Warning: This article contains spoilers for Dead Boy Detectives.

Summary

  • How Hell works in Dead Boy Detectives is different from traditional religious systems, based on relative values rather than concrete moral codes.
  • Edwin was sent to Hell by mistake after a Satanic ritual sacrifice, spending 70 years being tortured before escaping with Charles' help.
  • Souls like Simon in Dead Boy Detectives may be able to leave Hell once they address the underlying issues that led them there, offering a sliver of hope.

Hell is an important location in the plot of Netflix's Dead Boy Detectives, leading to questions like how it works and how Edwin escaped. In the supernatural series, two teen ghosts named Edwin and Charles work with a medium named Crystal and her new friend Niko in order to help solve supernatural mysteries. The two ghosts running the detective agency are also on the run from The Sandman’s Death who returns in Dead Boy Detectives, taking spirits to the afterlife.

When Edwin died in Dead Boy Detectives in 1916, he was taken to Hell. After escaping, he met with Charles right before he died. The two went on the run immediately after Charles’ death, preventing him from going to the afterlife. However, toward the end of the series, Edwin is captured by a baby-doll-head, spider demon and taken back to Hell. Charles follows him down to save his best friend from eternal torment. Because Hell plays such an important part in Dead Boy Detectives, it’s important to understand the mechanics of Hell and how it influences Edwin as a character.

All the DC Comics involving the Dead Boy Detectives are available in The Dead Boy Detectives Omnibus (The Sandman Universe Classics) by Neil Gaiman, Toby Litt, and Jill Thompson.

The Mechanics Of Hell In Dead Boy Detectives

Hell Is Different In The Sandman Universe

The realm of Hell is one of the possible afterlife locations for souls after they die in the Sandman Universe, run by Lucifer Morningstar at the end of The Sandman season 1. Hell works differently in this world than it does in most real-life major religious systems. Many religions believe that a person gets sent to Hell when they commit a large number of transgressions that violate the laws set by a deity. There’s a concrete and immutable moral system of right and wrong. However, Hell in Dead Boy Detectives and The Sandman works on a relative value system.

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There isn’t one set version of right and wrong that determines a person’s place in the afterlife. It doesn’t matter what the culture they exist in would think. In order to go to Hell in the Sandman Universe, a person must do the following:

  • Believe in Hell
  • Violate their core beliefs or feel overwhelming guilt about a major mistake in their life
  • Believe that they deserve Hell

This system is part of what leads good people to end up there. It’s also a much darker cosmology that matches up with the tone of The Sandman and Dead Boy Detectives. Additionally, once they arrive in Hell, they are tortured in a way that’s unique to them. However, the leadership of Hell may change after the fallout from the Dream vs. Lucifer Hell Challenge. If The Sandman season 2 follows the story in The Seasons of Mist arc, Lucifer will purge Hell of souls and give the keys to the realm to Dream.

Why Edwin Went To Hell In Dead Boy Detectives (& How He Escaped)

Edwin Should Never Have Gone To Hell In Dead Boy Detectives

Edwin has blood on his face while standing in front of a bookcase in Dead Boy Detectives

Though he is an extremely kind and soft-spoken character, Dead Boy Detectives reveals in the very first episode that Edwin was sent to Hell as a clerical error. As the series goes on, it reveals more about why he went to hell, how long he was there, and how he escaped. Edwin was forced to go to Hell because he was part of a Satanic ritual sacrifice performed by his classmates.

The comics reveal that he was constantly running through a long corridor, believing something was following him.

They didn’t believe the ritual would work, only hoping to scare him. Unfortunately, since they performed the ritual correctly, the Demon Sa’al was required to take Edwin to Hell because he was part of the ritual sacrifice. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t willingly involved. The demonic ritual was a direct violation of the core beliefs they were taught going to a Catholic school.

Edwin spent 70 years in Hell being tortured after his death. His own personal version of Hell is shown when he's sent back the second time. Edwin is constantly running through a long corridor to escape the baby-doll-head, spider demon. However, he used his wits and intelligence to find a way to sneak out of Hell as a ghost. The exact details of how are never revealed in Dead Boy Detectives, but they likely involve the maps drawn in his journal and the hole cut out of the wall that Charles encounters when trying to save him the second time.

(Jayden-Revri-as-Charles-Rowland)-and-(George-Rexstrew-as-Edwin-Paine)-from-Dead-Boy-Detectives(1)
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Dead Boy Detective Hints Souls Can Leave Hell Without Escaping

Simon Might Have Moved On From Hell In Dead Boy Detectives

Simon smiles in Hell in the blue light in Dead Boy Detectives

Edwin and Simon have a conversation that helps Simon feel peace about his sexuality and worthiness as a person.

When Edwin is sent back to Hell in Dead Boy Detectives, he comes across his classmate, Simon, who is being tortured because he’s gay and hates himself for his sexuality. He was in love with Edwin but felt ignored, causing him to perform the demonic ritual. His punishment is never-ending papercuts on his hand as he tears out pages of the book he and the other bullies used to summon the Demon Sa’al. Though he starts out believing he deserves Hell, Edwin helps him come to a different conclusion.

Edwin and Simon have a conversation that helps Simon feel peace about his sexuality and worthiness as a person. After Edwin leaves, his hand heals itself, and the room glows blue like when Death comes to move a soul. This hints at the fact that Simon might have been able to leave Hell and move on to another afterlife once he resolved what led him there to begin with. This logic would then apply to any others who end up in Hell in Dead Boy Detectives.