As the first episode of Halo begins, we’re on Madrigal which is a tier 4 heavy water extraction planet in the UEG outer colonies. It is 2552. Vinsher Grath (Burn Gorman) is shown on television talking about selling their precious deuterium to the UNSC leadership on Reach. He claims the UNSC leadership seeks to enslave them instead of paying a fair price. The Professor (Ian Pirie) plays cards with his friends. Djanka (Nneka Okoye) claims he has sticky hands, but he says they’re filthy with the blood of UNSC marines. Grath says war is not the answer and that is why Jin Ha (Jeong-hwan Kong) sent him to negotiate an end to this endless war. The Professor encourages them to turn it off because Vinsher is a dangerous fool for giving people false hope.
He says the peace talks will fail and the UNSC will come at them with everything they have. Then, they begin talking about Spartans who are worth a hundred marines. The professor claims another difference is the fact that marines can be killed. Spartans aren’t human. They’re faster, stronger, and smarter. He goes on to say they just keep killing before Jin Ha interrupts when he enters. Jin takes Djanka outside to ask where his daughter is at, but she doesn’t know. We join his daughter, Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha), who is busy hanging out with her friends. She tells Cara (Hayley Canham) less talking and more looking. She finds what she is looking for seconds later. Madrigal is the galaxy’s highest concentration of heavy hydrogen.
Kwan says it can be used to power your ships and drugs. Her friends want her to stay, but Kwan insists she is leaving this rock as soon as she finds a way. As they begin taking the drugs, Kwan hears something in front of her. She leaves her friends to investigate. She sees a ship and something going on in a cave nearby so she goes back to warn her friends. Esso and her other friends begin getting shot because they can escape. She hides behind a rock and sets off a flare to alert the people back in the village. General Ha is warned as everyone begins preparing for an assault. Kwan manages to make it through the gate before it closes. She runs to her father to tell him about the others being killed. She warns him that it isn’t the UNSC.
Jin tells her to get into the vault and do her job. She catches up with Malchin (Felipe Gabriel Mariano) and they run toward the pipes. They go inside before shutting and securing the door. Before long, the enemies burst through the gate. They begin marching forward despite taking heavy fire. Kwan admits she doesn’t know what those things are. She watches as her father’s truck gets flipped leaving him stuck on the ground. She promises Malchin that they’re not going to die before climbing the ladder to try to help her father. Jin watches as one of the elites pulls the door open and kills the people who were hiding with Kwan. When she tells the professor about the ship, he says it is all true although he thought it was UNSC propaganda. As Jin gets up and begins shooting one of the enemies, a UNSC ship arrives.
Jin watches as one of the Spartans drops to the ground and enters the battle. He believes the Spartan is an enemy, but he is wrong. Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) quickly takes down one of the enemies before he is joined by other Spartans. Kwan gets chased by one of the elites until she hides in a storage container type building. When the elite tears the door down, she is saved by a sniper. She escapes the box only to find the professor deceased outside. Master Chief has to help Kai (Kate Kennedy) when she gets cornered by several elites. Then, Kwan watches as her father is killed by one of the elites. As the elite turns its attention to Kwan, Master Chief arrives and finishes it off. Master Chief confirms that the Covenant forces on planet Madrigal have been neutralized.
There were 20 Elite warriors killed as well as 150 civilians. Master Chief doesn’t think there are any survivors until Kwan yells for him to wait. They begin looking for the landing site. Once they find the ship, Vannak (Bentley Kalu) and Riz (Natasha Culzac) are put in charge of clearing it. Master Chief and Kai go into the cave while Chief reports back to the others by radio. The cave network does not seem to be a natural formation and there is debris consistent with plasma cutters. Master Chief says the Covenant forces appear to be excavating some kind of object. An Elite warrior watches as Chief gets closer to the object in question. When Chief touches the object, it turns something as lights begin turning on.
Chief sees a little boy with a dog before Kai begins him back to reality before they notice the Elite nearly. The Elite turns invisible and knocks Kwan down as it escapes the cave. The Elite leaves in a ship. Master Chief tells the others to take the other ship back to Fleetcom for research and intel. He will retrieve the object and follow in the Condor. When Kai offers to go with him, Chief says no even though that is against procedure. Then, we’re taken to Fleetcom on Planet Reach where we join Dr. Catherine Halsey (Natascha McElhone). She opens Master Chief’s logs and watches what happened in the cave. She quickly stops when Admiral Margaret Parangosky (Shabana Azmi) enters the room. The Admiral tells Catherine the dead civilians are not a good look for her Spartans.
Catherine reminds her that they managed to save one that is being brought in by 117, but that isn’t going to make the Admiral’s job any easier. The security committee is looking for an excuse to cut their funding. Catherine tells her that John recovered something on Madrigal that is different from everything else. Margaret admits they’ve been fighting these alien creatures for years, but they still don’t know what they want, where to find them, or how to beat them. Command on Earth wants answers. If that object can tell them anything about the aliens, the committee’s concern will likely go away. Since they want a friendly face talking to the survivor, the Admiral recommends using Miranda Keyes who knows Madrigal.
