The first season of Warrior Nun from series creator Simon Barry has finally dropped on
Netflix, and the demon-fighting adaptation of Benn Dunn's cult hit comic doesn't disappoint.
But did the ending leave you scratching your head a little? Here's a breakdown of everything
that transpired in that apocalyptic final episode.
But first, a bit of backstory: Series protagonist Ava is a paraplegic orphan living out her
days in a pretty unpleasant-looking Spanish convent. In the very first episode of Warrior
Nun, she dies under mysterious circumstances, and the nun who brings her body to receive
last rites doesn't seem to be too broken up about it. Ava was apparently a challenging
ward, and you get the sense that the nuns from the orphanage aren't exactly sorry to
be unburdened by her care.
Shortly after Ava's body arrives at the Spanish monastery, a team of demon-slaying nuns from
the Order of the Cruciform Sword, or OCS, burst in carrying the mortally wounded body
of their comrade, Shannon Masters. A band of hellspawn are hot on their tails, however,
and the devils and demons soon penetrate the monastery's defenses. One of the non-sword-wielding
nuns uses a set of tongs to remove a glowing artifact from Shannon's back, which they refer
to as "The Halo."
No surprise, the demons are after the Halo, and it's apparently of the utmost importance
that they not get their hellacious claws on it. One of the nuns evades capture and hides
the Halo inside Ava's corpse. Ava is promptly resurrected by the artifact's insertion, and
guess what? She's no longer paralyzed. Not only that, but she seems to have acquired
a pretty radical set of superpowers, including super strength and super healing.
While the series opens with a real bang, the plot drags a bit in the middle of the season
when the focus shifts from the existential struggle between good and evil to a more mundane
character story, as Ava rapidly explores the contours of her new life as a "normal" young
woman. Thankfully, this slower storyline falls by the wayside by the time the season reaches
its conclusion, and Ava finds herself smack dab in the middle of a centuries-long struggle
of literally Biblical proportions.
Episode 10 opens with Ava still locked inside the tomb where she ended up at the end of
Episode 9. The rest of the OCS are on the outside looking in. She isn't alone down there,
however. The entity Adriel, who falsely presents himself as an angel, is inside the tomb with
our revenant heroine, and he's got a story to tell. Adriel tells Ava that the Halo in
her back was stolen from him by OCS founder Areala in the year 1066, and since then he's
been on a millennial mission to get it back. Adriel claims that the church has kept him
sealed away inside the tomb because they know he can't be defeated in the mortal world.
This is a bit of a head-scratcher for Ava, who doesn't understand why the church wouldn't
be all about a real-life angel that they could parade around in front of the Vatican, thus
confirming their long-held beliefs.
According to Adriel, the church thrives on faith. They don't want to confirm their beliefs,
because they have weaponized faith itself to achieve power and control over people.
Without doubt, there can be no faith, which pretty much precludes dressing up an omnipotent
angel and trotting him out for Mass.
Adriel then thrusts Ava into a flashback sequence in which she watches Araela's near-death and
resurrection-by-Halo play out right in front of her eyes. Ava seems on the verge of turning
over the Halo to Adriel at this point. He is an angel, after all, supposedly. The sacrifice
might kill her, but it will also save the other OCS sisters waiting outside the tomb;
self-sacrifice in this instance certainly feels like the Christian thing to do.
Per Ava's vision, Adriel may have been the original source of the Halo, but he didn't
bring it down from heaven. Through Areala's eyes, Ava sees Adriel emerging into a medieval
battle from a demonic portal. He's followed by a demonic Tarask, which he quickly destroys
using the Halo, which seems more like a crude armament in this context than some kind of
holy artifact. Believing he must be a warrior of Christ, the Crusaders foolishly pledge
themselves to Adriel after watching him vanquish the Tarask. Back inside the tomb, Ava confronts
Adriel with this knowledge. Outed, the entity confesses that he is no kind of angel at all.
"I don't want to have to hurt you, Ava."
"Awesome. So don't."
Adriel reaches inside Ava in an attempt to remove the Halo, but Ava fights him off just
as Beatrice and the other OCS Warrior Nuns blow up the walls of the tomb in a rescue
attempt. The sisters pull Ava out of the rubble and attempt a tactical retreat, but Adriel
is far from vanquished. They engage the boss demon in a well-choreographed fight sequence
that stalls him just long enough for Ava to recharge the Halo and draw a Divinium sword.
Adriel counters by summoning a score of demons to possess the bystanders. The episode suddenly
ends.
This isn't the only cliffhanger, either. In the B-story, Michael tells his tearful mother
that his angel is coming back for him. Just as the boy appears on death's door, the Stargate-looking
artifact back at Arq-Tech spontaneously turns on, generating some kind of portal. Michael
rushes through and disappears, an act that Kristian refers to as "Divine will."
So where does this leave us? Despite the contrived cliffhangers, we actually learned quite a
bit in this episode. Most importantly, we now know that Ava's powers have no Divine
origin, and that the Halo in her back is actually some kind of demonic weapon carried up from
Hell by Adriel. When and if Season 2 reaches Netflix, we'll be eager to see if Ava's Divinium
sword has what it takes to vanquish her demon, not to mention where the heck Michael ended
up.
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