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“Halo” Episode 9 Reaction
“Beaten, battered, and betrayed, John 117 leads the Spartans on a suicide mission to find the Halo and save humanity.” Well we have reached the end. We have reached the […]
“Beaten, battered, and betrayed, John 117 leads the Spartans on a suicide mission to find the Halo and save humanity.”
Well we have reached the end. We have reached the Halo finale. Titled “Transcendence”, this ninth and finale episode of a topsy turvy finale brings John face-to-face with his destiny, the Covenant and the fate of humanity.
Let’s get this out there first. There is no Kwan. Let us all rejoice. There is no Kwan. Wahoo!
So John and the UNSC need to find Aspero, this mythical place where Makee has taken the the artifact back to The Covenant. The UNSC trusted Makee and that did not work out really, so they have the outside problem of the Covenant building a weapon that can destroy the human race, and they have the inside problem of Halsey leading a rebellion. Things are not looking food for the bad guys.
Makee takes off in the Banshee that were reminded of in the eighth episode. She is able to get out of the UNSC base because when she touched the artifact at the end of last episode, so really, really fucked up the base. Amongst all the confusion she killed a human and was able to thwart anyone who tried to stop her.
Master Chief, whose life was saved because of the Artifact explosion, is now trying to father him and convince Vannack and Riz that what he has become is not a negative. He is a free man, and this free man is speaking some terrible truths. John is trying to convince his partners that they were kidnapped and they the UNSC has taken more from them than they would know. It is a Mexican standoff, until General Keyes comes into the picture and shouts from the rooftops that everything John has said is right.
Part of this Keyes revelation is that there were clones sent to the families from where these individuals were stolen from. That will come into play later.
So now the Spartans are united. Master Chief, Kai, Riz and Vannack are all on the same side, and they are on a mission to save the world. Kai takes the lead in going after Halsey. There is a badass scene of Kai jumping on Halsey’s ship, breaking into the ship and killing the annoying henchman of Halsey. The kill of fuck face (more formally known as Adun) was rather brutish, and that made it all the better.
As Kai is looking for answers, Halsey is dishing out bullshit. Kai wants her real name, but instead she gets a giant ship exploding. There is a doubt that Kai survives, but we see her hand grab the hanger and she somehow survived the fall. While the explosion is taking place, Halsey got into an escape pod, but she won’t last long. She is being tracked by the UNSC.
This is pretty much before the opening credits. Starting off with a big bang. I like it.
Oh, and I should mention that John says to Cortana that he needs her help. Synergy finally happening.
I have written in my notes: “Wow, when this show isn’t dabbling in the shitty Kwan storyline, it can be pretty good.”
John has found where Makee is going because he was able to solve the riddle that Makee told him. Something about Crystals in space, a fault line, shimmers, ect. Silver Team, the Spartans, have taken it upon themselves to go into this mystical Covenant spiritual land to try and save the day. There was a thought to bring in the UNSC and send 10,000 soldiers there, but that would be a bad an idea. Specially with what happens.
So we get two satisfying things quickly. The first is that we get to see Halsey arrested. That is nice. The second thing is that we get to see Master Chief put on his helmet in rather epic fashion. It was a legit gripe to the world when Master Chief took off his helmet very early in the show. He has spent the majority of the show with it off, so we have been getting to know the “real” John. Now we get to see him put on his helmet and become the kick-ass Master Chief again. A re-armoring if you will. It was a cool moment.
Now we are on this Covenant religious site. She is there with the goods that she has promised, except for the other “blessed one’s head”. AKA she was supposed to have killed John. She didn’t do that. She is asking if she is going on the Covenant’s journey…and then we get a direct cut of her fingernail which she pulled out last episode. The Covenant overlords tell her that she is going on the journey to their Eden, but behind her back they say they are going to kill her as well as all the humans.
It needs to be said that the exterior shots of this sacrificial, religious, important sandy location are…bad. There is really bad CGI. Very bad. It was jarring to the eyes when they tried to set the scene.
Before the Spartans land on the sandy dune, they have to travel through this time warp type expanse of space. It was a very Star Trek-esq scene. The idea of being torn to bits by the fragments of space is not exactly what I picture with Halo, but this sequence did work for that it was meant to be.
