I think it's clear Mac is
.
Which isn't to say he isn't other beings from myth and legend as well.
I don't think he is
. Mostly because he appears to be active and I think would have elicited a stronger response from Before. And his title isn't Watcher either.
I believe the Placard, at least in my interpretation of the scene, is similar to JK Rowling's literary device of the "Fidellius Charm" and the Secret Keeper function. i.e Mac is the weak point of an otherwise impenetrable threshold. Meaning that for it to hold true, Mac will have to sacrifice himself (Morris is correct). If Mac were to not sacrifice himself, or place himself between the path of whatever was trying to get into his bar, the Placard's power would be neutralized.
I have no idea why Jim wants to sacrifice Mac at this point but clearly he wants to start expanding the scope of his books.
So, if Harry looked at Mac with his sight, it would blind him or hurt him in some way. Okay, seeing Shaggy with his sight gave him a severe migraine. So is Mac really a retired archangel? Did he rebel, but not quite fall with the rest? Hopefully we will find out by the end of this book..
He had to trick her, but Harry did the right thing with Murphy, given her condition it is the best place for her to do some good.. Now, will Mac heal her when things get really nasty? Do you doubt that Mac could?
Not just a sever migraine but it almost destroyed his sanity. He is forever damaged by it. Don't think he is a retired Archangel though, I will get into that.
I don't think Mac can heal Murphy. It would unfortunately abrogate her Free Will, remove the consequences (good and bad) that came with her choices. I think Mac can only heal himself. He is transubstantiated but perhaps not quite to the degree Uriel was. Or perhaps he is but he has gained some power since...or maybe he cheats. Maybe it was Mab who healed him.
An alternative explanation is that it's dangerous for him to speak. That there are rules preventing him from sharing too much, so he errs on the sided of caution.
The only other time we saw something shutdown Harry's sight for his own benefit was the angel guard to the "police station" in GS.
I agree. Mac is either limited or chooses to limit his speech. It amounts mostly to the same. Maybe a bit of both. If he still has access to some intellectus that gives him tremendous power anyway even if he can't just outright warp reality.
Yeah, that was definitely a call back to GS. Jim is really trying to remind readers and be like "hey, have you worked it out?" plus we have years of Mac's food and drink being "divine" or "heavenly" etc.
Not sure what happened between Molly and Lara...could be the violation of the guest right and stealing Thomas back and Molly is angry on behalf of Winter. It felt right because of her formality. In saying that, Lara seemed to catch on immediately so perhaps it is personal.