Hex: Season 1

Watch the series seen on BBC America that eliminates dull, dreary nights like magic. Tackling subject matter, evil spells and taboos that would make other supernatural shows tremble with fright, Hex blends great young stars and truly wicked plotlines involving kidnapping, human sacrifi ce, ancient mythology?and dating. Christina Cole (Doctor Who, Casino Royale) stars as Cassie, a shy social outcast at a remote British boarding school whose future is forever altered when she becomes cursed with supernatural powers. But, things get complicated when Cassie becomes linked with Azazeal (Michael Fassbender, 300), a fallen angel banished from heaven for tasting the pleasures of mortal women, and her libidinous lesbian roommate Thelma (Jemina Rooper, Kinky Boots). Also stars Amber Sainsbury (The Poseidon Adventure), Jamie Davis (Footballers Wives) and Colin Salmon (Match Point).

Episode One - It?s 1743, and the lady of Medenham Hall ? Rachel McBain ? rushes into the night and enters a stone building on the grounds that houses her family?s African slaves. Spotting a voodoo priest in the corner, Rachel unwittingly alters her destiny, and those of her generations of descendants, when she watches transfixed as he performs a sacrificial ceremony, slashing the throat of a young rooster while making love to a slave.

Two and a half centuries later, in 2004, Medenham Hall has become a progressive boarding school where most of the students are part of a cliquish ?In Crowd.? Two who are obviously not are Cassie Hughes and Thelma Bates, roommates who sit quietly in the back of the class, saying nothing. A tough cookie who has already experienced the sting of rejection as a result of her being a lesbian, Thelma isn?t bothered by being excluded. Cassie, however, would love nothing more than to belong.

While searching for a place where she can be alone, Cassie comes upon an abandoned outbuilding that was once Medenham Hall?s slave quarters. Crouching down, she stumbles upon a secret hiding place where she finds a dusty old vase imbedded with spikes and containing a cross made of bone and human hair -- the Canari.

Back in their room where Thelma hints at the growing feelings she has for her -- feelings that Cassie doesn?t acknowledge ? Cassie?s dreams about Rachel McBain and Jenny, a maid at Medenham, cause her to awake in terror, marking the beginning of a strange series of events that are both frightening and intriguing. Drawn closer to something unworldly, Cassie discovers Rachel?s fascination with voodoo, an obsession that drove her mad and resulted in the sacrifice of one of her maids. Yet, beyond just having visions, Cassie finds that she also has strange powers that she doesn?t yet know how to control.

As Cassie becomes increasingly attracted to her handsome classmate, Troy, it inevitably upsets the possessive Thelma, especially after Cassie is invited to a party by Roxanne, a key player in the school?s ?cool group.? Yet, the party begins to go strangely awry after Roxanne tricks Troy?s friend, Leon, into making a pass at Cassie. When Leon tries to force himself upon her, Cassie?s struggle to get away shatters the lights and sends sparks flying everywhere as she bolts for safety. As she is running up the steps of Medenham Hall, an icy cold hand grips her by her wrist. And after turning to see the ghostly apparition of Rachel McBain whispering ?Azazeal,? the terrified Cassie runs to tell Thelma all about her visions and otherworldly powers.

Episode 2 - While doing their schoolwork the following day, Leon?s snide comments on Cassie?s icy demeanor prompt her to make a mobile above his head to suddenly burst into flames and crash down upon him, leaving Thelma stunned and looking questioningly at Cassie, as all the while a dark brooding figure ? Azazeal -- watches and waits in the background.

It?s later while at a party that, for the first time, Thelma sees Cassie consciously use her powers to trip the unsuspecting Leon with electric cable, sending him tumbling and spilling his drink on Troy. As Troy heads for the bathroom to clean up, Cassie follows, making Thelma instantly jealous. Following an emotional quarrel, Thelma storms off as the dark figure continues to watch from the shadows. And when she?s awakened the next morning by Medenham Hall?s Dean David Tyrel and an army of policemen, a worried Cassie hasn?t a clue as to where Thelma has gone.

That day, Azazeal first appears to Cassie in the graveyard over Rachel McBain?s headstone, and then later at school. Drawn to the library, Cassie is desperate to know what has happened to Thelma, but is unable to resist Azazeal who, needing a willing sacrifice to keep from losing his power on Earth, has his sights set on her.

Finding her bound and gagged, Cassie risks her own life to save Thelma, only to see her friend sacrifice herself on Azazeal?s knife and die in her loving arms. Then, upon suddenly waking in bed, Cassie wonders if it has all been a dream, until she looks out the window and sees Thelma?s lifeless body being pulled from the lake.

At Thelma?s funeral, Cassie hears a familiar voice and finds Thelma standing next to her, thoroughly enjoying all the proceedings. And, from now on, life will never be the same again for these two as Cassie knows she must face her destiny while, upon the battlements of the school, the familiar dark figure of Azazeal stands watching and waiting as always.

