The "Angel" is the main antagonist of the 2021 supernatural horror miniseries Midnight Mass. It is an ancient vampiric being that is discovered by Monsignor Pruitt in a tomb near Jerusalem. Upon it's discovery, it transforms Pruitt into a vampire and rejuvenates him, manipulating Pruitt into believing it is an Angel and bringing it back to his hometown of Crockett Island so it can feed.
It was played by Quinton Boisclair.
Biography[]
The origins of the creature prior to the events of the series are never explained, beyond it having been encased in a tomb near the city of Jerusalem. Throughout the show, it is referred to as an angel by the devoutly catholic Monsignor Pruitt, but it is never explained by the creature or other individuals what it is. It's incredibly demonic appearance and inability to speak imply either the creature has been a vampire so long it's started to devolve, or it rather is the first creature to exhibit the disease, being an alien or demon of some kind.
In the year 2021, Monsignor Pruitt, the sick and elderly priest of the small town of Crockett Island, goes on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Unbeknownst to the population of the town, Pruitt had developed dementia, and upon arriving at Jerusalem, he became lost, eventually getting stuck in a sandstorm. There, the ancient tomb that the creature lied within was unearthed and Pruitt sought refuge within. There, the creature attacked Pruitt and began sucking his blood. In his last moments, Pruitt began reciting bible verses, and interpreted the monster as an angel. The creature then slit its wrist, and offered its blood to Pruitt, who drank. When the storm passed, Pruitt awoke to find he had regained his youth. Pruitt then decided to bring the creature back to Crockett Island, intending to share the Angel's blood with the rest of the town and make them immortal, specifically his old lover Mildred Gunning.
Keeping the creature in a trunk, Pruitt returns to Crockett Island, and adopts the alias of Paul Hill, as he no longer resembles the elderly priest the town remembers. Now let loose, the Angel goes to a nearby island and sucks the blood of feral cats which have populated it, leaving their corpses on the beach. It later sucks the blood of the town drug dealer Bowl. At the same time, Pruitt pours the Angel's blood into the communion wine and serves it to the churchgoers, causing the elders to slowly regain their youth, and Leeza Scarborough, the paralyzed daughter of the mayor, to regain her ability to walk. In contrast, the side effects of the Angel's blood begin to affect Pruitt: he collapses during a sermon and suffers a stroke, coughing up blood before regenerating. He also begins burning in sunlight, forced to stay inside, and murders local drunk Joe Collie, whom he had been rehabilitating during Alcoholic Anonymous meetings.
The Angel later makes an appearance when it comes to the rec center where Pruitt hosts his AA meetings, and pours its blood into a decanter when Riley Flynn, a recovering alcoholic and atheist, walks in. The Angel then attacks and drains Riley of his blood, only for Pruitt to give Riley his own blood, turning Riley into a vampire as well. Riley, horrified, reveals his affliction to his childhood crush and school teacher Erin Greene and kills himself by willingly exposing himself to sunlight to prove himself to her. By this point, many townsfolk, such as Mildred and Riley's parents Ed and Annie, have begun to similarly regain their youth. Pruitt then hosts a midnight mass, where he reveals his true identity to the townsfolk, with the Angel revealing itself as well, appearing in a priestly garment. Pruitt then has Bev Keane, a fanatical Catholic who believes the whole incident to be an omen for the Second Coming of Christ, serve out rat poison for the crowd to drink, killing themselves and completing the transformation into vampires. Most of the crowd, including Mayor Scarborough and his wife, drink the poison, and regenerate, sucking the blood of those who refuse. In the chaos, Sheriff Hassan, the muslim Sheriff of the town, drops his gun, causing Mildred, who has realized what has happened to Pruitt, to grab it and shoot Pruitt in the head. In response, the Angel attacks and kills Mildred, who shortly thereafter reanimates as a vampire.
In the ensuing chaos, the undead churchgoers begin chasing after and sucking the blood of those not at mass, while a few individuals, such as Anne, Erin, Hassan, Riley's brother Warren, Pruitt and Mildred's daughter Sarah, and Leeza escape them, and burn the boats to keep the vampires off the island. Keane then begins burning every building save for the rec center, believing it to be part of the end of days she is fulfilling. During the rampage, the Angel begins feeding off of various uninfected townsfolk, such as a married couple. At one point, Warren and Leeza encounter the creature and attempt to burn it, only for it to fly away. In the climax of the final episode, Erin and Hassan attempt to burn down the rec center, leaving the vampires with nowhere to hide from the sunlight, but are confronted by the vampires: Bev shoots Hassan and Erin is attacked by the Angel, who begins feeding on her. As the Angel sucks her blood, Erin uses a knife to cut holes in the creature's wings, leaving it to escape.
As the entire island burns, Leeza and Warren, the sole humans to escape the event, witness the Angel erratically attempting to fly away. The creature's fate is unknown, but Warren says that its unlikely to get to hiding before the sun comes up, implying the Angel, like the rest of the townsfolk, ultimately burned to death.