The following will contain spoilers for season 1, episode 4 of ‘Halo.’ For a recap of episode 3, click here.
Episode four of Halo opens up with a flashback to a military exercise with familiar faces. The cadets in training are adolescent Spartans, including those we’ve come to know: Master Chief, Soren, and the three other members of Silver Team. We move on to see a young John talking to Dr. Halsey. He questions why he’s there, stating he wants to go home. Halsey reassures him that this is his home. Fast-forward to the ship traveling to Eridanus II. Halsey and Adun discuss John’s well-being as John and Cortana go over John’s vitals while the ship enters Eridanus II’s atmosphere.
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We catch up on what’s happening with the other characters following the opening credits. Kwan and Soren arrive on Madrigal, discussing how they struggled with sleep following life-changing events. We also see Kai-125 in a public locker room, having just cut out her own hormone blocker. We return to John and Halsey as they land on Eridanus.
In what might be one of the most accidentally hilarious beats so far in the show, we get a shot of Master Chief putting his helmet on, then the trio driving in a Warthog and arriving at their destination, where Chief takes his helmet off again. For the most part, Chief not wearing his helmet makes sense narratively. It also gives Pablo Schreiber the ability to emote and act throughout the show. But to have him wear his helmet for 13 seconds of runtime only to take it off again feels redundant. Either way, the trio arrives at John’s former house. He remembers where he and his father were burying something and tells Halsey and Adun to start digging.
We head back over to Madrigal, where Kwan and Soren have landed, and walk towards Madrigal City. Vinsher Grath and his forces have the city under his control. While wandering through a market, Kwan comes across a friend of hers, Attu (Ali Khan), who is surprised to see her alive. He tells her to come to her father’s memorial tonight and runs off. We head back to planet Reach, where Miranda Keyes is running experiments on the Keystone with the other members of Silver Team. Following this, we cut back to Eridanus. John uncovers a lockbox while digging, and inside are his old drawings of the Keystone and the other mysterious artifact.
Kwan arrives at her father’s memorial and finds one of her father’s old generals. She learns that Vinsher took over by promising the people of Madrigal protection from the Covenant and struck a deal with the UNSC to do so. Before more can be said, Vinsher’s men arrive, and Kwan and Soren escape. Yerin Ha’s Kwan is being built up to be the next Resistance leader, but it feels unearned so far. The character hasn’t shown much in terms of qualities other than the fact that she is the previous leader’s daughter. Hopefully, she begins to show more of these traits as the series goes on.
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We return to Eridanus as John walks around in his old home. He uses Cortana to build a house model before the years of decay and destruction to help him remember. As John walks around, Halsey and Adun give each other worried looks. John remembers crawling into a cave as a child. The cave is identical to the one we saw on Madrigal. Following this, John remembers Dr. Halsey meeting John for the first time in his home. He comes to and storms off.
Silver Team is in Miranda Keyes’ lab going over the results of their interaction with the Keystone. Kai is beginning to act more “human” than her other teammates. While discussing one of the Covenant’s weapons, the Needler, Silver Team reminds Dr. Keyes that they’ve spent the most time around the Covenant and have picked up some of the language. Kwan and Soren get nervous as Vinsher acquires reinforcements. Before they leave Madrigal, they go to see Kwan’s aunt. Vinsher is shown hiring Violetta Franco (Angie Cepeda) to take out Kwan and Soren. Dr. Halsey follows Master Chief outside of his home and immediately begins gaslighting him. Chief has none of it, as he questions why he remembers Halsey in his home before his parents’ death. She continues to be deceptive, and he walks off.
Kwan discusses revitalizing the rebellion with her aunt, who refuses. Kwan seeks to do right by her late father, but her aunt tells her he was fighting for a lie. She tells Kwan that he once sought out mystics to tell him his future, and when he returned, he was different. He never shared what the mystics told him. Suddenly, Franco arrives, killing Kwan’s aunt. Soren soon follows and saves Kwan from the same fate. We return to Miranda Keyes’ lab; Kai’s the only member of Silver Team left. Knowing there’s something different with Kai, Keyes warns her of Dr. Halsey seeing this change in Kai’s demeanor. The two are watching video feedback of Chief activating the Keystone and notice a ring of light appeared around it. The Sacred Ring. Halo. Master Chief and Halsey are then shown finding the other artifact.
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Halo’s fourth episode felt like an improvement over its third. Despite feeling like another filler episode, this one made better use of Silver Team, especially Kai. It also made good use of Pablo Schreiber sans helmet. It’ll be interesting to see how Kai begins to adapt to her returning emotions versus how Master Chief responds within their respective environments. This episode also shows the more nefarious side of Halsey, as we hear what her own daughter thinks of her through monologue. Halo continues the slow-burn approach with its story-telling, and it will be interesting to see how it turns out by the end.
