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[Warning: This essay contains spoilers for Warrior Nun seasons 1 and 2. I also recommend reading my essay, "Warrior Nun: The Tragedy of Adriel" before reading this one. It will contextualize a few claims that I make as I theorize about Reya's role in the Warrior Nun universe.]

Reya is the most mysterious character Warrior Nun has ever introduced.

The first time she appeared in the series was not physically, but instead as a face on Dr. Salvius' computer as she was slowing down the static-like footage Lilith took while she was beyond the Ark. While Lilith had been trapped on the other side of the ArqTech machine for hours, only a few minutes had passed on Earth. The same could be said for the footage Salvius was watching. Nothing but a few short minutes of static. That was until she put on her fancy Science Glasses and began to scroll through the footage, watching it as if her vision had been transported to the other side of the Ark. What she saw was an indescribable mystery that maintained a major background presence throughout Warrior Nun season 2.

A face. The face of God? No. The face of Reya.

Reya is the closest thing Warrior Nun has right now to a Godlike figure. When an adult Michael Salvius returns to Earth, he does so imbued with a divinium bomb made of the divinium that had been coursing through his body as a child. Michael informs Ava that Reya sent him back to Earth to kill Adriel, claiming the only way for him to be defeated was if Ava activated Michael like a bomb, killing the pair of them in the process. Not wanting to leave her friends and loved ones behind and unable to stand the thought of Michael dying, Ava instead enacted a plan involving placing the Crown of Thorns on Adriel's head at an event where Adriel used Pope Duretti to try and validate himself as a true messiah.

However, it doesn't take long for the plan to go awry. Duretti is killed, Mother Superion is temporarily killed, and the Ark is stolen by Adriel's Firstborn Children. Ava and her team have failed, indicating that there truly was no other way for Adriel to be stopped unless Michael sacrificed himself. Ava doesn't want to believe it, but the Season 2 finale sees her change her tune. The start of the episode shows Ava, donning the Crown of Thorns, lost in a dreamlike world. There, she is attuned to nothing but darkness, as well as multiple tarasks that lumber toward her. As it turns out, the tarasks that have been hunting the halo this whole time are under Reya's command. She gets them to stop, then explains...something to Ava. Whatever it is Ava saw or heard when she spoke to Reya, it convinced her that sacrificing herself and killing Michael in the process was the only way for Adriel to be defeated.

To some extent, Reya is presented as an omnipotent character. Her realm is also underscored as a Hellish place, though Michael implies that death is somehow connected to it as well. He tells Salvius that, if he doesn't make it back from their mission, part of him will still live on in Reya's realm because "death works differently" there. Even though Reya's realm can be construed as some kind of stand-in for Hell, her angelic presentation and Michael's lack of fear toward the idea of dying and part of him living on there indicates more is going on. That Reya's world is much more than just an adjacent nightmare, whose demons and false messiah have reflected. There is more going on in Reya's world. A world where she rules as the most powerful and all-knowing being.

However, Reya's presentation of omnipotence isn't always guaranteed. In the Season 2 finale when Ava and Michael reach the underground portion of the ArqTech building where the Ark is being held, Michael is murdered by Lilith before he and Ava get a chance to blow up Adriel. Ava loses to them, and Adriel is almost able to kill Reya when she comes through the Ark. However, Ava is able to blow up Michael despite his death, which destroys the massive cross in the facility that was draining the halo of its powers. This grants Ava a chance. She uses the halo to summon a swarm of tarasks, all of whom take their turn ripping Adriel apart. Before any of them can attack Ava, Reya stops them. Due to her injuries from the shrapnel of Michael's divinium, Ava goes through the Ark, where she will seemingly be cared for by Reya in the other dimension.

While Reya did end up predicting that Michael's sacrifice would bring about Adriel's defeat, the unexpected events that transpired during the final battle indicate Reya's predictions are not always correct. After meeting Reya while wearing the Crown of Thorns, Ava appeared to have full faith in the Godlike being and her plan to defeat Adriel. What she didn't expect was for Michael to die at Lilith's hands. Lilith herself was a wild card in this situation, someone with an unclear connection to Reya's realm, but also someone Reya never accounted for. It's why she came so close to defeat despite the faith she was able to imbue in Ava and Michael about how Adriel could be defeated. Despite being someone who exudes enough power to change even Ava's mind regarding how Adriel can be stopped, Reya doesn't actually seem to know everything. Even when it seems like she does.

