‘Hazbin Hotel’: Angel Dust’s Tragic Backstory Will Break Your Heart

Grab your tissues! The fourth episode of Prime Video‘s new animated musical comedy Hazbin Hotel shows a fan-favorite character at rock bottom.

Based on Vivienne Medrano’s viral pilot, Hazbin Hotel follows Charlie (Erika Henningsen), the Princess of Hell, as she opens a rehabilitation center for sinners with the help of her girlfriend Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz) and a few pals. 

Famous porn star Angel Dust (Blake Roman) is the hotel’s first rehabilitee and seems to be in no hurry to leave. In fact, one episode reveals that he doesn’t have a great life to return to, despite his bold and confident persona.

The series is produced by A24 and premiered its first four episodes on January 19, 2024.

Throughout the show, Hazbin Hotel dedicates time to each character and crafts solid foundations for the hotel gang and the antagonistic overlords as their stories interlace. In Episode 2, “Radio Killed the Video Star,” Angel’s facade begins to slip as his abusive relationship with overlord Valentino (Joel Perez), a porn studio owner, comes to light.

At the top of the episode, Valentino argues with another overlord Vox (Christian Borle) about Angel spending too much time at the Hazbin Hotel. Vox tells Valentino to “stop chasing whores” and reminds him that he owns Angel via a signed contract. Eventually, Valentino puts a pin in his plans to go to the hotel and cause a scene.

Meanwhile, Angel is growing frustrated with Charlie’s team-building exercises, so he retreats to his room. He pulls out his phone and checks his notifications, which are bombarded with voice notes from Valentino, ranging from superficial love declarations to death threats. Pink smoke emanates from the phone and wraps around Angel’s neck as he listens.

The subject is dropped until Episode 4, “Masquerade,” which follows Angel through a day at work and its aftermath. The porn star displays an incredible amount of emotional vulnerability in the episode as he flits through several shoots involving dangerous BDSM scenes and has arguments with multiple peers. Through these conflicts, Angel strengthens his relationships with other hotel habitants and himself, as he is encouraged to detour from his path of self destruction.

The entire episode centers on Angel’s tragic backstory and life, and his abusive relationship with Valentino. Unlike his behavior in previous episodes, he acts fearful when told to perform in violent sex scenes with multiple people, and turns to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism.

“Masquerade” starts with Angel proudly showing off his award-winning adult video during a show-and-tell exercise at the hotel. However, the grumpy hotel bartender Husk (Keith David) isn’t convinced and accuses Angel of being “fake.”

Angel dishes insults back and eventually tells Husk, “Fuck you, I don’t give a shit.” He leaves for work despite the bonding exercise not being complete, and Charlie decides to intervene. 

Charlie’s presence at the porn studio is not welcomed and after she causes a literal fire, Valentino forces Angel into a private conversation. The boss pushes Angel to the ground and hurls insults while pink smoke forms chains around Angel’s neck. Valentino reminds Angel of their contract, telling him, “I own you.” Upon reentering the main room, Charlie ambushes Valentino for his behavior towards Angel, and Angel demands that she leaves. The scene segues into the neon musical number “Poison,” which was released early as a single.

Later, Angel returns to the hotel and bickers with Husk as usual, however this time when he storms out, Charlie and Vaggie push Husk to follow. The bartender follows Angel to a seedy bar where the porn star is loudly schmoozing with a group of men. A suitor goes to bring Angel a spiked drink and Husk intervenes, causing a scene. Angel storms out of the bar and they two enter a yelling match until Angel breaks into tears and explains that he behaves promiscuously as an escape to forget about his life. “Maybe if I can ruin myself enough… if I end up broken, I won’t be his favorite toy anymore and maybe he’ll let me go,” he reveals. 

Husk responds with an emotional revelation of his own, telling Angel that he used to be an Overlord but lost his power through a gambling bet. The moment transitions into a musical ditty, where Husk sings to the porn star, “you’re a loser just like me” and “you’re a power bottom at rock bottom, but you’ve got company.” The two end up dancing together and causing a disruptive scene of their own.

With Hazbin‘s deep history comes a devoted fandom, which has been active on social media and fanfiction websites for years. “Masquerade” will leave Angel fans and Huskerdust shippers on Cloud Nine. And if you’re like me — going into the show with little knowledge of the lore — the episode will leave you craving more. 

Hazbin Hotel Episodes 1-4 are currently streaming on Prime Video. Episodes 5 and 6 will release on January 26, 2024.