Midnight Mass Recap: "Book IV"

After last episode’s shocking reveal, Midnight Mass is back with another strange occurrence – and this one might be the strangest of all, which is really saying something. Erin visits Dr. Gunning for a quick listen to her unborn baby’s heartbeat, only to make an upsetting discovery: there is no heartbeat. The baby is gone. Sara assumes Erin must have miscarried and not realized it, or maybe blocked it out, but Erin is certain nothing of the sort happened, despite the fact that an ultrasound shows her uterus is empty. Not long after, Sara sees a vial of Erin’s blood boil in the sunlight.

Meanwhile, Bev cancels mass and brings some groceries to Father Paul’s house. Sturge, the handyman, is closely inspecting the framed newspaper article of a young John Pruitt, seeing the resemblance for the first time. The priest is hiding away in his bedroom, curtains drawn, and it’s clear, maybe for the first time, that he’s something less than human. He refuses to eat the food Bev brings him, and when he sticks his arm into the sunlight, his skin sizzles and burns. He confides in Bev, telling her that something is “shifting” inside of him, and she encourages him to consider telling the congregation who he really is. She also offers to bring Dr. Gunning by to have a look at him, but he refuses, saying that this is a matter of faith, not of science.

Riley and Ed go out boating together, where Ed confesses the resentment he’s been harboring and apologizes for any wrong he might have done. “Children don’t just do what you did on their own,” he says. “Not unless one of their parents have failed them something awful. And your mother’s a saint, so I guess that just leaves me.” He tells Riley he loves him, and while Riley doesn’t verbally respond, he sits in silence after his father walks away, seeming to ponder his words.

He goes to visit Erin afterward, who is devastated over the loss of her baby. She tells Riley about her dysfunctional upbringing, and how when she left Crockett Island as a teenager, she wound up marrying an abusive alcoholic very similar to her mother. Getting pregnant was the only thing that gave her the courage to leave him, and she credits the saving of her life to her baby. Riley, in turn, tells her about a recurring dream he has, where he’s stuck in a boat out in the middle of the bay, alone, unable to move or paddle to shore. Every time he has the dream, he says, it becomes clearer to him that he’s never going to get off Crockett Island. Erin asks him to pray with her, and despite his distaste for religion, he does. Not long after, the two discuss their thoughts on spirituality, specifically on what will happen when each of them die. Riley believes that he’ll just sort of dissolve into a collection of microbes and bacterium, which will go on feeding life and serving a purpose, but that there will be nothing more than that. Erin, as opposed to speaking for herself, speaks for her unborn, apparently dead child. She thinks her daughter is in heaven, and that she’ll join her there soon enough. Riley has little to say about that, other than that he hopes she’s right.

Back at Father Paul’s house, we see the priest kneeling in his darkened bedroom and praying vehemently before a crucifix. He’s clutching a rosary in his hand, grasping it so tightly that it cuts into his skin. Slowly, desperately, he begins to lick the blood from his hand, and goes on to purposefully cut himself to get more. He goes to Dr. Gunning’s house, where Mildred has been making an alarming recovery. She remembers her name, her husband’s death, and everything else she’d previously lost in the grips of dementia. “I thought it was a dream when I saw you at my bedside,” she tells Father Paul, as the two clasp hands. It’s becoming increasingly clear that, once upon a time, these two shared a far deeper connection than what would be expected from a priest and a church member. “I have so much to tell you,” he says, but they decide to celebrate Mass together before he does.

When he returns home, he’s visited by Joe, who walks in on the priest guzzling (wine? I think not) from one of the goblets used for Communion. He clearly isn’t doing well, and Joe offers to come by another time, but the priest encourages him to stay when Joe mentions what a hard day he’s had. Father Paul tries to stay as far away from him as possible at first, but after telling him how proud he is of him for resisting the urge to drink, he opens his arms for a hug. It seems to be an odd request, but Joe complies – at least, until Father Paul starts sniffing his neck, which is where Joe understandably draws the line. He can’t get out of his grasp, though, and the two of them engage in a brief struggle, which ends in Joe stumbling backward and falling to the floor, hitting his head in the process. Father Paul panics at first, but can’t resist the blood that’s starting to flow. He licks it off the floor at first, then starts sucking it straight from the wound on Joe’s head, all while poor Joe lies awake, too far gone to scream for help but alive enough to realize what’s happening.

Elsewhere on the island, Riley and Erin have spent the night together, though they don’t appear to have gotten physical with each other. It feels much more like two lonely, broken people falling asleep side by side, as opposed to any romantic rendezvous. Riley tells her that he had the dream again, only this time, she was on the boat with him. That morning at Mass – which Sherriff Hassan’s son Ali attends, much to his father’s chagrin – Father Paul doesn’t show up to the service. Bev visits his house to see what’s going on, and finds Joe’s dead body on the floor, drained of blood. Father Paul sits in the corner, covered in blood with a far-off look on his face. Bev quickly covers for him, telling the church that he’s ill, and brings Wade and Sturge the Handyman over to his house. She instructs them to hide Joe’s body in one of the empty houses on the island, then, late at night, dispose of it in the bay. The two are horrified by the scene before them, but Bev sends Wade on guilt-trip over his hesitance to cover up the crime, saying that he has no right to pick and choose God’s miracles. Father Paul himself is a miracle, she says, so unless Wade’s ready to give up the gifts God’s given him, he shouldn’t criticize.

Erin visits a doctor on the mainland, who tells her that not only is she no longer pregnant, but there’s no physical sign that she ever was. Her hCG levels are normal, and her body appears as if it was never carrying a baby. The doctor suggests she speak with a psychiatrist and sends her on her way. Meanwhile, Riley and Father Paul have another AA meeting, where they discuss the loss of Erin’s baby and the mysterious will of God. When Riley questions Joe’s absence from their meeting, Father Paul tells him that Joe is visiting his sister on the mainland. Riley catches him in the lie, remembering how Joe told him that his sister recently died. He doesn’t call the priest on it right away, but when he returns home, he tells his mother that Father Paul is a liar and begs her to be careful.

The vampire creature that’s been wandering the island returns, wearing the priest’s old coat and hat, and joins Father Paul in the rec center. Riley stops by on his way to Erin’s house for the night, apparently to confront Father Paul, and walks in on an unusual scene: the creature, with its back turned to Riley, is cutting its wrist and spilling its blood into a goblet, while Father Paul fervently prays off to the side. They both turn around at the sound of Riley’s arrival, and before Riley can get away, the creature leaps at him from across the room. As it sucks blood from his neck, Father Paul walks to the door and slowly closes it, keeping yet another murder out of sight.