WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, now in theaters and on HBO Max.
In The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Ed and Lorraine Warren come up against one of their most demonic enemies ever. This is in the form of the Occultist, who has sent out a curse to claim human sacrifices, giving her souls for Satan. As the paranormal experts dig deeper, they realize this sorceress can also get into their minds, which leads to a brutal finale where the witch corrupts Ed's mind and has him try to kill Lorraine. However, as Lorraine deploys the ultimate weapon against him, fans familiar with the series will know it was already used in the first film.
In 2013's The Conjuring, the couple focused on the Perron family as their farmhouse became haunted. This was due to the descendant of a witch from the Salem trials, Bathsheba, who killed herself on the estate in the 1800s after trying to sacrifice her child to the devil. She'd possess the mom, Carolyn, but Lorraine used the power of emotion, love and humanity to win by appealing to Carolyn's memory.
The finale had Bathsheba/Carolyn trapped in the cellar, but as she screamed, Lorraine pled with the woman to remember her family. She used a beach day as a totem because Carolyn admitted that was one of her favorite memories earlier on. Roger and Ed helped egg Carolyn on, urging her to purge the demon out, and eventually Bathsheba left as Carolyn remembered that lovely day.
The Devil Made Me Do It's climax follows a similar path as Ed becomes possessed and taciturn when the witch throws a magical powder in his face. He then uses a hammer to try to crush Lorraine's skull in the Occultist's lair, but as he corners her, she begs him to remember their first date.
She appeals to the nostalgia they shared earlier on in the film, where they also detailed their first kiss and how their romance turned into marriage. This breaks him out of the trance, and just as he's about to kill Lorraine, Ed ends up breaking the ritualistic altar behind her that powered the Occultist and her curse. This ends the spells and sends the villain to hell. More so, it reminds fans that Lorraine is always ready to use her most reliable trick when good people are taken ahold of by evil.
Directed by Michael Chaves, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It stars Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ruairi O'Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook and Julian Hilliard. The film is now in theaters and on HBO Max.