Halo’s latest episode, Homecoming, represents more laying-the-groundwork territory. It’s slow and deliberate and lacking in action, but it did move a few important plot points along the way.
Kwan’s Homecoming
I was down on the lack of any movement on the Kwan storyline considering she will likely play a key role down the line. Luckily, Homecoming provided a decent amount of screentime to her first trip back to Madrigal.
As expected, by everyone but Kwan, the Madrigal she was coming back to wasn’t one she would once know. After her father’s death, the resistance has been dissipated by current leader, Vinesh Grath. I’m not entirely sure why she thought that there would be some massive rebellion waiting for her. The death of her father really killed the fighting spirit of their people.
Sorren has an interesting role in this episode because he does still have that obligation to protect Kwan. There are a few brief action scenes, and it comes to a culmination when Kwan’s aunt tells them to visit the mystics. Then, shortly after, an assassin by the name of Franco kills her aunt, and they narrowly escape.
I hope that the mystics provide some sort of velocity for her storyline. While it is important and slightly interesting, I felt her scenes with John elevated the show. Will their paths cross once again?
Kai’s Feelings
I feel we’ve got very little of the other Spartans in the UNSC. That is, until this episode. They are working with Miranda to see if they can activate the Artifact. Which of course they cannot. But we get scenes with Kai-125 removing her emotion-suppressing chip. She goes sort of on a rogue venture to change her hair color, which is definitely used to show the freedom she now has. The neat bit of this episode for the UNSC Spartans was when they helped Miranda further decode some Covenant words. As the only people that come into close contact with the Covenant, it only made sense that they could help here.
This episode, once again, did a lot of groundwork. The action set-pieces from the pilot have ceased completely. I don’t necessarily mind, but I imagine some action has to come about soon.
John’s Homecoming
John finally convinces Halsey to let him go back to his home planet, and we get an interesting look at what he does and doesn’t remember. John’s child-like fascination with his past provided some levity of the other brooding plotlines. John getting to relive his memories provided a joyful, yet slightly confusing experience. While John thought these were memories, Halsey explains that he could be filling in the blanks. Can we believe her?
Through his memories, or what we think are his memories, he realizes that Halsey might have picked him out before his parents’ disappearance. This combined with him pulling his emotion suppression chip out can lead to some huge consequences. Up until this point, John was a soldier with limited understanding as to the overall workings of UNSC’s schemes. Now, he is seeing everything in a different light. What felt at once like an act of compassion feels more like a kidnapping. John has to then question if Halsey was the one that killed (or disappeared) his parents. This tangled web goes deep.
This episode, once again, did a lot of groundwork. The action set-pieces from the pilot have ceased completely. I don’t necessarily mind, but I imagine some action has to come about soon.
