Overture

"My dad just called, he said the leader of the angel army wants to meet, he asked if I, could go, instead!"

- Charlie to Vaggie after the phone call from Lucifer

Overture is the first episode of the first season of Hazbin Hotel, and the first 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

 * Charlie pitches Heaven her plan to save sinners by way of redeeming themselves through her Hotel. Vaggie enlists the staff to make a commercial to promote the hotel.

Plot
The episode begins with Charlie Morningstar narrating a story of how the universe was created by Heaven, ruled by Angels. Her father, Lucifer Morningstar, a mischievous angel with idealistic creative ideas, was scolded by those of the elders for his behavior, and was deemed dangerous for his creation. The higher angels created the universe with the intention of being good, and created Earth. The angels then give birth to the first Humans on earth, Adam and Lilith. However, their relationship was not so pure, as Adam was controlling towards Lilith, but the first woman was very rebellious of her husband, and fled to get away from him. It is there that Lucifer's journey took a turn as he fell in love with Lilith, and Lilith fell for Lucifer too. By then, Adam had gained a new bride named Eve, and together, Lucifer and Lilith came to the curious Eve to share the gift of free will with humanity; however, this inadvertently invited the bad and evil into the world. Outraged by Lucier's recklessness and his "betrayal", the angels casted both Lucifer out of heaven and punished him and Lilith into the depths of a new underworld called Hell, with Lucifer the ruler of all the Sinners and Demons. Although Lucifer was depressed that he was casted out of Heaven, Lilith thrived in Hell and brought the demons to new heights with the powers of Hell spreading unchecked. The angels saw the the rise of Demons as a threat to their existence, and so, every year, they send in exorcists to commence the Extermination as population control to keep the number of demons and sinners at very low levels.

Fast forward to the present, Charlie, the daughter of Lucifer and Lilith, had seen the slaughter every year and vows to transform Hell through her Hazbin Hotel. As Charlie watches the city burning to the ground after another yearly Exterminator, Vaggie, Charlie's manager and girlfriend, came by to see her, having heard her story, which surprises her. Caggie wonders if she's heard anything from her mom, Lilith, and Charlie knows that she hasn't received anything for about seven years since then. Still, Charlie still remains hopeful that she will save her kingdom. Vaggie leaves to show Charlie something that their new co-worker, Alastor to help them with their hotel. Just before she leaves, Charlie hears the bells ringing, indicating that it's another year long wait for another extermination.

Alastor shows the managers a promotional commercial he created, for the hotel other occupants of the hotel, Angel Dust, the bisexually gay pornstar, Husk, the bartender, and Niffty, a small eye-eyed, but sadistic hotel maid, presenting a tone that clashed with the intended message of redemption. However, the commercial was very offensive and very bad for promotion since its misleading portrayal of the Hazbin Hotel, leading Vaggie outraged that this isn't going to get sinners to come to redemption, though Alastor claims that the commercial was supposed to be hilarious, and because he's been out of touch with Hell for however long that he prefers his own radio show and not something from a tv set, which he considers to be practically useless. Angel Dust suggests to do a porn video commercial to attract the hornist sinners, but Vaggie shot him down, and while he proceeds to extravagant himself, Charlie received a phone call from her father, and takes it. As she listens, Charlie was very excited to hear that the leader of the Angel Army wants to meet her in person. The urgency of the meeting raised questions about the intentions of Heaven, especially so soon after an extermination. Charlie, filled with excitement, prepared to attend the meeting, leaving Vaggie and the residents in anticipation. So ecstatic, Charlie started to sing, Happy Day in Hell along her way to the headquarters of the Angel Army. Upon entering, she meets the leader of the Angel Army, who is revealed to be a very arrogant, cocky, and egotistically sadistic who is disturbingly harassing Charlie, even though he is a hologram.

