I was wondering, all through the second series, what the Great Ordeal was planning to actually do once they reached Golgotterath -- just fight off the defenders, then dismantle the Ark with their bare hands? As it played out, that wasn't even possible; they couldn't even open a second breach to the interior. It looked very much as if the entire point of the Great Ordeal, and for that matter the Thousandfold Thought, was simply to keep most of the Ark's defenders busy while Kellhus confronted the leaders of the Consult. Who, as it turned out, wanted him there anyway.

The metaphysical importance of that confrontation aside, was the plan really as simple as that?