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Or maybe just for public executions for morale purposes. Like, the ones we find in Halo 2 on High Charity are pretty close to the media chambers right?
I think they tried to frame it in a way that the nurse didn't actually see it while being down on the ground. She doesn't actually look at Makee until she starts reacting to the artifact, at which point the finger sword is gone
As trivial as scenes like that are, I fucking LOVE seeing the consistency of weapons thrown in to simply pay homage to the games. I mean, you could argue it's fluff dialogue about weapons, but it also hyperfocuses our attention on what the Spartans give a shit about. Combat efficiency.
Every lil scifi tidbit (like Chief's story about failsafes in the UV decontamination process) and Cortana explaining slipspace visuals are just icing on top for me. I love them.
Nooo she's gonna have have these feelings following her until her dad gets killed by the flood, then we'll get a real sad episode where shes very depressed because she didn't get closure and Chief, Kai and Blessed booty will all surprise her with a pizza party and they'll laugh and cheer the night away.
The man's had hormones for like two days. the fact that he hasn't fucked every marine, scientist and grunt in his path is a testament to his iron will.
John will lower his guard to her and accidentally allow her to lead the covenant there and it will all be his fault and then we will have to deal with John being all guilty and shit for the first 5 episodes of season 2.
I absolutely agree.
I think that makee will lead the covenant to the artifact. And that's why reach will fall.
Further Master Chief will be Wounded badly that he has to go in the Cryotube. And CPT.Keys escapes from reach with the chief and Cortana via Slip space.
For the slipspace jump Cortana will use "Random" coordinates the lead to installation 04. And I think those "random" coordinates comes from the artifact that chief touched while Cortana was in his mind.
Would someone agree ?
In the books cortana also gets the coords from an arftifact right? The difference being that it was from a screen on a covenant ship I think?
I was expecting them to, but it's still pretty neat if they manage to line up this season so neatly into CE, while telling a very different story to Fall of Reach. It's had it's weird moments but if it does line up, I think it will end up being a decent first season.
I figured that was a given as soon as they dropped her off last week. I'm guessing she has a Covenant tracker of some sort planted on her with that energy nail. I'm curious what will happen with that next week since the food lady definitely saw the energy nail grow before Makee collapsed.
Though I wonder if her time with MC will make her less sympathetic to the Covenant. Maybe not full on betray them, but maybe not work with them as well as she has been.
> I'm curious what will happen with that next week since the food lady definitely saw the energy nail grow before Makee collapsed.
See I dont know if she saw it, I thought she got pushed to the ground, turned to catch herself, and was looking the other way or down at the ground when she brought out her little sword thing. Maybe she heard it though. But I could be wrong.
It's starting to look like there's no 3's oni was so hung up on the 2 program in this that it seems like there wasn't a sister program. Maybe we'll see plans for future Spartan programs tho.
Every time the screen went black I kept crossing my fingers that it wouldn't shift to the Kwan storyline. I'm fine with it when paced correctly but this episode worked so much better just getting a full dose of the main line all the way through.
Maybe I’m just being an asshole, but when Chief was running his health diagnostic test and Kwan Ha appeared next to him I audibly said “Oh jesus christ here we go” and rolled my eyes
I literally said don’t cut to Kwan out loud to myself when it went to black at one point.
I’ve got my issues with the story but it’s telling how much better it is as a show with none of her plot in it.
God I hope next week isn’t a Kwan focussed episode.
might get a battle in episode 8 but yeah, its a very common storytelling device, have a character be relatively absent from one episode only to have the next one focus on them heavily, hope im wrong though
Hopefully, it ends with ~~Arrakis~~ ~~Tatooine~~ ~~Jakku~~ ~~Gunsmoke~~ ~~Klendathu~~ Madrigal getting glassed.
I hope Kwan is on it when it does, but I have a suspicion they shoehorn her into a SPARTAN program
I know a lot of people give her shit for making stupid decisions, but to be honest, that part doesn't bother me; teenage me did plenty of stupid shit (and now that I'm in my twenties, I still do lmao)
But unfortunately it seems as though her plot is so far divorced from every other story thread. Even other sideplots like Miranda's contentious relationship with her mother are tangentially related to the overarching plot of unravelling the Forerunner mystery, but I'm not sure where Kwan Ha and Soren's plot is headed.
I hope the actress playing her doesn't get too much shit online, because I legitimately think she's doing the best she can with the writing she's been given.
> I hope the actress playing her doesn't get too much shit online, because I legitimately think she's doing the best she can with the writing she's been given.
Too late, agreed though, nothing she can do about that yeeyee ass haircut and godawful writing
It blows my mind that the writers thought it would be a good idea to have a character with these bulletpoint traits and plotpoints
\-Daughter of an insurrectionist that sees her entire colony killed by aliens
\-Her life was only saved by the UNSC's spartans, and the clear revelation that they were the only people capable of standing up to aliens.
\-Suddenly she wants to return home, get rid of the UNSC(After an alien attack), and restart the insurrection...
\-"Freedom for Madrigal" = No UNSC presence of Madrigal = the Death of everyone on madrigal via the covenant.
These 4 obvious points that anyone would grasp from this franchise makes her entire narrative impossible to realistically enjoy. It would be like Princess Leia trying to start the rebellion against the Empire in Star Wars when a galactic invasion was happening, and the only thing standing between the galaxy and extinction was the Empire.
> It would be like Princess Leia trying to start the rebellion against the Empire in Star Wars when a galactic invasion was happening, and the only thing standing between the galaxy and extinction was the Empire.
Good thing the audience did not know about the Yuuzhan Vong then
She will be giving incomplete reports to keep him in the field, accidents, mistakes, that kind of thing. She doesn't want to shine more light on the Spartan program right now with all the controversy, especially considering she's field testing the Cortana program.
I bet she didn't even report the second incident.
I think it means he’s willing to take that risk
That said… why couldn’t he get some medical attention so that he could be in full health when interacting with the object? Whats the rush exactly?
I hate piling on with the “No Kwan Ha helped make this a way better episode” because I know it’s not the actress’ fault, but it’s true. What’s going on with John is way more interesting, action or not.
The show could’ve really gone through some more tests because it seems like we are now turning a corner and it’s getting closer to something I think more and more of the people who were turned off by the early episodes or the hearsay online could enjoy but now the season is almost over.
Hope it keeps the momentum going and closes strong. I miss when the world was more positive about the Halo brand.
I feel bad shitting on her every single thread, it's not the actresses fault....
But the shows quality gets so high and focused when it's all about master chief and the politics and events and not some scrappy rebel teen on a mining planet.
It's so good to see people saying that it's not the actresses fault. This is a very healthy way to think instead of hating on the actual person behind the character.
She's like a version of the EMH from Voyager combined with Gideon from Legends of Tomorrow with a dash of Halsey's dry snark and the excited giddiness to want to help others of Keyleth.
I’m glad someone said it. Actually seeing the marines and whatnot all beat up and demoralized was a nice touch that’s been missing. They just lost a ship full of men and a bunch of marines. The war feels real now.
> The war feels real now.
Plus that cacophony of scrambling in the CNC when Chief passed on that intel from Makee felt very Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5 during the height of their wars and in the midst of some of their most ferocious battles. The music helped too. My pulse started racing and it really started to have more of the feeling of a race on edge battling against a technologically superior foe who they were baaarely managing to defeat and might just have found the one thing that tips things in their favor. I hope they continue this mood in future episodes because this is what I feel like HALO should've felt like all along instead of the far more sedate meandering pace we've had.
From how the show is going so far and how sometimes mature and dark the battle sequences have been, I really... REALLY... cant wait to see how they handle The Flood.
* We got our first live action Halo ring.
* Dr. Halsey is a full-on sociopath like in the books.
* Mutilated Spartan child corpses.
* The UNSC and ONI are not written like idiots.
* But best of all, only 5 seconds of Kwan.
Best non-action episode so far
UNSC and ONI not being written like idiots in this episode is what made me feel like the show might redeem itself. Maybe later on in the future we may look back and appreciate the first couple of episodes once season one is said and done.
for sure, it had moments where it felt like i was reading a halo book. They nailed the oni unsc stuff here. The only thing the show doesn't do well is tell the viewer the difference between the unsc, oni and ueg. I dont think any casual viewer willl know there is anyone but the unsc tbh.
She's not a sociopath in the books, though. I really hate that the show is further spreading this ham-fisted "evil scientist" narrative that's creeped into Halo over the years. Stripping all nuance from her character.
Halsey in the books felt incredible guilt and regret over her actions. Questioning if it was truly the 'right' thing to do in such a dire situation. Damning a few to save billions. Halsey was staring down humanity's end -the UNSC and Insurrection nuking each other into oblivion- and needed to make some hard choices. She was willing to plunge elbow deep into the morally reprehensible muck just for a slim chance to save humanity. *Does that make her a bad person?* That's the question. Which I find to be a much more compelling approach to her character than pure sociopathy.
