Recap / Helluva Boss S2E2 "Seeing Stars"

Loona: Try to cut your dad some slack. He may not always get it right, but... he's trying. That's more important than you think.

When Octavia steals the Grimoire, things sure do happen — namely, Blitzo, Stolas, and the others chasing after her in the human cesspool that is Los Angeles, California.

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Tropes for this episode include:

• Accidental Truth: When Blitzo tasks Loona with finding Octavia while he and Stolas are captured, and she flips him off in response, he tries to reassure Stolas by saying "She's in great hands." Despite blowing off the mission at first, Loona comes around and manages to track down Octavia.
• Actor Allusion: The actor Blitzo unwittingly impersonates is named Brennon Ragers, an obvious Expy of Blitzo's voice actor Brandon Rogers.
• All for Nothing: Moxxie spends the whole mission distracted by doing street performances to earn money for art, but at the end, Millie becomes fed up when Moxxie stops for one last music demo disk. She carries him back to the portal, leaving the giant sack of all the art they acquired behind.
• All There in the Script: A number◊ of◊ background◊ humans◊ featured in the episode have names as revealed by some tweets from some of of the show's staff.
• Alternate History: Hollywood being "Holly's Wood" suggests that this universe's version of Earth is not quite like ours historically.
• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: In our universe, Brandon Rogers is a minor if well-respected internet comedian. In the world of Helluva Boss, his direct analogue "Brennon Ragers" is an A-list Hollywood celebrity.
• An Aesop: Parents, especially fathers, might not get everything right when they try to be good parents. But as Loona puts it, the fact that they try is more important than you think.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Played with. The reason why Octavia ran off in the first place was because Stolas was too busy arguing with his soon-to-be-ex Stella to keep his promise to take her to see the "Azathoth's Tears" meteor shower. When Loona finds her, Octavia breaks down and wonders "why does he hate [Stella] more than he loves me?" out loud. This question pierces Loona's armor and gets her to open up, despite Loona not being the target of Octavia's scorn.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: One of the cameramen is working a camera that says "God kill me pls." He gets electrocuted almost immediately after appearing onscreen.
• Birds of a Feather: A platonic example. A major theme of the episode is that Loona and Octavia are very alike, with similar interests and hobbies such as both being drawn to the same artwork and store, and also both girls having very strained relationships with their respective fathers. Which in turn leads to them becoming quite close towards the end of the episode as they relate their similar family problems.
• Blatant Lies: When Blitzo timidly tries to suggest they just apply some "little tweaks" to help her be more of a people-person, the incredibly irate Loona snarls that she IS a people person... just before and after physically attacking Blitzo for giving mildly critical feedback.
• Breaking Old Trends: This is arguably the first episode to not feature a central antagonist. The conflict instead is about Blitzo and Stolas’s daughter issues.
• Bridal Carry: At the end of the episode, Millie angrily orders Moxxie to get to the portal. After walking for about a second, Millie picks up Moxxie and carries him in her arms through the portal.
• Broken Tears: Loona sheds these in Blitzo's flashback to the adoption center; after fending off her cellmate, she curls up into a fetal position and begins to sob.
• Call-Back:
  • The kennel director says that Loona will "age out next month" when Blitzo sees her in a flashback. This tracks with "Spring Broken", where Loona says that she was almost eighteen when Blitzo adopted her. Additionally, the oversized red shirt Loona is wearing is the same one she's wearing in the selfie Blitzo takes with her that can been seen on his phone in "OZZIE'S", indicating that the selfie was taken the same day.
  • Stolas barges down I.M.P's front door in his full demon form from "Truth Seekers".
  • Stolas is the only one who finds Blitzo's comedy routine genuinely funny, just like he did as a child in "The Circus".
  • There are several cameos of characters from previous episodes:
    • Verosika Mayday's human disguise is a keychain sold by an art vendor.
    • The tour guide on Octavias bus is the same from "C.H.E.R.U.B".
    • The Loony Fan from "Spring Broken" shows up when Blitzo is mistaken for an actor.
