As this episode of Halo begins, we join a young Makee (Zazie Hayhurt) in the Visper System of Oban. A little boy reads to Makee while others sort garbage nearby. He tells her about the other planets with green grass that you can walk on. The boy opens the book, finds the word kiss, and says someone is supposed to kiss you when you read a word like that. She kisses him before the guards come after them and a chase begins. The little boy Det (Billy Marlow) is beaten by a guard. A group of Elite warriors arrives searching for something. The device they’re carrying illuminates when it gets close to Makee. The Elite believes the girl is the creature they seek. She takes the book and goes with them. In the present, Makee (Charlie Murphy) sits with the book in her hands.

She asks Mercy (Julian Bleach) about her outfit. He says it reminds him of the day she was brought to him only smaller. Makee intends to start her search for the keystone in Madrigal where it was last seen. She is asked what happens if she encounters the Demon since it is understandable to be curious about another who shares her gifts. For Mercy’s kindness, she offers to bring back the keystone and the Demon’s head. Dr. Miranda Keyes (Olive Gray) looks at the keystone and says they’ve finally found something with potential value. Admiral Parangosky (Shabana Azmi) tells her it is over 100,000 years old or pre-human. It might even be pre-Covenant. Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) claims it has something to do with a weapon somewhere.

Miranda asks why she is only hearing about this now. The Admiral believes she knows why and it was up to her she still wouldn’t. Margaret wants her to lead a team in analyzing the artifact. They want to know what it is, what it does, and whether it can give them an edge over the Covenant. Margaret admits there will be parallel teams because she is looking for a way to be less reliant on Dr. Halsey (Natascha McElhone) moving forward. Catherine Halsey thanks Adun (Ryan McParland) for preparing Cortana. Once he leaves, Catherine asks Cortana how she is feeling. She believes Catherine cloned her to obtain organs or at least that was the intent when she collected samples of various tissues. Although Catherine says she is the product of those samples, it doesn’t feel that way for Cortana.

Cortana asks what happened to the children. Catherine says 35 survived the original augmentation and the rest became Spartans. Cortana says more than half died. She believes the organ Catherine is after is her brain. Catherine explains she has perfected the process for real-time neuroelectrical imaging. Next, they will integrate the Cortana system into a Spartan. She suspects it’ll be John since he was the special one. He got himself into trouble lately and this is their only way of getting him out of it. Cortana asks if any of this bothers her. Catherine questions whether it should. Then, she is asked about their daughter Miranda. Catherine only says they have everything they need. She claims progress allowed her to embrace flash cloning.

Next, Catherine approaches John who says this isn’t necessary because he doesn’t need a babysitter. She calls it an upgrade and a way to analyze the artifact years faster than traditional means. It’ll also get him back on the frontlines where he is needed. He says they should get started. Adun tells Cortana they’ll need to keep her awake, the medicine will keep her body still, and it will hurt. He says she has the most beautiful brain, but she’ll be part of something bigger and better soon. Adun wants to kiss her. Catherine interrupts when she enters though. A needle is jabbed into Cortana’s eyeball before the neural substrate acquisition is complete. It is installed in John’s brain while Cortana’s body is dealt with.

Once they’ve finished, Cortana returns as a hologram. Cortana says the Master Chief’s military record is outstanding. Catherine says in the B-19 sub-stack of the lab’s central repository she will find information about the artifact. She will be conducting experiments on it and wants Cortana to process the data in real-time. Cortana learns that Catherine has limited her access so she can’t fully control the subject yet. She says her objective is to integrate fully with the Master Chief to improve his performance. Catherine insists she’ll do that and more in time.

She has prevented her from achieving her objective now because John is a central part of the examination of the artifact. Catherine wants to see how it impacts him and her. She recommends spending her time learning the human knowledge available and promises to keep her very busy. Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha) watches a news report about Vinsher Grath (Burn Gorman) promising hydrogen production will be back up sooner than expected. His peace treaty with the UNSC means one of the last holdouts has ended its quest for independence. Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) learns that they’ve received chickens from Earth. He allows Squirrel (Gabor Nagypal) and Trokan (Anna Trokan) to have a case for themselves.

