Tamal Kundu
While ‘Midnight Mass’ addresses myriads of issues, it’s still fundamentally a horror TV show. There is evil in ‘Midnight Mass,’ both in human and supernatural forms. They torture and kill those weaker than them and thrive while others deal with misery and pain. The first episode ends with numerous dead cats washing ashore on the beach of Crockett Island after a storm. In episode 2, someone poisons Joe Collie’s dog, Pike. If you are wondering who or what is malicious enough to go after the innocent animals, this is what you need to know. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Who Killed the Cats in Midnight Mass?
In the first episode, we learn the Uppards is filled with cats. No one knows exactly how they got there, but the prevalent theory is that their ancestors were brought from the mainland when people still lived in the Uppards. Since then, the cat population has exploded. They are virtually everywhere in the Uppards.
Their diet apparently includes the bodies of the people who were buried in the Uppards. During storms, the flooding brings the bodies out of the ground. According to Warren (Igby Rigney), who visits the Uppards with his friends Ooker (Louis Oliver) and Ali (Rahul Abburi) to smoke marijuana, these bodies wash up on the west bank by his house. During their visit there, Ooker sees something that he dismisses as a large bird, while Warren sees a pair of glowing eyes on a humanoid being.
After the storm, Warren and his family discover that dozens of cats have washed up ashore on the west bank. Later in the series, we find out that Father Paul (Hamish Linklater) has brought a vampiric creature to the island. It is that creature that killed all those cats and drank their blood. Due to the flooding, their bodies were washed up on the beach by Warren’s house.
Who Killed Joe Collie’s Dog?
Since he accidentally shot Leeza, the Mayor’s young daughter, no one has hated Joe Collie as much as Joe Collie himself, but because of his dog Pike, he has at least one source of happiness in his life. That, too, gets taken from him when Bev Keane (Samantha Sloyan) poisons Pike. All the dog had done was to bark at her. Earlier that day, Erin sees Bev taking some chemicals from the school storage, which Bev claims she wants to use to deal with a rat infestation at her home.
After Pike’s death, everyone, including Sheriff Hassan (Rahul Kohli), figures out that Bev is behind it, but no action is taken against her. She is a powerful and influential figure in the community, and as the series progresses, she emerges as the primary human antagonist of the series.
Bev represents a particular brand of malevolence that is disturbingly common in society. She is bitter, angry, vindictive, cruel, Islamophobic, hateful, and a religious fanatic. She was the one who convinced the islanders to accept the settlements from the oil companies after the spill. They never realized that while the money seems significant, it wasn’t much compared to a couple of years of lost wages. Fishing is the most prominent industry in Crocket Island, and the spill had a devastating effect on it. Facing financial difficulties, many families were forced to leave the island.
Incidentally, Bev uses the same brand of chemicals during the Easter Mass. People willingly drink the poison, die, and are resurrected because of the creature’s blood coursing through their bodies.
Read More: Midnight Mass Ending, Explained