    • When Loona is looking over Octavia's Sinstagram photos one of them is from Wally Wackford. Also, Loona's followed Sinstagram accounts include Vortex, Verosika Mayday, and at least two of the other unnamed hellhounds she befriended in "Queen Bee".
• Can't Take Criticism: Loona becomes very hostile and violent when Blitzo gently suggests they make a "few tweaks" to help her be more people-friendly (this is carried over from the pilot, when her reaction to Millie reasonably asking why she would drink on a work day prompted Loona to run out and kick a baby carriage to blow off steam).
• Censorship by Spelling: Stolas tells Octavia her mother is being a "B-I-T-C-H" while on the phone with Stella, whose outburst prompts him to suggest that she'd never given any indication that she could spell.
• Character Development: Stolas refers to Blitzo by his preferred name (complete with keeping the "o" silent) throughout the episode, as opposed to calling him "Blitzy".
• Chekhov's Gag:
  • A couple of Freeze-Frame Bonus shots show, like in the alley Blitzo and the others portal from, a set of Public Health Warning posters. They say that Los Angeles' water supply was recently analyzed to contain 2% sewage overflow and 98% literal acid and should not be consumed under any circumstances. When Blitzo and Stolas are taken to the studio, Stolas is given an armful of water bottles labeled "LA Water". Near the end, while Blitzo fights off a group of security guards and angry fans for disrupting a show he is supposed to run, Stolas throws one of the water bottles, which soaks the show's producer and burns him, causing chaos in the studio and allowing them both to escape and finally continue their search for their daughters.
  • Eagle-eyed viewers may have gotten a kick out of seeing Brennon Ragers again, but on a billboard. Why "again"? The poor schlub that Octavia accidentally killed when she fell out of the portal? That was Brennon Ragers.
• Chekhov's Skill: Subverted twice:
  • Blitzo left the entertainment business a long time ago to become an assassin. When he is forced to be part of a TV sitcom, he ad-libs his act with the help of a Studio Audience prompted to laugh, whether or not his jokes work.
  • Loona's sense of smell helps her figure out Octavia's spell brought her to Los Angeles. Upon arriving, Blitzo tells her to track Octavia so they can get her and leave quickly, but the city's stench is too strong for her to pick up Octavia's scent.
• Commonality Connection: Despite Octavia being a rich goth teenager with a close relationship to her father, and Loona being a troubled young adult who narrowly aged out of an Orphanage of Fear and feels ambivalent about her adopted father, the two bond over their shared love of social media, artistic and architectural tastes, and their respective Daddy Issues.
• Conscience Makes You Go Back: After being told to find Octavia, Loona merely wanders LA in her Human Disguise, checking her phone and doing little else. When she sees several Sinstagram posts from Octavia showing that she's nearby, Loona has a brief moment of internal conflict before deciding to go after Octavia as Blitzo asked her to.
• Contrived Coincidence: The day Azathoth's Tears are visible just happens to be the day after Stolas declared his divorce, and is the same day Blitzo decides to have "the talk" with Loona. This makes both girls bitter over their dads and kicks off the plot: Octavia elects to break into I.M.P's office and steal the Grimoire, and Loona, the only one who notices her sneaking in, doesn't try to stop her.
• Crush Blush: Stolas blushes furiously when Blitzo catches him by the hand after being knocked over by a panicking civilian.
• Dare to Be Badass: Stolas gives this to Blitzo when he freaks out seconds before his TV performance.
  Stolas: Blitzo, if your performance on stage is half as good as it is in bed, you'll leave them breathless.
• A Day in the Limelight: Downplayed. Octavia is the central focus of this episode, but the rest of the cast shares in the spotlight.
• Defenestrate and Berate: A variant — Stolas doesn't directly destroy any of Stella's things, but makes it very clear to the movers who are packing them into moving vans that he has no qualms about them doing it for him. Stella is, of course, livid.