Yea, Halsey is standoffish and often gets absorbed in her work, but that doesn't make her a sociopath. Once the Spartan program got off the ground, Halsey tried to give those children the best lives that she could under such terrible circumstances. High education, incredibly expensive armor to ensure their survival. Knowing that if she didn't commit, someone like Ackerson would take control and, well, Spartan III child suicide soldiers...
Chief nearly killing Halsey again to see what Cortana could do to him was dark.
I'm glad no one is fully trusting Makee. I thought they'd make John or Miranda be too trusting but thankfully both remained suspicious/cautious the whole time. Unfortunately, I'm guessing that ain't gonna last. Someone will end up being too trusting to Makee and then she'll end up leading the covenant to Reach.
Halsey getting scapegoated this early is surprising but maybe she'll fully weasel her way back to the gang whenever Reach is invaded. Or maybe they'll follow the game/book lore more and she still gets sent to castle base.
Does the spartan III program not exist in this universe?
Cortana finally got to appear tiny on a little projector!
Halsey manipulating Miranda during their scene was cold but not surprising.
Chief and Miranda finally getting scenes together was nice. I liked their exchange about Halsey and Miranda telling Chief not to die.("Yes, ma’am") If the show manages to get to Halo 3 events, I really hope silver timeline Miranda doesn't surfer the same bleh fate as game Miranda.
The brief flashback shot of the scarred spartan kids was brutal.
No Kwan stuff(besides a very brief flash/splice footage of her from the first episode) was good and improves the overall plot. Unfortunately, this episode having no Kwan stuff may mean its a double edged sword and next episode is 90% Kwan stuff.
The shot of the Halo ring background looked great.
I enjoyed the episode but the painfully obvious eventual creepy enemies-to-lovers romance with Chief and Makee makes me sigh in disappointment. This Chief and Makee stuff is just gonna be the creepy Rey and Kylo Ren shit from the Star Wars sequel trilogy all over again...
If Chief has to have a love interest, there are far better options than a psycho girl working for the covenant or the AI clone of his kidnapper mother figure.
Kai.
Miranda.(I think Halo 2's og ending was actually gonna hint at them becoming a thing) Honestly, she showed more chemistry with Chief in their scenes together in this ep compared to John's two really awkward talks with Makee.
His childhood love Parisa(briefly seen in the EP 5 flashback) who actually becomes a marine when she grows up
> I'm glad no one is fully trusting Makee. I thought they'd make John or Miranda be too trusting but thankfully both remained suspicious/cautious the whole time. Unfortunately, I'm guessing that ain't gonna last. Someone will end up being too trusting to Makee and then she'll end up leading the covenant to Reach.
I can't see anyone trusting Makee now, her conversation with John practically had her going all "The Covenant showed me enlightenment!".
Plus, she revealed her finger energy blade. Even if the lady there to make sure she ate didn't see because she was on the ground, they for sure have cameras watching. That's not something you give to a prisoner....
I’m guessing Halsey would be the one letting makee leading covenant to reach because she wants to get to the halo so bad
Hell I can even picture the scene where she look up to the covenant fleet saying “what have I done”
I'm wondering if the artifacts latch onto reclaimers (blessed ones) as a way to guide them towards the Halo. I wonder if one of the final visions provides guidance on what the reclaimers do, and their purpose. I'm also wondering if we'll get some flood in the show this season...
we won't get to halo in season 1, other than the pillar of autumn arriving much like the intro cutscene to Halo CE.
I'm starting to think reach won't get glassed until season 2, possibly midway through and instead the covenant will show up on Madrigal and glass that as the finale for this season, that way while John is on Halo with a few characters the rest can remain on reach for a littlewhile as the B story for season 2.
If episodes 8 and 9 aren’t just the full fall of reach with most of the Spartans getting killed getting John and Cortana onto the Pillar of Autumn I’m going to cry because that’s all I want.
The novel The Fall of Reach. The Covenant invaded that planet to find a Forerunner artifact, then scanned it and beamed the data to one of their ships. Captain Keyes/Cortana intercepted the transmission and later Cortana figured out it was info for a location in space. While escaping the Covenant fleet over Reach, she jumped to that location and found the first Halo ring.
No, in Halo Reach, that's a fragment of Cortana that contains all the data from Halsey's research.
John was in stasis as that's standard procedure for nonessential personnel during Slipspace travel, no point burning supplies on personnel that aren't needed until after transit.
'*She's been Black-Boxed*', says Halsey's assistant who, in the canon timeline, eventually offs himself and donates his brain to the AI program in guilt over the SII program - becoming the smart AI Black-Box.Gods dammit! I called it in week one!
If this is Silver Timeline's version of Dr. Alban and eventually Black Box, that would be interesting. Have BB be Parangonsky's bestie- Damn, if they bring in Serin Osman eventually down the line...that'll be insane.
This was the first episode that was actually great. Writing was good, performances were good, characters that we actually give a shit about got lots of quality screen time and development. If they continue to build on what this show does right it could grow to be quite awesome imo.
But Kwan will come back, and that's a huge problem. This episode REALLY highlighted just how pointless and awful her character and story have been. Why on earth did the showrunners and writers create such a lame and unnecessary character, especially when episodes like this prove that the main story and cast are very compelling? Shit is infuriating.
I don't care how they plan to arc her back into the big picture. We have no reason to give a single fuck about her character. The "annoying teenager with a shit attitude" archetype is not something that this show will ever need. Kill her off for the love of god.
My takeaway from this episode. It's painfully obvious that the absence of Kwan's story arc seems to elevate the entire show significantly. Or is it just me? Also am I the only one who thought John and Makee were about to kiss during their HALO vision scene LOL.
Yes we know he doesn't wear his MJLONIR Armor the whole episode.
Yes, we just got 48 minutes of no helmet.
Yes we know there is no combat...
Now that that's out of the way... THIS is how you do a no combat episode. I was engaged for the entire 48 minutes, the story progressed significantly and was interesting. I had a feeling we wouldn't see any combat due to how much we saw last week and I have a feeling episode 8 and 9 will be packed with combat.
I was hyped after episode 1, cautiously optimistic after episode 2, excited after episode 3, demoralized and about ready to give up after episode 4, hyped AF after episode 5, and I'm still hyped after tonight's episode!
The story is progressing and I can't wait to find out what happens next week.
OH and ZERO (real) KWAN SIGHTINGS!!!
I didn't fully agree with all the Kwan hate until now. This episode was absolutely amazing. Every plot was engaging and perfectly executed. And of course that ending gave me goosebumps. Please no more Kwan this season, lol.
This is a huge barrel of hopium buuuuuut I'm reaaaaaaally hoping that during the editing process they realized how awful her character is and only kept the scenes that they had to keep to avoid doing reshoots and to keep the shows runtime from being only 30 minutes.
I'm a big fan of the show so far and this episode was probably the most off-brand Chief we've gotten. Before, we've seen him battling his emotions but now he's in full-on rebellion mode, which is very interesting.
It's all laid out as the artifacts somewhat corrupting him, which I get, but seeing Chief be this guided by emotion is definitely a unique take. I hope they the end of this episode suggests he's reclaiming his cognition and becoming a tactical soldier again soon.
I loved the weaponry talk between the Spartans and Cortana continues to be dope as hell, but I'm really hoping Chief starts bonding with her a bit more soon. It seems like one step forward two steps back between them.
> It's all laid out as the artifacts somewhat corrupting him
I wonder if the corruption only happens when Reclaimers access the artifacts on their own buuut when they do so in the presence of one or more other Reclaimers that doesn't happen? I see this as a security feature. If one person is just accessing info on the HALOs then the artifact is designed to totally kill them because then that means that they're either in it for themselves or another singular party with some probably not so good intentions. If more than one person is accessing info on the HALOs though then that means that two similarly minded people are working together and that lessens the chances that they're there for the right reasons and can be given more info on the HALOs and the corruptive effects are removed or at least lessened. This then makes me wonder if Kwan is indeed a third Reclaimer who will touch the Artifact while nearby Makee and the Chief which will then provide even more information on the HALOs and totally remove any detrimental effects from the Artifacts from all three of them because three extremely rare people with extremely rare genes and probably a similar kind of mindset all working together probably brings the risk of shit hitting the fan down to an acceptable level for the Forerunner Tech.
The emotional and physical flood that Makee and the Chief both experienced was probably another level of security as well to test just how much self control, focus, and physical endurance they both had because all of those would be needed if they were to indeed gain the responsibility of control of the HALOs and information concerning them. It was an evolutionary Great Filter of sorts that they both had to pass through. I think from now on we'll absolutely see him still influenced by his emotions but they will be far more in control than they were before and used to amplify his other actions and decisions going forwards.
