Hazbin Hotel S1 E3 “Scrambled Eggs”: Review

Previous Review: https://medium.com/@roryaphunter/hazbin-hotel-s1-e2-radio-killed-the-video-star-500cadadfdf2

Score — 9/10

For me, this is where Hazbin Hotel really stepped up its game.

Don’t get me wrong, “Overture” and “Radio Killed The Video Star” are both fun, impactful and lovingly crafted, but “Scrambled Eggs” packs more emotional punches, gets in a quicker and funnier succession of jokes, and has some of the most compelling and entertaining character dynamics so far in the series.

The plot is as follows: Following Sir Pentious’ (Alex Brightman) arrival, Charlie (Erika Henningsen) decides what the group needs is trust exercises, and places Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz) in charge of organising the day, to mixed results. Meanwhile, Alastor (Amir Talai) attends a post-extermination Overlord meeting, chaired by arms dealer Carmilla Carmine (Daphne Rubin-Vega) and attended by the ancient Zestial (James Monroe Iglehart). Said meeting is also attended by Velvette (Lilli Cooper), who reveals that an Exterminator has been found dead (a fact that the audience have known since the end of Episode 1).

This episode’s A-plot manages to develop our central cast’s relationships in a subtle-yet-evident way and ALSO manages to deliver a tonne of witty and hilarious jokes and scenarios. The trust-fall scene results in great lines (“This time everyone needs to catch him, okay? Unless you want me to hurt you”) and interactions (the exchange between Angel (Blake Roman) and Husk (Keith David) is pitch-perfect from a writing, delivery and character perspective), whilst the wider story allows for a proper exploration of Vaggie’s character and her devotion to helping Charlie achieve her dreams. Stephanie Beatriz really gets to explore Vaggie’s layers here, shifting between tough and confident, spiky, and also very, very vulnerable, a first for the character. Her bit in “Whatever It Takes”, the episode’s second song, is just wonderful (I’ll talk more about the songs later), and really emphasises that despite Vaggie’s grumpiness and sharpness, she’s fundamentally a caring person, and she REALLY loves Charlie. I’m going to keep from excessively gushing about Charlie and Vaggie’s unbelievably wholesome and believable relationship, but they’re just adorable here. This part of the episode as a whole shows Hazbin getting more nuanced with the characters and more consistent and layered with the jokes, with a lot of these scenes being well-woven and illuminating, with very few misfires or awkward bits of dialogue. The scene near the end where Charlie comforts Vaggie by pointing out the other characters being actually friendly and wholesome with each other is small but significant, as it shows these ragtag misfits starting to grow into more of a family, slowly but surely.

Meanwhile, the Overlord plotline is just… magnificent. Not only are we introduced to Carmilla and Zestial, who are both awesome characters, but Velvette’s here, and ohmygod she kicks so much butt. Lilli Cooper’s line delivery is insanely fantastic, and Velvette’s role in this episode of pushing the Overlords and actually getting under their skin cements her as the most interesting of the Vees for me. Not to pooh-pooh Vox and Valentino, both are great, but Velvette’s boast that she’s the backbone of the trio fits perfectly with how this episode presents her, especially when it comes to the song “Respectless”, where she utterly trashes Zestial and the other Overlords for their reluctance to confront Heaven now they have proof that the Exterminators can be killed, and manages to piss Carmilla off enough and get her to lose her cool that Velvette is able to make the ultimately correct assumption that Carmilla killed the angel.

I’m going to take a moment to break down why “Respectless” works so damn well. It starts with Carmilla blowing up at Velvette and telling her to show some respect to Zestial, who she’s calling senile. Velvette, although initially looking surprised, quickly fires back, not backing down or trying to save face. She also goes just beyond surface-level insults: she states she’s so respectless because the Overlords have become ineffective and overly cautious. This immediately raises the stakes and shows that Velvette is a shrewd and cunning antagonist, as well as being able to hold her own against a room full of powerful and ancient Overlords, even getting in Zestial’s face and catching him-off guard. Carmilla’s second verse blasting the Vees allows Velvette to triumphantly ask if she’s struck a nerve and insinuate Carmilla killed the angel, forcing the latter to adjourn the meeting. In one song, Velvette has marked herself as one to watch, and also as just a really wonderful, entertaining and interesting character, one that can flip between fun and commanding without skipping a beat. Just in case I forget, I’d be remiss not to mention that the animation and music for “Respectless” are fire.

Zestial and Carmilla also need to be discussed. Zestial is creepy but cool, and James Iglehart’s strong vocal performance lends itself remarkably well to his ancient vibe. His design is striking, and his ye-olde speech patterns are sublime, setting him apart from other characters. Carmilla, meanwhile, is a vital part of the show’s future by virtue of being the only known sinner to take out an angel. She’s also brilliantly designed and voiced to perfection by Daphne Reuben-Vega. Vivzie and the episode’s writer Ariel Ladensohn do a great job establishing her as a multifaceted character whose actions are understandable and feel like they have weight. The meeting scene shows her care for the population of Hell, as she wishes to reorganise and protect her people after the Extermination date is pushed up. We see her ability to keep cool after Velvette insults her straight to her face, but then when she lashes out after Zestial is mocked, we see she cares deeply for him. Then we have her reason for killing the angel revealed: to protect her daughters, highlighting her vulnerability and devotion. This is all established in a single episode, which is a really great use of efficient writing that makes this episode feel longer than it actually is. Carmilla is another excellent supporting character, one whose role in the story is to serve a purpose, in this case to fill in the blanks of how an angel can be killed, but who is also interesting and memorable.

This leads me onto the song “Whatever It Takes”, in which Carmilla and Vaggie both sing about how their devotion to the people they love drives them: Carmilla’s devotion for her daughters, and Vaggie’s devotion to Charlie. It’s a beautiful song that draws some great parallels and ties the two halves of the episode together in a nice little thematic bow. I find some of the character animations a little goofy, but that’s a tiny complaint, actually not even a complaint, just a nitpick. I really love how this song connects the episode’s two halves with the theme of devotion, capping Carmilla’s character introduction and enriching Vaggie’s continuing characterisation.

Finally, Alastor. His involvement in this half of the episode may seem small, but then turns out to be gigantic later down the line (I’m writing this review after the series has ended). At the start of the episode, Vaggie asks Alastor to dispose of Sir Pentious’ troublesome egg minions whilst he’s out, and Alastor agrees. When he gets to the meeting, he tells the eggs to wait outside, but one of them gets caught in the lift up. Later, after the meeting is over, Alastor sees Zestial and Carmilla go into a private room and instructs the egg, Frank, to follow them. Frank then finds out Carmilla killed the angel, and tells Alastor, who decides to keep the fact to himself. The fact that Alastor is such a peripheral presence for much of this episode’s proceedings, being brushed off by Carmilla when he asks if anyone’s wondered where he’s been for seven years, makes his endpoint, where he holds the single most significant piece of information in the series thus far, a little bit of a late-game twist, one that adds spice to an already tasty dish.

“Scrambled Eggs” was the first episode of Hazbin’s first season that I really loved, and that’s because of how much it manages to do in a 25-minute runtime. This episode gets in a massive amount of drama, comedy, soft moments and detail, and in my opinion marks the point the show really hit its stride.