Catherine is fine with that as long as the object comes to her lab first thing for analysis even though alien tech is Miranda’s division. The Admiral finds something and reminds her they said it was a nonstarter. Catherine confirms they’ve paused active development, but the admiral doesn’t believe her. She is told to get rid of that and channel her genius appropriately and legally. The Admiral has given her a long lead so she asks her not to hang her with it. After we see what Catherine has been working on, we see High Charity at the Covenant Command. The Blessed One, Makee, asks whether the relic on Madrigal was not where she predicted. Although it was exactly where she predicted, it was taken from a Kaidon warrior. Makee (Charlie Murphy) learns that one known to the warriors as Demon took it.
He was able to bring it to life like she can. She demands to talk to the warrior immediately, but she is asked to leave the book of human stories behind. She has been reading them so she can better understand her enemy. Mercy (Julian Bleach) asks whether she’ll read them to him one day so he can understand the enemy too. Makee doesn’t answer and instead sends Mercy away. Kwan wakes up in a place she has never seen before. She is locked in but manages to get Chief’s attention. Dr. Miranda Keyes (Olive Gray) visits Kwan and explains she is talking to her from the UNSC headquarters on Reach. Despite their differences, the UNSC respected the way Jin Ha stood up for himself and the people of Madrigal.
Miranda isn’t a politician. Instead, she spends her time trying to understand the aliens that attacked Madrigal and other plants. She suspects Kwan can help them stop the aliens. Kwan asks what that means. Miranda explains she could upload a few words to the other colonies to let them know what she saw and how the Spartans are taking on the Covenant. Kwan says her father spent his life trying to free them from the UNSC. She questions how they can ask her to do that. Then, she says they should do it and she can claim the UNSC sent a bunch of Spartans to attack them.
Miranda reminds her that the entire incident was recorded, but Kwan argues they can make video look like anything. They’ve seen their propaganda broadcasts and the outer colonies see through it. Kwan believes they can forget about unity once they hear her version of events. When Miranda asks what she wants, Kwan says independence for Madrigal since that is what her father wanted. Miranda tells her to get some rest and she’ll see her on Reach. Meanwhile, Catherine looks at Chief’s biometrics. They find that the energy pulse is stimulating his connective tissue. Adun (Ryan McParland) tells her that Chief hasn’t said anything yet. She is told it’ll be a better part of the day before they get back so she contacts Master Chief.
Catherine asks whether there are any anomalies in his neural lace metrics. He tells her about the boy, dog, and other things he saw when he touched the object. It felt like a family to him. Catherine encourages John to keep his distance from the object until they know more about it. She tells him to get back here and they’ll sort everything out. When the conversation ends, Catherine instructs Adun to give her live updates every ten minutes. Adun agrees to do that and bring John straight there once he arrives. Moments later, John enters the room with Kwan and begins scanning the integrity of all bio interfaces for evidence of abnormalities. He admits that is his way of saying he doesn’t feel well. She asks if he is going to live and he says yes.
Kwan questions if there is anything to eat on this ship. Captain Jacob Keyes (Danny Sapani) approaches his daughter, Miranda, and asks her about playing politician with the rebel girl today. Miranda sucked up her pride and did her best while selling Dr. Halsey’s Spartans to a rebel. She complains that Catherine will never do anything to help her get a promotion since she has constantly thrown roadblocks in her way. Jacob made peace with the fact that only work matters to Dr. Halsey. He insists it is nothing personal. Miranda says that isn’t a great excuse when it is your mother. He compliments her by saying she is a lot like Catherine. Miranda doesn’t believe the UNSC is going to grant Madrigal complete independence.
He admits they won’t before saying Kwan was badly wounded in the alien attack on Madrigal. Despite their best efforts, she succumbed to her injuries. She doesn’t believe so she asks whether they ordered an Article 72. It came from up top and he wanted his daughter to hear it from him. She asks whether he is okay with that. Miranda believes it is about keeping the deuterium flowing no matter the cost, but Jacob argues it isn’t that simple. It is an Article 72 meaning they’re going to be murdering a teenage girl. Miranda worries she will be complicit. Jacob reminds her they’re in a war. Once he says you sometimes have to make the hard decisions to get good results, Miranda says he sounds like Halsey. Kwan eats while asking Master Chief why he didn’t eat.
He claims he didn’t see anything he liked. He jokes he likes nuts, bolts, and microchips although she doesn’t laugh. She asks if he ever takes the helmet off, but he doesn’t because his diagnostic and control systems run through there. She claims they met before when he killed her mother who was at a meeting of the outer colonists getting together to talk about how the UNSC was stripping them of their natural resources. The Spartans showed up responding to an insurrectionist bomb threat. She says that doesn’t make sense though. Master Chief confesses they were ordered to eliminate the organizer until the orders changed because the assembled were deemed an imminent threat. When asked whether her mom was a threat, he says what he sees on the ground may not reflect the entirety of the situation.
