The Demonata (2017 TV Series)

The Demonata is a 2017 Series that streams on Netflix as an original. The series focuses on three protagonists, Bec MacConn, Grubbs Grady and Kernel Fleck. The series takes place in Ireland apart from Season 2, which takes place in Ireland. It's also based on the book series of the same name.

Season 1: Lord Loss
This season consists of 13 episodes

Grubitsch "Grubbs" Grady, the younger child of chess-obsessed parents, grows increasingly uneasy with the recent strange, nervous behavior of his parents and sister. One night, he finds the mutilated bodies of his family after sneaking out of his Aunt's and encounters Lord Loss, a gruesome human-like demon who sets his two familiars, Vein and Artery, on Grubbs. Although Grubbs manages to escape, he is deeply traumatized and is placed in a mental institute. He refuses to respond to treatment until he is visited by his father's younger brother, Dervish Grady, who tells Grubbs that he knows demons exist and convinces Grubbs to finally accept help. After Grubbs recovers, he lives with the rather eccentric Dervish in his mansion near the village of Carcery Vale. Dervish explains to Grubbs that using magic is possible as Grubbs himself used magic to flee from Lord Loss and his minions, members of an otherworldly race known as the Demonata. As Grubbs begins to settle down, he meets and befriends Bill-E Spleen, an orphan who visits Dervish often to learn magic.

Fearing for Grubbs’ safety, Bill-E eventually shares his theory that Dervish is a werewolf, as many Gradys were prone to lycanthropy, which manifests itself at puberty. However, Bill-E is later revealed to be the real werewolf, though he doesn't know it himself. Dervish later explains that Bill-E is Grubbs' half-brother from one of his father's affairs. The only way to cure him is by winning three out of five simultaneous chess games with the powerfully magical demon master Lord Loss while another person battles his familiars. Neither one is permitted to fail. This is also revealed to be the reason his family was killed, when his sister Gret also succumbed to the family curse. Meera Flame, a friend of Dervish, who is knocked out while trying to restrain a transformed Bill-E, was supposed to help battle the demons. Dervish convinces an extremely reluctant Grubbs, who is still haunted by nightmares, to take her place.

While confronting Lord Loss, Dervish is constantly distracted from his chess match as Grubbs is unable to fight off the two familiars. Dervish finally uses magic to save Grubbs, but Lord Loss sees this as breaking the rules of the game and is about to let his familiars kill Dervish, Grubbs, and Bill-E. However, Dervish is able to convince Lord Loss to let Grubbs finish the chess game, while he battles the familiars. A terrified Grubbs then makes a bad game worse. Then Grubbs realizes that Lord Loss is feeding on his despair and then decides to play with an aloof attitude. This throws Lord Loss' concentration, allowing Grubbs to win the game. Lord Loss then cures Bill-E, but someone must battle him in his realm. Grubbs offers to go, but Dervish refuses to let Grubbs fight and goes instead. Dervish leaves to the Demonata universe, leaving Grubbs behind with Bill-E. Grubbs lies to Bill-E, telling him that Dervish used a calming spell to try to cure his lycanthropy. Grubbs figures that it's better for Bill-E to believe that Dervish is his father, since his real father is dead. Fourteen months later Grubbs has been caring for Dervish in his zombie-like state, also dealing with the fear that he'll turn into a werewolf.

One morning, Grubbs wakes up to find blood under his nails and hair in his teeth. Thinking that he has turned, he prepares to call the mysterious Lambs Dervish told him about, to kill him before he does any harm. As Grubbs reaches for the phone he hears someone call his name. Turning to look he sees Dervish, with his senses regained, holding a tin of paint and a woollen scarf. The season ends with Dervish chuckling before saying, "The look on your face!"

Season 2: Demon Thief
This Season consists of 14 episodes and does not have any returning characters except for a Young Dervish. Grubbs and Dervish only return in a post credits scene as a teaser for Season 3

Cornelius (Kernel) Fleck has never been normal. He has spent all of his life seeing strange glowing shapes floating through the air, which he could manipulate and join. One day, being particularly depressed he is playing with some shapes that are flashing, joining them together. He opens a window and something passes through before returning. Kernel follows it and disappears. A few days later Kernel returns with his baby brother, Art. However, Kernel doesn't remember anything of the past few days. When he gets back he has no recollection of what happened, and is clutching his brother. The parents are troubled by this and move to a new town far away from the city called Paskinston.