• Deus Exit Machina: Moxxie and Millie are distracted by the various street vendors of Los Angeles, with Moxxie being enthralled with all of them. This prevents them from helping to find Octavia, leaving Loona to try and find Octavia all by herself.
• Did Not Think This Through: Octavia leaves in a huff while her parents argue on the phone. She then infiltrates I.M.P to get her dad's grimore so she can see the stars but, with no experience with the book, she finds herself lost in Los Angeles with no human disguise to conceal her look, not that the humans notice anyway.
• The Door Slams You: In a blink-and-you-miss-it shot, Moxxie can be seen getting hit by the door to IMP's office when Stolas smashes it off the hinges storming into the office after Blitzo's phone call.
• Dwindling Party: The I.M.P crew and Stolas arrive in Los Angeles together to find Octavia, but the search party quickly falls apart. First, Moxxie is distracted by the street art and ropes Millie into helping him do street performer acts to earn the money to buy it. Next, Blitzo's disguise attracts unwanted attention and gets him and Stolas whisked away to a television studio. This leaves Loona as the only one who can find her.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When he goes off-script because the child actress's character stating she wants to adopt the dog triggers a flashback to when he adopted Loona, Blitzo shouts that said actress isn't fit to be a mother since he saw her gleefully do a line of coke in the dressing room, something that you can see when the teleprompter is first shown.
• Easily Forgiven: Stolas is forgiven quite easily by Octavia after her talk with Loona.
• Exorcist Head: Whilst searching for the grimoire in Blitzo's office, Octavia rotates her head 180 degrees to face the picture of the I.M.P team behind her. Like the number of instances that her father has done the exact same feat, it's a Furry Reminder that she's an owl demon.
• Exact Words: Octavia asks the book to "take her to the stars". It ends up teleporting her to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• Expy: The child actress on the sitcom Blitzo is roped into filming looks very similar to Darla Dimple from Cats Don't Dance. Moreover, also like Darla, she acts sweet to the point of being saccharine, but is implied to be a lot less nice offstage.
• Finger-Snap Lighter: Octavia lights a cigarette for Loona with a purple flame from her finger.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The actor that everyone confuses Blitz to be can actually be seen just a few minutes earlier in the episode as the man that Octavia trips over when arriving in L.A.
• Flashback: Blitzo recalls the time where he adopted Loona before she was kicked out of the hellhound orphanage.
• Friendship Moment: Loona and Octavia get one at the observatory. Octavia complains that her dad seems to hate her mother more than he loves her, and Loona admits that dads screw up all the time. However, their dads are still trying to do right by them all the same. The Rule of Symbolism is invoked as Loona struggles to light her lighter until she talks positively about Blitzo, with the sky clearing of smog right after to see the moon and stars. Octavia hugs Loona, and the two use the Grimoire to get back to their fathers.
• Gilligan Cut: When Moxxie suggests just calling Stolas to let him know Octavia ran off with the Grimoire, Blitzo sarcastically agrees with the idea of calling Stolas about it. Mid-sentence, the camera cuts to Blitzo on the phone doing just that.
  Blitzo: So what, you want me to just call up Stolas and be like, "Hey Stolas"— (cut to Blitzo on the phone) Oh, your daughter came by, took your book, and teleported off to who the fuck knows where, and we have no way of getting either of them back! Okay? Okay! Good talk! Byeeeee! (hangs up the phone)
  Blitzo: Oh, that actually went better than I thought.
  Stolas, enraged beyond belief: (breaks down door) BLITZ!!!!!
• Gone Horribly Right: Since he can't use magic to put on a Human Disguise, Blitzo goes to a local shop in L.A and gets a set of comically large ears to hide his horns. It works a little too well, since the disguise makes him look like TV star Brennon Ragers, causing the star's agents to grab Blitzo and throw him the back of a van, stalling out their search for Octavia.
• Groin Attack: When Blitzo and Loona reunite, she knees him in the groin as he goes in for a running hug.
• Harmful to Minors: The production crew of "Sweetie! I'm In The House!" let a child actress become a cocaine addict. "Harmful" is understating it.
