Midnight Mass Ending: What Every Major Character's Fate Means
Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass ending harkened the end for major characters in the show, each suffering from a fate lined with a distinct meaning. While Flanagan captured the complexity of human emotion and the ghost of memory in The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass captures the extreme pitfalls of religious fanaticism and the crevices of personal horror. Over the course of its seven-episode run, Midnight Mass poses serious theological and philosophical queries concerning faith, organized religion, repentance, and the nature of death.
Death permeates the confines of Crockett Island, home to a fading maritime community desperately clinging on to faith, which is reinvigorated by the arrival of Father Paul (Hamish Linklater), posited as a temporary replacement for local priest, Monsignor Pruitt. His arrival marks the beginning of the end, as it is later revealed that he brought a vampiric creature with him, whose blood purportedly has healing properties, under the assumption that it was an angel. Unbelievable miracles instill hope in the community, such as when Leeza Scarborough (Annarah Cymone) is able to walk again, and an old and bedridden Mildred Gunning (Alex Essoe) becomes drastically younger and is up and about again.
In Midnight Mass episode 7, “Book VII: Revelation”, chaos reigns when the vampire is revealed to the community, while they are locked in and forced to die in order to resurrect as vampires. While their deaths are temporary at first, given the fact that they resurrect later, several major character deaths occur by the end, leaving Warren and Leeza as the sole survivors. Here’s what every major character's fate means at the end of Midnight Mass.
Having undergone the trauma of losing her child due to the angel’s blood in the communion wine and then witnessing Riley’s death when he chooses to sacrifice himself, Erin’s (Kate Siegel) first instinct was to leave the island upon learning about Father Paul’s plan for the islanders. After discussing the nature of the vampire’s blood with Sarah and Mildred Gunning, Erin attempts to alert Riley’s parents about his death, urging them to come with her to the mainland, only to be shunned. However, as Father Paul’s greater plan included cutting off the islanders from the rest of the world, Erin had no choice but to stay back and fight, while prioritizing the safety of Leeza and Warren, the only survivors who escaped death.
The nature of Erin’s death reflects the ultimate sacrifice, as her rationale in the final moments was to make sure that the catastrophe never reaches the mainland, as it would gradually infect the rest of the world. “Dying for people we never met. No greater love than that,” says Erin to the handful of survivors, demonstrating the fact that true love and faith often stems from sacrifice and a genuine brand of selflessness that ushers in the greater good. After setting fire to the boats that the islanders had planned to use to travel to the mainland, Erin is attacked by the vampire, who feeds on her blood, draining her of her life source. Resolute and selfless as ever, Erin clips the “angel’s” wings with a knife, which echoes her conversation with Riley, in which she talked about how her mother had clipped a dove’s wings, essentially traumatizing a young Erin. “Everyone gets their wings clipped at some point,” Peggy had mused, referring to how her personal freedom was clipped after Erin’s birth. As cruel as this statement is, Erin turns this metaphor on its head, clipping the creature’s wings to slow down its speed of flight, which essentially saves thousands of lives in Midnight Mass' ending.
Since day one, Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli) had been subject to casual racism and religious discrimination on Crockett Island, be it in the form of Bev Keane’s passive-aggressive quips or the mayor’s subtle attempts of religious indoctrination. Having faced ostracization while being on the force throughout most of his life, the Sheriff refrains from interfering too much in the affairs of the islanders, trying his best to resolve matters in a diplomatic manner. Perhaps in one of the most expertly-crafted scenes in Midnight Mass, the Sheriff engages in a seminal conversation about forced religious indoctrination via education and the validity of his own faith with Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan), who, as is characteristic of her, twists his rhetoric to suit her own selfish needs. When his son Ali has a crisis of faith and turns to the Christian god, the Sheriff is understandably reluctant about this sudden shift, as he is acutely aware of the greater socio-political implications of the same.
During the climactic midnight mass, the Sheriff pleads with Ali to refrain from ingesting the poison, but the latter, in a desperate search for God like the rest of the islanders, carries the act out anyway. Exuding a calm bravery until the end, Sheriff Hassan faces Bev and the rest of the vampires towards the end, only to be shot and cruelly demeaned on a racial and religious basis. When all hope seems lost, Ali sets the last shelter on the island on fire, reuniting with his father and carrying out the last act of Muslim prayer together. This scene is especially beautiful and haunting, as a critically wounded Sheriff and now-turned Ali are destined for death but choose to honor their faith together before the sun rises.