After a year in Paskinston he is confronted by the local supposed witch and discovers she too sees the floating lights. Later during school she attacks and explodes. A portal is created and Cadaver (a demon) comes through followed by four 'disciples'. Cadaver kidnaps Art and retreats followed by the disciples and Kernel. Kernel learns that the disciples leader Beranabus is a magician and him Nadia, Sharmila and Raz are on a mission to find a piece of the Kah Gash (a weapon which could destroy either the demonata universe or the human world) and that Cadaver might know where it is. While chasing Cadaver the group arrive on a demon planet full of Kallin (demonata who look like worms with gaping mouths) Beranabus tells the others to hold the demons at bay while he attempts to open another window to escape. Nadia then teaches Raz, Sharmila and Kernel how to create a barrier. Raz is able to create a strong one, Sharmila's isn't as strong but Kernel's doesn't even manage to make one. They create a barrier around Beranabus and themselves and watch as the Kallin surround them. Realizing that they're going to die because of the how weak the barrier is, Kernel takes over for Beranabus and pieces together a window in which they escape. As they step through they realize that Cadaver has yet again set up another trap and are force to engage in a gruesome battle in which, Raz is killed. Kernel begins to open up a window to a random city for all of them to escape. Being tied down with the fight, Nadia tells Kernel to leave them and disappears through the window, taking her chance to run away from Beranabus. Kernel ends up following her. In order to get back to the demon universe he finds a nearly open window and meets Shark and Dervish outside a building where a punk concert is taking place.

Shark says that they are trying to stop a demon being summoned. Kernel helps them find the man that's summoning it, but is too late and the demon passes through the window. It causes terror and kills a few people, including the person who summoned it, but Dervish and Shark fight it back.

Kernel persuades them to go through the window with him. They do, and find themselves in a universe where they are standing on clouds. Kernel makes a portal to Beranabus and they go through.

They meet Beranabus, and he forces Kernel to make a window to Nadia. A few hours later, he comes back with Nadia and commands Kernel to take the window apart. Grudgingly, he does. Nadia swears to kill Beranabus, but he isn't very bothered. They continue to follow Cadaver until they reach the castle of Lord Loss. They enter to find Lord Loss with Cadaver, holding Art on his lap. Beranabus demands that Lord Loss turn over Cadaver to them. Loss agrees in exchange for a member of the group. Kernel thinks that the demon wants him because he can see the lights, however Loss chooses Nadia. He then causes her to explode, much to everyone's horror. Kernel, Dervish, and Shark then begin to argue for the release of Art.

Lord Loss pulls out an ancient chess board and says that their souls will be sealed inside it. Kernel will have three guesses to who the "real thief (who stole Art)" is. If he guesses correctly, everyone can go and Kernel can have his brother back. If not, they spent an eternity in the board. Inside the board, Kernel is unable to see anything. He realizes that he is on a black space and uses magic to cause the orange marbles he still has to light everything. He then manages to find a white space which has a lava river in it. He sees a demon that looks like a child and pursues it, however he is knocked into a river of molten lava by a winged demon. He is rescued, to his surprise, by Nadia. She tells him that when she exploded her soul was not in her body. She had seen ahead and asked Lord Loss privately to take her, since she hated working for Beranabus. Saving Kernel was her last act of help to him.

After searching the board, Kernel finds both Dervish and Shark. He then uses the marbles to find Cadaver, who he believes is the thief. As he chases Cadaver down, he again sees the demon child. Finally catching Cadaver, he names him as a thief, which Lord Loss says is incorrect. Kernel then realizes that Cadaver was just a puppet and thinks that the real thief was Lord Loss, however that is also incorrect. With one chance left, Kernel again sees the demon child. Realizing that it's a clue, he finally knows who the real thief is: It's himself. When Kernel, Dervish, and Shark are released from the board, Lord Loss tells the group who the demon child is. Its name is Artery and it's one of his favorite familiars. When Kernel stepped through the portal at the beginning of the book, he was very lonely. He found Artery outside the castle, caught him, transformed him to look like a regular child, and shortened the name to Art. Since transformation magic was highly complex, Lord Loss decided to find out more about Kernel. Kernel's parents, who had lost a daughter when Kernel was four, decided to keep Art even though they knew he wasn't theirs. They moved to the village so that the people who lived in the city and were familiar with the family wouldn't find out about Art. Sharmila then asks if Kernel wants Art back. Lord Loss is willing to give Kernel Artery, who can easily be transformed back into a human, however warns them that Art will always be a demon on the inside and while he will never attack Kernel, he is certain to hurt others.

