[Warning: This essay contains spoilers for Warrior Nun seasons 1 and 2.]
A lot of people go through a lot of pain in Warrior Nun.
It's something that's been reflected in the many essays I've written about the show's characters so far. While we're always rooting for our favorite heroes to make it back to safety, Warrior Nun is rooted in the fundamental changes characters go through because of the pain they have to endure. Father Vincent's character arc is about how his faith getting taken advantage of by Adriel made him decide to help Ava stop him. Ava's futile attempts at stopping the false prophet herself are shot down by Reya, who opens Ava's eyes to the sad reality of their situation. This gives Ava the strength she needs to sacrifice herself for the good of her friends and the world, weaving into her plot with Beatrice, thus giving Beatrice something else to lose. Beatrice also struggles with her feelings for Ava throughout the show, worried the series' protagonist won't love her the way she does until it's too late. Meanwhile, Mother Superion and Camila have both lost their place in the OCS, the organization attacked, their lives put at risk. However, both grow stronger for it, with Camila in particular becoming braver and more in tune with her faith because of the hardship she goes through.
But what Warrior Nun presents in hardship and occasional tragedy is often balanced by hope for our heroes. While Ava and Beatrice were unable to consummate their relationship outside of a kiss and saying they love one another, the glowing sword at the end of Season 2 signals Ava's return. There seems to be a happy reunion between the two destined for the future. Ava was also able to bring Mother Superion back to life, even when it appeared the wise teacher had succumbed to her injuries following a failed attempt to combat Adriel. Camila breaks through the barriers of her faith and prayer being toyed with by Adriel, directly assisting in the final battle with the mad messiah. Even though characters in Warrior Nun have their own trials or sadnesses or losses, these are usually balanced out by perseverance or otherwise happy circumstances that make their suffering worthwhile.
But Dr. Jillian Salvius seems to be an exception to the rule.
Introduced in Season 1, Episode 2 as the head of scientific company ArqTech, Salvius is dead-set on utilizing religious artifacts like the Shield of Faith for her research. This research is heavily focused on quantum physics, in particular a small portal she's built using a divinium frame. While Salvius is initially unaware of where the portal leads, it slowly becomes clear over the course of the season that she doesn't care. This has less to do with her scientific research and more to do with a mysterious child Ava discovers in ArqTech's lab. While it's unclear at first who this child is, it’s soon revealed that he is central to Salvius' wild mismanagement of a religious substance she doesn't fully understand. He also has something to do with her experiments of traveling to another, unknown world, and her construction of a larger portal that a person can walk through.
At first, all of ArqTech's business and Salvius' experiments are presented with a sense of ominous mystery. It's unclear why Salvius wants to create a massive portal to a world she doesn't understand, but the audience is told that this is a threat to what the OCS is doing. In particular, the divinium Salvius is using to build her larger portal—which she calls the Ark—is being harvested from ancient religious relics. These relics hold divinium within, which Salvius is using to construct and power the Ark. Because the OCS is considered the heroic group of Warrior Nun, it becomes easy to see ArqTech as villains. Especially since Salvius wants to take religious artifacts and twist them for her currently-unknown purposes.
However, Warrior Nun season 1 does a good job at slowly unraveling why Salvius needs to create the Ark. At first, there appears to be something nefarious afoot, considering the mysterious child that happens to be in the lab. However, Salvius' behavior throughout Season 1 isn't presented with villainy or malice. Instead, she seems to be a woman on a mission, intent on making possible whatever it is she's trying to achieve. Her characterization is very much that of a scientist messing with concepts beyond their understanding. In Salvius' case, she seems sure of her ability to build the Ark, but doesn't seem to consider what the Ark's purpose is. She appears more focused on just getting the project done, quality of the machine be damned. Or, at the very least, she doesn't feel like she needs to understand the machine. She just needs to make sure it works properly, opening a portal to worlds unknown.
As the episodes play out, it's revealed the young boy in ArqTech's lab is Michael Salvius, Dr. Jillian Salvius' son. Born with a rare blood disorder, Salvius has been using divinium to keep her son alive. Soon, the divinium gives Michael a connection to Adriel, the fallen angel buried beneath the Vatican. He begins to draw the Ark, telling his mother about the so-called angel as he does so. Because of the religious origins of divinium, it appears Salvius, despite being a scientist, still has a strong belief in religious spirituality. Which is why she believes Michael when he talks of Adriel and the Ark being a possible way of curing his blood-borne illness for good.
