The finale of the second season of the gloriole TV series does everything a video game adaptation should do and more, This is proof of my point for over a year: This show is good.
Although the first season of the Paramount+ series, based on the game series of the same name, struggled more than occasionally with telling a reasonably new story in an established universe with beloved characters, the second season set out to address those flaws to correct. An episode of this second season in which there is a new leading actor, David Wiener (Fear the walking death) it was clear that the team hadn’t messed up. The action sequences felt tighter and better choreographed, the emotional beats hit exactly where they needed to, and the interwoven storylines made for incredibly good viewing.
The season finale, simply called “Halo,” is an excellent proof of concept – this show is awesome and deserves a third season.
A flood of gloriole Tradition
If you were one of them gloriole TV series naysayers who are annoyed that it’s not a one-to-one recreation of the games, then you might like this final episode. In its nearly hour-long running time, “Halo” contains some of the biggest story beats of Halo: Combat Evolved, alongside heart-pounding action and great payoffs to storylines that have been dangling all season long. In fact, the accelerator pedal is on the floor from the first moment and doesn’t let up.
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“Halo” begins like no other episode of the series yet: A scientist we’ve never met before is annoying Miranda Keyes (Olive Gray), who’s trying to figure out what’s going on with the mysterious spores she found in the last episode has. This scientist is a bit bitchy and a bit annoying, and it seems that she also tampered with the sample before Keyes checked it. We don’t like them.
Moments later, she’s enjoying a water cooler moment with some other scientists when a bizarrely upbeat musical score is heard and her demeanor begins to change. Namely, she’s infected with whatever the spores are made of (which is why you shouldn’t touch strange things in a lab), and she soon succumbs to the infection and stabs a random scientist in the neck with a pen. If you are a gloriole Fan, you know what this is: flood, the parasitic aliens that wreak havoc on the galaxy and are the reason the halo rings are formed in the first place. Now we feel sorry for her.
The tide is here, even if it seems like the series’ pacing never gets us to the frightening and bizarre creatures. Sure, there were hints of it, all shown in the Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha) subplot, but I didn’t expect the series to become “Flood” this season – especially considering that they are the most exciting of all gloriole Villains. It’s a bold move that pays off, especially when we finally get a glimpse of the many-faceted abominations in the flesh.
As the episode progresses, we know that it leads to a resolution that mirrors the first gloriole
Along the way we witness some heartbreaking sacrifices and truly sad deaths (RIP Kai-125, you’ll always be famous), and then we get the reward many have been waiting two seasons for: Master Chief’s Mjolnir boots entering a Halo ring . It’s a sight – those vaguely Pacific Northwest mountains, the smoldering wreckage of a UNSC ship, plants sprouting incredibly quickly from the ground. Master Chief and Cortana are reunited, and some of last season’s better characters (Ackerson, Perez, Kwan) appear to be alive to fight another day.
We are here, we did it. And guess who else is here? 343 Guilty Spark, the annoying bastard from the first games who I wouldn’t trust to hold my drink at a party. Given that the AI Halo Ring Monitor is universally despised by gamers and completely unbelievable, the cliffhanger reveals that he has been chatting with both Chief and Makee (the…). The Covenant woman he slept with last season) is a big topic.
After this episode I have to ask: Aren’t you entertained?
Here’s hoping the Paramount+ series gets a third season because we’re cooking with gas right now.
