Parangosky’s Fate Sets Up A Halo Season 3 Twist That Changes A Game Plot

Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Halo Season 2, episode 8, “Halo”

The fate of Admiral Parangosky (Shabana Azmi) by the end of Halo season 2 may set up a major twist from the original games and books. One of the most dangerous and morally bankrupt UNSC officers and the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, Parangosky is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve victory, regardless of how many lives are sacrificed along the way. However, she could become even darker in a potential Halo season 3.

As seen in Halo season 2’s finale, Master Chief John-117 (Pablo Schrieber) finally reunites with Cortana and has made it to the first Halo ring. This sets up the events of the first Halo game Combat Evolved, though the events on the secret UNSC world of Onyx are important for the future as well. Featuring several characters on the planet during the first major debut of the parasitic race known as the Flood, here’s how Parangosky’s fate can set up a key event from the first game in Halo season 3, albeit with some significant twists.

What Happens To Admiral Parangosky In Halo Season 2’s Finale

Victim Of The Onyx Flood Outbreak

In Halo season 2, episode 8, Doctor Miranda Keyes is studying the container she and her mother Catherine Halsey took from the secret Forerunner laboratory on Onyx. This unknowingly releases several Flood spores throughout the UNSC’s facility, gradually infecting various scientists, officers, and soldiers as it rapidly mutates before taking full possession of the bodies. As such, the Flodd infection eventually makes its way to the command center where Parangosky and Halsey were coordinating the Spartan-IIIs’ assault on the Covenant fleet near the location of the first Halo ring.

Although Halsey becomes one of the infected as well, she manages to escape the command center and reunite with her daughter who subsequently puts her in cryo-sleep to stall the infection until Miranda can hopefully find a cure. Parangosky wasn’t so lucky. As Halsey was leaving, Parangosky was seen being completely overwhelmed by multiple Flood-infected officers, an act that almost certainly confirms that she’s now one of the Flood. However, Parangosky’s infection could also become so much worse in a potential Halo season 3.

What Happens To Parangosky In The Halo Games And Books

Retirement After A Dark Legacy

Considering her legacy, there is a ring of poetic justice when it comes to Parangosky’s fate in the Halo show. After all, this is the woman who manipulated John-117 by pretending to be an ally, all while secretly being in charge of ONI. She also ordered the covert evacuation of the UNSC’s high command without alerting the millions of innocent lives on the planet Reach about the imminent Covenant invasion. Likewise, Master Chief and his team were abandoned on Reach along with several UNSC soldiers, and even their armor was taken before the invasion began.

This all culminates with the creation of the Spartan-IIIs, a vastly larger and more cost-effective force compared to Halsey’s Spartan-IIs, their entire purpose being to overwhelm the Covenant with numbers as they were more expendable. Case in point, Parangosky’s entire strategy during the UNSC’s space battle was that she only needed one Spartan to make it to a Covenant command bridge to destroy the fleet, having no extractions prepared regardless of success or failure. That said, Parangosky’s fate in the core canon of the Halo games and books is far less satisfying.

Having overseen several of the most unethical black ops missions and projects during the Human-Covenant War, the core canon’s Parangosky simply retires in her 90s. She was also succeeded by her protegé Serin Osman, a former Spartan-II who washed out of the program and was subsequently groomed by Parangosky to take her place as the head of ONI. Although Parangosky did aid in humanity’s survival, her methods in the core canon were just as dark as they are in the show, believing that trading lives for time was worth the cost.

Parangosky Might Be Replacing Jacob Keyes In Halo’s “Silver Timeline”

Jacob Keyes Was Infected By The Flood In Combat Evolved

Being infected by the Flood in the Halo show’s unique “Silver Timeline” is clearly a much different end for Parangosky compared to retirement. However, it could very well make her role even greater and more important, especially now that there’s effectively a vacancy regarding a key event from the first Halo game. In Combat Evolved, Captain Jacob Keyes is leading the UNSC forces supporting Master Chief on the first Halo ring, though Keyes is tragically infected by the Flood during an investigation into what was believed to be a Covenant weapons cache.

However, the Halo show’s Jacob Keyes (Danny Sapani) sacrifices himself during the Fall of Reach, helping civilians escape this doomed world while facing an entire platoon of Covenant Jackals. As such, this does create a problem for future events considering what happens to Keyes once he gets infected by the Flood as seen in the first Halo game. However, it’s one Parangosky could fill in the “Silver Timeline” considering Halo season 2’s finale now that she herself has been infected on Onyx, just ahead of the events of Combat Evolved.

Halo Season 3 Could Make Parangosky A Far More Monstrous Villain

The Flood’s Proto-Gravemind

As seen in Halo: Combat Evolved, several Flood-infected UNSC soldiers merge around an infected Keyes, becoming what’s referred to as a Proto-Gravemind. For the Flood, the Gravemind is the shared consciousness of the entire parasitic species once they’ve infected enough hosts to become coordinated, taking full advantage of their collective sentience. As such, the Proto-Gravemind is the precursor to that stage when the Flood is largely still feral at the beginning of an outbreak, interrogating its victims and gaining memories and knowledge over time as a full-fledged Gravemind evolves.

Rather than Jacob Keyes who was already gone before the Flood emerged in Halo season 2’s finale, it’s quite possible that Admiral Parangosky could become a live-action Proto-Gravemind instead. Not only would becoming a Proto-Gravemind allow her role to continue in a potential Halo season 3, but it would also make Paragosky even more of a monstrous figure than she already was in the “Silver Timeline”. It would certainly be a major twist and deviation from the plot of the original game, but it does seem as though it would be very compelling for the future of Paramount’s Halo show.