"DEMON!" The Sanghelii warrior cries to her, she tilts her head, as her hud displays its weakness.
"Aurora." She speaks to her AI who replies, "YES?"
"Let's kill this fucker."
Okay seriously, John, I'm just, whatever you have your helmet off, this heresy continues.
So we finally get a backstory for Makee, and wow, it's as dreary as we could have predicted. She lives on a planet analogous to the "Third World" from Futurama including the abuse of child labor! YAY! Watching the Elite bash that guard aside after he killed Det was, satisfying. Then we flash back toward High Charity and Makee preparing to lead her team to learn more about the Forerunner keystone.
Makee is, insidiously good at her job. And, the Prophets gave her a fucking Mgalekgolo, or Hunter, so seems she's not alone. My get is she's gonna steal the ship and use it for some nice little infiltration jobs. Rightfully so the captain of the UNSCS Gladius treats the girl with suspicion (that girl is hella sus), and keeps her in full view of a cadre of marines. Then the Hunter worms invade and murder all the humans, this is yup, uggo as hell, but it shows us WHY ever species in the covenant is fucking terrifying.
Makee hotwires the Glaidus and sets up her progress to find the ring. Wow, we get bit back on Reach where they appear to be getting close to learning more about their enemy.
Switching takes, we find ourselves back on Reach. Halsey has continued her work to create Cortana and wow. Yup, it's as unethically FUCKED UP as we could have ever guessed. Literally burning away her sentient flash clone's brain to create an AI is all levels of fuck this lady. Then watching Cortana appear in her blueself was, nice, but thank the gods thing isn't over-sexualizezd like later iterations. Seeing her in the flesh explains WHY we have a much younger looking Dr. Halsey to create the Holo Avatar. Yup we need that sweet sweet stupid holo-hottie look. Seriously, guys I get it, we wanna bang the holo girl, but after a while this geek girl is just tired of it.
(Insert neckbeard bitching).
Back on Reach, Cortana assists in testing the artifact. All we get is more memories and images from John, and more commentary from Cortana. She is silenced once again and they learn only a little bit. We split to John leaving the lab and walking from his place to rejoin his fireteam in the Spartan Barracks. The berths are respectfully sparse, and damn I do like that the the lack of over emphasis of the girls curves. And thank the goddess those boots they were don't have fucking heels.
Cortana is awkward, and Chief is even more so. These two potatoes are gonna get into trouble. We get more and more Cortana banter, loooove Jen Taylor reprising her voice role here! Now, the two start to go over the loss of the Spartan's one by one over the years. He relives his life and feels the emotions attached to the memories because of the keystone. Cortana is told to cease being a spy, and thus the Chief loses his pellet. Riz-028 sees the action, and seems disturbed. I hope she doesn't snitch on chief, I like the Spartan women.
Walking out into the dock, we see Chief walking among other humans and soldiers without his pellet. HIs experiences are now real, like a glass removed from emotions. Emotions can inhibit combat, but with proper discipline, they can also enhance it. And, Chief gets to see a city night, and experience a concert. This is kind of tropey, but fuck, it's a perfect poetic revelation for him to experience.
More on Chief's backstory is revealed, and his knowledge of the artifacts is fascinating. I did like how they hid the epiphany y in his memories on a childhood sketch.
Zooming to Rubble we learn about the shit erupting on Madrigal. Vinsher just seems to be killing and causing tyrrany in spades. And Kwa is just watching it all fall apart. She want's to go off and save her people, but this isn't the time to be rebel princess. Kwa and Laera discuss the ongoing crap on Madrigal as well. Kwa goes on and on about the fact she is determined to be a rebel, and yeah, I get it. She want's to save her people, but this girl is a major asset in a galactic war. I get WHY Laera is against the idea.
Meanwhile, at the Legion of Rubble, Kwa is intent on building a fucking ship. Soren drops some serious reality on the girl, and I'm fine with this. She's living a dream in a way while I agree with it, she's easily making a mistake that could get a lot of people killed.
Makee, makes more sense now that we have her backstory.
Seriously, Halsey, fried her own clone to make Cortana, and then treats her like a annoying child when she tries to speak up.
Note, this might explain why the two bond so well later on in Halo, Chieftana forever bitches!
I thought the Mgalekgolo in the trailer were Flood, hell, this is gonna get more gruesome when we finally meet them, damn.
And holy shit Makee has...plasma talons...yup, and yup. This girl ain't human anymore. I wonder if they used tech from the old
This show really hits the futuristic clothing I liked a lot in Expanse, and it has a nice level of utility to it as well.
John meeting a dog for the first time, and seeing a good boy, was, excellent. This seems to have provoked a revelation for him.
Yes, hiding the realization on the artifact IN the childhood memory was...excellent.
It's good to see how utterly fucking ignorant the UNSC is about the Covenant.
