Headscratchers / Midnight Mass (2021)

Remember that spoilers are unmarked in Headscratchers and Fridge!

• How was Ali resurrected as a vampire, once he drank poison with the rest of the congregation? He wasn't confirmed or even baptized in the Catholic faith, and Hassan himself points out that since he's not a Christian — and since Bev and Father Paul are likely sticklers for the rules — he wouldn't have been allowed to receive the Holy Communion and thus have a chance to drink the "Angel's" blood before the Easter Vigil.
  • All the cups likely had a mixture of poison and the Angel's blood.
    • Was that ever explicitly stated or shown? I just figured Father Paul gave Ali the Angel’s blood at some point during his conversion.
    • The cups' contents are completely clear. There's no blood in them. Ali received the communion at some point. He was clearly interested in conversion, and Father Paul would have been all too happy to give him blood regardless of church rules.
    • By Catholic doctrine, mixing anything into communion wine other than water renders it invalid matter for the Sacrament, so it's pretty clear Father Paul is already off piste in terms of sticking to rules. (It's also standard Catholic doctrine that angels are not physical creatures and don't have blood in the first place, so Paul's conviction about the "Angel" is even more self-delusional than shown — or possibly the result of a psychic whammy from the "Angel".)
  • It's possible Ali got the communion in secret off-screen, in secret from his father.
• How did Monsignor Pruitt get himself back to Crocket island after being rejuvenated? Once rejuvenated by the Angel's blood he wouldn't look much like his passport photo, so using it would probably get him questioned for impersonating the "old" father Pruitt. Add to that, how did he smuggle the Angel back as well? On inspection, it'd seem to be the corpse of a mutant human in a steamer trunk, and might well kill any customs agent bothering it.
  • It's mentioned that he bribed and smuggled himself across borders. He also mentions the Angel following him from place to place by flight at night, so it may be that the Angel was only in the steamer trunk for the ferry ride to Crockett.
• Why does a tiny island with no crime and only 127 people need a full-time sheriff? It would make much more sense for law enforcement on the mainland to come out on an as-needed basis.
  • The office was probably a holdover from when times were better and the population was in the high hundreds or thousands before the oil spill, and people were reluctant to let it go. Assuming the events of the show didn't happen, after a few more years the mayor (probably after manipulations from Bev disliking the current Sheriff) would have dissolved the office to save money.
  • Hassan also claims he begged for the job, so he might have deliberately taken a big paycut to work on the island to accommodate the small size of the community.
  • Still plenty of drunk and disorderly it seems.
  • As I understand it, small town law enforcement officers often handle more than just crime. They take on a lot of other civil service roles in the community. We see a bit of this during the cat beach scene, where the sheriff steps in even though it seems to be a natural disaster rather than a crime.
  • He doesn't say that there's no crime, only no "intentional violence". We know for a fact that Bowl is dealing drugs, and theft or vandalism aren't ruled out either.
• Ed Flynn says that Riley's legal fees destroyed their finances and forced them to rent the house they used to own. But the very first episode established that people are moving off the island without even bothering to sell their homes. Why would the Flynns continue renting a house when they could move into an abandoned one? They never express any sentimental attachment to their house and spend a lot of time worrying about money.
  • Setting aside the more emotional reason of pride and being able to say that they're not depending on anything like charity... If a house has been abandoned, then the utilities get shut off, like electricity and water. That's at least covered if they're still renting.
    • We never see anything in their words or actions suggesting that the Flynns are or would choose to pay rent needlessly out of pride. And I don't see how they would consider moving into a discarded home to be "charity," since no one would be giving them anything or supporting them. As far as utilities, that's usually not covered when you rent, so they're presumably already paying for them in their rented home. Instead, they'd simply start paying for the utilities in the abandoned home once they move.
  • This question is incorrect, the Flynns never talk about needing to rent their house (Although they do mention that the legal fees are large). It's Leeza's medical bills that have forced the mayor's family to rent the house they used to own, nothing to do with the Flynns. Now, as to why they are renting their house, there's a lot of potential explanations: 1) 'Renting' could be their way of simplifying a mortgage-loan that they took out to pay the medical costs and are now paying back, not actually a rental payment to a new landlord. 2) As mayor they may feel the need to uphold a certain public image so they stay in a house they can't afford because the mayo can't be seen 'squatting'. 3) Annie Flynn explains the abandoned housing to Riley when he returns, stating it is a new phenomenon so it began after the mayor's family had already begun renting their own home.
• What was the Angel's end game? In a lot of vampire fiction, those turned displays signs of Transhuman Treachery or Hive Mind with their creator. Here that doesn't seem to be the case. If the Angel just wants to feed, that's one thing, but he seems to be actively helping Pruitt turn the island population into vampires. However, this means they'll be less people to feed on, or in the case of Riley, more people who can derail his plans in the end.
