The Bondsman, releasing on Amazon Prime Video on April 4, 2025, is the story of a bounty hunter who dies and is resurrected to become a hunter of demons for the Devil. It resembles a mix of Supernatural, True Blood, and Preacher. Blumhouse Productions, known for horror, is part of the production team. This series is set in modern-day Georgia.
The Bondsman is a fun show with interesting characters. Each one has their own frailties and quirks. There are some nice music choices to go with each episode and plenty of humor. Horror fans will enjoy the action, gore, and intrigue. At times the characters' actions are hard to believe or predictable. I didn’t find that intrusive enough to prevent me from enjoying the show.
Below, we break down all eight episodes of this new series. Beware SPOILERS ahead!
Episode 1: "Pot ‘O Gold"
Kevin Bacon portrays Hub Halloran, a bond enforcer who confronts a criminal named Jeb Earl and his brother. Hub gets shot and has his throat cut. He then wakes inside the walls of the motel room where Jeb had been hiding out and struggles at first to move or talk. He punches his way through the wall and sees his open neck wound in a mirror. Just then a young man, Tater, hired by the brothers to burn the motel, comes into the room. Hub overpowers Tater and shoves him in the trunk of a car, which he steals. Hub realizes he has three claw marks burned on his arm.
Right away, I liked the opening with the classic rock song "Sprit in the Sky." Hub is a bit quirky in fun ways; he uses a bee’s nest to smoke out his quarry from the motel room, as well as using duct tape to seal his neck wound. It's also worth noting that we see various "Missing" posters for a girl named Cheryl. That'll come up later.
Hub gets back to his family’s bail bond place. When he removes the duct tape, intent upon binding it with actual bandages, he discovers that his wound has healed up, leaving only minor scarring behind. The shop phone rings multiple times, but he lets it go to voicemail. The message is from someone to discuss his orientation for something called "Pot 'O Gold." Annoyed, Hub ignores them, even after finding a drawer full of cell phones all ringing from the same number.
Hub runs to the house where his mother Kitty (Beth Grant) is meeting with the local pastor. After the pastor leaves, Hub learns that the brothers were hired by someone named Lucky (Damon Herriman). Hub sets out to find Lucky, who he also believes has Momma Kitty’s truck.
Hub finds Lucky at a local bar where his ex-wife Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles) is singing with her band. She’s dating Lucky, so Hub goes easy on him for her sake. Lucky takes advantage of the opportunity to escape. Hub hears that Lucky left to join a poker game with the Earl brothers and sets out after him. On the drive there, he passes by someone in the church lawn who looks back at him with glowing red eyes.
Hub arrives at the house where the poker game is. Lucky’s truck is there but he is not. Hub faces another ambush from the Earl brothers, who are out to kill him again. They are interrupted by a demonic presence who kills everyone except for Hub, who escapes.
He hitchhikes back to his family home where Kitty is meeting with a young woman: Midge (Jolene Purdy) from the Pot ‘O Gold Corporation, who is there to give him his orientation. Hub learns that he did indeed die and was brought back for the purpose of hunting demons for the Devil.
My favorite quote from his episode is from Hub after someone tells him that he’s supposed to be dead. “Nah, my momma raised me tougher than that,” he replies. Followed by, “I can’t believe you guys brought chips and dip to my murder.”
Episode 2: "Valacor"
Hell is compared to a prison where Satan is the warden. Occasionally there’s a demon jail break, and now it’s Hub’s job to return them, aka kill them. The rub is if he fails to take down even one escapee, he gets sent back to hell. He’s told his job is temporary but he insists there may be a work-around.
Valacor is the first demon Hub is assigned to hunt down. He receives the assignment through the fax, which also tells him the latitude and longitude of where Valacor escaped. With the help of Kitty, he discovers this demon entered through the local church and killed the pastor before possessing his body.
Hub follows Valacor’s movements using reports of power outages. After seeing lights flashing at the Earl brothers’ place and signs of electricity damage at the church, Hub deduces that this demon feeds on electric power. Kitty, upset about this case pertaining to her church and her pastor, demands to assist Hub. She realizes he committed some sin bad enough to send him to hell and feels she let him down as a mother. He refuses to explain his "mistake."
Together they confront Valacor at a power station. Indeed, the possessed pastor is climbing the walls. They go after him with a bear trap and guns. Kitty nearly succeeds with her shotgun, but ultimately Hub smashes its head with a standing electrical panel. Flames consume its body and spread to the surrounding building. The two escape before the fire reaches them.
