Western Energy

"♫ He's galloping over the dusty planes, even the cacti know his name. If you don't want to die, don't cross his path. The best assassin in the Ring of Wrath. He's Striker! He's Striker! Sure-shootin', darn-tootin', his name is Striker. ♫"

- The mariachi imps, singing The Ballad of Striker

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

Synopsis

 * Striker exists and 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. He then calls Blitzo who was on his way to the Sloth ring to get Loona's hellbies 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 the prince, as they had a score to settle with Striker, 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. while waiting, the child of the woman next to him calls him a fire toad, and his mother said not to say it in public. Blitzo retaliates by calling her a cunt (the word being censored). the woman then backmouths him to watch his language calling him a wrathian, assuming he was from wrath. Blitzo says since Loona was here, he didn't want her saying things like that. eventually their called in to the doctor, and Blitzo walks off with Loona, blowing a raspberry at the mother.

After a western style musical number, Striker takes Stolas to his lair where he is tied to a train track, noticing the cliché nature 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 kicks him in the face. Striker responds by stabbing Stolas' leg and even breaking it, but Stolas managed to subdue the pain saying Blitzo tortures 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. Millie asks the mariachi band that sang Striker's song if they saw him, and they are about to sing, but Millie cuts them off asking for a straight answer. The fourth member tells her he resided in the abandoned mines in the volcano near their current destination. After she gets the help, and after Moxxie defeats the motorcycle gang and constricts the leader with a gasoline hose connected to their van's tank, they head off, but not before the gang leader gets killed via decapitation 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' 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. Despite Millie and Moxxie holding their own against Striker, he eventually pins Millie with her own axe while he temporarily incapacitates Moxxie by crashing him under a flying piece of stalagmite. As Striker gets on top of Moxxie and starts strangling him, Moxxie counters by pretending he is getting turned on, making the cowboy back off. Ultimately it ends with Millie chopping the statue down on top of Striker, but he gets away. Moxxie and Millie were horrified to realize how badly injured Stolas is, noting they must take him to a hospital, ignoring their own battered state.

As they bring a badly injured Stolas to the hospital, 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, Blitzo is shocked that Stolas could get hurt in general. 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, and falling asleep where all the petals from one of the hell roses have fallen off.

Characters

 * Employees of I.M.P
 * Blitzo
 * Loona (non-speaking)
 * Moxxie
 * Millie
 * Goetia Royal Family
 * Stolas
 * Stella
 * Andrealphus (debut)
 * Octavia (mentioned)
 * Striker
 * Bombproof
 * Staff of Ozzie's (mentioned; text only)
 * Asmodeus (mentioned; text only)
 * Fizzarolli (indirectly mentioned; text only)
 * Richest Cup imp servers (debut; non-speaking cameo)
 * Tiny imp mariachi band (debut)
 * Unnamed succubus biker gang (debut; cameo)
 * St. An's Hospital staff (debut)
 * Dr. Somna
 * Muffy
 * St. An's Hospital patients (debut)
 * Unnamed fish demon
 * Unnamed fish demon's child

Locations

 * Hell
 * Pride Ring
 * Richest Cup (debut)
 * Andrealphus's mansion (debut)
 * Lust Ring
 * Ozzie's (mentioned)
 * Wrath Ring
 * Striker's mine shaft (debut)
 * Unnamed gas station (debut; cameo)
 * Sloth Ring (debut)
 * St. An's Hospital

Objects

 * I.M.P. van
 * Blitzo's pistol
 * Striker's statue
 * Stolas's Grimoire (mentioned; text only)
 * Angelic Weapons
 * Blessed Knife
 * Blessed Rope
 * Blessed Revolvers
 * Holy Bullets (mentioned)

Songs

 * "The Ballad of Striker"
 * "Whatcha Thinkin' About?"
 * Country rock version
 * Bubblegum pop version

Instrumentals

 * "Stolas Speaks"