• Human Disguise: Loona and Stolas don their respective ones to infiltrate the human world. But without the Grimoire, the rest of I.M.P is out of luck again. Blitzo tries to get a human disguise with mundane utilities, which works but makes him look like a celebrity.
• Informed Attribute: Once again, Loona mocks Moxxie's weight despite him being no thicker than many other imps, like Blitzo or Millie.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: After Blitzo calls Stolas to let him know that Octavia stole the Grimoire, he said that it "went better than I thought". Moments later, Stolas charges through the door in full demon form, screaming "BLITZ!" at the top of his lungs.
• Insult Backfire: When Loona threatens Blitzo to fire her, Blitzo (with some encouragement from Moxxie) suggests he might do just that. Loona clearly wasn't expecting that, as she lets out a Flat "What" after he does.
• Invisible to Normals: To mortals, Azathoth's Tears look like ordinary meteors in the night sky. But to demons and the like, they're shown to be the blazing bits of the hopes and dreams of people who never came to be. Stolas explains all of this to Octavia as a bedtime story when she's a little girl.
• Irony:
  • When the gang arrives in LA and Loona's sense of smell can't discern Octavia's scent from the city stench, Moxxie chides her for not being able to do anything right. By the end, Loona alone is able to track down Octavia and bring her home, while Moxxie gets distracted at the start of the mission and is of no help at all.
  • Blitzo is revealed to have initially wanted to adopt a "family-friendly" Hellhound, but he got Loona instead. While her appearance is pretty, her personality is anything but.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While Moxxie is way too smug about Blitzo threatening to replace Loona, he does have a point that a receptionist with poor people skills might reflect badly on I.M.P and can cause some clients to wonder how competent they are at their jobs if they can't even hire a receptionist who's good with people.
• Literal Genie: Played with. Octavia tells the grimoire to take her to see the stars, based on a legend her father told her as a child. However, the "stars" she's being taken to see in the human world are the celebrities — the "stars" of the show — instead of the stars in the heavens above, which is why Octavia ends up in Los Angeles. Given that Stolas mentions that he hasn't taught her those particular spells yet, it's likely that she should have used a more specific incantation but didn't.
• Match Cut:
  • After Octavia's first encounter in the living world leaves her panicking in a Troubled Fetal Position, it cuts to Blitzo doing the same thing back in the I.M.P office.
  • When Stolas gets flustered during Blitzo's performance, he grabs one of the water bottles and starts drinking it. As his arm comes down, the shot cuts back to Loona's arm (holding coffee) coming down in the same motion.
  • The shot at the end of Loona's Travel Montage of her walking towards the observatory is cut to a photo of the observatory in an audience member's newspaper, who's watching Blitzo's performance.
  • After Blitzo's Trauma Button is pressed, the shot changes to his perspective, showing his hands holding the dog's leash with the dog in front of him. This fades into a flashback of him holding the bars of the kennel, with the dog's face switching to one of an identical hellhound pup.
  • At the end of Blitzo's flashback, a series of rapid-fire cuts occurs between a crying Loona and a shell-shocked Blitzo, with the cell bars dissolving in his hands and his outfit reappearing, then cuts again to Blitzo on the soundstage.
• Mathematician's Answer: At the end of the episode, fireworks go off. When Loona asks "what the fuck is that", Blitzo responds with "my acting career".
• Mistaken from Behind: While wandering through Los Angeles, Loona sees someone from behind who has a hairstyle and choice of clothing very similar to Octavia. When she walks up to the person, she sees it was actually a dorky looking human girl with big glasses and an overbite. Humorously, the girl is even named "Nottavia" according to a behind the scenes page featuring her character model.
• Mood Whiplash: After Stolas gets humorously thrown into the truck, the scene then immediately cuts to Stolas and Blitzo being concerned about Octavia.
• Nice Character, Mean Actor: The little girl on the show, who offered to adopt Blitzo's in-universe dog, is shown to be rather sweet on the camera. However, she noticeably gets pissed off when Blitzo starts having a panic attack and refuses to give it to her. Blitzo also points out how she was snorting cocaine earlier before the show started.
