(courtesy IMP Awards)
—————- SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!! —————
Up to this point, Halo has been a relatively straightforward military-intensive drama about two species at war and very much at each other existential necks – humanity on one side and the Covenant on the other side.
There were mystical elements to be sure, with humanity’s main weapon of war, Master Chief John-117 (Pablo Schreiber) and the Covenant’s human oracle aka the “Blessed One”, Makee (Charlie Murphy) both able to make mysterious artefacts, left behind by a long-vanished alien master race, who also constructed the titular Halo, come to life and do some reasonably powerful things.
So, yes, mysticism in nuanced abundance but not enough to sweep aside what was, in many ways, a straight-down-the-line series of military battles, accompanied, as history shows they always seem to b, by skullduggery and behind-the-scenes political machinations, mostly by the humans but not exclusively. (For all their oohy-woohy spiritual utterances, the Covenant are as ruthlessly pragmatic as their human counterparts; they just have more mystical dressing to their nakedly political words and deeds.)
But then in the big grand finale, which did to be fair feature an apocalyptically epic space battle in the exact same solar system where the Halo is – it’s the prize with the power to either enhance or destroy life, depending on your inclination – Halo ended up also throwing some diabolically creepy horror elements in the form of parasitical zombies.
Yes, folks, if it wasn’t enough to have zombies and parasitic infestations separately, this finely paced example of enjoyable sci-fi storytelling found a way to bring them together, and while this non-gamer was surprised and not delighted by their appearance, which is as mind-f**kingly scary as you might expect it to be, if you know the game upon which the show is based you won’t be the least fazed by this insertion of horror-upon-horror into a hitherto military-political show.
According to Coming Soon, these proboscis-propelling zombies, who go all quiet while incubating before going ballistically fast to spread their undead “life” to others – all humans by the way with even the arch-villain of the piece, the woman who let Reach burn and fall, Admiral Parangosky (Shabana Azmi), falling prey to their ravenously automated impulses – are a key part of the game.
Known as The Flood, and when you see how easily and fast they reproduce, you’ll know why they have that overwhelming name, they take all before them, bar Soren-066 (Bokeem Woodbine), his son Kessler (Tylan Bailey) – alas, Laera (Fiona O’Shaughnessy), Kessler’s son and Soren’s beloved doesn’t survive the infestation – Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha), who it appears is, and yes here we go mystical again, a zombie whisperer courtesy of The Mother (whom only she can see; she’s played by Olwen Fouéré), and surprise, surprise, the ONI’s Colonel James Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) who somehow manage to get off the accursed facility known as Onyx before joining the undead horde.
(Also surviving was Dr Miranda Keyes, played by Olive Gray, whom we last see caught in a lab, sticking her infected mum, Dr Halsey, played by Natascha McElhone, into infection-slowing cryo-sleep; will Keyes survive? My money is she will – after all, someone needs to find a zombie cure, thought if zombie show us anything, it’s that it won’t be easy or narratively convenient.)
It’s all terrifying stuff and while there is some hope here – “With Kwan’s connection to The Flood, she could prove to be the protector of humanity in the future seasons by being able to control them” (Coming Soon) – things are looking super bleak for pretty much everyone with even the Covenant taking a massive hit in battle when Kai-125 (Kate Kennedy) suicidally rams the ship she’s on into humanity’s enemy’s most powerful vessel (is she dead though? I say NO) giving the humans the edge.
While all that’s going on, and it’s a lot, much of it in the darkness so beloved of modern streaming shows where you often have to guess what the hell is going on; yay fun narrative guessing games! Who doesn’t love that? – the Chief and Makee reach Halo, separately before arriving together at the main structure on Halo which is a perfect synthesis, so observes Cortana (Jen Taylor who voices the character in the game), of organic and machine, watched over by The Monitor (voiced by Harry Lloyd) who looks like he’s amped to up the mystical element in what you hope will be a third season.
Since they reach the Halo’s main building late in the season finale, we don’t have much to go on regarding what comes next but two things seem reasonably certain:
- The mystical element will increase since it looks like both the Monitor, who will shepherd Makee and John-117 to their respective, or maybe joint, destinies, and the Mother, who seems to have a thing for zombies gods help us all, will be taking Kwan Ha into a trippy journey to find her fate. With all that cerebral back and forth, which is frankly welcome much of the time since it saves Halo from simply being a punch-em-up, bang-and boom show and gives it a much more accessibly (mostly; sometimes it’s all a little too mumbo-jumbo-ish) intellectual edge, and making it a far more introspectively and thoughtfully serious sci-fi show than you might expect it to be.
- There will be zombies with Coming Soon noting The Flood are “significant villains in the Halo games”. You would have to assume they will attack human and Covenant alike and open another front in a galactic battle that has gone form reasonably straightforward to absolutely anything but.
What’s most striking about Halo in these final three episodes, is that it manages even in the midst of some heated battles and some skin-crawling zombie chase scenes to keep its eye on its more meditative nuanced side and to still allow time for various characters to have their narrative-enriching moments.
In this respect, it is every bit as cerebral a sci-fi outing as anything on AppleTV+, which has quickly become the home of cleverly thoughtful sci-fi, proof that you can adapt a video game and keep its soul intact as much as its visual style.
Where to next is the million-dollar question right now, but suffice to say that this is one show that deserves a third season, full as it is of artfully rich characterisation, magnificent world-building, intelligent ruminations on everything from power to religion and scientific obsession at the expense of humanity and a story that balances the high octane and the meditative and will looks to have a rich vein of storytelling to mine yet.
Halo is streaming on Paramount+