Revelations (2005 TV series)

Synopsis

Dr. Richard Massey, a noted astrophysicist from Harvard, returns home after having hunted down the Satanist that brutally murdered his daughter Lucy in a satanic ritual. The Satanist, a man named Isaiah Haden, is put into prison awaiting trial. Richard Massey is a man of science and does not believe in religion at all. He is bitter at his loss and the general poor state of his life, and only wants to see Isaiah Haden face his punishment.

Meanwhile, a nun named Josepha Montafiore who is working for the Eklind Foundation, a wealthy traditionalist Catholic organization, visits the bedside of a comatose girl. The child was struck twice by lightning while crossing a golf course, and is in a vegetative state. However, the girl mumbles bible verses in Latin, and draws cryptic drawings. Josepha believes that this is an act of God, and decides to pursue it.

The girl's visions lead Josepha to Richard, who joins her on her quest to document and unravel signs of the End of Days. Their journey eventually becomes a race against time to thwart Massey's followers as they try to bring about the Apocalypse, all the while hot on the trail of a child who may be able to save them all.

Cast

Ratings

The first episode received 15.6 million viewers.

Controversy

Some aspects of the series have caused controversy. Some have argued that the doctors' haste to declare the girl brain dead and harvest her organs is a deliberate misinterpretation of medical policy in cases like this. The show appears to indicate that the decision to pull a patient off life-support rests with the attending physician rather than the girl's parents who are not shown as having any part in the decision.

Revelations first aired two weeks following the death of Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state, by disconnection from life support. Like Terri Schiavo, the television girl was enmeshed in a controversy about whether her life should be terminated. Unlike Terri Schiavo, the girl was able to quote scripture, even with flat brain waves. The medical establishment in Revelations was portrayed as only too eager to terminate the lives of victims of vegetative states. By contrast, religious figures trying to stop termination were portrayed as wiser and appropriately caring.

Although the screenplay seemed sympathetic to a traditionalist form of Catholicism, the series' creator, writer, and executive producer were David Seltzer, who says he believes in all religions but practices none. Seltzer wrote the screenplay for The Omen.