[Ryan]

It is, according to I’ll Tell Them I Remember You.

[granville1]

I’ve never been clear on TVYNS’s showing of Mary Karras’s face in the window before Karras jumps. I can only come up with two interpretations:

1) Mary – either by her own will, or by God’s leave – is appearing from the “other side” to give support to her son;

2) Pazuzu is throwing one final visionary torment at Karras – he has tormented Karras with Mary’s supposed apearances before, and now he’s trying to break his will one last time.

I prefer 2) because it is consistent with the story as told thus far. Pazuzu has already tempted and tortured Karras with “fake Mary”. We also know that the demon is a deceiver.

We have seen the real Mary Karras in the beginning of the film, and we have seen the visionary, demonically-presented Mary Karras toward the end of the film. Thus far, every _visionary_ manifestation of Karras’s mother has been demonic. Why should this final one be any different?

Moreover, it seems to have been Blatty’s intention that Karras’s final conflict with the demon should be one-on-one, unaided by anyone else, not even by the saintly Merrin. – or by Karras’s mother.

To be invited to think that Karras’s lone fight was supernaturally aided at the last moment by his mother’s presence weakens the courage of his isolated struggle. Worse (like the spotlight which “re-animates” Fr. Morning in Legion”), it creates a “deus ex machina” quite out of keeping with the thrust of Friedkin’s narrative and Blatty’s depiction of Karras.

Just my .02 cents.

[Author]

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