Kernel, heartbroken, decides to leave Artery and go home. However, upon arriving home, things were even worse. Seven years passed since his departure and his parents had gotten used to the loss of their children. Kernel realized that they could never truly accept him back, so he travels back to Beranabus.

Kernel then shows Beranbus how, when concentrating on making portals to anything that's with them, the lights don't pulse. For anything that's not with them, the lights pulse. When concentrating on the promised piece of the weapon, the lights don't pulse, and Kernel concludes that the piece of the Kah Gash must be him.

In a post credits scene Grubbs runs downstairs as Dervish tells him that they're going to a movie set where one of his favourite horror directors is.

Season 3: Slawter and Bec
This season marks the Grubbs and also adds a cut out character called Meera Flame, who appeared in the Lord Loss book but not the series. This season is also the first to have two books be told at the same time, however Bec is only told through visions Grubbs sees in his dreams

This book is set about a year after "Lord Loss" takes place. When the story takes place Dervish, who has just returned from his battle with Lord Loss, is having mental problems. He has terrible nightmares and he attacks Grubbs in his sleep.

A horror movie producer named Davida Haym offers Dervish a chance to work on the set of her new movie, "Slawter". "Slawter" is about demons. He quickly accepts the job thinking that it will be a good chance to help restore his sanity. Grubbs soon finds out that Davida has made a deal with Lord Loss that if she gets Dervish and Grubbs to work on the movie, she can film them live giving her the movie of her life. But when Dervish, Grubbs, Bill-E and a psychologist named Juni Swan try to escape, they encounter a barrier which sends them into a dream world. In this dream world, Bill-E has been captured by the Lambs so they can learn the secrets of how his Lycanthropy was cured.

Grubbs Sees a vision one night of a baby being born and the middle ages. The mother feeds the baby and struggles to her feet and begins running through the woods, presumably chased by an unknown force. The Mother stumbles through the rain but constantly protects the child and eventually collapses at a gate and smiles at the baby before dying. A warrior hears the child crying and finds it. He picks it up and alerts the guards.

Dervish, along with Shark and Sharmila (both in Demon Thief) invade the Lambs complex and demand the return of Bill-E Spleen. The Lambs refuse so they invade the complex and rescue Bill-E. Grubbs then realises too many convenient facts, including Shark happening to see the blueprints, the fact that they could use such powerful magic when no windows to the Demonata's universe were open, and the fact that the complex was an exact replica of Hannibal Lecter's cell.

He wakes up and finds himself in a small room in one of buildings that make up the town Slawter. Dervish and Bill-E are also in the room with him and he uses magic to wake them up. Juni is not with them and they presume her to be dead. The three of them then run into the town trying to warn people to get away by saying there is a gas leak and the town will explode soon.

When a "simple child" named Bran who can run incredibly fast comes to Bec's demon-besieged rath, she and a small consignment of warriors go with him, including the chief's son, Connla, who is "largely untested" in battle; Goll, an old warrior; Lorcan and Ronan, two teenage twins; Fiachna the blacksmith; and Orna, a female warrior. He leads them to a crannóg, where everyone is dead except a druid, Drust. The druid tells them about a tunnel to the demons' world, and how he aims to destroy it. They go with him.

During their journey, they encounter many demons, including the terrifying Lord Loss, with whom Bec engages in a battle. She appears to absorb power from him, and after the encounter begins to learn magic at a phenomenal rate. Drust gets worried, and asks her for permission to go into her mind (like Dervish Grady asks Grubbs in Slawter). He discovers that Lord Loss had given Bec part of his power, opening up her magical side, though no one knows for what purpose.

Eventually they arrive at a village, where Bec learns about her heritage and that she is part of a clan prone to lycanthropy (this is a link to the Garadexes, Grubbs' ancestors). After a long journey, they arrive at the cliffs. Lord Loss appears, intrigued by a chessboard Drust got from the Elders. He is then thrown out magically, and places a geis (a demon curse) on them. Although dismissing it as untrue, the group are immediately affected by the geis; Orna is killed by her undead children. They arrive at the coast, where they share a small battle with some demons, and, according to Connla, Ronan is forced over into the sea and Fiachna is wounded badly. That night Bec and Drust use magic to go down into an underwater cave, and they meet the mystical Old Creatures, who tell them where the tunnel is and how to destroy it. It emerges that a druid or priestess must be sacrificed, which reveals why Drust needs Bec. Back on dry land, while Bec and Drust are talking about the sacrifice, Bran overhears and tries to help.