  • Given that one of the major themes of the series is how Christian doctrine can be turned on its head in a very dark way, and that the Angel is evidently intelligent, maybe it's genuinely an "evangelist." This would also explained why it "turned" Pruitt in the first place, rather than just feeding on him.
  • Though the Angel can restrain their appetite, it visibly enjoys feeding, and it may be that its' end goal is as "simple" as creating a world where it can do so freely. The Angel certainly seems intelligent enough to clothe itself figuratively (and in the case of the finale, literally) in Catholic symbolism, so creating a "sect" of proselytizing vampire disciples on the island to spread to and infect the mainland is what it really wants.
  • After being turned, Father Paul comments on how he can hear the "voice of God", which is heavily implied to be the vampire.
• How were the vampires even planning to stay fed, if they converted the entire population of an island that had been deliberately cut off from the mainland?
  • By taking boats to the Mainland. Bev is visibly shocked and angry when Sturge tells her the boats have been burnt by the heroes. In their absence she says she'll just have the Mayor recall the ferries for the following night and they'll use them instead.
• The issue of Leeza losing the use of her legs again when (it's implied) the crippled Angel is destroyed by the sun. This opens a whole can of worms regarding the nature of the transformation those who imbibe Angel blood undergo. It seems, and Sarah hypothesises, that some kind of virus in the Angel blood changes human bodies at a cellular level, healing wounds, restoring functions and returning those bodies to their 'peak' of youth and vigour. But if the healing of Leeza's spinal injury is reliant on the Angel remaining alive, that would mean all of the changes it wrought in the Islanders were ephemeral, illusionary, and temporary. Her spine - wasn't - healed, the Angel blood simply somehow mimicked the effect of restoring her lost functions. But then, what about the other injuries sustained by those who drank the blood and those who converted into full vampires? Pruitt and Mildred both had dementia, but recovered fully from that as they became young. Pruitt himself was shot in the head, Bev in the chest, others had their throats torn open. Did these wounds not 'really' heal? Would the vampirism itself have simply vanished with the dawn for any of the vampires who avoided being burnt up?
  • There are clear hints that all of the Converted are somehow connected via the Angel. Pruitt hears its voice in his head, and he 'knows' that Riley is dead even though his suicide occurs out at sea. The horror hunger and lack of guilt (most of) the vampires suffer from may also be transmitted from the Angel via this connection. How this telepathic connection somehow translates into the physical changes the Islanders' bodies undergo being instantly reversible is anyone's guess.
    • One possibility is that the Angel's blood acted as a medium through which the Angel could temporarily morph human biology to start mimicking its own, and the more Angel blood one consumed, the greater the effect, with the fullest convergence of human and Angel biology taking place after the human body's own functions had been shut down by physical death (meaning the vampiric Islanders really are Undead in the literal sense). Remove the Angel from the equation and its blood would no longer be active, meaning the human bodies would return to the state they had been in before being morphed (no longer young, immortal, physically whole and to one degree or another, vampiric).
    • Or, and this is based on Warren's complete lack of shock or concern when Leeza tells him she can't feel her legs, she was kneeling in that position in the boat for a good long while watching the island burn. How many times have you been sitting or kneeling in a strange position and said "I can't feel my legs" because the blood flow has been cut off? She just panics a little because she's only had the use of her legs for a few days and hasn't experienced the sensation before (she's was paralysed when still a very young kid).
    • Even if her legs were just asleep, she'd feel a sensation. Leeza is telling Warren she can't feel them at all. The reason Warren isn't shocked or concerned is because he's aware the mobility she gained was because she'd been repeatedly infused with the vampire's blood. Both Warren and Leeza saw the vampire flee the island, and were wondering if it would be able to find a place to shelter itself in time. Her losing feeling in her legs meant that the power of the vampire blood was gone, which was a clear indication Erin's damaging of its wings prevented it from reaching shelter, and it burned in the sunlight.
  • Sarah theorizes that a person's physical response to the affected blood is based on how much blood they have in their body and its proportion to their own blood. Erin's sample catches fire, but her blood is left unharmed while the Angel blood burns away, because it's still mostly her blood. Mildred's sample, however, burns almost completely. It's possible that if a person only has a small amount (one or two sacraments' worth) in their body, their own blood would eventually replace it, maybe causing its effects to "wear off" in a way. But as they continue taking in more and more, it would grow new cells just like real blood does and eventually be more than their own blood. It took several communions for Leeza to be able to walk, and for Mildred to recover from her dementia, so they probably needed more than one or two small doses to make big recoveries. It's possible that Leeza's body had processed out the Angel blood, just like bodies do with ordinary blood cells. And without more to replace it, and not being a vampire herself, its effects "wore off."
