Netflix’s “The Midnight Club” has eight main characters. However, Ilonka is the audience surrogate. Ilonka is diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Ilonka is determined to find a cure and abandons conventional medicine. Ilonka learns about Brightcliffe Hospice and how Julia Jeyne, a resident, has made a complete recovery.
Ilonka hopes for similar results and convinces her foster dad to accept her. Brightcliffe’s sprawling home is steeped in history. It belonged to the Paragon cult in the 1940s. We have the answers to your questions about whether Paragon is actually a cult. SPOILERS BEFORE.
Is Paragon a real Cult?
The 1994 namesake book of Christopher Pike is the basis for ‘The Midnight Club. Ilonka’s description of Brightcliffe is the first thing we learn about Paragon. Mark, the nurse practitioner, explains that the house was built by Stanley Oscar Freelon, a logging industrialist, and Vera, his wife. It was used as a halfway house during the Depression Era. Paragon took the property over after that.
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Paragon, the show’s founder, was Regina Ballard in 1931. She lost her husband to pneumonia and her son to polio, and she founded Paragon. She founded Paragon as a new-age philosophy of health. As time went on, Paragon evolved into something much more. Regina was heavily influenced and began to worship the five sisters of healing, Panacea (Hygeia), Iaso and Aceso. Regina started using the name the last goddess as her alias over time. Four other women were part of the group that fulfilled the roles of the four goddesses.
Under Regina’s guidance, Paragon delved into the Greek faith and even performed ritual sacrifices. Athena, Regina’s daughter, began to worry about her mother’s behavior. Athena escorted other children out of the house one night and called the police. The authorities discovered that Regina was the only adult member of the cult who they had not killed. Regina was sent to a mental hospital. Julia reached out to Regina years later in hopes of curing her terminal illness.
Paragon doesn’t draw its inspiration from any real-world cults. However, the show shows that there were many of them in the 1930s/40s, including I AM Sect and Silver Legion. The Silver Legion was an American fascist-sympathizing organization. The founders of I AM Sect are Guy W. Ballard, a mining engineer, and his wife, Edna.
What is the Hourglass Sign?
Paragon members believed that the hourglass symbol represented the passage of time. Paragon’s version of the hourglass symbol was quite different from traditional iconography, which is often associated with death. Paragon’s hourglass top has been darkened, which indicates that the sand is falling from its top. They believed the hourglass could be turned repeatedly.
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This suggests that Regina and her followers believed they could reverse time and heal any illness. The Paragon hourglass was used to mark the entire Brghtcliffe property as well as themselves. One of the last scenes in the season shows us Dr. Stanton wearing an hourglass symbol around her neck. This suggests that she is Athena.
