Halo Season 2 Teases The Halo Rings' Debut in Episode 6 Cliffhanger

Halo the TV series has long been hounded by on main criticism: there's not any "Halo" in it. The titular Halo Rings have only appeared in a few select vision sequences from Halo Seasons 1 and 2 – but now it seems we're headed for the real thing! 

WARNING: SPOILERS! 

In Halo Season 2 Episode 6, "Onyx", Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) heads with his companions to the planet Onyx, to have a showdown with Admiral Parangosky (Shabana Azmi), Col. James Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) and the rest ONI, for leaving the Spartan Silver Team on Reach with no armor, to die in the Covenant invasion. As Master Chief tries to infiltrate ONI's facility on Onyx, his Covenant counterpart Makee (Charlie Murphy) is on The Arbiter's ship, trying to keep herself alive by providing use to the aliens via locating the "Sacred Rings" (Halo). 

Throughout the episode, both Master Chief and Makee get a hand from Cortana in getting back to their respective Halo Artifacts to re-establish a connection. For Chief, that means battling his way through ONI forces to get to the Artifact; Makee is caught up in a religious civil war between the Arbiter and other Covenant and grabs her artifact during the skirmish. With both Makee and Master Chief holding onto the Artifacts, the strange objects once again power on and cover both "chosen ones" in a blinding light. 

Will Halo Season 2 Show Halo? 

There was a lot of fakeout in Halo Season 1 when it came to the Halo rings. Makee and Master Chief saw visions of the Halo's surface – and even shared one of those visions – but we never actually arrived at the location. There's been a big question about whether or not Season 2 will deliver on that front – and now it seems pretty clear that it will. Right now, the best guess is that Halo Season 2's finale will end with Master Chief finally entering the Halo ring – and here's why we're leaning that way. 

Halo the TV series started at a time when the Halo Universe was a much bigger place than the events of the original trilogy of games. Running on that bigger playing field, the show has had more lore to pull from, to properly convey the context and scope of the Human-Covenant War, and a deeper understanding of those fighting it (the UNSC, ONI, Covenant, and Spartans). No one is arguing about Season 1 being a misstep; however, Season 2 has been a much more focused story, that has a clear purpose: a deeper understanding of why Master Chief suits up and partners with Cortana and a few others (The Arbiter), to put the literal universe on shoulders and save it from Halo, The Flood, and all kinds of other threats. 

It feels like the cast of characters is quickly whittling down, and Master Chief's formative hero's journey is nearly at an end. With our hero(es) fully formed and in place, there's little left to do but get to actual events of the first Halo games. Episode 6's ending implies that Master Chief and Makee will finally discern the location of the Halo rings. After that, both of them will need to battle the half of their own side standing in the way, then the race will be on to actually get to Halo's location. Sounds like exactly enough material for Halo Episodes 7 and 8 to cover. 

Halo Season 2 releases new episodes on Thursdays only on Paramount+.