[Editorial] Examining Addiction in Midnight Mass (2021)

Midnight Mass introduces viewers to its protagonist, Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) at the lowest point in his life, having just killed a young woman due to his drunk driving. While watching the paramedics attempt to save Tara-Beth (Ebony Booth) he begins uttering the Lord’s Prayer under his breath. Both Riley’s addiction and his Catholic upbringing define his arc in the miniseries, manifesting in a dangerous combination as he’s turned into a vampire against his will because of the island’s mysterious new priest, Father Paul (Hamish Linklater).

After four years in prison, Riley returns home to the small fishing village of Crockett Island an atheist. He later tells his friend and childhood sweetheart Erin Greene (Kate Siegel) that he read just about every religious text he could in jail and couldn’t find answers in any of them. Namely, why God or an otherwise higher power would let him kill Tara-Beth. 

Part of Riley’s parole requires him to attend weekly Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings. One of the steps in the AA program is acknowledgement of a higher power, something Riley obviously struggles with. This becomes a point of contention when he begins having AA meetings on the island with the newly arrived Father Paul. The two often clash on spiritual matters, especially addiction, which Riley tries to compartmentalize and rationalize. 

Riley initially seems irredeemable, and it takes a while to start to like him, let alone root for him. Understandably so, he’s a former venture capitalist whose selfishness led to the death of a young woman. While Riley takes personal responsibility for killing Tara-Beth, he also feels immense guilt for her death. Throughout the show, he’s plagued with visions of her dead body, especially at night.

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Through his conversations with Erin, Riley reveals his largely nihilistic worldview, as well as his desire to die, a result of his guilt and his chance at escape from it. He’s most honest with Erin of any of his interactions with the other islanders. She reaches out to him, not treating him as broken or as a monster, but as a friend. It’s obvious that being around Erin is the first time Riley’s felt remotely normal since the accident. Having her support does the most good for Riley.

Despite their clashes on spiritual matters in the AA meetings, Riley makes great progress with Father Paul. Just when it seems like he’s overcome some of the major hurdles in his recovery and guilt, Riley is attacked by the “Angel” that Father Paul brought back from the Holy Land with him. The Angel is a vampiric entity which feeds on blood and can’t survive in daylight. Being bitten by the angel, or at least consuming its blood, has healing effects on humans, from restoring youth, as Father Paul (at this point revealed to be the aged Monsignor Pruitt) experiences, or even giving Leeza (Annarah Cymone), a young paraplegic girl the ability to walk again. On the surface, it seems miraculous, but the show quickly delves into the darker aspects of this Angel’s “gifts.”

For Riley, his transformation is devastating, bringing him essentially back to square one in his recovery, except there is no hope for recovery from vampirism. His agency and chance at living a normal life are ripped away from him, and Father Paul expects him to view it as a blessing. He has to drink blood to survive, and to do that he has to kill. If he waits too long to do so, his bloodlust consumes him, harkening back to his alcoholism. In a particularly harrowing scene, he’s offered a chalice filled with blood and his attempt at self-control is short-lived as he grabs and drains the chalice in a matter of seconds.

Father Paul confesses to killing Joe Collie (Robert Longstreet), the “island drunk” who had attended a few AA meetings with Riley. He says he did this and drank his blood with no remorse. Riley expresses that he feels jealous that Father Paul was able to kill and not feel guilt, but it’s this confession that reveals Riley’s humanity despite his monstrous transformation. 

Joe is an interesting parallel to Riley, both ostracized by the island’s residents for their respective actions while drunk. Notably, Joe is responsible for paralyzing Leeza Scarborough, the mayor’s daughter. He had drunkenly fired a gun, and the bullet hit Leeza, severing her spine and rendering her paraplegic. In what the church’s congregation sees as a miracle, Leeza is able to walk again during one of Father Paul’s masses, unknowingly having consumed the Angel’s blood, which he had been sneaking into the communion wine. Moved by Leeza’s recovery and her expression of both hatred and forgiveness toward him, Joe decides he wants to turn his life around. It’s not enough, though, as his second chance is cut short by Father Paul’s insatiable bloodlust as a result of his full transformation into a vampire. Yet, similarly being attacked for his blood, Riley survives.

Erin is still the only person Riley feels he can trust, so he visits her one night after his transformation, and the two take a rowboat out to sea. They sit on the old wooden boat as sunrise approaches, and Riley tells Erin the truth about Father Paul and the “miracles” on the island. He encourages her to leave and save herself but says he knows she’s too good of a person and will return to the island to try to save the people from the same fate as him. They affirm their love for each other as the sun finally rises on the water, and for the first time in the show, Riley sees Tara-Beth living, not dead, just before he bursts into flames at contact with the sun’s rays. He disintegrates to ash before Erin.

Riley sacrifices himself, a noble action in hopes of saving the people he loves. In a call back to one of his earlier conversations with Erin, he had told her that his death would be more meaningful than his life because then he’d be part of the earth, contributing to the cycle of life rather than taking away from it. His burning to ash makes that physically impossible, but his warning Erin does serve that purpose, though there are only two survivors of Crockett Island by the show’s finale–Warren (Igby Rigney), Riley’s younger brother, and Leeza, paraplegic once again.

His redemption is nothing short of heroic and shows the hope and good that can be found in the sinner and later the monster when he is turned into a vampire. Though addiction is a mental illness, many people still incorrectly treat it as a moral failing, reflective of a person’s character rather than a deeply isolating struggle. Of course, there’s no excuse for Riley driving while drunk and killing Tara-Beth, but Midnight Mass effectively humanizes him without taking away the harsh realities of the consequences of his actions. By the time Riley sacrifices himself for the island, the viewer is undoubtedly attached to him, having witnessed his bumpy redemption arc and seeing the good he’s capable of, a reminder that everyone is capable of overcoming hardship and choosing to do good, even when it’s not easy.

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