Dr. Sarah Gunning quotes from Midnight Mass

Dr. Sarah Gunning

[about Ignaz Semmelweis, to Erin] He started a mandatory chlorine hand wash. Lo and behold, death rates plummeted. And the scientific community ate him alive. Germ theory was two decades away from acceptance. Ideas in that direction were met with disdain, ridicule, exile. Semmelweis was committed to an asylum. An asylum. By another scientist. In fact, he died there. Oh, and when they replaced him at these clinics, got rid of that crazy, silly hand wash? Mortality rates went right back up again. So yeah, Erin, your story is crazy.

Dr. Sarah Gunning

[demonstrating a blood sample that bursts into flame when sunlight hits it] He literally combusted in the sun? You're right, Erin. That's crazy. That is batshit, hold the phone, padded room, clozapine insane. Fucking bonkers.

[about Leeza being able to walk] Have you ever seen anything like this? I mean, it's a miracle isn't it? A real one, like a Gospel's real one.

Dr. Sarah Gunning

Before today? No, I haven't seen anything like this before today. But now I have.

She's walking and she's standing. And we're grateful. It feels wrong, doesn't it? To interrogate a miracle? Second guess a gift from God?

You're telling me there's a contagion being spread intentionally at St. Patrick's?

Dr. Sarah Gunning

I'm telling you that is what I suspect, even if it sounds...

What exactly are you asking of me?

Dr. Sarah Gunning

Well, I suppose I'm asking you to look into it.

Look into what, exactly? Look into St. Patrick's? On -- and, just to be clear -- on the basis that some of your mother's blood tests got damaged?

Dr. Sarah Gunning

It's a lot to ask, I know.

Do you? Do you? Did I ever tell you why I moved here?

Dr. Sarah Gunning

No. No, I don't think you did.

Didn't tell anybody, now that I think about it. It's almost as if nobody asked.

[about his fellow policemen] And more and more, I realize I've lost their trust. I roll with it. I keep my head high. Dignity. Dignity is a word my wife uses. "Show them dignity." And then she's diagnosed. And she's robbed of her dignity so fast. And then she's gone. And I couldn't... Ali and I get as far away as we can. And I find this-- this gig. This little island. So sleepy, it could be dead. No elections, no staff. Just a tiny room at the back of a grocery store and a bunch of fishermen without a notable incident of intentional violence in almost a century, and I beg for the post. Dignity. Ali is bored to tears, but he's safe. And I still think I could maybe move the world that one millimeter. Y'know, maybe-- Maybe here is where we make a difference. Not in the big city, but in this tiny village. Win over the fucking PTA and call it a victory for Islam. So I don't intimidate. I don't overshare, or overstep, or intrude in any way. I don't even carry a gun. And still. Still, Beverly Keane, and a few others too, look at me like I'm Osama bin-Fucking Laden. And you'd like me to investigate St. Patrick's?

Dr. Sarah Gunning

For what it's worth, I want very much, very much to be wrong.