Ending Explained: The Nun

💡 What does the ending really mean?

At the end of The Nun, Irene manages to contain the demon with the blood of Christ, but Valak enters Frenchie's body as a new host. Years later, during an attempted exorcism of an adult Maurice, Lorraine Warren has a prophetic vision regarding Ed's death.

What happens at the end

After discovering that the nuns Irene interacted with were already dead and that Sister Victoria had sacrificed herself to contain the entity, the group heads to the catacombs. After being consecrated as a professed nun by Burke, Irene confronts Valak in a flooded chamber. The demon tries to drown her, but she spits the blood of Christ she was holding in her mouth directly onto the entity's face, finally sealing the breach opened by the wartime bombings.

With the evil apparently contained, Frenchie revives Irene and the group leaves the place. However, the film reveals that the demon has not been defeated, but has instead found a new host. During the confrontation, Valak entered the body of Frenchie, whose real name is Maurice. The young man's fate is sealed under this malignant influence, setting the stage for future tragedies within the Warren universe.

Twenty years later, the story connects with the present-day timeline of the franchise. At a university seminar, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren present footage of their attempt to exorcise an adult Maurice. During the session, the man touches Lorraine, triggering a prophetic vision in her about Ed's death, which directly sparks the events that will lead the couple to investigate the famous Perron family house.

What it means

The film is little more than an exercise in narrative bookkeeping, a link designed to justify the expansion of a franchise that is already showing signs of creative exhaustion. The final twist linking Maurice to the Warrens is a cheap sleight-of-hand trick to keep the viewer hooked on a cinematic universe that prioritizes the interconnection of its pieces over coherence or genuine terror. Valak, far from being a transcendental threat, is reduced to a simple parasite jumping from body to body to ensure the saga's continuity.

What is left open

The film does not reveal what happened to Sister Victoria's body after the breach was sealed, nor does it explain how the demon was able to maintain its influence over Maurice for two decades without his behavior alerting anyone before the Warrens' intervention. It is also unclear whether the Cârţa Abbey was permanently purified or if the location remains a hub of supernatural activity after the protagonists' departure.