Time to see if Halo is going to have any staying power. After a decent initial episode, it’s we find out what's in store for Master Chief and the rest of our characters.
We begin episode 2 at the UNSC Spartan Training Center on planet Reach. A young Master Chief, only given the name “Bed 117,” as that’s his bunk name in the barracks of the training facility, looks over at bed 066. Bed 117 is escaping the training center. The set piece for the training center is sparse and looks very much like a set in the video game Halo..
Outside the training facility, Master Chief, aka John, meets up with Soren (bed 066). He’s preventing Soren from going AWOL. John was also going to go AWOL but he changed his mind and decides, instead, to allow Soren to escape, giving him five minutes to do so, out of respect for the other man. But he has a code and doesn’t believe in defecting.
In the present day, Kwan and Master Chief are flying through space. Kwan wants to know why John isn’t just returning her to Planet Reach as his prisoner. John’s reason, he states, is that he doesn’t think it’s right to kill a kid. He’s got a code.
Back on Planet Reach, Catherine Halsey wants to find Master Chief so that she can get her hands on the alien Covenant technology he found. The rest of the team, under Halsey’s orders, are going after Master Chief in order to bring him back to Reach.
Back with Master Chief, he and Kwan are traveling through asteroid field. Can’t have a sci fi show without one! There appears to be a mining colony of some sort in the middle of the asteroid field.
Typical space colony. Everyone wears drab clothing. It is reminiscent of the underground Mars in Total Recall. And just like every other place we’ve visited in the Halo universe, the people here don’t trust the Spartans.
This is where we meet present day Soren. He welcomes Master Chief and Kwan to, what he calls The Rubble, an outlaw post. How did John know where to find him? We also learn that Kwan has a bounty on her head now.
On High Charity, the Covenant command center, we see the aliens with their human advisor, Makee. They call her The Blessed One. They’re looking for “the ring”, a keystone, they call it. This is what Master Chief found. But what does it do?
We learn that Mercy, the ruler of the aliens, took in Makee when she was younger. She is devoted to them and tries to convince Mercy to let her go find the keystone. Will he?
Back with Dr. Halsey, we learn that the good doctor has developed Cortana, an artificial general intelligence upgrade to the Spartans. She calls Cortana an “Intelligence of the galaxy.” This will allow them to create more lethal and error-free Spartans that are also more controllable. Master Chief better watch out for Dr. Halsey!
Over on Planet Madrigal (where Kwan is from, we get a bad guy named Vinsher. He’s assassinating rebels. He’s the one that put a bounty on Kwan, now that her father is dead. He is the new leader. Apparently, he hated her father. Kwan wants justice. Will she obtain it? Not in this episode.
Switching back over to Soren and Master Chief, Soren wants to know if John has figured out who he is (as a person) and, also, he really wants to know what’s in the box John is carrying. Have they not seen each other since their training days? How did John figure out where Soren was?
Soren’s son, Kessler, stamps Master Chief’s hand with a smiley face as he prepares for bed. John is feeling some emotions for the first time and looks lost. I get the feeling tragedy is going to end up striking Soren’s family at some point. My money is on Soren dying. We shall see.
Soren is given a look at what Master Chief has in the box. He doesn’t know anything about what it might be but he, conveniently, knows a guy that might. His name is Reth and he wants to take John to him to have him check it out. Do we trust Soren yet? I’m getting shades of Lando and Han from Star Wars.
We meet Reth in an underground prison. He’s definitely crazy. Reth tells Master Chief that the Covenant roams the galaxies looking for artifacts and that only the Blessed Ones can control these artifacts. Reth tries to destroy the artifact, but John grabs it away from him, thus activating the device. John experiences brief flashbacks, as an electrical field surges through the underground prison.
Reth says that Master Chief is different than “the one they have.” Does he mean Makee over at the Covenant? Is John a Blessed One, just like Makee?
Reth says that the energy field that shot forth from the artifact, when John touched it, is a ring and that’s what the covenant wants because it is a weapon that can end all life as they know it. He says that John must destroy the artifact, but doing so will cause his own destruction.
Master Chief wants Soren to keep Kwan safe while he takes the artifact back to Dr. Halsey. Soren reluctantly agrees to help Kwan. They say their swift goodbyes as John leaves Kwan in Soren’s care.
Back on his ship, Master Chief turns his beacon back on, allowing the rest of the Spartans to locate him. He is taken prisoner back on Planet Reach. Halsey takes the artifact from him as John is led away in handcuffs.
Dr. Halsey is obsessed with the artifact. She has a conversation with Master Chief inside his prison cell. John tells her that he has feelings when he touches the artifact. She avoids the topic and instead wants to know what it was about Kwan that made John run. John says he couldn’t let her die. The artifact connected him to something bigger.
We get a glimpse of Makee as she disrobes. She has scars on her body. Master Chief and Makee are connected somehow but the show doesn’t tell us yet.
The show ends with the eyes of the new AI, Cortana, opening.
General thoughts:
Did anyone else think that Cortana looked just like Dr. Halsey?
When Master Chief puts the helmet back on the show is better. Halo should have taken its cue from The Mandalorian. Master Chief’s helmet is iconic. Why have the character take it off?
“I brought churros.” Funny. I think this show needs humor in order to keep the audience interested. Science fiction shows are too often dry.
Will this show have enough “non-fan” appeal? It’s going to be tough. Halo is a great video game but they’ve got to give non-video game players a reason to watch. So far, they haven’t.
Does Cortana look just like Dr. Halsey to you guys?
Cable cars through an asteroid field. This was probably my favorite scene of the show so far.
I also like Master Chief’s space ship. The graphics aren’t always great, but they are often cool
See you next episode!
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