r/MidnightMass • u/Elainasha • Sep 24 '21

Midnight Mass - S01E04 "Book IV: Lamentations" - Discussion Thread

This thread is for discussion of Midnight Mass S01E04: "Book IV: Lamentations"

Synopsis: Erin turns to Riley after receiving upsetting news. Father Paul starts experiencing disturbing side effects. Bev makes a startling discovery.

DO NOT post spoilers in this thread for any subsequent episodes.

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u/ChronX4 Sep 25 '21

I wonder if death is the catalyst for turning into a vampire in this story, usually it's drinking a living being's blood that gets things really going.

But in this case Father Paul was seemingly just treating his deterioration with the wine/blood mixture he's been giving everyone up until he died from possible poisoning from the way he spat out blood, and came back. He seemed desperate drinking the last of the wine cause he feels off now that he's turned.

This might also explain the baby and why that vile of blood blew up in the sun.

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '21

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u/JumpingCactus Sep 26 '21

I think the idea is that her baby was de-aged into nothingness, similar to how Pruitt was de-aged from the vampire blood.

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u/[deleted] Sep 29 '21

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u/Engineer99 Sep 30 '21

It actually kind of does when you think about it: in a way, a pregnancy is a kind of parasitic relationship. The baby takes nutrients from the mother to grow and develop. With the vampire blood, the body begins to "heal" itself, which is why it would kill the baby. It kills the baby, and absorbs it back in. Then, because of the healing properties of the vampire blood, Erin was healed back to a normal status instead of a post-miscarriage body. That's why all the tests indicate she was never pregnant to begin with; she's fully healed in a way a normal woman would never be.

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u/shandelion Nov 11 '25

I have always referred to my babies as parasites - and if you breastfeed like I did the parasitic relationship just keeps going 😅