Azal (Strange)



"And how many of you have you killed since you persuaded us to wire up every house on the planet?"

- John Strange to Azal

"NOT ENOUGH!"

- Azal to Strange

Azal is the main antagonist in the pilot episode of the TV series Strange. He is a demon which has electrical-based powers. In fact, he was the one who helped humans discover electricity.

He is portrayed in the series by Scottish actor Alastair Mackenzie.

Before the series
He worked with John Faraday to help make electricity usable for humans. Faraday presumably did not know the real nature of his assistant. Azal used the electrical current to invade people's homes and kill them by burning them to death with his electricity. His non-corporeal form was a gigantic ball of glowing electricity. His human form was that of a handsome young man with black hair. He helped Faraday set up electricity round the world and he used this for killing. That was Azal's reason for helping Faraday discover electricity, so he could enter people's homes and kill.

As a demon, he had an immensely long life, and sometime during the 1980s, he met a woman named Jude Atkins, who was a nurse, and together they eventually married. Azal, now calling himself Rich, managed to seduce Jude and have a son with her, thus making sure that even if he died, he had a human child which would bear his powers.

In the series
Azal is shown off-screen through most of the episode. He is first seen injuring a vicar in his church, and the vicar appears to know Azal's human form, he asks how he got in there, but then the vicar is zapped and the cross on the wall swings upside down. Azal then moves on to finish off the vicar after the vicar revealed the name, Azal, to Jude, and after the vicar tells Jude about John Strange, Azal moves in to kill the vicar, coincidentally, when Jude is on night watch. He fries the man alive and vanishes, indicating a human combustion. But Strange knows that something evil is at work and he and Jude investigate.

Later, Rich (Azal) calls Strange, demanding to know what lunacy he has been  telling Jude, and Strange is alarmed, having just seen Rich on a picture of Faraday's assistant. Because of this, Rich kept science out of his house. Jude had noticed some odd signs, saying that Rich hadn't aged since they'd met. Jude worked out because of Strange that there was a demon at work and that the demon uses electricity to kill humans, and she turned off all the power in her house to protect her son Joey, but he'd already gone to the church where something odd happened everytime there was a lightning storm. As Joey entered, a huge wall of electricity erupted, and a human face began to form in the electricity, which was Azal. Azal then appeared in human form in the church door, and revealed himself as Rich, to Jude's dismay, saying he had an appointment with Strange. Rich now had gold eyes and sharp teeth. He teleported to the hospital elevator where Strange was. Strange knew who Rich was and wasn't surprised, but when he asked how many people Azal had killed in the years, Azal said not enough and attacked. Azal said to Strange that he would "fry just like his priest friend" but Strange told the demon his power was being used all the time. Azal said "I have enough to kill you."

Then Strange said that due to science laws, electricity only has effect on earth, and Azal would need to be on a firm floor to kill Strange. Azal said "That can be arranged. Goodbye Mr Strange" and dropped the elevator, but fortunately Jude managed to vanquish Azal, sucking him into two wires. Rich screamed in rage and evaporated before the elevator hit the ground, leaving Strange alive.

Legacy
Azal was gone, but he still haunted Jude's dreams. He bought her a warning that Asmoth was awake and he was hungry.