Despite the elements of horror and its unique mix of religious horror and vampirism, Midnight Mass will make you shed a tear at the tragedy of it all.
Book I: Genesis
- The first scene. Judging by what happened, the man, Riley, was driving drunk (indicated by his slurred speech) and crashed into another car. While paramedics tend to him, he notices the victim of the crash, getting CPR. He asks the man helping tending to him if she's okay, but then the ones giving her CPR walk away, indicating that she's gone. The realism of this tragedy can certainly hit home for anyone who experienced accidents like this.
- Riley's visions of the girl he killed before he falls asleep. It's obvious he feels immense guilt for the act, yet that one avoidable action leeches him.
- When Riley talks with Erin after the service, he mentions that he just 'exists' without a purpose. Hearing him talk about how he thinks of himself as living with no purpose for anyone and admitting that he shouln't be alive is saddening, and shows how much the accident took a toll on his beliefs. Although Erin does give him some words of encouragement and her condolences.
- In the aftermath of the storm, seeing all the stray cats wash ashore, dead. This would multiply tens-fold if you were a cat lover.
Book II: Psalms
- Pike's poisoning at the pot-luck. Joe's reaction certainly delivers in terms of grief, confusion, and despair perfectly. Pike himself is noted to be an energetic yet friendly dog, so seeing him suffer this cruel death is heart-wrenching.
- It gets worse as to why he got poisoned. It wasn't an accident, Bev intentionally poisoned him with a hot-dog laced with 1080. And she did it for no reason beyond sheer petulance and cruelty.
- For Erin, the potluck is an unpleasant reminder of potlucks from her childhood, which were followed by a long night of abuse from her very drunk mother.
Book IV: Lamentations
- Erin and Riley praying together after she learns of her mysterious miscarriage:Erin (crying): Mercy... please have mercy on us. Our sorrow is too much. It's too much. Mercy...
Book V: Gospel
- Riley's true death in Book 5, especially with Erin's screams as it's happening.
- It's also a call-back to his description of what dying would be like (where he points out how the brain will enter a final, blissful dream as it shuts down): just before he dies, he envisions the girl he killed not as a mutilated corpse but alive and smiling, offering him a hand and leading him into the afterlife. Then massive Mood Whiplash sets in as we cut to his corpse bursting into flames and Erin's horrified and grief-stricken reaction.
- The episode's credits have no music, instead having Erin's bloodcurdling screams of horror.
Book VI: Acts of the Apostles
- Erin's Thousand-Yard Stare as she resolves to row back to the island, just like Riley had warned her not to do, and do her best to save people from what's coming. She has to brush pieces of Riley's scorched clothes out of the way to take his place in the rowboat.
- Erin trying to tell Annie that Riley is dead.
- Even worse that Annie reminds Erin that she and her family had supported her during her childhood, and then shoves her off the front steps in anger. And Erin shuts down, just like a child facing an abusive parent.
- As terrifying as it is, it's also heartbreaking to see how eagerly most the townspeople accept Bev and Paul's direction to die to be reborn as a monstrous, blood-sucking "angel." It's a testament to how their faith has been turned against them for others' bidding.
- Even Leeza, whose paralysis was healed by the Angel, knows right away the terrible fate that awaits anyone who drinks the poison. She begs for her parents not to, but they do. Wade tries to comfort her, offering to "help her," as Leeza weeps at what is about to become of him and her mother.
- Hassan being restrained by the townsfolk as he is Forced to Watch his son die and be reborn as a vampire. All he can do is scream as Ali drinks the poison.
- Ed allowing himself to be devoured by the freshly-turned vampires to give his wife and the other survivors time to escape.
Book VII: Revelation
- The tragic ending of Crockett Island.
- The horror of what they've done and what's happened to him starts to sink in for some of the townsfolk, one of whom admits, in tears, that he killed his own wife and sons... which Bev then blames on him not being religious and coming to church.
- Erin's internal monologue as she dies stargazing, comforting herself with the thought that her very atoms make her part of the constant cycle of the universe, thus ensuring she'll never die, but will continue to exist in different forms. By calling that process divinity itself, it also ultimately serves as common ground between Riley's and her own version of what death is like.
- With every building on the island having been destroyed, the vampiric inhabitants have no shelter from the sunrise. Meaning that every single one of them will die and there's nothing more they can do. The Flynns elect to stay in the town square. Annie starts to sing "Nearer My God To Thee", her husband joins in, and soon the rest of the town. By the time the sun rises, they're all huddled together, looking toward the horizon, finding comforting in both themselves and their faith. The worst part is how their deaths cut them off mid-lyric.
- Leeza and Warren's parents never learn that their children escaped the island; for all they know, they were attacked and devoured by the other vampires. Wade and Dolly at one point talk about trying to find Leeza, but they remain in the town square with the others—perhaps under the belief that they will soon be Together in Death.
- The moment when Leeza and Warren realize that they've lost their home, their entire families, every other friend they had, and probably everyone else they ever knew. Warren even says that if he'd known that would have been his last dinner with his parents and brother, he would have been different.
- Ali, who will die as soon as the sun rises, brings his mortally wounded father to the beach so they can do a final Fajr together. This time, Ali takes the role of the Imam, leading his father in the prayer instead of the other way around. It's during this prayer that Hassan dies—the most honorable death one can have according to the Islam faith. Ali remains by his father's side until the sun rises and takes him, too.
- Sarah dying in her parents' arms. Paul and Mildred sit together with their daughter's body as the sun rises—the only time that the three of them have ever been able to be "together." Paul takes off his priest's collar with disgust, either realizing how truly undeserving he is of it, and/or realizing that it was his priestdom that kept him from his family in the first place.
- "Forgive me."
- Leeza is now paralyzed below the waist again. After a taste of hope, she now has to learn to live with paralysis all over again...
To be sorted
- Erin miscarrying her baby with absolutely no warning, and struggling to process her grief and loss; she reveals to Riley that her unborn daughter saved her, as realizing that she was pregnant gave Erin the courage to leave her abusive husband... and now her daughter is gone.
- Riley and Erin sitting together and sharing their ideas of what happens when they die. Both descriptions are heartachingly beautiful.
- Joe's death is this, on top of being Nightmare Fuel. He was just starting to turn his life around, making an effort to stop drinking and attending AA meetings with Riley, which all comes to an end when he is murdered by Father Paul simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Made worse by the fact that Paul really is legitimately proud of Joe for making the effort, even while he's killing the man for his blood.
- Monsignor Pruitt breaks down in tears in the finale confessing to Mildred the ultimate reason behind his whole scheme: he didn't want her to die; he felt he had wasted his life without her and Sarah, and he wanted a second chance for them to be a family.
- Sarah and Erin sadly admit to each other that they will never know if they managed to save Leeza and Warren, but they have to hope that they did.
- Several conversations throughout the series about people wanting to leave the island or turn their lives around become this in hindsight with all but two characters dying.
