The Harvest Moon Festival

"Why struggle to run a business that is rigged against you when you can partner up with me and kill the unkillable? Starting with the one that treats you like a plaything."

- Striker to Blitzo

The Harvest Moon Festival is the fifth episode of the first season of Helluva Boss and is the fifth episode overall. It premiered on April 30, 2021, on Vivziepop's YouTube channel.

Synopsis

 * Blitzo sees a horse. Things sure do happen!

Plot
The episode opens at Stolas's mansion, with Blitzo sitting up in bed lighting a cigarette, having just had sex with Stolas, who apologizes for having their "rendezvous" early, as he has an engagement on the full moon. Blitzo says that doesn't worry him but asks if he needs his Grimoire back for it, telling him I.M.P has fifteen clients waiting for their targets to be assassinated. Stolas reminds him that he isn't meant to have the Grimoire in the first place, and the upcoming Harvest Moon is a special occasion that is his annual duty to showcase the Wrath Ring. Blitzo mentions he has never been to the Wrath Ring, but his employees are from there. Stolas excitedly invites them all to join him at the festival. Blitzo tries to get out of attending, reminding Stolas that I.M.P aren't bodyguards, and that last time they guarded him was a one-time thing, which ended horribly. Stolas says he isn't interested in hiring them and offers the company a fun day off, reassuring him that he won't need guards. Blitzo agrees to attend, as his company can only work with the Grimoire.

At Moxxie and Millie's apartment, the pair are fast asleep in bed when Moxxie's phone rings. Answering the phone, Blitzo asks if the pair want to attend the Harvest Festival. At the mention of the festival, Millie wakes up and is excited at the opportunity. Before asking where he's calling from, Moxxie tells Blitzo about Millie's reaction. Blitzo then drops from the ceiling onto their bed, which doesn't surprise Moxxie.

The next scene cuts to Rough n' Tumbleweed Ranch in the Wrath Ring, where Millie's family lives. As I.M.P.'s van comes to a stop, Millie gets out and rushes to embrace her parents, Joe and Lin. They warmly welcomed her back home, and she thanked them for letting I.M.P stay at the Ranch for the festival. Millie then asks if they remember her husband Moxxie, shoving him towards her parents, who give him a much colder welcome, made worse after he makes a joke about the Wrath Rings weather, which killed one of the Ranch's farmhands the previous week.

Blitzo then butts into their conversation after Moxxie calls Joe "sir" while apologizing for the joke, claiming that he's the "only sir there." Millie then introduces him and Loona as her boss and just his hellhound. Blitzo takes offense and states Loona's not just his hellhound; she's his daughter, which she coldly reminds him is only on paper. Blitzo then introduces himself to Millie's parents, who give him a much warmer welcome than Moxxie, complimenting him for his name, which reminds them of war. Moxxie then attempts to impress Joe and Lin by discussing how thinkers win wars and how he's researched the evolution of guns in Hell before realizing no one's interested. Joe says guns are fine, but a real man should be able to tear the head of a Hell beast with his bare hands, something Blitzo agrees with, mocking Moxxie.

Joe then introduces the Ranch's new farmhand, Striker, who rides on a flaming Hell horse to the group. Striker introduces himself to Millie, asking if freelance work in Imp City has dried up, which she says is different. They got tickets for the festival, jokingly stating that the Prince is her boss' lover. Blitzo firmly tells her to change the subject, as he isn't above hitting her in front of her parents. Striker then asks him about I.M.P after hearing about an imp starting his own business; subsequently, he compliments Blitzo for his outstanding achievement, stating that only a few Imps can do so. Striker asks him how exactly he's conning Stolas into letting them access the Living World, which flusters Blitzo, who poorly explains his arrangement with Stolas.

Joe then suggests to the pair they should enter the Pain Games. Blitzo is immediately interested and asks him what the games are. Lin answers that it's a competition to prove who's the "roughest, toughest bastard in Wrath." Millie expresses her disappointment for not being able to compete, and her mother reminds her that she gets carried away, with the last games she competed in ending with fifteen funerals. Millie angrily reminds her that she only caused nine of them and asks why her sister, Sallie May, is still allowed to compete. Lin reminds her Sallie doesn't have a body count, which Millie disagrees with, as Sallie says it doesn't count if they don't find the bodies she and another Imp drag two corpses past, infuriating her.

