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Midnight Mass (miniseries)

2021 web television series

Midnight Mass (2021) is an American supernatural horror streaming television miniseries, airing on Netflix, created and directed by Mike Flanagan. The series is about an isolated island community that experiences miraculous events - and frightening omens - after the arrival of a charismatic, mysterious young priest.

Be Not Afraid.

Book I: Genesis

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Riley Flynn: [praying after killing a young woman while driving drunk] Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. They kingdom come, thy will be done, as Earth as...
Paramedic: While you're at it, ask Him why he always takes kids, while the drunk fucks walk away with scratches.
Ed Flynn: [to Riley] You're going to sit here at this table, after what you've done, and say "Oh church isn't for me?" And make jokes about altar boys and Monsignor Pruitt? No. Nope. You are going to church tomorrow, Riley. And every other Sunday. I don't care if your heart's not in it, or the mood doesn't strike you. You can consider it a condition of your parole.
Wade Scarborough: Welcome to the Pot, what's left of it anyway.
Father Paul: The Crock Pot!
Wade Scarborough: Yeah, well it's a cute nickname, yeah. But you know, it's true. We are a melting pot, a grab bag.
Dolly Scarborough: A piñata, even. A whole variety of different flavors, that just keeps getting pummeled with some huge awful stick.
Wade Scarborough: We sure are glad to add you to the stew.
Annie Flynn: My son Riley, he's...
Riley Flynn: Not exactly in a state of grace right now.
Father Paul: Hey, look I think that's great. Turns out I'm not much use to people who are in a state of grace. Jesus, he didn't have that much interest for those kind of people either. No, he seemed to go straight for those folks who weren't in a state of grace. They were his favorite people, turns out. They were the ones he called friends.
Erin Greene: How are you?
Riley Flynn: I don't know. That's kind of the whole thing. I don't know. I have no idea. I mean, in prison, it was easy. I had things to do, you know? Count the days. Count down the sentence. Eat, sleep, read. It's all pretty spelled out for you. Regimented. But here? Here I have nothing. What, am I going to get a job? Go to school? I have no money, no prospects. I just exist now. That's it. I have absolutely no purpose at all. I'm just sitting in my parents' house, breathing, and serving no purpose to anyone whatsoever. I'm just living. [long pause] And that's the worst part. Because I shouldn't be alive, Erin. So I don't know. What do I do here? I eat. Sleep. Shit. I don't know. Walk home now, eat dinner, wait out this fucking storm.
Erin Greene: There you go. Do that. Ride out the storm tonight. And then tomorrow, you'll see what tomorrow's all about. Find another project. I'm sorry for what you've been through. I'm really, really sorry.

