The TV show Halo blew through all its best stories in the season 2 finale, and it was well worth it

Halo‘s second season ends with the strangest episode the show has ever had. Unlike the rest of the series, where each reveal is played slowly and carefully rationed a few crumbs at a time, the season 2 finale threw virtually every major reveal from the first Halo game at viewers in the world. duration of less than one hour. That’s why it was probably the most interesting episode the show has ever had, especially for long-time fans of the game series.

(Ed. remark: This story contains spoilers for Halo season 2.)

The episode opens with the audience following a character we don’t really know. She’s a scientist and is clearly acting funny, but it doesn’t get really strange until the bizarre music – unlike anything heard in the series so far – starts and we see the scientist slowly starting to lose her mind and spontaneously stares into space or twitches wildly before stabbing a colleague. It’s strange and disturbing, but it’s also the smartest bit of fanservice the show has delivered yet, as the tumbling realization that the Flood is about to make its first appearance on this show slowly dawns.

For most of the first two seasons of this show, the Flood seemed like a bridge too far for the tone it was taking. The Flood, the most destructive aliens in Halo’s canon, are a parasitic race that seeks to consume and assimilate every living thing in the galaxy, infecting them and then taking them over as new zombified hosts. Their appearance in the original Halo marks one of the best and most unexpected twists in video game history, and honestly, the show has recreated this admirably, even under very different circumstances.

The flood of Halo TV shows are a bit more like traditional zombies than the gaming version. But to showrunner David Wiener’s credit, the series doesn’t skimp on their gross-out creepiness. The larger, zombified human forms grow extra limbs and sprint towards potential new hosts while wildly waving their alien appendages. Soren and Kwan must fight their way through the hordes of the undead in a surprisingly fun gunfight. But even better is the fact that this scene ends with another interesting revelation from the finale: the visions Kwan has been seeing all season are actually of someone trying to turn her into a willing assistant to the Flood.

The original Halo canon doesn’t really have an analogy for this, especially on the human side of things, but it’s a fantastic and fascinating addition if the show has the guts to pull through with it. The entire purpose of the Flood is to end all organic life, which would essentially turn its human followers into a death cult dedicated to bringing about the end of the universe, adding all life to the collective hive mind of the flood – which is both a terrifying and cool idea for the show to explore. The Halo TV series has always seemed coy about (and almost ashamed of) the game series’ strangest stories, and it doesn’t get much stranger than the Flood. So if the series were to dedicate time to exploring a religion that worships an ancient race of exterminators, it would be a fascinating step in the right direction, and a perfect counterpoint to the Forerunners and their Halos, which were once used as the ultimate weapon against the flood. .

It should be telling that this is also the first episode of the Halo TV show where Master Chief sets foot on the title ring and it only deserves to be brought up now. It’s hard to be particularly invested in his plot there when his reason for being there was so deeply tied to both Makee and the UN Security Council’s complicated plans this season. But it’s undeniably nice to see the familiar Forerunner architecture of the Halo ring represented so well in the episode.

Photo: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount+

And like the strong parts of the rest of this finale, the most interesting thing about Chief’s time in the ring also has to do with Flood. The season ends with the revelation that Master Chief and Makee have both spent time interrogated by 343 Guilty Spark, the monitor of this particular Halo ring and long considered the most hated character in Halo history – mainly because he isn’t particularly trustworthy and guides you through it. one of the worst levels of the first game. He’s also the first real representative of the Forerunners that players get in the games, and it’s nice to have him play a similar role in the show.

After seventeen often grueling episodes, Halo finally feels like Halo at the end of the second season. It’s no excuse for the fact that the road here was paved with boring subplots, frustrating characters, and bad writing. Considering what watching all that build-up felt like, it’s certainly hard to be optimistic about what this show could be when it returns for a third season, even if it’s now in the best place it’s ever been . But hey, at least for fans of the games, the show finally looks and feels a little more recognizable.