For someone who adored the first three main games of the epic Halo series, it’s actually quite flabbergasting that it’s taken fifteen episodes to get the gargantuan space opera to a place where the original game started. It’s been a bumpy ride to be sure, with the show taking large, needlessly dour, swings at politics, corruption and musings at the nature of humanity itself as it changed its central figure, the imposingly iconic Master Chief, from alien slaying dreadnaught to confused political puppet thanks to a plot that confusingly sidelined a lot of the more recognizable elements.
Sure, John-117 (MC’s non de plume) was front and centre, but anyone hoping to see him encased in his armour and whupping ass like the glorious love child of Captain America and Iron Man had to wade through a lot of convoluted politics that similarly took focus away from endearingly genial A.I. Cortana and the threat of the villainous Covenant itself.
However, after a slight pace change and a central episode that blew the budget on a large scale invasion, Halo finally seems to be reaching its ultimate destination as it inches ever closer to the eponymous structure.
After their shared vision at the end of the last episode gave them the location of the mysterious weapon known as the Halo, both John-117 and Makee now realise their armies are in a race to reach it before their enemy does. However, hindering their progress is about a season’s worth of back story that has both the UNSC and the Covenant experiencing violent dissension within their respective ranks with Makee and the Arbiter turning against their leaders in order to get that all important head start and kicking off a full scale civil war within their craft. Meanwhile, John is equally pissed with his superiors as a lifetime of inhumane actions not only resulted in the abuse of children in order to create the Spartans in the first place, but their ruthless decision making resulted in the human colony of Reach being ruthlessly sacrificed. Simply put, its payback time and after making peace with Kai, his last remaining Spartan, the two start to try and make things right by punching things really, really hard. However, while Master Chief hunts down his armour by finally getting his hands on the duplicitous Ackerson, Kai realises that the troops she’s been training are being unwittingly sent into a suicide mission in order to end the Covenant threat once and for all and Rhodes to stand with them.
While all this is going on, the team of Kwan, Halsey and her estranged daughter Miranda continue to explore the ancient ruins on Onyx which unlocks the secrets of the Forerunners, of the ancient race who built the Halo, and Soren finally manages to find where his son was taken on order to kickstart another brutal Spartan program. However, is he there to rescue his son, like we originally thought, or does his motives ultimately prove to be a little more complex?
So, it’s been virtually an eternity, but Halo has finally managed to take all of its convoluted politics and sprawling side stories and funnel them into an episode that gets the show firmly where it’s needed to be ages ago. To skip to the end first, this installment ends with the Halo finally in sight for the first time (aside from the odd mental projection) as John and Makee both race toward it as the gregorian Chant style theme from the game kicks in and the only thing stopping this moment being the series’s most pivotal moment to date is that it’s taken us so fucking long to get here. I understand that Halo as a show has lots of moving parts (too many, if you ask me) but with Thermopylae, they all seem to be arriving at a junction where it all serves the story we’ve been waiting for all along.
Soren’s search for his son reveals that he doesn’t want to actually save him, recognizing that his own, brutal journey to becoming a Spartan taught him who he truly was – and while this thread has nothing to do with the main plot, it doesn’t impede on the momentum of everything else too much and it proves to be an interesting – if slightly contradictory – twist. Elsewhere, the show has admirably further managed to entwine Kwan into the main story rather well by having her mystical destiny continue to tie in with the Overmind (the game’s super big-bad) and the family strife of Halsey and Miranda even segues nicely into explaining some much needed facts about the Forerunners which – for non-Halo fans – is incredibly necessary.
However, once again, there’s still that maddening feeling that the show is constantly teetering on greatness and if it could just nudge a few points into alignment, we’ve have the adaptation I’ve been lingering for since day one.
For a start, Cortana finally seems to be moving into her role from the games as a good natured know it all who benevolently pulls strings to aid Master Chief, and while the show have maddeningly kept him and her separated for the entirety of the season, her subtle manipulation of Makee and the Arbiter has been great. Another point is than even though I’m not one who complains too much because Pablo Schreiber’s spent so much time out of the iconic armour, the fact that the show has now devoted so much significant energy to the armour as a symbol, when John finally gets it back on, he’ll stop being the UNSC’s poster boy and become the heroic savior he’s always been in the games.
If I said I wasn’t excited, I’d be lying, but then, Halo’s let me down before and if the next episode isnt some form of variation of the first level of the first game (Master Chief fight off invaders as his ship crash lands on the Halo), I’m gonna be pissed.
Maybe I’m leaning too much into the games for my own good, but how can I not when so much of the show is taken directly from it. The activation of a Forerunner light bridge plucked right from the source material is given the same reverence as an actual character and the fact that status quo of the series often butt heads with the established lore of the games frequently irritates me, but much like the Arbiter, I truly believe in my heart of hearts that once we reach the Halo, all my prayers will be answered.
With one episode to go, my expectations are high for a show that’s consistently had me in a state of love/hate since the day I first watched it, but as long as they get Master Chief in the armour, reunite him with Cortana and get him on the Halo, I’m hoping this overlong, overcomplicated journey has been worth it. But then, at its core, Halo has always been about faith, so I guess it makes sense.
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