Book II: Psalms

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Erin Greene: You found your purpose.
Riley Flynn: Yeah, cat disposal.
Erin Greene: You've got to start somewhere.
Father Paul: Well, that's the thing about where we've been. It's important, sure. But it's not as important as where we're going. And every place I was before where I am now, well, they were just leading me here. Even if I didn't know it at the time. Even if I didn't see it.
Erin Greene: How was your day?
Riley Flynn: It's been a long time since anyone asked me that.
Erin Greene: In prison, nobody asks?
Riley Flynn: No, in prison no one needs to ask. Every day is exactly the same.
Joe Collie: [about his poisoned dog] Did you charge her yet?
Sheriff Hassan: Miss Keane insists she has no idea what happened.
Joe Collie: Oh, she insists? Why didn't you just fucking say so? That changes everything.
...
Joe Collie: There weren't no accident, okay? But you know what, sheriff? I didn't expect this would go any different. Not with me, not here, not with her. She killed half the island with that fucking settlement. What's one more dog on the pile?
Sheriff Hassan: I know Bev Keane too, alright? Not as well as you, but enough to know you're not wrong about her. You're not wrong, Joe.
Riley Flynn: [at their first AA meeting together] Catholic Church in a nutshell. All over the world, these small, starving villages with big, fancy churches. Getting bigger and fancier, while the towns dry up. Churches just popping up like fat, plump little ticks sucking the town dry.
Father Paul: Okay, so we can safely say you're not practicing.
Riley Flynn: That's safe. [pause] You ever heard of RR?
Father Paul: RR?
Riley Flynn: AA for pirates?
Father Paul: [smiles] Oh.
Riley Flynn: Rational Recovery. It's based more on reason and psychology. It's about empowering people instead of saying you're powerless.
Father Paul: So you're the higher power, is that how it works? Being your own higher power, how is that working out for you?
Riley Flynn: I haven't had a drop in four years.
Father Paul: Not much of a selection in prison though, is there? Alcohol isn't good or bad. Not itself. But it's people. Suffering can be a gift. It all just depends on us. What we do with it, how we react to it. So, alcohol isn't good or bad. And the same with guilt, grief, suffering. It just depends on what we do with it. What's more empowering than that?
Riley Flynn: No, alcohol isn't good or bad. But the version of me that would come out when I had enough to drink, he was bad. He was selfish and careless and he ruined my life. There is a saboteur inside of me, and I always thought, you know, we'd work it out. We'd learn to live with each other, because he wouldn't really hurt me. Not me. I fed him, so he wouldn't hurt me. And then one morning I woke up and found out he killed someone. I had killed someone. So who's to blame there? I am to blame there. And God? He just kind of let it happen, didn't he? See, that's the part I cannot square. Because you're right, there is so much suffering in the world. So much. And then there's this higher power. This higher power who could erase all that pain, just wave his hand and make it all go away, but doesn't? No. No thank you. The worst part is that it lets all the rest of us off the hook. We can watch so many people just slip into these bottomless pits of awful and we can stand it. We can tolerate it because we say things like, "God works in mysterious ways." Like there's a plan? Like something good's going to come out of it? Nothing good came out of my drinking. Nothing good came out of me killing that poor girl. Nothing good came out of Joe Collie's drinking. And not a single good thing comes out of Leeza never being able to walk again. Nothing good came out of a metric ton of crude oil filling up the bay. And the only thing, the only fucking things that lets people stand by, watching all this suffering, doing nothing, doing fucking nothing, is the idea that suffering can be a gift from God. What a monstrous idea, Father.
Father Paul: Look, there's nothing in the scripture, or in the world for that matter, that suggests God negates personal accountability. There's certainly nothing in the program to suggest that. Not at all, in fact. I believe God can take our work, even our awful works, and turn them into something else. I know He can find the good in them, and find the love in them, whether we see it or not. That I know, Riley Flynn. That I know.

