Mike Flanagan unpacks the major surprises and Easter eggs in the puzzle-box drama.
Warning: Spoilers from the entirety ofMidnight Massare discussed in this article.
He even posed this query during Sunday School.
The “angel” of ‘Midnight Mass’.Netflix
And that is how you achieve eternal life.
The fact that this hasn’t been explicitly linked to vampirism surprises me.
You’re dealing with a mythology that is steeped in blood ritual and resurrection."
Zach Gilford as Riley Flynn in ‘Midnight Mass’.EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX
Well, Flanagan has now explicitly linked this practice of Catholicism to vampirism in his buzzed-about horror seriesMidnight Mass.
Why not talk about it with Flanagan himself?
The creator spoke with EW about the major twists and turnsMidnight Masstakes.
Kate Siegel as Erin Greene in ‘Midnight Mass’.EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX
The angel
Let’s start with the obvious one.
The “angel.”
Through flashbacks, we learn that, yup, it was a vampire.
Samantha Sloyan in ‘Hush’ and ‘Midnight Mass’.Netflix; EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX
It turns out that Father Paul is also in fact Father Pruitt.
He takes refuge in a cave where the blood-sucker with enormous bat-like wings preys upon him.
These miracles start out small.
Zach Gilford as Riley Flynn in ‘Midnight Mass’.EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX
Do you really want to meet a creature like this?
Imagine what that creature must be like.
This is what you send to slaughter the first borns of the Egyptians.
Carla Gugino’s Jessie reaches for a copy of ‘Midnight Mass’ in ‘Gerald’s Game’.Netflix
The idea that you could reasonably mistake this terrifying creature for a biblical angel was a little irresistible."
From a writing standpoint, it made total sense.
What changed the ending for Flanagan was how he’s grown to think about death over the years.
What is the correct answer?
How do we answer that question in life?"
To the degree with which what you might believe or what I might believe happens after we die.
He knows no one will believe him unless he offers proof.
The person he decides to show is Erin (Kate Siegel), his high school sweetheart.
(Flanagan actually wrote the concept for the show as a book first.)
The voice of her mother sounds in her head: “Can’t kill Erin.
Will piss ‘em off.”
Well, Flanagan does end up killing Erin in the end ofMidnight Mass, fans be damned.
But it’s done in a way that Siegel finds very moving.
Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan) has taken over Father Paul/Pruitt’s mission, and everything devolves into chaos.
“We don’t see Erin burn.
You see everybody else burned and you don’t see Erin [but] she does, right?
‘Cause she took communion [with the blood] and she dies,” Siegel says.
“I love that.
While she and everyone else dies, there’s a poetry in the way that they dohers in particular.
I’m biased by that.
Kate just killed that scene.”
(Siegel and Flanagan have been married since 2016.)
“It’s my favorite thing I’ve ever seen her do.
But we did kill Erin.
We killed them all.
And you know, I’d do it again.
Obviously, it’s not the show people would say, what about a second season?
It was like, just wait until you get up to [episode] 7.
I think we’re done.
We’re not gonna be able to stretch this one out any further.”
Ghosts of movies past
Flanagan loves an Easter egg.
Some are not-quite hidden in the casting.
But Sloyan’s first scene involves holding a copy ofMidnight Massand singing its praises to Maddie.
Another actor in that movie?
Michael Trucco, who too returned forMidnight Mass, playing Wade, the town mayor.
“We’d loved working with both of them so much,” Flanagan says of Sloyan and Trucco.
“At the time, we never would have imagined it.
Sam and Kate are really great friends, which is how Sam got involved withHush.
She’s never scared me in real life.
She’s the sweetest person in real life and plays a monster so well.”
Another figure from Flanagan’s filmography makes a surprise appearanceor rather, her voice does.
“It’s behind them in the profile [shots] on stage,” Flanagan points out.
“It’s all becoming incredibly convoluted, really connected.
That’s our goal.