Lin tells Millie to accept that she can't compete and support her siblings when Moxxie suggests he compete so she can help him in the games. Joe laughs at him before realizing Moxxie is serious. Moxxie tells Joe he was born in Wrath, too, when Striker challenges him to prove himself by wrangling a hog for that night's dinner. Striker hands him a knife and a length of rope, telling him bullets won't pierce a hog's skin, causing Moxxie to realize what he's agreed to. Blitzo then taunts him, reminding him he could be about to make an ass of himself in front of everyone important in his life. Millie tries to dissuade him by telling him he doesn't have to do it, but Moxxie climbs into the corral with the hog anyway. He gets to approach the sleeping hog and successfully lassos it around its neck but misses with the knife. As Moxxie rides the hog, trying to kill it, Blitzo shouts encouragement from the fence while Loona films it on her phone. Striker then intervenes, shoving Moxxie off the hog and killing it with his own knife.

Moxxie lands in the mud of the corral, hurting his arm, as Striker walks past him with the hog on his shoulder, telling him he never stood a chance and angering him. Striker asks Blitzo if he wants to help skin the hog, which he agrees to. As everyone walks away, Millie bandages Moxxie's arm and tells him not to worry; her parents will respect him eventually. Sallie May tells them they never will, reinforcing Moxxie's desire to enter the Pain Games and causing her to ask Millie if she's okay with betting on his death.

The next scene shows the festival grounds, where Wally Wackford is on stage welcoming everyone to the event before introducing Stolas, who begins the Pain Games. Stolas delivers a poorly received speech by the attendees, which he also uses as an opportunity to indirectly flirt with Blitzo, bothering him.

A starting gun is then fired, thus commencing the Pain Games. A montage of the games is then shown, with Striker and Blitzo fiercely competing while Moxxie clumsily fails through the events. At the end of the games, Wackford announces that there has been a tie for the first time, with Stolas calling Striker and Blitzo to the stage. Alone in the stands, Moxxie complains to Millie about Striker, saying he may be physically better than him but claims to be better in other ways, like singing. Striker pulls out a guitar and sings a song he had just come up with to Moxxie's anger. Midway through the song, Blitzo sits down with Moxxie and Millie, complimenting Striker. To Moxxie's disappointment, Blitzo reveals he asked Striker to take a job with I.M.P, which he accepted. Millie suggests Moxxie go back to the house and clean himself, as Striker taunts him in his song, making him leave crying and humiliated.

Back at the Ranch, as Moxxie climbs the stairs, he notices a glow from Striker's room. Investigating, he finds an open gun case with a Carmine-crafted blessing-tipped rifle, a sniper rifle capable of killing Demon royalty. Striker confronts him and attempts to kill him for his discovery when Millie intervenes after hearing a lamp breaking and stabs him in the back before being overpowered by Striker. He throws the pair in the Ranch's cellar, where Millie lands in a bear trap, reasoning that they aren't worth the cleanup and might give him leverage over Blitzo. Moxxie tries to free Millie from the trap, but she tells him to stop Striker. Moxxie tells her he's not strong enough, and Millie tells him to use what he's good at. It soon dawns on Moxxie that he is good with guns, and he realizes he still has his pistol in his possession, allowing him to shoot a hole in the cellar doors and leave to stop Striker.

Back at the festival grounds, Stolas delivers another speech while using his Grimoire to open a portal to Earth and curse the festival with the light of the actual Harvest Moon. In a nearby building, Striker lines up a shot on Stolas with his sniper rifle when Blitzo confronts him. Striker remarks he thought he was still at the ceremony, and Blitzo responds that he can't stand Wrath's residents and Stolas simultaneously. Striker asks Blitzo if he's disappointed in him, which he agrees with, as he's about to kill his ticket to Earth behind his back. Striker tells him he's better than what he was limiting himself to do, remarking that he shouldn't be forced to fuck royalty and work for sinners who don't care for him, struggling to run a business rigged against him when they could partner up and kill Overlords. Striker subsequently corners Blitzo to the wall, suggesting that they could start by killing Stolas.

