Yuku free message boards

The Holy Shea Bible



Chapter 7: Burning in the Lake of Fire


At breakfast, Shea is hectored by questions from her daughter. Did Richard kill Madison's grandfather? And where is Richard? Shea says "no" and "around."

Now that Shea's father has been publicly killed and Richard has 'disappeared,' Shea can be much more outwardly disturbed and anxiety-ridden (as she is in this scene) without arousing suspicion.

The only person who could be even slightly problematic is her prying daughter. Madison has ten years (or however old Madison is) insight into her mother's psychology, and they seem to share a perpetual id-superegotic bond. Shea has some control over her daughter, but not complete. Before Booth's "death" we have Madison confiding in Abby that she won't be a flowergirl, suggesting she had partially overheard a conversation. In this way, Madison is always picking up breadcrumbs as to what is happening, and her desire to pry and dig further is all so annoying and problematic to Shea.

As for the other wedding guests, they're all so enormously self-absorbed that they give into blankly trusting Shea and turning their attention elsewhere (mostly to their own affairs).



Like Malcolm, for example, who goes through several 'mini-dramas' hording and hiding the quarter million dollars. At this point, there is a real, palpable danger on Harper's Island. The wedding guests know there is a murderer on the island and are collectively freaked-out.

If Malcolm hands the money over to the cops, the investigation will move forward a lot more quickly as evidence is taken into account and the search for Booth's body will be a major thorn in Shea's side.

Shea has such a deeply cynical attitude towards the wedding guests and human nature in general that she'll literally give them evidence that could be used against her (as long as they succeed at this or that moral test). What's funny is that her deeply negative interpretation of human nature is almost always verified. And, thus, we have 25 guests, many of them with some piece of evidence, but none of them coming forward to the authorities even with the real-life threat of a murderer on the loose.

Well, Malcolm fails the give-money-to-the-police test yet again. And he's finally discovered by his friends, Sully and Danny, who ask "where's booth?"

"It was the money," confesses Malcolm. "If you guys thought Booth ran off with it, then I could keep it."

After hearing some nonsense excuses, Danny punches Malcolm. "You let Booth die in the woods for money, man?! You killed him from money!"

Danny and Sully are fed up with Malcolm and the money drama. "When you come downstairs we're going to the sheriff. Tell him everything. And then we'll get Booth." "We're not leaving him here."



One last moral test for Malcolm. (He's failed so many up until this point.) Do you give the money to the police or do you destroy the money? If you destroy the money, you're continuing to hamper the authorities' search while a murderer is on the loose, threatening people's lives. But if you hand the money over to the authorities, then that money can be used as evidence implicating you in a crime (murder or criminal negligence).

Well, perhaps needless to say, another moral test failed by Malcolm. At the beginning, he stole money from a crimescene and destroyed that crimescene. Then he betrayed his best friend, Booth, by taking the bag of money back to Candlewick rather than taking his dying friend out of the woods to receive medical attention. And finally Malcolm destroys evidence that could be used to find the killer because it could also be used against himself.

Malcolm has witlessly provided a moral foundation for his own death. By choosing the bag of cash over the life of his best friend, he's put money over life. But Malcolm is hypocritical enough to put his own life over the damning evidence when he decides to throw it in the furnace.

If Malcolm puts money above life and is willing to burn money, he must also be willing to burn himself. And if he's able to betray his friend, then he must be willing to allow that friend to return in kind. Malcolm is greeted by Booth who chops him with a machete and throws Malcolm's remains in the fire.





It appears as if even little girls aren't safe from moral tests. Madison has been a little ball of destruction since arriving on the island, and she even lied to the Sheriff to protect her father. But Madison's biggest moral crime is her endless fascination with the dead and the occult.

These pagan ideologies are deeply immoral and challenge the fundamental precepts of Christianity.

So when a note from Madison's father is slipped under the door, the moral test is set in motion. Will Madison, disbelieving in spirits, give the note to the adults and greatly aid in their search for the murderer? or will Madison, believing in spirits, make herself vulnerable by sneaking away from adults in search of her father's ghost?

Unfortunately, this is a test Madison fails. She ventures away from the safety of adults into the dark room of the occult. As the door closes suddenly, it's as if the spirits themselves have trapped the little girl. Madison has wondered into a trap, a spider-web set up by the killer, but powered entirely by the little girls pagan ideology and occult fascination.