Halo: Why Master Chief Can Activate The Madrigal Object

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Warning! Spoilers ahead for Halo, episode 1

In the premiere episode of Paramount's new Halo series, Master Chief activates a mysterious artifact found on the colony world of Madrigal. Engaging the alien forces of the Covenant, John-117 and his SPARTAN unit known as Silver Team discovered the object of unknown origin that the Covenant Elites had been looking for. However, it activated the moment Master Chief made physical contact with it. Here's what makes John-117 so special, and how the object relates to the race of beings known as the Forerunners (who likely created the artifact).

In Halo episode 1, a colony on the planet Madrigal is attacked when the daughter of an insurrectionist leader named Kwan Ha and her friends stumbled across a detachment of Covenant forces. While the Covenant wasted no time wiping out the colony, the UNSC and Silver Team arrived to intercept, taking out the Elites and saving Kwan as the colony's sole survivor. However, they soon realized that attacking the colony was not the Covenant's primary mission.

Related: Halo Cast, Character & Video Game Comparison Guide

Finding a dig site near the Covenant's dropship, Master Chief and a fellow SPARTAN investigated the interior, discovering the mysterious object the Elites had been excavating. Not only was John-117 able to activate the artifact, but it seemingly restored fragments of memories that the SPARTAN program's Doctor Halsey surmised belonged to Master Chief himself but that the UNSC had previously erased during his training. However, the reason why Master Chief John-117 was able to activate it at all likely has to do with the Forerunners from the preexisting Halo canon, an ancient race of beings who created the Halo rings and other technologies