Adriel also clearly doesn't trust her. Which should be a given, since he escaped from her clutches to Earth over a thousand years ago. And yet, in the Season 2 finale, he is insistent that Ava cannot trust her. In fact, he exudes more emotion at the thought of Reya winning than he does at any other point throughout his time on the show. He's frustrated, insistent that what he is doing is for the greater good. Part of this ties back into another essay I wrote (linked above in the brackets) where I claimed that Adriel was trying to usher wraith demons into human hosts in order to save them for reasons we don't quite know yet. But it's also true that Adriel's word is all we, as viewers, have to go by that Reya may not be as trustworthy as she appears. If we are to believe that Reya has her own agenda that may be more damaging than Adriel's, then we would only be taking Adriel's word at face value.

...Right?

Season 1 of Warrior Nun established something extremely central to the otherworldly threats Ava and the OCS face throughout the series: Tarasks are drawn to Earth by the power of the halo. They are hunting the halo down because it was stolen from Reya by Adriel, who then stuck it into the back of the first Warrior Nun. And yet, despite knowing that the Warrior Nun is using the halo to ward off threats like wraith demons from Earth, Reya continues to allow tarasks to die at the hands of the OCS as they try and take the halo from the Warrior Nun. Which can only mean one thing: Reya is still hunting for the halo. She never stopped. And now that Ava is in her realm, the halo is back in her possession.

The post-credits scene of Season 2, as well as confirmation from series creator Simon Barry, confirm that Ava somehow returns to Earth. Despite the time differences between Reya's realm and Earth, Ava likely didn't spend too long on the other side if she was able to come back to Earth seemingly days later. I believe that something happened. An altercation with Reya that led Ava to flee back to Earth once she realized the semi-deity's ulterior motives. It's difficult to speculate about what those could be without reaching into major assumptions and theory-crafting based on next to nothing. But it's clear that Reya wants the halo back because it belongs to her.

Given how selfless Ava became over the course of Warrior Nun's first two seasons, it would be strange if she simply decided not to hand the halo over to Reya if she thought doing so would be the best thing to do. If it was beneficial to Earth for Ava to give Reya the halo, I think she would do it. Instead, the end of Season 2 implies Ava returned to Earth still carrying the halo in her back. Meaning whatever Reya is truly planning—whatever larger power struggle or conflict is at play here—it's something Ava believes would be to the detriment of the world. 

I think that, following her time healing in Reya's dimension, Reya utilized a benevolent presentation in order to get Ava to trust her. For some reason, she needs Ava, which is why she doesn't just rip the halo out of her back and be done with it. Ava is somehow an important part of Reya's plans. While Ava is grateful at first for everything Reya has done for her to save her life, she will learn something about Reya and her dimension that makes her recant her assistance. Maybe Adriel really was bringing wraith demons to Earth in order to save them from Reya, who somehow threatened their existence in her dimension. Perhaps Reya has her own ideological reasons for wanting to take over Earth, and, in order to prevent a repeat of Adriel, Ava refuses to help her. Or maybe Reya's goals are so far beyond what we can comprehend with the information we have, that only a third season could adequately explain her goals.

I don't know for sure what the future storylines of Warrior Nun may hold. But it seems likely that Reya has ulterior motives that don't align with Ava and the OCS'. She needs the halo for something, and she needs Ava for something. But whatever that "something" is, it sends Ava back to Earth, deciding not to help.

Or...

Or I'm wrong. I'm wrong and the reason why Ava is back on Earth is because Reya trusts her with possession of the halo and sent her back in order to stop an even greater threat than Adriel. Personally, I don't believe this. I think there are enough puzzle pieces scattered throughout Season 2 of Warrior Nun to imply that Reya doesn't have everyone's best interests at heart. That she has some kind of darker motivation that will make her the show's most formidable adversary in Season 3 or beyond. But there's always the chance that I'm wrong. That Reya truly has a plan that will be beneficial to her realm and to Earth as well. I don't think I'm wrong, but if Ava still has the halo and Reya is as powerful as she appears to be, then how could Ava, in her weakened state, escape?

There's still a lot up in the air. However, I'm going to stick with my conspiracy that Reya isn't who she claims to be because I think it would make for an interesting conflict going into Season 3. Maybe Adriel wasn't right to do what he did, but did he do it for the right reasons? Is Lilith truly brainwashed and evil, or was she convinced by Adriel to help him against Reya and the world because he was actually trying to do some unseen net good? If Reya turns out to be a secret villain in Warrior Nun's future, it could truly complicate the conflicts within the series while adding new, layered context to Season 2, and to Adriel's motivation. The mystery surrounding Reya makes it feel like it's too early to trust her, but not too early to speculate about her true goals.

I guess we'll see where Reya's allegiances truly lie.

***

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