Book III: Proverbs

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Wade Scarborough: [about Leeza being able to walk] Have you ever seen anything like this? I mean, it's a miracle isn't it? A real one, like a Gospel's real one.
Dr. Sarah Gunning: Before today? No, I haven't seen anything like this before today. But now I have.
Wade Scarborough: She's walking and she's standing. And we're grateful. It feels wrong, doesn't it? To interrogate a miracle? Second guess a gift from God?
Riley Flynn: Whole town's buzzin'. A miracle at St. Patrick's. You're gonna have every resident with a bum knee and a head cold in the pews. Wouldn't be surprised if you get a phone call from a reporter on the mainland. Might wanna do a human-interest story on little Leeza's recovery, about the priest who healed her.
Father Paul: This isn't about publicity. I'd turn that down. As Matthew says, you know, "If you give something to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." And Dolly and Wade, you know, they're not looking to exploit their daughter or sensationalize anything. I just can't actually imagine that it'll summon that much interest outside of Crockett, and that's okay. It's for the best. The important thing is Leeza.
Riley Flynn: Yeah. See, I'm a pretty rational guy, and you know that all our myths, our religions, come from natural occurrences that we can't explain. So, I can pretty easily see my way through that.
Father Paul: Good for you.
Riley Flynn: I can wrap my head around a misdiagnosis. I looked. It happens. It's rare, but it does. So, like, her body could have been slowly healing this whole time. I can explain all of it. If I'm honest, it's all explainable.
Father Paul: That sounds wonderful, frankly.
Riley Flynn: Except one thing. You had to know. You had to know that she could walk. I mean, you went back up the stairs. You beckoned to her. If she hadn't, what would've happened to you? What would this community have thought of you if she hadn't?
Father Paul: Well, but she did.
Riley Flynn: And you had to know that. I'm asking, how did you know that?
Father Paul: I really don't have an answer that's going to satisfy you. Not you. I mean, if I told somebody else that I could just feel it as she wheeled past me on that ramp, that I could almost see it, that I could almost hear a voice inside my head. I felt so connected to her at that moment. That might be good enough for someone, but not for you, is it, Riley Flynn?
Riley Flynn: I suppose I'd want more.
Father Paul: Yeah, and I'll always wish that I could give you more. But that's all I got.
Father Paul: [to the congregation] For most of us, eternity, it's an abstract. It's a metaphor, a colorful exaggeration. When we're waiting for something we want, it takes forever. We sit in traffic for an eternity. Abstracts, metaphors, colorful exaggerations. To us, maybe, but not to God. Not to Him. And it shouldn't be for us either. God's gifts are tangible as the ground beneath our feet. And His covenant, it's not abstract. No. It's a contract, scrawled in flesh, inked in the blood of the martyrs. And yet, try as we might, we cannot visualize, we cannot mentally picture the rewards promised. Well, if you're here seeking answers to the unknowable, it's incumbent upon me to tell you that I have none. And if you want to know why or how God's will shapes the world, brothers and sisters, so do I. I don't have all the answers. Nobody does. What I do have though, and what God gives us plentifully, are mysteries. God gives us miracles very rarely, here and there, but mysteries? The more that we know, the less we bend. The more brittle we become, the easier to break. Like some would say this island broke. Was broken. But I am here to tell you, the resurrection, body and soul, the redemption, body and soul, the miracles waiting for us here on Crockett Island. Not metaphors, not abstracts, not colorful exaggerations, no.
Leeza Scarborough: [to Joe] I hate you. Honesty is important, so we'll start there. I hate you Joe Collie. I've hated you for years. And the things I've imagined doing to you? I want you to hurt. I want you to suffer. I want you to make those noises my dad made when he put his hand over the bullet hole in my spine. I want you to beg for forgiveness, so that I can tell you no. I want you to live in complete, absolute misery. So when I say this place is just like I pictured it, what I really mean is it's just like I hoped it would be. [pause] You stole from me. Not just who I was, but who I could've been. You stole from me things I didn't even have yet. You reached through time, Joe Collie! You reached through time and you stole. [pause] All of that is true. And all that is still in here, but that's not why I came here today. I came here today...I forgive you. I forgive you, Joe Collie. I forgive you and I see you now. I see you. And I'm still angry with you. But it's different. Even now just saying it, it's different. Do you want to know why it's different? Because the only thing standing between you and a better life is you. The only thing standing in my way was hate. The only thing standing in your way is you. Do you know what Proverbs means? What the Book of Proverbs is? It means wisdom. Wisdom and knowledge. So if God can forgive you, and He says He can, all over the place, He says it, then I can forgive you. And if I can forgive you, Joe Collie, then anyone can.
Father Paul: Darkness. It was darkness in those ruins. No light. Every step forward, a step into nothing. And the pain, pain, pain. Pain, yes. And then the fear was drained from his body. Drained from his body was all the fear, pain... It was just drained. Drained. Those eyes. Eyes and skin and hands, but also wings. A sense of great wings enfolding him. And his mind finally found the word. The word was unearthed by his fear like the tomb was unearthed by the storm. And the word was "angel." Angel.

And he was sore afraid. As a hand in the dark, a hand outstretched, stigmata, the wound of the Lord, and from the angel's wrist, the blood of life flowed, and a new word took shape. Drink. Drink. Take this, all of you, and drink from it. This is my blood. The blood of the new and everlasting covenant shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. These words in the old man's old mind again and again and again and again as he drank. Monsignor John Pruitt woke the next morning. The storm had passed. The sun was coming in through the cave's entrance and he walked to it. He walked to it. And he raised a hand to shield him from the sun. His hand was young again. The decades washed away.

