Helluva Boss
Season 1 - Episode 5
"The Harvest Moon Festival"
At Moxxie and Millie’s apartment the pair are fast asleep in bed, when Moxxie’s phone rings. Answering the phone, Blitzo asks if the pair want to attend the Harvest Festival. At the mention of the festival, Millie wakes up and is excited at the opportunity. Moxxie tells Blitzo about Millie’s reaction before asking where he’s calling from. Blitzo then drops from the ceiling onto their bed, which doesn’t surprise Moxxie.
The next scene cuts to Rough ‘n Tumbleweed Ranch in the Wrath Ring, where Millie’s family lives. As I.M.P’s van comes to a stop, Millie gets out and rushes to embrace her parents, Joe and Lin. They warmly welcome her back home, and she thanks them for letting I.M.P stay at the ranch for the festival. Millie then asks if they remember her husband Moxxie, shoving him towards her parents, who give him a much colder welcome, made worse after he makes a joke about the Wrath Rings weather, which killed one of the Ranch’s farmhands the previous week.
Freelance pays fine, Ma! We’re doin' fiiiiine! It’s fine.
Blitzo then butts into their conversation after Moxxie calls Joe “sir” while apologizing for the joke, claiming that he’s the only sir there. Millie then introduces him and Loona as her boss and his hellhound. Blitzo takes offence, and states Loona’s not just his hellhound she’s his daughter, which she coldly reminds him is only on paper. Blitzo then introduces himself to Millie’s parents, who give him a much warmer welcome than Moxxie, complimenting him for his name, which reminds them of war. Moxxie then attempts to impress Joe and Lin by talking about how wars are won by thinkers, and how he’s researched the evolution of guns in Hell before realizing no one’s interested. Joe says guns are fine, but a real man should be able to tear the head off a Hell beast with his bare hands, something Blitzo agrees with, mocking Moxxie.
Joe then introduces the Ranch’s new farmhand, Striker, who rides over to the group on a flaming Hell horse. Striker introduces himself to Millie, asking if freelance work in Imp City had dried up, which she says isn’t true, and they got tickets for the festival, jokingly stating it’s because the Prince is her boss’ lover. Blitzo firmly tells her to change the subject, as he isn’t above hitting her in front of her parents. Striker then asks him about I.M.P after having heard about a Imp starting his own business; subsequently he compliments Blitzo for his great achievement, stating that not many Imps are able to do so. Striker asks him about how exactly he’s conning Stolas into letting them access the Living World, which flusters Blitzo, who poorly explains the arrangement he has with Stolas.
OH SHIT! Norman Reedus plays the voice of Striker! You son of a bitch, I’m in!
Joe then suggest to the pair they should enter the Pain Games. Blitzo is immediately interested and asks him what the games are, to which Lin answers it’s a competition to prove who’s the “roughest, toughest, bastard in Wrath”. Millie expresses her disappointment for not being able to compete, and her mother reminds her that she gets carried away, with the last games she competed in ending with fifteen funerals. Millie angrily reminds her that she only caused nine of them, and asks why her sister Sallie May is still allowed to compete. Lin reminds her Sallie doesn’t have a body count, which Millie disagrees with, as Sallie says it doesn’t count if they don’t find the bodies as her and another Imp drag two corpses past, infuriating her.
Lin tells Millie to just accept that she can’t compete and go support her siblings, when Moxxie suggests he could compete so she could support him in the games. Joe laughs at him, before realizing Moxxie is serious. Moxxie tells Joe he was born in Wrath too, when Striker challenges him to prove himself by wrangling a hog for that night’s dinner. Striker hands him a knife and length of rope, telling him bullets won’t pierce a hog’s skin, causing Moxxie to realize what he’s agreed to. Blitzo then taunts him, reminding him he could be about to make an ass of himself in front of everyone important in his life. Millie tries to dissuade him by telling him he doesn’t have to do it, but Moxxie climbs into the corral with the hog anyway. He gets to approach the sleeping hog and successfully lassos it around its neck, but misses with the knife. As Moxxie rides the hog trying to kill it, Blitzo shouts encouragement from the fence while Loona films it on her phone. Striker then intervenes, shoving Moxxie off the hog and killing it with his own knife.
Moxxie lands in the mud of the corral hurting his arm, as Striker walks past him with the hog on his shoulder, telling him he never stood a chance, angering him. Striker asks Blitzo if he wants to help skin the hog, which he agrees to. As everyone walks away, Millie bandages Moxxie’s arm and tells him not to worry, her parents will respect him eventually. Sallie May tells them that they never will, which reinforces Moxxie’s desire to enter into the Pain Games, causing her to ask Millie if she’s fine with her betting on his death.
The next scene shows the festival grounds, where Wally Wackford is on stage welcoming everyone to the event, before introducing Stolas who begins the Pain Games. Stolas delivers a speech, which is poorly received by the attendees, which he also uses as a opportunity to indirectly flirt with Blitzo, bothering him.
