Midnight Mass - Book IV: Lamentations Quiz

Answer: The baby is no longer inside of her

Erin visits Dr. Canning before school for a quick check-up on the baby. Excitedly, she hopes that today might be the day they get to see the baby on the ultrasound, but something is wrong. As Dr. Canning tries to hear the baby she finds that an ultrasound is necessary; it's because she's concerned. The reason is because there's no heartbeat-- there's nothing in her uterus. That Erin didn't feel or notice the miscarriage this late on in her pregnancy is abnormal. Erin knows she didn't miscarry, however. She couldn't have.

Bev announces that Mass is cancelled for the day in light of Father Hill's illness. Joe, still at the priest's house after the Scarboroughs departed, still comes to terms with the fact that Father Hill is actually Father Pruitt, miraculously de-aged. Bev asks Joe if their Monsignor has been eating since she left for the night. Truth be told, Joe says, he doesn't know because he was too scared to check.

Answer: Sunlight

Bev brings breakfast to Father Hill in his room and finds him sitting in the dark, unwell. She moves to open the blinds but he asks her not to; it's too hard on his eyes. Urging him to eat up, she's disappointed when he doesn't dive into her homemade chicken ginger soup, especially since he claims never to have been so hungry.

Father Hill asks Bev to take a seat and he confides in her. Something is happening, shifting inside of him. When he was younger he experienced moments of great spiritual growth, but nothing like this. He asks to be left alone for the rest of the day, to pray. Bev, departing, reminds him that the people who know his true identity can keep a secret for a short time, but he should not hide his true identity from the islanders. Even Jesus, however, revealed himself slowly after the resurrection.

When Bev is gone, Father Hill passes his hand into the sunlight peeking from his curtains and finds that his skin starts to burn.

Answer: No

Ed and Riley head out on the fishing boat for the morning, working without Warren partly because Ed's back has been feeling better, but also because they need to have a talk. As they eat lunch, Ed admits to the resentment he's harboured for his son for the way Riley acted when he left. The point is that he shouldn't have had that feeling...and then the accident happened. He should be grateful Riley is home and free, but he puts Riley's actions on himself. All he can do is apologize.

While Sarah stows away Erin's blood sample, intending to send it to the lab, Mildred walks into the office and the two commence a mental acuity test, forcing her to recall events from her past. She passes it successfully, seemingly having rid herself of all dementia within days. When Mildred heads out to make a cup of tea, Sarah turns around to find Erin's blood sample boiling in the sun until its test tube cracks open due to the heat.

Answer: Doves

Erin invites Riley over while she packs her mother's things, something she couldn't bring herself to do since moving back to the island. With the news earlier in the morning, she managed to clear two rooms and the attic just to cope. It brings up old memories of her mother building a coop for doves outside their window. When she ordered doves from the mainland, the first thing she wanted to do was clip their wings. Erin let the birds go instead, but it was the start of the end of their relationship, allowing her to discover her mother's true disdain for her. The new baby was going to be the brightest part of her life; when she married someone not unlike her mother and found herself pregnant, it was enough to convince her to leave him; it saved her.

Riley confides in Erin as well, recounting the dream he's had since he was in prison. He's floating out in the middle of the bay as the sun starts to rise on the horizon and he knows that if he can just get to shore he can start a new life. He never gets further than the sunrise, however. He doesn't know what to do next, and it's because of that he knows he can't get off the island.

Father Hill, praying in his bedroom, continues to feel the pains of his transformation while gripping his rosary tight enough to draw blood. When he sees what he's done, he continues to cut into his own hand to suck at the wound. And from this he finds what he needs.

Answer: Mildred

Sheriff Hassan finds Joe standing in front of the beer fridges at the general store struggling with his addiction. Instead of leaving with a beer in hand, Joe angrily breaks away.

Father Hill leaves his home when night falls to discover he's capable of walking healthily without the sun shining. He makes his way to Dr. Canning's house, owing her her Mass, to find that she too has become healthier over the days. It's particularly concerning because she instantly recognizes him for who he is-- a younger Monsignor Pruitt. With God, he says, all things are possible. She claims it felt like a dream when she saw him at his bedside, but the truth, he says, is that it all feels that way for all of them. Before they discuss what's been happening, he serves her from his flask of communion wine

Answer: Scattered to the winds

Erin and Riley spend the entire day praying over their sorrows and Erin tries to come to terms with the fact that Riley doesn't believe in any of it. because he can't come to terms with the idea of a loving God. He doesn't believe her to be delusional or naive-- people want to find comfort and reason.

