Netflix’s Warrior Nun Is A Mess
Some episodes don’t seem like they’re from the same show
I’ve been on a Netflix show binge lately. Just a little while ago I watched The Order’s second season (my thoughts here), and to my surprise, another SFF Netflix original show came out a few weeks later. Warrior Nun revolves around a quadriplegic girl, Ava, who dies shortly before the show begins. A special power brings the girl back to life, and she begins training as a warrior for the Catholic Church. After binging this show as well, I have more than a few thoughts on it. Spoilers ahead.
The Show’s Trailer Revealed Too Much
If you’re like me and you need some help getting invested in any media, then trailers are a perfect start. The problem lies in the fact that some trailers can offer too much of the plot up for the viewer. This is exactly what happens.
Ava doesn’t immediately become a warrior for the church. Of the ten-episode run time, the show spends six of them doing a “will she won’t she” tug of war between Ava choosing to live a normal life and accepting that she wants to help people. What makes this interesting is that Ava never actually had any form of normal life before this. She was always bound to a chair and had no real friends. The Halo gave Ava control over her body, and she wanted to use that power to live a normal life. I found that to be quite realistic given the circumstances.
But the rest of the sister warriors of the Church followed a higher calling and needed the Halo back, so they pursued her. This plot goes on for most of the show’s run time.
As you might have guessed by the title of this section, the trailer spoils that for us. We see that Ava becomes one of them, meaning that anyone Netflix got invested through this trailer already knew what was going to happen. As far as I’m concerned, this is a failure not on the show’s part but Netflix in general. Trailers are outside the jurisdiction of the people behind the show.
Nevertheless, the fact that I knew Ava was going to eventually give in as they chased her down made the first six episodes extremely boring.
Needless Romance
I think this character was inserted into the story just to appeal to the Young Adult audience. Not only does this romance have no ties to the story, but the character is dropped after episode five. JC does not show up again at all.
There’s not much else to say here. While it’s true that JC is connected to Ava wanting a normal life, it shouldn’t be this detached from the plot at hand. The war between heaven and hell is the main focus of this story.
It also can be said that JC and his friends are for all intents and purposes, filler. Considering this show is only ten episodes long, that kind of content has no place in a TV show of this size. Ava does not come to terms with her place in the world with JC present. Another sister warrior accomplishes that in episode six. In the standalone episode, Ava and Mary come to terms with one another, fighting off a demon as they protect a small town.
The only fix here is to make JC involved with the conflict. Maybe not with the Church directly, but as a hostage so there’s a problem for Ava to solve. Instead, the narrative shifts completely from episode 7 onwards.
Ava Develops Too Quickly
Continuing off from the last point, from episode seven to the finale, the show is very different than the first six episodes. Ava decides what she wants to do with her life and joins the Order of the Cruciform Sword. She then makes friends with Beatrice and Camilla within the span of an episode. This is the kind of development that normally takes multiple episodes of buildup, but it happens very quickly for the sake of the plot. With the very same speed, Ava trains to master her powers within a single episode.
This is what results from a narrative that doesn’t know what it wants from start to finish. If Ava had accepted her fate by episode two instead of six, we would have had organic development of Ava’s relationships and abilities. Instead, it happens all at once because the show decided to focus on multiple aspects rather than what was important.
Science’s Strange Involvement in Mysticism
In yet another facet of the plot that ultimately goes nowhere, the Sister Warriors believe Jillian Salvius is behind the murder of one of their friends, Shannon. If you’ve watched the trailer, then this character seems like they would be the villain of the season. Turns out they’re not, but the bigger issue is that the plot does not justify her inclusion.
Jillian sought out Ava in the first half of the season. We are made to believe it’s for some nefarious purpose, but in reality, it’s just so Jillian can provide her disease-stricken son with the chance to go to “a realm with no disease or death.” When Ava does not turn out to be the answer she seeks, Jillian’s role in the plot becomes unstable. She instead becomes a plot device, giving the main characters what they need.
Jillian seems like nothing more than to add a pseudoscientific angle on what’s happening in the plot. She uses terms like “quantum portal” and the like. It doesn’t offer anything substantial though. Jillian gives up her antagonist status easily, and Ava requesting to be “scienced up” doesn’t lead anywhere directly involved with what Ava is dealing with.
In the end, Jillian and her son become fodder for season two setup and offer nothing of value to the narrative at hand. Jillian’s son does end up going to Heaven, but it doesn’t mean anything. We have to wait to find out.
Lillith’s Arc Is Too Predictable
This one is a bit more of a nitpick, but it’s still annoying to think about. At the end of episode five, Lillith is dragged into Hell by a demon chasing Ava. She then is pronounced dead, but mysteriously shows up again at the end of episode seven.
Much like my problem with the trailer, the show gives away Lillith’s new predicament just by her name. Lillith is the name of a demon well known in popular culture. She’s Adam’s first wife and is considered to be the oldest demon in existence. So naturally, when the plot starts asking questions about how a character named Lillith mysteriously escapes Hell, naturally anyone with knowledge of Lillith the demon would know where this is going.
My problem with this isn’t that the show thought it was clever to use Lillith in this manner, but rather that it acted like the twist wasn’t completely obvious. The show should have embraced Lillith becoming a demon right from the start. Instead, it tiptoes around that fact for four episodes, only until the season’s true antagonist states it outright within the last five minutes of the finale.
Sort of related to this idea of naming being used too predictably, Jillian’s son’s name is Michael. He shares the same name as an angel well known in popular culture. If Michael becomes altered much like Lillith is, this will be the second time the writers thought they were clever.
The Final Two Episodes Are Awesome
Despite all I have ranted about Warrior Nun, I am still excited for the second season and I believe it will surpass the first in every way. The reason why is because of what the final two episodes bring to the table.
Though I would have preferred a narrative that is cohesive from the first episode to the last, I can’t deny that within a vacuum I enjoyed episodes nine and ten immensely. The sister warriors believe a plot is underway to use Adriel’s bones to threaten the safety of the world. Adriel is an angel from which all magic in the show originates. His armor is the source of Divinium, a metal used to fight demons.
To protect the world by preventing Adriel’s bones from falling into the wrong hands. The magic in this show comes from Adriel’s armor and his Halo. This leads the main characters to infer that Adriel’s bones probably would lead to something terrible should they be used nefariously.
The show drags the rug out from underneath you in two very big ways. Father Vincent turns out to be the one who killed Shannon, and Adriel turns out to be trapped there instead of buried there. Even crazier is that Vincent serves Adriel, and Adriel is not the Angel that we are led to believe.
This is what the show did right in regards to intrigue. What Ava was going to decide in the earlier parts of the season had been spoiled but this was a welcome change. I am hoping that the next season will focus entirely on Adriel and give the season the cohesion it needs.
Conclusion
What it all comes down to is the fact that the show had nothing to tie all of the smaller plots together. The show feels like it didn’t need ten episodes to get its point across. The first six episodes feel far too disjointed from the remaining four. It focused on superficial aspects to bring in more viewers from different genres. The romance was not needed. Most of what Jillian does was not needed. Neither of these aspects offers substantial backing of the narrative at hand. Set up for set up’s sake feels forced.
Yet in the end, I find that the show still deserves a second season. If Adriel can remain the focus, that is.
Also published on facetsoffantasy.net.