...
Father Paul: I knew the journey would be long. But I knew where this angel was needed. And so, I'd travel, and I'd wait, and the angel would catch up. I'd travel and wait in fear. Lord, fear that someone would discover it, or that one night it wouldn't be there, it wouldn't fly to me. And when it did, I knew I'd have to hide it. And so I'd hid it in earth and packed it with antiquities. And I'd leave the rest to God. Leave it to God that I might bring it safely back home to the people who needed it most. And by Your grace, I did. And I knew all the while that I'd have to lie. Lie to the very people I'm here to save. To the dear souls of this island, so that we may bring then Your love, and your mercy, and your miracles. Forgive me Lord for the small lies I must tell in your service. Oh my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell. But most of all because they offend Thee.

Book IV: Lamentations

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Father Paul: [after he is revived] I'm starving. I don't remember ever being this hungry before.
Bev Keane: It makes sense. Always starving after a long trip, and you had quite the journey. That's for sure. Precious few have taken the road you took.
Father Paul: I feel everything that is happening here is a matter of faith, not science. So I don't want to cloud this area with any doubt. Something is happening, shifting inside of me. I remember when I was younger I experienced times of great spiritual growth. But that was just, it's nothing like this. It's like I can feel God move inside me.
Bev Keane: We can keep this quiet for the moment. But Monsignor, we should show them. Tell them who you are. Don't hide your light under a bushel. That's one of the parables, and it was important enough that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all wrote it down. We'll do what you ask, of course. And if you don't think you're ready, well that's OK. Jesus revealed himself slowly after resurrection, but what a wonderful revelation it will be to know their own dear Monsignor Pruitt was restored by an angel of God. Think about it.
Father Paul: It will be. In God's time.
Bev Keane: There's no other kind, is there?
Erin Greene: A lot of people cross-stitch Bible verses. But my mom goes with the passage from Lamentations. It's a special kind of self pity to identify with the destruction of Jerusalem. She said, "Everyone gets their wings clipped at some point." And I asked the next question. It's the only question a kid's going to ask when they hear something like that. I said, "Mom, did you get your wings clipped?" And she said, "Yep. Oh yes. Day you were born." [pause] I ruined her life. But Littlefoot? You see, that baby saved mine. Because I did it. I did what I said I was going to do. I ran away at sixteen. I was going to be an actress. I was going to be a star. And I traveled, and I lived. And by the time I woke up and the drugs had worn off, I looked up and I had married my mother. [about her baby] She saved me. And now she's gone. And how is that possible? How is that possible?
