Halo Season 2 Ending Explained: Who Is Master Chief Talking To?
Here's what you need to know about the cliffhanger ending of Halo Season 2 and how it connects with the games.
Halo Season 2's Finale episode "Halo" finally brought viewers to the Halo ring itself, and ended things on the cliffhanger of Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) essentially entering into the events of the first Halo: Combat Evolved video game. Even though the path to Halo was paved very differently in the TV series, the end destination was still largely the same: Master Chief entering the installation on Halo and having to meet an A.I. caretaker that represents an ancient civilization and its technical advances.
Meanwhile, outside of the Halo ring Dr. Catherine Halsey (Natascha McElhone) and her daughter Miranda were also stumbling upon discoveries of that same ancient civilization – as well as the nightmare creatures that once threatened it.
What Is Halo TV Series' Mysterious Ancient Civilization? Explained
The Halo TV series never makes an official name-drop, but there are enough hints dropped for anyone who played the Halo games to know that the ancient city that Halsey and Miranda found under planet Onyx (where Halsey first discovered the Halo Keystone and the human hybrid DNA that created the Spartans) was the ancient race known as The Forerunners.
Halo's Forerunners Explained
The Forerunners are a major piece of the Halo lore – they were ancient "Custodians of the Galaxy," created by an even older and more powerful ancient race, The Precursors. However, the Forerunners' "Ecumene" empire eventually succeeded the Precursors, taking up their creators' "Mantle of Responsibility" in taking care of the universe and fostering life.
The Forerunners populated over three million worlds in the Milky Way galaxy, seeding forms of life that included humanity, and building technological marvels like the Halo ring installations, the Ark (master control center for the Halo rings), and the Shield Worlds (which were protected from the Halo's annihilation pulse). The Forerunners achieved peace within their own species, seeing themselves as but one link in a chain of evolution – eventually deciding that humanity would become their successors. However, when The Flood infestation began to surface within humanity's ranks, The Forerunners were forced to go to war with the parasitic species, eventually building the Halo arrays as a means of cleansing The Flood (and any potential hosts) from entire sectors of the universe.
After a furious debate within their culture, The Forerunners ultimately decided to activate the twelve Halo rings, wiping the galaxy clean of all significant life, save for the species (like humanity) they protected by placing them in the Ark. The Forerunners were eradicated by the Halo pulses, and the memory of their culture and its technology was lost with them. The Flood would ultimately survive thanks to spore samples The Forerunners kept in their installation labs.
Halsey and Miranda find a Forerunner installation underneath Onyx; the lab with the dead scientist in it was where the Flood sample was found, suggesting that the facility may have been pivotal to the Forerunner-Flood War.
Halo Season 2 Ending Explained
It is also Forerunner technology that Master Chief encounters inside the Halo ring installation – namely 343 Guilty Spark, the Forerunner Monitor that watches over the installation. Guilty Spark is a famous character from the first Halo game, where it is also the Forerunner "Monitor" left behind as custodian of the Halo instillation Master Chief and the Covenant clash over.
The ending of Halo Season 2 sets Season 3 up to follow the plot of the Halo: Combat Evolved game, which followed Chief infiltrating this Halo installation to save the galaxy from potential annihilation. Along the way, Chief has to contend with the Forerunners' tech and The Flood (and its leaders) to complete his mission.
The full mythology of the Forerunners, Flood, and Precursors is coming in Halo Season 3. So make sure to watch Season 2 streaming on Paramount+.