If you haven’t read my coverage of Halo: The Series thus far, click here to read my critique of the series, plus all previous coverage.

After last week’s episode of Halo: The Series (which you can read my thoughts on above, as well as other coverage of the show), I was hoping that this episode would turn things around from the downward trend the season seems to be following, but that is not the case.

In this week’s main plot, we join Master Chief, Dr. Halsey, and Adun as they look for answers from John’s past. Meanwhile, Soren & Kwan search for an army, and a Spartan begins a journey of self-discovery. Miranda also makes a major discovery.

On the surface, this sounds like a plot worth exploring, but like last week’s episode, episode four devotes most of the episode’s runtime to John and his journey and maybe fifteen minutes to the other plotlines. While there’s great character work with Pablo Schreiber’s realization of what his memories mean and how both Natascha McElhone’s Dr. Halsey and Jen Taylor’s Cortana react to the experiences John is having in this episode, it’s a bit of a nothing burger. There are no consequences to John’s actions, and Dr. Halsey and company’s reactions to John make no sense, especially when you remember the characterization of these people (and AI) as characters who are always in control of every situation and have access to all the data required to make logical decisions. Instead, for most of the episode, these three characters stare at John with no understanding of what John’s experiencing. It’s peculiar, to be sure.

What’s even more peculiar are the subplots, which all but one also end up being of no consequence to the larger story. Soren and Kwan’s story is not all that interesting and feels like the writers forgot to do with the characters here. Thankfully, the stories back on Reach are at least interesting enough to keep me from turning the episode off.

Furthermore, a deeper issue with this show is that I started to notice something: besides the huge action sequence in the first episode, with little to no action in the subsequent episodes. I can’t pinpoint what the issue is, but as a franchise known for its action, it’s quite odd that the series hasn’t had more firefights. I’m not saying that Silver Team needs to go on a mission each episode or that there needs to be action in every episode. It’s not necessary for my enjoyment of the series. In fact, I quite enjoy the character-focused approach to this adaptation. I just don’t understand why there hasn’t been a firefight. I don’t believe it’s a budget concern, as this season alone cost $200 million to make. Could it be a story reason, like saving up for a huge battle in future episodes? Only time will tell.

In conclusion, I wish there was more to like with this episode of Halo: The Series (especially one that has so many storylines that could be great), but it seems like the future of the season will be primarily focused on John’s journey and leave all the other interesting characters to side stories that likely won’t be of much consequence to the larger story of the season.

★/★★★★★

Episode four of Halo: The Series is now available to stream on Paramount+.

Until next time!

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