A key talking point among Halo Season 2’s Covenant characters is the so-called “Great Journey,” but what is it? And how will it impact future episodes of the Paramount+ series?
What Is the Covenant’s Great Journey in Halo Season 2?
The Great Journey is the core belief of the Covenant religion. Given the Covenant’s focus on finding Halo in Halo Season 2, you’d be forgiven for thinking the term refers to their search for the legendary space ring. That’s not the case, though — or at least not entirely. Locating all seven Halos (including the one that lends the streaming series its name) is just the start of the Great Journey.
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Once the Covenant has tracked down all seven “sacred rings,” they plan to trigger them all. According to their faith, this will initiate the Great Journey by generating a “divine wind” that will usher true believers to paradise. This belief is based on the Covenant’s interpretation of what happened when the Halo Array’s creators, the Forerunners, originally activated it.
Unfortunately for both the Covenant and everyone else in the galaxy, the Great Journey doctrine doesn’t jibe with real-life history. The Forerunners didn’t fire the Halo Array as part of a magical mystery tour to a higher plane of existence; they did it to wipe out the parasitic Flood. It was a last resort, not a holy ritual — and without proper planning, would’ve eradicated all life in the galaxy.
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It also drastically thinned out the Forerunner population, many of whom were caught in the Halo Array’s blast radius. In short? Activating one or more Halo installations would wreak untold havoc on the galaxy, making the Covenant’s belief in the Great Journey a major threat to everyone (including the Covenant themselves).
Does the Covenant’s Great Journey Happen in the Halo Video Games?
So, should you expect to see the Covenant’s Great Journey come to fruition, either in Halo Season 2 or beyond? Nope — not if the Halo video games are any guide, anyway. While there are several attempts to fire all or part of the Halo Array across the six core installments in the franchise, none succeed. As a result, the Covenant never gets to embark on their long-awaited spiritual voyage, either by their own hand or someone else’s.
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Heck, some of Covenant’s member species — notably, a sizeable chunk of the Sangheili, or Elites — even come to accept that the Great Journey was a load of bunk and renounce the belief. Whether any of this will happen in the Halo show is unclear at this stage, and the show’s alternate timeline setting means nothing is preordained. But considering what a successful Great Journey scenario would mean for the series’ story and characters, don’t hold your breath waiting for it to arrive!
Halo Season 2 is currently streaming on Paramount+, with new episodes dropping Thursdays.