Their talk leads to the idea of what happens when people die and Riley comments that all he knows is his body simply stops functioning. Five minutes after that, his brain cells start dying. But in those five minutes, perhaps his brain releases its last dump of DMT and he dreams bigger than he's ever dreamed before, all of his memories. It's the dream to end all dreams before his consciousness stops and his cells and pieces go on to feed life elsewhere.

Erin struggles to speak for herself on the idea of what happens when she dies. Her child, however, knew nothing but dreaming. God just sent her down to Earth to sleep-- just a little nap-- before she was brought back to feel nothing but love for the first and only time. She never sinned and she will never be alone and she will be nothing but joy for eternity. Heaven, to Erin, is being loved and never being alone; it's why we endure what we do on Earth. Soon enough, she'll be there, in God's time, and she'll meet her daughter.

Answer: Joe's

Father Hill returns home and refills his decanter of communion wine, struggling to keep his hunger at bay. He heads to his balcony and screams for his guardian angel, reciting prayers before heading back inside and chugging the remainder of the wine. Joe catches him in the act, arriving at the open front door and interrupting the moment.

The priest asks him to come in nonetheless even though he's quite unwell, and it's then that Joe spies the newspaper clipping on the wall, remarking that Father Hill looks uncannily like Monsignor Pruitt. Before Joe can leave, Father Hill motions for a hug and, in their embrace, the priest accidentally drops Joe, banging his head on the corner of a table.

Instead of calling for help, Father hill gorges himself on Joe's blood, regaining his strength through the unnatural sustenance.

Answer: Bev

Riley and Erin wake up the morning after their talk and Riley admits to having his dream on the water once again. This time was different-- he was on the water waiting for the sunrise, but this time Erin was in the boat with him. He asks if she'd like him to walk her to Mass, but she plans on heading to the mainland for a second opinion. She does invite him, however, to come back to her house in the evening.

Sheriff Hassan, meanwhile, is awake while Ali prepares to attend Mass for the first time. He understands that his son is curious and he will not stop him, but he reminds him that they already have God.

While Erin heads to the mainland, the people of Crockett's Island make their way to Mass to seat themselves and...wait. When Father Hill doesn't show up, Bev walks to his house and once again lets herself in, this time to find the priest laying in the corner, having gorged himself on Joe's blood. She calmly tells him that he needs to clean up and get to the church. When he shows her that he can't pass into the sunlight, she changes her plan.

Answer: She was never pregnant

Finding that Father Hill is, for lack of a better term, incapacitated, Bev returns to St. Patrick's Church to inform the townspeople that everything is fine. Taking the altar for herself, she tells everyone that their priest is bouncing back from his stomach bug and they may simply need to cancel Mass for the day. She invites Dolly Scarborough to take the lead in singing hymns and reciting prayers before bringing the mayor and Sturge out to Father Hill's house and instructing them to abscond with Joe's body, while the town is in the church, and then drop the body out at sea later in the evening. When Wade tries to reason out the situation, Bev slaps him in the face, asserting that Joe has been a scourge on the community for years, even putting his own daughter in a wheelchair. God is taking what he is due and their Monsignor is performing miracles and, as Bev says, he shall not cherry-pick the glories of God.

On the mainland, Erin's lab test results come back in and the doctor claims that nothing could have happened; all of the tests came back negative. Even after a miscarriage, her levels would stay up for about six weeks; there's no evidence she was pregnant at all. The doctor recommends speaking to someone in the facility's psych department.

Answer: Blood

Riley heads to the rec center for his AA meeting to find the building locked upon his arrival. He spies Father Hill standing on his porch seemingly feeling better and the two head inside. Riley confides in the priest that Erin is dealing with the loss of her baby but neither can really understand the meaning behind it; Father Hill suggests that sometimes they just need to trust in God and things will be okay.

Father Hill asks how Riley's amends are going, but Riley suggests that they wait for Joe before getting started. Joe isn't joining them, however; Father Hill makes it clear that Joe has gone to the mainland to visit his sister. This doesn't sit well with Riley though-- he knows Joe's sister died a few weeks before.

Over dinner, Riley's family reasons with the amount of work Father Hill seems to be doing; he's truly putting in the work. Before Riley heads out for the night, bound for Erin's house, his mother tells him that help has finally come to Crockett's Island. After all, she no longer needs glasses and his father's back has healed. Something good is happening. Riley says that Father Hill is a liar, however. He lied to him about Joe. He only asks that his mother be careful.

Riley returns to the rec center on his way out to Erin's to find Father Hill still there, and he's not alone. Father Hill's Angel, delivering replenishment of the sacrament, strides into the rec center wearing the Monsignor's hat and coat and unleashes a gout of blood into the decanter. When Riley enters the building he comes face-to-face with the creature. It leaps to attack him, feeding on him instantly while Father Hill closes the door.