One of the more confusing aspects of The Nun is the fact that Valak is constantly manipulating
things, and it’s hard for us as an audience to get a grip on what’s real and what’s
not.
For the ultimate guide on what exists and what is just an apparition, stick around to
the end of this video.
I know what you’re probably thinking, “Oh it’s this guy who jumpscared us, let’s
lock him up forever.”
Look, this video’s not about the jumpscares, it’s about Things You Missed In The Nun.
Now, I do reserve the right to jumpscare at any time during my videos, but I don’t usually
pull it out for Things You Missed; all I can say is to stay on your toes, and let’s get
into it.
Like I pointed out when I made this video, in The Conjuring 2, the name of the Nun demon
Valak is hidden within many of the scenes like so…
And that trend continues here in The Nun.
For example, when we first meet Sister Irene at the religious school she teaches at, when
they show the playground, there is a see-saw that some kids are playing on.
The bars that makeup the supports of the see-saw spell out the word Valak.
Then, in Biertan, the Romanian town near The Abbey, Frenchie has Sister Irene and Father
Burke load their stuff onto a truck.
The license plate of the truck reads VA 01 LAK.
If you remove the numbers, it spells out Valak.
There’s also a crossword puzzle that Father Burke is seen solving a couple different times
in the film.
Take a look at some of the boxes he’s written in and you’ll see the words Deliveries and
Create.
I bet you thought I was going to say that it said Valak, but the fact of the matter
is that the shots weren’t on screen long enough for me to see everything, so if you
saw anything pertaining to Valak or anything of significance at all, leave a comment telling
me what you saw, and I’ll pin your comment, and you’ll be famous and it will be a great
day for you.
So… remember when I did that one video where I explained the deeper meaning behind the
song that comes on the radio in the commercial for The Nun?
Well… it may have been all for nothing, because the song that comes on in the actual
movie is different.
“Just remember darling all the while.
You belong to me.”
The song is You Belong To Me, performed by Jo Stafford.
Like the song that was used in the commercial, it’s a cover of an existing song from that
era.
In this case, the song is used as a direct message from Valak to Father Burke, a warning
that if he stays in The Abbey, he’s in for trouble.
Valak is literally telling him, “you belong to me now” and it’s a foreshadow of the
scene where the Father is locked in a coffin where Valak tortures him.
It sure was nice of Valak to leave that shovel there for Sister Irene when she eventually
does find the father.
While she’s looking for him though, Valak lures her into the chapel, where a couple
of interesting things happen.
First off, the Nuns are chanting, so she should immediately know that something is up, because
we were just told they are taking a vow of silence.
Then Sister Irene sees a red glowing light coming up from below the altar, a symbol of
the fires of hell manifesting in the Abbey.
At this point, she follows the shadow of The Nun along wall, landing on the mirror behind
her, where it is revealed that Valak is standing above her, however, the figure can only be
seen in the reflection.
Later on, when Frenchie is at the Black Bear pub back in town, he notices a woman covering
up a mirror.
When he asks about it, the bartender tells him that a young girl had recently died, and
that it was a tradition in town to cover up mirrors so that the deceased do not see their
own reflection.
Remember the photo that Sister Charlotte shows from her time in Romania in Annabelle Creation?
I had previously speculated that we would meet some of the characters from the photo
in The Nun, however, Sister Maria, Sister Anna and Sister Lucia do not appear.
This is because Sister Charlotte visited the Abbey before the events of The Nun took place.
You can actually spot this same photo on the wall when they come into the Abbey.
Poor Sister Charlotte has no idea that her friends are all dead.
Another item I speculated on was the relationship between Sister Irene from The Nun, and Lorraine
Warren from The Conjuring films.
I thought they might be sisters because they both have visions of Valak and the actresses
who play them are sisters in real life.
In The Nun, no relationship is confirmed, however, I do find it interesting that The
Vatican selected Sister Irene to accompany the Father, despite the fact that she is unfamiliar
with the area.
The Father mentions that The Vatican always has a reason for their selection, so I think
it’s still possible that the two are related in some way, and that has something to do
with why she was sent.
While we don’t get much background on Sister Irene, we do get a little bit more background
on Valak.
Father Burke researches to find that The Abbey was built by a Duke who wrote books and opened
a gateway to hell.
