#pruitt is a metaphor for taking the abuse you've withstood and turning it back on others once you attain some power

[novelconcepts]

Hello! So I know from your blog that you’re moving house and super busy, so no worries if you never respond to this message. But you are my favorite interpreter of all things Mike Flanagan, so I thought I’d reach out re Midnight Mass.

What do you think is happening in that moment at the end of episode 5 after the sun hits Riley’s face but before we see Erin’s reaction? Is it Riley’s last second fantasy of going to the “after death”, whatever that might be (heaven, returning to the earth, etc.)? Or is it what actually happens to Riley at the moment of his death (seeing the girl he killed, seeing her at peace and forgiving him, leading him to whatever comes next)?

What are your overall thoughts on Msgr. Pruitt/Paul? The most common take I’m seeing is that he’s super hot (which, I’m sorry, I’m way too much of a lesbian to find this milquetoast white dude hot) and not a bad guy because all he did was for a second chance with the woman he loved and his daughter, with a big helping of “Bev manipulated him into doing all the bad things.” I’m not really feeling any of those takes and have a hard time hand waving away the horror he unleashed on this community for his own (selfish) ends.

The show’s portrayal of Bev and her type of zealotry and pride and awfulness is unflinching. She in turn receives her just desserts and I was glad to see her burn. But on some level, I do think Bev believed the bullshit she is selling and does believe she is doing God’s will. In contrast, we have Pruitt essentially admitting he did it all for selfish, though not bad (love, regret), reasons, and then dying with the love(s) of his life with Millie’s forgiveness. It feels like the show (to a small extent) and the fandom to a ridiculous (though typical of fandom) extent, forgive his “trespasses” to an unsupportable degree. I’m just curious where you landed with his character at the end.

Random final thoughts (since my wife can’t watch horror and I can’t flail about it with her) - the scene in episode 7 with Hassan and Ali on the beach praying hit me so hard the first time, and has made me cry on each of my subsequent rewatches. So beautiful. Kate Siegel is very, very talented- her screaming in horror as Riley burned gutted me. The demon wearing sacred robes might be the funniest thing I’ve seen all year - when I first saw a screenshot I thought it was a joke fan edit…heeeeeeeee!!!

Hello! So, I've only watched the show once, and it's been a minute, so forgive me for not being as detailed as usual. I might get things wrong, but this is where I stand on your questions.

1) What was really happening to Riley in that final moment? I'm inclined to take it a little less literally. Riley has been obliterated by his mistakes; he killed a girl, and he's never able to find his footing again after committing such a reprehensible (albeit accidental) sin. It's enough to strip him of his faith, it's enough to strip him of his purpose; even being back at home with the woman he presumably still loves, he has no real life. He's written himself out of his story, refusing any real future; he's simply existing. And then he's turned, and he's faced with two options. Keep going as this new thing, knowing there's another face to the addiction that, already residing in him before the "angel", led him to take a life--or refuse. Flat-refuse to ever harm another soul, even if it means dying himself. I don't know that it's actually heaven, or actually him seeing the girl he killed in that moment, I think it's...him finally finding purpose again, for one final moment. His purpose is to warn the woman he loves, and refuse to hurt anyone ever again. It's the first time he finds any sense of himself again, the man he was before the accident, the man he wishes he could be: the one who makes the choice not to get behind the wheel, so to speak. I think this is him forgiving himself the way Leeza forgives Joe: what you did isn't okay, it will never be okay, but we are moving forward now.

2) Pruitt. Pruitt is--hot take--a bad guy. He's a very bad guy. But he's a bad guy with good intentions who has the capacity to understand his evils and repent, which is...sort of incredible, when you think about it. For much of the show, this is a man who has let his faith lead to zealotry, to violence, to getting progressively more consumed by his extremism...because it's the only way he can justify what he's done to his community. He brought this thing here. He poisoned his congregation, his community, his family--these people who trusted him. He did it because it was already done to him, and the only way he could process that trauma was to pass it on to others and call it salvation. He murders, and he leans into his Bible passages, and he does heinous things--and it's all the worse, in a way, because he tells himself he did it for love. Mildred doesn't want this; we see it instantly, when she's back in her right mind and disgusted by the way he's speaking of armies at the pulpit. She never asked for this, and he's going to use her--her name, her love--to explain his actions? I think it's incredibly important that they have the conversations they do, that she tells him the creature did hurt her (with such gentle steadiness, such a pitying of course to it), and that Sarah refuses his blood in the face of death. These women he loves are saying, Look. You can't hide behind your good reasons. Look at what you did. We don't accept that. We don't abide it. And if he were the kind of terrible Bev is--the kind of person who refuses to back down in the face of new information, the kind of person who leans on zealotry because it's easier than admitting they were wrong--he'd be reprehensible. But he's capable of shame, he's capable of admitting he fucked up royally, and he's capable of doing what little he can to right the wrongs he's committed. Good guy? Absolutely not. Human being who made abhorrent choices, while still keeping some room for penance? Yeah, I think that's fair.

I think a lot of the show's message--through Riley, Joe, Pruitt, even the changed community members who refuse to kill despite their hunger--is about bucking the idea that we're ever lost, so long as we want to be better. We may not be owed forgiveness, but we can always work toward it. There's always hope--so long as we are willing to try. Which is where we come to:

3) Bev. Bev is, in a way, Pruitt's foil. Both of them do despicable things. Both of them do these things in the name of God. Bev's been doing these things forever--she's been pulling Pruitt's strings while he was incapacitated by dementia, unable to register what her manipulation was, and she's made a throne for herself at Crockett in so doing. The difference is, Bev...doesn't want to try. She does believe her own bullshit, I'm certain; I don't think you can go that deep without believing you're right. And she actively steamrolls anyone who tries to hold a human conversation with her, actively shutting her ears to anyone who offers contrasting opinions. She won't listen to anyone tell her the dog won't hurt her, much less anything about her faith or the way she conducts herself on the island. Pruitt is a man who is not too far gone to be talked back to reality; Bev has no interest at all in doing that kind of work. She is the darker side of the coin, the horror of what happens when we let our certainty strip away room for empathy. She can't be forgiven, not because she's done anything more horrific than what other characters have (although, uh, never fucking over Pike, thanks), but because she displays no willingness whatsoever to admit fault and try to be a better person. She's arguably the only one on that island who just...won't give the possibility of having fucked up the time of day, because it would unbind her entire personality and worldview to do so. But I do think she believes in herself, and thinks she truly is entitled based on her faith. In her mind, she's kept this community strong. She's built a house for God. She has absolutely no interest in hearing anything to the contrary.

4) Agreed with all these points. The depiction of Hassan and Ali is gorgeous and heartrending, and that final shot of them crushes me. Erin is glorious, and Siegel plays her to perfection; the final monologue about death (I always forget my dreams) had me weeping. Annnd the angel is a messy bitch who lives for drama, him popping out in his literal Sunday Best truly is just. The funniest fucking choice in a show that's pretty light on humor. Well done, Flanagan.