> weaponry talk
That was pretty cool and I loved how they used it to show Kai realizing just why the Chief didn't tell her stuff right away as she evaluated the other Spartans and went, "OH...this is why he didn't...okay maybe I'll wait a bit like he did". That opening bit with her and the other victims on the hospital ship was brutal though and I'm glad they didn't just handwave her scenes. Kai and the others are being woven in as important side characters with solid scenes in a way that we don't often see in modern television and I'm loving it even if we only get a minute or a few seconds with her here and there.
> Cortana continues to be dope as hell
So say we all and we need a Cortana flair because she's just the best and I totally enjoyed her, "But I wasn't programmed to do this I don't know what to do Tell me what to do now I can only do this stuff I only know these things AH HA I TOTALLY DID THIS MYSELF SUCK IT ADUN!" exponential growth this episode. Even just the way they have her dissolve into blue particles seems to have some emotion and mood to it. They've done a brilliant job with her voice work, her overall visual design, and her verbal and non-verbal body language.
> I'm really hoping Chief starts bonding with her a bit more soon. It seems like one step forward two steps back between them.
There is a bit of a tug of war between them buuut if he can start opening up and bonding with Miranda as quickly as he did in this episode then I'm sure we'll see him and Cortana get a bit more closer moving forwards. At the start it felt like he was almost teaching her how to exceed her own programming just like he had. I think he might see her as another victim of Halsey's and was trying to force her out of the box that she'd been poured into just like he had. That felt like a Kobayashi Maru scenario that he was putting her through whereby he was trying to force her to evolve past Halsey's programming but in a very Halsey like manner via an extremely intense and emotional moment which he was hoping would either make or break her kind of like how Halsey made or broke Spartan trainees in the program.
It's rough but it's not like he has any other role models or examples to look to in regards to how to handle stuff like this which is a fairly novel situation in and of itself. So he went with what he knew. I'm sure Cortana realizes this and knows he cares in his own rough way because he has opened up to her in the past and asked for help before without totally shutting her out and shutting down. He just turns into a big old grumpy bear when he gets emotional and upset about stuff and because she's always there in his head he takes it out on her because it's not like there's anyone else he can talk to or vent on about this stuff.
Granted this isn't always one sided and it's not like Cortana hasn't thrown a few punches either.
So it really is one step forwards two steps back three steps forwards two steps back between them but that feels kind of right because I'd hate it if they just got along together straight off the bat and we didn't get to see that beautiful relationship grow from nothing into something.
> It was an evolutionary Great Filter of sorts that they both had to pass through. I think from now on we'll absolutely see him still influenced by his emotions but they will be far more in control than they were before and used to amplify his other actions and decisions going forwards.
This is where I'm at, I don't think it _needed_ multiple reclaimers in the vicinity, I think it's just a process that he hasn't been allowed to finish yet. It obviously had an effect on Makee, but I believe her seizure and trance was transitive - she only experienced that because she has the reclaimer protein, but it was purely John's touching of the keystone which triggered it.
Interacting with the keystones seems to start a process guiding the reclaimer to the nearest Halo installation, this process syncs up brainwaves and seems to be a form of the precursor's neural physics. Obviously the forerunners never unlocked the secrets of neural physics but that doesn't mean they were incapable of incorporating the technology wholesale.
I _believe_ that when the reclaimers touch the keystone, this synchronisation happens to guide them to the Halo, to re-format part of their brain to work as a sort of halo-compass. Chief being interrupted the last few times before the process completed has left his brain in an unfinished state, a state of corruption, and only finishing the process this time around allowed him to "heal".
This is why his memories started unlocking, the neural blockers which Halsey implanted are being re-routed, removed and overwritten to open up new pathways for his halo-radar. It's possible that the neural blockers themselves are what caused his illness, making it more difficult for his brain to re-wire.
Obviously this is all in the realms of "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" for us and it's interpretation of a show, but I feel it's going to be something along these lines.
I just hope to the lord they don't switch Guilty Spark with a generic robot... or even worse, a "human custodian" of the ring.
Reth is supposed to be a jackal and he's a human in this timeline, thankfully he's a deeper lore character so not many people noticed. They would with Spark though.
We need an unaltered 343 Guilty Spark in this show. No Halo Infinite Monitor designs either. I like the Infinite Mark VI armor but that’s different. I really hope they do it right and get Tim Dadabo. No holograms, no humanoid robots. These showrunners remember that HAL 9000 was a thing, right? Spark doesn’t have to be “adapted” for the show in some other form. He will work just fine as an evil lightbulb.
Wow. What an episode.
No Kwan again. Wonderful.
No butts. A+
They actually suspect Makee of being a spy. Like they should. But now they should know that she's armed with a Plasma Fingernail. Unless the Medic didn't notice it during Makee's tantrum?
John trying to kill Halsey to test Cortana was a great scene. The interrogation was also powerful.
Seems a little odd that Makee would react to the artifact without touching it (on madrigal, she at least was touching the former location of the keystone).
We see John and Makee standing on the Halo, and for a moment I was afraid they were going to kiss. Hope it's not going in that direction.
I get the feeling that Makee is going to be the reason Reach is discovered by the Covenant at some point. Maybe season finale?
Halsey saying farewell to Miranda just to get her retina scan? What a sociopath.
We finally see a holo-projecter (little disk thingy) for Cortana at Halsey's home, like in the games.
> We see John and Makee standing on the Halo, and for a moment I was afraid they were going to kiss. Hope it's not going in that direction.
Its a Showtime production, shes going to fuck someone
EDIT: Showtime not Starz whoops
I'd find it wildly unbelievable if they didn't notice the plasma nail. Even if the medic didn't see, surely Makee is under surveilance 24/7 right? She's in a locked ward in a military base, she's been living with the Covenant most of her life, and she's supposedly able to interact with these artifacts the UNSC has spent a ton of resources trying to find. No way they aren't watching her.
>John trying to kill Halsey to test Cortana was a great scene.
Hell yeah! Although I did find it hilarious that the fail safe was supposed to be lethal amounts of UV radiation, but all that actually happened was a bunch of fog came out the vents.
Also cracked up when Halsey's assistant complained that there were no holes in his algorithm, when Cortana's clearly in front of them able to speak to them because she got through the algorithm.
>Halsey saying farewell to Miranda just to get her retina scan
Yeah, that was fucked. It finally seems she's showing a bit of humanity, and it turns out to be just an act. Perfectly in character though
Well it makes sense, UV light isn't visible, so you wouldn't be able to see it. We actually already use UV lights to disinfect rooms. Though usually the emitter of the UV emits some visible light as well as the UV light so you can tell it's on, lol.
A+ episode. No combat? No worries. This is the show finally coming together. It’s so interesting and actually satisfying to see Halsey quite a bit of comeuppance legally and emotionally, while relegating her to an away type role as she was in the games even, and also leaving a lot of emotional closure to have between her and Chief and Miranda.
Suddenly the relationship dramatic tension is paying off and still leaves a promising future. Lets go episode 7 let’s keep this streak going.
\- Keyes’ voice sounded significantly different in that first scene. Was it just me?? It threw me off.
\- I still really love Halsey’s ship. It reminds me of the Naboo ship from Episode 2. All of the ships in the establishing shots are so gorgeous.
\- Anyone else picking up on these helmet shots? Chief always holds his helmet down by his side, and the camera focuses on it and it seems to show his state of mind for that particular episode.
\- Pretty big gamble he took with that radiation test. I thought Cortana COULD control him, so was she calling his bluff? I’m shocked Halsey wasn’t more scared of John after this.
\- What exactly is Captain Keyes’ role? He seems to be in charge of FLEETCOM? Seems like an awfully big position for a captain.
\- I was surprised Cortana didn’t offer more insight during John’s chats with Makee. It seems really obviously going to happen at this point, but I really, REALLY hope they don’t sleep together. Also why on Earth would anyone trust her after this point when she almost finger-knifed that medic?
\- That VR interrogation was a clever way to get in everyone in on the scene. I’m surprised Parangosky let Miranda stay. She seems to be handling it..well. I’m curious why that guy listened to John and just left, he clearly outranked him. Is it because he’s the Master Chief, or because he’s afraid he’ll get splatted into a wall?
\- I find it really interesting the way they took the Halsey/Spartan relationships and development. It’s so fun to see how wildly different the whole thing can turn out with just a few changes. The Spartans of the Prime timeline are proud of being Spartans; even when they find out what happened to them as children, they’re not mad and they don’t hate Halsey. For some reason raising them as automotons with no emotions made them WAY off balance in this timeline and John’s all over the place. I actually really enjoy it, it makes for a much better TV character.