Riley Flynn: [to Erin] I have this dream. This recurring dream I've had since I was inside. I'm floating out in the middle of the bay. Middle of the water. Morning water. The sky lightening as the sun's about to rise. And if I could just point the bow, find a wind, or an oar, paddle with my goddamn hands if I had to, to a different shore. Start a new life. That dream always ends with the sunrise. Always. I never get further than that sunrise. That part I can see, clear as day. That part is real. But the rest, whatever life I'm supposed to have after? That I can't see. And the more I have that dream, the more I know that it's not in the cards for me. [pause] I'm not getting off this island. I know it. Late at night, no matter what I let myself hope, or what I might tell my mom or my dad. I know it. But you, you can do anything. You always could.
Riley Flynn: I think we all want so badly for there to be a reason. For everything. And some justice and some comfort when we die.
Erin Greene: Yeah, that's where religion comes from. That's the whole question.
Riley Flynn: It is.
Erin Greene: What happens when we die?
...
Riley Flynn: [describing his death] And my neurons are firing and I'm seeing this firework display of memories and imagination. And I am just tripping. I mean, really tripping balls, because my mind's rifling through the memories. You know, long and short-term, and the dreams mix with the memories. And it's a curtain call. The dream to end all dreams. One last great dream as my mind empties the fucking missile silos, and then...I stop. My brain activity ceases and there is nothing left of me. No pain. No memory. No awareness that I ever was. That I ever hurt someone. That I ever killed someone. Everything is as it was before me. And I'm serving a purpose. I'm feeding life. And I'm broken apart and all the littlest pieces of me are just recycled and I'm billions of other places. And my atoms are in plants and bugs and animals, and I am like the stars that are in the sky. There one moment, and then just scattered across the goddamn cosmos. Your turn. What happens when you die?
Erin Greene: I'm not the one who died today. She was never awake. When she came down into this little body, this just forming body, it was asleep. So, all she ever knew was dreaming. She only ever dreamed. She didn't even have a name. And then in her sleep, that perfect little spirit just lifted up. Because God didn't send her to suffer through life on Earth. No. This one? This special little soul, God just sent her down here to sleep. Just a little nap. A quick dream. And then He called her back. He wanted her back. [pause] And that's what we mean when we say Heaven. No mansions, no rivers of diamonds, or fluffy clouds, or angel wings. You are loved. And you are not alone. That is God. That is Heaven. And that's why we endure on this big, blue, sad rock. I'll be there soon enough. And I'll see my father. And my grandmother. And I'll see my little girl, and she will be happy and safe. And I will be so glad to meet her.
Riley Flynn: I really hope you're right.
Father Paul: That's the thing, isn't it? What do you say? You say, "I'm so sorry for your loss." Or "God works in mysterious ways. If there's anything I can do..." It's so hollow, isn't it? We can never understand the will of God, and I wouldn't presume to know what to say to Erin Greene other than that. We must trust in the Lord with our whole heart and not rely on our own insights.
Riley Flynn: Give yourself over, whether you understand or not.
Father Paul: Sometimes it's okay to just look at the world and say, "Why? Why? Why? I don't understand. And I will not." Yeah, sometimes that's okay.
Riley Flynn: Yeah, I actually agree with that.
Father Paul: Well, it's hard not to, isn't it?