No one heeds their warnings and Davida sets the Demons upon the unwilling cast and crew, but Lord Loss then betrays her and kills her. Most of the actors don't fight back - thinking this is a plot change - but soon realise its not and are killed. The three of them run and try to lure a demon closer to the invisible force field that surrounds the town so they can blow it up, making a hole in the wall and allowing them to escape. To do this they leave a sheepish Bill-E in an alley to attract a weak demon.

Finally, one does come, after a girl named Bo Kooniart (who they previously disliked and whose father was in on Davida Haym's plot), a girl called Karin and three boys see them and run to them while being chased by a giant bee-like demon. Dervish and Grubbs subdue it but suddenly Juni reappears and kills it. To get another, Grubbs, Bo and Karin all lure a demon into chasing them, but are unlucky when Lord Loss finds them. Artery and a new cockroach-demon called Gregor are with him and the children run. Karin is soon killed off by Lord Loss's literal kiss of death, causing Grubbs and Bo to weep for her, which makes Lord Loss stronger. They eventually find the edge but Dervish is not there. Suddenly Dervish and Juni appear from under an invisibility shield and distract Lord Loss so Grubbs can move Gregor to the barrier. Juni is about to kill the demon before she is struck by Gregor's leg.

Grubbs manages to open a window by killing Gregor but has to battle Lord Loss and Artery. Dervish attacks Lord Loss with the people he helped get through. Bill-E pulls a merely unconscious Juni through. Grubbs then sees that Demons can get through so the creates another hole that only humans can get through. Grubbs then has to battle multiple demons to buy time for the people here. He realises he has power that he never knew he had, even the power to injure Lord Loss so Dervish can get out. Grubbs then runs out after Dervish and the window closes. An unlucky few are still trapped inside and Lord Loss then slaughters them brutally.He promises to get his revenge on Dervish, grubbs and Bill-E (similar to the geis he puts on the warriors in Bec). They realise that Bo did not make it out of the bubble surrounding Slawter as she went to try and save her father. They then see Davida's assistant director Chuda sitting there and Grubbs almost kills him but Bill-E stops him. Then Juni kills him with magic she never knew she had until fighting in the bubble. Later, they find that Juni has gone, and left a note saying that she had to be alone for a while after what she had done, and didn't want to be contacted.

Bec's group find some horses which help them reach their destination in time, but Fiachna is soon abandoned after his wound becomes life-threatening. When they arrive at the demon-guarded tunnel, they find Drust's brother Brude trapped and part of the entrance. Brude opened the tunnel and let the entire demon race loose on the Earth to prevent all of Ireland converting to Christianity. It transpires that Drust was motivated because he knew his brother had unleashed the demons. Connla betrays the group, revealing he was working for Lord Loss all along and it was he who caused all the deaths of the others of their party. Bec pushes him under a waterfall, breaking his protective spell of demonic blood and allowing the demons to slaughter him. Lorcan and Goll are also attacked and die in battle. When Bec is about to be sacrificed, Drust is knifed in the back by Bran and Bec realizes Bran wouldn't let her die. Drust tells her to use him as the sacrifice, as he is about to die anyway. When the tunnel is destroyed, Brude's mouth starts to close. They appear to be able to make for the exit initially, but Vein catches onto her leg. She fights her off, but too slowly; they lose their chance to make it out of the tunnel in time. As the tunnel starts to close, Bec uses her magic to force Bran to use his running skills to escape. The tunnel closes and Lord Loss appears to her, revealing that closing the tunnel makes no difference, and that he has been walking the earth for hundreds of years before this tunnel was opened. He then apologizes to Bec, but says he must go through with the geis he placed on them, and walks off with Drust's chessboard. In the last sentences of the book she is trapped in the tunnel, being brutally torn apart by the demons. Presumably, the only survivor of the group of warriors is Bran.

Back at Dervish's house, Dervish tells Grubbs about what his future would be if he did have magic. This causes Grubbs subconscious to hide his magic, even though Dervish said it was impossible. When Dervish scans Grubbs for magic powers he thinks he has none, but in truth, Grubbs had hid them without knowing. Later he decides to check if he did have powers, and managed to switch the light on and off without using the switch and make his reflection disappear. To have the power to conceal his powers from Dervish and to use magic in the real world away from any demons can only mean one thing - Grubbs is a magician.

Season 4: Blood Beast and Demon Apocalypse
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Characters
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Reception
The Demonata has received positive reception and is cited as an amazing Darren Shan Adaption