In the fifth episode of Midnight Mass, “Book V: Gospel,” Riley discovers the secret that Father Paul has been hiding. Privy to his grim new reality, Riley seeks out Erin to tell her the truth. 

Let’s break down the major takeaways from this episode.

Mildred returns to church

When Mildred comes downstairs to see Sarah in the morning, she’s looking even younger than the night before. She’s happy to finally be able to go to church again, and the town is in awe to see her appearance when she arrives. However, unbeknownst to everyone but a select few, mass is to be held in the evening moving forward due to Father Paul’s whole “will burn up in the sun and die” issue. 

Mildred and Sarah both arrive for church in the evening, where Father Paul gives an impassioned and slightly disturbing sermon about Good Friday, Easter, and the Resurrection. He begins to a refer to them all as God’s army, alluding to the dark things that are soon to come. Mildred looks positively disturbed and startled throughout this, and when they leave, she’s very upset as she tells her daughter that she doesn’t want her going back to St. Patrick’s ever again. That’s not her church, and that’s not the man she knew. 

The resurrection of Riley Flynn

Riley survived the vampire’s feast on him in the rec center, and he wakes up on the floor the next day to find Father Paul sitting across the room reading. The wound on his neck is healed, though he’s still covered in blood. Father Paul begins to reflect back on a moment shared between he and Riley when the other man was much younger, which confuses Riley, because he isn’t yet aware that this is actually Monsignor Pruitt sitting across from him. 

They spend the day talking as Father Paul explains everything to Riley, promising to be honest with him. However, he still thinks that everything that has happened has been an act of God. He killed Joe because he was beyond repair; he was called home. When Riley asks what the creature was that fed on him, he tells him that it was an angel. 

Beverly and Sturge come to check on them, and they make Riley drink Sturge’s blood from a cup. They explain that the fact that Riley has been turned into a vampire (though they have yet to actually refer to this transformation as such) is merely a sign that he has been chosen by God. Essentially, these people have been driven to believe that the vampire waltzing around in the shadows is actually an angel marking the imminent return of Jesus, and Crockett Island is to be ground zero for this so-called resurrection. Mhmm. 

Although Beverly and the others believe that Riley should be kept in the rec center, Father Paul is insistent that they let him go and do as he pleases. Before Riley leaves, Father Paul tells him that the “hunger” will return “when God wills it,” at which point he will give communion to this chosen person. If that’s what you want to call it, Father …

A fiery goodbye

After taking in the strange new way that he can see the world with his vampire senses, Riley stops in at his parents’ house and looks at them as they sleep. He can hear their heartbeats and see their blood pumping through their bodies. He leaves, heading over to Erin’s house, and she’s immediately furious with him because nobody knew where he had been.

He convinces her to take a rowboat out, reminding her of a time that they had done the exact thing one night when they were younger. It’s there, floating in the middle of the water, that he tells her everything that happened with Father Paul. She’s skeptical, and she asks him if he brought her out there to scare her. Or did he do it to isolate her? Riley corrects her, explaining that he did it so that he would have nowhere to go.

He tells her that he wants her to row to the mainland and never look back. But, knowing that she’ll go back to Crockett Island and do everything she can to save them, he needs her to believe. Riley tells Erin that he’s loved her his entire life as the sun begins to rise.

In Riley’s final moments, he sees the face of the girl that he killed in his drunk driving accident. She smiles at him and takes his hand. In reality, his body is engulfed in flames as Erin sits across from him in the boat and begins to scream and sob. 

Other notable moments

• When Father Paul arrives at mass, he pours the decanter full of the vampire’s blood into the one for communion
• Riley’s parents have also begun to look younger
• Bowl’s (whose real name is Bill) mom takes her concerns about her missing son to Sheriff Hassan

Midnight Mass is now streaming on Netflix. Stay tuned for our episode 6 recap, and check out all of our recaps here.

In the fourth episode of Midnight Mass, “Book IV: Lamentations,” blood is spilled as the revelation of who Father Paul really is comes to light. Miracles continue to make their way across the town, but Erin suffers a terrible loss.

Let’s take a look at the major events from this episode.

The disappearance of Littlefoot

A routine doctor visit with Sarah ends in some disturbing news for Erin: the ultrasound shows that the baby — Littlefoot — is no longer inside of her. Erin has no idea how this could have happened, because she has no recollection of having a miscarriage.

