This Is What Avi’s Secret Actually Means On Messiah

When Aviram Dahan (Tomer Sisley) is introduced in the final act of the Messiah premiere we quickly learn that he has a secret. It's one that he's not interested in revealing anytime soon, but it might be what ultimately saves his life.

While questioning al-Masih (Mehdi Dehbi), a mysterious savior figure who was arrested after leading his followers to the Israeli-Palestinian border, the Israeli agent is told that his anger is misplaced. "You hold onto hatred like it's a prize," al-Masih, who is thought to be the second coming by some and a scammer by others, tells Avi, "when it's the weight around your neck." Avi is surprised that his captive even knows his name, never mind his secret. "You are in my father's book," says al-Masih, who claims he was sent here by his dad on a special mission.

Avi is a brutal man, who seems to enjoy hurting people, which he claims is part of the job. He's also been hurt before, as the scars on his back show. But, al-Masih hints that Avi's anger has something to do with a boy. "Is that when you stopped believing?" he asks Avi, only to tell him, "He is waiting for you whenever you are ready." It's unclear at that moment whether the "he" al-Masih speaks of is the boy or someone of a higher power.

What we learn later in the premiere is that Avi's secret has something to do with "Megiddo," an ancient city in Northern Israel that when mentioned gives his drinking buddy an uneasy feeling. Since Messiah is heavily steeped in religious mythology, it doesn't feel like a coincidence that in the Holy Bible's Book of Revelations, Megiddo is the setting of an apocalyptic battle between good and evil. What we do know is that this city also has something to do with a flashback of a hooded figure that Avi has in his car after a night of drinking.

It's not until the final episode that we understand what his vision meant. While on a 2011 mission in the West Bank, Avi captures a kid who was making bombs. It's the same "baker boy" who is wearing the hood in Avi's dream. Avi tortures the boy, whose name is Rashid Khalid Al Nuaimi, to get him to talk. It's a name that won't ring a bell to viewers but will rock Avi to his core.

Cut to the present day, Avi has taken in al-Masih, who we've learned is a man named Payam Golshiri, with the U.S. government's permission. While on their way to Israel, Golshiri suggests they continue their talk from earlier. "Don't you want to get it off your chest?" Golshiri asks Avi. "Secrets are so heavy to carry around." He reminds Avi that "God knows your secrets and loves you anyway." He pushes Avi to reveal his sins and be reborn. "That boy," he says. "He'll be the last thing you see before you die."

It's then we finally get to see what Avi did to that boy. It turns out the boy's father was a murderer who brutally killed many including Avi's mother in the car bombing that begins episode 9. It's this boy's father who Avi says "gave him his conviction" and shaped who he became. "You weren't even born," Avi tells the 14-year-old boy, " but you've inherited his sin."

The boy screams for mercy, praying to his god for forgiveness, Avi shoots him, but the viewer never sees it. Instead, viewers see Avi apologize for taking the boy's life, which might just be what saves his. Avi says he's sorry for killing that boy right as his plane plummets to the ground. While it's assumed everyone on board dies, Avi and the others somehow live with help from Golshiri, who is believed to be a man with a god complex, not the actual Messiah. But, after raising the dead it seems Golshiri, like Avi, has a secret of his own.