Biggest Unanswered Questions In Hazbin Hotel Season 1
Contains spoilers for "Hazbin Hotel" Season 1
Four years after Vivienne Medrano's "Hazbin Hotel" pilot hit YouTube, the first season has wrapped up at Amazon Prime Video, delivering a climactic finale but promising many more things to come in Season 2. Living up to the hype of an indie animation smash-hit that accrued nearly 100 million views was no small task, but Medrano seems to have pulled it off. Season 1 has earned significant praise from both critics and regular viewers, and fans who were waiting the last four years in suspense appear mostly satisfied with the finished result.
Though the series juggles a lot of plotlines and characters, the core focus of Season 1 is pretty simple. Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen), the princess of Hell, tries her best to lead a handful of wayward sinners to redemption, putting them up in her titular hotel and urging them away from their darkest instincts. Her efforts take her all the way to Heaven itself, where she discovers that the angels are less than holy and that the metrics for redemption aren't exactly clear. Her righteous rage leads to a bloody showdown, with Charlie and her assembled crew earning a first-ever victory against the Heavenly horde.
It's an action-packed finish, but it also leaves plenty of things hanging. Secrets are teased, long-gone characters return in mysterious ways, and the future of Hell itself seems uncertain by the time the credits roll on Episode 8. With that in mind, let's take a look at the biggest unanswered questions in "Hazbin Hotel" Season 1 and what could be coming next.
Why is Lilith in Heaven?
One of the main throughlines in "Hazbin Hotel" Season 1 is the absence of Charlie's mother Lilith, who we learn early on has been missing from Hell for seven years. Very little is revealed about where she might be until the last moments of the season finale, when newly-crowned head Exorcist Lute (Jessica Vosk) is shown speaking with Lilith on a sunny beach in Heaven.
"Adam is dead," Lute says, tossing the first man's bloody halo at Lilith's feet. "Your deal is done, and I'm in charge now." She then threatens Lilith directly, saying that she won't be allowed to stay in Heaven anymore unless she goes down to Hell and stops Charlie from upending the supposedly natural order. This raises a ton of questions. Why is Lilith in Heaven? What kind of deal did she have with Adam (Alex Brightman), and did it have something to do with her being his first wife? Does Lucifer (Jeremy Jordan) know where the mother of his daughter has been all this time? And why has she only been there for seven years?
One theory is that Lilith, famous for organizing Hell and rallying its denizens under her banner, made some deal to vanish in order to protect her home from annihilation. Given how much Lute seems to hate her, it's apparent that they aren't really on the same side. Still, there's a lot we just won't know until "Hazbin Hotel" Season 2.
Why is Sir Pentious in Heaven?
Charlie's plan to defend the hotel from Adam and the Exorcists goes pretty well, all things considered. A lot of that is thanks to the intervention of her father, but she also devises a good plan and gathers soldiers and weapons to her cause. The only major casualty of a primary character is Sir Pentious (Alex Brightman), who dies trying to defeat Adam. The other characters mourn him, but in one of the last shots, we see his soul reborn in Heaven, clad in white and gold but still bearing his snake demon form.
Hopeful young Seraphim Emily (Shoba Narayan) is ecstatic to see him, but her mother Sera (Patina Miller) is less enthused. In fact, she appears quite shocked. As far as we know, this is the first instance of a mortal soul from Hell being killed and rising to Heaven afterward. Maybe all of Charlie's trust exercises paid off after all, or maybe there's something more mysterious going on.
Either way, it's nice to know that Sir Pentious will still be around in "Hazbin Hotel" Season 2. He could prove to be a valuable ally to Charlie and the gang now that he's on the inside, although the circumstances of his apparent redemption remain murky. Is a selfless sacrifice really all it takes? Could it be that simple? Probably not.
Who's holding Alastor's leash?
Alastor (Amir Talai) nearly gets killed by Adam at the end of "Hazbin Hotel" Season 1, but he just barely manages to escape. In a final scene, he returns to his devastated radio broadcast tower and gives a few new clues as to his larger story. "I'm hungry for freedom like never before," the Radio Demon sings. "The constraints of my deal surely have a backdoor." Throughout the season, Alastor is usually the one offering to make deals with people. Husk (Keith David) owes his soul to Alastor because of an old deal they made, effectively enslaving him to the radio demon. This revelation that Alastor himself is actually beholden to someone else is interesting, and it throws everything he's done up until this point into question.
