I’ve got to tell you, this episode felt like it flew by. A whole lot of things happening, and I’m shocked, because Halo has quickly become the sweetheart of reviewing for me. I love Star Trek, I love doing those reviews, and I hope you’re watching them. But man, Halo is a good show. It’s catching its stride and just rolling through, and I’m here for it.
This is Halo Season 1, Episode 5, “Reckoning.” It’s been the Cinderella story of this season of new things for me. That and Moon Knight, which I think is wonderful.
John, John, John
The episode starts on Eridanus II, in the past, and we get a tour of a facility. The implication is that it’s a kind of school, but it’s a school for people displaced by the colony uprising and some other things. A lot of these kids either don’t have complete families or they’ve been moved and shifted.
There’s a ropes course up above with a bunch of kids on it, two opposing groups, and two of them are arguing. One kid goes to swing on the other kid and almost falls. The kid he’s arguing with grabs him by the leg, everyone’s shouting, and the kids are chanting “John, John, John.” It’s John. It’s John-117. He pulls the kid up, and then we see the people on the tour: a young Halsey and her husband, Captain Keyes.
So why are they there? It starts to beg the question of how involved Keyes was, how much of an accomplice. Did he actually know what was going on? I hope we get more backstory as the series progresses, because I’d legitimately love to know. Did he know? Did he find out and then get upset?
I tend to want to believe Halsey already had the thought process that she was going to be doing something nefarious. I think she’s been planning the Spartan program, Cortana, the whole bit, for a long, long time, and at that point she set her genius to setting it up. She has the makings of not only a narcissist but a sociopath. Trust me, I know.
The Thing in the Glass Case
We cut back to the present, on a Pelican. Dr. Keyes and the Spartans have all arrived, and the entire place has been converted into an engineering setup. Kai-125 steps up and tells her they’ve been ordered to join Master Chief down on the ground, so unless she needs them for anything else. She doesn’t, and they wish each other good luck. It’s a moment. It’s totally a moment, and I was down for it.
A little earlier you see Dr. Keyes talking to her dad, Captain Keyes, and ultimately they land on yeah, no, Halsey’s not going to let anybody get close to that thing.
Then we start to see the fullness and scope of what’s going on, and you get this shot of Master Chief and Halsey down below. That’s when I realized the thing he saw is actually inside a glass case of some kind. Cortana comes on and tells Chief this thing has the potential to be way more powerful, and do way more damage, than the smaller Madrigal artifact. Halsey steps up, looks over and says, did you catch that? She doesn’t want anybody doing anything dangerous, at least until they get this thing figured out.
It’s hard to trust her, because you want to be like, shut your mouth, you faker. Especially because all the truth’s coming out now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m aware of the backstory, I’m aware of the game. But they’ve made me fall in love with all these characters to the point that I’m like, why are you so dirty, Halsey? Why?
Chief doesn’t even answer. I love that lately he’s begun to get real mad and he’s keeping it simmering just below the surface.
The Weakest Storyline in the Series
Over on Madrigal, Kwan and Soren have to go 200 miles south to get to the transport, and the bike breaks down. So Soren handcuffs Kwan to the bike, tells her he’s going to go find them a ride, and leaves. She’s ridiculously mad. You can’t do this. Oh yes I can. The way he sees it, she owes him. She owes him for a ship, she owes him the deuterium she promised, and she’s going to pay all that debt off. He’s going to make a pirate out of her yet.
And I’m like, all right, man, there’s worse things you could be. If I were her I’d go build up an army, get myself ready, and then come back. But no, she’s hooked on the idea of sitting there and dying a martyr, because reasons and sci-fi, whatever.
This is the weakest storyline currently happening in the series. The big ones for me are Master Chief and his journey, the entire situation with the Covenant and the bigger picture of the UNSC, and Kai’s personal journey. And then you get this nonsense with Kwan and Soren. Boring as can be. We’ll see what happens.
There’s a short interlude back there later and it’s literally not that important, other than you get to see Kwan acting like a real child. She’s hitting the handcuff with bricks and rocks and they’re breaking. Then her impatience pays off and she manages to break the handcuff. Fair enough.
Poor Keyes
Back on Eridanus II, Dr. Keyes comes up and she’s excited, her mother’s excited, and they’re talking. Then she starts asking about the substrate the thing is encased in. She wants to study it. The minute they start talking shop, that’s when Halsey goes, and we’re going to ignore you and not respond to anything you had to say.
You can totally see it, because who does Halsey talk to if she’s not talking to her daughter? She’s talking to her assistant, the creepy guy who tried to kiss the flash clone of Halsey. You know the one. You can see it in her daughter’s face. She’s watching this and she’s like, I hate all of you. Poor Keyes. I really feel bad for her in that.