In the meantime, Lucky discovers the bodies of the Earl brothers. He finds Tater locked in the car trunk; he blames the deaths on Hub.
The down-home humor remains constant throughout the series, which makes this show a lot of fun to watch.
Episode 3: "Marphos"
This episode’s demon, Marphos, is all about water. He drowns a local high school cheerleader and possesses her.
As Hub waits for his next assignment to come in, he decides to confront Lucky. He shows up at his his ex-wife Maryanne's house and takes his son Cade (Maxwell Jenkins) off to school, intending to show him Lucky’s criminal record in hopes it will turn Cade against Lucky, who's kind of his step-father since Lucky is dating Maryanne.
The call comes in about the arrival of Marphos, so Hub takes his son along as a lookout to confront the demon at the community indoor pool. The local sheriff pokes around, so Hub tells his son to drive away. The sheriff leaves shortly after, giving Hub time to kill the demon, who has already killed someone else. The demon's body again catches fire and burns, despite floating in the pool water. This time, the building doesn’t burn down.
When Hub shows up at the sheriff’s office, he’s met with an angry Maryanne. They fight. We also learn that Lucky managed to snap photos of Kitty and Hub killing their last demon.
Maryanne asks Hub’s permission to take Cade to Nashville and he refuses, wanting to keep his son away from the music business.
Episode 4: "Erdos"
A deputy sheriff is blackmailing the owner of a food truck. He gets murdered and possessed by Erdos, a demon who fills its victims with dirt.
Hub wakes and puts on a video of him and Maryanne performing music together back in the day. As he looks out the window, he sees the ghost of a missing girl named Cheryl Dawson.
The scene switches to Cade performing with Maryanne, only he’s struggling to play his guitar. She tries to convince him he has talent.
Kitty sets out to frame Lucky to get him out of the picture. She files the serial number off of a gun and goes to the club where she sets fire to Lucky’s car. While that's distrating everyone, she sneaks into his room and stashes the gun.
Meanwhile, Hub gets the fax about another the location of another demon: Erdos. He confronts this one at a local hardware store; Erdos has possessed a young police deputy and killed a security guard. Maryanne gets caught up in the endeavor because she tracks Hub down using the location app on his phone. When she gets to the hardware store, the alarm is going off. She and Hub argue about their son until the demon makes a noise and draws their attention.
Maryanne finds a trail of dirt and follows it, finding the dead security guard. When she sees the deputy, she calls out for help. It turns and attacks the two. Hub shoots it as it runs along the shelving but it takes him to the ground. Maryanne grabs a cutter mattock off the shelf and slams it into the demon’s back, allowing Hub enough time to shoot it dead.
Fire consumes its body and spreads to the rest of the warehouse. They flee the flames.
Back at his shop, Hub notices similarities in the demon killings and phones Midge. For one, he's noticed that the demons kill the person they are possessing. Midge explains this is to avoid exorcism. However, they also kill another person and leaves their bodies inside a triangular-shaped design. Hub decides these are sacrifices and sets out to discover more.
Hub now has to explain to Maryanne how he died, what his job is about, and that Lucky tried to kill him. He gives her the okay to take Cade to Nashville for an audition…just to get them away from the demons.
Kitty calls, and Hub and Maryanne meet at the club in time to see Lucky arrested. Maryanne confronts him about the blackmail photos and Hub’s killing. She breaks up with him. Then she takes Cade to Nashville but not before Hub gives him some much-needed encouragement.
Episode 5: "Slypharis"
A young man takes his girl to a lake picnic to propose. A fisherman interrupts them, and a heated conversation turns into a fist fight. It's interrupted by an air demon named Slypharis. Slypharis flips the fisherman’s truck, crushing both men and possessing them both.
At the club, Lucky falls off the AA wagon. He’s upset about being set up and Maryanne leaving him. He talks one of the bartenders into selling him her ugly truck.
Kitty falls asleep reading a book on demonology. Hub tries not to disturb her as he comes in but picks up the book. Looking through it, he realizes that the demon sacrifices are forming a pattern. They will come together to form an inverted pentagram which will create a reversal of sanctity. He also notices the elemental forces associated with each point. There are two left: air and fire. He triangulates where he believes the remaining two may appear.
In this episode, we learn Midge’s story of how she willingly became a soul collector for the Devil.
