Asmodeus in Shadowhunters Explained: Magnus Bane's Father

Asmodeus Shadowhunters: who he is and what he wants

For two and a half seasons, Asmodeus was a name that Magnus Bane mentioned the way people mention an estranged relative. In the first-half finale of season 3, titled “Erchomai” and aired by Freeform on May 15, 2018, he finally walks on screen. Jack J. Yang plays the Greater Demon, and he arrives with a cane, a limp and a smile that tells you exactly how pleased he is to see his son.

The setup is straightforward. Lorenzo Rey, played by Javier Muñoz, has forbidden Downworld warlocks from helping Magnus rescue Jace from Lilith, the demon who controls him. With no allies left, Magnus draws a pentagram and travels to Edom, the demon realm that is also Lilith's home. It is a barren desert under an orange sky, with winged demons overhead, and the production leans into the bleakness. For readers of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments novels, the scene is a treat, because the books do not take readers to Edom until the last volume, City of Heavenly Fire.

Anyone who searches for asmodeus shadowhunters is generally looking for who the character is and what he does to Magnus. In the series, Harry Shum Jr.'s Magnus is a warlock who is hundreds of years old, and Asmodeus is the demonic parent whose nature he discovered after years living together. Magnus eventually sent him away. The reunion is therefore not a happy one on either side, and the episode plays it as a tense family dinner with higher stakes.

Some context helps. Shadowhunters ran on Freeform from January 12, 2016 to May 6, 2019, adapting Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments with Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer as showrunners. Its third season was split in two: ten episodes in the spring of 2018 and twelve more in early 2019. Asmodeus, long mentioned and never seen, is the character the season held back for that midpoint.

The meeting in Edom

Jace's situation is the reason for the trip. Lilith has taken hold of him, and the essence of the Owl is part of the problem too. When the fight reaches an alley, Jace is facing his own parabatai. Magnus is the only one with a possible way out, and he knows exactly how expensive it will be before he opens the pentagram.

Magnus heads for a crumbling structure that turns out to be his father's home. When the two see each other, Asmodeus's eyes change into the same cat-like eyes that Magnus has, and the pair share a taste for flamboyant clothes. The Prince of Hell calls him his beautiful boy and assumes that Magnus has come to apologize for banishing him.

He has not. Magnus has come to ask for help, and that angers his father. Asmodeus is also hurt by the things Magnus says about him, and the scene lets the character be wounded as well as dangerous. Demons in this show, it turns out, can love their children in their own way. After Lilith, Asmodeus is the second parent in the season to demonstrate it.

A detail that stays with viewers is the limp. A Prince of Hell with a permanent injury raises the question of what could cause it, and the episode leaves that open.

What Magnus pays

The help comes with a price, as help from a Greater Demon always does. Back on Earth, Magnus uses the power he received to break Lilith's hold on Jace while the two parabatai are fighting in an alley. In exchange, he gave up his magic, and the loss is considerable for a warlock whose whole identity rests on the thing he has given away.

Whether Asmodeus also took Magnus's immortality is the open question. A warlock hundreds of years old might not survive without any magic at all, and that is the worry the finale leaves viewers with.

Spoilers from City of Heavenly Fire

In the final Mortal Instruments novel, Asmodeus strikes a very similar deal. After Sebastian kidnaps the Downworld representatives, Clary and her friends travel to Edom to rescue them. Magnus is weakened as soon as he steps into his father's realm, because Asmodeus wants to be called on. When the pathways between the worlds close after Sebastian's death, Magnus has to summon him for help. As a show of strength, the demon sends Jocelyn, Luke and Jonathan's body to Idris for free.

For everyone else, the price is Magnus's immortality. Simon offers his own instead, as a daylight vampire, arguing that he is young enough to survive being mortal. Asmodeus accepts, and adds a more exquisite cruelty: Simon will lose all memory of the Shadow World, along with the Shadow World memories of nearly everyone he knows. Simon returns to New York as an ordinary mundane, while the others go back to Alicante. Magnus later spots a loophole. If Simon remembers anything at all, Magnus can try to restore more of his memories, and if Simon eventually ascends to become a Shadowhunter himself, Asmodeus can no longer harm him.

Asmodeus in the show and in the books

Asmodeus on the show: verdict and what comes next

Yang is a good fit for the role. Asmodeus is a demon who flirts with hurt feelings and sets a price for everything, and the performance holds both at once. The father-and-son material works because Shum plays Magnus as someone who wants nothing from his father and cannot avoid needing him.

The finale also sets up the next stretch of the series. The second half of season 3 premiered on February 25, 2019, and the series ended on May 6, 2019. At the time of the first-half finale, no official date had been given for the return, and viewers were left with Magnus's missing magic and the question of what else Asmodeus took.

Book readers will recognize the shape of the bargain. The show changes who pays and why, but keeps the central idea: a Greater Demon gives nothing away, and the people who need him most pay the most.

Sources

• Shadowhunters, Wikipedia — cast, characters and episode list