Blitzo pretends to agree with him as Moxxie sneaks in and grabs the sniper rifle. Moxxie called Blitzo earlier and told him what Striker was doing, so Blitzo stalled Striker long enough for Moxxie to catch him by surprise. Once Moxxie has the rifle, Blitzo elbows Striker after he almost made him shoot Moxxie. After a brief fight, Striker beats down the pair and returns his rifle. Holding them at gunpoint, Striker mocks them, commenting that they lost the upper hand quickly when Blitzo tells him he's forgotten something, whistling for Loona. She initially hears him and ignores it but goes to help Blitzo anyway. Striker tells him they could have made a good team, to which Blitzo disagrees and submits him by kicking his shin and chest, pushing him to the other side of the room, and making him drop the rifle. Moxxie catches it and fires a warning shot next to Striker's head. Taunting Striker, Moxxie asks him who's weak now and is about to blow Striker's head off. Still, Loona arrives way too late, accidentally kicking open the door and knocking him who was next to it. Striker takes the opportunity to flee, jumping out the window and into the crowd gathered for the festival, telling Blitzo that he might get him next time.

At the Ranch, Lin is shown bandaging Millie's wounds and berating her for letting Striker get the drop on her. Moxxie stands up for her, telling the pair that they should be ashamed for hiring Striker in the first place and that Millie has enough strength for both of them. Joe acknowledges Moxxie's input for the first time with a simple nod, which she recognizes, and I.M.P leaves the Ranch.

At the Hideaway Motel, Striker is on the phone with Stella, who had hired him to kill Stolas, telling her he failed but reassuring her that it won't happen again. It then zooms out, revealing that Stella is having the phone call with Striker, ordering him to do the job next time, regardless of who stands in his way. She is soon revealed at the dinner table with Stolas and Octavia, oblivious to her call. Back at the motel, Striker says he'll get Stolas next time, spinning a revolver of a similar design to his sniper rifle around his finger and chuckling evilly as he turns off the lights.

Characters

 * Employees of I.M.P
 * Blitzo
 * Moxxie
 * Millie
 * Loona
 * Goetia Royal Family
 * Stolas
 * Octavia (non-speaking cameo)
 * Stella (cameo)
 * Wally Wackford
 * Goetia family butler (non-speaking cameo)
 * Millie's family (debut)
 * Joe
 * Lin
 * Sallie May
 * Millie and Sallie May's brothers (non-speaking cameo)
 * Striker (debut)
 * Bombproof (debut)
 * Robo Fizz (pictured)
 * Mammon (pictured)
 * Stolas' butler (non-speaking cameo)
 * Harvest Moon Festival participants (debut; non-speaking cameo)
 * Belle
 * Ox
 * Spur
 * Kitti
 * Square
 * Cake
 * Curry
 * Ice Cube
 * Opal
 * Shrimp
 * Paper Plates

Locations

 * Hell
 * Pride Ring
 * Imp City
 * Moxxie and Millie's apartment
 * Bedroom
 * Stolas's mansion
 * Master Bedroom
 * Dining Room
 * Wrath Ring (debut)
 * Rough n' Tumbleweed Ranch
 * Lin and Joe's House
 * Hideaway Motel
 * Earth (mentioned)
 * Heaven (mentioned)

Objects

 * I.M.P company van
 * Stolas's Grimoire
 * Carmine-Crafted Blessing-Tipped Rifle
 * Striker's guitar
 * Goetia Family phone

Songs

 * "Striker's Song"

Instrumentals

 * "Stolas Speaks"

