Small Details You Missed In The Nun

The second big expanded universe connection that The Nun serves up is a photograph visible during Burke and Irene's dinner during their first night in the abbey. Visible in the background, the photograph was originally referenced by Sister Charlotte in 2017's Annabelle: Creation, which chronologically takes place three years after the events of The Nun. 

The snapshot shows Sister Charlotte alongside three nuns of the cloister, whom she says she became very close to at some point in the past. Those relationships aren't really built on in The Nun, since by the time Irene and Burke arrive at the abbey in 1952, every one of the nuns Charlotte knew is presumably dead. 

Considering what we learn during the events of The Nun, it's almost a little jarring to see the Sisters there ever having a moment of levity. From what we learn about the location, the nuns of the abbey have been consistently praying to keep a monstrous devil from entering the world for literally hundreds of years, with the worst of the demonic activity having picked up in the years following World War II. 

With the abbey essentially being a front line in a spiritual battle against actual monsters from Hell, it's hard to see how anyone could ever be so relaxed on the grounds. Does Charlotte in 1955 even know her friends are long dead, or that they gave their lives for such important work? It doesn't seem that way. She seems to have no idea how lucky she is.