Kai, the Pellet, and Who’s Allowed to Be Petty
There’s a briefing happening, one of the other Spartans giving everybody the lowdown, and while that’s going on Kai-125 leans over to another Spartan and starts asking him, have you ever thought about this, that and the other. He’s like, what the heck kind of question is that? What’s wrong with you? No, he’s never questioned why he doesn’t feel things or worry about things. Because they don’t. They’re not supposed to care. It’s pretty intense. No, seriously, it is.
Master Chief is looking around and he notices Kai’s hair. There’s some commentary from Cortana and he’s like, you want to do me a favor? Stop talking. Bro. Stop being mean. You’re stuck with her. Stop being rude.
So he calls Kai over. Come with me, take off your helmet, let’s have a conversation. She takes it off and tells him she sees everything different. He asks, did you take out your pellet? After I saw you take out yours. And they go back and forth, and he tells her she’s not fit for duty.
Real quick, I’m on his side right now. Anybody who’s like, but what about him? Because she even does that. Well, if I’m not fit for duty, what about you? No, no, no. Were you not in the room when you guys all tried to touch the little artifacty thingy? That’s right. Nothing. Master Chief sets the thing off, and he needs to understand more, because emotions are connected to memories and it helps him. There’s a reasoning behind all of this, and she’s being foolish. Which, by the way, she’d know and recognize, or wouldn’t care about, if she’d left her pellet in.
She follows the order, though. He doesn’t care, go back to Dr. Keyes’ ship, you stay there until I tell you otherwise, until we get back to Reach so you can get checked out. Because again, he’s the only one who’s allowed to be petty. Shut up. I can live on both sides of this fence.
The Blessed One
On Madrigal, at the old mining town from the very beginning of the series, we get the Blessed One. Makee. First time we’ve seen her in two episodes. She and the Covenant are searching for any connection to the artifact. They think they might find the smaller one, or at the very least find out it’s been moved. And she’s very much, look, we need to keep looking. My enemy’s your enemy. So they keep looking.
Dirty as a Three Dollar Bill
Master Chief has a conversation with Captain Keyes, because he and Keyes go back. Listen, I’m positive I had these memories, and Halsey’s lying to me. And Keyes has to play it off.
Cut to the very next scene: Keyes, Halsey and Admiral Parangosky. Keyes is telling them, we already have a problem, Chief already knows. The admiral says she’s pulling the plug on the whole thing. And Halsey’s like, well, you know, I’d really hate it if the actual head of the UNSC had to deal with all this stuff and a cover-up. I mean, who’s he going to blame?
And the admiral says, are you blackmailing me?
I want to look at the screen and say, the fact that you even have to use that tone of voice. Is she not Dr. Halsey? That’s the only question you’ve got to ask yourself. Halsey’s already proven she’s dirty. Seriously dirty. Dirty as a three dollar bill. Why would you ask that question? You know she’s going to make you regret everything.
I Can See Where It Is
At the work site they begin trying to drill into the substrate, that glass casing. Immediately there’s some kind of alarm, the whole place starts to rock and shake, and this sonic boom of a thing flies out. You see the substrate crack. And from across the galaxy you see the Blessed One, and she’s like, I can see where it is. Her eyes are huge. It’s great. Chef’s kiss.
The alarm is going off, people are covering their ears, everybody’s incapacitated except Chief. He pushes past everybody and runs in, and that’s when the casing breaks, revealing the actual artifact itself. The thing we knew existed.
Then Captain Keyes tells his daughter she’s being taken off this mission. She doesn’t know it’s to protect her. He sees the direction Halsey’s going in, and he knows everybody nearby will be collateral damage, scorched earth. He’s trying to protect his daughter, but he can’t explain that to her in any way that’ll make sense. So he just tells her she’s been reassigned. She can work on the linguistic stuff. And she’s like, when did you become such a ponce? What’s your deal, man? You’re going to take this thing, you’re going to go home, and that’s an order. And she’s like, okay.
Read Me My File
Master Chief is standing there watching Halsey and Captain Keyes talk, festering in his emotions, just getting angrier. He asks Cortana, don’t you have access to all the files? Yeah, she has the sum total of all human knowledge. Cool. Read me my file.
I’m sorry?
My file. I want to know it.
She tells him there’s nothing. What about the other Spartans? There’s nothing about the origins of the Spartan program at all.
All right. And he stalks straight to the artifact. You know what time it is. He’s going to touch the stupid thing. He figures if the little one gave him this kind of memory, the big one’s sure as heck going to shock all kinds of stuff into his head. Cortana shows up and says, you want to do this? It’s a bad idea. What does he do? His stupid jerk self grabs it. You see all the light, the little holograms, the Halo symbols.
