Midnight Mass - Book I: Genesis Quiz

Answer: For vehicular manslaughter

One night, driving drunk, Riley Flynn hit another person's car, killing the young driver who he collided with while he escaped with only minor scrapes and bruises. When he stood before a judge shortly after, he accepted the sentencing: four to ten years in an Illinois correctional facility. Amongst the belongings he received upon being placed in his cell was notes from his family and a copy of the Holy Bible. It would be a restless stay in jail; on the first night he started seeing visions of the girl he killed.

Four years later, Riley is freed from prison and sets out to return home to Crockett's Island, a small, remote fishing village off the Washington coast, home to only 127 citizens. His parents prepare for his homecoming while his brother, Warren, heads out for the day. He's warned to be back for curfew.

Answer: Sheriff

Warren bikes across town to the marina, passing St. Patrick's Catholic Church on the way. A sign out front promises the upcoming return of Sunday Mass and the local priest, Monsignor Pruitt. As the Island Belle arrives on the island, Warren is met by his friends Ooker and Ali, and the three of them strike a deal with one of the boatsmen, Bowl, who seems to be their last secret pot connection on the mainland. It's an especially tense meeting since Ali's dad is the new sheriff in town. Heading back across the island they pass Leeza's place though she's not altogether interested in joining the boys, partly because of the smell of the marijuana, and partly because she's bound to a wheelchair.

Elsewhere on the island, a man drags a heavy wooden box into their home and slides it across the floor into the main room. He bangs on its side before unlocking it, just as whatever's inside bangs back.

Answer: Feral cats

As night falls, the boys bike out to the water's edge and find their overturned canoe. Paddling across the water to the small island on the other side of the bay, they trek out to their campfire spot, crack open a drink, light a joint, and chat about their lives. All the while, they watch the eyes in the bushes around them; this small island is full of feral cats brought over by mainlanders over the decades.

It's said that they feed on the bodies that were buried on the island years ago, the bones of which still appear to wash up on the west banks of Crockett's Island near Warren's house.

As the sounds of cats increase in the nearby bushes, Warren turns a flashlight to scare them off and sees what looks like a human figure watching from the bushes.

By the time his eyes adjust, nothing's there.

Answer: An albatross

Riley returns to Crockett's Island aboard the Bay Breeze, pulling up on its cloudy shores to find his mother awaiting his arrival. As they depart, islander Bev Keene asks another local, Sturge, if the Monsignor was onboard as he was expected to make his return as well. Unfortunately, there has been no sign of him.

Erin Greene, meanwhile, receives an ultrasound to find that her pregnancy is a healthy one twenty weeks along. Her doctor warns her of a small, but likely unworrisome bleed that they'll keep an eye on, but it's hardly a bother when they spot Riley walking through town on his way home. Dr. Gunning ends the appointment when her unwell mother, Mildred, interrupts. Mildred doesn't recognize Erin, instead believing her to be her late mother, Peggy.

Sheriff Hassan, returning to his office at the back of the general store, awakens Joe, the town drunk, who's in his holding cell. The previous night, Joe tried to smash the windows of the store with an oar, eager to escape what he believed to be "an albatross with wings as big as lawn chairs". As he leaves he retrieves his dog, waiting outside barking at Bev Keane.

Answer: Oil spill

Riley finally gets back to the family home and returns to his old room to find that his father's been storing things there in his absence. His mother tells him not to worry that he didn't show for his return; it's a good indication that his father is treating him as though nothing happened. This being said, she claims, a lot has happened since he left. Three years ago, an oil spill off the coast destroyed the fishing industry and forced most of the island's population to leave for the mainland. Even after the spill was cleaned, fishermen were only allowed to catch so much. It's been a hard time for everyone, and Crockett's Island feels like a ghost of what it once was.

At the schoolhouse, Sheriff Hassan gathers the community's leaders to discuss plans to weather the upcoming storm bound to make landfall in a day and a half. Seeing as he's new in town, he's unaware that the island uses the church as an emergency shelter, something Ms. Keane makes him explicitly aware of. She lets him know that the nearest mosque is on the mainland but, of course, he's welcome to hunker down with them; he's more than welcome.

