Ilonka is the only one of the show’s eight main characters to act as an audience surrogate, despite “The Midnight Club” being available on Netflix. The event that kicks off the story is when Ilonka learns she has thyroid cancer. After abandoning doctors who specialize in conventional medicine, Ilonka turns to the internet in an attempt to find a treatment for her condition. She finds out about Brightcliffe Hospice and how one of the patients, Julia Jeyne, is said to have fully recovered from her illness. Ilonka uses the same strategy as before in the hope that her adoptive father will agree to take her in. Brightcliffe has been part of the landscape of its vast area for a very long time. In the 1940s, he was affiliated with a group known as the Paragon cult. If you’re curious whether or not Paragon’s fictional band is based on an actual cult, we’ve got the answer for you.
Paragon a true cult
Is Paragon a real cult?
The novel of the same name written by Christopher Pike in 1994 inspired the film The Midnight Club. The first thing Ilonka tells us about Paragon is what she tells us about Brightcliffe. Mark, the nurse practitioner, explains to Ilonka and her foster father after they arrive that the house itself was built in 1901 by logging industrialist Stanley Oscar Freelon and his wife, Vera. Following this, Mark introduces Ilonka and her adoptive father inside the house. During the times of the Great Depression, it functioned as a halfway house. After that, Paragon acquired ownership of the property.
According to the show’s plot, Regina Ballard, a woman whose husband died of pneumonia and whose son was paralyzed by polio, started the Paragon company in 1931. She founded Paragon as a new approach -age of health and well-being. However, over time it turned into something quite different. The practices of ancient Greek religion had a significant impact on Regina, and she began to worship the Five Sisters of Healing: Panacea, Hygeia, Iaso, and Aglaea. After some time, Regina began to disguise herself as the deceased goddess. In addition to these two deities, there were four additional women in the company who played the roles of the other goddesses.
The members of Paragon, led by Regina, have gone to great lengths in their exploration of Greek religion, going so far as to perform ritual sacrifices. Athena, Regina’s daughter, found herself increasingly concerned about her mother’s actions. During one of the nights, she took the other children safely away from the house, then called the authorities. Authorities, however, found that all adult members of the cult had perished except for Regina herself. After that, she was admitted to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. Years later, Julia reunited with Regina in hopes that she could find a cure for her fatal illness.
The Paragon TV show is not based on any actual cult that has ever existed in the real world; however, the show points out that there were quite a few cults active in the 1930s and 1940s, such as the I AM cult, the Silver Legion, and the Psychiana movement. However, the Silver Legion was largely an organization in the United States that sympathized with Fascism and Nazism. Interestingly, mining engineer Guy W. Ballard and his wife Edna are the ones who started the I AM cult.
Also Read: What Time Is The Luckiest Girl Alive Starring Mila Kunis Coming to Netflix?
What is the hourglass sign?
The hourglass was a sign of the times for those who were part of the Paragon organization. The traditional symbolism associated with the hourglass, which frequently represents the passage of time or even mortality, was very different from the hourglass that appeared in the video game Paragon. The top of the Paragon Hourglass had been covered with a dark cloth, meaning the sand is currently flowing from the top of the device. They believed that the hourglass could be turned over and over again without it running out.
It would seem from this that Regina and others who followed her believed that it was possible to reverse the course of time and cure oneself of any disease. They used the Paragon Hourglass to leave a mark on the entire Brghtcliffe property as well as themselves. The fact that Dr. Stanton wears the symbol of an hourglass around her neck, which can be seen in one of the final moments of the season, gives the impression that she is none other than Athena.
Read also: Michael Skakel is still alive in 2022: where is he today?