Summary
“Revelation 2:10” recontextualizes the entire season with some huge twists, and in typical Netflix Original fashion, it ends with nothing at all resolved.
This recap of Warrior Nun season 1, episode 10, “Revelation 2:10”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
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Warrior Nun episode 10, the finale, opens with a sad state of affairs: Cardinal Duretti has been elected Pope. And things don’t get much better as Father Vincent and Mother Superion join the Sisters outside the tomb, from which Ava hasn’t yet emerged. Of course, she’s in there with Adriel, who has some surprising news. He claims that Areala stole his halo in a betrayal of the highest order and that Ava has finally returned it to him. All this time, the Church, knowing he couldn’t be killed in this mortal realm, has kept him locked away in this prison. Ava counters that he is proof of the existence of Heaven, of God — why would the Church hide away that which proves their own teachings? Adriel gives the cynical answer. Faith is the belief in that which cannot be proven. Without faith, there is no manipulation, no fear, no power.
From his prison, and through his armour, Adriel has been fed fragments of the world outside, “like a book with missing pages.” This is how he knows Ava’s story; he says she reminds him of Areala, and that neither of them has to be alone anymore, which smacks of manipulation to me. At Arq-Tech, Michael insists that Jillian take him to the Ark, claiming that the angel he has been in communication with has told him that whatever’s going to happen is going to happen soon. When Kristian discovers the room full of Michael’s drawings, he laughs and weeps, seeing the proof of God in them.
Ava has a decision to make in “Revelation 2:10”. If she gives Adriel the Halo, no more warrior nuns have to die — except, perhaps, her. It’s a sacrifice she seems willing to make, but when Adriel creepily lays a hand on her shoulder, she glimpses a vision that unsettles her. Outside the tomb, the Sisters prepare to break Ava out by force.
In further flashbacks, Ava sees Areala fighting during the Crusades. As she screams in agony, Ava screams in the tomb and becomes her; sees, through her eyes, Adriel emerges not from Heaven but from a demon portal, the Halo not a Halo but a kind of Chakram. A Tarask follows him through the portal and he slays it with the weapon, leading the Knights to pledge themselves to him, a supposed agent of Christ. He embeds the “Halo” in Areala’s back, and the portal behind him closes.
Ava continues to inhabit Areala, who knows Adriel is lying about being an angel. She finds him crafting his Divinium armor, and when she confronts him about his real nature, he threatens to take away the gift he gave her. Back in the present-day tomb, Adriel confesses to not being an angel just as he reaches inside Ava to grasp the Halo. At Arq-Tech, the Ark comes to life, and Michael says ominously, “He’s coming.” Michael passes through the portal — a tearful Kristian declares it, “Divine will” — just as Ava repels Adriel with her power. The portal closes. Both Michael and Adriel are gone. In the tunnels, Beatrice prepares to blow the walls.
The OCS is able to retrieve Ava from the tomb just as Adriel’s hand pushes through the rubble he’s trapped under. Duretti, as Pope, addresses the crowd and sees the explosion right before he’s confronted by Mother Superion, who insists this papacy will be the shortest in history. But when she mentions Sister Shannon’s death, and the bones, he doesn’t know what she’s accusing him of. It dawns on Superion just as Father Vincent refers to Adriel as, “My master.”
With this major twist revealed, Lilith and the Sisters confront and fight Adriel. They’re able to temporarily subdue him and round on Vincent, but apparently it takes a bit more than that to defeat a devil. As they say, though, they didn’t need to beat him — they just needed seven minutes. Ava, with the Halo recharged, steps to the forefront and draws her Divinium sword. To counter, Adriel summons a horde of wraith demons who possess the onlookers. They pile on Mary as Warrior Nun season 1, episode 10 just… ends.
Sorry, what? Yes, “Revelation 2:10” proves itself yet another Netflix Original finale, which is to say no such thing — it doesn’t end so much as cut off in a shameless push for a follow-up season. For once, though, I hope it gets one not just because I want to know what happens next because I think the show has earned it. Front to back, this has been a much better season than anyone probably anticipated, and I’d love to see more of it — however shamelessly this one ended.
