We’re finally at the season finale and boy did the last episode set up something sweet. Makee is discovered and plays her hand, Halsey has damn near set up a coupe, and John fights his fellow Spartans. So, where does episode nine go from there?

By now, John and Kai know about what happened to them as children, and maybe it’s because I’m familiar with the games but the way it’s been handled has been bad. Yeah, it’s bad that Halsey kidnapped them as kids and they’ve had all this conditioning but the way they “unconditioned” themselves is so fast with no lingering effects. And also, I don’t understand why everything is put on Halsey when the program itself wasn’t led by her. She’s a scientist so the military training they’ve had would be under someone else’s watch. In the books, Sergeant Franklin Mendez led the training of the Spartan IIs and Spartan IIIs while Halsey took care of the augmentations. Not to mention, ONI actually green lit this program so why in the hell does the show make it seem like Halsey did everything of her own free will with no assistance and no oversight?

Anyway, the episode opens up with John and Kai finally admitting to Vannak and Riz what happened but Makee escapes in a Covenant ship the military were studying and Halsey manages to escape as well. I don’t like what they’re doing with Halsey, just making her this weird mad scientist. So, she ends up getting recaptured and all I can think is, what the hell was her plan? The character is so stupid it’s laughable. And I’m so sick of this morality string they’re trying to pull. The Spartans are mad at Halsey for her actions and now we have to deal with whiny Miranda and how she feels towards her parents being involved. News flash, she’s a part of a super-secret military research facility with a lot of dirty secrets and plenty blood on their hands. Why does she act so surprised? But I will say this, Halsey is a cold bitch. The twist that happens is something I can see her doing in the lore.

Makee makes it back to the Covenant with the artifact and it’s revealed that the Prophets don’t care for her much. This goes back in line with how the Covenant view humanity, and it shows how much of an asshole the Covenant are. I like that we see that the Prophets are manipulating her, I just wished we could’ve seen it more throughout the series. Speaking of which, it was nice seeing more of the Covenant’s side of things, something the show desperately needs to help breakup all the moral dilemmas and contrived drama it seems so desperate to force onto its human characters.

Let’s talk about the highlight of the episode, the fight on Hesduros. This fight was awesome. MC and the Spartans go to Hesduros to recover the artifacts and Makee and we get an awesome battle. Silver Team is doing its thing against overwhelming Covenant forces and it’s literally a blast to watch. The action is fast paced, the switch to first-person is handled well, the special effects are awesome, I really enjoyed seeing the Grunts, Elites, and Brutes in battle. Each of the Spartans get their own moment and it’s just awesome. But what holds it back is the Makee/John story and how it concludes. Makee gets killed and there’s no satisfying conclusion to their story. It actually feels pretty rushed. Why not have her wounded and taken back to the Covenant?

But the setup is kind of dumb, because the planet is a highly priced location for the Covenant, so why isn’t there a heavy military presence. There’s no explanation for it, it doesn’t make sense. And there’s a line in an earlier conversation where Paragosky decides to send 10,000 soldiers to recover the artifact, but John declines it. And when they’re actually on the ground fighting with such a light Covenant force those 10,000 soldiers would’ve really helped. One of the best theatrical aspects of the games are the massive battles in the distance. Why couldn’t we have that? Silver team on the ground with a bunch of soldiers fighting Covenant ground forces while there are a bunch of aerial battles going on. I like that the Spartans jump out of the airship, and I felt a familiar sense of the opening sequence of Halo 5: Guardians.

The Verdict: In the end, Transcendence does some good and does some bad. We kind of get a conclusion to John and Makee’s story, although it’s completely rushed. Halsey has played her hand successfully which was pretty cool to see. All the drama seemed contrived, but the episode was redeemed with a really good battle sequence towards the end. And not only that but Cortana again was able to contribute. Certainly the episode could’ve been better but it also could’ve been far worse. Transcendence gets 3 out of 5.