Trokan complains that Squirrel is letting Sorren push him around. Kwan tells Soren she wants to go back to Madrigal because Vinsher is taking over and she wants to join the resistance. She believes some people are still loyal to her father in the capital city. Soren isn’t ready to break his promise to John yet so he says no. She asks for a ship, but that isn’t going to happen either. Kwan curses him when he turns his back on her. Soren tells her he won’t crush her skull as a courtesy to John and he’ll see her at dinner. John learns from Catherine that Cortana is always available to him although he doesn’t want to meet her. Once Catherine brings in Cortana, she says the system contains a hollow particle exciter allowing her to appear in any environment.

John wants to make sure it answers to his command, but Cortana sees it as a partnership. He asks where it goes when he isn’t deployed. Catherine gets rid of Cortana once she suspects John doesn’t know what she is capable of. John admits he doesn’t like this. Catherine believes he will though since she is going to improve his performance a hundredfold. On the UNSC Patrol Ship Gladius, the commander learns a slip space anomaly has appeared. Captain Yates (Matt Devere) looks out and sees a Covenant Corvette that appears dead in the water. Yates tells them to open the artillery bay and bring them around 90 degrees. Before they can fire, Yates learns they’re getting a message on the civilian emergency channel.

They hear Makee crying for help and claiming to be from the planet Circumstance. She says she is alone because the aliens abandoned in pods when the engines failed. Yates agrees to send her a drone pod. John approaches the artifact while Catherine records what is about to happen. While John touches it, he begins seeing memories from his childhood. Cortana is asked to put him into stasis so she can access the artifact. When she does, the artifact turns off and she doesn’t get any readings from it. When Cortana releases him, the artifact turns back on. John lets go of it and says that was different. Catherine gives him a break for his vitals to normalize. Cortana asks for full control.

Catherine says no because the artifact is only responding to John. Cortana says she wasn’t designed to be an assistant, but Catherine reminds her she was designed to follow her orders. Makee is told to step out and get on the ground. She is searched while saying they didn’t hurt her. Yates asks her to stand and welcomes her. She thanks him before the soldiers get attacked and killed by aliens. While Yates is held down, Makee asks where the Demon took the keystone. He doesn’t know what she is talking about. After he refuses to tell her anything, she kills him. Makee tries to use the computer system, but she is unable to access the system. Master Chief causes a small scene when he goes out with the other soldiers.

He joins Riz (Natasha Culzac), Vannak (Bentley Kalu), and Kai (Kate Kennedy) to say he has been cleared to return to duty. He is okay answering questions if they have anything to ask. Vannak says they’ve been briefed. Kai says they’ve been fighting together since they were kids so they trust whatever he does. Cortana shows up to say she will be provided tactical and logistical support for silver team as John tries to shut her up. He tries to make her disappear. Before she goes, she says she looks forward to working with them all. John tells them it is a new AI from Halsey that will be temporary. Kessler (Tylan Bailey) tells Kwan about all the planets out there. He shows her where Madrigal is although she doesn’t see it. He promises to show her where it is later.

Laera (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) tells Kwan she never looks out the window because you see things as they once were when you stare into deep space. She prefers staying in the present. Kwan insists she can’t stay here. Laera asks if she goes and dies. The creatures that destroyed her planet took everything from her except her spirit. Every day that she lives with that spirit is a victory over them. Kwan says she isn’t her. She can’t pretend nothing is going on outside that window. Kwan insists Madrigal still has a chance and she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t try. She is adamant that she is going to fight. Laera tells her the universe would be diminished without her in it. Meanwhile, Cortana tells John she can help him find whatever he is searching for.

Cortana believes she can be helpful if she understands his objective. He says he sees things that feel like memories when he touches the artifact. John explains he sees a picnic and his dog. Cortana shows him the list of planets that match his description. He has been to some of them. John notices one called Mamore where they lost Nora 098. The memory isn’t bringing up her loss. He remembers losing her, but he doesn’t feel anything. Cortana says that is the way it should be. The hormonal pellet in his spine suppresses adverse emotional responses. When he touches the artifact, he sees and feels the memories. Cortana goes to Halsey to tell her they have an issue because John is trying to remove his emotional regulator.

Cortana thinks it has something to do with the visions he has been experiencing. She offers to put him in stasis, but Catherine wants her to help him. Catherine says it is better he sees her as an accomplice instead of a spy. John follows Cortana’s instructions to remove the pellet. After he thanks her, Cortana reminds him he is there for him. Kai watches them from a distance. John walks around the others and watches the ships above him. As he reaches the subway train, Cortana knows this is a new experience for him. She says this train makes stops at the Reach Naval Academy, Tchakova Park, and Manassas. He watches a couple jokes and laugh before exiting the train at Tchakova Park.

