It’s that time again and I’m so excited. Paramount Plus’s Halo series, Episode 4, “Homecoming.” This episode’s got so much going for it that I’m starting to really understand what made the lore of Halo so exciting in the video games. So much so that I’m actually thinking about trying to get into some of the older games myself, if I can find, I don’t know, maybe an emulator, or possibly some of them re-released a little later on Steam or someplace else. Either way, I’m looking to get into this, because I’ve got to know the deeper story.
This is not too shabby, man. A lot of lore building going on, and some interesting things finally happening in the B and now C plot.
Guided by his visions, John takes Halsey and Cortana back to where it all began, looking for answers from his past. With Soren along for protection, Kwan goes in search of an army. Meanwhile, John’s behavior inspires another Spartan to begin a journey of self-discovery, and Miranda discovers a possible link between the artifact and something much larger.
The Kids With the Flag
The episode starts with what looks like a group of young children running, in military training. Could be a military school, could be something along those lines. One of them is carrying a flag, the UNSC flag, while a drill sergeant runs alongside. They introduce you to these young characters and you see a picture for each. Riz-028. Vannak-134. Kai-125. Soren-066. And finally John-117.
So we go into John’s mind a little more, and you start to see this kid who, funny enough, is sitting on the exact same kind of bench he was sitting on two episodes ago. A silhouetted person walks in, and it’s a younger Halsey. We see the de-aging a little better this time. They only smoothed out some of the lines of her age, but she’s got much longer hair, a little more tamed. And for those of you who are savvy, her lab coat is the same lab coat as Halsey from the games. I thought that was really interesting. Again, these little Easter eggs.
What a Faithful Adaptation Actually Is
What I’m really enjoying about the Halo show at the moment is this. I’ve always thought the idea of literal game to film translations was silly. I loved the Resident Evil adaptation. I loved the Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider adaptation. I liked parts, parts, of the Assassin’s Creed movie. Obviously Sonic the Hedgehog everybody loves.
What I’m most reminded of when I watch the Halo series is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel took the Avengers, for instance, and one storyline, the Infinity Gauntlet series, and they adapted it to the big screen. In that adaptation they weren’t shot for shot and line for line faithful, but you got the story in a really interesting way, a very interesting series of events, and I actually really liked that.
That’s what this is doing. It’s what I also feel like The Wheel of Time show was trying to do. It’s a faithful adaptation in that even though the plot and the story are a tiny bit different, and there are elements in there that are different, overall you’re still getting the story. When they show Halsey, she’s Halsey. The crazy scientist, the person she was.
Now, Master Chief takes his helmet off way too much. Literally, in this episode there’s a part where he puts his helmet back on and then the very next scene he’s taking it off again, and I’m like, why’d you even put it back on? But regardless, I like what they’re doing.
Back to Eridanus II
We go past the memory and we come to John standing at the window, just watching as the slipstream effect goes by. Cortana shows up and she’s checking in on him. He tells her what he’s seeing, she starts to explain what he’s really seeing, and he does that thing again where he’s like, you’re ruining it. I see them trying to make that a thing. It’s fine. It’s cute, it’s clever, whatever.
The ship comes out of slipstream and there they are. They’re on Eridanus II. Yeah, man, let’s go.
Then we cut to Madrigal, in the 23 Librae system, and we see Soren and Kwan. The entire time Kwan’s trying to make him understand. Listen, if we just find my family, if we just find this, we’re going to be great. We’ll be good.
Kai Cuts It Out
We go back to FLEETCOM, UNSC FLEETCOM, and we get to see one of the Spartans, Kai-125. She’s in the bathroom, and the other female Spartan comes up and they talk briefly. We’ve got to go do this thing. Okay, no problem. Then we pan down and you see at the base of her back there’s an incision. Sure enough, she tosses it in the sink. She’s done the same thing she saw John do last episode. She’s cut out her pellet, the little hormone controlling emotion pellet. So we’re like, okay, where is this going?
Back to Eridanus II, and you see John and them flying over what was the original Reach for Life installation. That’s what they call this, I don’t know if you caught it last episode. These colonies were part of an initiative called Reach for Life where they would go out, and in fact Reach for Life, I believe, is how they discovered the Covenant, because the two things met. And then there was the bio-sickness and whatever else.
This is where, like I said, John puts his helmet on. The very next scene Master Chief walks out and apparently wants to see the forest more clearly, so he takes his helmet off and he’s walking around with it again. Literally one scene to the next. Halsey, meanwhile, is watching him very intently. She’s very much like, what’s going on here?