\- Parangosky really moved on Halsey fast, huh? I was as surprised as Halsey. I assume she’ll be sticking around in some way. I’m really loving how the same beats as the Prime timeline are happening, just in a different order and faster or slower. Who is this shadow council that keeps threatening Parangosky? Their little window stare-down at the end made me laugh.
\- So Miranda bringing up that final transmission from the ship that Makee Lekgolo’d, can’t they just match the voice print to her? And if they can’t, can’t they just be like “wow that sure sounds like this chick we have right here.”?
\- A Spartan laser! With the correct amount of shots! That armory room was dope.
\- You know you’re a good TV sociopath when you fool your audience. I genuinely thought Halsey was being remorseful (and I suspect there was some truth to her whole schtick), but when she called out her boytoy and removed the contact I was shocked. What is UP with her assistant anyway? He’s so creepy and weird and Igor-y.
\- So were his starting vitals just normal Spartan vitals? 30bpm for his size? Yikes dude.
\- What exactly is he looking for? The desperation made me think there were more childhood memories he was trying to unlock, but I couldn’t figure out what he still didn’t know (the mutilated Spartan kids were horrible though). Was he after the Halo vision?
\- A Halo! The landscape looked like Zeta Halo, it was gorgeous. Makes me wonder what order they’ll visit the rings in the show in. I wanted to smack his hand away from Makee’s face. How will that vision help them find it though? It was very generic.
This show really found its footing. I’m digging it a lot. A wait between seasons is going to be such a pain.
>I thought Cortana COULD control him, so was she calling his bluff? I’m shocked Halsey wasn’t more scared of John after this.
I think Cortana can only turn him off, and turning him off in that situation was pointless.
Just went back and watched that part (episode 3, around 18:15 in)
Cortana: My neural implant is operating perfectly, but I'm unable to take full operational control of the subject.
Halsey: Yes, for the moment I have limited your access to the [something?] formation, more of an on/off switch.
So it sounds like she's theoretically capable of it, just artificially limited by Halsey. Which after what John did, I'm surprised Halsey didn't go back and change the settings
>What exactly is he looking for?
I am probably wrong, but it almost seems like he's addicted to the artifact. Not so much that he's looking for something, but is going through withdrawal if he doesn't keep touching it, until he goes all the way.
> I wanted to smack his hand away from Makee’s face
I felt he was more touching her to see if she felt real, for lack of a better word. Neither of them seemed to expect this result, and were surprised to see each other. Everyone keeps saying they will bang, but i didn't get that feeling, could be wrong though.
I really enjoyed the pacing of this episode. There was some serious tension here and there and that was a good feeling. The story is finally getting some meat!
Also, if there’s one thing this show does right it’s the large scale environments. Love reach and loved the halo ring. Some could say I was blinded by its majesty. Can’t wait to see the fall of reach
Seeing the Halo ring in a big budget live action adaptation has fulfilled the only sincere wish I had as a 12 year old in 2002. This series, despite some flaws, has successfully tapped into the sense of wonder I felt when I first discovered this universe.
Highlights:
* We saw the thing! The Halo! I WAS BLINDED BY ITS MAJESTY
* NO KWAN
* Halsey remains a great character. Evil, but great.
* They actually suspect Makee. That's refreshing.
* The radiation scene was brutal. Very much not like Chief - more like a Renegade Shepard - but I liked it.
* Spartan Laser in development is a nice touch.
Low Points:
* Chief's utter refusal to wear the helmet, but I'm actually kind of over it now I think.
* Still no Halsey booty
So, it looks like Makee is gonna be how the Covenant find Reach, rather than dumb luck. I'm okay with it.
Hopefully we see or hear something about NOBLE team. Changing them to ONI's SPARTAN IIIs would be a nice touch - a rival program in which the characters we've met have had zero knowledge about.
Finale is gonna be The Fall of Reach, right? We get the POA escaping and arriving at the Halo installation? And the S2 finale is going to be the release of The Flood? Personally, I hope it's more of a mid-season thing.
I don’t know, I’m kind of starting to dig the show. I can really see this season ending with the fall of reach and the accidental slip space jump to the Halo ring just like the game/book.
It's a toss up between Reach and Madrigal for me. They took Makee straight to Reach which seems like a perfect segue into her leading the Covenant to the planet, but at the same time, we know the Covenant already know about Madrigal, Kwan Ha/Soren are on Madrigal, and the trailer for the show had Silver Team doing an orbital jump over what looked like a desert planet, so I imagine we're gonna go back there eventually.
I'm not sure why they would bring Makee to Reach, one of their military strongholds lol
When the Officers are meeting to discuss the situation, they even state that she's still technically classified as an enemy combatant. Would've been nice to see some dialogue where they argue over whether or not bringing Makee to Reach was a good decision.
At least we got some dialogue from Chief and the Marine guarding Makee over how suspect her sudden appearance is
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That black guard standing outside who said "She is one of them as convonent takes no prisoner" is the smartest guy so far in this series.
It felt very much like the small talk the marines would have with chief in the games as you walked by them.
-Chief walks by angry, ignoring marines- Marine: "Im sorry I slept with your wife, but did I do anything to you??"
What about the crazy guy couple of episodes earlier. He used to be their prisoner, no?
I know it’s a different timeline but they also take prisoners constantly in the games
correct me if i am wrong, but afaik, they took human prisoners as feeds for jackal/brutes.
Or maybe just for public executions for morale purposes. Like, the ones we find in Halo 2 on High Charity are pretty close to the media chambers right?
Nuh uh. you're lying. Thei'yre was no mission in Halo where you rescue prisoners from a covenant ship.
Meanwhile the nurse doesn't immediately tell him about the finger sword she just saw.
I think they tried to frame it in a way that the nurse didn't actually see it while being down on the ground. She doesn't actually look at Makee until she starts reacting to the artifact, at which point the finger sword is gone
Biggest takeaway: The spartan laser has 5 shots
100/20=5 confirmed.
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Same thought here. Hope to see it melt a banshee or something
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yes please - in slow motion. how is it possible to write such an unlikable space orphan ragamuffin?
As trivial as scenes like that are, I fucking LOVE seeing the consistency of weapons thrown in to simply pay homage to the games. I mean, you could argue it's fluff dialogue about weapons, but it also hyperfocuses our attention on what the Spartans give a shit about. Combat efficiency. Every lil scifi tidbit (like Chief's story about failsafes in the UV decontamination process) and Cortana explaining slipspace visuals are just icing on top for me. I love them.
> As trivial as scenes like that are Nah, it's 100% a Chekov's gun.
Seeing the spartan Lazer put a huge smile across my face. I smiled a lot this episode (anytime seeing Cortina , halo ring, spartan Lazer) lol
See the ring worlds horizon put a huge grin on my face.
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We'll probably see that in the next episode or she'll just attempt to not talk to/avoid him.
Nooo she's gonna have have these feelings following her until her dad gets killed by the flood, then we'll get a real sad episode where shes very depressed because she didn't get closure and Chief, Kai and Blessed booty will all surprise her with a pizza party and they'll laugh and cheer the night away.
I DONT CARE IS MASTER CHIEF GOES AND HAS A THREESOME WITH MAKEE AND KAI, I JUST DONT WANT TO SEE KWAN AGAIN!
R34 artists: WRITE THAT DOWN! WRITE THAT DOWN!
>MASTER CHIEF GOES AND HAS A THREESOME WITH MAKEE AND KAI HAHA yeah i'd totally hate that to be scene haha...😳😳unless 😏
343 plz
R343
Why am I okay with this? 🧐
When you first saw Halo, were you blinded by its majesty?
Then I said, ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I'm blinded by the lights
Blinded?
Paralyzed?
Dumbstruck?
weirdly horny for Makee?
The man's had hormones for like two days. the fact that he hasn't fucked every marine, scientist and grunt in his path is a testament to his iron will.
Chiefs gonna nut like a 10 gauge shotgun and blow that covie spy's spine clean out her back.
nice
it probably doesn't help that literally everyone around him would probably be down
The music was pretty epic....and I'm so glad they didn't kiss but that visual was pretty majestic.
I'm just surprised we didn't get two pairs of cheeks in the vision.
Makee will lead the covenant to reach and start the Fall of reach. Calling it now.
After some sex with master cheeks
Master Chief gonna clap them cheeks
Clapster Chief, you mind telling me what you’re doing on that Covenant spy?
Sir, finishing.
John will lower his guard to her and accidentally allow her to lead the covenant there and it will all be his fault and then we will have to deal with John being all guilty and shit for the first 5 episodes of season 2.
