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Season 1
Episode 1 - Contact
- The Master Chief completely ignores the fact that he has Kwan in his ship, no matter how much she pounds on the wall to get his attention.
- Eventually, the Chief needs something in the compartment he has Kwan locked in. So he opens to door, walks by her without a word, and uses the device in the wall as if she wasn't even there.Kwan: What are you doing?
Master Chief: Scanning the integrity of all bio interfaces for evidence of abnormalities.
Kwan: That your way of saying you don't feel well?
Master Chief: Yes. - Chief attempts to establish a rapport with Kwan while she gets her first meal on the ship. Keyword being attempts:Kwan: You don't eat?
Master Chief: Didn't see anything I like.
Kwan: Yeah? What is it you like?
Master Chief: Nuts. Bolts.
[Beat]
Master Chief: Microchips.
[Beat]
Master Chief: ... That was a joke.
Kwan: Yeah, no, I get it. Hilarious...
Episode 2 - Unbound
- The residents of Rubble park a forklift full of crates in John's path, just to be petty. He responds by shoving the entire thing out of his path, and continuing on without even acknowledging them.
- Once he has pushed the forklift out of the way, you can hear the reverse beeper come on, indicating that the operator has figured out there's no point in trying to block him again.
- Kwan asks, with no small degree of exasperation, if this was really the safest place John could find to take her.
- The mine cart roller-coaster ride that with a jump straight out of a cartoon, turns into a cable-car ride across open vacuum. It is somehow more plausible and still more ridiculous than the turbolift chasms from Paramount+ stable-mate Star Trek: Discovery, though the true comedy comes from contrasting Kwan's distressed reaction to the ride to John and Soren's stoic disinterest.
- Soren's son stamps John's hand with a smiley face stamp, which is explained to John as an offer of friendship. John's response is to take a knee and solemnly accept, much to Soren's amusement.
Episode 3 - Emergence
- Chief meets Cortana, and immediately tries to figure out how to shut the annoying digital assistant off. It turns out that he actually has no control over when she pops up.
- Similarly, when he reunites with his team in the barracks, Cortana chooses to pop up and introduce herself, straight-up ignoring his attempts to make her go away. All three members of Silver Team just wordlessly glare at him for an explanation. John sheepishly explains that Cortana was Halsey's idea and is only temporary.
- Cortana acts much like the Microsoft digital assistant that was named after her, helping Chief with online searches and navigation on Reach. It almost feels like Product Placement, and yet is basically what her role was in the original games, prompting the player to their next objective and digging up relevant plot details from Covenant and Forerunner computer systems.
- When Chief returns to Silver Team's barracks, the other Spartans run up to meet him. Riz is noticeably shorter than the other Spartans, but fortunately the berth has a convenient step running in front of the bunks that she can use as a Scully Box when the team gathers for a group shot.
- Do note, Riz is short for a Spartan. Natasha Culzac is still six-foot-one out of the armor, which somehow makes the above funnier.
Episode 4 - Homecoming
- Kai-125 removes her pellet, just like she saw Chief do, and becomes very animated, verging on being a Genki Girl when she gets to see Miranda Keyes' lab, staring at the Alien Autopsy samples and playing with a needler, the latter much to Miranda's distress.
- The Spartans learned the Covenant word for the Needler, "Qkhep'os", from all the times they've turned the weapon on the Covenant forces. Kai immediately concedes, however, that it's equally likely that the word is their equivalent of "Shit, please don't kill me."Vannak: Also correct.
Episode 5 - Reckoning
- John learns Kai removed her pellet, and grounds her as an untested, unfocused combat asset. Cortana points out that he ought to be grounding himself.John: Cortana, do me a favor.
Cortana: Anything.
John: Stop talking. Can't hear myself think.
Cortana (undertone): Well, I can, and you're not missing much. - This Mythology Gag during a gunfight:Cortana: Switch to secondary weapon!John (annoyed): I know how the game is played!
- What makes this even better is that Master Chief is using his pistol as his primary weapon and the Assault Rifle as a secondary, which is par for the course for anyone who has played Halo: Combat Evolved.
Episode 7 - Inheritance
- Vinsher is undeniably a very dangerous man. He is utterly ruthless, commands an army of heavily-armed goons, and dedicated to running Kwan-ha to ground and killing her. He also drives through the desert in a black SUV with monogrammed seats, dresses like a comic book supervillain, and clearly takes himself far too seriously given that he is basically a local crime lord in a setting with literally galaxy-spanning ancient threats.
- This exchange between Kwan and Soren, can illicit a good chuckle at Soren's bluntness.Kwan: I'll see you again.Soren: God I hope not...
Episode 8 - Allegience
- Adun and Cortana have a slightly-petty back and forth going on. If anything, Adun sounds a bit jealous that Halsey favors the AI over him.
- Vannak demands to know if Kai is combat-ready or not, and Riz isn't sure how to answer. Cut to Kai, grinning and surrounded by cheering Marines, using a block and tackle to manually hoist assorted heavy objects (and Marines) off the ground. And then collecting payment for meeting the challenge.
Episode 9 - Transcendence
- When Kai confronts Doctor Halsey, Adun gets the drop on her, beating her over the back of the head with a huge wrench. When Kai then turns to glare at him, he just has time to realize how badly he's screwed up before she grabs him and launches him into the ceiling.
- After Halsey's ship crashes, we are treated to a scene of her, worse for wear and dirty, running for her life as she is chased through the woods by MPs. By this point in the story, it feels like some much-deserved karma. Diminished somewhat by the reveal that this was a flash clone created to facilitate her far more discreet escape.
- Kai asks if Vannak and Riz were really going to shoot her during their earlier confrontation. They both answer yes without hesitation, much to Kai's horror.
- Vannak asks if Kai was really going to shoot him earlier. She says yes, but notes that she would have felt bad about it.
- When dropping onto the Covenant holy planet, Master Chief lands right on an unfortunate Grunt and is very casual about it.John-117: Afternoon.
Season 2
Episode 2 - Sword
- Vannek is very cheeky to poor Riz after her injuries cause her to lose a round of basic training, smugly asking her what it's like since he's never lost before himself.
- It's Black Comedy, but Halsey's thoroughly annoyed reaction at the flash-cloned attendants dying whenever she questions them about her captor.
Episode 3 - Visegrád
- John is particularly snarky to the guards he's assigned after being detained. He even apologises to them in the elevator before knocking them out with a single punch.
Episode 4 - Reach
- Soren refuses to listen to Halsey when she says she knows the base layout, so she just decides to walk off and let him stew over the fact that he'll be wandering aimlessly. Soren begrudgingly follows her lead.Soren: [thinking it over] Shit!
- After the Chief reunites with Keyes, Keyes jokingly claims he hoped John wouldn't make it back so he didn't have to hear him say "I told you so" about the Covenant's presence on Reach.
- Soren and Halsey meet up with Keyes, who refers to Soren as a pirate. Then, during an Uncomfortable Elevator Moment, asks how she ended up with a "person" like Soren. Soren snarks that he must be making progress to go from pirate to person.
Episode 7 - Thermopylae
- Kai abruptly knocking Briggs out comes across as a tad cartoony (though it's also no less satisfying).
Episode 8 - Halo
- In an otherwise bleak episode, Ackerson impressing to Soren that he knows the way out of the ONI prison on Onyx. After Halsey told him the same thing in Reach, you just know Soren's annoyed this has happened to him again.
