Halo Episode 4 Review: Master Chief Returns Home John 117 It Is About Taking A Dip In His Dark Past
Cast: Pablo Schreiber, Jen Taylor, Shabana Azmi
Director: Steven Kane, Kyle Killen
Streaming Platform: Voot and Paramount+
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Halo Episode 4 Review: With all the pieces of Halo lined up, it was time to give the plot a new lease of life and Paramount+ knew very well how to lead it. In this fourth episode we can see the Master Chief rediscovering the secrets of his past on Eridanus II, the planet where he lived during his childhood. Between memories and a beautiful visual reconstruction created by Cortana, he tries to map where the second part of the artifact that will change the course of the war is.
The Halo series begins to raise doubts and perplexities. Aware of the fact that Halo will have a second season, the slow development of the plot and the absence of action begin to give uncertainty about the continuation of the adventure. Master Chief, now convinced not to wear a helmet and detach himself from everything that the videogame series has been able to teach us, is at the center of a much more introspective operation than we thought and expected. In the fourth episode, after having welcomed the arrival of Cortana. The development of the events anticipated in the previous weeks continues.
Halo Episode 4 Review: The Story
Paramount’s work continues in discovering what is effectively becoming a Master Chief origin story. John 117 is ready to go home after deciding, with Cortana’s support, to go and find out more not only about the weapon recovered on Madrigal, but also about the effect he had on him when he came into contact. We know, from the lore of Halo, that the protagonist’s past is hidden, in a very deep way, right on Eridanus II, the planet where John is preparing to return with Dr. Halsey. In building everything about his past about him, the production begins to show more insistently even the juvenile version of him, when he was still a child and found himself joining the Spartan program.
John’s actions, in the present, are starting, however, to also affect all the soldiers around him and who have decided to be loyal to him, or at least try to marry his choice of independence. Even Kai, in the first minutes of the fourth episode, decides to extract the bullet from his marrow who controls feelings: a sign that the Master Chief is not the only one who wants to regain his humanity. This is what the show has decided to talk about now: claiming what belongs to the man behind the armor.
The longer scenes focused on Kwan Ha, returning to Madrigal to rally the revolutionaries once more. What she finds there is something totally different from what she expected, and now she will have to deal with the consequences of having returned home. Meanwhile, inside the UNSC military base, Spartan Kai 125 replicates the experiment it saw Master Chief do and removes his emotion-suppressing chip. Let’s just say that, from there, things get much more interesting.
One of the most discussed points during this episode of Halo is the revolution. And that’s not just true of Madrigal, where Kwan Ha tries to continue what her father had started. The production managed to work this out in a more modest way, between the lines of the action we saw on screen. The word “revolution” means “to transform deeply” according to the Aurélio Dictionary. And that’s what they’ve been working on as we’ve been watching the show. Kwan Ha herself, for example, left her planet during a Covenant attack. There was a revolt against the UNSC and the supposed leader, which his group vehemently denied. However, upon returning, things changed abruptly. Not only are your father’s generals no longer in the mood to fight, but no one is also questioning the wrong things that are happening. Worse, now she was being hunted to eliminate once and for all the spark of a possible return of the opposition.
Kai 125, on the other hand, is experiencing the removal of the chip that suppressed his feelings differently. As the Master Chief distances himself further from the organization and causes fear, she has a different kind of reaction. We see her closer to the Spartans, even defending them and fondly remembering certain moments they lived in the past. Among the pets that even had a certain beginning of a relationship with Miranda Keyes, it didn’t seem so sudden and served to contextualize the risks that everyone runs. Kai 125, on the other hand, is experiencing the removal of the chip that suppressed his feelings differently. As the Master Chief distances himself further from the organization and causes fear, she has a different kind of reaction. We see her closer to the Spartans, even defending them and fondly remembering certain moments they lived in the past. Among the pets that even had a certain beginning of a relationship with Miranda Keyes, it didn’t seem so sudden and served to contextualize the risks that everyone runs.
It’s clearer as water that she won’t let things get out of her control. Even observing the protagonist’s detachment, he continues to move according to his directive. So far, the other members of the War Council also consider his opinion, even if they are not in favor of it. The experiments continue to give positive results for your research. What she didn’t realize is the fragility of it all, with only one trigger for things to change abruptly. And with so much power in her hands, her reaction may not be the best or one that will please everyone. While all this is going on, we get to see some action again with Kwan Ha’s escape from Vinsher’s clutches. Willing to exterminate the girl at any cost, he hires an assassin and puts the girl’s head as a reward for the others to move too. When he arrives on the planet with Soren, things start to get even more agitated and the former Spartan is forced to return to the conflict. Even without allies, that doesn’t mean she’s become an easy target and everything gets more interesting as we go along.
Halo Episode 4 Review and Analysis
I’ll be honest with you I’m finding it really cool to see a character that didn’t even exist in the main franchise gain a spotlight and move certain cores so much in Halo. Both Vinsher and the UNSC have reasons for wanting her dead and are doing everything they can to make it happen. While Master Chief is focused on the main quest, I’m curious to see where this core will take the entire plot. Okay we have the Covenant, the ring itself and maybe even the Flood to worry about. But if I were you, I’d pay attention to what’s going on there. Everything indicates that this will be the glue that will unite the first season with its sequel, which has already been confirmed by Paramount+. You can write down this tip there, even if our hero reaches his goal, which we are seeing in Madrigal and in the other planets that still oppose the UNSC that will trigger the future.
Another interesting curiosity was the almost inertia of our protagonist in the fourth episode. We have a good time with him as he regains some of his memory and revisits his home. However, these scenes are even a little longer than necessary and could very well be cut to give more space to the others here. What moves the plot with him could have been summarized in five minutes and that’s it. It made me realize that despite his protagonism, things are not turning exclusively around him. And in terms of the script, this is very curious, in a positive way.
No story should depend on the actions of just one big star, so to speak. Just look at any success story. Whether in movies, games or other series, a strong cast carries with it an importance as great as the main hero. As much as Game of Thrones ended badly, we can list Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister and several others who assumed great importance in the plot without depending on one of them. In Final Fantasy VII, we even have a section where Cloud is at a certain level of “coma” and the characters continue to move without him. These examples are just a few of successful content that embraced this idea.
In Halo, Master Chief is the protagonist, period. There’s no debate about that. However, seeing Spartan Kai 125 take over much of the chapter was pretty good. Seeing things from the point of view of one of their main subordinates and learning how they grew up there, for me, is essential for us to care more about them in the future. Likewise Kwan Ha, which I was sure would have its plot abandoned anyway and takes up considerable space to show that I was wrong in my line. How these pieces will move from now on I couldn’t say, but it’s a certainty that everything is heading towards a work more worthy of watching than many people predicted. We just have to wait for the next few weeks to hit the hammer once and for all.
Halo Episode 4 Review: The Last Words
Something is starting to creak in Halo’s narrative arcs, not just from the point of view of the structure itself, but also of the content. Relations between John and Dr. Halsey begin to not be as clear as before, but at the same time the long-awaited insertion of Cortana has not been able, for now, to repay the wait: her presence in the fourth episode is nothing, so much so that almost seem to be overwhelmed by the Master Chief. Meanwhile, John takes another important step, without even wanting to: he pushes the other Spartans into a silent rebellion and begins to falter the structure of the UNSC.