• There were no cellars on the entire island? Nowhere at all that the vampires could shelter from the sun? The Angel itself just needed a box, and it was made clear that only direct sunlight had a damaging effect. Just grab a canoe, head for a secluded area and hide underneath it until nightfall. Go down to the dock and hide under a pier. Hell, just grab a thick blanket or shove everyone under a tarpaulin.
  • It's likely there really weren't, with the groundwater level from being at sea being problematic enough that most cellars would flood or be moldy. Most of the houses are seen to be on stilts to avoid storm waters washing inland. Add all of the houses being on fire, even a house with a cellar is likely to see the burning house collapse on top of the cellar.
• How did Riley turn? The show made a point that he never took communion after returning home from prison so there shouldn't have been any vampire blood in him and we see him die from the angel without it giving him any blood (it wouldn't make sense anyway since it didn't give any blood to its other victims after Pruitt).
  • Pruitt was in the room as it happened, having already become a vampire, he might have fed Riley some of his own blood out of a combination of fear of being found out early, compassion for Riley, and a desire to "redeem" him via vampirism like he thought he'd been. Given he is later supernaturally aware Riley had truly died, it makes sense as an existing blood bond. It's also not impossible the Angel did feed Riley some of its blood, either at Pruitt's urging or to further its own goals because the mass conversion was just a couple of days away, growing its agents and avoiding any more heat from Riley going missing.
  • It's shown that giving someone vampire blood as they're dying will save them, and Riley's injuries (neck broken in three places) after the angel attack would certainly have been fatal otherwise. The only way he could have survived the attack was if Pruitt intervened and gave him some of his own blood before he properly died. The result is the same—he is brought back to life and transformed, he just didn't have the blood until right before his fatal injury. Pruitt could have saved Joe Collie the same way, but was too overcome by hunger (and probably his own judgment) to do it.
• Father Paul tells Riley that Joe Collie went to the mainland to visit his sister. Riley knows that Collie's sister died a few months ago so this isn't true. Riley decides that this means that Father Paul is hiding something and even warns a couple of people that he is a liar. Wouldn't it have been more reasonable to think that either Collie lied to Paul about his reasons for visiting the mainland (say to get drunk) or that he meant he was visiting his sister's grave?
  • "visiting his sister's grave" would have been something of a leap, it's not a common turn of phrase or interpretation regarding a deceased relative. The former might be a decently likely interpretation, though Collie didn't need to visit the mainland to get drunk. I read the scene as Riley becoming suspicious from Paul's slight nervousness and odd story. It's also not impossible Riley was being paranoid, but correct in his paranoia.
  • Father Paul didn't say that Joe told him he was visiting his sister. He said that Joe was "visiting his sister, I think," which could mean that he thought that's what Joe was doing, not what Joe told him. The problem there is that Bev made a point of "filling in" Father Paul (when she thought he was new) about every single detail of the islanders' lives, and also made a point of telling everyone she had done that. So she probably would have mentioned to Father Paul that Joe's sister had died a few months ago, especially since it was adding to Joe's struggles with his sobriety and Father Paul would be leading the AA meetings.
  • It's a weird slip, in any case, because Monsignor Pruitt would also probably have known that Joe's sister died (he had only left the island two weeks previously), and thus Paul should have known about it.
    • Joe was the town pariah and barely talked to anyone except Bowl and Hassan - who also weren't exactly at the middle of the social whirl on the island. He probably just didn't tell anyone.
• When and/or why did Erin get exposed to vampire blood, leading to the reversal of her pregnancy? As a pregnant woman, she could not drink wine at mass, as shown when Riley and she are the only ones who stay seated the first time Riley goes to mass.
  • The subtitles on the first episode indicate that Bev offered Erin the wine during Riley's first mass home. So she did take at least a little of it then (a literal sip of wine once a week isn't going to hurt the fetus). If Paul had started spiking the wine as soon as he arrived, that's probably where she got it.
  • Erin is shown getting up to join the line for communion in the first episode, not staying seated.
• Why didn't Paul try to give Sarah communion when he made his house calls to deliver it to Mildred? He knew she hadn't taken any of the Angel's blood before the Easter vigil, and his and Bev's plan for the vigil did not seem to involve giving blood to people who hadn't taken it by that point before they poisoned themselves. It would have been easy on one of his last trips to the Gunning house to at least try to persuade Sarah to take the sacrament herself, knowing what was coming in a few days.
  • It would be beyond weird for a priest to try to cajole someone who wasn't a practising Catholic to take communion, and Sarah would be instantly suspicious. Pruitt/Hill might have been hoping that the miracles would persuade Sarah to return to the fold and take the sacrament of her own accord, or maybe just that he could slip some blood into her coffee at some point but never got the opportunity.