Halo Episode 7 Puts The Master Chief On The Backburner For A Detour Into The Desert

I'll admit, I had a bad feeling about this episode right when the first-look images dropped, featuring a glaring absence of the Master Chief, Dr. Halsey, or anyone else that the overarching storyline of "Halo" has focused on up to this point. Those concerns only increased as early as the "Previously on 'Halo'" segment, which took us all the way back to the opening minutes of the premiere to remind us of the situation taking place on the planet of Madrigal in the aftermath of the Covenant invasion. Though we've ever-so-briefly checked in on the subjugated inhabitants of Madrigal and their brutal overlord Vinsher Grath (Burn Gorman) a few times since, that's essentially how long it's been since this subplot ever really mattered to the main thrust of the series. 

And now, after two back-to-back episodes that suddenly gave the plot a much-needed kick into gear, "Halo" decides that this is the moment to pull back and venture off into its own tiny corner of the universe, coming entirely at the cost of the forward momentum of the story. All this to play catch-up with a disappointingly underserved character — one who should've received this attention weeks ago, back when she still felt relevant.

I've gone on record in the past with my bemused respect for how much this series has refused (almost militantly so!) to slip into the easy and conventional path of a "Halo" adaptation. Those expecting reams of action, deep explorations of the Covenant hierarchy, and beat-by-beat recreations of gameplay footage in live-action instead had to grapple with the murky ethics of Dr. Halsey's cloning technology and penchant for child kidnappings, the blood that the UNSC has on its hands for brutally suppressing rebellions and installing puppet dictators, and the deeply internalized conflict eroding John 117 from within. In that vein, following Kwan on her mystical journey into the heart of the Madrigal desert and into her own family's past should've felt like a natural evolution of that focus.

But where previous episodes at least found ways to commit to the weirdness while still remaining distinctly "Halo," last night's episode (titled "Inheritance") dispenses with the sci-fi of it all and leaves viewers with a derivative, predictable, and largely uninteresting narrative dead-end. Let's unpack this below.

Here, we meet Desiderata (Josette Simon), the leader of this tribe and the one who first told Kwan's father Jin Ha (Jeong-hwan Kong) about the fate that motivated him to lay down his life in defense of Madrigal. When "Halo" first teased this subplot during the fourth episode, the idea of the rebel leader taking advice from mysterious "mystics" in the desert at least held some potential. That potential fizzles out here once we finally get a look at them, all of whom mostly just resemble Renaissance Fair LARPers or cosplay convention attendees. Apparently, Kwan isn't yet "ready" to know the secrets imparted to her father once upon a time, because her rage blinds her to the truth.

With Vinsher vowing to hunt her down to the ends of the Earth (er, Madrigal), we return to Kwan getting a full family history lesson from Desiderata (which she is ready for, I guess?). Kwan's ancestor once traveled the desert in search of water, ultimately digging a well (which is revealed to be a "portal" of some kind?) and discovering the precious fuel resources hidden beneath the surface. "A visitor from another time, perhaps from another existence" conveniently popped up to explain his true purpose and responsibility, Desiderata says, which was eventually passed down to Kwan's father as well. If all this sounds rote and uninvolved when laid out like this, that captures the exact same energy of Desiderata expositing all this to Kwan, before performing a neat little fire trick (similar to one Kwan does in the flashback, though the connection seems merely circumstantial?) that turns flames into water. Once ingested by Kwan, things get marginally more interesting as she embarks on a sort of vision quest that brings in the Master Chief ... sort of.

When tasked to fight him to the death, Kwan's repeated failures to defeat the armor-encased super-soldier in this abstract dream finally puts a crack in her own armor (the emotional kind, naturally), preparing her to come face-to-face with her ancestors. A vision of her deceased father informs her of how far she's come, labeling her a "Protector" and decreeing her as "ready" — although based on what, exactly, is never made clear. Once instructed to "go back to where it all began," Kwan returns to the outpost where Jin Ha died in the valiant fight against the Covenant in the first episode. Here, she reunites with Soren and the pair make ready to fight against the overwhelming forces of Vinsher's goons.

At the very least, the action here is competently staged ... even if it lacks tension and makes Vinsher's superior forces look like utter fools in order to give the outgunned Kwan and Soren a chance. After a few close calls, our heroes manage to completely dispatch their foes in a blaze of hydrogen-fueled glory, seemingly closing the book altogether on Vinsher's threat and making me wonder what the purpose of all this was in the first place. By the end, Madrigal has been freed and the "portal" obviously stands ready to play some sort of role in the remaining episodes, especially as Kwan's visions promised that she'd see the Chief again to "show him the way."

Maybe we'll look back on this episode in retrospect as an important table-setter for the conclusion to come, but in the moment this simply can't escape the feeling of "Too little, too late" as we belatedly get a muddled, hackneyed exploration into Kwan's place in all this.