'Halo' Season Two Episode 2 Review
Image Source: IGN
Look, we can talk until we’re blue in the face about how “faithful” adaptations are to the source material like good nerds and geeks. It’s the fun part about fandom. But the fact of the matter is the medium matters, and telling a story in a video game as opposed to telling a story through a non-interactive medium like a TV show are two different things. The Halo TV show had to take a first-person shooter protagonist who is about as robotic as possible for a human and adapt it into a format that relies heavily on visual and emotional interaction.
Season one had its issues, but so far season two is off to a better start. Episode two furthers that with a character-driven progression that ultimately reveals the scope of the plot this season. Chief’s concern for other Spartan teams and the odd encounter he had on Sanctuary continues. The episode starts with him and the rest of Silver Team watching the ready board change again and Chief wanting to know what’s going on, which leads him to confront Ackerson about what’s going on and the threat of the Covenant. Meanwhile, Riz is dealing with the trauma of nearly dying and the scars that are left, and Kai is kind of spying on Chief for Ackerson. We also learn that Halsey is alive and well, and actually in the custody of the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence). Ackerson is using Cortana to try and understand Halsey, but there’s something else that he’s using Cortana for as well, and that becomes clear by the end of the episode: the Covenant know where Reach is, and they're already there.
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Image Source: Showmax
Collectively, this episode works well on what the show does better than the games in general: exploring the humanity of the Spartans. Chief’s story in the game is often told as a contrast to those around him. He’s often surrounded by non-Spartan UNSC marines, and his interactions with them move the story along and highlight the training and purpose of the Spartan program, within the thread of humanity’s desperate attempt to survive their war with the Covenant. They started to touch on this later with Halo 4 and Halo 5. The show pivots and instead looks at the Spartans and how they feel about their humanity. Silver Team has removed their emotional inhibitors, and now are coming to terms with what it’s really like to be a human being.
That’s why the scenes with Chief and Perez, Riz and the blind Spartan, then with the rest of Silver Team during training, and Kai’s concern for Chief are so integral and strong for the season. The experiences with the Covenant in episode one and the revelation at the end place their journeys within the scope of what’s about to happen. At the core of it, Spartans are humans. With their pellets removed, their minds are free to experience human emotions and feelings. Those strong, motivational cognitive processes in the body of enhanced superhumans provide a canvas for some good storytelling, and that’s coming across better in this season.
Image Source: Screen Rant
Image Source: Screen Rant
If you’re unfamiliar, the Fall of Reach is one of the most pivotal points in the Halo universe and leads to the discovery of the Ring Worlds. Laying that foreshadowing early on this season sets up a lot of tension and anticipation for the rest of the season that hopefully it delivers on. The Fall of Reach is an emotional blow for humanity and really puts their survival chances in perspective, and I think the writers are doing a decent job of setting that up with Ackerson’s refusal (on the surface) to believe Chief and his worries about the Covenant behavior he’s observed.
It seems he’s actually taking it to heart though, as by the end of the episode, it’s revealed that he’s been having Cortana run calculations on something, without access to the UNSC’s network. Whatever it is, it’s got him scared, because she says there is a 97% chance this thing will happen. When he asks about any “strategies” to prevent it, she says there’s nothing that works. The following scene shows Chief discovering that Cobalt Team didn’t even leave Reach, they went to investigate a communications tower that went dark, just like on Sanctuary, on Reach. Then, it cuts to UNSC marines in a dark tunnel being mowed down by a Covenant Elite, accompanied by Makee. It’s clear Ackerson knows what’s coming, and he’s doing nothing to stop it.
Image Source: Sideshow
The frustrating inclusion of Kwan Ha continues, unfortunately, and try as I might, I just don’t care about her story. This episode has her running from pirates or thugs on The Rubble, but we don’t really know why, and it’s still obscure as to what her purpose or goal is now. Madrigal is glassed, and whatever mystical discoveries and ruins they needed there are gone. Is she going to rescue Soren? Alright, fine, but what for? Where is this going? Chief and everyone else’s story is much clearer than Kwan Ha’s, and while there’s something to be said for not giving everything away to your audience, there’s got to be something, but I’m not finding it here.
I’m excited for the rest, though, and look forward to how the show handles the Fall of Reach.
Rating: 8/10
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Source(s): Paramount+
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