Game On
In HALO Season 2 Episode 4, “Reach,” Vannak (Bentley Kalu) climbs to a high balcony to feed some of his feathered friends. The birds become agitated and fly off just as explosions detonate in the distance.
In the city center, John (Pablo Schreiber) and Perez (Cristina Rodlo) are running. Perez branches off to go home. John continues on but is knocked off his feet when Perez’s building explodes. He runs back to find Perez and help her up. He physically restrains her from running into the building, telling her they’re gone.
HALO Season 2. Photo Credit: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount+
The devastation is tragic — buildings burning and bodies strewn. Beyond the housing complexes, the power starts to go out in surrounding buildings.
Reunited
In the prison cell holosuite, Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) watches the liquid in a cup tremble and comments, “Don’t try to tell me you didn’t feel that one.”
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He and Halsey (Natascha McElhone) speculate on what’s causing the disturbance. He feels that the war is only in the Outer Colonies. Halsey responds, “That’s the thing about war. It never stays where you put it.”
HALO Season 2. Photo Credit: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount+.
Halsey tries to make small talk. Soren comments that he’s imagined what he’d do and say if he was ever in the same room with her again.
Another disruption hits, and the holosuite disappears. Soren sees the door and leaves despite Halsey’s warning there may still be barriers. After a moment, she follows him out.
Beyond Training
Perez tries to keep up with John, but she wants to warn the people in the area. John says there’s no time. She stops and has an emotional breakdown.
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John encourages her to stick to her training and stay on mission. She screams at him that those casualties weren’t Marines, they were her friends and family, and she’s not trained to deal with that.
He tells her he needs to get back to FLEETCOM and join up with the defensive forces. He tells her she doesn’t have to come and leaves. She takes a deep breath and follows.
They move through a crowded market space. Perez tries to warn people as they pass, but it only serves to confuse the people she talks to. She gets frustrated, and John reminds her their objective is to get back to FLEETCOM.
Direct Engagement
Suddenly, there are raised voices and bodies start flying through the air. John rushes in and tackles a cloaked Sangheili Elite warrior. A fight ensues and with Perez’s help, John dispatches the Sangheili.
Rushing back into the market, they see other cloaked Sangheili leaping to higher levels. They move to intercept.
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Inside FLEETCOM, Soren looks for a way out. Halsey tells him she knows the way. Reluctantly, he follows her.
Perez and John run into a shop and shut the door. John grabs a long-handled ax and they wait for the Sangheili to move away. John gives the all-clear and tells Perez she can relax. She can’t believe how relaxed he seems.
He explains that as a kid he could call a coin flip with unerring accuracy. He tells her that going into battle is like that. He always knows he’ll lose someone but that it won’t be him who dies.
A shot goes off nearby, the bullet hitting the wall near John. He and Perez look over to find the shopkeeper of the space, Jade (Olwen May). She deals in Earth antiquities and cautions John to be careful with the ax as it also came from Earth. She sets him to work putting things in their place while Perez tries to tell her she needs to evacuate because the city is under attack.
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Jade tells her the history of some of her items, which extends back to 20th-century Earth. She won’t leave because there’ll be no one to take care of these things.
HALO Season 2. Photo Credit: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount+
Halsey’s Truth
As they move through the ONI incarceration cells, Halsey tries to get Soren to talk about Kessler. He refuses. She reminisces about how he always wanted to be a Spartan and never needed to be recruited. She comments that it was hard to let him go after the augmentation issues. He denies she let him go and claims he escaped.
She thinks for a second and accepts it’s as good a story as any.
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They enter a room strewn with dead UNSC guards. She takes a sidearm off one and gives it to Soren, asking him to try not to shoot her with it. He makes no promises and grabs a grenade off another guard’s body.
Where He Needs To Be
John and Perez find a UNSC barricade. Looking up, they see Condors launching, evacuating some FLEETCOM personnel.
John finds Riz (Natasha Culzac), making a stand with a group of Marines. Nearby, Louis (Martin Jones III) – still blind – is armed and firing at the enemy. John tells Riz they’re going through the enemy forces to get to FLEETCOM. Riz barks out orders to the Marines. Louis rushes over, intent on going with them. Danilo (Christian Ochoa Lavernia) joins him and offers to be his eyes.
With Perez and Riz laying down suppressing fire and Louis firing the occasional RPG, they make it into a nearby building.
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In the fight through the building, Danilo is killed. Riz sees his body and stays for a moment, looking sad. More Sangheili are coming so she throws a grenade in their direction and jumps out a window to escape the explosion.
Louis helps her up and urges her to move. As they run, he asks where Danilo is. Riz doesn’t answer. He demands an answer, and she tells him Danilo won’t be coming. He processes this for a moment. Suddenly, they’re under attack again.
John’s calling for Riz to hurry. Louis unclips his ammo and weapons and tells her to go. She wants him to come with her, but he tells her, “I’m right where I need to be.”
He primes an explosive in his clip and walks towards the advancing forces. Riz is knocked back by the explosion.
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Once she’s standing, John urges her to go. She, Perez, and John head for FLEETCOM.
Cortana’s Warning
In the ONI cells, Halsey leads Soren into Cortana’s (Christina Bennington/Jen Taylor) chamber. The keystone is gone. Halsey activates Cortana, who greets her by name and then advises that she run. Behind Cortana’s projection, Makee (Charlie Murphy) picks up the cartridge, deactivating Cortana. She makes eye contact with Halsey then turns and leaves. A Sangheili Elite warrior comes in as she leaves.