Answer: The Holy Land

Riley has his first meal with his family on his first night back, and there's no shortage of questions for him. As part of the conditions of his parole, he reveals, he must return to the mainland for AA meetings once per week. Riley also discovers that Erin Greene, his old flame from high school, has returned to the island to take her mother's past job as a schoolteacher. He'll see her tomorrow, his mother says, at church. Riley's hesitant to this. Things have changed, he says.

Neither of his parents will hear this though, especially with the Monsignor returning from his two-week pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Warren thinks it's weird to have had the community pitch in for the pilgrimage, especially with the Monsignor's old age. He's been acting weird, he claims, appearing all over the island in the middle of the night wearing his fedora and long coat.

Riley's father, not speaking up until Riley and Warren crack jokes about being altar boys, chastises his returned son for his refusal to repent for what he's done. He'll go to church with the family, like it or not, every Sunday and he can consider it a condition of his parole.

Answer: Yes

That evening, Bev Keane stops by St. Patrick's and uses her keys to let herself in. Inside, she finds the large, unlocked crate sitting in the middle of the room. Someone else is there to greet her, however.

On the far side of the island, several feral cats are brutally attacked by something in the bushes.

Before Riley goes to bed, his father stops in to chat with him. They have an honest conversation about expectations for Sunday Mass and they share an awkward handshake before heading to sleep. Watching outside his window before tucking himself in, Riley sees his brother sneaking out the window. As his head hits the pillow he sees the ghostly image of the girl he killed...and dreams of being on a rowboat, lost out at sea.

Answer: A few weeks

As the sun rises on Sunday on Crockett's Island, there is a red sky overhead. The town prepares for the coming storm, but first, they head to St. Patrick's Church for Mass. Warren and Ooker prepare for the ceremony to find that someone has already done their job for them. It's then that they meet their new priest.

The town meets the man moments later, singing their hymns, and many of them are caught off-guard by the new face in town. He introduces himself nervously as Father Paul Hill and claims that he has been sent by the Diocese to fill in for the Monsignor for a few weeks as he has taken ill and gone to a hospital on the mainland. He reassures everyone that it's temporary and that the Monsignor will be just fine.

The ceremony proceeds as normal and, on his father's wishes, Riley refuses to join in the Communion, having not partaken in confession for years.

Father Hill meets with most of the attendees of Mass after the ceremony, introducing himself to Mayor Scarborough, his wife, and daughter, and to the Flynns. Despite Riley's reluctance, Father Hill suggests they'll get along well. Jesus, after all, made friends of those who were not quite in a state of grace.

Answer: New York

As Riley leaves Mass, he finally reunites with Erin, walking her home through town. They notice as Bev Keane watches them from afar, but this doesn't stop them from reconnecting. Erin, as it seems, spent the past years in Upstate New York. A lot of people guessed, when she ran away, that she went to Hollywood, but Riley always thought it'd be somewhere with covered bridges. But both of them wound up back where they started, the place they tried so hard to get away from. Technically, Erin got married while she was gone, but it's over...and a long story. Erin asks him if he's okay, but Riley feels aimless; he no longer has a regiment like he did in prison and now he has no purpose at all. She suggests he ride out the storm in the evening and start a brand new day tomorrow. And she apologizes for what he's been through.

At the church, Bev thanks Father Hill for the excellent service but comments that, considering the time they're in, he should be wearing green robes. He's surprised she noticed the difference and insists he simply couldn't find them. He will search as it may be that the Monsignor simply misplaced them considering his earlier mental state.

Answer: Monsignor Pruitt

As the storm rolls in in the evening, the people of Crockett's Island hunker down and cover their windows. The rain is quick to start and the wind picks up soon after. Father Hill sits in his living room reading the Bible when the power cuts out in a lightning strike. Dr. Gunning struggles to keep her ailing mother calm in the powerful storm surge.

At the Flynn household, Riley watches out his bedroom window to see Monsignor Pruitt walking out along the beach in his fedora and long coat and he tells his family though they can't see anything outside. When he rushes out to retrieve the man, who they believed to be back on the mainland, he sure enough finds a man running down the sands away from him. He manages, however, to lose sight of him as he nears the end of the beach.

The following morning, the island awakens and begins to clear the detritus of the storm. The Flynns decide to walk to the rectory to check and see that the Monsignor is okay (and if he is truly back) but when they leave their home they find that something awful has washed up on the shore-- the corpses of hundreds of dead feral cats, all washed up on the west banks.