'HALO' Episode 9: "Transcendence" Recap and Review
HALO season one finale, Transcendence, is a non-stop thrill ride that truly lives up to the saying “saving the best for last.”
WARNING: Contains Minor Spoilers
In the aftermath of Halsey’s (Natascha McElhone) search for Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) in the last episode, the members of the Spartan team have cornered him at gunpoint. Halsey’s orders are to bring Master Chief to her dead or alive. Master Chief is surrounded by destruction and has had his world upended by lies, so he decides to tell Vannak (Bentley Kalu) and Riz (Natasha Culzac) the truth about Halsey and the Spartan program. That they were stolen as children and brainwashed to be weapons for Halsey’s own cause.
Captain Keyes (Danny Sapani) and Miranda (Olive Gray), in pursuit of Makee (Charlie Murphy) and the stolen artifact, come across Vannak holding Master Chief at gunpoint. Captain Keyes admits that he knew about and helped to orchestrate their capture as children. This admission of guilt is what ultimately helps the other Spartans understand the depth of the deception.
Halsey and Makee are attempting to make hasty getaways from the UNSC base. Halsey’s escape is deterred by Spartan Kai (Kate Kennedy). She’s enraged at the lengths Halsey went through to make Kai a Spartan and begs for information about her childhood. Halsey flees on an escape pod, but is ultimately tracked down and captured on a nearby planet by UNSC forces.
When Halsey is brought back to UNSC headquarters, Miranda wants to speak with her. Not only does she want to see Halsey held accountable for her heinous actions, she’s especially hurt because she’s Halsey’s daughter. Miranda leaves the room, but returns sometime later when she hears commotion in the hallway. Halsey’s nose is bleeding and she’s having a seizure. At first she’s concerned for her mother’s health, but then realizes these are the same symptoms the clones Halsey invented experienced before they passed away.
Makee is also successful in her getaway from UNSC headquarters, and she’s returning to the Covenant planet with the artifact. Miranda fears that it’s essentially game over for UNSC if the two artifacts are brought together. Master Chief is confident in the Spartan team’s ability to take on the full force of the Covenant army on their own.
With the two artifacts now together, the Covenant can begin their Great Journey and ascend to a higher plane. The Great Journey will effectively end all human life. Makee is referred to as The Blessed One within the Covenant community, but her sense of security with the alien race is not what it used to be. She’s concerned that they will betray her and leave her to die with the rest of the human race.
The Spartan team finds the temple where the Covenant aliens are about to begin the Great Journey. The two artifacts have been brought together, and either Makee or Master Chief must touch them for the ceremony to begin. Master Chief and the Spartans arrive, guns blazing, and begin to take down the alien soldiers.
In the midst of the fight, Makee touches the artifacts and a shockwave is sent across the battleground. Master Chief transports himself into the ethereal field of the Halo where Makee is waiting for him. While the two of them are in the Halo, Makee is shot and she releases her grip on the artifact. The Covenant elders are livid, because the entire star map was not revealed to them and the Great Journey cannot be completed. They now need Master Chief to touch the artifact for them to ascend.
In the mayhem, the Spartans have been knocked out by gunfire and bombs. Master Chief is the only one left standing. He needs to find a way to rescue both his team members and the artifacts, but if he touches the artifacts, he’ll become catatonic. Master Chief’s plan is to have Cortana (Jen Taylor) fully take over his consciousness, as Halsey had originally planned. Cortana is hesitant because there’s a chance that if she takes over, she may not be able to bring Master Chief back. For the sake of his teammates and the good of humanity, it’s a risk Master Chief knows he must take.
Cortana takes control of Master Chief and is able to fight through the hordes of Covenant aliens. The artifacts are loaded safely aboard the ship to return home with his wounded Spartan teammates. However, whether or not Cortana is able to return Master Chief’s consciousness to him feels like a cliffhanger, should there be a new season.
The episode ends with the real Halsey living happily on a new planet with more dreams of perfecting evolution. The audience sees that she’s now UNSC’s most wanted criminal. Halsey believes that the secret of better humanity is in the Halo, and she will stop at nothing to get it.
For the most part, HALO created an epic finale. The episode neatly wrapped up many of the conflicts that wound their way through the season, yet still left room to explore. The pace was fast and there was enough tension to propel the episode forward. Any critiques from early in the season about a lost, meandering plot have surely been forgotten with an ending like that.
Perhaps the energetic ending casts a brighter spotlight onto what the series could have been. Kwan (Yerin Ha) and Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) were nowhere to be found in this episode, despite the heavy implication that Madrigal holds a deeper meaning for Master Chief than it initially seemed. Kwan’s storyline now seems to be a strange and woefully misguided attempt to stretch out the season simply to prolong the show. It’s disappointing that the genuinely interesting conflicts at play in the Kwan/Madrigal storyline were quickly wrapped up and forgotten long before the finale.
Overall, while Transcendence may have illuminated some season-long shortcomings, it also proved HALO’s worth as a series. Master Chief’s decision to essentially force Cortana’s hand to take over his body to save humanity is striking, and proves that there is a genuine heart behind all that armor.