Book V: Gospels

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Father Paul: "Gospel" means good news! Good news on Good Friday. And yet, it's a story of such profound suffering. What's so good about that? Jesus' suffering in this story, it isn't simply necessary. It is good. It is the price of eternal life. That suffering, he endures alone. At the Resurrection, he is alone. And then...we; he has a few allies. And then more. A congregation.
...
Father Paul: God has no country. There is one God for the world. And the lines we draw, and the treaties we draft, and the border we close mean nothing to Him. No, don't fight for a country. You fight for God's kingdom. A kingdom which Jesus tells us has no flags or borders. God's army. [pause] Conscience. In the army of God, conscience is standard issue. There are many like it, but this one is mine. You may think that that's a line from a war movie, but it isn't. That's actually the Rifleman's Creed. And a creed is, by definition, not just a belief, but it is a religious one. So, it is a war, and there will be casualties. And we must be soldiers. That is what Good Friday is about. The Gospel of the Lord, so full of horrors, is only good because of where it is headed: the Resurrection.
Father Paul: You've been taken back as well, taken back to your best self. Your peak self, your perfect self, as God wanted you. I just had a lot further to go than you did. It was a lot further to go.
Riley Finn: [about Joe Collie] You killed him.
Father Paul: It's not as simple as that.
Riley Flynn: No. No. You fucking killed him. You...and that thing!
Father Paul: It cannot be changed! It's done and cannot be undone. Just like what's happened to you cannot be undone. These are two things that cannot be changed, and we must accept them with serenity together right now.
Riley Flynn: What the fuck was that thing?
Father Paul: An angel.
Father Paul: It's as if your body were acting under some other will. It was. It will again, and this is the thing. This is where you need to listen. Listen to the Holy Spirit. Listen to your conscience. Because, you see, I was there too. Well, I had been restored. I had been made young again. I had been made pure again. And then, like Jesus before me, I died. I died on the floor, just across the way there. And then I was resurrected. But I was scared, confused, and this drive inside, this powerful will, and I felt the same way you did. My will became His will, and He moved through me, and Joe was taken. And I was sustained. I was nourished.
Riley Flynn: Murderer.
Father Paul: Well, I suppose so, but here's the thing. I had no guilt. None. And knowing that I should feel guilt, but accepting that I did not, finding grace where the guilt should be, I wrestled with that. I prayed on it. [pause] He has taken that guilt. He cleansed my conscience, for I had simply done His will. Been His vessel. A murderer, maybe. So is Moses. Joseph. Paul, my namesake. I'm hardly unique as a soldier of the Lord. I'm hardly unique in this room either. Am I? I mean, you've killed someone.
Father Paul: It is good, what we are doing, what we have to do. It's good. Even the things we may not think we want to do. The hunger, the thirst is good. And that's why we don't feel guilt when we surrender to it. That's why we feel better after. And that's why we share this gift. Think on that warm feeling you have here right now. Think on that, and just answer me this. Do you feel at peace? Your stomach full? Your purpose clear? Your will given over to a higher power? Do you feel at peace?
[Riley reluctantly nods]
Riley Flynn: What happens now?
Father Paul: Now you can go.
Riley Flynn: Just like that?
Father Paul: Just like that. The wonders you will experience out there, you'll see things you never saw before. Colors, lights. You'll hear things, smell things. The world, it burns brighter. It hums, Riley, with His glory. You'll see, I have faith in you. In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. I hear him more clearly every day. The more I give myself over to God, the more I hear the voice of His angel, and you will too. That's okay, that's good. Know you will be moved to act, and there will be things you cannot change. But whoever you choose to enter communion with, whoever serves God's purpose for you, as you give of yourself for them to drink, as they eat of your body, and drink of your blood, and you of theirs, and you are in the communion of the saints, remember that it's a gift. And God will tell you who to share it with.
Erin Greene: [on a rowboat in the bay] I've been scared by much worse, by much worse, and I don't let that happen anymore. I'm not scared, not of you, my dear, dear you. If you are sick, or if you need help, I'm not scared of that. I'd get you the help you need. I'd do that with you, without judgement and without fear. Just tell me what you need. Tell me why we're out here. Tell me what you want.
Riley Flynn: I didn't bring you out here to scare you, or to isolate you. I brought you out here so I'd have nowhere to go. I'm not as strong as you; I never was. What do I want? I want you to take this boat and row to the mainland and leave this place, and never look back. But I knew you wouldn't do that. I knew you wouldn't believe any of this unless you saw. I want you to run. But I believe you're gonna row back there and do everything you can to try and save them. I'm just so sorry you have to see this. [pause] I love you Erin Greene. I've loved you my whole life. One way or another.
Erin Greene: I love you too.
Riley Flynn: I did my best. I did my best.
[The sun rises, causing Riley to burst into flames and burn to ashes as Erin screams]

