What is the Paragon cult from The Midnight Club?

The Midnight Club is finally streaming on Netflix! As expected concerning a Mike Flanagan project, it’s what everyone’s watching and talking about. It follows a group of eight terminally ill patients at Brightcliffe Hospice, who regularly meet up at midnight to tell each other scary stories. One night, they make a pact that whoever succumbs to their disease first will be responsible for sending the group a sign from the afterlife. But once one of them passes away, strange occurrences begin.

Spoilers ahead from The Midnight Club.

When llonka becomes diagnosed with thyroid cancer, she doesn’t let her diagnoses get her down. Her determination to survive leads her to Brightcliffe Hospice, a place for terminally ill teenagers to transition on their own terms. She learns the hospice origins while doing her research. It was built in 1901 by a logging industrialist and was called the Freelan House. Then, in the ’40s, a group called the Paragon lived there and turned it into a cult compound. Later in 1966, Dr. Stanton bought it and turned it into a hospice.

But what is the Paragon cult? We answered this burning question down below!

The Midnight Club: What is the Paragon cult?

The Paragon started as a religious commune but turned into a death cult. llonka gives a deeper explanation of what the Paragon is in episode 5.

It was started in 1931 by Regina Ballard, who later went by the name of Aceso, after the Greek goddess of healing. Aceso started the group as a new age health philosophy, which is a naturopathic alternative to the medical establishment. She became obsessed with the ancient Greek goddesses: Panacea, Hygeia, Iaso, Aglaea, and Aceso. With the right worship, Aceso thought she could accomplish more than healthy living and healing sickness. She even picked the group symbol, the hourglass, which represents time.

As Aceso began to lose her mind, she picked the members of the Paragon she thought could represent the five sisters and started a ritual, including a blood sacrifice. While the ritual took place, Aceso’s daughter Athena was freaked out by what she saw. Athena begged her mom to stop, but she wouldn’t listen. So, Athena gathered the children at the house and went to get help.

Once the police arrived at the house, they went into the basement to find all of the members dead by poison except Aceso. Aceso tells the police that it was an accident and that she gathered the wrong plants for the tea they drank for the ritual. But Athena knew that her mom was lying and that she knew exactly what she was doing. Aceso had previously told Athena that a blood sacrifice was needed to give her a long life. After the tragedy, the Paragon disbanded, Aceso dropped off the radar and went to her real name, and Athena is believed to have done the same.

The Midnight Club is available to stream on Netflix right now.