Episode 3 - On a Saturday night that finds Medenham Hall?s students at a nightclub, Cassie seems to have returned to the role of outsider and the target of her classmate?s scurrilous gossip. While buying a drink at the bar, she meets Brendan who, obviously quite taken with her, gently flirts, all under Azazeal?s watchful eye. As she is talking with the annoying Leon, Cassie?s blood runs cold when she sees Azazeal standing in a doorway off the dance floor...only to have him disappear. But when she rushes to look for him, what she finds is Brendan slumped over and looking as if he has just had a seizure.

Embarrassed by the situation, Brendan and Cassie sheepishly go their separate ways. Yet, the evening approaches its eerie climax when, seeing Brendan take a girl out into the kitchen, Cassie notices that his eyes are streaked with blood...just like the Nephelim. Finding Brendan pinning the terrified girl against the wall and threatening her with a broken bottle, Cassie uses her powers to summon a nearby fire extinguisher to spray its contents in his face. When Brendan gives chase, Cassie slows him down by using the stove as a makeshift flamethrower before calling on her powers to animate a power cable that she then uses to electrocute him!

Now beginning to enjoy being a ghost, Thelma spends her nights exploring other people?s dreams and eating as much as she likes, knowing full well that she won?t ever get fat. Worried about Cassie and still harboring feelings for her, Thelma?s jealousy grows when Troy gives her friend a ride home and they end up flirting over coffee together. Confronting Thelma about her spying, Cassie catches sight of a little girl ? Esther ? and, bending down to talk to her, sees her bloodied hands and broken fingernails. As Esther?s angelic look suddenly turns to one of hatred, she seizes Cassie by the throat as Thelma watches helplessly. Managing to throw her off, Cassie and Thelma seek refuge in an adjoining room as the possessed child tries to claw her way inside like an animal before she suddenly vanishes.

After summoning up the courage to return to the Canari, Cassie is puzzled by a figure she sees hanging from the branches of an imposing cedar tree. As she?s walking alone in the woods, she encounters Azazeal who, in a sexually charged moment, implores her to stop fighting and accept her destiny. And when Cassie and Thelma find the cedar tree again, beneath it lies the gravestone of Rachel McBain?s daughter, Esther.

Finally, much to Thelma?s dismay, Cassie and Troy go out on a date and find that they have much in common. Yet, following a hunch, Thelma breaks into the school?s offices where, to her horror, she locates files that suggest Cassie is a direct descendant of the ill-fated Rachel McBain.

Episode 4 - Told of Thelma?s discovery, Cassie rushes off to talk to her mother, Lilleth, a patient at a women?s mental institution. Though coherent when Cassie starts to inquire about her past, Lilleth soon becomes upset and confused, claiming that Azazeal poisoned her mind and tormented her into enrolling her daughter at Medenham. And once her mother reveals that she is descended from the McBain family?s witches -- a destiny from which there?s no escape ? Cassie finds it all too much to bear and runs from the hospital.

With Cassie having recurring dreams of Esther being hanged from a rope, Thelma voices her concern that what happened to the little girl could happen to her, too. However, when their school?s dean, David Tyrel, claims that it was the villagers who lynched Esther, Cassie and Thelma are relieved, certain that such punishment is now unheard of.

As the undeniable attraction between Cassie and Troy grows, a second date is arranged with Thelma?s grudging blessing. The night before, Azazeal slips into Troy?s room and, cutting the sleeping boy?s finger, allows a single drop of his blood fall to the wooden floor. Taking a cockroach from his pocket, he lets it feed on the blood before placing it under the bedcovers so it can bury itself beneath Troy?s skin.

When Lilleth asks to see her again, Cassie can?t ignore her own mother?s request and leaves for the hospital. Giving her a necklace with a pendant called the Jewel of Herath, Lilleth tells Cassie that it will protect her. Yet, once Cassie has left, Azazeal appears and tells Lilleth that the jewel simply makes her daughter blind to the possessed and actually places her in grave danger.

Upon hearing of his date with Cassie, Leon can?t stop himself from taking a verbal jab at Troy. Though he would normally ignore the remarks, when pushed too far, Troy slams Leon against the wall, leaving their friends aghast at the uncharacteristic behavior. Peeking from around the corner, Thelma is shocked to see Troy?s eyes streaked with veins of blood ? a clear sign that he?s been possessed. But when Thelma tries warning her, Cassie refuses to listen, blaming it on jealousy and an overactive imagination.

While she cannot stop Cassie from returning to see Troy, Thelma does convince her to wear the pendant. However, when Cassie has left and Thelma finds something that convinces her that the pendant offers no protection whatsoever, she?s desperate to warn her. Unable to see the blood in his eyes, Cassie has no idea of the danger she?s in when, back at school, Troy lures her into the barn. As Thelma searches frantically for Cassie, the young lovers start to kiss. And when Thelma finds them only after they?ve finished making love, the blood in her friend?s eyes makes it clear that Cassie is now possessed, too!

Episode 5 - Her tight clothes, sexy attitude and open hostility towards Thelma leave no doubt that Cassie has changed. Now paying little attention to Troy, which only makes him more desperate to repeat their wonderful night of lovemaking, Cassie heads to a strange bar -- a dark, fetishistic, and seedy place -- to meet Azazeal. No longer afraid, in her newly-possessed state she sexually teases him and playfully makes it clear that he will have to wait to have her.