Soren fires on the warrior and drops a grenade as they run out the door. The blast throws him and Halsey up against a wall with great force.
Where Is Kai?
John, Perez, and Riz arrive at FLEETCOM. They observe the wounded all around them. Riz is in a state of shock and John has to call her name several times before she acknowledges his orders to get suited up.
Perez stops John before he leaves, asking if he’s just going to fight without saying anything. He looks at her without saying anything. She thanks him and he leaves. He stops, turns, and throws her a coin for luck.
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Vannak comes over and gives them a quick brief. Riz asks where Kai is and he asks her the same thing. He tells John that all the armor is gone along with all the high-ranking command personnel.
John asks who is in charge and Vannak points out Keyes (Danny Sapani). John goes to talk to him, ordering Vannak to find them more kits.
HALO Season 2. Photo Credit: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount+.
Keyes admits that John was right and tells him about seeing Cobalt Team’s bodies brought back from Visegrad. He fills John in on the threat they’re facing and the fact the higher-ups have determined that Reach is unsavable.
Keyes shares the plan to take out as many Covenant forces as possible on the bridge. John understands that it’s like the Battle of Thermopylae, a final stand.
New Narratives
Halsey sits up, holding her head and complaining about her ears. Soren helps her up but won’t let go of her hand until she explains what she meant about letting him go. She tells him that she needed John to be self-sufficient and he would never be that way when Soren was around. She facilitated Soren’s escape so John could become the Silver Team leader she needed him to be.
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In the FLEETCOM triage infirmary, Perez watches the city being bombed until a medic calls her to help.
Keyes checks in on John, and John asks for orders. Keyes tells him to hold his hat while he makes a speech to the troops. Keyes warns them that the fight will be tough, no one is expected to survive but every minute they can hold off the enemy is another minute they can evacuate innocents.
As the UNSC forces disperse to engage the Covenant, Keyes readies to join the fight but John tells him to stay with the civilian evacuation because they can’t afford to lose his leadership and be left with the likes of Ackerson (Joseph Morgan).
John joins the forces watching the bridge, weapons ready.
Awkward
Halsey finds Keyes in the FLEETCOM center. Soren steps into frame as well, asking how to get off the planet. Keyes tells Halsey there’s a civilian transport leaving from the upper level. Soren points out he’s a civilian. Keyes corrects him, calling him a pirate. Soren counters with “small business owner.” All three get in an elevator.
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The bridge troops are still waiting. John orders a flare to light up the bridge and the explosion reveals hundreds of Covenant troops already nearly over the bridge. The UNSC forces open fire.
In the elevator, Soren stands awkwardly between Keyes and Halsey as they converse. Halsey tells Keyes she saw Makee take Cortana.
As they leave the elevator, Keyes states that Makee is dead. Halsey reaffirms she saw Makee.
Sacrifice
Perez is helping load the transport on the hangar platform. Soren hears something and heads to the far end of the platform, Halsey by his side. He arms himself and walks ahead of Halsey, who stops. Grappling lines appear over the side of the platform and Covenant forces jump up and attack.
On the bridge, while the forces are holding back the enemy, a distress call from the hanger is heard. The Marines tell Silver Team to go, they’ll continue to hold the bridge.
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John, Vannak, and Riz head to the hangar.
While Soren assists the Marines on the platform with fighting the Covenant, Perez lets Keyes know that the civilians are all on board. When Keyes tries to initialize the launch sequence, a warning that the fuel lines are connected denies the ignition.
Keyes leaves, telling Perez that he’ll be back and asking if she can fly the ship.
Keyes rushes onto the platform to disconnect the fuel lines and finds himself surrounded by Covenant forces. He pushes the button to disconnect the fuel line and the air around him begins to fill with fuel fumes.
Halsey wants to help him but Soren sees what he’s doing and carries Halsey off the platform, shutting the hanger doors.
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Keyes orders Perez to hit the ignition. She doesn’t want to, but he orders her to do it. Watching the enemy, he raises his pipe to his mouth and asks if they have a light.
“Not Yet”
John, Riz, and Vannak arrive and see Halsey just as the transport’s ignition ignites the fuel fumes on the platform, blowing the hanger doors open and knocking everyone to the ground.
Perez launches the transport, flying through the flames on the platform.
Soren and Halsey walk to the hanger doors to survey the damage. Halsey appears visibly shaken and upset.
Another explosion from the interior takes everyone by surprise. More Covenant forces pour in, led by Sangheili Elite warriors.
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John engages with the head Elite warrior. When his UNSC weapon is destroyed, he picks up a Sangheili weapon and is about to fight the head warrior but is shot by a lesser Sangheili. The head Sangheili shows their displeasure by decapitating their subordinate.
John is stunned and unable to stand. The head Sangheili is about to finish him off when Makee orders them to stop, saying, “Not yet.”
Vannak
Vannak seizes a Covenant Needler and shoots the head Sangheili with crystal shards. The head Sangheili takes a shard and impales Vannak, killing him when it combusts.
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John screams at Vannak’s demise, making an effort to crawl to his body. Makee and the head Sangheili leave. Soren and Riz fire at them as they bring John back to cover. Halsey watches from behind a wall outcropping.
Vannak lies, spread eagle on his back, eyes open. Through a hole in the ceiling, a large bird can be seen, circling against a cloudy sky.
HALO streams on Thursdays exclusively on Paramount+.