Book VI: Acts of the Apostles

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Dr. Sarah Gunning: [about Ignaz Semmelweis, to Erin] He started a mandatory chlorine hand wash. Lo and behold, death rates plummeted. And the scientific community ate him alive. Germ theory was two decades away from acceptance. Ideas in that direction were met with disdain, ridicule, exile. Semmelweis was committed to an asylum. An asylum. By another scientist. In fact, he died there. Oh, and when they replaced him at these clinics, got rid of that crazy, silly hand wash? Mortality rates went right back up again. So yeah, Erin, your story is crazy.
...
Dr. Sarah Gunning: [demonstrating a blood sample that bursts into flame when sunlight hits it] He literally combusted in the sun? You're right, Erin. That's crazy. That is batshit, hold the phone, padded room, clozapine insane. Fucking bonkers.
Father Paul: [about Riley] He's gone.
Bev Keane: I'm sorry.
Father Paul: It was a gift. It's a gift. He spat it out.
Bev Keane: Who knows who he talked to all night? Who know what else he has done to deprive others of God's graces? Judas was part of God's plan too. Judas was part of it. The Acts of the Apostles. There will be others like Riley, there always are, who try to poison the ears of the faithful against their God. But tonight, let's have faith in our church. Let's share everything we have.
Sheriff Hassan: You're telling me there's a contagion being spread intentionally at St. Patrick's?
Dr. Sarah Gunning: I'm telling you that is what I suspect, even if it sounds...
Sheriff Hassan: What exactly are you asking of me?
Dr. Sarah Gunning: Well, I suppose I'm asking you to look into it.
Sheriff Hassan: Look into what, exactly? Look into St. Patrick's? On, just to be clear, on the basis that some of your mother's blood tests got damaged?
Dr. Sarah Gunning: It's a lot to ask, I know.
Sheriff Hassan: Do you? Do you?
...
Sheriff Hassan: [about his fellow policemen] And more and more, I realize I've lost their trust. I roll with it. I keep my head high. Dignity. Dignity is a word my wife uses. "Show them dignity." And then she's diagnosed. And she's robbed of her dignity so fast. And then she's gone. And I couldn't. Ali and I get as far away as we can. And I find this gig. This little island. So sleepy, it could be dead. No elections, no staff. Just a tiny room at the back of a grocery store and a bunch of fishermen without a notable incident of intentional violence in almost a century, and I beg for the post. Dignity. [pause] So I don't intimidate. I don't overshare, or overstep, or intrude in any way. I don't even carry a gun. And still. Still, Beverly Keane, and a few others too, look at me like I'm Osama bin-Fucking Laden. And you'd like me to investigate St. Patrick's?
Dr. Sarah Gunning: For what it's worth, I want very much, very much to be wrong.
Father Paul: [to the congregation] Tonight is the beginning of a new era. And we are meant to celebrate the Resurrection tonight, and we will more than anyone ever has. [pause] I've lied to you all. I didn't come here to replace Monsignor Pruitt. He isn't recovering in a hospital on the mainland. He's perfectly healthy. He has been blessed. As you all have been blessed. He has been made whole, made young, the same as you. He was healed long before you ever saw this face. He was the first, in fact, and he stands before you right now, asking for your forgiveness. [pause] I was lost and confused, tired and old, on the road to Damascus, when lo and behold, an angel of the Lord appeared unto me and bestowed upon me the healing graces of God. And I was restored, as you all have been restored. I returned to you all, and I brought with me that angel of the Lord so that he might bless us all. And we have, we've seen the miracles. Our new bodies. The resurrection of the body; new and everlasting life. I followed him into the valley of darkness and, like our Lord, I endured death. Mercifully short. A leap of faith, a step out onto the water, was all that was asked of me. And, like Jesus, you will doubt, you will feel fear. But believe me, I promise you, brothers and sisters, if you follow me, if you follow us, if you follow Him, He will raise you again in His glory to eternal life. [pause] There is a price to be paid for everlasting life, as there was for our Savior. And each of us will have the opportunity tonight to pay that price.
...
Father Paul: [as the angel arrives] Have faith, brothers and sisters. I would not make you see what you have seen. I would not ask you to choose what you may choose, without first showing you God's messenger. And remember, brothers and sisters, have faith that in the Bible, every time they mention an angel, when an angel appears to we humans, we are afraid. Brothers and sisters, you are so close to salvation. The miracle is already in you. The blood of the angel is already in your veins. But it is incomplete. The final transformation will not be yours unless you let your earthly body die, so that your divine body can awaken. One moment of faith. That's the price God asks of us. Just one moment of courage. A small step out of the boat. Just onto the water itself. A small moment of discomfort. A small passion of our own. A gift offered up, and then we are reborn.
Sturge: [when the resurrected begin attacking those who didn't drunk the poison] Monsignor said we should close the doors before they wake up. So we can guide them, orient them, so this wouldn't happen.
Bev Keane: I love him. I truly do. But look, it happened nonetheless, as it was meant to. You know what they say, "Man plans, God laughs." Those who have been coming to church and taking Communion, they have nothing to fear tonight. As for the rest of them, let God sort them out.