Some have speculated that Alastor's entire role helping Charlie with the hotel is a condition of his deal. When he arrives in the pilot, he's been gone for seven years, and he only returns (or so it seems) to help her build the hotel and complete her redemption experiments. Knowing that someone is holding Alastor's leash, it seems like a long shot that this motivation would have occurred naturally. It's also worth noting that Alastor and Lilith were missing for the same amount of time. Is she the one who cut a deal with him, forcing him back to help her daughter? Or is there something more nefarious going on?
Where was Alastor before he came back to Pentagram City?
The question of Alastor's deal and its origin leads to another question: Where exactly was he during the seven years prior to the start of the show? While the shared time away between him and Lilith suggests a connection, it's hard to imagine the Radio Demon getting into Heaven for any amount of time, especially since Adam makes no mention of a past meeting during their fight.
In the mythos of "Hazbin Hotel," Hell is divided into seven circles, each of which is connected to a different one of the seven deadly sins. Pentagram City — where Charlie and the hotel are located — is in the Pride Ring. It's worth noting, though, that Hell is much larger than what we see in Season 1, and there's a lot we still don't know about how it all fits together.
Even if Alastor had been living in some other corner of the underworld, you'd think that people would have known about it. Instead, they talk about his absence as if he'd vanished from existence entirely. This disappearance is made all the stranger because of how powerful he was beforehand. His conquest of Hell and brutal murder of numerous Overlords is infamous — spoken of in whispers — so it's hard to imagine what could have made him abandon his campaign so suddenly and for so long.
How does Heaven actually work?
One thing that becomes eminently clear in "Hazbin Hotel" Season 1, Episode 6 is that the angels of Heaven don't actually understand what it takes for a soul to be redeemed. They know when someone arrives in their realm, and they claim that the heavenly afterlife is a reward for pure behavior, but Charlie proves that their own proclaimed measurements for goodness don't seem to work for her friends. When you take Adam's unbearable personality and the Exorcists' penchant for mass murder into account, the holy realm looks even less holy.
The show as a whole deals heavily with the theme of hypocrisy, as many Hell residents seem far more likable and less cruel than the leading angels of Heaven. As such, it's not surprising to discover that the entire framework of redemption may be built on a lie — or, at the very least, backward logic. Sir Pentious' arrival in heaven at the end of "Hazbin Hotel" Season 1 throws everything the angels claim to be true into doubt, and things are made even more complicated by Lilith's presence there.
It's also worth noting that God has yet to be mentioned at all. In her opening exposition in Episode 1, Charlie names Heaven and the angels but makes no mention of a singular creator deity. It's possible that there is no God in the "Hazbin Hotel" universe, which leaves the question: Who's really making all of the decisions about how Heaven is run?
What really happened between Lucifer and the other angels?
"Hazbin Hotel" Season 1 begins with a history lesson from Charlie, who explains how the angels of Heaven created Earth and humanity, how Lucifer and Lilith gave free will to Eve, and how they were subsequently punished for letting evil into the world. Even before Lucifer was officially cast into Hell, though, Charlie says that he was seen as a pariah by the other angels because of his "fantastical ideas for all of creation."
Charlie calls her father a "dreamer" but explains that the rest of Heaven thought he was dangerous. She also says that his delivery of free will caused evil to infect the mortal realm, but she doesn't really explain how. The biblical story of the Garden of Eden positions Lucifer as a deceptive villain from the start, but that's clearly not the case here. So why did his gift to mankind cause such a huge distortion? And why were his creative ideas — pretty innocent ones from what we see in the show — condemned for being dangerous?
Given how hypocritical Heaven is shown to be, it's likely that we're missing some key pieces of the story. "Evil" isn't exactly a hard and fast thing in "Hazbin Hotel." The angels claim to be the guardians of good, yet they commit genocide on a regular basis. With luck, Lilith's return in "Hazbin Hotel" Season 2 will shed a bit more light on what actually happened with Lucifer in Heaven and how the world came to be the way it is.
Will Angel be able to escape Valentino's cruelty?
Every resident of the Hazbin Hotel gets time to develop in Season 1, but Angel (Blake Roman) arguably receives the most attention — after Charlie herself, of course. His story is tragic, and it's hard not to root for him after seeing how brutal his soul deal with Valentino (Joel Perez) is.
Angel endures endless abuse in Val's studio, and there appears to be no end in sight because of their contract. And now, with the Vees seemingly more powerful than ever after Alastor loses to Adam, things could get even worse.
Season 2 has a lot of things to follow up on, and, hopefully, Angel's liberation will finally come to pass. He's come so far in his trust of other people, and he has a family behind him now, one that includes royal members of Hell's ruling family. There's bound to be a way to break him free of Valentino's control, but we haven't seen it yet.