There is an important moment where Cortana tells Master Chief that he became redundant in Halsey’s eyes once Makee showed up. This just reiterates the fact that the Spartans are pawns on Halsey’s chessboard. One final nail in the coffin for Halsey and her reputation when it comes to John.
In terms of this space travel danger sequence, the only way our heroes escape the fray is by John entering God mode. He basically zones out, finds the right path, stays steadfast on it and takes the ship home. He essentially uses the force, pulling a Luke Skywalker.
Now we are going to get some action. Master Chief and the gang orbital drop from the ship and land on a surprisingly quiet planet. Where are all the guards for this supremely important religious site?
Oh, there they are. Unleash the Zealots is essentially release the hounds! All the violence is about to explode just as The Covenant’s forces combine the two artifacts. Now it is a race against time for Master Chief; can he and his team accomplish their mission before the location of Halo is revealed to the Covenant leaders? Can they stop it in time before their enemies commit genocide against the human race.
Naturally, MC is not about to just walk up to the artifact. He is going to have to fight through hordes of enemies, and not just the small guys. Bruisers, the big boys too. We get first person action scenes and classic video game sounds of armor being depleted, but it doesn’t last too long before the story takes over again.
Makee touches the artifact and she is transported to happily ever after. When she does this, it sends a massive wave of force that no one expected. No one except for John. He is sucked into fairy tale land again, and he is getting some mono-et-mono time with Makee. Does John side with Makee and stay on Halo and enjoy the nirvana? Or, does he choose to leave, and can he take Makee with him?
Turns out he doesn’t get the chance. Makee starts bleeding from the chest, and we learn that Kai has shot Makee in the heart. Makee is dead, and no Master Chief is the only blessed one.
The thing is that John can not touch the artifacts. He can not separate them. There is no way for him to gather the artifact, stop the star path from forming, and save all the Spartans. Riz is dying, Vannack is nearly dead, and Kai is fighting for her life. There is no way out. The door is, metaphorically, shut.
Oh wait, what is that? A glimmer of hope?
If Cortana can take over the body of John, like Halsey threatened to do, then the body of John can pick up the artifact and not set off essentially a nuclear reaction. John is sacrificing his free will, the thing he has fought so hard to find this season. He is willing to become nothing more than a pawn in the game in order to save the human race, and more importantly (at least at this moment) his friends.
The Cortana controlled body of John grabs the massive artifact and lugs it to the ship (that Cortana is controlling with her AI). The Spartans all get on the ship, and for now, human kind is saved. The Covenant does not get the full map as to where Halo is. AI MC leaves the body of Makee there on the planet; there is no emotion when controlled by pure logic. There is no doubt that John would not have let her there.
Kai tries talking to John as they are flying away from their successful mission. Emotions are at an all-time high and Riz is dying in the back of the ship…but John is not showing any emotion at all. It is like he has the inhibitor chip back in him. Cortana is made him empty.
You know what may have irked me most about this whole battle scene is that we got Vannack picking up a Needler and looking psyched…but then we never really got to see him use it.
So while all the action is happening, there are snippets of what has happened to Halsey. She is notified by her daughter that she has been put under Article 72, which I guess is a really big deal? It is a bit vague as to what that means, but regardless it can not be good. However, before we can get any answers on the situation, Halsey is visited…in secret…by General Keyes. Former lovers and parents to Miranda, I guess Jacob Keyes still has a kinship of a sort.
In the waining moments of the episode we see Halsey having a seizure. Did the general kill her? Did he he try and kill her? Complicating the matter is that this being seizing in prison is not actually Halsey. It is a clone. Did the General free her, or was this Halsey’s plans all along? We are left with a lot of questions. All we know for certain is that Halsey is still in the picture, someway, somehow.
In the end, Halo was a perfectly average science fiction action show. Unfortunately it is not elevated in any terms. I am not sure if it was created to be revered critically, but by the end, Halo got a sense of what it was. A quality bit of science fiction slop. Perhaps those fans who know all the lore are extremely angry at the show, and that is totally understandable. That is how I feel watching some Lord Of The Rings or Witcher programming.
With Halo, my expectations were somewhat high, but by the end they have middled. I will continue to watch this show because I am a prisoner to completionism.
Episode One Reaction
Episode Two Reaction
Episode Three Reaction
Episode Four Reaction
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Episode Six Reaction
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Episode Eight Reaction
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