Midnight Mass episode 4 recap: Lamentations

In this episode of Midnight Mass, Erin and Riley talk about death, we lose one of the islanders, and there’s one doozy of a jump scare.

At the end of Midnight Mass episode 3, we discovered that Monsignor Pruitt had wandered into the desert and taken refuge in a cave, where he was bitten by an “angel” who drank his blood. When he awoke, he was restored to his youth and had become who we knew as Father Paul.

Midnight Mass is about to throw another emotional event at us because Erin is being examined by a very shocked Sarah. She cannot find the baby’s heartbeat, and even stranger, a sonogram shows no sign of Erin’s unborn infant, only an empty uterus. Erin is far enough along that she would have known if she miscarried, and yet…

Bev has decided to cancel Mass and left Sturge in charge of watching over Father Paul. Bev goes into Paul’s darkened room, and he won’t let her open the curtains. He says he’s very hungry, and Bev is such a sweetheart that she made him some soup. She tells him that Jesus Christ took three days to return from the dead, and Paul didn’t even take 3 minutes. He sniffs at the soup but doesn’t eat it, and he refuses to see a doctor.

He tells Bev that something is shifting inside him. She says  Dolly and Wade can keep his secret, and Sturge can be bullied into it, but she thinks Paul should tell the congregation. After all, it’s such a great thing that an angel of God restored Monsignor Pruitt! When she leaves the room, Paul holds his hand up to the sunlight peeking through his curtains, and it starts to smoke.

Riley and his Dad have a little heart-to-heart out on the fishing boat. It seems Father Paul encouraged Ed to be honest with his son. He says he resented Riley because Riley seemed to act like life on the island, and his father’s job was beneath him. Ed didn’t understand Riley’s job in finance. He had resentment in his heart, which was wrong. He says, “I apologize for whatever I did to cause your problems; I love you, and I apologize.”

Note: another great emotional character moment in Midnight Mass.

Sarah’s labeling Erin’s blood sample and Mildred walks in, looking younger than ever. She’s alert and able to answer Sarah’s questions. When Mildred leaves the room to make tea, Sarah is startled to see Erin’s blood sample, sitting on the table next to the window, start to smoke and bubble after sunlight hits it.

Riley is at Erin’s house as she packs up some of her mother’s belongings. She talks about her Mom and says that she kept doves for a while when Erin was a kid. She’d clip their wings, and she once made Erin hold a dove while she did it. Erin asked her why she clipped the wings, and her mother said, “everyone gets their wings clipped at some point.” Little Erin asked, “Did you get yours clipped?” And Mom’s matter-of-fact response was, “Yes. Day you were born.”

It’s evident Erin is still hurt by the memory. She says she then let the bird go, and her mother hit her. The message she always got from her mother was: “You ruined my life.” Erin says, “My baby saved my life.”

Erin ran away at 16, and one day she woke up and saw that she had married her mother. Her husband was a mean drunk, and he hit her. She would have died in that house, but she left the day she found out she was pregnant. Her baby saved her, “and now she’s just gone.” Way to make me weep yet again, Mike Flanagan!

Riley tells Erin about his recurring dream of being out in the boat in the morning. He says if he could paddle to shore, he could start a new life, but instead, he will never get off the island. He’s in tears, and Erin asks if he’ll l pray with her. They clasp hands, and she asks God to help her understand and to have mercy. They recite the Lord’s prayer together.

Cut to Paul praying; as his stomach rumbles loudly, he’s clearly in pain. He clasps his rosary so tightly that it cuts his palm; he observes the cut, then laps at the blood. Immediately, he cuts his palm a second time and begins to suck at the blood. Uh-oh.