Now, who in their right mind would do such a thing without Sam and Dean present? But that’s the thing, though. Nobody in showbiz back in the wild wild 70s America was in their right mind. Why else would Jack Delroy bring a minor into something as unpredictable as a Night Owls Halloween special? And why’d the producers give something so risky a green signal? Now would be the time to pop over to the movie summary if you need a brush-up on the story. And for those of you freshly back with a lot of questions about Jack Delroy in Late Night With The Devil, let’s try to figure out the shady late-night host and his foul secrets.
Spoiler Alert
What is the Grove?
The Cairnes duo’s take on cults hoarding big shots in politics and industry almost has an early season American Horror Story cheeky boldness to it. The Grove never actively becomes a topic of discussion. And yet you know that they have a part to play in every horrific thing going down in Late Night With The Devil. They’re only mentioned by the narrator in the documentary as an ominous and perverted retreat for the men who call the shots in the world. Now, Jack Delroy’s place in The Grove makes sense, given that he’s one of the most highly rated talk-show hosts in America and that he has ways to influence the masses through Night Owls. You know how it is. Back then, TV was people’s social media. Any Illuminati and Zuckerberg conspiracy theorists here? Even if we knew nothing about the sort of place The Grove is, nobody would actually buy the members’ claim that it’s a harmless men’s club. Nothing about an exclusive group of powerful men sounds particularly innocent. At the very least, their mysterious rituals and lecherous escapades suggest some level of illegal activity. But the cult running the whole show in Late Night With The Devil has way more sinister implications. If it’s true that Jack met the demon Abraxas amid the tall trees, it’s obvious that their meeting happened at one of The Grove’s retreats. It’s also heavily implied that The Grove had a hand in Jack Delroy’s roaring success. But make no mistake. They didn’t help him for free. The Grove likely has a direct line with the devil and his minions. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering Late Night With The Devil plays around with conspiracy theories about a satanic cult running Hollywood.
Did Jack Delroy sacrifice his wife for success?
Jack and Madeleine were the cause of envy for everyone who hoped for celebrity couples to have awful relationships. You know how people hate those who have it all. Madeleine never touching a cigarette, and her dying of lung cancer seemed to break her husband. And there was always the sense that he was buried under layers of grief over his wife’s death. Christou wasn’t the real deal. The fact that he fooled people with his performance as a medium was clear when skeptic Carmichael Haig found out that Christou already knew about the mother-daughter duo in the audience. His partner’d learned about the family’s dead son, and that’s how Christou knew whose spirit he’d pretend to voice. So a fake like Christou knowing about Jack’s dead wife “Minnie” and dying after projectile vomiting black goop only meant that Madeleine’s ghost was there that night. The 13-year-old guest Lilly, who was allegedly possessed by the demon Abraxas, let “Mr. Wriggles” take over, and that’s when Madeleine’s spirit showed up beside Jack. This can only mean that Abraxas was in possession of Madeleine’s spirit, or at least connected to her in some way. Lilly’s ominous confidence over Jack’s impending success also suggests Jack has made a deal with Abraxas. From parapsychologist Dr. Jane’s research, it’s clear that Abraxas’ first church saw many human sacrifices carried out by its dark priest, Szandor D’Abo. If Jack did shake hands with Abraxas on one of those retreats, that’d mean the demon took his wife in exchange for his highly-rated show. In the end, when a heartbroken Jack stabs Madeleine’s astral form with the sacrificial dagger from Abraxas’ church, it’s only meant to be a metaphor for how she was actually sacrificed because he was told he could have it all.
Why did Abraxas come back?
Some Gnostics believe that Abraxas is “a God above God.” There’s not much out there about Abraxas that sees through this enigmatic character who’s been called both a god and a demon. The texts on this pagan god were destroyed by Christians. The only one to have truly grasped who Abraxas is and represents is Carl Jung, who has written about the same in his book Seven Sermons to the Dead.
In Late Night With The Devil, D’Abo’s insight into what Abraxas stands for closely resembles Jung’s understanding of the demon. Abraxas is the middle ground that embraces all things good and evil. He’s beyond the morals that subdue the chaos people are capable of. The Abraxas D’Abo prays to demands sacrifices. And if The Grove is a cult that worships this demon, it makes sense that Jack would sacrifice someone so important to him in exchange for fame as a late-night TV host. Now, you might be wondering why Abraxas came back to Jack using Lilly as a vessel when he’d already paid off his debt with his wife’s life. And here’s my theory on this confusing ordeal. It’s possible that Madeleine’s death paid for the fame that Jack’d already attained. The Halloween special that skyrocketed the show’s ratings might not have been part of the deal.
Only by killing Lilly, which Jack does in an odd trance using the sacrificial dagger, can he continue to appease Abraxas and claim the reward. This also explains why Lilly was the only survivor who came out of the flames that engulfed the first church of Abraxas and its members. She was meant to be sacrificed by Jack. And D’Abo himself was there to oversee this process. Now the question is, does Jack do these things consciously? Frankly, he doesn’t seem like a man who’d kill his wife. His grief appears rather sincere. And if he had any hand in the death of his wife, why doesn’t he seem scared that his secrets will be out when Madeleine’s spirit shows up on the live show? Instead, you see him trying to convince people that it is, in fact, Madeleine’s spirit reaching out to him. This brings me to the wildest theory about this whole thing. Maybe Jack has no memory of making a deal with a demon. The man in the skeleton costume in the audience, staying eerily silent when Jack’s poking at him, is already a bit unnerving. The same man being present to see Jack off suggests that he might be a member of The Grove, a worshipper of Abraxas. There may not be much hope for Jack to get out of this nefarious cycle. As long as he’s successful in his career, he’ll have to hold up his end of the bargain one way or another.