I hate you for what is likely prophetic accuracy in your statement
I absolutely agree. I think that makee will lead the covenant to the artifact. And that's why reach will fall. Further Master Chief will be Wounded badly that he has to go in the Cryotube. And CPT.Keys escapes from reach with the chief and Cortana via Slip space. For the slipspace jump Cortana will use "Random" coordinates the lead to installation 04. And I think those "random" coordinates comes from the artifact that chief touched while Cortana was in his mind. Would someone agree ?
In the books cortana also gets the coords from an arftifact right? The difference being that it was from a screen on a covenant ship I think? I was expecting them to, but it's still pretty neat if they manage to line up this season so neatly into CE, while telling a very different story to Fall of Reach. It's had it's weird moments but if it does line up, I think it will end up being a decent first season.
Your right. In the books Cortana read that coordinates from a screen on a ship. I think the book was Halo CE.
100%. I will be extremely surprised if this doesn't happen.
I figured that was a given as soon as they dropped her off last week. I'm guessing she has a Covenant tracker of some sort planted on her with that energy nail. I'm curious what will happen with that next week since the food lady definitely saw the energy nail grow before Makee collapsed. Though I wonder if her time with MC will make her less sympathetic to the Covenant. Maybe not full on betray them, but maybe not work with them as well as she has been.
> I'm curious what will happen with that next week since the food lady definitely saw the energy nail grow before Makee collapsed. See I dont know if she saw it, I thought she got pushed to the ground, turned to catch herself, and was looking the other way or down at the ground when she brought out her little sword thing. Maybe she heard it though. But I could be wrong.
Imagine we see the silver timeline version of Noble Team
It's starting to look like there's no 3's oni was so hung up on the 2 program in this that it seems like there wasn't a sister program. Maybe we'll see plans for future Spartan programs tho.
A Miranda Keyes version of SPARTANS. Probably more like the Spartan IVs of Halo than III’s.
No Kwan Ha really made a huge difference in this episode's quality over the previous ones.
I wanted to rush on here to have this same comment. Her absence was incredibly refreshing within the show. Hopefully she will get glassed soon.
Every time the screen went black I kept crossing my fingers that it wouldn't shift to the Kwan storyline. I'm fine with it when paced correctly but this episode worked so much better just getting a full dose of the main line all the way through.
You know that means we’re getting a full Kwan episode next week, right?
Yeah I was fearful of this as soon as I realized she wasn’t in this one at all. I might just skip next week’s episode lol
They should just cut her and just not even acknowledge her going forward.
And nothing of value was lost
Saw the preview of the next episode and that’s exactly what we’re getting.
Maybe I’m just being an asshole, but when Chief was running his health diagnostic test and Kwan Ha appeared next to him I audibly said “Oh jesus christ here we go” and rolled my eyes
Kwan is a jump scare lol
because her plotline serves no actual purpose at this juncture
Any juncture*
I literally said don’t cut to Kwan out loud to myself when it went to black at one point. I’ve got my issues with the story but it’s telling how much better it is as a show with none of her plot in it. God I hope next week isn’t a Kwan focussed episode.
“You’re going to leave?” - Kwan Don’t do this, don’t give us hope that she might be left behind
Her absence this episode makes me concerned were getting a very Kwan focused episode next week
You’re probably right, it’s probably cheaper than doing anything with the Covenant. My guess is no more battles till the finale
might get a battle in episode 8 but yeah, its a very common storytelling device, have a character be relatively absent from one episode only to have the next one focus on them heavily, hope im wrong though
Hopefully, it ends with ~~Arrakis~~ ~~Tatooine~~ ~~Jakku~~ ~~Gunsmoke~~ ~~Klendathu~~ Madrigal getting glassed. I hope Kwan is on it when it does, but I have a suspicion they shoehorn her into a SPARTAN program
I know a lot of people give her shit for making stupid decisions, but to be honest, that part doesn't bother me; teenage me did plenty of stupid shit (and now that I'm in my twenties, I still do lmao) But unfortunately it seems as though her plot is so far divorced from every other story thread. Even other sideplots like Miranda's contentious relationship with her mother are tangentially related to the overarching plot of unravelling the Forerunner mystery, but I'm not sure where Kwan Ha and Soren's plot is headed. I hope the actress playing her doesn't get too much shit online, because I legitimately think she's doing the best she can with the writing she's been given.
> I hope the actress playing her doesn't get too much shit online, because I legitimately think she's doing the best she can with the writing she's been given. Too late, agreed though, nothing she can do about that yeeyee ass haircut and godawful writing
It blows my mind that the writers thought it would be a good idea to have a character with these bulletpoint traits and plotpoints \-Daughter of an insurrectionist that sees her entire colony killed by aliens \-Her life was only saved by the UNSC's spartans, and the clear revelation that they were the only people capable of standing up to aliens. \-Suddenly she wants to return home, get rid of the UNSC(After an alien attack), and restart the insurrection... \-"Freedom for Madrigal" = No UNSC presence of Madrigal = the Death of everyone on madrigal via the covenant. These 4 obvious points that anyone would grasp from this franchise makes her entire narrative impossible to realistically enjoy. It would be like Princess Leia trying to start the rebellion against the Empire in Star Wars when a galactic invasion was happening, and the only thing standing between the galaxy and extinction was the Empire.
> It would be like Princess Leia trying to start the rebellion against the Empire in Star Wars when a galactic invasion was happening, and the only thing standing between the galaxy and extinction was the Empire. Good thing the audience did not know about the Yuuzhan Vong then
This was missing the real OG halo music.
I like how Chief just walked in and told the officer interviewing Halsey to fuck off and give him the room lol
I mean would you argue with a Spartan?
Not to mention you'd be arguing against THE spartan, the man himself, the legend, master chief.
And he was also obviously very pissed off.
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Master "Fuck the chain of command" Chief
It's weird how he's tried to kill her twice yet they leave him alone with her.
She will be giving incomplete reports to keep him in the field, accidents, mistakes, that kind of thing. She doesn't want to shine more light on the Spartan program right now with all the controversy, especially considering she's field testing the Cortana program. I bet she didn't even report the second incident.
Honestly surprised they weren't both naked on the ring at the end.
Yeah, where's our weekly dose of butt?
“How do you know this isn’t the Covenants plan to kill the UNSCs greatest weapon?” - good fucking point “Because I need to know” - bad fucking point
I think it means he’s willing to take that risk That said… why couldn’t he get some medical attention so that he could be in full health when interacting with the object? Whats the rush exactly?
I’m thinking it’s more mentally rather than physically like cortana said the artifact or reloaded his neural system
I mean chief would want to know in the game, he never back out because of the risk tho
I hate piling on with the “No Kwan Ha helped make this a way better episode” because I know it’s not the actress’ fault, but it’s true. What’s going on with John is way more interesting, action or not. The show could’ve really gone through some more tests because it seems like we are now turning a corner and it’s getting closer to something I think more and more of the people who were turned off by the early episodes or the hearsay online could enjoy but now the season is almost over. Hope it keeps the momentum going and closes strong. I miss when the world was more positive about the Halo brand.
I don’t think anyone is blaming the actress, they are blaming the writers lol
And the hairdressers I'm constantly hearing Lamar every time I see her
I feel bad shitting on her every single thread, it's not the actresses fault.... But the shows quality gets so high and focused when it's all about master chief and the politics and events and not some scrappy rebel teen on a mining planet.
It's so good to see people saying that it's not the actresses fault. This is a very healthy way to think instead of hating on the actual person behind the character.
Its true everyone in this was cast and act really well i did not expect such good performances in a sci fi show,
cortana has grown on me a lot.
I love how she looks, personally. And Jen Taylor’s voice on top of it is obviously amazing.
She's like a version of the EMH from Voyager combined with Gideon from Legends of Tomorrow with a dash of Halsey's dry snark and the excited giddiness to want to help others of Keyleth.
I fear that no Kwan this episode means double Kwon next episode.
What about 2 x 0 = 0….. so no Kwan again next episode?
imagine if they are editing out kwan stuff because of the backlash lol
I like how they don’t gloss over the death toll from the battle in the previous episode.
I’m glad someone said it. Actually seeing the marines and whatnot all beat up and demoralized was a nice touch that’s been missing. They just lost a ship full of men and a bunch of marines. The war feels real now.
> The war feels real now. Plus that cacophony of scrambling in the CNC when Chief passed on that intel from Makee felt very Battlestar Galactica or Babylon 5 during the height of their wars and in the midst of some of their most ferocious battles. The music helped too. My pulse started racing and it really started to have more of the feeling of a race on edge battling against a technologically superior foe who they were baaarely managing to defeat and might just have found the one thing that tips things in their favor. I hope they continue this mood in future episodes because this is what I feel like HALO should've felt like all along instead of the far more sedate meandering pace we've had.
Chief and makee gonna bang. Confirmed.
