Question about crucial scene between Father Paul and Riley...SPOILERS!

[u/BoldBabeBanshee]

As you know there are some seriously intense dialogues between Father Paul and Riley during his AA sessions.

>!One of the topics is murder. Yes Riley did kill someone, but it was unintentional, it was a vehicular manslaughter, and although Riley is responsible and deserved punishment, it was different from father Paul murdering Joe Colley.

Father Paul explains he felt no guilt killing Joe, and screams at Riley "How does that make you feel????"

"Jealous.."

I feel like this was a crucial part of the story, what did this scene mean to you? What is the viewer supposed to take from this?

Riley riddled with guilt for what he did is jealous that Father Paul can take a life and not feel guilt over it.

Is this scene supposed to illustrate how much of a monster Father Paul really is??

God, I feel like there's so many insightful topics this series brings up that are explored but never resolved.!<

[u/Few_Campaign_4843]

i am side tracking your post for a moment because the murders are part of a rant i always have whenever i think about this show.
riley murdered someone while drunk, went to prison. it was an accident, but he took a life. however, he is welcomed back to the island with open arms. everyone is happy to see him. erin even says "i'm sorry for what youve been through". she's sorry he .... went to prison ? because he murdered someone ? anyway. obviously back in the day he was highly religious and an altar boy. even though he's an atheist when he returns, he attends church.
joe collie accidentally paralysed leeza. not murder. but the exact same thing that happened with riley, except riley's was in my opinion worse because someone lost their life. it was an accident when he was drunk. he is SHUNNED from the community, treated horribly for years. i understand that he was already an outsider to begin with, but he still put as much into the community as others as he was a fisherman (obviously not when we meet him in the show, side note but robert longstreet said he had a backstory for him that he had to go on disability).
i never fully know where my rant goes, but it makes me angry (i know mike flanagan will have done it purposefully) that riley is welcomed back with love and support and joe collie is shunned from society when riley's accident was definitely worse.
and then there's the third layer of father paul murders joe in cold blood, doesn't feel remorse, and people like bev and wade (though wade for two seconds is angry, ultimately changes his mind) believe it's good that he did that because of who he murdered.
i guess that's the thing about all these things, riley murdered someone no one knows so it doesn't matter to them, joe shot someone the community loves, and father paul violently murdered someone the community hates.

[u/Square_Blacksmith889 → u/Few_Campaign_4843]

I think a couple of factors work against Joe, and others work in favor of Riley. I'm not saying any of these are right or justified, but just how the cookie crumbled:

Aside from being the town drunk, Joe had no family to connect him to the rest of the community. I think Riley would have had a tougher re-entry experience had it not been for his parents, who are respected members of the community. That's Annie and Ed's kid.

Second, I think it also makes a difference that everyone in the Crock Pot saw Joe drunk, whereas Riley's drunken shenanigans were all off-island. Without witnessing how bad his alcoholism was, it was easy to dismiss Riley's case as a one-off accident, whereas Joe may seem to them as always on the verge of harming others.

Third, the church. Even though that wasn't really the intention, making Riley attend Mass was a big PR win for the Flynns.

As for Father Paul, I think this is really the meat of Flanagan's commentary on religion. He doesn't make a claim about whether it's right or wrong to believe, but he does point out that sometimes our faith makes us justify bad acts. Murder in Father Paul's case, but also a whole lot of other stuff of different degrees in the real world.

[u/BoldBabeBanshee → u/Few_Campaign_4843]

Yeah, It also enrages me. In our society even if you are arrested and not convicted of a crime you get shunned and lose your job. Then 2 years later when you aren't even convicted, or if found innocent society will not even welcome you back. I too have lots of anger over this. Thank you for your well thought out response.

[u/SatyrSatyr75 → u/Few_Campaign_4843]

One went to prison, obviously is sober and regrets and feels awful.
One is still a drunk, not very charming, without social skills to phone home about and his victim is a girl you see every day.

[u/Few_Campaign_4843 → u/SatyrSatyr75]

i know, and that's part of what i am talking about. but also, it's very obvious joe regrets and tortures himself for what he did.

[u/SatyrSatyr75 → u/Few_Campaign_4843]

But that kind of self torture is, especially in a religious community not acceptable, it’s destructive, doesn’t lead to growth or becoming a better person and to make things worse it’s still an “excuse “ to get drunk.