Halsey
Catherine Halsey (Natascha McElhone) stands in a sunlit room, looking thoughtful. A girl, Julia (Bronte Carmichael), brings in a tea service with Halsey’s favorite cookies and tea. Julia points out the blooming pomegranate tree at one side of the room. She brings out a backgammon set — noting in a disappointed tone that there’s already one on the table — and asks Halsey to teach her how to play.
Halsey agrees but asks that Julia answer some questions for her. She hesitates but tells her there’s another room outside hers and a hallway with many doors. A man has told her not to look in the other doors. He is the same person who sends Halsey her gifts. As Halsey asks her more about the man, Julia develops a nosebleed and starts to feel unwell. Halsey persists, and Julia collapses on the table, either dead or unconscious. Halsey looks frustrated but not surprised.
HALO Season 2. Photo Credit: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount+.
Kai (Kate Kennedy) sees Riz (Natasha Culzac) groaning as she preps for training in the locker room. She mentions that Riz could ask for more time to heal, but Riz denies there’s anything wrong with her. When she suggests putting the pellet back in to help with the pain, Riz says they’ll need to put a bullet in her first. Riz walks away.
RELATED: Check out our recap of Halo Season 2 Episode 1, “Sanctuary”
A Ghost
Kai finds John (Pablo Schreiber) staring at the assignments board. John tells her that Ackerson thinks there’s something wrong with him. He shares that he saw Makee (Charlie Murphy) on Sanctuary. Kai reminds him that she shot Makee, and Makee is dead. He agrees.
The board updater comes by and sets Cobalt Team from deployed to standby status. John and Kai question him as to why he’s made the change. He has no answers; he’s only following orders. Vannak (Bentley Kalu) joins them. John wants to know who gave the orders. He tells the updater to change the statuses back and leaves.
Kwan (Yerin Ha) walks through the marketplace wearing a scarf around her head and face as a disguise. People are being checked with tag scanners. Kwan steals a tool from a stall. She walks by Oswyn (Ákos Inotay), who is holding a scanner, and sets off an alert. He tells the other Spiff henchmen they’ve “got one.”
RELATED: TV Review: Halo Season 2
Running Away
Kwan makes her way to a quiet alley and removes her scarf so she can use the tool to cut off her tag. It doesn’t work, and she stops trying when she notices a man walking towards her. Oswyn tells her the tag marks her as indentured, belonging to him. She decides to run.
A chase ensues through the marketplace, with Kwan evading and fighting off the henchmen. She escapes down a recycling chute and desperately tears the tag out of her ear. Dropping it on the floor, she takes off as her pursuers arrive.
Oswyn calls out to her to be smart. He reminds her that Ruby Ann (Franc Ashman) bought Soren’s (Bokeem Woodbine) crew, and Soren’s not returning. The machinery makes a strange noise, and the goon looks out the station window to see his backup henchman floating out into space, one arm floating free, severed from his body.
RELATED: GGA’s 8 Until Dawn Character Survivor Predictions for the Film
Kwan makes a break for it, but Oswyn gets a hold of her and throws her to the ground. They fight on the ground, and Kwan manages to grab her tag and jam it into Oswyn’s temple, killing him.
HALO Season 2. Photo Credit: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount+.
Riz
Riz is training by swinging a sledgehammer. Her trainer, Louis (Marvin Jones III), tells her to stop because he can tell she’s in pain even though he’s blind. He offers to help. She doesn’t want it where people can see, but he threatens to pull her off duty rotation altogether.
He checks out her range of motion and where her injury is. He suggests she choose a life that doesn’t involve being a Spartan. She says that would be a life that doesn’t matter, forgetting that Louis used to be a Spartan. She apologizes. He’s cool with it. She asks how he learned to live without being a Spartan. He says she wouldn’t understand. She looks sad.
John asks Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) where Cobalt Team is. Ackerson offers him a drink and tries to make small talk. John tells him to clear Silver Team, or he’ll go over his head. Ackerson states that he and the ONI are running the show now, so John’s threat is toothless.
RELATED: February’s Most Anticipated Video Games
Ackerson tells him his account of events on Sanctuary cannot be corroborated because Perez (Cristina Rodlo) has no memory of what he claims happened. John is shocked. He says Perez must be lying.
Ackerson points out that he cannot trust Silver Team based on this information. John points out he can’t win the war without the Spartans and Master Chief. Ackerson agrees but states that at the end of the day, Master Chief is just a man in a suit.
Finding Soren
Kessler (Tylan Bailey) brings food to Kwan in the cave, asking her what’s wrong. Meanwhile, Laera (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) goes to the shipyard to see Soren’s crew. Antares (Ivanno Jeremiah) says the repairs are taking longer than he thought. Laera is upset by the delays. He claims they all want to find Soren, but Laera suspects they’re lying.
In the cave, Kessler asks about Kwan’s ear. She deflects and tells him she needs to leave. He guesses that bad people are looking for her. He insists that when his dad returns, they’ll be protected. Kwan tells him Soren is not coming back. Kessler is sad to hear this and puts his visor down. He runs away. Kwan sits down and looks at the marks on the cave wall again.