The reveal of Salvius' true intentions when creating the Ark flips the script on how she is initially presented to the audience. At first, it appears Warrior Nun is going for a rather predictable conflict: Religion vs Science. Cardinal Duretti doesn't want Salvius using divinium to create quantum portals, as he believes doing so is an act against God. Salvius, however, sees the scientific potential of her discoveries as more important than the religious consequences of her actions. Or so the show wants you to believe on the outset. In reality, Salvius' motivation is to save her son, which is heavily tied to religion due to her reliance on Adriel's messages via Michael's drawings. While at first it seems Salvius' scientific approach is in contrast to the religious elements of Warrior Nun, they are actually just as influenced by religious faith as the OCS is.
However, Salvius' faith is sadly misguided. Much like how Father Vincent and Camila had their faith toyed with by Adriel, so too did the false messiah employ Salvius' beliefs to his advantage. Because of the divinium running through Michael's veins, Salvius genuinely believed some otherworldly, benevolent figure was speaking to him. Telling him to construct the Ark in order to heal him of his illness. Salvius also believed she would be able to go with him to this new world. A world she hypothesized—or perhaps was told through Michael—death was a thing of the past. A world like that would be perfect for healing her son, who was destined to die otherwise. Salvius' collection of religious artifacts for their divinium may have seemed nefarious on the outset. But in actuality, she is just a mother taking every risk she can to save her son from certain doom.
To some extent she does, thought it isn't a happy occurrence. In the Season 1 finale, Adriel makes contact with the Halo in Ava's body. This causes the Ark to open, presumably because of the spiritual properties of divinium and their connection to Adriel. When the portal to another world does open, Michael is able to step through. While Salvius seeks to follow her child through the portal, Ava manages to get Adriel away from the Halo. When this happens, the portal closes before Salvius can enter. She crafted the Ark to save Michael, but she also doesn't truly know what's beyond the portal. She doesn't fully understand the world into which she's transported her son. Of course she would want to go with him, not just as a parent, but also as a scientist and protector. If there are dangers beyond the Ark, then she would have to do her best to understand them and combat them so her son can live. But now, with the Ark closed, Salvius is cut off from Michael. Seemingly forever.
Having lost her son, Salvius weeps. He may have gone into a world where death doesn't exist, but she can't know that for sure if she's not with him. And so, to her, Michael's disappearance is the same as watching her son die before her eyes. The portal is closed. As of the end of Season 1, there is seemingly no other way to open it. Salvius has been tricked by Adriel into constructing the Ark under the guise of empty promises. Under the guise that she and Michael would live together in a world without end. But now, Salvius and Michael have been separated, something that doesn't seem to impact much of Adriel's plans moving forward. After all, the Ark has been constructed. Adriel has gotten what he wants, even at the cost of insurmountable loss for Salvius.
But Salvius isn't going down without a fight. Michael was her son, and she gave up everything for him. Even at the cost of her possible scientific credibility, she built the Ark in order to save him. And now she wants to make sure he's okay, and find a way to reopen the portal. She's able to do this within the two-month timeskip between Warrior Nun Seasons 1 and 2. However, her attempts to make it onto the other side have proven futile. Her arms are now laced with cuts and burns, as if whatever is on the other side of the Ark doesn't want her to follow Michael in. But Salvius is unwilling to give up. Her love for Michael is so great that, even at the cost of her flesh and bones, she will do nothing to stop searching for him.
Even if it costs her other people.
What I neglected to mention when talking about Salvius in Season 1 is that she ends up allying herself with the OCS in the back half of the season. Ava comes to her for scientific help regarding the Halo, only for Salvius to plug her into a machine, attempting to open the Ark. Ava realizes the scientist only wanted to use her, but their relationship is soon resolved as the season progresses. This is because of the truth of Salvius' experiments, as well as her willingness to help their friend Lilith, who has returned from the world beyond the Ark after being seemingly killed by a tarask. Lilith's connection to the world beyond the portal is a key element of Salvius' story. It's hinted that Lilith knows Michael's connection to Adriel is that of a child and a false prophet. In other words, she knows Adriel is trying to trick Salvius into constructing and opening the Ark. Which is why she goes to the Vatican to stop Ava, Beatrice, and the rest of the OCS from going into Adriel's supposed tomb. She knows what will happen if they do.