The Lighting on Madrigal
Cut to Madrigal, Madrigal City specifically, and you see Kwan and Soren doing this walk into town. I don’t know how much you know or don’t know, but the Halo production was fraught with issues, and there’s a reason why there are three production companies on it. One of them is Showtime, the other is Amblin Entertainment, and then you have another one in the mix before you finally get to Paramount, because apparently this show has moved hands so many times.
So the guards in the lookout look like they were filmed on a completely different day on a completely different set, and the lighting is utterly, totally different. The shadows don’t match. You can tell there’s a CGI artist who’s trying super hard to do his best. I actually think this scene was probably set up at night, mainly because if you look at the back you see there’s a really bright light set up underneath the overhang, and it’s way brighter than it should be. So I think the lighting is practical. The problem is that the environment that was replaced doesn’t match the practical lighting on the guys on the green screen set, because again, that was probably filmed for a totally different thing. Plus there are artifacts that show this entire scene was recolored. It looks way too warm. It was probably set to be at night, and blue would have been your dominant color at night.
Anyway, a little bit of a CGI wormhole. Sorry.
Then we get to see Vinsher, who’s being flanked, like the Flying V in The Mighty Ducks, by his guards. Because that’s what you do. You arm up your guards and you walk around with your little teeny Jimi Hendrix glasses that have apparently lasted to whatever the far-flung future is.
Kwan and Soren walk into town, looking around for some folks, and they catch a whiff of what’s going on. There’s a quick moment where Kwan sees somebody she knows and he’s like, you shouldn’t be here, go to this thing tonight. That’s when Soren’s like, hey, and they notice a holographic wanted poster. She’s wanted. He knows it’s going to be problematic. Soren’s not an idiot.
Pink Streaks
Back at the UNSC you get to see Kai-125 sitting there messing with her gun, and she looks at the oil she’s using to clean it, or whatever she’s using with it. I’m not a gun guy, I’m sorry. Then she goes to the bathroom, looks in the mirror, and rubs it through her hair. Cut to the fact that she’s chosen to put pink streaks in her hair. A little act of rebellion. Right on, man. Good for you.
We go to Dr. Keyes, who’s looking at the artifact, and she has summoned the three available Spartans. She starts with Riz-028 and goes to the others. She’s going to have them try to repeat what John did, and see what’s so special about John.
All Three Stories Have Me
At this point I’m really fascinated by how engaged I am with all three of these stories. Each one has something in it that’s grabbing my attention and making me want to watch this show. I don’t care how problematic their production was. This show’s not bad. It isn’t a bad show at all. I think it’s finding its feet, and I’m enjoying what they’re doing so far.
Back on Eridanus you see John digging, Halsey watching off to the side, and eventually he finds what looks like a kind of transplant box. White, with sealed locks and whatnot. He opens it up and it’s all his drawings, the ones he’s seen in his memories. They’re all there. Now we have physical evidence that what’s going on in John’s head is real, and that’s a big sign.
Back on Madrigal you get to see a woman doing a traditional lament, a song. I think it’s in Korean. One of Kwan’s father’s former generals is there, and it’s, we’ve got to get you out of here. What happened, what’s going on? And Kwan starts getting the realization. Everybody’s been either killed, punished by Vinsher, or has fallen in line, like this lady she’s talking to. So Kwan essentially challenges her. She looks around and she’s like, all of you did this. And that’s when the fuzz shows up. I’m kidding, but that’s when Vinsher’s forces show up and break up the whole thing, and she and Soren have to run.
Then we cut back to Keyes doing the experiment. Everybody’s touching stuff, and 125 is showing signs. The other two are very much normal Spartans. 125 is looking around, being nosy, asking questions and making observations. And she points out to Keyes that, yeah, you look down at us. You haven’t talked to us for two seconds, man. What do you even know about us? They kind of have a moment where she’s challenging her. It’s good. It’s a good look.
The House, the Dog, and Halsey
Back on Eridanus, Master Chief is walking around the old house. He calls Cortana and asks her to rebuild the house so he can see what it looked like, and she says okay, I can do that in your visor. He puts the visor back on and starts walking around looking at reproductions of the house, and he kind of corrects her at some points.