Trivia

 * The Harvest Moon Festivals are usually held sometimes between mid to late September, which hints at how this episode takes place around that time.
 * Millie's full first name is revealed to be Mildred.
 * The scene with Stolas and Blitzo's conversation regarding the Harvest Moon Festival was shown as a preview during the BLM Helluva Charity Stream hosted on Ashley Nichols's YouTube channel on June 10, 2020.
 * Additionally, "C.H.E.R.U.B" was initially supposed to be the third episode of the first season, as revealed in the description of the BLM Charity Stream, with this episode being the fifth and "Spring Broken" presumably being the fourth.
 * An early version of the animatic revealed that the scratch track voice actor, Kestin Howard, also initially recorded for Blitzo in the early animatic stage, assuming Brandon re-recorded the scratch track for either the purpose of the streams or for when revisions of the animatic took place.
 * The scene where Blitzo pours hot sauce on his "cheese on a stick" snack is an inside reference to the Helluva Signing Stream on Vivziepop's YouTube channel where Brandon Rogers was shown pouring hot sauce on a cheese slice during the stream.
 * As hinted in Stolas' greeting to the citizens of the Wrath Ring right before he starts the ceremony, the majority, if not all, the Imps of Hell appear to be native to the Wrath Ring.
 * Additionally, Moxxie and Millie are also both native to the Wrath Ring.
 * According to Striker, not many imps start businesses on their own. This is due to their low ranking in society.
 * It is stated by Stolas that the Wrath Ring provides the majority of the food supply for the entirety of Hell.
 * Similar to Fat Nuggets, the hogs native to Hell appear to have glowing marks similar to eyes growing across their backside.
 * It is revealed in a Tweet that Striker's horse is named Bombproof.
 * It is implied that the other Rings have some concept of war and conflict. Though, what form this takes is left unsaid.
 * This is the first episode to have 3D animation incorporated in it. This is evident during the turnaround shot of the Carmine-Crafted Blessing-Tipped Rifle.
 * Just like all the released episodes of 2021, this has scenes shown in the trailer for season one, to which some shots were improved.
 * Though, not explicitly stated, it is implied in the conversation between Blitzo and Stolas that the latter's mansion is, at the very least, not located in the Wrath Ring.
 * The girl that Striker kicks in the face during the performance of his song is the Impsona of artist Cécilia Goncalves. The team put her in the scene as an inside joke due to Calis' infatuation with Striker.
 * Moxxie is shown to have a gun with a musical note on it, highlighting his love of musical theater.
 * According to clean-up artist, Victoria Yorrid, the Grimoire shown when Stolas announces the festival was rigged unlike the show's frame by frame traditional animation, and the scene where Blitzo and Striker wrestled was time-consuming and difficult to clean up because he had to keep the character animations separate for compositing purposes, which caused him to finish the shot with masks in After Effects.
 * From this episode onwards, the episode thumbnails no longer have the episode titles on them.
 * Blitzo posted a photo of Bombproof on the former's non-canon Voxtagram after seeing him for the first time in this episode.
 * Two posts from the characters' non-canon Voxtagram accounts are made as a reference to this episode.
 * Blitzo posting a photo of Bombproof after seeing him for the first time.
 * Stolas posting a picture of Blitzo and Striker during the announcement of the winners of the Pain Games.
 * It was mentioned that Millie was banned from the Harvest Moon Festival Games due to having a neighborhood headcount, having caused nine deaths of the fifteen funerals from the last competition.
 * It is also mentioned that Sallie May would have a neighborhood headcount too if not for her hiding the dead bodies.

Cultural References

 * Loona jokingly snarks "That's what she said." after hearing Blitzo's accidental innuendo, a phrase that is widely attributed to the popular TV show franchise, ', but can be traced back to the test reel of the Alfred Hitchcock film, '.
 * During "Striker's Song" a large representation can be seen of Striker in the mountains, which is a reference to the Screaming Cowboy meme derived from the music video for Kirin J. Callinan's song "Big Enough".
 * Moxxie's ringtone on his Hellphone appears to be the organ pipe music from Phantom of the Opera.
 * Blitzo saying "If you're good at something, you should probably capitalize." could be a reference to the Joker saying "If you're good at something, never do it for free." in the Dark Knight. This is probably coincidental, since both characters are major approximations of killer clowns.

Continuity

 * Blitzo is, once again, shown to be stalking Moxxie and Millie in their apartment.
 * Blitzo recalls their failed bodyguarding job back in "Loo Loo Land".
 * Additionally, Millie eliciting an excited reaction to hearing about their trip to The Harvest Moon Festival is similar to how she reacted to the gang’s plan on going to Loo Loo Land in the second episode.

