What To Know
- In the Season 13 finale of American Horror Story, Satan abandons his bid to rule Heaven, Hell, and Earth.
- Paul Anthony Kelly sees Mr. Nas as a complex character who shows compassion toward his powerful relatives.
- Although Nas is imprisoned, Kelly hopes the character might return.
After 13 seasons of murder, mutilations, minotaurs, and Madison Montgomery, American Horror Story has finally introduced the man responsible for much of the mayhem. However, according to Paul Anthony Kelly, who plays the Handson Devil version of Mr. Nas, the Satan isn’t necessarily the evil monster we’ve been led to believe.
In the Season 13 finale, “Devil of a Good Time,” Mr. Nas makes a surprising admission. After nearly a century of plotting to win a bet against God that would give him dominion over Heaven, Hell, and Earth, Satan decides that ruling humanity isn’t nearly as appealing as tormenting it. Apparently, even the Prince of Darkness doesn’t want the headache of managing billions of people.
While his methods have been questionable, to put it mildly, Kelly believes there’s more to his character than an insatiable appetite for evil: “He’s not entirely an evil guy. Evil adjacent, sure, but that’s just his job. Yeah, there’s more to them. It was a little good, if you care to see,” Kelly told TV Insider in an exclusive interview.
Eric Liebowitz/FX
For Kelly, Satan’s decision to abandon his pursuit of absolute power isn’t necessarily an act of redemption. Rather, it’s the realization that getting everything he wants would take away the one thing he enjoys most: the challenge.
“He’s definitely an individual who goes after what he wants. And in the season, he made a bet with the man upstairs that if he could keep a human presence for over 100 years, he gets it all,” explained Kelly. “But in the end, he decides against it because there’s no fun in having it all. Where’s the challenge?”
Instead of becoming the supreme ruler of existence, Satan would much rather continue doing what he’s been doing for centuries. “He just wants to go back to tormenting and toying with individuals.”
Who can blame him? Running Hell is one thing, but taking responsibility for the entire human race sounds like an administrative nightmare.
“At the end of the day, that’s not exactly what he wants, or it’s the bigger picture of them having to look after and take care of humanity… Who wants that responsibility?”
For Kelly, the Prince of Darkness is having a bit of an existential crisis. “His midlife crisis is probably the turning point of all of that. And he’s like, ‘Hey, you know what? I don’t actually want to do this at all.’”
Perhaps the most revealing moments of the finale aren’t Satan’s declarations about power, but his interactions with the very people determined to destroy him: his family.
Eric Liebowitz/FX
Despite having the power to eliminate Cordelia Goode (Sarah Paulson) and the coven, Nas repeatedly allows them to challenge him. And while he has little patience for the blind devotion of followers like Mr. Phibes (the always delightful John Waters), he seems to admire Cordelia’s willingness to stand up to him genuinely, which is why he doesn’t strike her down immediately as he does with so many.
“She’s family, but also because [there’s] a little bit of him he sees in her: the defiance, the standing your ground and fighting for what you want, whether that be right or wrong. That’s admirable. You’ve got a purpose and a goal, and you’re going for it, no matter what. And I think that really rings true within him. As opposed to just being totally devoted,” Kelly explained.
That familial connection also helps explain why Satan doesn’t simply wipe out the witches when he has the chance. After all, the finale reveals that the battle between good and evil is essentially one enormous family feud, with Satan’s bloodline connecting some of the most powerful figures in the show’s history.
“It justifies his own existence. But these powerful adversaries are also his kin. You know, his daughter, his grandchild. You know, they’re all kind of related. They come cut from the same cloth as well. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t put up such a big fight. Maybe he’s done fighting for it, you know? Like, okay. If someone’s got to do it, better be the family then.”
It’s a surprisingly sentimental attitude for someone who has spent the season orchestrating mass murder. But Kelly sees that contradiction as an essential part of the character, particularly in the finale’s quieter moments, when Nas drops his theatrical menace and reveals something resembling genuine humanity.
“But he is a compassionate character a little bit. It’s not all pomp and circumstance, essentially. He’s a calculated character, but there’s a depth to him as well.”
Of course, having a compassionate side doesn’t mean Satan gets a happy ending. In the finale’s ultimate twist, Nas finds himself imprisoned in Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, condemned to spend eternity as Judas Iscariot, the infamous betrayer and 13th guest at the table.
But while his fate appears sealed, Kelly isn’t ruling out another appearance by Mr. Nas in the franchise. When asked whether he hopes Nas might someday escape his unusual prison, the actor was enthusiastic: “I do, yeah. It’d be so fun.”
What would Satan do with his newfound freedom? “World domination,” Kelly joked, before reconsidering what the future might hold for a character who has already discovered that absolute power isn’t everything. “I don’t know. It was nice to see him kind of exercise some good throughout the season, certainly at the end. He’s a fractured and tormented individual. He’s kind of caught in the middle of his job, but he’s also just over being the evil guy. Maybe shed a little light. He is the Lightbringer, after all.”
American Horror Story: 13, Now Streaming, Hulu