Book VII: Revelation

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Erin Greene: That's why they didn't sink them. That's why they just pulled some plugs. Because they need the boats. So they can leave, after. Sarah, you said it was a contagion. If just one of them, just one of them makes it to the mainland...
Annie Flynn: Never made much sense to me. We all say there's a heaven. And it's waiting for us. Then we claw, fight, beg for a few minutes at the end. Minutes.
Erin Greene: It isn't about us anymore. It's about everyone else in the world. Dying for people we haven't even met. No greater love than that. What the Good Book says, isn't it?
Annie Flynn: Bev, I want you to listen to me. Because your whole life, I think you've needed to hear this...You aren't a good person.
Bev Keane: Well, that was uncalled for.
Annie Flynn: God doesn't love you more than anyone else. You aren't a hero. And you certainly, certainly aren't a victim.
Bev Keane: I wouldn't lecture, Annie Flynn. Not until you pull the plank from your own eye, as it were. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but if Riley Flynn, a drunk, and a murderer, was evidence of the quality of his parenting...
Annie Flynn: He was. Every part of him. And God loves him. Just as much as he loves you, Bev. Why does that upset you so much? Just the idea that God loves everyone just as much as you?
Bev Keane: St. Patrick's isn't just a church, Monsignor. It's an ark. I set up cots in the rec center for those who were chosen. We will take to our ships, to our vessels, and then, like sheep among wolves, like you said, we will spread the Good Word.
Father Paul: And who will decide who is chosen?
Bev Keane: We will. You and me.
Father Paul: And what happens to the rest?
Bev Keane: Well, I don't much know. That isn't up to me. It's between them and God, isn't it?
Father Paul: No, we got this wrong.
Bev Keane: Well, don't be ridiculous.
Father Paul: No, Beverly. Please look at them. We are the wolves.
Bev Keane: No. No, please. Please. Not you too. Not you, Monsignor.
Father Paul: I was wrong. We were wrong. We are wrong. And this needs to stop.
Bev Keane: They're lost without a leader, without a shepherd. That must be you, Monsignor. It has to be you. It has always been you.
Father Paul: No! It was never me. That's the thing about priesthood. It's never supposed to be about me. It's supposed to be about God!
Bev Keane: Well, I suppose it isn't you anymore. Of course, he told us that, didn't he? Jesus himself. He warned us against the scribes, against the priests...I suppose virtue isn't a virtue if it doesn't cost you anything. And it was always going to be this way. You were always going to be the last, the hardest, test of my faith. You.
Riley Flynn: [as Erin is being killed by the angel] So what do you think happens when we die, Erin?
Erin Greene: Speaking for myself?
Riley Flynn: Speaking for yourself.
Erin Greene: Myself. My self. That's the problem. That's the whole problem with the whole thing. That word, "self." That's not the word. That's not right. That isn't. How did I forget that? When did I forget that? [pause] The body stops a cell at a time, but the brain keeps firing those neurons. Little lightning bolts, like fireworks inside, and I thought I'd despair, or feel afraid, but I don't feel any of that, none of it, because I'm too busy. I'm too busy in this moment. Remembering, of course. I remember every atom in my body was forged in a star. This matter, this body, is mostly just empty space after all. And solid matter? It's just energy vibrating very slowly, and there is no me. There never was. The electrons of my body mingle and dance with the electrons of the ground below me and the air. I'm no longer breathing. And I remember there is no point where any of that ends and I begin. I remember I am energy. Not memory. Not self. My name, my personality, my choices, all came after me. I was before them, and I will be after, and everything else is pictures picked up along the way. Fleeting little dreamlets printed on the tissue of my dying brain. And I am lightning that jumps between. I am the energy firing the neurons and I'm returning. Just by remembering, I'm returning home. More galaxies in the universe than grains of sand on the beach. And that's what we're talking about when we say God. The one. The cosmos and its infinite dreams. We are the cosmos dreaming of itself. It's simply a dream that I think is my life, every time. But I'll forget this. I always do. I always forget my dreams. But now, in this split-second, in the moment I remember, the instant I remember, I comprehend everything at once. There is no time. There is no death. Life is a dream. It's a wish...made again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and on into eternity. And I am all of it. I am everything. I am all. I am that I am.

Cast

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  • Rahul Abburi - Ali Hassan
  • Matt Biedel - Sturge
  • Michael Trucco - Wade Scarborough
  • Crystal Balint - Dolly Scarborough
  • Louis Oliver - Ooker
  • Henry Thomas - Ed Flynn
  • Hamish Linklater - Father Paul Hill
  • Robert Longstreet - Joe Collie

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