'Warrior Nun': Science behind Halo, Divinium and Hell dimension makes it more than a battle of good vs evil
Spoilers for 'Warrior Nun' Season 1
Undecided about her purpose, in the seventh episode of 'Warrior Nun', Ava approached Jillian Salvius, the CEO of Arqtech. "Science me," she tells her. What Jillian gets in return is the chance that she will achieve a breakthrough in creating a gateway to the "other dimension".
What Jillian knows about this "parallel dimension" is that there is no disease or death on the other side -- she sees it as a Paradise for her son Michael. In addition, Michael seems to have a form of communication going with the other dimension because he has Divinium, the rare organic material, coursing through his blood and body. He is the one who makes drawings of the formulas and design of the gateway Jillian is constructing, getting messages from the other side.
By the end of Season 1, we know that Divinium comes from the bones of the Tasarak demons, who also come from this parallel dimension. Similarly, the dubious "angel" Adriel also keeps track of what happens in the world outside his tomb through the Divinium scattered on Earth in the form of holy relics, which comes from the bones of the Tasarak demon he murdered when he entered the Earth dimension. Now, imagine Divinium is a form of matter that allows messages to be sent and received for those who know how to use it in this fashion -- something like silica, the semiconductor used to manufacture our computer chips and wireless transmitters to transmit data.
Scientists have often predicted that if we encounter alien lifeforms, they probably won't be carbon-based lifeforms and they certainly won't look like us. They could be silica-based lifeforms for instance or another element unknown to man. So it is no surprise that the alien beings who come from a parallel dimension in 'Warrior Nun' are a Divinium-based lifeform. Divinium could be an element that is common in their dimension -- as common as carbon and silica is in our world -- but absent in the Earth dimension. This is why no weapon forged on earth can hurt the Tasarak "demon" except for weapons made from their own bones.
And therein lies the question. Are the Tasarak "demons" really demons or just alien beings from a parallel dimension desperate to get back the Halo, probably a superweapon they created, that was stolen by Adriel, brought to Earth, and hidden in the body of the first Warrior Nun, Areala. The only reason that Areala's soldiers thought Adriel was an angel was that he looked liked them and also killed something that looked like a monster — at the time of the Crusades, they thought it was a "demon" from Hell.
But now that we are aware of "quantum realms", we know that parallel dimensions could exist simultaneously with Earth without us being aware. Essentially, parallel multiple universes with very different living conditions, matter, and elements. When Jillian Salvius investigates the bits of scab that fall from Sister Lilith's wound, after she returns from the "Hell dimension", she realizes that it is basically indestructible -- compatible with what she knows about there being no death or disease in this parallel dimension.
So, the question is, is the parallel dimension "Hell", or merely another universe? The alien beings or "demons" have never bothered to cross over till Adriel steals something that belongs to them. Two, the healing properties of Adriel's tomb probably stemmed from the Tasarak demon embedded in the rock after it got stuck while trying to get to Adriel. It is not a force of good or evil as is revealed since it healed the sick and gave power to those who wished others harm. It was simply an inert source of mystical power -- a bit like nuclear energy -- that could be used for good or bad.
Therefore it is worth considering that the Church's medieval outlook possibly caused the demons to be misunderstood. However, Adriel is a bit of a conundrum. He looks like us, which is why people mistakenly assumed he was an angel and the circular weapon he held in his hands was an angel's "halo". A bit like how a medieval knight would mistake a flying airplane to be God's miracle.
It is also possible that Adriel is a human from the future who had breached the dimension barrier to enter the parallel universe, but when he returned, he was thrown back in time. It would explain how he understood Earth's ways. We also know that anytime spent in that dimension imbues you with properties of that other world, like Lilith who came back with superpowers.
Similarly, Adriel's stay in the parallel dimension could have given him the longevity of life unusual for humans. This is because in Season 1, everything and anything touched by the parallel dimension seems to gain a new lease of life, like Jillian's Divinium-infused son Michael or resurrected Ava with the Halo artifact, or super-powered Lilith coming back after being speared by the Tasarak's claw.
Thus, 'Warrior Nun's' story might be far more convoluted than a simple good vs evil battle that the series' premise about demon-battling nuns led us to imagine.
'Warrior Nun' premiered on July 2 on Netflix and is available to stream.