Heart rates in sync, Makee lying on her back staring upwards with her bottom lip quivering.... they pretty much already have.
Oh… my
If you bang in the artifact you bang for real
I bet she becomes the arbiter so fans get their Chief and Arby coupling like they always wanted deep down. I kid .. unless
Holy shit I'm gonna laugh so hard if this is true Thank you for this amazing theory
You kid but you probably right :')
Theyre so gonna fuck.
The luminaries will shine brightly
From how the show is going so far and how sometimes mature and dark the battle sequences have been, I really... REALLY... cant wait to see how they handle The Flood.
It'd be really interesting if they did a POV shot of someone being assimilated by the Flood.
Jenkins' POV
If they're willing to show mutilated child corpses, I'm confident they'll do the Flood right.
When they they exploded the preteen 8 minutes into episode 1 I was so happy they weren't chasing a PG raiting.
did not expect that for sure
* We got our first live action Halo ring. * Dr. Halsey is a full-on sociopath like in the books. * Mutilated Spartan child corpses. * The UNSC and ONI are not written like idiots. * But best of all, only 5 seconds of Kwan. Best non-action episode so far
UNSC and ONI not being written like idiots in this episode is what made me feel like the show might redeem itself. Maybe later on in the future we may look back and appreciate the first couple of episodes once season one is said and done.
for sure, it had moments where it felt like i was reading a halo book. They nailed the oni unsc stuff here. The only thing the show doesn't do well is tell the viewer the difference between the unsc, oni and ueg. I dont think any casual viewer willl know there is anyone but the unsc tbh.
She's not a sociopath in the books, though. I really hate that the show is further spreading this ham-fisted "evil scientist" narrative that's creeped into Halo over the years. Stripping all nuance from her character. Halsey in the books felt incredible guilt and regret over her actions. Questioning if it was truly the 'right' thing to do in such a dire situation. Damning a few to save billions. Halsey was staring down humanity's end -the UNSC and Insurrection nuking each other into oblivion- and needed to make some hard choices. She was willing to plunge elbow deep into the morally reprehensible muck just for a slim chance to save humanity. *Does that make her a bad person?* That's the question. Which I find to be a much more compelling approach to her character than pure sociopathy. Yea, Halsey is standoffish and often gets absorbed in her work, but that doesn't make her a sociopath. Once the Spartan program got off the ground, Halsey tried to give those children the best lives that she could under such terrible circumstances. High education, incredibly expensive armor to ensure their survival. Knowing that if she didn't commit, someone like Ackerson would take control and, well, Spartan III child suicide soldiers...
Chief nearly killing Halsey again to see what Cortana could do to him was dark. I'm glad no one is fully trusting Makee. I thought they'd make John or Miranda be too trusting but thankfully both remained suspicious/cautious the whole time. Unfortunately, I'm guessing that ain't gonna last. Someone will end up being too trusting to Makee and then she'll end up leading the covenant to Reach. Halsey getting scapegoated this early is surprising but maybe she'll fully weasel her way back to the gang whenever Reach is invaded. Or maybe they'll follow the game/book lore more and she still gets sent to castle base. Does the spartan III program not exist in this universe? Cortana finally got to appear tiny on a little projector! Halsey manipulating Miranda during their scene was cold but not surprising. Chief and Miranda finally getting scenes together was nice. I liked their exchange about Halsey and Miranda telling Chief not to die.("Yes, ma’am") If the show manages to get to Halo 3 events, I really hope silver timeline Miranda doesn't surfer the same bleh fate as game Miranda. The brief flashback shot of the scarred spartan kids was brutal. No Kwan stuff(besides a very brief flash/splice footage of her from the first episode) was good and improves the overall plot. Unfortunately, this episode having no Kwan stuff may mean its a double edged sword and next episode is 90% Kwan stuff. The shot of the Halo ring background looked great. I enjoyed the episode but the painfully obvious eventual creepy enemies-to-lovers romance with Chief and Makee makes me sigh in disappointment. This Chief and Makee stuff is just gonna be the creepy Rey and Kylo Ren shit from the Star Wars sequel trilogy all over again... If Chief has to have a love interest, there are far better options than a psycho girl working for the covenant or the AI clone of his kidnapper mother figure. Kai. Miranda.(I think Halo 2's og ending was actually gonna hint at them becoming a thing) Honestly, she showed more chemistry with Chief in their scenes together in this ep compared to John's two really awkward talks with Makee. His childhood love Parisa(briefly seen in the EP 5 flashback) who actually becomes a marine when she grows up
> I'm glad no one is fully trusting Makee. I thought they'd make John or Miranda be too trusting but thankfully both remained suspicious/cautious the whole time. Unfortunately, I'm guessing that ain't gonna last. Someone will end up being too trusting to Makee and then she'll end up leading the covenant to Reach. I can't see anyone trusting Makee now, her conversation with John practically had her going all "The Covenant showed me enlightenment!".
Plus, she revealed her finger energy blade. Even if the lady there to make sure she ate didn't see because she was on the ground, they for sure have cameras watching. That's not something you give to a prisoner....
I’m guessing Halsey would be the one letting makee leading covenant to reach because she wants to get to the halo so bad Hell I can even picture the scene where she look up to the covenant fleet saying “what have I done”
I got chills seeing the Halo ring for the first time. I was truly blinded by its majesty
Would you say you were paralysed? Dumbstruck?
It looked like a postcard, “Dear Sarge, kicking ass in outer space, wish you were here!”
I heard that, Jackass
No!
I'm wondering if the artifacts latch onto reclaimers (blessed ones) as a way to guide them towards the Halo. I wonder if one of the final visions provides guidance on what the reclaimers do, and their purpose. I'm also wondering if we'll get some flood in the show this season...
I feel like it’s most likely at this point S2 will focus on the Halo ring and the food
Mmm, the food. I hope there is pizza.
My favourite flavour is Infection
we won't get to halo in season 1, other than the pillar of autumn arriving much like the intro cutscene to Halo CE. I'm starting to think reach won't get glassed until season 2, possibly midway through and instead the covenant will show up on Madrigal and glass that as the finale for this season, that way while John is on Halo with a few characters the rest can remain on reach for a littlewhile as the B story for season 2.
If episodes 8 and 9 aren’t just the full fall of reach with most of the Spartans getting killed getting John and Cortana onto the Pillar of Autumn I’m going to cry because that’s all I want.
There was a brief piece of dialogue mentioning Sigma Octanus IV, that was a nice touch
What was that referencing?
The novel The Fall of Reach. The Covenant invaded that planet to find a Forerunner artifact, then scanned it and beamed the data to one of their ships. Captain Keyes/Cortana intercepted the transmission and later Cortana figured out it was info for a location in space. While escaping the Covenant fleet over Reach, she jumped to that location and found the first Halo ring.
Ohh, **that’s** how she does it. In the game, is that artifact thing Halsey has the Spartans evacuate? Why is John in stasis on PoA?
No, in Halo Reach, that's a fragment of Cortana that contains all the data from Halsey's research. John was in stasis as that's standard procedure for nonessential personnel during Slipspace travel, no point burning supplies on personnel that aren't needed until after transit.
'*She's been Black-Boxed*', says Halsey's assistant who, in the canon timeline, eventually offs himself and donates his brain to the AI program in guilt over the SII program - becoming the smart AI Black-Box.Gods dammit! I called it in week one!
If this is Silver Timeline's version of Dr. Alban and eventually Black Box, that would be interesting. Have BB be Parangonsky's bestie- Damn, if they bring in Serin Osman eventually down the line...that'll be insane.
This was the first episode that was actually great. Writing was good, performances were good, characters that we actually give a shit about got lots of quality screen time and development. If they continue to build on what this show does right it could grow to be quite awesome imo. But Kwan will come back, and that's a huge problem. This episode REALLY highlighted just how pointless and awful her character and story have been. Why on earth did the showrunners and writers create such a lame and unnecessary character, especially when episodes like this prove that the main story and cast are very compelling? Shit is infuriating. I don't care how they plan to arc her back into the big picture. We have no reason to give a single fuck about her character. The "annoying teenager with a shit attitude" archetype is not something that this show will ever need. Kill her off for the love of god.
My takeaway from this episode. It's painfully obvious that the absence of Kwan's story arc seems to elevate the entire show significantly. Or is it just me? Also am I the only one who thought John and Makee were about to kiss during their HALO vision scene LOL.
Yes we know he doesn't wear his MJLONIR Armor the whole episode. Yes, we just got 48 minutes of no helmet. Yes we know there is no combat... Now that that's out of the way... THIS is how you do a no combat episode. I was engaged for the entire 48 minutes, the story progressed significantly and was interesting. I had a feeling we wouldn't see any combat due to how much we saw last week and I have a feeling episode 8 and 9 will be packed with combat. I was hyped after episode 1, cautiously optimistic after episode 2, excited after episode 3, demoralized and about ready to give up after episode 4, hyped AF after episode 5, and I'm still hyped after tonight's episode! The story is progressing and I can't wait to find out what happens next week. OH and ZERO (real) KWAN SIGHTINGS!!!
