Hazbin Hotel season 1 recap: All to know before season 2 arrives

Created by Vivienne Medrano, Hazbin Hotel season 1 premiered on January 19, 2024, exclusively on Amazon Prime, and it is an adult animated musical comedy series. The series revolves around Charlie Morningstar, the crown princess of Hell, as she attempts to revolutionize her job. Her goal is to find a way for sinners to redeem themselves and make their way into Heaven via her hotel.

She created her hotel because of heaven’s ‘Extermination,’ a process where they exterminate souls to control Hell’s overpopulation. Across the show's eight-episode first season, Charlie and her crew battle a wide catalog of challenges. These range from internal challenges from Hell to the return of a mysterious demon while the threat of extermination looms over them.

Hazbin Hotel season 1 was well received despite creator Medrano saying that she believed the season had issues with the narrative, amongst others. However, the show was critically acclaimed and earned praise for several of its musical numbers as well as the performances, especially from Stephanie Beatriz and Erika Henningsen.

---

Charlie and her crew manage to stop Adam and his angels from killing the demons in Hazbin Hotel season 1

A still from Hazbin Hotel season 1 (Image via YouTube/AmazonPrimeVideo)

Hazbin Hotel season 1 kicked off by establishing the fact that Charlie Morningstar, the princess of Hell, was trying to do something new by creating Hazbin Hotel. She wanted to create a rehabilitation hotel for sinners to give them a second chance while trying to solve Hell’s overpopulation issue. However, her project faced opposition from the very start, with Adam, the leader of Heaven's extermination forces, targeting the hotel during the next ‘extermination’ of souls.

However, when Extermination Day approached, Charlie and her crew battled Adam and his band of angels as she rallied not only the hotel’s residents but also others from surrounding areas. The battle was fierce, with both sides losing soldiers during the battle, but things eventually ended. That was after Vaggie beat Lute, and then Sir Pentious sacrificed himself to defeat Adam, but it was in vain.

But the loss of her friend enraged Charlie, and she changed into her demon form and then fought Adam head-to-head. While it was more or less even, Charlie eventually stabbed him, but even that didn’t seem to make much difference until her father, Lucifer Morningstar, arrived to turn the tide.

The father and daughter duo fought side by side against Adam, bringing him to his knees. However, a changed Charlie refused to kill him, but that was when Niffty, the hotel's diminutive housekeeper, took matters into her own hands and stabbed him repeatedly, killing him. That ended the battle, and Lute called off the remaining angels, escaping back to Heaven.

---

Lilith betrayed Hell for a vacation in heaven and is on her way back to cause chaos in Hell

While the residents of Hazbin Hotel and Charlie managed to keep Heaven and its exterminators at bay, the season finale of Hazbin Hotel season 1 revealed a shocking truth. With Lilith only shown in flashbacks across the entire season, her whereabouts were finally revealed in the season 1 finale.

It showed her sunbathing and lounging on a pristine, crystal-clear beach in Heaven despite being absent from her daughter’s life for seven years with no contact. Her presence was only shown because the new leader of Heaven’s extermination forces, Lute, showed up angry and pissed off at the fact that Charlie was interfering with Heaven’s plans.

He confronts Lillith on the beach and tells her to go down to change her daughter’s mind or lose her privileged position in Heaven. It seems that Lilith had already secured herself a cozy vacation in Heaven after apparently striking a deal with Adam for something yet to be revealed.

However, now that Adam is dead, with Hazbin Hotel celebrating its success, Lute sends Lilith back down to Hell to figure out how to deal with her daughter at the end of Hazbin Hotel season 1. That promises to bring more than a handful of chaos into Charlie Morningstar’s life, especially given how influential her mother’s voice is with the demons in season 2.

---

Interested viewers can watch Hazbin Hotel season 1 on Amazon Prime Video.

Edited by Somava