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This Halo article contains spoilers.
Yes, that was an actual Halo ring at the end of the latest episode of Halo, “Thermopylae.” At last, Master Chief has made it to the show’s namesake, the superweapon his video game counterpart discovered within seconds of the Xbox title the show is based on. It shouldn’t have been this hard or taken this long for this adaptation to get him there. Like a wide-eyed John-117 staring out at the mythical Forerunner superstructure, I can barely even believe it’s actually happening. Could this cliffhanger lead to another rug pull?
It was only three weeks ago that the show got around to the Fall of Reach, the event in the lore of the games that directly led to Chief and UNSC finding the ring. But instead of getting us there at break neck speed like the game, there were no Covenant ships chasing the Pillar of Autumn on the TV series, no epic last-ditch landing on the ringworld at all. Instead, Master Chief and his pals went to a farm world to sulk. Then Soren’s kid went missing and Riz retired. Then a whole bunch more detours — to find artifacts, to uncover a new secret Spartan project, to a secret Forerunner city. All before ever even stepping foot on the Halo all this sci-fi nonsense is supposed to be about.
Yes, the games cover some of this stuff too, but those expansions of the lore happened organically after the initial title, branching out from the first Halo ring to High Charity and the Ark and Genesis and so on. But first there was that single ring full of mystery and wonder and ancient secrets. And one hell of a twist I’m not sure this show will ever actually get to at this pace. The TV show, and the alternate universe Silver Timeline in which it takes place, is clearly much more interested with what happened after the games expanded the lore than the thing they’re best known for (which, again, is Halo rings).