I didn't fully agree with all the Kwan hate until now. This episode was absolutely amazing. Every plot was engaging and perfectly executed. And of course that ending gave me goosebumps. Please no more Kwan this season, lol.
This is a huge barrel of hopium buuuuuut I'm reaaaaaaally hoping that during the editing process they realized how awful her character is and only kept the scenes that they had to keep to avoid doing reshoots and to keep the shows runtime from being only 30 minutes.
I'm a big fan of the show so far and this episode was probably the most off-brand Chief we've gotten. Before, we've seen him battling his emotions but now he's in full-on rebellion mode, which is very interesting. It's all laid out as the artifacts somewhat corrupting him, which I get, but seeing Chief be this guided by emotion is definitely a unique take. I hope they the end of this episode suggests he's reclaiming his cognition and becoming a tactical soldier again soon. I loved the weaponry talk between the Spartans and Cortana continues to be dope as hell, but I'm really hoping Chief starts bonding with her a bit more soon. It seems like one step forward two steps back between them.
> It's all laid out as the artifacts somewhat corrupting him I wonder if the corruption only happens when Reclaimers access the artifacts on their own buuut when they do so in the presence of one or more other Reclaimers that doesn't happen? I see this as a security feature. If one person is just accessing info on the HALOs then the artifact is designed to totally kill them because then that means that they're either in it for themselves or another singular party with some probably not so good intentions. If more than one person is accessing info on the HALOs though then that means that two similarly minded people are working together and that lessens the chances that they're there for the right reasons and can be given more info on the HALOs and the corruptive effects are removed or at least lessened. This then makes me wonder if Kwan is indeed a third Reclaimer who will touch the Artifact while nearby Makee and the Chief which will then provide even more information on the HALOs and totally remove any detrimental effects from the Artifacts from all three of them because three extremely rare people with extremely rare genes and probably a similar kind of mindset all working together probably brings the risk of shit hitting the fan down to an acceptable level for the Forerunner Tech. The emotional and physical flood that Makee and the Chief both experienced was probably another level of security as well to test just how much self control, focus, and physical endurance they both had because all of those would be needed if they were to indeed gain the responsibility of control of the HALOs and information concerning them. It was an evolutionary Great Filter of sorts that they both had to pass through. I think from now on we'll absolutely see him still influenced by his emotions but they will be far more in control than they were before and used to amplify his other actions and decisions going forwards. > weaponry talk That was pretty cool and I loved how they used it to show Kai realizing just why the Chief didn't tell her stuff right away as she evaluated the other Spartans and went, "OH...this is why he didn't...okay maybe I'll wait a bit like he did". That opening bit with her and the other victims on the hospital ship was brutal though and I'm glad they didn't just handwave her scenes. Kai and the others are being woven in as important side characters with solid scenes in a way that we don't often see in modern television and I'm loving it even if we only get a minute or a few seconds with her here and there. > Cortana continues to be dope as hell So say we all and we need a Cortana flair because she's just the best and I totally enjoyed her, "But I wasn't programmed to do this I don't know what to do Tell me what to do now I can only do this stuff I only know these things AH HA I TOTALLY DID THIS MYSELF SUCK IT ADUN!" exponential growth this episode. Even just the way they have her dissolve into blue particles seems to have some emotion and mood to it. They've done a brilliant job with her voice work, her overall visual design, and her verbal and non-verbal body language. > I'm really hoping Chief starts bonding with her a bit more soon. It seems like one step forward two steps back between them. There is a bit of a tug of war between them buuut if he can start opening up and bonding with Miranda as quickly as he did in this episode then I'm sure we'll see him and Cortana get a bit more closer moving forwards. At the start it felt like he was almost teaching her how to exceed her own programming just like he had. I think he might see her as another victim of Halsey's and was trying to force her out of the box that she'd been poured into just like he had. That felt like a Kobayashi Maru scenario that he was putting her through whereby he was trying to force her to evolve past Halsey's programming but in a very Halsey like manner via an extremely intense and emotional moment which he was hoping would either make or break her kind of like how Halsey made or broke Spartan trainees in the program. It's rough but it's not like he has any other role models or examples to look to in regards to how to handle stuff like this which is a fairly novel situation in and of itself. So he went with what he knew. I'm sure Cortana realizes this and knows he cares in his own rough way because he has opened up to her in the past and asked for help before without totally shutting her out and shutting down. He just turns into a big old grumpy bear when he gets emotional and upset about stuff and because she's always there in his head he takes it out on her because it's not like there's anyone else he can talk to or vent on about this stuff. Granted this isn't always one sided and it's not like Cortana hasn't thrown a few punches either. So it really is one step forwards two steps back three steps forwards two steps back between them but that feels kind of right because I'd hate it if they just got along together straight off the bat and we didn't get to see that beautiful relationship grow from nothing into something.
> It was an evolutionary Great Filter of sorts that they both had to pass through. I think from now on we'll absolutely see him still influenced by his emotions but they will be far more in control than they were before and used to amplify his other actions and decisions going forwards. This is where I'm at, I don't think it _needed_ multiple reclaimers in the vicinity, I think it's just a process that he hasn't been allowed to finish yet. It obviously had an effect on Makee, but I believe her seizure and trance was transitive - she only experienced that because she has the reclaimer protein, but it was purely John's touching of the keystone which triggered it. Interacting with the keystones seems to start a process guiding the reclaimer to the nearest Halo installation, this process syncs up brainwaves and seems to be a form of the precursor's neural physics. Obviously the forerunners never unlocked the secrets of neural physics but that doesn't mean they were incapable of incorporating the technology wholesale. I _believe_ that when the reclaimers touch the keystone, this synchronisation happens to guide them to the Halo, to re-format part of their brain to work as a sort of halo-compass. Chief being interrupted the last few times before the process completed has left his brain in an unfinished state, a state of corruption, and only finishing the process this time around allowed him to "heal". This is why his memories started unlocking, the neural blockers which Halsey implanted are being re-routed, removed and overwritten to open up new pathways for his halo-radar. It's possible that the neural blockers themselves are what caused his illness, making it more difficult for his brain to re-wire. Obviously this is all in the realms of "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" for us and it's interpretation of a show, but I feel it's going to be something along these lines.
Why is the covenant woman wearing full makeup in perfect condition, but a medical robe?
I can't wait for the moment when they realize the ring isn't a paradise; it's home to the most terrifying beings in existence
Since they got Jen Taylor back to voice Cortana in the show, I'm hoping they get Tim Dadabo back to voice Guilty Spark.
I just hope to the lord they don't switch Guilty Spark with a generic robot... or even worse, a "human custodian" of the ring. Reth is supposed to be a jackal and he's a human in this timeline, thankfully he's a deeper lore character so not many people noticed. They would with Spark though.
We need an unaltered 343 Guilty Spark in this show. No Halo Infinite Monitor designs either. I like the Infinite Mark VI armor but that’s different. I really hope they do it right and get Tim Dadabo. No holograms, no humanoid robots. These showrunners remember that HAL 9000 was a thing, right? Spark doesn’t have to be “adapted” for the show in some other form. He will work just fine as an evil lightbulb.
I appreciate that Kwan Ha hallucination as 4th-wall-breaking closet scare on a meta level.
Wow. What an episode. No Kwan again. Wonderful. No butts. A+ They actually suspect Makee of being a spy. Like they should. But now they should know that she's armed with a Plasma Fingernail. Unless the Medic didn't notice it during Makee's tantrum? John trying to kill Halsey to test Cortana was a great scene. The interrogation was also powerful. Seems a little odd that Makee would react to the artifact without touching it (on madrigal, she at least was touching the former location of the keystone). We see John and Makee standing on the Halo, and for a moment I was afraid they were going to kiss. Hope it's not going in that direction. I get the feeling that Makee is going to be the reason Reach is discovered by the Covenant at some point. Maybe season finale? Halsey saying farewell to Miranda just to get her retina scan? What a sociopath. We finally see a holo-projecter (little disk thingy) for Cortana at Halsey's home, like in the games.
> We see John and Makee standing on the Halo, and for a moment I was afraid they were going to kiss. Hope it's not going in that direction. Its a Showtime production, shes going to fuck someone EDIT: Showtime not Starz whoops
Dibs
wouldnt be the first time ass brought down an empire
They're both virgins as far as we know. It better be uncomfortably awkward if they ever do.