During a game of Truth or Dare, Cassie continues to shock and unsettle her friends by seducing Leon. Enticing him into the bathroom, she pins him against the wall and starts to have sex, only to have Thelma?s quick thinking keep the situation from spinning out of control and allow the frightened Leon to escape.

While raiding a vending machine for something to eat, Thelma sees a woman dressed in vintage pajamas who says she?s Peggy, the ghost of a former Medenham Hall owner who died of the flu in 1923. As the two make an immediate connection, it quickly becomes clear that Peggy is also a lesbian. Explaining that she is an Egyptologist who?s investigating Herath, the daughter of an ancient pharaoh, Peggy complains that her work has become bogged down by an inscription that references someone called Azazeal.

Once Leon tries explaining how strange she?s been acting, Troy confronts Cassie, who nonchalantly says they should split up and leaves him wondering where everything went wrong. Deciding to try to bring Cassie out of her trance, Thelma tampers with an electrical plug that, when Cassie uses it, takes out the school?s power. But when Thelma checks her roommate?s eyes, she sees that they are still filled with blood.

When everybody leaves Medenham Hall for the Christmas holiday, only English teacher Jo Watkins, Cassie, Thelma, and a couple of other students remain. Appearing to Cassie at night, Azazeal slowly works on breaking down her resistance so that when they meet again, she gives in to his demands and engages in some passionate lovemaking back in her room.

Meanwhile, having uncovered more details from Azazeal?s past, Peggy and Thelma learn that he fell in love with Herath, a union that the Egyptians believed destroyed the natural order and allowed the dead to walk among the living, just as the two of them do now. And because she was carrying Azazeal?s child, Herath was buried alive! So, in a last ditch attempt to rid her of her demons, Thelma rigs an electrical circuit to her locker that finally frees Cassie from her spell. However, a nighttime visit from Azazeal proves the situation is still very unsettled and that he isn?t going to let her go so easily.

Episode 6 - After Thelma finds her throwing up in the bathroom and demands she take a pregnancy test, it becomes clear that Cassie is pregnant with Azazeal's child. Thrilled in the knowledge that becoming a father will fulfill his destiny, Azazeal wakes Cassie and, revealing that he knows she is planning to abort, warns her that he will not be denied. As Cassie?s doctor notes that her baby is growing at an alarmingly accelerated rate, and Azazeal busies himself by seducing Jo, Peggy finally deciphers the hieroglyphics of a prayer for the deliverance of the Netjer -- Egyptian demons who possess souls.

When Peggy learns that the birth of Herath?s child would release two hundred demons, Thelma suspects that the Netjer and the Nephelim are one and the same, something which bodes ill for the birth of Cassie?s child. If the child is killed, however, Thelma will be trapped and the natural order will be restored, making it impossible for her to ever see Cassie again.

At the hospital where her doctor struggles to understand how the fetus could be growing so quickly, Thelma tells Cassie that the only reason Azazeal wants her baby is to release the Nephelim. Knowing that the fate of the world now rests on her shoulders, Cassie says a final goodbye to her friend. Yet, after waking from the operation and seeing Thelma at the door, Cassie knows something is gravely wrong when, spotting him and the doctor and staring at a five-month-old baby boy, she realizes that Azazeal has his son and that the demons have been released.

Set in a remote English school, Hex is the chilling story of one girl?s exploration of the supernatural and her own sexual awakening. Cassie is a shy student who discovers she is cursed by terrifying links to the past. Longing to be popular, but only truly loved by her best friend, Cassie realises she possesses dangerous powers. Though bewildered and terrified by the visions and voices that haunt her, Cassie can?t deny that student life with mystical powers has suddenly become infinitely more interesting as she manipulates the people and situations around her. Stalked by Azazeal, the leader of the Nephelim, Cassie?s tragic fate seems sealed when Thelma is kidnapped and sacrificed. Without her best friend, Cassie is alone, fighting against the powerful forces that threaten her existence. But Thelma returns to Cassie as a ghost, driven by love and determined to protect her from the powers that seek to destroy her. Cassie has embarked on the ultimate journey of discovery and when the man she should fear most finds a way to her heart, it can only end in tragedy.

Cast
Thelma Bates. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jemima Rooper
Leon Tyler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jamie Davis
Roxanne Davenport. . . . . . . . . . . . . Amber Sainsbury
David Tyrel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Colin Salmon
Azazeal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Michael Fassbender
Alex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jemima Abey
Ella Dee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laura Pyper
Jo Watkins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Anna Wilson-Jones
Tom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Samuel Collings
Malachi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Joseph Beattie
Cassie Hughes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Christina Cole
Production Credits
Written by. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lucy Watkins, Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Peter Tabern
Directed by. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Brian Grant, Andy Goddard
Produced by. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Johnny Capps, Julian Murphy Executive Producers. . . . . . . . . . . . Elisabeth Murdoch, Sara Johnson, Elaine Pyke
Cinematography by . . . . . . . . . . . . .Geoffey Wharton, Sam McCurdy
Casting by. . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . . .Marilyn Johnson