• No Antagonist: No antagonist to be found here, just Blitzø and Stolas having issues with their daughters.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Besides the obvious Brandon Rogers stand-in "Brennon Ragers", unflattering parodies of Jeffree Starr and Kanye West are shown while Octavia is riding a tour bus.
• The Nose Knows: Loona identifies the place Octavia went to as L.A by the scent of urine and desperation that came through the portal. But once through she can't smell anything over the city's usual potpourri and winds up stalking her Sinstagram.
• Not Now, Kiddo: The plot kicks off when Stolas accidentally does this to Octavia, brushing off her timid attempts to bring up the meteor shower because he's too busy yelling at her mother over the phone.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Blitzo knows how important the Grimore and Octavia are to Stolas, so he panics when he finds her taking off with the book.
  • Blitzo and Stolas also have this when the humans mistake the former for superstar Brennon Ragers.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Stolas, normally very affable and forgiving of Blitzo, is furious when he learns that Blitzo lost his daughter. In turn, Blitzo, who knows how Stolas is wrapped around his finger, is notably scared at the mere idea of telling Stolas what happened and remains so on the phone and while Stolas is in the office.
• Orphanage of Fear: The place where Blitzo adopted Loona from was little more than a kennel, even though Loona was a sentient hellhound. While Loona wasn't helping things by constantly attacking everybody, it's also shown that Loona was sad, afraid, and alone, complete with a lot of tick marks on the wall suggesting that she'd been there for a while. The director also said that she'd be "out of their hair next month when she ages out. Good riddance," while Loona goes into a Troubled Fetal Position.
• Papa Wolf:
  • The moment that Stolas hears that Octavia "teleported off to who the fuck knows where", he breaks down the doors of I.M.P in order to make them find her.
  • After his Trauma Button is pressed on adoption, Blitzo says "she's mine and I love her!" to a little girl who is supposed to adopt his in-universe dog, since he's acting in a show.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Blitzo's "human disguise" has him wearing human clothing, a wig, and comically large ears over his horns, but makes no attempt to hide his red demon skin. Despite this, everyone mistakes him for being TV star Brennon Ragers, even when the ears fall off and expose his horns.
• Parents as People: Discussed. This is what Loona tells Octavia when she finds her; their dads may not be perfect, but at least they’re trying their best to be good parents.
• Pass the Popcorn: When Blitzo gets Loona mad by telling her that she should work on her skills with customers, Moxxie is just sitting on the couch sipping coffee, obviously enjoying the show.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The password to get into the safe where the Grimoire is stored is "1234". Octavia only has to try one time to get it open.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: Exploited. Both Loona and Octavia are regular social media users, which is how the former finds the latter in Los Angeles. Octavia posted several Sinstagram photos of herself, including one at an observatory, which is where Loona finds her.
• Place Worse Than Death: Los Angeles is depicted in this light. Loona figures out Octavia went there thanks to the scent of "urine and desperation" that wafted through the portal, Blitzo comments that it looks pretty similar to Hell, and it's generally shown to be a filthy, sleazy place full of vapid assholes.
• Poor Communication Kills: Judging by his reaction at the end of the episode if Octavia had just directly reminded Stolas that today was the one single day that Azathoth's Tears would be visible he would have made time for her. She did try to tell him, but he was too busy arguing with Stella to listen.
• Pounds Are Doggy Prison: An even worse example than most since the dogs in question all have humanlike sapience; the kennel Blitzo adopted Loona from was basically a canine Juvenile Hell where young hellhounds are kept in squalid conditions, cramped together in dimly-lit cells while the director in charge of the place openly disdained them and did fuck all to stop them from attacking one another.
• Recycled Animation: There's several moments of animation notably recycled from older episodes used throughout this episode.
  • The guide for the tour bus Octavia mistakenly gets on is the same one from "C.H.E.R.U.B", making similar movements to the one that brought I.M.P to Lyle Lipton's estate.