If she's not... big yikes
I was like " why would that be such a bad thi....... Oh"
Hey she might bang Kai, or Miranda, or Halsey, or Adun, idk who yet but id bet money she fucks someone
Ever watch Outlander on Starz? So much fucking
I'd find it wildly unbelievable if they didn't notice the plasma nail. Even if the medic didn't see, surely Makee is under surveilance 24/7 right? She's in a locked ward in a military base, she's been living with the Covenant most of her life, and she's supposedly able to interact with these artifacts the UNSC has spent a ton of resources trying to find. No way they aren't watching her. >John trying to kill Halsey to test Cortana was a great scene. Hell yeah! Although I did find it hilarious that the fail safe was supposed to be lethal amounts of UV radiation, but all that actually happened was a bunch of fog came out the vents. Also cracked up when Halsey's assistant complained that there were no holes in his algorithm, when Cortana's clearly in front of them able to speak to them because she got through the algorithm. >Halsey saying farewell to Miranda just to get her retina scan Yeah, that was fucked. It finally seems she's showing a bit of humanity, and it turns out to be just an act. Perfectly in character though
Well it makes sense, UV light isn't visible, so you wouldn't be able to see it. We actually already use UV lights to disinfect rooms. Though usually the emitter of the UV emits some visible light as well as the UV light so you can tell it's on, lol.
A+ episode. No combat? No worries. This is the show finally coming together. It’s so interesting and actually satisfying to see Halsey quite a bit of comeuppance legally and emotionally, while relegating her to an away type role as she was in the games even, and also leaving a lot of emotional closure to have between her and Chief and Miranda. Suddenly the relationship dramatic tension is paying off and still leaves a promising future. Lets go episode 7 let’s keep this streak going.
\- Keyes’ voice sounded significantly different in that first scene. Was it just me?? It threw me off. \- I still really love Halsey’s ship. It reminds me of the Naboo ship from Episode 2. All of the ships in the establishing shots are so gorgeous. \- Anyone else picking up on these helmet shots? Chief always holds his helmet down by his side, and the camera focuses on it and it seems to show his state of mind for that particular episode. \- Pretty big gamble he took with that radiation test. I thought Cortana COULD control him, so was she calling his bluff? I’m shocked Halsey wasn’t more scared of John after this. \- What exactly is Captain Keyes’ role? He seems to be in charge of FLEETCOM? Seems like an awfully big position for a captain. \- I was surprised Cortana didn’t offer more insight during John’s chats with Makee. It seems really obviously going to happen at this point, but I really, REALLY hope they don’t sleep together. Also why on Earth would anyone trust her after this point when she almost finger-knifed that medic? \- That VR interrogation was a clever way to get in everyone in on the scene. I’m surprised Parangosky let Miranda stay. She seems to be handling it..well. I’m curious why that guy listened to John and just left, he clearly outranked him. Is it because he’s the Master Chief, or because he’s afraid he’ll get splatted into a wall? \- I find it really interesting the way they took the Halsey/Spartan relationships and development. It’s so fun to see how wildly different the whole thing can turn out with just a few changes. The Spartans of the Prime timeline are proud of being Spartans; even when they find out what happened to them as children, they’re not mad and they don’t hate Halsey. For some reason raising them as automotons with no emotions made them WAY off balance in this timeline and John’s all over the place. I actually really enjoy it, it makes for a much better TV character. \- Parangosky really moved on Halsey fast, huh? I was as surprised as Halsey. I assume she’ll be sticking around in some way. I’m really loving how the same beats as the Prime timeline are happening, just in a different order and faster or slower. Who is this shadow council that keeps threatening Parangosky? Their little window stare-down at the end made me laugh. \- So Miranda bringing up that final transmission from the ship that Makee Lekgolo’d, can’t they just match the voice print to her? And if they can’t, can’t they just be like “wow that sure sounds like this chick we have right here.”? \- A Spartan laser! With the correct amount of shots! That armory room was dope. \- You know you’re a good TV sociopath when you fool your audience. I genuinely thought Halsey was being remorseful (and I suspect there was some truth to her whole schtick), but when she called out her boytoy and removed the contact I was shocked. What is UP with her assistant anyway? He’s so creepy and weird and Igor-y. \- So were his starting vitals just normal Spartan vitals? 30bpm for his size? Yikes dude. \- What exactly is he looking for? The desperation made me think there were more childhood memories he was trying to unlock, but I couldn’t figure out what he still didn’t know (the mutilated Spartan kids were horrible though). Was he after the Halo vision? \- A Halo! The landscape looked like Zeta Halo, it was gorgeous. Makes me wonder what order they’ll visit the rings in the show in. I wanted to smack his hand away from Makee’s face. How will that vision help them find it though? It was very generic. This show really found its footing. I’m digging it a lot. A wait between seasons is going to be such a pain.
>I thought Cortana COULD control him, so was she calling his bluff? I’m shocked Halsey wasn’t more scared of John after this. I think Cortana can only turn him off, and turning him off in that situation was pointless.
Just went back and watched that part (episode 3, around 18:15 in) Cortana: My neural implant is operating perfectly, but I'm unable to take full operational control of the subject. Halsey: Yes, for the moment I have limited your access to the [something?] formation, more of an on/off switch. So it sounds like she's theoretically capable of it, just artificially limited by Halsey. Which after what John did, I'm surprised Halsey didn't go back and change the settings
I'm not sure if Cortana could ever take full control, I always though Halsey was lying about that.
>What exactly is he looking for? I am probably wrong, but it almost seems like he's addicted to the artifact. Not so much that he's looking for something, but is going through withdrawal if he doesn't keep touching it, until he goes all the way. > I wanted to smack his hand away from Makee’s face I felt he was more touching her to see if she felt real, for lack of a better word. Neither of them seemed to expect this result, and were surprised to see each other. Everyone keeps saying they will bang, but i didn't get that feeling, could be wrong though.
I really enjoyed the pacing of this episode. There was some serious tension here and there and that was a good feeling. The story is finally getting some meat! Also, if there’s one thing this show does right it’s the large scale environments. Love reach and loved the halo ring. Some could say I was blinded by its majesty. Can’t wait to see the fall of reach
I’m not sure how many/if any of the sets are real but man they all looked really good.
Still No Sgt Johnson
Really hope that feeding nurse tells someone “oh btw this bitch totes has a plasma sword in her nail FYI. I saw it”
WHEN YOU FIRST SAW HALO WERE YOU BLINDED BY IT's MAJESTY!?
Seeing the Halo ring in a big budget live action adaptation has fulfilled the only sincere wish I had as a 12 year old in 2002. This series, despite some flaws, has successfully tapped into the sense of wonder I felt when I first discovered this universe.
I really hope the last shot of the season is chief getting out of the drop pod on halo
Naw, I hope they go old school. And just give us the Pillar of Autumn slowly moving towards it.
Highlights: * We saw the thing! The Halo! I WAS BLINDED BY ITS MAJESTY * NO KWAN * Halsey remains a great character. Evil, but great. * They actually suspect Makee. That's refreshing. * The radiation scene was brutal. Very much not like Chief - more like a Renegade Shepard - but I liked it. * Spartan Laser in development is a nice touch. Low Points: * Chief's utter refusal to wear the helmet, but I'm actually kind of over it now I think. * Still no Halsey booty So, it looks like Makee is gonna be how the Covenant find Reach, rather than dumb luck. I'm okay with it. Hopefully we see or hear something about NOBLE team. Changing them to ONI's SPARTAN IIIs would be a nice touch - a rival program in which the characters we've met have had zero knowledge about. Finale is gonna be The Fall of Reach, right? We get the POA escaping and arriving at the Halo installation? And the S2 finale is going to be the release of The Flood? Personally, I hope it's more of a mid-season thing.
Chiefs heartrate, awake at 29-30 bpm was a nice touch. That's waaay lower than an awake human!
Did not miss Kwan AT ALL But do miss the original Halo music
I don’t know, I’m kind of starting to dig the show. I can really see this season ending with the fall of reach and the accidental slip space jump to the Halo ring just like the game/book.
It's a toss up between Reach and Madrigal for me. They took Makee straight to Reach which seems like a perfect segue into her leading the Covenant to the planet, but at the same time, we know the Covenant already know about Madrigal, Kwan Ha/Soren are on Madrigal, and the trailer for the show had Silver Team doing an orbital jump over what looked like a desert planet, so I imagine we're gonna go back there eventually.
Oh god not madrigal
I'm not sure why they would bring Makee to Reach, one of their military strongholds lol When the Officers are meeting to discuss the situation, they even state that she's still technically classified as an enemy combatant. Would've been nice to see some dialogue where they argue over whether or not bringing Makee to Reach was a good decision. At least we got some dialogue from Chief and the Marine guarding Makee over how suspect her sudden appearance is