I love how it turns out Pot ‘O Gold is a pyramid scheme. Her arm is burned with the same claw-like marks that Hub has. She now has the ability to see demons and hellfire in mirrors.
Nine years later, in the present day, Hub arrives unannounced at her house. He wants to show her what he’s discovered about the reversed pentagram. When she threatens to shoot him, he leaves the folder of information and leaves.
The fax comes in about the arrival of Slypharis. Hub reaches the lake and searches the vehicles there. He finds where the blood of the two dead men has soaked into the ground.
Following a hunch about where these two demons might go, Hub confronts them at a bridge crossing. They're planning to sacrifice the wife of one of the men they possessed. Before Hub can kill the demons, he meets an unfortunate accident.
Episode 6: "Revelations"
Searching for Hub, Kitty comes across his wrecked vehicle. She overhears talk of a murder at the local bait and tackle on her police scanner. She rushes over there and is spotted by the sheriff, who grows suspicious of her and Hub.
Hub is cuffed to a bench inside a jail cell in his underwear. Midge calls and he hears her voicemail. What she says is subtle in the background, so listen closely. She has information about the reverse pentagram.
Maryanne and Cade end a recording session in Nashville when the sheriff phones, looking for Hub. She also questions Maryanne about whether she went shopping at the hardware store with Hub. Maryanne lies about Hub being with her, not knowing the sheriff has seen them both on the store security video feed.
The two demons from the bridge show up. It’s interesting that these followed Hub because that’s another first. As they go after Lucky, Hub manages to break free of his cuffs and kills them, one with a shotgun and the other with a chainsaw to the head. Lucky flees. Trying to save his shop from being consumed by the demons' bodies incinerating, Hub puts the fires out with an extinguisher.
When confronted by Maryanne and his son about the truth of being a demon hunter, Hub shows them the bodies of the two demons killed in the shop. They decide to join him and form a team that also includes Kitty.
Episode 7: "Pyralis"
This fire demon possesses a young boy. The newly formed demon-hunting squad head to a new subdivision where Hub predicts the demon will emerge. They go door to door pretending to be from a utility company and tell everyone they can find to evacuate. Some of the residents are pretty odd, but Hub doesn’t identify any as a demon. Midge, who sees demons in her makeup mirror, ends up face-to-face with the demon boy.
They fail to stop the fire demon because he opens a triangular fiery pit to escape.
Episode 8: "Lilith"
Lilith is a fallen angel whom God once favored. She bursts into the mortal realm, possessing the body of Cheryl.
Maryanne finds Hub outside next to an open grave. After a family fight, Maryanne walks away.
Midge gets dropped off at the Halloran house. Hub tells her he’s done with demon hunting and she convinces him that, even if he goes to hell now, the world isn’t safe for his family or the rest of humanity anymore. They proceed.
Lilith heads to the local diner, drawn to the jukebox music. She uses her mind control ability to make the men kill themselves and enthralls the women.
Midge tells Hub about Lilith’s past and how she fled hell once before but was sent back by medieval monks when she showed up at their abbey and attacked. Midge has a drawing of the place. Hub recognizes the lines around the base of the building and gets an idea.
The police show up at Hub's house, along with Lucky. They unsuccessfully search for the demon bodies but find the bulletin board Hub uses to compile information about demons and symbols. Kitty and Maryanne get arrested. Lucky is still trying to protect them by hiring a lawyer. He believes God told him to save them from Hub. The police threaten to arrest Cade in order to get Maryanne to call Hub and find out where he’s at. She caves and leaves a voice mail to meet at the club.
Hub and Midge lure Lilith with his enormous amp, which has been turned into a demon-summoning device. They capture her inside a pentagram trap. Lilith tries to bargain for her release.
Before Hub breaks the warding sigil, Lilith releases the girl and possesses a crow. She flies away. Hub’s arm markings vanish and he realizes he’s released from his ‘job’. He still believes he can find a loophole that will let avoid returning to hell.
Everyone gathers at the club. When Cheryl walks in, all the folks who thought she was dead are surprised. The police cuff her and Hub.
Maryanne is in her dressing room when the demon crow appears. She doesn’t kill Maryanne.
Hub sees the crow fly down the stairwell and out through the open club door. Lilith appears and starts singing. She enthralls the entire club except for Hub. She tells him he must serve her if he wants Maryanne to live. What a great cliffhanger for the season!
These eight episodes were filmed in April of 2024 but, so far, there’s no news of additional episodes. For now, give this series a watch.
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