TL;DR – A more contained story that was slightly frustrating until you understood its context.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ service that viewed this episode.

Halo Review –

We are making a splash with the second of the two-episode opening for Halo’s second season. The first episode showed a bit more focus than we saw in Season One, and that intrigued me. More than anything, I want to see if this was a blip or if this is a new direction for the series.  

So to set the scene, we open with Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey (Natascha McElhone) in a beautiful room, getting all her favourite things, which, of course, means that she is in prison somewhere. It is a nice prison, with pomegranate, but a prison nonetheless. Meanwhile, on Reach, John (Pablo Schreiber) is struggling to find himself now his team has been grounded by Ackerson (Joseph Morgan), and the lies continue to build. On Rubble, Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha) discovers that their precarious position might be even more perilous than they thought. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

On the one hand, I started to feel a bit annoyed with this episode as it went on. Some of the things that frustrated me about the first episode Sanctuary were amplified. James Ackerson is such a wet paper towel of a character. Falling into all the smarmy white, rich guy tropes. You would feel that he and Albert Wesker would be friends. While it was nice to see that they got to film in Iceland, all the training montages felt forced. We got to see some more of Halsey this week, but nothing there was surprising. It felt like the whole episode was just a car spinning wheels, hoping that you wouldn’t notice that it was not going anywhere.

But then the dinner scene happened, and Master Chief and Talia Perez (Cristina Rodlo) got to have an honest discussion about what they went through and what it meant. Besides directing Master Chief as to where he should explore next, it was a moment of exciting humanity, playing on the themes of him finding his faith from last week. But it also started introducing a lot of new characters that we could care about, including Louis (Marvin Jones III) in another plot line. It is here that I realised why the story has been forcing people to stay on Reach and why Ackerson is acting the way he is. The Covenant are on their way, or as we find out, already here. This shift gives the episode the push it needs to make the rest of the season significantly more interesting, even if there are parts like why Makee (Charlie Murphy) is still alive that I can’t bring myself to care about.     

In the end, do we recommend Halo: Sword? Yes, but that comes with a bit of an asterisk. When they finally show their hand, you can feel the whole episode fall into place, but if it is worth getting to that point, well, that will be up to you.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Halo yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Halo
Directed by – Debs Paterson
Written by – Ahmadu Garba
Created by – Kyle Killen and Steven Kane
Based on – Halo by Bungie & 343 Industries
Production/Distribution Companies – Showtime, 343 Industries, Amblin Television & Paramount+
Starring – Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone, Joseph Morgan, Shabana Azmi, Christina Bennington, Natasha Culzac, Olive Gray, Yerin Ha, Bentley Kalu, Kate Kennedy, Charlie Murphy, Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Cristina Rodlo, Danny Sapani, Jen Taylor, Viktor Åkerblom, Tylan Bailey & Bokeem Woodbine with Marvin Jones III and Bronte Carmichael, Sonny Poon Tip, Mich Todorovic, Ákos Inotay, Ivanno Jeremiah, Juliette Motamed, David Crowley, Iliasz Shweirif, Christian Ochoa Lavernia, Maria Luisa Costa, Eliseø Barrionuevo, Sebastian Orozco & Maria Jose Bavio