Midnight Mass Recap: "Book III"

The third episode of Midnight Mass is, without doubt, one of the single most extraordinary episodes of television I’ve seen in a long time. If one thing is clear to me at this point in the series, it’s that if Hamish Linklater doesn’t get any accolades for his portrayal of Father Paul when the next award season rolls around, it’ll be a crime beyond proportion.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get to the episode itself, which begins with Father Paul making a confession. This seems to be a flashback to when he arrived on Crockett Island, the night before his first Mass. He’s not confessing what’s he’s done, though – he’s confessing what he’s going to do. He’s going to introduce himself to the parish and lie to them about Monsignor John Pruitt. “A lie directly, not a lie by omission,” he clarifies. He says that instead of telling them the truth, he’s going to tell them that Pruitt is recovering in a hospital on the mainland. The truth, it appears, is that Pruitt was much sicker than anyone on the island had realized, and that because of his worsening dementia, he wandered from his tour group in Jerusalem and was lost for hours by himself. “I’m going to tell them this lie for their benefit,” he says, “so that when it starts, they’ll be ready for what’s to come. For the miracles that are to come.”

That’s all the information we get for the time being, as we cut back to the present day, just after Leeza’s miraculous recovery. She’s embraced by her parents as the churchgoers look on in amazement. While everyone is distracted by the miracle, Father Paul stumbles outside and hurries inside his house, where he makes it to the bathroom just in time to start vomiting blood. Bev, the only one who saw him leave the church, follows him; and while she waits for him to leave the bathroom, something hanging on his wall catches her eye. It’s unseen to us, but she looks at it with confusion, and when Father Paul collects himself and joins her in the living room, she turns and stares at him in wonder.

Dr. Gunning examines Leeza and, despite her lack of spiritual belief, admits that she’s never seen a sudden recovery like this before. Spinal injuries can heal themselves over time, she reasons, but it’s so unusual that she suggests they send Leeza to the mainland for further testing. Wade and Dolly refuse, however, saying that it seems wrong to “interrogate a miracle”. Meanwhile, the islanders have collectively gone insane over this miraculous event, and they crowd outside Father Paul’s house, rattling off their individual ailments and begging for healing. Bev, acting as his spokesperson, tries to dissuade them and offers to lead them in prayer, seemingly doing everything she can to keep them out of the house. Father Paul watches from inside, hovering unseen by the window.

At the next AA meeting, Father Paul discusses the miracle with Riley, saying that he didn’t do it for publicity or anything similar. He claims that he felt a connection to Leeza as soon as he saw her that morning, and could almost hear her voice inside his head. But he says he knows that’s not a good enough explanation for Riley, a non-believer, so what else can he say? “I suppose I’d want more,” Riley agrees. “And I’ll always wish that I could give you more,” says the priest. “But that’s all I’ve got.”

As it turns out, Leeza’s recovery isn’t the only miracle happening on Crockett Island: what was once a drab, lonely place to live is now brimming with activity and affection. Leeza and Warren go for a late night canoe and share a kiss before returning home. Joe and Hassan enjoy a silent cup of coffee together. Ed and Annie dance in their living room after discovering that Ed no longer suffers from back pain and Annie doesn’t need her glasses. St. Patrick’s is filled to the brim with congregants on Sunday mornings. Riley still sees visions of the young woman he killed, grotesquely deformed and covered in shards of glass; but with the help of Father Paul, he makes a list of personal relationships he wants to fix, and he helps Erin assemble a crib for her baby.

Of course, all this positivity can’t exist without a few inexplicable things that leave us with a sense of dread. Bev is still using rat poison, though we don’t know what for, and Warren once sees Father Paul preparing for Communion by pouring something from his own personal flask into one of the wine goblets. Most unfortunately, he collapses during a homily, sparking fear and concern in the congregation. It’s after this that we make our first cut back to his earlier confession, where he continues to describe what happened to Monsignor Pruitt. He explains that when the elderly man wandered from his tour group, he was overcome by a sandstorm, which resulted in him stumbling into a cave for shelter.

Once again, before we can receive too much information, we’re back to present day. Dr. Gunning pays a visit to Father Paul and determines that his body is fighting off a virus, and that he’s dehydrated. Later that night, the doctor is shocked to discover that her mother seems to be mentally and physically healing, as she’s able to walk around on her own and remembers things previously forgotten due to her dementia. Meanwhile, Leeza visits Joe Collie in his trailer and tells him that, despite the living hell she’s experienced because of him, she forgives him. This interactions sparks Joe to make a confession to Father Paul and, afterward, attend the priest’s AA meeting with Riley. There, he expresses his desire to stop drinking, and he and Riley bond as recovering alcoholics. As they walk home together, Joe shares more details about his life, including that he has a sister on the mainland who died not long ago. The two depart from each other for the night, with a handshake and a spoken desire to become better, different people.

Back at the rec center, we see Father Paul fall to the floor and start choking violently, and when he returns to his house for the night, he collapses once again. Bev, Dolly, Wade, and the town handyman, who were meeting at his house when he showed up, watch in horrified confusion as he starts seizing, blood streaming from his mouth, then dies right before their eyes.

And finally, we get the rest of the story of Monsignor John Pruitt. In the confessional booth, Father Paul reveals that he is Monsignor Pruitt – and judging by the other recaps and reviews I’ve read online, apparently I was the only one who didn’t see this twist coming from the start of the episode. In a flashback, we see Pruitt get attacked by a winged, humanoid creature – by the looks of it, the same figure with glowing eyes that’s currently wandering around Crockett Island – and the thing drains the blood from the old man’s neck. Then it opens its veins and offers its arm to the priest, who, on the verge of death, mistakes the creature for an angel and drinks its blood. Then the storm is over and the sun comes up, and as the priest stumbles out of the cave, he discovers he is young again. Thinking that this “angel” is a conduit of miracles, he puts the thing in a trunk and takes it back to Crockett Island, his hometown, in hopes of healing the island’s inhabitants.

The episode ends back in the priest’s house, where he lies dead on the floor surrounded by several members of his church. Suddenly, amazingly, he’s restored to life. “It’s a miracle,” Bev sobs as she embraces him. “You’re alive. Thank God for you, Monsignor.” And we see what was hanging on the wall that caught her eye near the start of the episode: a framed newspaper article from many years ago, featuring a photo of a young John Pruitt, who, of course, looks identical to Father Paul.

As great as this episode was, and as much as I really, really don’t want to be that nitpicky critic we all know, there are a few things I just don’t get here. First, and probably most importantly, how have none of the Crockett Island residents recognized Father Paul as a young John Pruitt? Were none of them around when Pruitt was a younger man? The only person who did seem to recognize him was Sara’s mother, who apparently “mistook” him for Pruitt when she first saw him – probably our biggest hint at the upcoming reveal. I suppose the other older residents of the island who would have been around long enough to recognize him have already left due to the oil spill? That’s the only explanation I can think of. Secondly, if you’re Father Paul in this scenario, would you really keep that framed photo hanging up on the wall for anyone who comes into your house to see? It immediately incriminates him to anyone who sees it, as we saw with Bev’s immediate recognition from earlier in the episode.

Anywho, despite those questions, I’m really psyched about this reveal and love the direction the show seems to be going in – mostly because I have no idea what direction that is, and the mystery of it all is really keeping the story going.