This article discusses what happens to Marcus in The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself, and thus contains enormous plot spoilers. You have been warned!
The plot of The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself hinges on a longstanding war between two sects of witches, and within that fantastical conflict, perhaps the most important figure of all is Marcus Edge — the most notorious, heart-eating, power-stealing Blood Witch of all time, absentee father of the protagonist, and wearer of tasteful all-weather clothing. But what happens to Marcus in The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself? Who is this mysterious figure? What does he want? Does he get it? Let’s unpack.
Who is Marcus Edge in The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself?
While we don’t actually meet Marcus until almost the very end of the season, his presence is felt all throughout on reputation alone. He is “the Devil himself” of the title, a Blood Witch of particular notoriety for his actions at the Wolfhagen Peace Massacre, a ceasefire summit between the Blood Witches and the Fairborn Witches at which he transformed into a wolf and ate the entire Fairborn delegation.
Ever since then Marcus has been on the run. The Fairborn Council set up a team known as The Ten with the mandate to track him down, but at the start of the season nine of them are dead, and it only takes a couple of episodes for the tenth to bite the bullet as well. He is the father of Nathan Byrne, and the Fairborn Council is especially worried that Nathan will inherit his temperament and penchant for eating hearts.
What are Marcus’s powers?
While I don’t believe the show is necessarily clear on this, it seems his original power was shapeshifting, similar to Jessica, since this would explain how he was able to transform into a wolf. However, the real secret to his murderous success is the eating of his victims’ hearts. In Blood Witch culture this is a way to preserve the powers of the deceased. Marcus has eaten the heart of almost everyone he has killed, which means he has an extremely wide array of different powers. He can control the elements and time, shapeshift, turn invisible, brew potions, and he also knows exactly how he will die. One power we know he doesn’t have, though, is decimation, since Jessica believes that if Soul is able to steal that power from Annalise, he will have the advantage over Marcus.
Who plays Marcus?
In the show, Marcus is played by David Gyasi, a British actor known for his work in films like Interstellar, Cloud Atlas, and Annihilation
What happens to Marcus in The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself?
In the season finale, Marcus finally presents himself to Nathan after taking his revenge on the Fairborn Council hunters that had accompanied Soul to Wolfhagen. As Nathan flees Soul in the woods, he lays things out.
Marcus’s whole deal has been revenge. When he met and fell in love with Nathan’s mother, a Fairborn, the two of them tried to keep their relationship a secret. Marcus thought by leaving and only visiting periodically he would keep them safe, but he was wrong. The Fairborn Council assigned Soul and Aoife the task of killing Nathan’s mother and making her death look like suicide. The Fairborns then took Nathan away and monitored him as he grew into adolescence.
The reason for keeping Nathan alive was a prophecy that states, simply, “His own blood will kill the wolf.” The Fairborn Council took this very literally and Soul eventually became obsessed with it, mixing his own blood with Nathan’s in a forbidden spell called a Witch’s Bottle. Through this Soul was able to assume all of Marcus’s powers.
However, Soul never got the chance to confront Marcus personally. After revealing himself to Nathan, Marcus allowed Nathan to drink from his blood and gave him his three gifts — his life (Nathan was on the cusp of death because he had almost reached the end of his Giving Day without ingesting the blood), the final words of his mother to Marcus, and the chance to prove who he really is by killing Soul. While Nathan partially suspects that he might fulfill the prophecy, Marcus is unconcerned as he has seen the manner of his own death already. When Nathan goes off to fight Soul, Marcus disappears into the woods.
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