This information may be a nod to the fact that Valak is based off a character from a
book called The Lesser Key of Solomon, which I have gone into more detail on in this video.
The Gateway was sealed with the blood of Christ, but reopened later due to a war of some kind.
Valak appears as a Nun in order to blend in with the real Nuns that that reside at the
Abbey, so my theory about Valak possibly changing forms has gained a little more weight.
The other thing I pointed out in my previous video about the pages of the book was this
illustration, which appears to be a snake coming out of someone’s face.
The idea of a snake being another form of Valak is confirmed in The Nun.
Father Burke reads a description of Valak in the book that he finds inside his coffin,
which reads, “Valak, the defiler, the profane, the marquis of snakes.”
There are plenty of other instances of Snakes connected to Valak in The Nun.
The throne thing occupied by The Mother Reverand, who might I remind you ends up being Valak,
has an image embossed on it of two snakes eating each other.
When Father Burke chases the apparition of Daniel into the graveyard during their night
at the abbey, snakes end up coming out of Daniel’s mouth to attack him.
Closer to the end of the movie, The Father battles a figure with a serpent-like forked
tongue.
And in the final battle against Valak, a snake wraps itself around The Father’s neck and
bites him in the eye, which ties right back into the book that the Father found after
being trapped in the coffin, which features a single eye on the cover.
There are two facets to the ending that I want to talk about: one involving the manipulation
caused by Valak, and the other involving, the true identity of Frenchie revealed in
the very last scene.
First let’s talk about Valak.
Before heading down into the depths of The Abbey, the characters figure out that there
are no other nuns left, Valak has completely taken over the place.
It’s a little unclear if the people they met in the beginning, such as The Mother Reverend
and Sister Oana were alive at some point, or if they were apparitions of Valak as well.
Here’s my answer.
The only real living human Nuns at the Abbey are killed off in the prologue.
Everyone we see after that is a distortion caused by Valak.
Valak poses as The Mother Reverend and tells Father Burke to stay the night because The
Nuns are currently taking a vow of silence and cannot speak with them.
This is a trap to get them locked inside the Abbey.
I mean, the vow of silence thing is kind of true because they’re all dead.
When Frenchie discovers the body of Sister Victoria, he mentions that he tried to contact
the Abbey but was unable to reach them.
This is because Sister Victoria was the last Nun.
We see the body of another one of The Nuns fall out of a tree and land on him as he leaves
the Abbey, just one of many examples of The Nun corpses throughout the area.
There’s also one confusing instance where Irene talks to Sister Oana, but then discovers
her corpse moments later.
Then, Oana seems to be back alive in a following scene.
The one she was really talking to is just one of Valak’s tricks, but the body discovered
under the sheets is the real Sister Oana, who had died several weeks before.
There are many decapitation references that could link to the death of each of these Nuns.
I already mentioned the one that fell from the tree, there is also a statue in the main
hall area that the Father is studying in whose head crumbles off.
When Frenchie saves Father Burke’s life, he decapitates the zombie nun with an axe.
You’ll also notice that many of the Nuns that haunt the Father and Sister Irene are
faceless, as is the Jesus figure in the chapel.
Also in the end credits, there is some entity with a burning head.
The big reveal of this movie is actually foreshadowed when we first meet Frenchy, as he is seen
at home feeding his goats.
Goats are an animal that are often used as a symbol of demons and the devil, and the
French-Canadian farmer ends up being possessed by Valak at the end of the movie.
In the epilogue, we discover his real name is Maurice and he is the man receiving the
exorcism in the clip Ed and Lorraine show to their class way back in the original Conjuring.
“Take Maurice here.
He’s a French-Canadian farmer, had nothing more than a third grade education, but after
he was possessed, spoke some of the best Latin I’d ever heard.
Sometimes backwards.
A dark spirit made it’s home in this man.”
“And like that, an upside-down cross started to appear from within his body.”
The big connection to Lorraine’s most feared memory was five years in the making.
Did you see this twist coming?
Let me know if the comments.
Remember to like this video, and be back next week as I’ll be discussing where the Conjuring
franchise will go from here.
You definitely don’t want to miss out on that, so be sure to subscribe to CZsWorld
for new horrors every week, ring that deathbell for notifications and I’ll see you in the
next one.
Assuming we both survive.