A symbol of religious extremism and the lengths to which humankind is ready to go to justify their militant bigotry by misinterpreting the scriptures, Bev Keane emerges as a compelling antagonist in the series. Acting with no remorse, Bev carries out heinous acts to cling on to her power within the island’s religious structure, from poisoning Pike to exacerbating the events of the midnight mass to an especially horrific degree. After she chooses to deliberately set the island on fire in a misguided act of religious fervor and self-righteousness, the generally too self-assured Bev is desperate for survival in her final moments. While the rest of the islanders become self-aware of their heinous acts in the early hours of the morning, asking for forgiveness from each other and surrendering to their fate, Bev is terrified of what she essentially brings upon herself, utterly selfish and unrepentant till the end. While the islanders sing a hymn as the sun rises, Bev attempts to claw through the earth in a state of panic, before she is consumed by the sun, dying in agony and never knowing true love or peace.
Being the only medical professional on the island, Sarah (Annabeth Gish) acts as the voice of reason and rationality throughout the series, offering a scientific explanation for the nature of the vampire’s blood, which acts like a virus. This clear-headed rationality is reflected after Leeza regains her ability to walk, as she urges her parents to look into the matter further via tests on the mainland, although the latter refuse to second guess “a miracle from God.” After it is revealed that she is the daughter of Monsignor Pruitt, her death is tinged with tragic significance, as her last words convey that she also wished to have known her biological father better. This also explains why an older Pruitt observed her closely when she was younger - not because he was critical and intolerant of her sexual identity as a lesbian, but it was rather a glance of longing due to his inability to connect to his daughter, whose existence he had never deemed as a sin.
Although Father Paul’s actions are catalytic in Crockett Island’s demise, the young priest undergoes a massive change of heart after he sees a now-turned Mildred, the only woman he loved in his lifetime. Bound to chastity and abstinence by virtue of being a priest, Paul was forced to keep his relationship with Mildred a secret, including the fact that Sarah was his biological daughter. However, in his final moments, Father Paul recognizes the error of his ways, while confessing that the core reasons behind his actions were to heal Mildred and be closer to Sarah, as he had never perceived them as byproducts of sin. In a certain way, Sarah and Mildred trigger genuine repentance in Father Paul, as he is able to look straight into the chasm of horror he helped create through his actions. In the end, it is love and loss that brings the two together, as they decide to take their daughter’s body to her favorite part of the island, dying together in acceptance and peace.
Riley’s parents underwent intense trauma after the seminal midnight mass, which is preceded by their son’s sudden disappearance under mysterious circumstances. Horrified by the events that take place inside the church, Ed (Hill House and Bly Manor’s Henry Thomas) and Annie (Kristin Lehman)attempt to flee the scene, but the former is viciously attacked by vampires and turned against his will. While Annie is able to evade the scene later, she, much like Riley, sacrifices herself while standing up to Bev’s holier-than-thou disdain and cruelty. “You are not a good person, Bev...God doesn’t love you more than anyone else,” she says, before slicing her neck and surrendering herself to vampirism. Both Ed and Annie reflect Riley’s steady moral compass, compassion, and self-awareness, as they refuse to feed on others despite being gripped by an unbearable thirst for blood, partly instilled in them because of Riley's own problems with addiction - a plot point that affected the entire Flynn family from the start. Choosing to bring together the community through a hymn, Ed and Annie calmly accept their fate, attempting to restore harmony in a community broken beyond repair.
While every major character’s fate in Midnight Mass is tinged with significance, so is the case for the collective in Crockett Island, as each member undergoes intense personal hell that night. While the atheists and non-Christians are either fed upon or ostracized in cruel ways, most of the parish, now vampires, wreak havoc through the island, feeding on their neighbors and hunting the survivors down. When all hope is lost, the islanders realize the ramifications of their actions, and how they were blinded by mad hunger and bigoted self-righteousness. Instead of begging for forgiveness from their God, the islanders turn to each other, finding solace and acceptance in the community, coming together to sing the hymn, “Nearer, My God, to Thee”, while quietly repenting for their actions.