And he sees it fully. He sees his origin story, the one we know from the games. Halsey found the kids she wanted, they took them and left a clone, the clone was set to die of a natural something or other, and ultimately they erased these children from existence. That’s why there’s no files on them. They never existed.
He turns, and Halsey’s there. Look, let’s get back, we’re going to figure this out, I promise I’ll tell you everything. His anger has finally reached a furious boil. I’m assuming it’s that he’s not used to dealing with emotions, because I don’t think Master Chief would ever beat a woman or hurt her. I feel like as a soldier he does what soldiers have to do. But he leaps at her. She says, “Cortana,” and Cortana shuts him down. That’s it. Drops him. Eyes go white, he’s on the ground, and it’s not good.
On Madrigal, Soren shows up in what looks like a dune buggy that he appropriated. He’s looking around, he sees where the bike was, and out of the sand pops Kwan. She still has that shock stick she picked up in the encounter with Vinsher’s people two episodes ago, and she shocks him. Boom. Drops him right there, splayed across his motorbike. What are you doing, lady? Seriously.
Straight Out of the Game
Chief wakes up, and he wants to know where Halsey is. Cortana’s not going to tell him that. Right then there’s a proximity alert. Slipstream event. They’re under attack.
This episode kicks into high gear from here forward, and man, it’s a roller coaster. This is straight up out of the game. They’re dropping dudes, starships are falling out of the sky. The ship that was supposed to take everything away is the first thing the Covenant took out when they showed up, so it’s crashing, and it’s horrific.
Everyone’s running to go get the artifact. Kai is still on the ship, and Dr. Keyes tells her, you’ve got to get out of here. Well, I’m supposed to stay here. No, go join the fight. Okay. That’s all she needs. All they need is orders from a superior officer and they go. Chief tells her to get on the ridge and cover them with the Marines.
This is the first time you see both Kai-125 and John-117 in a combat situation since they removed their pellets, and they don’t disappoint. The fight is amazing. You see the little dropships dropping these little guys with the little shield thing, and they’re shooting. This scene gives me all the warm bubblies.
Clearly there was budget. They’d divided it up, because this feels like all the fun and action that was in the very first episode in terms of a big fighting set piece. They’re doing it in a big giant quarry, man. Keyes is literally out there firing away, there are explosions, a whole big fight happening.
Then we get this close-up of Kai. Her mind is overloading. She’s not used to this much input, this much emotional stuff. You see the scan: scanning, human female, concussion. She sees someone hurt, she’s looking around, and her HUD is telling her all kinds of information. She sees this girl getting killed and she’s seeing everything. She’s being shot, you see her Mjolnir armor taking the shots, and ultimately she falls over.
And Chief sees it. Everyone’s like, don’t do it, don’t you dare. He does this Fast and Furious 9 looking leap, he lands, and he’s a one-man wrecking machine. Bam, bam, picking up weapons. Bam, bam, shooting other people. Punching guys, flipping people around, using the shield against other folks. It’s the best kind of chaos possible.
Then the Warthog carrying the artifact gets hit, everyone gets thrown, and the artifact goes flying. You see another smaller ship drop out of the Covenant ship and start heading down. Chief’s booking it, running hard as can be. There’s this energy beam, and this dude shows up. It’s a Brute. You get to see this big Brute, and he looks amazing. And they fight. I’ve got to tell you, I was really just shocked and amazed at how awesome this whole fight scene was.
Ultimately they lose the artifact, and you’re stuck asking what they’re going to do at this point. Just then, before it goes into slipstream, the ship shoots something down. It’s one of those little drop pods that was dropping off the soldiers, and it drops off Makee. Chief walks up with a gun in his hand. She looks up at him and says, “Help me.”
Roll credits. Bro, I’m exhausted. It was a good episode. I think I need a cigarette. I’m totally kidding, I don’t smoke. Still. Wow, man. It’s so intense.
The Verdict
Halo Season 1, Episode 5, “Reckoning,” is a 10 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.
Bro, you know what? I’m going to do it. I was hoping Star Trek would be the first one to get it, but I’m going to do it. It’s a 10 out of 10 for me. I can’t think of a single thing, other than maybe the Kwan stuff, that I could do without. Otherwise I loved every moment of this. It was riveting, it was engaging, it was exciting. 10 out of 10. Let’s go. I’m ready. I want to see next week.
Thank you guys again for keeping me on this. And I’ve got to tell you about Mama Know-It-All. My mother started watching the show because I do these reviews. Last week, before I’d even put my review out, she texts me: I think Halsey’s dirty. I think Halsey totally kidnapped him and did this thing. And I’m like, right on.
So yeah, man. It’s getting good. Never forget, everyone, especially my mom, loves a know-it-all.
What did you think of this one, and how’s the series going for you? I’d love to hear it. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
