The Psychology of Father Paul Hill (Midnight Mass): The Tragedy of Blind Faith

You see when father Paul got his ‘interview with a vampire’, for some strange reason the bloodsucker decided to turn him into one as well, restoring his youth and reinvigorating his faith. While it’s not clear why the vampire decided to do this, I personally think it was because he figured this schmuck could help him reach more potential blood bags, rather than waiting in a cave all day or you know maybe he was just lonely, Father Paul took a different approach.

Faith Forgoes Facts

In his pride, the good father could only conclude that anything that would help such a pious and devote man as himself must in fact be a gift from god, and this clearly demonic looking monster must in fact be an Angel.

Now, the logic he uses to confirm his faith are lines from the bible that state that whenever anyone saw a messenger of god they were afraid, and while this is sort of true, and ancient descriptions of angels are more akin to those of Lovecraftian horrors rather than dove-winged demigods, he is also clearly ignoring the various parts of the bible that describe demons as exactly the thing in front of him!

An Angel according to the bible!

This hubris he has in himself further fuels his blind fate, and it only gets worse from here. He convinces himself that the angel was sent to him in order to save his slowly fading fishing village, and transports him to Crockett Island.

The Father’s fall from Grace

And it all goes downhill from here, with the Father using his blind fate and abstract lines from the bible to convince himself and others that he was on some holly quest by the lord, while in reality he was just creating a vampire nest that saw Jesus as their lord and savior. 

The best example of this can be seen with his craving for blood, while he does realize that his need to kill is wrong, when he does finally give into it and accidently kills the town drunk and uses him as a Sippy cup, he looks at it as the will of god, and sees him in a sort of avenging angel role rather than the murdering horror movie monster he actually is.

This pride of his, that he knows what is best for his people also causes him to replace the sacramental wine with “Angel Blood” without the consent of those he was delivering it to.

And this twisted adherence to blind fate is something he adheres to till the end of the show, until the hypocrisy of his actions catch up to him when faced with his ex-lover and secret daughter.

Also that’s a big no-no for priests you sanctimonious prick

Only at the end when the series of events causes him to lose his daughter is he able to admit to himself that maybe he did all this for more selfish reasons such as make making the love of his life young again and maybe having a second chance at having a family rather than it being all part of God’s plan.

Not that ‘gods plan’ is the first lame joke I thought of

While Father Paul does feel some remorse and attain some kind of redemption at the end, it does feel like it’s too little too late. Especially since he made Bev Keane, an actual psychopath and all around bitch his second in command who was more than happy to usurp his position as the shepherd to his flock.

I don’t know which makes father Paul a worse judge of character: thinking a Vampire is an angel or trusting this self-righteous nut-job.

All Return to Dust

To conclude Father Paul hill’s story is a tragic one because while he was blinded by his fate and his own hubris in believing himself and his actions to be divine, he did at least in sorts have the best intensions in mind. But his good intensions in the end caused more harm than good. In the end he only needed to accept that he was not special to finds peace and just admit to himself that what he truly wanted was to spend time with and die with his secret family.

Well at least he got to do that last bit.

Want some Greek Gods instead of Angels and Vampires check out the New world odyssey series