After this traumatic revelation, Erin and Riley spend the day (and night) together talking about heavy topics like life, death, and everything in between. They touch on her childhood trauma and the heavy weight that Riley carries with him every day. He also tells her about a reoccurring dream that he’s been having since he was in prison — he’s in a boat, floating on the grey morning water in the middle of the bay. But he can’t bring himself to shore … and the dream always ends with the sunrise. When they wake up together the next morning, laying on top of the blankets on Erin’s bed, he tells her that he had the dream again, but she was there with him this time.

Later, Erin decides to go and see a doctor on the mainland for a second opinion. She’s shaken to learn that this doctor can’t find any evidence at all that she was even pregnant in the first place.

The most disturbing thing to come out of all of this is the fact that when Sarah placed the vial of Erin’s blood on the counter after her appointment, it began sizzling in the sunlight and exploded.

His hunger grows

The reality of what Father Paul has become is really beginning to set in, though he doesn’t quite seem to fully understand it. Beverly, not aware of the vampire aspect yet but on board with the fact that this younger man is indeed Monsignor Pruitt, encourages him to tell the town the truth.

After she leaves him to be alone at his request, Father Paul tries to place his hand in a beam of sunlight streaming through the window, but it immediately begins to burn. When he tries praying, he can’t get through the verses because he’s writhing in pain. Noticing that his rosary has cut his palm open, he tentatively licks the blood from his palm before eventually cutting it open even deeper and drinking from his hand profusely. He watches in amazement as the wound heals afterward.

He waits until the sun goes down to step out of the rectory, but he’s clearly starting to lose it as he begins screaming for the “angel” to come back to him.

RIP Joe

Joe manages to get through the day without drinking, and he visits the rectory to talk to Father Paul about it. However, he’s concerned to see him chugging wine directly from the decanter when he arrives. Father Paul tells Joe that he’s proud of him for resisting, because he knows the compulsion, the hunger …

Things go south pretty quickly when Father Paul beckons Joe to give him a hug goodbye. The embrace lasts a few beats too long as Father Paul takes a deep breath, swayed by temptation. Joe pulls away and ends up falling backward, cracking his head open on a table. As his blood begins to pool on the floor, Father Paul drops to the ground and begins drinking it.

Mass is canceled today, folks

Father Paul is almost a half hour late for mass on Sunday, so Beverly heads over to the rectory to see what’s going on. As she takes in the scene, which is Joe’s dead body, a room covered in blood, and Father Paul hunched over in the corner, she’s surprisingly calm. She hardly even falters when he shows her how his hand burns when he places it in the sunlight.

Beverly cancels mass, and then she brings Wade and Sturge into the bloody fray and tells them to get rid of the body. It appears that she believes all of this was an act of God, compelling Father Paul to do what needed to be done.

The angel of death returns

Father Paul begins to spiral, praying for the “angel” to return. And return it does, striding into the rec center wearing Monsignor Pruitt’s signature coat and hat. (So that’s what Riley saw on the beach that night.) The vampire begins to fill the empty decanter on the table with its own blood.

This scene is soon disturbed by Riley, who had found himself unable to cope with the fact that Father Paul had lied to him during their AA meeting that night. When Riley asked why Joe wasn’t there, afraid that he had fallen off already, Father Paul explained that he had left the island to go and see his sister. That would all be fine, if it weren’t for the fact that Joe literally just told Riley after their first meeting that his sister was no longer alive.

Riley enters the rec center prepared to confront Father Paul for lying, but instead he finds himself ambushed by the vampire (and if you didn’t jump during this scene, you’re lying). As the angel of death begins to feed on him, Father Paul slowly closes the doors to the building.

Other notable moments

• Riley’s dad opens up to him about the resentment that he’s felt for years, and then he tells him that he loves him.
• Annie doesn’t need to wear her glasses anymore, and Ed is doing better than he has been in years. The miracles continue!
• Sheriff Hassan, though he was clearly upset about it, allowed Ali to go to St. Patrick’s for Sunday mass.
• Mildred immediately recognizes Father Paul as Monsignor Pruitt upon his first visit after her return to lucidity.

Questions that remain

• Will Riley survive?
• Does anyone actually understand that this priest is literally a vampire?
• How does the vampire tie into the loss of Erin’s baby?
• What other miracles have made their way across the town, and is this leading to an island full of vampires?

Midnight Mass is now streaming on Netflix. Stay tuned for our episode 5 recap, and check out all of our recaps here.