Halo Season 2: Who Is the Dead Scientist?

In Halo Season 2, Episode 7, “Thermopylae,” Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, Commander Miranda Keyes, and Kwan Ha discover the corpse of an alien scientist. So who is Halo Season 2’s dead scientist and how do they connect to wider franchise lore?

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Halo Season 2’s Dead Scientist, Explained

Halsey, Miranda, and Kwan discover the dead scientist in the ancient ruins beneath ONI’s secret headquarters on Onyx. The trio deduces the late alien’s profession based on her surroundings; the chamber Halsey, Miranda, and Kwan find her in is evidently an advanced laboratory. They don’t have long to study the scientist’s remains, though, as the lab soon self-destructs. Miranda nevertheless manages to retrieve – and later, open – a storage device the alien had clutched in its hand.

So, who exactly is Halo Season 2, Episode 7’s dead alien scientist? It’s never explicitly stated on screen, but all signs point to her being a Forerunner. This was a powerful, extinct race who served as the self-appointed guardians of the galaxy millennia before the events of Halo. As part of this role, the Forerunners created all the next-level technology littered throughout the Halo universe, including the Halo itself and its associated artifacts (such as the two keystones).

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The Forerunners also built the sprawling complex beneath Onyx. As briefly glimpsed by Halsey and Keyes in “Thermopylae,” the Onyx ruins encompass more than just the dead scientist’s lab and the library or temple outside it. An entire lost city exists miles below the lab and library (although this may turn out to be something else entirely). The Forerunners also left a sample of hybrid human/Covenant DNA on site, supposedly to spark curiosity among those who found it.

It worked, too. Halsey and Keyes’ discoveries on Onyx have driven them both to investigate the Forerunners and their science and culture further. Despite this, the Forerunners remain largely a mystery to humanity in Halo Season 2. Indeed, the name “Forerunner” is yet to be uttered on screen in the second season’s seven episodes to date, despite the Forerunners’ more prominent role in proceedings this time around.

Who Are the Forerunners In the Halo Video Games?

Unlike their TV counterparts, the Forerunners are practically an open book in the Halo video games and tie-in media. Indeed, we’ve known since the franchise’s first installment, 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved, that the Forerunners constructed and fired the Halo array as a last-ditch effort to rid the galaxy of the parasitic Flood. We also learned that this act effectively eradicated the Forerunners themselves, although subsequent games and media revealed that some Forerunners survived.

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In the years since Halo: Combat Evolved dropped, the lore surrounding the Forerunners has expanded even further. Their battles with both their predecessors, the even more powerful Precursors, and ancient humanity are well-documented, as are their activities in the aftermath of the Flood’s temporary defeat. The Forerunners anointing humans as their successors (or “Reclaimers”) is a key concept in later Halo games, as well.

Halo Season 2 is currently streaming on Paramount+.