Lilith's attempts to help the group are in vain, though. Adriel is freed and he begins to build a group of followers known as the Firstborn Children. At the same time, Lilith now has to deal with her newfound powers, the loss of Mary, and the betrayal of Father Vincent, all within the same time frame. She also finds herself rejected by family, her own mother berating her for losing out on becoming the next Halo Bearer. Lilith decides her only real course of action, then, is to go to an ally who has been studying the world from which her powers come from: Salvius. She arrives on Salvius' doorstep, intent on getting answers by stepping through the Ark. Lilith wants to know what's on the other side just as much as Salvius does...but for very different reasons.
Salvius is understandably agreeable to Lilith going through the Ark. After all, doing so will seemingly benefit both of them. Lilith wants to better understand her powers while Salvius wants to find Michael. While she doesn't expect Lilith to find Michael right away, Lilith going through the Ark for the first time acts as a way for Salvius to better understand what's on the other side. And so, Lilith does. However, things don't go as planned. Lilith is launched out of the Ark, claiming to have walked around in an arid, fiery location for hours. However, on Salvius' end, Lilith had only been gone for a few minutes. This has major implications about the passage of time on the other side of the Ark, something that Salvius studies later in the episode. However, for the audience, this hints at key information that will no doubt impact the future of Salvius' search.
If time works differently on the other side of the Ark, it means Michael is much older than when he and his mother were separated.
But there's no time to dwell on that just yet. Despite Lilith's protests, Salvius wants to continue experimenting with the Ark. She wants to send Lilith back through to see if she can explore more of the dimension beyond the portal. Lilith, however, sees that Salvius only wants to use her to find Michael. Because that's not what she came there for, Lilith leaves, ending her relationship with Salvius on a sour note. Salvius, it seems, has become all-engrossed in her search for Michael. So much so that, even if relationships with the people around her are damaged, it doesn't matter. While this underscores the dedication Salvius has for finding Michael, it also shows how the situation she's in has blinded her to the consequences of her other actions. Just like how the many burns on her arms signal she's been trying again and again to go through the Ark, Salvius pushing Lilith to keep going with her experiments shows she's not in a strong mindset. Unfortunately, this has disastrous consequences when Lilith goes to Adriel for help. But Salvius, lost in her struggle to find Michael, misses the bigger picture.
Her efforts are soon rewarded, though, as Michael does return home. However, he's much older, now somewhere close to Ava or Beatrice's age instead of the little boy he was in Season 1. Going under the creative pseudonym "Miguel," Michael reunites with his mother in Season 2, Episode 5. The scene is touching, but it's underlined with a feeling of uncertain dread. Michael has been absent for a long time, but he was sent back by an unknown force, Reya, to help Ava stop Adriel. Which means that, while Salvius has her son back, Michael is destined to be on the front lines of battle against the false prophet and his followers.
This is further explored as the show continues, with Michael revealing to Ava, and later Salvius, that, in the other dimension, the mysterious Reya essentially turned the divinium coursing through Michael's body into a bomb. By detonating this bomb in Adriel's vicinity, the divinium blast will kill him. Divinum being the only substance in existence that can kill a quasi-immortal being like Adriel. But to do so—to activate the bomb—means to kill Michael in the process. It also means Salvius will lose her son again. But this time, instead of the hope that he's survived on the other side of the Ark, there is instead total knowledge that he is dead. Seemingly forever.
The tragedy of Salvius' character is that, even after she finds her son alive, he will die. And he does, but not in the way he wanted. Instead of sacrificing himself by blowing up in front of Adriel, Michael has a hole punched through his chest by Lilith. It's poetic, to some extent, that Lilith ends up being the one to kill Michael. Lilith who went to Salvius for help, desperate to understand what's going on with her body. And Salvius, helping in what way she can, prioritizing finding Michael over assisting Lilith. Perhaps if Salvius had been more understanding, more willing to concede, then Lilith wouldn't have talked with Adriel about what was going on with her. Or, even if she did, maybe she wouldn't have killed Michael. By not trying to help Lilith in some other way, Salvius may have indirectly caused her son's death. Without even knowing it.
