In “Halo” Episode 4, titled “Homecoming,” Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha) returned to their homes, Eridanus II and Madrigal, respectively. Kwan, along with Soren (Bokeem Woodbine), went to Madrigal, hoping to reunite the rebellion that was led by her father to take on Vinsher (Burn Gorman). But that went sideways as Vinsher sent the assassin Violetta (Angie Cepeda), who killed Kwan’s aunt Soojin (Yuha Shin) and almost killed Kwan before Soren intervened. On Eridanus II, Master Chief got closer to the truth of his origins and guessed that Halsey (Natascha McElhone) had taken him away from his parents and enrolled him in the Spartan Program. And amidst all this, Kai (Kate Kennedy) removed the emotion-suppressing pellet from her body and formed a secretive bond with Miranda (Olive Gray) while trying to solve the mystery behind the artifact and the Covenant message the UNSC had intercepted.
Major Spoilers for “Halo” Episode 5
See More: ‘Halo’ Episode 4: Recap And Ending, Explained – Does Master Chief Find The Second Artifact?
Excavation On Eridanus II
“Halo” Episode 5 , titled “Reckoning,” is directed by Jonathan Liebesman and written by Richard E. Robbins and Steven Kane, and it opens on Eridanus II’s Reach for Life installation. We see a young Halsey and a young Captain Jacob (Danny Sapani) being taken through the Elysium Fields, where kids from the planet are given a nature-based education, grounding technology to the soil to counteract the effects of the colonial attacks on the planet. That’s where they see a young John’s (Casper Knopf) heroics. He even briefly locks eyes with Jacob, as if he sees through him. And then, the narrative shifts to present-day Eridanus II, where we see Jacob leading platoons of UNSC soldiers to get to the newly uncovered rock.
Jacob secretly recruits Miranda to look into what’s taking Halsey so long to get the artifact out of the rock. At the artifact excavation site, Halsey says that since the item is potentially dangerous to Master Chief (because his touch apparently activates it), he should stay away from it. Master Chief doesn’t vocally agree, which means he does intend to activate it. On Madrigal, the bike that Soren and Kwan used to escape and get to the transport ships to get to the Rubble has broken down. So, Soren decides to go and find “another set of wheels” but cuffs Kwan to the bike because he senses her urge to go back to the city and reignite the rebellion.
Back in Eridanus II, Miranda tries to get through to Halsey about the artifact but faces rejection. Riz (Natasha Culzac) orders everyone to make sure that as soon as the artifact is out of its crystalline exterior, their #1 priority will be to get it on a ship and send it off to the Reach. While this is going on, Kai talks to Vannak (Bentley Kalu) in an attempt to de-program his brain, probably? But Kai doesn’t just face rejection from Vannak; but he humiliates her for seeking freedom from their constant cycle of killing. John notices it, though, and corners Kai to inquire about her pellet. Kai admits that she emulated John’s actions. Then why is she being deemed as “not battle-ready” when no one has tested if John is battle-ready post the removal of his pellets? The answer to that is maybe misogyny.
See More: ‘Halo’ Episode 3: Recap And Ending, Explained – Is Cortana Master Chief’s Friend Or Foe?
Stranded on Madrigal
Makee (Charlie Murphy) reaches Madrigal to look into the place where the first piece of the artifact was discovered, but finds nothing there. Kwan desperately tries to break the cuffs and instead ends up wrecking the part of the bike her cuffs are attached to. Either way, she manages to escape. On Eridanus II, John confides in Jacob about what he saw while visiting his wrecked home, and he says that Halsey came to visit him when his parents were still alive. Jacob asks if these were visions John saw via the artifact. John says that his memories are real. Jacob says that he promises to look into this personally when they get the artifact to the Reach. And going by how much John trusts Jacob, it seems that John is unaware of Jacob’s true involvement in the Spartan Program.
Because in the very next scene, we see Jacob and Halsey talking to Admiral Margaret Parangosky (Shabana Azmi) about John’s identity crisis. Halsey assures Parangosky that John is under control. Parangosky says that she and the committee were assured that Cortana (Jen Taylor) was going to keep John from accessing his “dangerous memories.” Halsey says that it’s those memories that brought them to the artifact. Suspecting Halsey’s hidden agendas, Parangosky almost decides to shut her down. Halsey says that Admiral Hood (Keir Dullea) is going to use Parangosky as a scapegoat when Halsey reveals the truth about the Spartan Program and if she’s stopped from uncovering the artifact’s use. Jacob assumes that things are going to get dirty and requests Halsey to fire Miranda from her job so that her clean hands stay that way. Halsey agrees.
At the excavation site, Adun (Ryan McParland) drills into the rock with the second piece of the artifact in it and keeps his face abnormally close to the drilling point. Things go sideways as the crystalline exterior of the artifact sends a deafening sound across the universe. Makee hears it and sets off towards Eridanus II. When Master Chief rushes to it, that crystalline exterior shatters to reveal the artifact inside. Jacob approaches Miranda to take her off of all projects related to the artifact. While everyone is trying to figure out how they’re going to take out the artifact and onto one of the ships, Master Chief approaches the second artifact to extract the last of his memories from the deepest parts of his brain. And surprise, surprise, he sees himself as a kid being kidnapped by Halsey. Shocked and angry, Master Chief tries to attack Halsey, but Halsey orders Cortana to shut him down, and, well, she does.
“Halo” Episode 5: Ending Explained – Master Chief Loses The Artifact To Save Kai
While Kwan electrocutes Soren to knock him out, Master Chief wakes up from his beauty sleep, still angry that Halsey used Cortana to shut him down. But before Master Chief can act on his frustration, the Covenant descends upon the excavation site. Everyone except Halsey takes on the Covenant and tries to get the artifact onto one of the ships. Master Chief, along with Riz and Vannak, leads an absolutely brutal assault on the Covenant. Seeing Kai take some life-threatening hits, Master Chief deviates from his orders and goes to save her. Without Master Chief’s help, the jeep they were using to carry the artifact crashes, leaving the artifact exposed.
Master Chief gets to Kai, killing a lot of Covenant soldiers in the process. But something inside Master Chief flips because, instead of efficiently killing the final Sangheili soldier, he begins to smash its skull into bits, even though you can hear Kai telling him to stop. In the meantime, the Covenant sends yet another soldier to get the artifact, and it achieves that task easily because it’s thrice the size of Master Chief. In a last-ditch attempt to get the artifact, Master Chief aimlessly shoots at the Covenant ships. And the only thing he gets in return is Makee, pretending to be an injured Covenant abductee. The reason is simple. She wants the other piece of the artifact that’s on the Reach. The Covenant can barge in, but it’ll lead to casualties on their side as well. So, it looks like she’s going to covertly make her way into there, take the smaller artifact, probably convince Master Chief to side with her (since he feels so betrayed by Halsey and the UNSC now), and then use him to get out of the Reach.