A starting gun is then fired, thus commencing the Pain Games. A montage of the games is then shown, with Striker and Blitzo fiercely competing while Moxxie clumsily fails through the events. At the end of the games, Wackford announces that for the first time there has been a tie, with Stolas calling both Striker and Blitzo to the stage. Alone in the stands, Moxxie complains to Millie about Striker, saying he maybe physically better than him, but claims to be better in other ways, like singing. Striker then pulls out a guitar and sings a song he had just come up with, to Moxxie’s anger. Midway through the song, Blitzo sits down with Moxxie and Millie, complimenting Striker. To Moxxie’s disappointment, Blitzo reveals he asked Striker to take a job with I.M.P, which he accepted. Millie suggests Moxxie to go back to the house and clean himself, as Striker taunts him in his song, making him leave crying and humiliated.
Back at the ranch, as Moxxie climbs the stairs, he notices a glow coming out of Striker’s room. Investigating, he finds a open gun case with a Carmine crafted blessing-tipped rifle, a sniper rifle capable of killing Demon royalty. Striker confronts him, and attempts to kill him for his discovery, when Millie intervenes after hearing a lamp breaking and stabs him in the back, before being overpowered by Striker. He proceeds to throw the pair in the Ranch’s cellar, where Millie lands in a bear trap, reasoning that they aren’t worth the cleanup and alive they might give him leverage over Blitzo. Moxxie tries to free Millie from the trap, but she tells him to go stop Striker. Moxxie tells her he’s just not strong enough, and Millie tells him to use what he’s good at. It soon dawns on Moxxie that he is good with guns, and realizes he still has his pistol in his possession, allowing him to shoot a hole in the cellar doors and leaves to stop Striker.
Back at the festival grounds, Stolas is delivering another speech whilst using his Grimoire to open a portal to earth and curse the festival with the light of the true Harvest Moon. In a nearby building, Striker lines up a shot on Stolas with his sniper rifle, when Blitzo confronts him. Striker remarks he thought he was still at the ceremony, and Blitzo responds that he can’t stand Wrath’s residents and Stolas at the same time. Striker asks Blitzo if he’s disappointed in him, which he agrees with, as he’s about to kill his ticket to earth behind his back. Striker tells him he’s better than what he was limiting himself to do, remarking that he shouldn’t be forced to fuck royalty and work for sinners who don’t care for him, struggling to run a business rigged against him, when they could partner up and kill Overlords. Striker subsequently corners Blitzo to the wall, suggesting him they could start by killing Stolas.
Blitz, come on. You know, the two of us are superior than most of our kind. And you were so above suckin' on a disgusting, rich, pompous Goetia, only to sneak topside for scraps and work for bitter sinners, who could care less who you are, when you could be slaying Overlords.
Blitzo pretends to agree with him, as Moxxie sneaks in and grabs the sniper rifle. It turns out Moxxie called Blitzo earlier and told him what Striker is doing, so Blitzo stalled Striker long enough for Moxxie to catch him by surprise. Once Moxxie has the rifle, Blitzo elbows Striker after he almost made him shoot Moxxie. After a brief fight, Striker beats down the pair and gets his rifle back. Holding them at gunpoint, Striker mocks them commenting that they lost the upper-hand quickly, when Blitzo tells him he’s forgotten something, whistling for Loona. She hears him and initially ignores it at first, but goes to help Blitzo anyway. Striker tells him they could have made a good team, to which Blitzo disagrees and submits him by kicking his shin and chest, pushing him to the other side of the room and making him drop the rifle. Moxxie catches it, and fires a warning shot next to Striker’s head. Taunting Striker, Moxxie asks him who’s weak now and is about to blow Striker’s head off, but Loona arrives, but arrives way too late, accidentally kicking open the door and knocking him over who was next to it. Striker takes the opportunity to flee, jumping out the window and into the crowd gathered for the festival, telling Blitzo that he might get him next time.
Back to the ranch, Lin is shown bandaging Millie’s wounds and berating her for letting Striker get the drop on her. Moxxie stands up for her telling the pair that they should be ashamed for hiring Striker in the first place, and Millie has the strength enough for both of them. Joe acknowledges Moxxie’s input for the first time with a simple nod, something that she recognizes, and I.M.P leaves the Ranch.
At the Hideaway Motel, Striker is on the phone with Stella, who had hired him to kill Stolas, telling her he failed but reassuring her that it won’t happen again. It then zooms out revealing that Stella is having the phone call with Striker, ordering to get the job done next time regardless of who stands in his way. It is soon revealed that she is at the dinner table with Stolas and Octavia, both of whom are oblivious of her call. Back at the motel, Striker says he’ll get Stolas next time, spinning a revolver of a similar design to his sniper rifle around his finger and chuckling evilly as he turns off the lights.