The past nine episodes of my new favorite show Warrior Nun have been filled with action, intrigue, double-crosses, resurrections, love, and more awesomeness than I expected going into it. The writers packed even more magic into the season finale and while there’s a lot going on it never feels dense or drawn out. In signature Warrior Nun style, every shot, word, and scene had a purpose and led us to the finish line. There are three sides to every story and in this episode, we see Areala’s and Adriel’s and it’s a wild ride figuring out the truth.

SPOILER WARNING: I wanted to stick to a straight review but, there’s so much going on that I wanted to cover and I can’t do that without a few spoilers. If you just want to read the review and want none of the recap scroll past the two pictures guarding the spoilers like the gates of heaven and hell and go straight to ” Final Thoughts” where I give a spoiler-free overview of this amazing season finale.

In the Beginning: Revelations picks up with Ava in the tomb with a very alive Adriel having a talk with the current Warrior Nun. Since Ava has been low key conditioned to believe that he is what everyone says he is she trusts him, blindly, at first but, she has some misgivings, and being pretty street smart she has a few questions. Her questions get more precision and clarity every time her touches her and she sees a glimpse of his past until she is thrown back in time, inside Areala’s body and relives the history which gives her definitive proof that the “angel” isn’t who he says he is and he stole the halo and HID it in Areala!

Carry On Wayward Son: Throughout the season we’ve been getting flashes of what may prophesy from Dr. Silvius’ son Michael. We can’t tell if he gets these visions from heaven or hell and it gets more worrisome when he told his mom a couple of episodes back that she was going to open the hole in the floor. One of the final scenes in this episode is Michael telling his mom that it’s time to go and she should come with him, the portal door that opens up without anything to power the machine, because Ava is still fighting the devil, is BLUE, not red, and the Doc hesitates and ends up not crossing over to wherever her son is.  He seemed on a mission to get away from the pit and the ghosts so, I’m assuming he’s going somewhere good.

Cardinal Sins: The Cardinal is now the Pope and while he is still a sexist, power-hungry, selfish man he might not be the bad guy and may have only been acting out in the way he has been to protect his good name. One of the biggest hints to who the big bad guy actually is was shown to us in the first 20 minutes when Adriel adopted the face of  Father Vincent. It was a well-placed call back that flashes back in your mind in the end scene when the battle begins! We also clocked Adriel in a not so angelic pose in a painting on the wall of the Pope’s office, flawless art design and visual placement, in true Warrior Nun fashion, not a frame or word wasted.

Ladies Night: In one of the most flawlessly choreographed, real-life possible fight scenes that I have seen since Kill Bill 1 & 2 or the last season on Wynonna Earp; Sister Mary, Lilith, Beatrice and Camila attack Adriel with everything that they have got and take him down with one goal, to buy time… the seven minutes that Ava would need to recharge so they could take him and his wraith army down and I was all the way here for it. That was until Sister Mary got taken by a swarm of wraiths wearing people suits and the credits decided to roll.  I’m still here for it but, I’m gonna need a season two because that ending was FIRE!

Final Thoughts: Warrior Nun was an amazing series and the season finale was no less effective than the other episodes. The season finale plays out with beautiful shots, near misses and a world about to be plunged into darkness that will evoke serious Buffy chosen one vibes but, in Ava’s case, her Scooby gang is more like the squad that Sam and Dean gathered to fight against the angels and demons in Supernatural. While loads of comparisons can be made to other great shows, Warrior Nun is something totally new entirely and it’s super refreshing in a world of remakes or half-done rehashings of familiar stories. I’m not familiar with the source material comic book but, if it’s even half as good as the show I feel like I should check it out to help me keep my cool while I wait hopefully for a season two to answer some of the questions that the finale left me with.  The writing is realistic and never feels clunky or unnatural coming from the mouths of the actors. The way the actors deliver these beautiful lines make it so that their actions, expressions, and demeanor tell the story just as well as the words. The direction, cinematography, and editing all come together in such a way that the whole episode feels like a cohesive world built flawlessly with one intention, to serve us the story of the Warrior Nuns.  Throughout the series the writers have been all about us thinking for ourselves, not trusting what we are told and questioning everything but, they also created a world where we thought we understood. It was a nice touch that was so brilliantly crafted that the hard left things took at the end gave us whiplash. We wanted closure and not only were we denied, but we were also left reeling and worried. The writers and actors did such a good job that we were fully invested and as a brilliant magician we were shocked when they made everything we hoped to disappear. It was clever and even though we didn’t get the ending we wanted, we didn’t feel cheated or robbed, we felt like we were in this together and we still want to see our nuns fight! I hope that Netflix brings them back for season two, not just because I need to know what happened after the time in the square but because I am invested in the nuns and their stories. We’ve been waiting so long for true female badasses, and not just the ones who fight (I’m looking at you Dr. Salvius), shows with real diversity and a world where women have agency and can be different but, together and this is it.

Rating: 9.7