Meanwhile, Vaggie gathers the residents and employees and comes up with a plan to make a new commercial that Charlie will like and attract other sinners into the hotel. Vaggie had Alastor conjure up a video camera and they can began making a new commercial. However, the project was very bad and frustrating for Vaggie. Husk was constantly reading lines on a script he was supposed to say because he's not very good in acting; Angel Dust was making flirtatiously horny remarks in his line to Husk; and Niffy has video camera shyness because every time Vaggie pins the camera toward her, Niffy goes into a state of hypnotic trance which creeps Vaggie out. Infuriated, Vaggie turns the camera toward Alastor for his part, but when the camera was recording him, the screen goes static and violently turns red, freaking Vaggie where she drops the camera, as Alastor points out his face was meant for radios, not for screens. Alastor offers to help with the commercial so long as Vaggie doesn't force him to use television technology, which she agrees. In short, Alastor takes away the camera conjures up a camera crew of demons, a set, and the residents with new clothes.

As for Charlie, her meeting with the angel leader was doing no so well, as he was exaggerating himself too much, and reveals him to be the original first Adam, to Charlie's surprise. Frustrated, Charlie reminds Adam of their main problem: the extermination of Hell populace due to overpopulation. Adam reminds Charlie they are almost out of time, and Charlie rushes her presentation to the point they started singing a song, Hell is Forever, telling Charlie that even though her plans were good, they still refuse to even lend her a hand over her Happy Hotel project, and decides to change the date of the Extermination to six months, much to Charlie's shock, before Adam kicks her out of his office.

Upset, Charlie returns back to the hotel, just as Vaggie comes to get her to set with the other residents to watch the new commercial on TV. However, just as the commercial was about to begin, the commercial was interrupted by a breaking news bulletin, much to everyone's, except for Niffy and Alastor's frustration. Katie Killjoy and Tom Trench have made a important announcement: the Heaven Embassy has announced the new Extermination deadline to be six months instead of the year, and then switches to the Extermination clock where it changes to six months while everyone in Pentagram City panics as chaos and anarchy spreads.

Meanwhile, Adam and his subordinate, Lute, have found what they were looking for: a dead body of the Exorcist. Lute suggests they should start already, but Adam declines, wanting to buy time to find out who had killed the angel, and vows that this Extermination will be the end of Hell, smashing the projector with his bare fist, and the episode ends with his glowing evil smile blinking into darkness.

Characters

 * Employees of the Hazbin Hotel
 * Charlie Morningstar
 * Vaggie
 * Alastor
 * Husk
 * Niffty
 * KeeKee (debut; cameo)
 * Razzle and Dazzle (cameo)
 * Clients of the Hazbin Hotel
 * Angel Dust
 * Exorcists (debut)
 * Adam
 * Lute
 * The Royal Family (silhouettes only; mentioned)
 * Lucifer Morningstar
 * Lilith
 * Humans
 * Eve (silhouette only)
 * Anchormen of 666 News (cameo)
 * Katie Killjoy
 * Tom Trench

Locations

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

Objects

 * "The Story of Hell" book

Songs

 * "Happy Day in Hell"
 * "Hell is Forever"

Trivia

 * The episode was also temporarily available on Vivziepop's YouTube channel until February 17, 2024.
 * It is revealed via Charlie's telling of the "Story of Hell" that Adam's first wife was to be Lilith before she was replaced by Eve after the former refused to be subservient to Adam and fell in love with Lucifer.
 * Additionally, Adam reveals that he is the same Adam who was the first human to be ever created.
 * Lute reveals that only Sinners are targeted by exorcist, while Hellborns are pardoned due to a deal between heaven and Lucifer.

Cultural References

 * The episode title, Overture, refers to an orchestral piece at the beginning of an opera, suite, play, oratorio, or other extended composition.
 * Much like the opening of That's Entertainment, the silhouette animation of Lucifer's banishment pays homage to the animated films of, notably .
 * Adam eating ribs is a reference to how his second wife, Eve, Eve, was created by using one of his own ribs in the biblical story.
 * The "Helluva Post" van seen in Happy Day in Hell is a reference to Helluva Boss.
 * The two cannibals seen eating intestines together in Cannibal Town during Happy Day in Hell is a dark reference to .

Continuity

 * The episode takes place seven days after the Hazbin Hotel pilot, as seen when the clock tower countdown has "358" days while the pilot had "365" immediately after the yearly extermination.
 * Angel sarcastically complimenting Vaggie by saying "You're doing great, Vagina" is a callback to Angel's prequel comic, Dirty Healings.

Errors

 * When Charlie starts singing Happy Day in Hell, a jumpcut edit is made where Vaggie briefly disappears.

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Gallery

 * Overture/Gallery