Sometimes, others know things that he does not. She asks if he has ever thought it might be the other way around. Then, you would question everything. She knows someone told him that was bad. Kwan doesn’t look at pictures of her mother often, but he is everywhere. Chief gets the instructions to eliminate her. She confirms her name is Kwan Ha before asking how much longer they’re going to be stuck in here. He says it’ll still be several hours. As for whatever comes next, that is still being worked out. The Admiral shows Catherine a video of Master Chief cutting the feed to his camera. Jacob confirms he would know about the Article 72. Catherine is asked what is wrong with 117.
She claims it is nothing except a neurochemical glitch caused by a power surge to his prefrontal cortex. Catherine admits she believes he is having memories of his parents although he isn’t certain they’re his memories yet. She can’t explain why he’d violate procedure though. Margaret says not knowing why your killing machine is doing what it is doing is a risk that cannot be taken. Catherine believes the Cortana system could help, but Margaret reminds her there is no Cortana system. She is ordered to get her Spartan under control. Kwan gets lightheaded as the ship’s oxygen levels begin dropping. They also begin reducing the oxygen in 117’s suit. Catherine wants him unconscious and not dead. Chief drops to the ground after checking on Kwan.
He begins moving around again and opens panel Alpha 1-6 to adjust the atmosphere controls. The oxygen levels return to normal as the Admiral begins worrying Master Chief will fire on them when the ship arrives. She demands everyone to be sent to the landing bay. Nothing Jacob or Catherine says will change her mind. The Silver Team is told Master Chief has been compromised by the item they found on Madrigal. They have been sent to neutralize him, but Catherine tries to convince them that there are other solutions. Kai, Vannak, and Riz learn that they should take out friendlies that pose a risk to Master Chief. Kwan approaches Master Chief from behind while holding him at gunpoint. He tells her that UNSC changed the air mixture and not him.
He says he is trying to get control of the flight. When she threatens to kill him, he tells her about the Mark Six Mjolnir armor that will protect him. Master Chief removes his helmet before saying she’ll need to aim up here if she wants him dead. The Admiral and the others learn that he just took off his helmet while Chief tells Kwan he is trying to help her. She asks why a Spartan would try to save her, but he doesn’t have the answer. He gives her the gun back and says they need to work fast. By working together, they manage to disable the autonomous mode and gain control of the ship. Jacob orders his team to pulse the ship before he can load fire controls. The ship is hit so it immediately crashes to the ground.
The Admiral tells Jacob to drop the girl and Master Chief if he makes a move. While the Silver Team approaches the ship, Master Chief touches the device again. He begins seeing moments from his childhood and a drawing similar to the device that he did. It sends out a wave that disables the power to everything. The ship powers back on and flies away.
Halo Review
Having only played Halo a little bit many years ago, I can’t accurately compare the two and won’t bother trying. Nevertheless, many of the changes that one would expect to meet modern industry requirements are there. The series had a lot of hype coming in considering it is based on one of the most successful, iconic video games. Unfortunately, a lot of hardcore gamers who deserved a faithful adaptation are going to be sorely disappointed because this is going to be nothing like the game.
The series has a decent cast with the likes of Burn Gorman, Natascha McElhone, Danny Sapani, Charlie Murphy, and Pablo Schreiber. Many of the scenes looked amazing with Madrigal feeling expansive. Nevertheless, I wasn’t blown away by the opening episode because the story is too reminiscent of so many other television shows and movies. Every aspect of the story has been done countless times before including the mysterious artifact, the lone survivor, and the killer befriending the victim’s offspring.
The Spartan suits look great, but they are very clunky when put into motion. That characters aren’t strong enough for this type of story since we’d have to care about Kwan or Master Chief to give a hoot, and I don’t right now. In fact, some of the characters and acting were downright cringe-worthy. I’d guess Paramount and all companies involved knew there was a good chance this was going to receive scorn hence why the series employed cheaper, foreign actors many of who I like.
This could still get better, but the story is likely too weak for it to become anything other than a forgettable attempt to capitalize on the Halo name. The first episode scores a 6 out of 10. Halo recaps can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support Reel Mockery by following this link.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
The first 15 minutes took great effort to mimic mechanics from the game series notwithstanding the frustrating exclusion of the various minion Covenant aliens that follow Elites around in the games (some of them being suicide bombers, which would have been very cool to include).
After that though there is very little similarities to the games. From all the games I played exhaustively from the original Halo up to Halo Reach (some 6 or 8 titles) I never interpreted Spartans as “Clones” from the Star Wars prequels and never interpreted the humans as this sort of cold, authoritarian regime.
Seems the series is going to try to cash in on the Mandalorian’s most successful tropes, which is an elite warrior belonging to a “warrior cult” but diverges from his most ingrained beliefs to try to save a helpless waif.
That said, aside from the REALLY BORING, second 15 minutes which I realize is a set up for the overall plot, it more exciting than Picard, but less exciting than the Mandalorian, at least so far I’m all in. I’ll be there to catch tonight’s new episode. I’m hoping they really ratchet up the action.