RELATED: 6 Horror Queens From the Resident Evil Video Game Franchise
The Covenant Threat
Riz runs through a canyon training ground. Master Chief spots her and takes her down. Vannak and Kai join them. Master Chief sends Riz up again for another round. Kai wants him to ease up, but he refuses.
HALO Season 2. Photo Credit: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount+.
Riz makes a hard leap from cliff face to cliff face and loses her grip, falling onto hard rocks at the bottom of a waterfall. Master Chief orders her to get up. She admits she can’t. Kai asks why they’re training so hard. Master Chief says it’s because the Covenant is training, and they must be ready.
He believes he can prove the Covenant threat if he finds Cobalt.
In the sunlit room, Halsey explains that she’s won the backgammon game against Julia. She advises that sometimes, taking a small loss is better than trying to win.
Halsey asks about the man. Julia asks how she knows about him. Her nose begins to bleed. As Halsey asks what the man’s name is, Julia dies. Again. Halsey sits back in the chair and asks, “What’s the point in this?” to the room at large.
Riz and Louis sit in a waiting room. Louis tells her to relax, that the guy they’re waiting to see is the only one who can help her. Danilo (Christian Ochoa Lavernia) comes out and Louis introduces Riz as a friend. Danilo welcomes her.
Help John
As John heads out for the evening, Ackerson asks Kai to help him help John. He asks her if she feels John could be a threat to his team or himself. She denies this. She admits she thinks John is carrying a lot but is adamant that he is mentally solid, the best they’ve got. Ackerson dismisses her but reminds her that his door is always open.
RELATED: GGA’s Top Video Games of 2023
John knocks on Perez’s door and confronts her about lying about Sanctuary. She tries to close the door on him. Her grandmother comes to the door, wondering what’s keeping Perez. She sees John, and when she learns he was with Perez on Sanctuary, she invites him to dinner.
Riz sits on Danilo’s table. He lays a hand on her back. When she asks what it is she feels, he tells her it is her pain and advises her to let it go and take back her life as her own. She cries a single tear.
Family Dinner
John sits at Perez’s family table. Her cousins are wondering about their relationship. They finally figure out he’s a Spartan, which is hugely exciting. They want to tell their friends, but Perez shuts that down. The family toasts Perez for her bravery on Sanctuary. Perez leaves the table, upset.
HALO Season 2. Photo credit: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount+.
John sits with Perez later, and she tells him what she remembers. The comms went down around the relay for no discernible reason. She says she heard something in the interference of the bands. Perez knew they weren’t alone; now, all her fellow Marines are gone. She can’t understand why she wasn’t killed with them. That’s why she didn’t tell Ackerson.
RELATED: 10 More Badass Female Characters We Love in World of Warcraft
John warns her that she’ll continue to remember her friends and the attackers. She’ll see their faces when she least expects it. “It doesn’t get better,” he tells her. “Just gets further away.”
Ackerson and Halsey
In the sunlit room, Julia’s body is covered and rolled away. Halsey wonders why the Julia clones always describe a nice man, but the only man there is Ackerson.
Halsey tells him the story of the pomegranate tree her father grew on Endymion when she was a child. She never told anyone that story, so the only way the tree in that room could be there is if Ackerson learned about it from Cortana (Jen Taylor).
Halsey grabs Ackerson’s arm and demands to know where Cortana and John are. Instead, Ackerson introduces her to her attendant, Julia. Julia points out that the tree is on fire. Ackerson leaves the room, which is a hologram, and re-enters Fleetcom HQ’s prison cells. Meanwhile, John enters the mission HQ.
Ackerson enters a room where the artifact is kept. Then, John directs the computer to show Cobalt Team’s mission. The computer states there are no missions associated with that call sign. John asks for all Spartan flight plans.
RELATED: Geek Girl Authority Crush of the Week: For All Mankind‘s Danielle Poole
Ackerson reaches out to touch the artifact. He quickly removes his hand when he realizes Cortana has been activated. They greet each other. Ackerson asks how she’s doing with the problem he’s given her. She explains she could provide a better analysis if she had access to outside systems. He says that isn’t possible. She responds that with the data he’s given her, her simulations predict a 97 percent probability with no different outcomes no matter what action is taken.
HALO Season 2. Photo Credit: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount+
Visegrad Relay
He turns to leave, saying he’ll try to visit soon. She reminds him that he can’t, according to her simulations. He concedes that it’s just something people say. Using a crosscheck with communication relays, John figures out Cobalt was sent to Epsilon Eridane system.
Silver Team leaves for training, but John changes course. He informs the team they will check on Visegrad Relay, where Cobalt was sent.
When Kai asks if they’re cleared for combat, John lies and says they are. She asks what the mission is. He responds, “The Covenant’s on Reach.”
RELATED: GGA’s 8 Favorite Groundhog Day-Themed TV Episodes
On Reach, at Sword Base, a Marine unit is set up in a tunnel. The first squad advances into the darkness and engages with an enemy. The commander sends a second squad in, and they are dispatched by a Sangheili warrior. The warrior picks up the commander. Makee orders it to stop. It snaps the commander’s neck and tells her there is no honor in this fight.
She orders him to open the door politely. Inside is another keystone.
Halo streams Thursdays exclusively on Paramount+.
6 Juicy STAR TREK Tidbits From Patrick Stewart’s MAKING IT SO