He listens to a musical performance and throws a ball back to a boy nearby. Cortana asks if he removed his pellet so he could hear things differently. He claims he wanted to hear it like everyone else. John seems to remember something when a woman arrives with a dog. He leaves and tries to gain access to the secure room with the artifact. When he can’t, he asks Cortana to open it. Catherine gives her permission to do so. Cortana asks him not to touch the artifact, but he does. John remembers being a kid and his father (Duncan Pow) asking him what he is drawing. His dad makes him dig a hole while he tells his mother (Sarah Ridgeway) that he doesn’t want to do it. We see that the drawing is a picture of the artifact.

John collapses and tells Cortana there is a second artifact. He wonders if they buried the artifact before saying the planet he lived on had rings of ice around it. Cortana says only three planets have rings of ice that can be seen from the surface. She agrees to show him. John believes he has found the right place when he is shown Eridanus Two. He learns that the planet wasn’t always uninhabited. The planet was a site for the Reach for Life project which is an ambitious feat of human ingenuity.

A team built a self-sustaining ecosystem there to seed life on otherwise barren planets. Based on his memories, he is from there. Cortana explains that the operational files were lost when the program was abruptly terminated so she can’t check the record to confirm it. This happened when a plague was carried in on an unauthorized transport ship. It spread quickly and killed off most of the population. There was no curse. When he asks about his parents, he learns that survivors were evacuated to Ehilend where he was adopted at six. He asks what happened to his parents again. In accordance with the Emergency Contact Protocol Upsilon, the planet was sealed off to contain the virus. That is all Cortana knows. She apologizes when it looks like he is going to get emotional before Halsey storms in to ask why he is wearing his armor.

John says he thought the pellet might affect his interactions with the artifact. He says there are two artifacts including one he saw as a child on Eridanus Two. He pulls her aside to say the things he has been seeing are memories. She offers to send probes to the planet, but John would prefer to go himself. She agrees to come with him. Kwan tries to fix one of the ships. Soren tells her they’re not like the new UNSC ships because the FMS is on the other side. She claims she is going to free Madrigal and he can’t stop her. He says he could kill her for trying to steal his favorite ship. Kwan argues she can find her father’s generals and join the fight against Vinsher. She reveals her family is deuterium rich. He asks whether they have what is needed to take on Vinsher.

Kwan says it doesn’t matter. If he gets her to the generals, he’ll get paid. She says he won’t regret it. Soren says he’ll get paid either way. He’ll either get money from her or the bounty on her head. Makee manages to get the ship up and running. The display says information sterilization has been enacted. She contacts Mercy to say she is returning to the ship because there is nothing here. Instead, they’ll head to Madrigal. As Miranda catches up with Captain Jacob Keyes (Danny Sapani), they intercept Makee’s conversation in Sangheili. Jacob says it is the last transmission from Gladius. Miranda believes it is an Elite instead of a Grunt. Miranda promises to work on it after she recovers from the system crash that happened around the time Parangosky made parallel teams.

Jacob tells her that Halsey is going on a mission away from Fleetcom and the artifact. She is urged to keep her critical data behind a firewall and use her time wisely. Halsey and Adun look at the image of the other artifact that Cortana put together based on John’s description. Adun wonders if they’ll find the other piece on Eridanus or John is just imagining it. She admits it is impossible to say since the mind is capable of invention. While Halsey leaves on a ship with John, Kwan prepares to leave with Soren. She claims they have no choice if they want to separate what is real from what is imagined. Halsey insists they have to find out for themselves. Adun worries that the trip could bring back other memories for John and the truth could bring them all down.

Catherine says that is what Cortana is for.

 

Halo Review

If the Halo television series wasn’t based on the Halo video game series, I suspect it would’ve been better received by fans. However, it had big shoes to fill. At the moment, it feels like it has one foot in and the other one out because it just hasn’t fully embraced what made Halo great. While Halo has some interesting ideas, it is bogged down in these ideas with little action to maintain the viewer’s interest.

The series needs to ramp up the action because we’ve had two episodes of dialogue. The Kwan storyline is slightly annoying so I think that time could be put to better use elsewhere. The real question is whether fans will be rewarded for sticking with this when the action finally begins. The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Halo can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support Reel Mockery by following this link.