Because, when Warrior Nun Season 2 ends, the audience doesn't know how the long, arduous journey Salvius went on to protect her son impacted her. First, she loses her son to the Ark in Season 1. Then, she loses him to Lilith in Season 2. But with her second and more permanent loss of Michael, Salvius doesn't get any screen time to show how that loss would impact her. Instead, Michael dies, and we're left wondering what Salvius will do now that Lilith has killed him. It's likely she blames herself for what transpired. After all, if she'd helped Lilith, then maybe she would have shown Michael some mercy. There's no doubt that Salvius will blame herself for what happened, whether it's her fault or not. But Salvius is also incredibly determined. She's strong, despite all the hardship she's gone through. And while Warrior Nun Seasons 1 and 2 don't seem to make her suffering feel worthwhile, I think this was done on purpose.
While so many other characters suffer in Warrior Nun, their stories have still had plenty of positivity to them. All except Salvius. While she's able to reunite with Michael in Season 2, she's almost immediately informed that she'll be losing her son forever so Adriel can be defeated. Michael's soft explanation and embrace of his mother shows that, while she can't accept it, she can understand it, so long as it's coming from Michael. And then Michael dies at Lilith's hands. While he still served his purpose in death, with Ava blowing up his body to attract tarasks that tore Adriel apart, Salvius still lost her son again. Her suffering has continued. There has been no reward for any of it. For Salvius, it appears happiness is a fleeting light snaking between her fingers. She can feel it, but she can't grasp it.
But she is so close to doing so.
In her final conversation with Michael, the boy who is now a young man reveals that she was right. Death does work differently in Reya's dimension. While Michael will die while fighting Adriel, as Reya has shown him he is destined to do, he tells her that death works differently in Reya's dimension. "Part of [him]" will live on in Reya's world. It's unclear what this means, but it seems to be enough to comfort Salvius for a time despite knowing her son will die. But now that he is dead, Salvius will likely try to find out what's truly going on. In particular, she's likely to channel her grief into working to learn more about Reya and her world. Not just to understand the circumstances behind Michael's death, though. I think Salvius is going to try and find out what Michael meant about Reya's dimension dealing with death differently.
Since Ava went to Reya's dimension in the Season 2 finale, it's inevitable that Season 3—or any continuation of the series—will focus more on where Adriel and Reya came from. Part of that will likely deal with how death works, especially for beings tied to Reya's dimension. While this could include Adriel, given his status as a near-immoral being, Michael's time on the other side of the Ark means he too could be impacted by however death works in Reya’s world. Given how much she has gone through for her son, Salvius' story moving forward will likely revolve around her uncovering more about Reya's world as she tries to understand what Michael meant about death not being the end on the other side. I believe that, while she had an important role in Seasons 1 and 2, Salvius still hasn't gotten her chance to shine. But she will in Season 3.
My prediction is that, as she discovers more about Reya's world, she realizes it's not all that it seems. Yes, she discovers what Michael meant regarding how death in Reya's dimension works. But I believe there are still secrets being kept from the audience about Reya and her true motivations. I think there's more nuance here than meets the eye, something that indicates Reya could be the next big threat in Warrior Nun. While this is, of course, personal speculation, I believe Salvius will fall into a rabbit hole of mystery as she tries to uncover how Michael might still exist on the other side of the Ark. Doing so may also lead to her understanding more about Reya's world and her intentions, making Salvius a key part of Season 3 and beyond. It would also allow her to have a wider character arc, as she uses Michael for motivation to soldier onward and confront the mysteries of Reya's dimension.
To some extent, it feels like Salvius has suffered endlessly in Warrior Nun, losing her son twice and making mistakes that resulted in a trusted ally like Lilith deciding to turn against them all. But I believe this was done on purpose, and that there is a light at the end of Salvius' tunnel. The dour nature of her character arc and all that she loses in these first two seasons of the show feel like setup for a much larger role moving forward. I think that, because of everything she's gone through, Salvius decides to dedicate herself to further understanding Reya's world, and perhaps seeing if she can get a semblance of Michael back in the process. Moving forward, Salvius might just be the key to understanding Reya's dimension as the future of Warrior Nun continues.
And she might be rewarded for all her trials.
***
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Yes. Thank you for laying out Jillian Salvius’s arc in this clear manner because that makes what you propose about her future role in the series, inc inverting Reya’s threat and thus helping OCS and Ava with the final holy war clear. At least, that makes the most amount of narrative sense.