Errors

 * When the Wrath Ring is mentioned by Stolas at the beginning of the episode, Blitzo states that he had "never really been" there, which contradicts his conversation with Verosika Mayday in "Spring Broken", where she stated that he once maxed out her credit cards on horse riding lessons while there.
 * However, a possible explanation for this may be that by Blitzo's wording, "never really been", he was referring to not spending much time actually looking around the Wrath Ring, aside from where he learnt to ride horses in the previously mentioned incident. Another reason might simply be Blitzo didn't want to bring up his past history with Verosika in front of Stolas and decided to act like he had never been there before.
 * Blitzo’s skin color and white splotches on his right hand are swapped when he is seen lighting his cigar.
 * Despite Stolas promising the gang "special access" during the festival, this is never shown as Blitzo, Moxxie, and Millie were treated just like every other person attending the festival that day.
 * Millie's shorts of her festival outfit sometimes show unripped in some scenes.
 * Striker's tail is missing when Bombproof jumps over the fence.
 * A part of Joe's mouth clips over his mustache when he suggests for Striker and Blitzo to enter the Pain Games.
 * Loona can already be seen filming Moxxie’s attempt at killing the demon boar for dinner, but, in the next scene, she is seen to only have started pressing the record button on her phone.
 * Millie bandages up Moxxie's right arm after he complains that his clavicle was in need of medical attention.
 * Several scenes such as Stolas' announcement speech for the festival were animated at an inconsistent and much more slower speed. This is not only due to the different framerates animated but also because in-between animators were used for this episode.
 * Moxxie’s scream from when he was offscreen carries over to the following scene wherein he has his mouth closed while looking up at Striker overshadowing him.
 * The right horn of the young male imp goes uncolored during the scene wherein Striker ties Blitzo up in the Pain Games.
 * Striker's guitar only has four strings attached to it.
 * Despite still being allowed to participate in the Pain Games, Sallie May is nowhere to be seen throughout the event.
 * It could be possible that she voluntarily decided to skip this one.
 * Moxxie’s injuries briefly disappear and reappears throughout the bleachers scene.
 * The basement door suddenly gets a lock, as shown when Moxxie shoots a hole through it, despite the previous scene showing that it did not have one to begin with.
 * The white markings as well as the black heart tattoo on Millie’s injured arm disappears during the scene where she tells Moxxie "I love you, hon. But, for fuck’s sake!".
 * Stolas can already be seen directly through the crosshairs of Striker’s gun before the scene wherein he starts aiming for the former.
 * Blitzo's black spines are not seen when Blitzo looks down to find Striker's knife behind him.
 * During the dinner scene between the Goetia Family, Octavia's neck and upper torso are white in colour, when they are usually grey.
 * Additionally, the trim on Stella's shoulderpads are incorrectly colored white while she is on the phone with Striker. Though, it fixes when the camera pans out to the Goetia Family at the table.
 * Millie's mole disappears during the scene where she runs over to meet her parents, momentarily the scene where she calls for Moxxie's attention after Blitzo informs him he invited Striker to work for him, and during the scene where she scowls at her sister as a response to the latter saying "No, they won't."
 * Blitzo's horns have edged curves rather than their usual smooth curves during the scene where he responds to Loona's "That's what she said." innuendo.
 * The stage turns from one with Stolas' tent, speakers, and "Harvest Moon Festival" banner into one with just a panel of large stage lights during the scene where Striker sings his victory song.
 * Despite Striker asking "Did you hear something? It was just the wind." referring to Moxxie, the latter did not have any dialogue to warrant the former's line.
 * However, this line of Striker could possibly also refer to his own former line "Moxxie, go fuck yourself", as in trying to hide that he just insulted someone insignificant.
 * The scratches Striker leaves on his bedroom door disappear in the following scenes.
 * The wheat stalk Striker spits out onto his bedroom floor disappears in the following scenes, as well.

Transcript
View the episode's transcript here.

Gallery

 * The Harvest Moon Festival/Gallery