John Pruitts chance, his choices regarding the events that happened on Crockett island was purely based off of love, and regret, not having the courage to quit priesthood. He regretted not choosing to actually live his own life instead of solely living life for god, because that’s all he knew and the pressure of leaving was detrimental in such community. He was not a selfish man, he was a damn priest, and the one time he was actually selfish he was also thinking of the people of Crocket he severed for over fifty years and how he could help them from their pain and hardships. He chose love first and foremost, the woman who his heart belonged to and the daughter they created together in one of very few moments they shared outside the lives they settled for.
Mildred Gunning, she was never selfish, she settled for a man and the life they created because she couldn’t be with the man she truly belonged to. When she said she didn’t want to ruin four lives, it wasn’t because she didn’t love John, she loved him hole heartedly. They both made their choices early in in life which lead them down paths that would never meet perfectly and only ever run along one another, which made her settle for the man she married, as John was supposed to be untouchable by his vows to god. Yet in the very end of everything they lived selfishly together and died together as one unit, a family as they should have been.
I also want to add that the way John was acting towards Riley after Riley was renewed, it was from him being manipulated and lied to from the Vampire and Bev. It was a reflection of how he was feeling and being treated. I think he knew what he was preaching was bullshit but didn’t know what to truly believe or think in his own right with Bev shoving her shit down his throat. After returning to the island it is obvious he changed as things went forward and who he was becoming was only situational and not who he truly was. Even In the scene when when Mildred went back to church for the first time, her reaction to his preaching was proof of his change in perspective. Then there was also the thing when he mentioned the mouse to Riley to make him believe it was really him, in that moment the anecdote was manipulative, but when it happened all those years before it wasn’t; it was just keeping a child’s innocence and belief, at the time, of god true until he was older and really began to question his faith. No lies or manipulation in a severe degree. There are bits and pieces throughout the series that you have to pay attention to which really put forth who John Pruitt truly was as a person. And, of course head to lie about his identity in the beginning, being bitten by a vampire and becoming one years younger than he was before is a-lot for someone take in yet alone even believe.