  • The man who rips off his shirt to reveal he has "Brennon Ragers" on his chest is recycled from "Spring Broken", originally used as an enamored fan of Verosika's. Similarly, the woman who screams after the set of "Sweetie! I'm in the House!!" catches fire is a Palette Swap of the woman who screams at the catfish kaiju from the same episode.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Blitzo gently suggests Loona try to be more personable, she sarcastically asks why he doesn't just replace her already. When he hesitantly bluffs that maybe he might, she's so shocked and furious that she can only stomp away in a huff.
• Rule of Symbolism: Done twice at the observatory scene.
  • Loona, still bitter over Blitzo's earlier comments, struggles to get her I.M.P lighter to work. When she reassures Octavia that Stolas loves her and is trying his best, the lighter finally works, catching her eye and making her realize she's talking about Blitzo too.
  • Octavia, angry over Stolas's broken promise and getting wrapped up in the divorce, ran off to LA to see the meteor shower alone, but the night sky is covered in smog. After Loona's talk, the smog briefly parts to reveal the full moon and stars.
• Running Gag: Loona hits Moxxie with another You Are Fat joke since the Pilot and "C.H.E.R.U.B". Moxxie has to emphasize that he's not even pudgy before Blitzo joins in on the joke.
• Share the Male Pain: After Loona gives Blitzo a Groin Attack for trying to give her a running hug and he curls up on the ground clutching his junk in pain, both Stolas and Octavia wince sympathetically before noticing and embracing each other.
• Shout-Out:
  • The once-in-a-thousand-years meteor shower Stolas promised to take Octavia to see is called "Azathoth's Tears".
  • The printer in the office has "HEL-9000" written on it, a pun between "Hell" and "HAL-9000".
  • The costume shop that Blitzo gets his disguise from is called Little Costume Shop of Horrors.
  • The creepy little girl actress on Brennon Rager's sitcom is clearly one to Darla Dimple.
  • The "talking doll" in the store Octavia passes by looks like Pennywise.
• Show Within a Show: "Sweetie! I'm In The House!" a sitcom that's guest-starring Brennon Ragers, who Blitzo is unfortunately mistaken for.
• Social Media Before Reason: Octavia consistently posts photos of herself on Sinstagram in the human world. This is what allows Loona to find her, as Octavia took a picture of an observatory as night began to fall.
• So Proud of You: Moxxie shows approval to Blitzo's decision to replace Loona, even trying to convince him to pull through and get a better receptionist.
• Spanner in the Works: Loona blatantly ignores Octavia's attempt to steal the grimoire, shortly after her fight with Blitzo, kickstarting the plot.
• Spit Take: Loona spits out her coffee when she just so happens to see a Sinstagram post from Octavia that shows where she is in Los Angeles.
• Stealth Pun: When Blitzo gives Stolas an Aside Glance while on stage, he blushes before he empties a full bottle of water in one gulp. That's one thirsty owl.
• Studio Audience: There is one gathered near the set of a family sitcom Blitzo gets roped into. Stolas watches Blitzo perform by sitting with the audience.
• Super Gullible: Moxxie and Millie are too hung up over Moxxie wanting to buy trashy art to help Blitzo and Stolas, Moxxie convinced that he has support them under the assumption that it's all good.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Octavia goes to a densely populated city on Earth like Los Angeles to see the stars, only to not see anything due to a mix of smog and light pollution. Even when some of the clouds part to make the moon visible, it still only shows a tiny fraction of the stars to be visible. When Loona talks to her at the observatory, the closest the owl comes to meeting her goal, Octavia expresses her frustrations that she can't even see the night sky.
• Take That!:
  • When I.M.P and Stolas arrive in Los Angeles in the human realm, Blitzo notices that it "doesn't look that different from Hell". Before that, Loona mentions how it smells like urine and desperation.
  • During the Starstruck tour, Octavia's bus stops in front of a mansion belonging to an influencer who "thinks they're hot shit because they're on TV." Said influencer bears a heavy resemblance to Jeffree Star, and the black celebrity who's seen begging his wife not to leave before promptly making out with the influencer appears to be a parody of Kanye West.
