Halo S2 E2: Sword

[LITTLE LEVEL]

                                                                                                    Warning, this post contains spoilers for the Halo TV show

S2 E2: Sword

Key Characters: James Ackerson, Master Chief, Kai, Vannak, Riz, Captain Keys, the Arbiter, Makee, Louis, and Cobalt team

Key Locations: The Rubble and Reach

Important Media: 

[LITTLE LEVEL]

Recap:

 

Halsey:

Doctor Catherine Halsey is sat at a table in what appears to be a comfortable living room where she is visited by a young girl who brings her “gifts” and they begin to play a board game. As Halsey questions the young attendant about the man behind all this, the young girl’s nose begins to bleed and she seemingly loses consciousness.

 

Recovery:

If you remember last season in the final battle Riz was injured by her shoulder, and in the start of the episode she is seen struggling with her injury. Kai her teammate notices this but Riz insists she needs to keep training. It then cuts to Riz training with her instructor Lois (who may I add is blind....) who can tell Riz is struggling. Louis tells her that she won’t be able to serve forever and that there are other ways to live, encouraging her to think about life beyond being a Spartan, which she flippantly says is a life that doesn’t matter—something she immediately regrets saying, as Louis is a “washout” from the Spartan program.

Later we see the spartans training on a planet. The point of the exercise is to ring the bell on the top of the mountain without getting shot by the fake bullets. Riz, obviously struggling gets shot and falls off the cliff. The Chief orders them to go again, but when Kai interrupts to point out Riz’s condition—concerned that she is being pushed too far—Riz insists that she is fine. Though Riz is still struggling. Despite Master Chief holding back and allowing Riz to climb the mountain, she loses her grip and falls down again. The Chief orders her to get back up, insisting that this is necessary because the Covenant are training for something, before ordering them to go again.

Afterwards Riz is waiting with her trainer Lois to go to a physical therapist to help with her arm. During the wait Lois tells Riz his story. He started out as a spartan, but one day he slowly started losing his vision. Over time he was losing more and more of his sight until he could only see a little well everything else around him was black. He kept this quiet because he didn't want to be kicked out of the spartan program but eventually he fully lost his sight.Before losing his sight altogether—the last thing he remembers seeing being how proud and beautiful he saw his fellow Spartans to be.

ONI runs the show:

The Master Chief looks at the Spartan deployment roster and sees that Silver Team are being held on standby, confiding to Kai that Ackerson believes something is wrong with him and revealing that he saw Makee on Sanctuary. Kai denies the possibility of this, as she shot Makee herself on Raas Kkhotskha. Though something seems off because Cobalt teams status is set to standby despite recently being deployed. The Chief, wanting to know what is wrong go meets with Ackerson. Ackerson mockingly says that as far as he knows Spartans never die, prompting the Chief to demand that he clear Silver Team for action or he will find somebody else who will, but Ackerson makes it clear that the Office of Naval Intelligence is running the show—and that he represents ONI.  

Taking a more direct tact, Ackerson says that the Chief’s account of events on Sanctuary are dubious and could not be corroborated by Corporal Perez, upon the Chief’s insistence that he speak with her, only to be told that she has no recollection of the events that transpired. The Chief says that she must be lying, to which Ackerson asks the Chief to put himself in his position. Given the Chief’s recent behavior, would he trust him? The Chief concludes that Ackerson can’t win this war against the Covenant without Silver Team, which Ackerson confirms, pointedly saying that he—and everybody else—needs the Master Chief. But at the end of the day, John is just “a guy in the suit.”

Perez:

Dr. Halsey plays a board game with her young attendant, who has seemingly recovered, but as Halsey asks once more who the man that sent her was, the girl’s nose begins bleeding again. Halsey tells the girl that she is dying and insists on her saying the man’s name, but the girl dies before she can say anything. Meanwhile, Chief goes and visits Perez at her families house and is invited in to eat dinner. Perez relates her story to him about what she remembers: she heard something when the comms went down and could feel that something was with them, but she didn’t see anything—and then all of her fellow Marines were killed. She asks the Chief to explain why she wasn’t killed as well, explaining that this was why she didn’t tell Ackerson, because she was given a medal and doesn’t know what it’s for beyond simply surviving.

The Chief tells Perez that what she heard was a message from the Covenant and that it will happen again, and then confides that she will think about her squad every day, see their faces when she least expects, and that it doesn’t get better—only further away. Back with Halsey, Ackerson meets with her in person as the body of her attendant—a flash cloned girl—is taken away. Halsey asks where Cortana and the Master Chief are, but Ackerson introduces her to a new flash cloned girl named Julia who will serve as Halsey’s next attendant. Departing the room, it becomes clear that Halsey is being held inside a simulated prison cell.

On the run:

Kwan, is seen in the bustling streets of the rubble and seems to be trying to blend into the crowd. Sneakily she steals a fruit from a stand and then goes off into a hidden corner. On her ear seems to be a tracking device used on indentured servants. Slowly she tries tearing it out of her ear but suddenly two people start chasing her. Running into a service duct, Kwan uses the environment to her advantage to take both of them out. Laera wants to take Soren’s ship to find him, but the crew that abandoned him tell her that it needs repairs that will take at least a couple of days. Laera insists that Soren is alive and reprimands them for not saving him themselves, as he would never have left them behind. Kwan then returns to her cave and tells Kessler she is going to leave. 

Ackersons Problem:

Ackerson enters a room where the smaller piece of the artifact from season one, which remains inert when he touches it. Cortona (who has a new look) appears and Ackerson asks if she has made any progress with the problem that he gave her to solve, to which Cortana says that there is a ninety-seven percent probability based on the data he has given her. Asking if there are any viable strategies that she would recommend to prevent this outcome, Cortana states that all simulations return the same result regardless of any action taken, leading Ackerson to conclude that there is nothing to be done. As Ackerson departs, he says that he will come back, but Cortana notes that—according to the simulations—he won’t be able to.

The cover-up:

Master Chief goes and tries to figure out where Cobalt was sent but is told that Cobalt never even went on one and he grows suspicious. Secretly sneaking onto a computer, the Chief Cross-checks missions concerning communications relays. Two results for active missions are returned: one on Meridian, and another located in the Epsilon Eridani system—here on Reach itself. The Chief surmises that Cobalt Team never actually left the planet. Suspicious, the Chief steals a Condor and takes Silver team on a "training mission." When they arrive the Chief tells them they are actually going to Visegrad Relay, where Cobalt Team was sent, and they’re going to get them back. Kai asks if they’re cleared for combat, to which the Chief lies and confirms that they are. When Kai inquires as to the specific nature of their mission, the Chief simply responds: “The Covenant is on Reach.”

At Sword Base on Reach, a group of Marines move through a darkened corridor, but they are all cut down by a Sangheili warrior. Makee then appears, and asks the Sangheili to open the door, finding the other part of the keystone artifact within.