Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Halo episode 9, “Transcendence”
If you’d missed all the Halo action in the recent Paramount Plus series, given its peculiar storytelling approach that leans more on drama rather than explosive set pieces, then you may find the season one finale to be exactly what you wanted from a live-action adaptation of the military sci-fi franchise since the beginning.
Spoilers to follow.
Most of “Transcendence” involves the Spartans, led by Master Chief, fighting their way through Covenant forces to recover the Halo artifacts. The skirmish ends on a climactic note that not only changes a lot about the story going forward, but also implies a prodigious change in the dynamic between John-117 and his ever-present companion Cortana. As producer Kiki Wolfkill explains it in a new chat with Deadline, the end of season one was always going to lead to this moment.
“We definitely wanted to end with a huge Spartan moment, and I think what we’ve seen through the season is this race to get to understanding where the Halo ring is,” She said. “We understand that’s the thing that these artifacts are pointing towards and that’s the thing that the Covenant are trying to get to, and ultimately, we in UNSC understand that that’s the thing we want to get to as well. I felt it was inevitable we would get to this point where we would understand sort of the power of these artifacts together. It was important for John and Cortana and their relationship, which in season one is quite new, to have that trust relationship solidified. It felt like there’s a lot of things we had been taking our time to get to through the season, and I think we always knew that they were all going to come together in this finale moment.”
Now that Master Chief has given control of his body to Cortana to save his friends and humanity at large, it’ll be a wonder if the AI manages to bring him back for season two without lasing ramifications. The first season of Halo has been criticized extensively due to all the changes made to Master Chief’s character, so this predicament could prove to be the perfect opportunity for new showrunner David Wiener to make Pablo Shreiber’s protagonist more similar to his beloved video game counterpart.
The crew of Halo will be back this summer to shoot the next season.