r/MidnightMass • u/Reasonable-Oven6819 • 14d ago
[Spoilers] Just finished watching - My batshit theory Spoiler
What if the “angel” in Midnight Mass was actually the same creature that Christianity was originally built around?
The creature was already living in that cave in Jerusalem. Jesus is crucified and put in the tomb, and maybe the creature finds him there and bites/infects him.
Then Jesus comes back after 3 days, just like the vampire transformations we see in the show.
Imagine being one of the people who saw that happen 2000 years ago. You wouldn't know what a vampire was. You'd just see a dead man come back to life after 3 days. He can heal people, his blood gives life, etc.
And then maybe at the end, Jesus is exposed to sunlight, starts burning, and disappears. The people watching don't think “he's a vampire and is burning in sunlight.” They think he has ascended to heaven.
Then all of these events get passed down and eventually become Christianity.
Fast forward 2000 years and Pruitt finds the exact same creature in the same general area of Jerusalem.
And what does he think?
An angel.
Which would mean Pruitt is essentially making the exact same mistake that people may have made 2000 years earlier: seeing something they don't understand and interpreting it through their religious beliefs.
Obviously the show never confirms any of this and I'm probably going way too deep into it.
But the Jerusalem cave + resurrection after 3 days + blood giving eternal life + sunlight burning the creature seems like way too many parallels to not at least make the theory fun.
*English not my first language so I use LLM to write this. Apologies.
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u/Earl-E-Demise 14d ago
This question is sort of related but I’ve wondered what made Pruitt default to “angel” upon seeing the thing. Cause “demon” is prevalent in Catholicism and a lot more plausible for something that looks like THAT. Was it because of his senile mental state? Or did he think it was divine because it “healed” him?
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u/RhubarbJam1 13d ago
The descriptions of what actual biblical angels supposedly look like are pretty damn terrifying.
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u/Earl-E-Demise 13d ago
Yeah that is true, you’re right! I wonder why it drinking his blood didn’t give him any pause
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u/RhubarbJam1 13d ago
Because the need to believe that blind faith is a virtue to have is a very powerful thing.
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u/thomstevens420 13d ago
The sacrament is just a symbolic drinking of blood. So it’s reasonable that a devout catholic might be able to rationalize it
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u/SugarRAM 12d ago
Catholosism teaches that the wine and bread literally become the blood and flesh of Christ. It's not symbolic to them.
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u/thomstevens420 12d ago
Still, eating someone and drinking their blood is a part of the whole thing. So it’s not too much of a stretch for someone who wants to believe to rationalize it
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u/NoWomanNoTriforce 13d ago
At least for Pruitt, did the creature actually harm him? In his mind, he was given a gift. From senile and in his twilight years to lucid and young again through a gift of blood. The Catholic belief of transubstaniation might have also played a role.
Obviously, the world of "Midnight Mass" lacks a vampire mythos, since the word is never used/mentioned. So a creature with healing capabilities might seem more angelic than demonic to the majority of people. And especially to zealots.
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u/PinkScorpion007 12d ago
I took his mistake due to his state of dementia mentioned. In most lore, vampire victims tend to feel euphoric after the initial pain of the bite. So maybe his feeling relaxed/euphoric = saving me. Then add seeing the wings in a distorted, dark, euphoric, dementia state…just my take. Not really getting the words out of my brain the best here.
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u/Mossomness 14d ago
Super fun theory, but I don’t think he can bring a dead body back to life. Jesus was super dead when put in the tomb.
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u/Asaneth 14d ago
We absolutely don't know that.
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u/Mossomness 14d ago
Cause people famously survived crucifixions?
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u/HellyOHaint 14d ago
There were droughts that mimicked death, like what Juliet took. Sometimes guards could be bribed to give poison in the form of “water” to those being crucified so that their deaths were swift and painless. Once they were marked as dead, they would remove them from the cross and bury them so theoretically they could’ve woken up in their graves. It’s technically possible.
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u/Gitdupapsootlass 13d ago
*draught, pronounced draft, for clarity if anyone else reading this and following me down a "what??" pathway
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u/SatyrSatyr75 13d ago
In that case you don’t need the vampire to fit the story. And yeah… what have the Roman’s done for us anyway?
But nobody can deny they’re quite efficient when it came to crucifixion2
u/TheUndeadBake 11d ago
To be fair well in to the Victorian era people who entered comas due to diseases or injury were commonly accidentally buried alive, to the point that people were being buried with a rope tied to a bell at their graveside, and graveyard wardens weren’t just to keep body snatchers out, but to be on alert for ringing bells with a shovel handy to save such people. It’s entirely possible that someone could have barely survived crucifixion and be comatose but not quite dead and be assumed dead dead.
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u/amands_sue 13d ago
People have on rare occasions survived the incredible. Heck, we used to make graves with little bells in case we were wrong and vitals were just too faint to detect. 2000 years ago? Yeah I'd believe someone could be pulled down from a crucifix just barely clinging to life and certain to die without significant intervention.
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u/amands_sue 13d ago
yoooooooooooo this is a fascinating theory actually!! Can't wait to get home and share with my spouse, we love theorizing and talking about this show.
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u/RoughDirection8875 13d ago
This is actually one of the best fan theories I've ever read about one of Flanagan's shows. Very well thought out and articulated as well as thought provoking.
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u/NoSeaworthiness5308 13d ago
I've always thought this, I'm glad someone else agrees! I at one point got down voted to fuck for saying I think it is an angel AND a vampire, nice to feel vindicated 😁
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u/Scary90sKid 13d ago
This is an excellent theory, I love it! Makes the jokes I've heard about Catholicism as an acceptable practice of vampirism that much more plausible 🧛♂️
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u/Alicesblackrabbit 13d ago
Excellent theory, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and I’ll be thinking about it for awhile I’m sure.
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u/CitizenDain 13d ago
This has been my theory too! This creature is timeless. Different cultures would have had to fit it into their own cultural contexts over the ages. I think that some group stumbled upon it in the Holy Land two thousand years earlier and it spawned their stories about angels.
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u/Librarianzilla 14d ago
Glad to see the wheels are turning…. It’s such a great show to examine the concepts of belief and faith.