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“Halo” Episode 6 Reaction
“On the run and out of options, Kwan and Soren have a difference of opinion. With the possibility of finding the mysterious Halo on everyone’s minds, John makes a horrible […]
“On the run and out of options, Kwan and Soren have a difference of opinion. With the possibility of finding the mysterious Halo on everyone’s minds, John makes a horrible discovery. And the war rears its ugly head.”
I am going to finish Halo no matter what. I am going to do it. Even if I take a month off between shows.
Just remembering back to episode five. The battle at the end of the episode was very fun. I also really enjoyed that the Covenant actually attained the Artifact.
Master Chief is distraught about letting the bad guys gets the Artifact. He blames himself…which is both true and false. He put the life of one over many, which is an admirable thing but also not part of his programming. This breaking of his code puts the Admiral in the hot seat because if you can’t trust the Spartans, how can you trust those who commissioned them?
Master Chief’s self loathing is dissipated by the disdain he has for Halsey. He keeps on points out that she is lying to him. He turns his anger towards her. He has lost his mother figure.
Halsey’s argument is that she is constantly planning for the future, but Master Chief doesn’t like the idea that the ends justify the means.
For a second I truly believed that Kai was going to die from her wounds. It would have been a major development because the show was actually going to kill off a character that we got to know. However that is just not the case. Kai survives her wounds. Whether or not she learns to control her newfound emotions is something to keep an eye on. It may be a character development moment later in the season.
It should be noted that Master Chief tells Kai the truth about Halsey while she is healing in the bed. The truth is spreading.
Makee is back. She is not necessarily lying when she says that she has been with the Covenant since she was a child. Obviously she has some other motives being imbedded in the UNSC now. Those goals are partially illuminated by her only wanting to speak with John, the Master Chief. She can see that MC is ill. Like actually legit sick. Interacting with the Artifact and all his communication with his past memories have made him weak, both mentally and physically.
I am glad that MC pointed out to Makee that it is very sketchy that she escaped the Covenant just as they Covenant got the Artifact. A little suspicious! Well, probably more than a little suspicious. Makee distracts him from the talk of the keystones and such by mentioning how they are both Blessed Ones. They are one of the same. They have the same language so to speak; one that only they can speak.
Cue the Halo music coming in. Cue the dramatic overtones. Cue MC doing everything he can to try and figure out this massive puzzle going on inside of his head.
My take on it is that Master Chief and Makee are basically like brother and sister.
MC is breaking mentally with all the strain that he is putting himself under. The scene where he traps Halsey in the room and nearly radiates her to death with the UV decontamination system was some well built up tension. I never really thought that Halsey would die because she didn’t have a “redemption” moment before crumbling to ruin.
I am a tad bit puzzled as to why Cortana wouldn’t shut down MC to save Halsey. I am confused a bit on Cortana’s allegiances. I think I am being led down that path of ambiguity, but if Cortana is a logical thinker, wouldn’t she/it, see that Halsey is using MC for her own gain?
Cortana really gets treated like garbage this episode. Cortana needs to grow some backbone.
The political backstabbing and plotting is a nice touch in a show that doesn’t have much of it. Admiral Margaret Parangosky makes sure she is protected when she corners Dr. Halsey into a really big predicament. Putting it plainly, Halsey is out as the lead researcher. She is losing her lab. She is losing her privilege. Halsey is turning into the scapegoat because the Admiral will reveal all the behind-the-scenes movements that Halsey has been doing. All the illegal things. The cloning things, etc.
So the UNSC is in shambles from the top. There is no sense of leadership. We have the Admiral and Captain Jacob Keyes spying on Halsey. There is distrust everywhere. But Halsey knows that she is being monitored. She knows that she needs to have a plan.
Insert fake family connections.
With Halsey on the out, that means that Miranda Keyes gets the new lab. Halsey calls her daughter (yea, you forget about that) into her chambers and attempts a happy family reuniting moment. There are tears. Feelings are shared. And they are all a lie.
Halsey looked into Keyes eyes only to get her pupil’s imprint. Keyes had to go see her mom because Halsey locked her out of everything, and this little family feud now has features the mother spying on the work on the daughter. The pupil becomes the master…and the old master is pissed and trying to see all the information with her pupil’s pupil.
I enjoyed typing the word play there.
One of the biggest differences between Keyes and Halsey is that Keyes is more open to Master Chief’s crazy antics with the Keystone. Master Chief wants to know the truth, and he has it in his head (implanted by Makee) that the only way he can find this answers is to get back to the Artifact and touch it. He just has to touch it.
Let’s face it. Master Chief is addicted to the Keystone.
MC steps into the room of the Keystone and Keyes steps behind the protective glass. We see that MC’s resting heart rate is 30 beats per minute (which I am very jealous of), but that pace gets elevated quickly..to some could say deadly levels. MC looks like death and his heart is pumping non-stop. Cortana goes back to Halsey and tries to get permission to shut down neural pathways, but Halsey won’t let her save John. She wants to see what happens to the MC when he lets go of the reigns. No more following a path. Time to fly off the handle.
While Master Chief is having a seizure, so is Makee. Again, they are connected. MC is freaking out, and his partner-in-crime (or partner-in-seeing-things) is also having a mental break down.
So I am a wee bit confused at the end here. Are Makee and MC in Halo? Is that the right phrasing? Is this like an alternate universe? Is it just an alternate mindset? Does Master Commander have three different planes in his head; his own Ethos, Cortana and Halo? How is Makee there too? Has she harnessed the ability to go in and out easily?
Credit to the show for this because now I actually have a question that I am interested in figuring out. Eventually.
Also, there was zero Kwan in this episode. Would you look at that. Two straight episodes without a terrible storyline and I am not having a bad time watching the show. Hopefully they just axe it for season two. (let’s ignore the weird hallucination sequence).
In a month I will have to resign into the Paramount+ app and watch what many rated the worst episode of TV ever.
Episode One Reaction
Episode Two Reaction
Episode Three Reaction
Episode Four Reaction
Episode Five Reaction
Episode Six Reaction
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