Trivia

 * This episode has scenes shown in animatics and storyboards from the 2022 trailer, to which some shots were completed and improved.
 * As of this episode, due to Norman Reedus' busy schedule, Striker is voiced by Edward Bosco.
 * Additionally, as of this episode onwards, Striker shares the same voice actor as Alastor, Joe, Jesse, and the unnamed hellhound from "Queen Bee", with all of them being voiced by Edward Bosco.
 * The Goetiasona of background designer and SpindleHorse art director, Sam Miller (@probfakeblonde), can also be seen in the Richest Cup as Striker goes to lasso Stolas.
 * According to a tweet Sam made, her Goetiasona went out to pick up her imp, Skye Henwood's impsona. This is expanded upon in a tweet by Skye who says Sam and Logan came to pick Skye up from work.
 * 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". With Silva Hound also having 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 the voices of Valentino and Angel Dust in Hazbin Hotel.
 * According to Sam Miller, some of the swear words (e.g. "c*nt") were censored due to YouTube's restrictions on 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.
 * The hospital Blitzo takes Loona to is called "St. An's", a play on words on "Satan".
 * This episode marks the onscreen debut of the Sloth Ring, with it being the fifth to be shown out of the seven Rings of Hell.
 * This episode reveals that imps also come in sizes small enough as to fit the average human palm.
 * As of this episode, Stolas has found out that Striker was hired by the former's wife to assassinate the Goetic prince.
 * It is revealed that rabies in Hell is called "Hellbies".
 * Throughout the episode, it is revealed that Striker is a wanted man as shown from his bounty poster that are seen in the Pride and Wrath rings.
 * According to Andrealphus, Stolas is the first ever Goetia to betray their family in terms of marriage, and if ever, he was an incredibly rare case to do so.
 * Simultaneously, Loona is also supposedly the first hellhound to cause problems for Dr. Somna over having a vaccine shot given to her.
 * Blitzo and Stolas' text conversation reveals how Stolas does not necessarily need the grimoire every month.
 * Stolas' phone also reveals that the beginning of the episode started around 10 am, whereas the ending where he is sent to St. An's Hospital was around 5:49 pm, or 17:49 in military time.
 * Vivziepop replied to a fan's Tweet asking what the St. An's nurse's name would be, to which Medrano stated she would name her "Muffy".
 * Additionally, the doctor's name, as revealed on his clinic plaque, "Dr. Somna" may be a reference to the word "Somna", meaning "to fall asleep", which is befitting of the overall theme of the hospital and the Sloth Ring as a whole.
 * According to Vivienne Medrano, Loona didn't have any dialogue in this episode due to thinking it might have been a fun way to show a more "puppy" side of Loona and save a little budget, however after the episode released Vivienne regrets not giving her dialogue.
 * Blitzo's set of keys, the sharpener flint used by Striker and Millie's zweihander were designed by Sterling Richter.

Cultural References

 * According to the episodes' lead animator Mel Mzorak, the exterior shot of Bombproof roaming in the desert 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.
 * After being called a "Fire Toad", Blitzo frowns and a sound effect similar to the frown sound effect in  is heard.
 * When Blitzo drops the mother and child after the receptionist calls him and Loona, the mother does the  death pose.
 * Andrealphus' mansion may bear a resemblance of Elsa's castle in the.
 * The scene where Moxxie and Millie break through the ceiling of the caves and drive down the mine shaft may be a possible reference to a repeating gag in the game , in which every time a protagonist uses the phone booth to call Nico, she will drive to the protagonist's location, which usually involves destructing things.
 * When Stolas was tied up with Blessed Rope, he questions how himself being tied to train tracks was cliché, which is a nod to classic cartoons where damsels in distress were tied to train tracks by the villain.
 * The shot of Blitzo, Loona, and Dr. Somna chasing each other around in circles as "Whatcha Thinkin' About?" plays in the background could be a nod to the comedic chase sequences of Hanna-Barbera's .

Continuity

 * At the end of the episode, it is shown that Stolas made various text conversations with Blitzo to make things better between them after their unfortunate night in "Ozzie's".
 * There are also texts of Stolas' thanking Blitzo for helping find Octavia in "Seeing Stars".
 * Stolas' lockscreen wallpaper is the same portrait of him and a young Octavia that can be seen hanging on the mansion walls in "The Circus".
 * The Goetia family are discussing the circumstances of Stolas and Stella's divorce at the beginning of the episode, which was also first bought up in "The Circus".
 * Stolas apologizing for calling Blitzo at yet another "bad time" is a callback to when he first did so in "Murder Family".
 * Blitzo claiming how Stolas was a "lucky bitch" for being tied on a horse is a reference to the former's love of horses.
 * Millie and Moxxie mentioning how they have unfinished business with Striker is a callback to the latter's debut episode, "The Harvest Moon Festival".

Errors

 * Erica Lindbeck is listed in the credits despite Loona not having any dialogue aside from animalistic noises such as growls and whimpers throughout the episode.
 * During the scenes where Blitzo carries Loona, she appears larger than she normally does next to Blitzo.
 * Striker crushes Stolas' phone after he has a word with Blitzo, but is still heard by the latter through his side of the phone.
 * Additionally, Stolas' phone is back to being fine after he is sent to the hospital.
 * However, it may be possible that Stolas has a phone replacement.
 * The nurse tells Blitzo she can't read, but proceeds to read the notebook of appointments in the next scene, albeit upside down.
 * During Moxxie and Millie's fight with Striker (around 14:43), Striker's rope (around 14:47) is seen when his blessed revolvers are destroyed.
 * Stolas' right wrist didn't have bandages until after he grabbed his phone to see Blitzo's message it was shown to be wrapped up.

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Gallery

 * Western Energy/Gallery