• Tempting Fate: After Blitzo calls Stolas to let him know that Octavia stole the Grimoire, he said that it "went better than I thought". Moments later, Stolas charges through the door in full demon form, screaming "BLITZ!" at the top of his lungs.
• Title Confusion: As the Octavia's motive in the episode is a meteor shower, expect some people to mistakenly call the episode "Shooting Stars".
• Tough Love: Invoked by Blitzo, who (hesitantly and reluctantly) calls Loona's bluff when she asks why he doesn't just replace her as his secretary if he feels her people skills are that bad. He then cites that it's time for some Tough Love and (timidly) suggests she march back to her desk.
• Transformation Sequence: Stolas and Loona conjure up human disguises for themselves in the style of Magical Girls.
• Trauma Button:
  • Blitzo gets mistaken for a celebrity named Brennon Ragers, and thrown onto a soundstage. He immediately freaks out backstage, saying "I can't do this again", referring to his terrible childhood in the circus.
  • During the show, another trauma button is hit when a little girl (in-universe) asks Blitzo if she can adopt his dog. Blitzo flashes back to adopting Loona, about how she was an angry and scared hellhound in the adoption center who was about to age out. This causes Blitzo to freak out and refuse to give up the dog on the show he's acting in.
    Blitzo: (upon coming out of his flashback) ... No. No, no, you can't have her! She's mine, and I love her!
• Travel Montage: Loona gets a montage of her following Octavia throughout Los Angeles, shown by her swiping through her Sinstagram posts and the background changing to Loona being in the new location. This culminates in Loona rapidly swiping through the posts while the background twirls until both the phone and the background show the observatory.
• Troubled Fetal Position:
  • Octavia does this in an alleyway after she lands in Los Angeles and has a terrifying first encounter with humans. This cuts back to Blitzo also in a fetal position after seeing her leave with the book and knowing he has to tell Stolas what happened.
  • Loona does this in Blitzo's flashback to her life in the hellhound adoption center, after fending off a cellmate that attempted to attack her with a bloody nail bat.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: We see a child actress doing cocaine with a smile on her face. No doubt a jab at how child actors are roped into things adults shouldn't, let alone kids.
• Tsundere: Loona rags on Blitzo at the beginning of the episode, even physically assaulting him. But in the human realm, she ultimately does do what he wants in finding Octavia, confiding in her that she recognizes that Blitzo is trying to be a good dad to her. It's as close as Loona has ever gotten to admitting that maybe things with Blitzo aren't so bad.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The imps and Octavia are able to walk around L.A with no Human Disguise because everyone who bothers to notice thinks that they’re just wearing costumes.
• Warts and All: The overall takeaway of the episode. Despite the friction between Blitz and Loona, his understandable problems with her aggressiveness, and Loona having difficulty with dealing with her own issues and Blitz's behavior in general, they both still love each other and won't abandon each other. For Octavia, despite how tough things still are, and how Stolas forgot about seeing the stars with her, she realizes, thanks to Loona, that she misjudged him and she needs to focus on the good he does than assume the worst.
• What You Are in the Dark: After seeing Octavia's Sinstagram posts revealing her recent locations, Loona could have easily pretended she never saw them and no one would know, but her conscience catches up with her and she starts to track Octavia down in earnest.
• With Catlike Tread: Octavia goes into I.M.P headquarters with no disguise, and barely conceals herself when she does. The only reason she gets away with it is because everybody is too distracted or doesn't care.
• Worf Had the Flu: Stolas' magic is severely limited since he never memorized his spells without the grimoire, which Octavia stole from I.M.P and used to go to the human realm. As such, when the rest of the demons go to Earth, only Loona and Stolas can use a Human Disguise with their magic.
• Wretched Hive: All of LA's real-life sins are cartoonishly distilled and exaggerated to create a city Blitzo explicitly says is indistinguishable from Hell.

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