Halo Ep 9 “Transcendence” Review

The last episode of the first season. A lot certainly has happened in the last episode. Makee was looking to side with Humanity over the Covenant, but the rest of the UNSC got in the way. She grabbed the artifact, the energy coursing through her fried the person grabbing her. She and John appeared together briefly on the Halo Ring where she said goodbye to him. She's since vanished having used the Forerunner Artifact the UNSC has/had. Halsey has had her Spartans ambush John-117 and are working to bring him in. The only reason the Spartans haven't succeed yet was Kia coming in and helping John fight them (2 Armored Spartans vs 1 Armored Spartan and 1 Unarmored Spartan). John and Cortana are on slightly better terms, but not much. The base on Reach is presently in a communication blackout thanks to Cortana, which could be a problem. Let's see where all this goes.

 

John is just barely conscious from the fight and the blast from the Artifact. The Reach Base is in terrible condition as well. Everyone is floored from the blast at this point. John checks on Kai, who tells him she's okay and to go. John heads for the Artifact. Miranda comes in, explain that Makee took the artifact and is leaving the base. John is trying to find Makee when he has to deal with a situation with Vannak holding Kai hostage. Her helmet is off and he's got a pistol aimed right at her head. John confronts both Riz and Vannak with the truth of the Spartan program, that they were kidnapped from their families, tortured, and experimented on. As things escalate with Vannak, Captain Keyes comes forward, confirming what John-117 is saying: it's true. He explains his part in the plan, what he did to facilitate it. Vannak slows lowers his gun, telling John where to find the Covenant Ship. Dr Halsey hasn't left yet and things are starting to look dire for her. She does manage to take off, but Kai, furious, catches up with her. Adun distracts her with a hammer blow to the head, and she throws him into the lighting above, killing him. Halsey makes a break for the escape pod. She gets away, but Kai doesn't seem as lucky, being on board the ship when it crashes. But she did manage a last second bail out and climbs out of the flames.

 

Cortana gets a few scenes here and there. Easily the biggest though is on the ship where she explains what the plan was for her initially. She tells John that she was going to get control of his body, eliminating him. But she explains that her capacity to learn is what swayed her to keep John as is. They do joke about her taking over, but it's just that, a joke. In the end, he puts the most trust he can into her that he can. Cortana respects this and wants to do the best she can by John.

 

Captain Keyes does talk to John about what he did. John simply puts that there will be reckoning, but it won't be today. This is not something. When Dr Halsey is brought in, he is with Miranda, who he tries to talk to, but she just walks away. This has brought about the collapse of their relationship. Definitely something he's going to need to work with in the next season (whenever that is). He knows there is going to be a reckoning and there is a price to pay.

 

The Silver Squad gears up and heads for the star system that Makee mentioned, the Covenant Holy Place. With Cortana's help, he figures out that the star system has an artificial obscuring effect. It would take actually being there to see anything. John convinces Paragonsky to let him and Silver Squad go to the planet. The Silver Squad getting through to the Covenant Space is something else. Very much had notes of 2001: Space Odyssey or Contact when they were getting through the protective well around the system. When they drop onto the planet, they literally jump from just within the atmosphere to and land on their target. The squad then stealthily (a strange thing for any part of Halo) works their way to the temple.

 

The assault on the Covenant Planet goes well, to a degree. After that though, there are plenty of complications. The unification of the two artifacts affects both John and Makee, giving Makee pause and knocking John senseless. Silver Squad needs to then fight their way on through the Covenant forces. John gets a rematch against one the Covenant heavies, which doesn't go terribly well. Makee activates the completed Keystone in what looks like an attempt to save John. The blast launches the Covenant Forces, sending them flying over the edge of the plateau they are on. Ultimately, this comes to be a very cinematic fight with amazing angles and well-blended CGI. Just a blast to watch and got a watch or two as I wrote this section.

 

This part also had a very big fight scene. During the fight and the reveal of the Halo ring, the music was straight almost one to one for the Halo them and the main combat theme of Halo. The music has been solid overall, but mostly been standing on its own. It's only been in the big moments, appropriately, that the series calls to the games. This is something that I enjoyed a lot. It helped the whole thing just stand on its own.

 

Dr. Halsey has plenty to deal with. Her escape pod got hit with an EMP pulse and she's been taken into custody. Being brought in, she keeps her composure. She doesn't get a lot of time to clean up. Things are soundly against her, with her receiving the verdict of “Article 72.” The thing is, this Halsey is revealed to be a Flash Clone. Miranda tries to get her mother's location, but can't get it before the clone dies. That little time they were tracking the pod, Halsey managed a switch. She remains in play for whatever is coming up. We see her leaving for the Space Tether at the end of the episode. Either with Adun or a Flash Clone of him. Hard to tell in that regard. She does see that humanity needs to seize control of its own path. She thinks that the Halo is the key to this. Humanity is its best friend and worst enemy all at once.

 

Makee does make it back to Covenant space with the Keystone Artifacts. She bring them to the High Council who do praise her for bringing the artifacts. One is a bit off that she hasn't brought the Demon's Head. But, they know there is still a place for her on the Great Journey. While she is preparing for a ceremony, we see two of the Elders talking about her pending death, that she will burn with the rest of humanity. There were a surprise with what happens to her, but I'll avoid talking about that because of it being a big spoiler.

 

Let's talk about the differences between the core timeline and silver timeline now. Cortana was something very different. She was an aged Artificial Intelligence close to deletion. Not a freshly minted AI made from Dr Halsey (but she still was made from Dr Halsey's memories, just younger). Makee simply didn't exist. While the original canon had Humans and Covenant working together now and again, it was usually one was forcing the other into something. There was no human among the actual forces. But there was one for a short time: Dr Catherine Halsey. Now, Dr Halsey, was radically different as well. Both were brilliant scientist, a connection to John-117 (Master Chief) and mothers with an estranged daughter. That's about where the similarities end. During the game timeline Mirdanda Keyes was killing during a covenant assault on Trevelyan. Halsey would mourn the death of her only child, her daughter, only in solitude, and did much the same for her husband. She also dealt with a lot more guilt about the SPARTAN-II project which yielded John-117, Master Chief.

More than anything, this whole part is meant to reinforce that the Silver Timeline and the Main Timeline are different. Compare all you want, like I did, it is better to just look at the show on its own.

 

Getting through to the end of this season has been good. The show had a bit of a slow start. It's not unusual for a series to take a few episodes to get things going, nor is it uncommon for it to not hit its stride the first season. This one got going fairly well in its first few, but don't quite seem to have its stride just yet. This really is what it should be, a prelude to the large conflict that is coming on the Halo ring. The fighting and the drama are going to be stepping up for sure. There is the bigger question of the fate of Reach. It's survived to this point, but now everyone's waiting on the hammer to hall on it, literally. We've got the fate of Master Chief, John-117 to sort as well. What is Cortana going to do with John's body. What is going to happen with Kai and her independence and the rest of Silver Squad as well? So many good questions with answers that I look forward to.


Comments (0)

New comments are currently disabled.


Subscribe to me on YouTubeFollow us on Twitter!
Join our Steam group!