As he’s doing this he begins to have his own memories. He remembers being a kid, running outside, following the dog, going to a place and finding a little cut-in crevasse area. Then we see the kid climbing down this whole area, which, I don’t know how a kid would have gotten down there, but I mean, whatever. In real life he’s looking and seeing what happened. As a kid he sees himself walking up to what looks like a pillar of some sort and putting his hand up, and in real life he does the same thing.
We cut to adult him in civvies, civilian clothes, with kid him. I think John’s supposed to be in the place of his father. I think that’s why he’s wearing the outfit he’s wearing, because the other him shows him pictures and whatnot. Eventually John gets up and walks around and he sees another memory, and it’s a younger him being examined by a younger Dr. Halsey.
Oh yeah. John realizes she’s not been telling him the truth. This is a memory. Why is she here? What’s going on?
The Rosetta Stone in the Room
Back at the UNSC, Keyes is in her workshop exploring stuff, and 125 has picked up one of the guns from the game, the Covenant guns, and begins explaining some things to her. She says some word in what they assume is Covenant language, and the other two are like, oh yeah, that’s exactly what they say. So the other two are interacting with 125 even though they’re standing there with their marine repose. She’s the only one who’s animated about everything, but when she says something, they do agree.
Eventually Keyes comes to the realization: wait a minute, they know stuff. They’ve spent more time fighting the Covenant, dealing with the Covenant, than anybody. Their knowledge of the language is the Rosetta Stone she needs to fix the translation matrix she’s working on, to get more accurate translations of intercepted communications, of regular communication, anything they can come up with from the Covenant.
The Fixer
Then we cut to Soren and Kwan overlooking, and come to find out, that’s right, Soren’s ship has been taken. Kwan has gone to see her aunt, and on the way they get attacked and Soren helps fend it off.
Then we cut to Vinsher, who’s in a bathhouse. He’s summoned someone to him, and we realize very quickly that’s a fixer. She’s an assassin. He wants that problem solved quickly and quietly, because he doesn’t want Kwan to become a martyr to the former rebel cause.
We cut to John standing on the balcony of his old house. He looks at Halsey and he’s like, why were you here? I don’t understand what’s going on. And Halsey tries to explain. I warned you, delving into memories of the past could jumble your memories. She’s still trying to play that game. I don’t think John’s falling for it, but John’s willing to go down the road that she’s been the most trustworthy person in his life to this point. He’s definitely not a good judge of character. At least not at this point.
Soren, meanwhile, is trying to find someone he can buy his ship back from, only to find out the ship has already been scrapped. Like, hardcore, already scrapped. So this guy offers him a ride 200 miles south to a port where he can catch a flight out of Madrigal. They leave every day. Literally just catch a regular legal flight. Go catch a Delta flight, man. Go to the airport. So he proceeds to steal the guy’s bike at gunpoint.
That’s when we come back to Kwan talking to her aunt, and her aunt explains the entire situation. Look, there’s no more money. Your father was crazy. He talked to these mystics, and the mystics gave him an idea and got in his head. We think we’re about to see her father, but there’s slow motion of someone going through the hallways, and it’s the assassin. She’s coming for them. She comes in, she kills Kwan’s aunt, and that’s when Soren shows up shooting at her.
Roll Credits
This whole thing is happening as Dr. Keyes is talking to 125. The two of them are looking over some translations, and 125 is looking at the screen and she’s like, oh, look at this, this word means something like ring of light. Halo. And she makes a little gesture, and you’re like, oh. Roll credits.
This whole series of events at the end is happening as Keyes begins to describe how Halsey feels about imperfection, human things, and how things she can’t control bother her. We get to see Master Chief jump down into the thing. Halsey follows him. Eventually they do, in fact, find it. They find the spire. He kind of stands in front of it, and Halsey walks up behind him, while Keyes is in the middle of talking about how Halsey searches for an explanation of how the universe is. And we get to that final moment. That’s it.
The Verdict
Halo Season 1 Episode 4, “Homecoming,” is a 9 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index. All day, 9 out of 10. I enjoyed the heck out of it.
We didn’t revisit Makee. We didn’t revisit the Covenant at all this episode. But I like the A, B and C plot we got. I felt like it moved the story forward, and these are really good, exciting things that I’m interested to know more about. So they’re doing their job.
Thank you so much to those of you who responded. I got the message. We’re going to go ahead and finish out the Halo series, and hopefully go into Season 2 later.
I’d love to hear how this episode rolled for you. If you’re unfamiliar with the series and you’re into it, if you didn’t play the games, even more so, because we’re all in the same camp. And if you have played the games, tell me what you thought too. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
