Helluva Boss
Season 1 - Episode 4
"C.H.E.R.U.B"
The episode opens with an advertisement from Heaven, showing the Pearly Gates opening as Cletus introduces himself and his group, C.H.E.R.U.B., to the viewer. The C.H.E.R.U.B. Jingle plays as a montage of people being killed or accidentally dying is shown, before it shows those people being saved by C.H.E.R.U.B. As the song reaches it chorus, it zooms out showing the I.M.P. meeting room, where Blitzo has been watching it. Blitzo shoots the TV in pure frustration, which Millie compliments him for as Moxxie replaces it, and Blitzo asks Moxxie to switch the channels. Moxxie switches between 666 News, a risqué Betty Boop cartoon, before finding another ad, this time for Wally Wackford’s Wacky Idea Factory which Blitzo asks him to stop on. After watching the ad for a few seconds, Blitzo shoots the TV out of annoyance, and as Millie compliments him as being on a roll, rustling from outside wakes Loona, who asks if they felt it.
Blitzo complains about the “hellshake”, as Millie and Loona tell a calm Moxxie to stop panicking, as he asks how a “hellquake” is even possible. Loona then throws him into the wall, as a demon bursts through it. It tells them not to be afraid, before Blitzo asks if it has “that insurance thing”, and Millie brandishes an axe and asks who it is and what it wants. Loopty Goopty introduces himself as an inventor. Loona asks him why he didn’t use the door, and he tells her that he’s eccentric and has to do eccentric things, before Blitzo notices he reeks of the living world.
I am eccentric and must therefore do eccentric SHIT!
Loopty tells him that he had just died a few moments earlier, and as such he wants to hire I.M.P.’s services, holding out a photo of his prospective target. Blitzo takes it, saying he can respect someone who has only been in Hell a few minutes and is already plotting revenge, introducing himself to Loopty and asking for more details. Moxxie, who is still trapped beneath the wall Loopty destroyed entering the building, asks for help, but Blitzo ignores him to focus on Loopty. Loopty tells Blitzo that the target was his business partner, and that when he was younger, they ran a robotics company together. They both were testing a device that was meant to de-age people, but they accidentally set it to age them forwards. Loopty died of rapid old age in the machine, but his partner Lyle Lipton managed to survive.
Loopty now wants Lyle dead so that he can’t benefit from their shared company alone, and potentially become the world’s fourth trillionaire. As Moxxie begins blacking out beneath the rubble, Blitzo points out to Loopty that if they do kill Lyle, and he goes to Hell, then he will be there with Loopty for eternity. Several torture devices spring from Loopty’s suit as he states that he’s counting on it, which Moxxie weakly says is “kind of hot”.
It then cuts to the living world, outside Lyle’s mansion, as Blitzo, Millie, and Moxxie are riding a tour bus in human costumes, as the tour guide mentions the house to the tour group. Drawing weapons, the trio hop off the bus and rush towards the house, as the tour guide says that they’re going to see three tacky stalkers commit a murder, and how this happens all the time. The imps reach the house, and see Lyle in bed, connected to a machine kissing a photo of his one true love (a free stock image of $100 bills). Mourning the loss of his body and unwilling to live as an infirm old man, Lyle decides to commit suicide, knotting his IV line into a noose, as Moxxie asks if they should go in and tie it for him. As Lyle puts the noose around his neck a burst of divine light radiates from it, and C.H.E.R.U.B descends from Heaven.
The light pushes Blitzo, Millie, and Moxxie away from the house, and the Cherubs introduce themselves to Lyle. Moxxie, remembering the ad they had watched earlier, tells Blitzo what they’re dealing with. The Cherubs tell Lyle, who is convinced he’s being haunted by ghost orphans, that all the people his technology saved that made it to Heaven sent them to protect him. Blitzo crashes through the window, as Moxxie and Millie use the door, and attempt to convince him to go through with the suicide, asking him what he can do with his money now he’s old.
The Cherubs asks if that’s a serious question, as he can commit his fortune to philanthropy, which Lyle disagrees with, asking the Cherubs why they won’t let him die. Blitzo tells Lyle they can help with that, asking Moxxie what they brought. Moxxie empties his coat of weapons, including several rifles, shotguns, and a chainsaw, tossing both Blitzo and Lyle rifles. The Cherubs say Lyle is classier than that, taking the rifle off him (as he tries to shoot himself), and that he has plenty of reasons to keep living.
Millie disagrees, saying it smells like he hasn’t been out of bed in months, before leaning in for a better smell which causes her to vomit. The Cherubs tell him life can be beautiful at any age, and that they’ll show him, to the disappointment of Lyle and I.M.P. The Cherubs take Lyle to a hill overlooking a forest and tell him that if he commits suicide, he’ll miss out on all of nature’s beauty. Blitzo, who like the rest of I.M.P, is now in an animal costume, insults the Cherubs, and tells Lyle that nature isn’t that beautiful, showing him a group of rabbits and squirrels being attacked by wolves through a pair of binoculars. As a bear attacks the wolves, the Cherubs ask Lyle to stop looking, but he tells them he can’t and that he has never wanted to die more than he does now.