What favor will Alastor ask of Charlie?
For most of "Hazbin Hotel" Season 1, Charlie carries herself with grace and politeness, often to the point of becoming a doormat. She chooses to be good and kind whenever possible, but she also has a dark side that peeks through very occasionally, such as in the final battle against the angels at the end of Season 1. Like her parents, Charlie holds immense power, and it comes out when she gets angry. Her body transforms into a more hellish shape, and it's possible that her demon form could be even more powerful than her father's.
When Alastor makes his deal with Charlie to help defend the hotel at the end of Season 1, he promises that the favor he'll ask won't require her to hurt anyone. Still, it's hard to imagine him wanting the princess of Hell in his back pocket for anything other than her powers. His deal could be a trick with some hidden clause requiring her to enter demon mode under specific circumstances. The other likely option, though, is that Alastor needs her help to break free of his own shackles.
If the deal that's keeping Alastor enslaved is indeed connected to Lilith, then it makes sense that he'd want a favor from Charlie. Violent or not, it will probably require her to use her powers in some way. And, while he's shown plenty of genuine affection for her, it's clear that Alastor still prioritizes himself over anyone else.
What's next for the other Overlords, and is Adam really dead?
Even though Charlie and the crew manage to kill Adam and fend off the Exorcists' attack, their corner of Hell may still be in trouble. Vox (Christian Borle), Velvette (Lilli Cooper), and Valentino celebrate Alastor's defeat despite his escape. They seem to believe that with him at least briefly weakened, they'll be able to reassert themselves as the dominant Overlords of Pentagram City.
Other questions remain about Overlords like Carmilla Carmine (Daphne Rubin-Vega) and Zestial (James Monroe Iglehart). The latter is still an enigma, though he seems to be far older than nearly every other character. Carmilla aids Charlie and Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz) by equipping them with angelic weapons, which could backfire on her later on. Surely, Lute and the other angels won't take kindly to someone who uses their own weapons against them. For now, it seems that there will be a bit of a power vacuum. What happens with the Overlords will largely depend on Alastor and how quickly he can return to full strength.
There's also a chance that Adam could come back after being killed, possibly even being reborn as a demon in Hell as punishment for his crimes. This would mirror Sir Pentious' own resurrection in an interesting way, especially since Adam is the one who kills him. At the very least, the first man seems far too important to the mythos of "Hazbin Hotel" to be gone for good, especially with Lilith coming back. Maybe we could even see Eve, wherever she is.
What role will Emily play going forward?
The only saving grace of Heaven so far seems to be Emily, the young Seraphim who's genuinely excited to meet Charlie and appalled to discover that her fellow angels have been murdering the denizens of Hell. Emily's mother, Sera, isn't nearly as brash about their violent behavior as Adam is, but it's clear that she supports the system as it stands — a system that Emily seems incapable of accepting. When Sir Pentious appears in Heaven at the end of Season 1, Emily rejoices while her mother looks on in disgust.
After their big duet decrying the evils of Heaven, Charlie and Emily seemed destined to become friends and allies. As the mysteries of Heaven and Lilith's presence there unravel, Emily could play a pivotal role in either disrupting her mother's establishment or pushing for revolution. Another, more tragic possibility is that Emily could run afoul of the powers that be, prompting her to be expelled from Heaven like Lucifer and Vaggie before her.
Since she's still a pretty new character, it's hard to predict exactly what Emily's role will be moving forward. But, whatever it is, she's certainly one of the most interesting players to watch as the story unfolds.
What's next for the Hazbin Hotel?
Adam and his angels basically destroy the Hazbin Hotel in their attack, but with Lucifer's help, the gang rebuilds it. While it's nice to see the building standing tall once again, it's also hard not to wonder what will become of Charlie's grand plan for it.
From the start, her plan was to help the souls of Hell by redeeming them, putting them up in her hotel and helping them leave their old lives of debauchery behind. Now that we know Heaven is uninterested in accepting anyone from Hell, that idea might not make sense anymore. However, the resurrection of Sir Pentious in Heaven may offer an alternative method of redemption. To be clear, Sir Pentious dies before reappearing in Heaven. If a second death is required for redemption to work, people may be a bit more hesitant to go through with it.
Also, while Lilith seems to be the next step in Heaven trying to knock Charlie off her path, Lute could always just lead another attack. Without Alastor's strength, could the Hazbin gang hold them off? The only thing that seems certain is that Charlie will keep fighting for her home and her friends. If there's a way to get out of Hell, or to make Hell a better place, she's going to keep searching for it in "Hazbin Hotel" Season 2.