Summary
“Book VI: Acts of the Apostles” turns up the action in a big way, delivering by far the most intense sequence of the season thus far.
This recap of Midnight Mass season 1, episode 6, “Book VI: Acts of the Apostles”, contains spoilers. You can check out our spoiler-free season review by clicking these words.
The unexpected loss of Riley is felt all through the opening scenes of “Book VI: Acts of the Apostles”. It’s rare, after all, for any show to so blithely kill off its ostensible protagonist, especially in such a horrific way. After rowing the boat full of his ashes back to shore, Erin walks through town like a ghost. Ed and Annie wake up to letters written by Riley, essentially his suicide notes, and it’s obvious that Midnight Mass isn’t going to contrive a way to revive him. He’s gone, and that leaves the final two episodes in an interesting place.
Midnight Mass season 1, episode 6 recap
Erin goes to Sarah. She’s rational, smart, a doctor, and perhaps most importantly of all an outsider. When Erin tells her what happened and confesses it sounds crazy, Sarah counters with the story of a Hungarian physician who was committed to an asylum for coming up with a mandatory hand wash to bring down high hospital death rates. Now, that’s a crazy story. Everyone has them. But these days, Sarah is more inclined to believe them. After all, her elderly mother is looking younger than she is, and she has blood samples that burst into flames when they’re exposed to sunlight.
Sarah’s theory is similar to the one we came up with in the previous episode. Something is being introduced into the bloodstream of the townsfolk via Holy Communion. Whatever it is repairs damaged cells, but causes extreme sensitivity to light and severe anemia. Erin realizes, as we did, that this is what happened to her baby. Sarah postulates that those who have only taken small amounts might be able to stop taking it and allow their bodies to flush it out — in other words, the least pious citizens of Crockett Island, who haven’t attended every Mass, are the least likely to be at risk.
One of those pious citizens, though, is Ed, who takes the letters Riley left to Father Paul. He apparently implicated Father Paul in those letters, but Ed thinks he was delusional. One of the letters is actually addressed to Pruitt, and he reads it after Ed leaves. It reads, simply, “Remember we are dust, and to dust we shall return.”
Given this, it’s obvious that Sarah and Erin have few allies on Crockett Island, so Sarah goes to Hassan with her suspicions. In another great monologue, he explains why he came to the island in the first place, after rising quickly up the ranks of the NYPD following 9/11. Despite an uptick in Islamophobia, Muslim officers were promoted quickly because of their relevant cultural and linguistic knowledge. Once they became too close to positions of real power, though, they were treated as double agents, as though this was their plan all along. After suffering that indignity, and his wife’s death, Hassan begged for the sleepiest, safest post he could find. He brings all this up to illustrate to Sarah what it would mean for him to just blithely investigate the church. He’s already treated as an outsider as things stand.
But it’s obvious Hassan is on the right side of matters. It’s obvious, too, that the church is up to no good, or at least it becomes obvious when the ferries are sent away, the fishing boats are sabotaged, and the power goes out, all courtesy of Sturge and Wade. They decide not to cut the cell reception quite yet, since it might alert suspicions, but Sarah, Erin, and Mildred have already figure out what’s happening. All routes away from the island are being cut off. Something big is going to happen at the Easter Vigil, so they all attend, along with Hassan and Ali, to try and figure out what. Everyone is lead around town by candlelight until they eventually arrive at the church, where Father Paul confesses to being Monsignor Pruitt. And thus begins the most intense and harrowing sequence of the entire season, as Father Paul and Bev, using Sturge as a willing sacrifice, try to convince everyone present to commit suicide by ingesting poison so they can all be reborn in the image of the angel, who arrives just in time to make Father Paul’s sermon more dramatic.
There are a surprising number of takers for this offer. Seeing Sturge die and then be reborn compels almost everyone. Cups are handed out. The blood of the angel is already in their veins, Paul explains, but their earthly body has to go so their divine one can take its place. It sounds good, described that way. So, people begin to drink. When Hassan tries to drag Ali away, he’s taken down by the faithful and forced to watch as Ali “chooses God” and drinks the poison. So do many others. But Mildred, having seen enough, picks up Hassan’s dropped revolver and shoots Father Paul in the head. The angel, in response, grabs her and flies outside. The church doors close, and those who died begin to wake.
But there’s a problem. When they wake up, they’re hungry. And they immediately set about feasting on those who didn’t drink, those whose blood is now pumping noisily and tantalizingly through their veins. It’s chaos. The only ones who make it out are Annie, Warren, Leeza, Sarah, Hassan, and Erin. As they’re leaving they find Bev, a true coward at heart, hiding. Erin shoots her. But before long she’s awake again and unphased by the carnage around her. The church doors open, and the people spill into the streets. It’s time to spread the gospel.
You can stream Midnight Mass season 1, episode 6 exclusively on Netflix.