The Cherubs then take Lyle to a shopping mall during the Christmas season, where a large crowd of children is gathered around a mall Santa, intending to show him the joy of childhood wonderment. Lyle calls the children disease ridden vermin, but finds them inspiring, and he thanks the Cherubs for showing this to him. Blitzo then calls out to Lyle, before ruining the Christmas spirit for the children by ripping the suit off the Mall Santa, revealing him to be a pedophilic gnome that scares away all of the children and causes Lyle to cry. It then cuts to an open field, which Lyle complains it reeks of teenagers, as the Cherubs say they want to remind him of life’s greatest joy. Lyle asks them if it’s money, but the Cherubs tell him it’s love. Lyle says he has never been in love before, but he imagines its quite nice.
The Cherubs tell him it’s not too late to find love, but Blitzo cuts them off, using a megaphone to ask if anyone would want to sleep with Lyle, causing everyone to leave. The Cherubs then confront I.M.P calling them cruel, saying that they’re trying to give hope to someone in need, and Moxxie responds by asking if they’re “so superior to (them) just because they want a greedy authoritarian capitalist to keel over dead”, which Blitzo says is making things too real, spraying Moxxie from a bottle marked “PISS”.
At an opera house, the Cherubs try to show Lyle the wonders of art and music, and above the stage Millie asks how they’re going to make this look bad, when Moxxie says they can’t, because there’s nothing bad about opera. Blitzo says they should ruin it somehow and grabs a spotlight and begins shifting it around the stage, disrupting the opera singer via having her run around trying to stay in the light. Lyle comments that the singer isn’t very good, when Blitzo’s frantic moving of the spotlight causes it to break loose and fall, crushing the woman to death as she sings a final note.
This causes the Cherubs to snap, and they all leave Lyle alone to confront the imps. Getting into an argument with them, as they aim their magical crossbows at them, the Cherubs ask why they won’t let them do their jobs, and Moxxie retorts with the same question. The Cherubs say they’re saving Lyle whether he wants it or not, and Blitzo tells them someone wants him dead, and they paid in advance, and because he already spent the money on a jewel encrusted horse statuette, Lyle’s got to die. The Cherubs berate the imps, calling them “disgusting, loathsome beasts”, refers to Hell as dirt that the deceased, or in Keenie’s words, “shitty dead people”, tread on, all while accusing I.M.P of trying to meddle with living people.
Millie angrily points out so are they, and insults the Cherubs, causing a fight to break out. As Keenie grapples Millie off the catwalk, Blitzo and Moxxie run away from the other Cherubs. Moxxie dives off the catwalk, grabbing a rope and swinging out over the stage, shooting a sandbag so it falls onto the cherub fighting Millie and then catching her. Millie and Moxxie then begin spinning around the stage, shooting wildly as they passionately kiss, which causes Lyle to come to a realization.
It's all starting to make sense, now. Life is worth living because we only get one, we must cherish it! If creatures far beyond this living world are going through these lengths over my life, then, certainly it’s worth living. Killing myself is not the answer. Plus, I'm still rich. I can just buy all the things! I no longer crave death!
Having two groups of other worldly beings fighting over him makes Lyle realize he only has one life, and if they’re fighting over it, then it’s surely one worth living. He also realizes since he’s rich, he can buy all the things C.H.E.R.U.B tried to show him. The fight between Blitzo and Cletus then causes a row of stage lights to fall onto and partially destroy the stage, which launches a piano into the air that kills Lyle. Moxxie points out the Cherubs did their job for them, and Cletus tells them this isn’t over as the Cherubs attempt to return to Heaven. However, they are confused when they are mysteriously repelled out. Another portal opens, and a group of Cherubs tell them they are blocked from returning, as their actions caused the death of a human, and there isn’t anything they can do to be forgiven. C.H.E.R.U.B attempts to blame I.M.P, but they’ve already left the theatre. As the second group of Cherubs return to Heaven, C.H.E.R.U.B breaks down crying.
At their meeting room, Blitzo tells I.M.P. that they failed, as because the Cherubs killed him Lyle is probably in Heaven, and they have to figure out how to break the news to Loopty. Moxxie asks how Blitzo plans to do it, and as he looks out through the hole Loopty made entering their office he tells him that he sent a text, figuring it’ll make him less angry. Loopty then enters the meeting room, breaking through the wall again and narrowly missing Moxxie who scrambles to the other end of the room. Blitzo begins apologizing to him for failing, when the wall breaks a second time, crushing Moxxie, and Lyle enters the room.
Lyle explains his actions meant he was going to Hell anyway, and Loopty reveals the two have reconciled. As Lyle asks what two expert robotic inventors are going to do in Hell, Wally Wackford breaks through the ceiling, asking if he heard someone say “inventors”. Blitzo asks everyone to stop breaking the walls, because Moxxie’s going to have to fix them, before it cuts to him beneath a pile of rubble frothing at the mouth. Blitzo complains about the day he’s had, which Wackford makes a bad joke about, angering Blitzo enough to tell everyone to get out of his office.