Angel to return by sweet-talking him be shaped like hearts, whereas the ones where he is reprimanding Angel has the voicewaves shaped like spikes.
 * The drawing that Vox showed in his news report while singing "Stayed Gone" is the same drawing Vivienne Medrano posted on her Twitter to tease Alastor's redesign.

Cultural references

 * The title of the episode is a reference to the classic song "".

Continuity

 * TBA

Errors

 * TBA

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Gallery

 * Radio Killed the Video Star/Gallery