Recap / Halo 2022 S 1 E 8 Allegiance

A live feed arrives detailing the destruction of the colony Criterion, which the Covenant have just glassed^note Covenant starships are equipped with Plasma Cannons; when used against the surface of a planet, they superheat the crust, eventually transforming it into glass, and eliminating all 11 million residents. This turns up the urgency on Reach, knowing the Covenant are mobilizing and they can't be held off forever. John knows that they need to find the Second Keystone and use it to find Halo, but he isn't experienced enough with the process to do it alone and needs Makee's experience. Keyes is skeptical, knowing Makee is indoctrinated by the Covenant, but John feels a kinship with her and that he can get through the conditioning.

John and Makee go to a park on Reach, letting her see the world outside. She quotes a line from The Dawn of Angels, the book she and Det used to read when they were children, and John, sourcing the quote, is able to hunt down a copy of it from Reach's library. This leads, somewhat suddenly, to the two of them having sex. While neither character's motivation is particularly explored, Makee takes the opportunity the next morning to remove her fingernail sword, suggesting a High-Heel–Face Turn. John then convinces Adm. Parangosky and Capt. Keyes to let Makee use the (First) Keystone to track down the second. When Keyes reminds him that it might be a lot to expect her to break free of a lifetime of indoctrination at the snap of a finger, John reminds them, "I did."

Halsey, watching all this, can only snark: "John has a girlfriend. How ordinary." She spends the episode preparing her Borrowed Biometric Bypass so that she can surveil Makee's use of the Keystone. Unfortunately, her plans are derailed when Keyes drops by and informs her that she's to be shipped out before the exposure occurs. Halsey vents her frustrations about being sidelined, and the two turn on each other: Halsey feeling abandoned by Keyes, who had agreed to back her in all things; Keyes frustrated at having to keep Halsey's secrets. Halsey wants to focus on the maximums of human potential... which, Keyes points out, has cost her every human relationship she's ever had. "What else are you willing to sacrifice," he asks, and she retorts, "Everything."

Halsey hacks Makee's comm system and asks her to bring the Keystone to her (Dr. Halsey), claiming that it cannot be safely entrusted to UNSC control. Makee identifies that Halsey, like Makee herself, is not particularly fond of her own race; Halsey can only protest, "I love humanity... But humans are the problem." Makee, however, is terrified as Halsey tips her Evilutionary Biologist hand, and ends the communication.

Halsey finally enacts her plan: using back channels, she initiates "Zed Protocol," and under its auspices orders Vannak, Riz and Kai to (armor up and) bring her the Keystone and Makee. John, she claims, is compromised and not to be trusted; she bribes Cortana by promising her full control of the Master Chief as intended, and, when Kai protests, has her two loyal SPARTANs knock Kai out and handcuff her to a sink in their barracks. But Cortana is the Wild Card in the equation: she warns John of the trap he and Makee are heading into. John retreats to a SPARTAN training bay while Makee seeks refuge with Keyes, Parangosky and the Keystone. John, unarmored, doesn't fare too well two-on-one, and even the interruption of Kai, freed and furious, is only enough to bring the fight to a stalemate. Makee, meanwhile, finds her cover blown when Miranda dashes in: she's succeeded at unscrambling that Covenant transmission from the USS Gladius. A guard shoves Makee to the floor and applies a shock baton, leading to flashbacks of her poor treatment as a child and a reminder of Halsey's words.

Both situations are resolved when Makee, firmly returned to Covenant allegiance, grabs the Keystone, producing a massive surge of energy which knocks everyone to the floor. John finds himself back on the vision of Halo, where Makee wishes him a sorrowful goodbye.

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Tropes:

• Aliens Are Bastards: Just to remind us that the Covenant also can Kick the Dog, we have the glassing of an entire colony of millions. Keyes can't even send a rescue mission for fear of leading the Covenant to other worlds they can destroy.
• Ambiguous Situation: Beyond the obvious of hormones, there's very little exploration of what drives John and Makee to copulate.^note One of the first questions — how a human raised by aliens could have learned about sexual intercourse, which the aliens of the Covenant might not do and which they might do using quite different physical actions if they do it — is never answered. Additionally, is Makee a Femme Fatale, In Love with the Mark, or rediscovering some of her humanity? John's motivation is at least more clear: while he presumably learned about the birds and the bees, SPARTANs in the Prime Timeline have explicitly had their sex drives stifled, and the Silver Timeline has made a big deal of the Emotion Suppression pellet. And, as someone with the emotional maturity of a 14-year-old, it's not out-of-character for him to fall for a Femme Fatale act. There's also the fact that both of them are going through parallel emotional journeys in terms of their Coming of Age Story, learning to think for themselves and question what they have been told, and would therefore feel a natural kinship. Finally, there's also passing dialog about the two having their vitals still in sync, so it could also be a residual effect of the Keystone linking them.
• Band of Brothers: Kai has recuperated from her injuries and as further sign of her Character Development she is shown playing games and joking with regular marines.
• Bash Brothers: Taking a lesson from the previous episode that Chief doesn't need step-by-step combat instructions, Cortana instead feeds him more useful options like a weakened servo in Vannak's armor, and even remote controls a Warthog to give him some breathing room.
• Becoming the Mask: Makee was attempting a Wounded Gazelle Gambit to infiltrate the UNSC and gain access to the Keystone, similar to how she infiltrated the Gladius. But the ethereal experience seeing Halo with John, their growing emotional connection, and seeing some of the culture of humanity again has her start questioning her original goal. She ends up removing her hidden energy finger blade after having opportunity to kill John, seemingly with the intent on changing sides and helping humanity find Halo. But Miranda identifying her as being part of the Gladius attack destroys the limited trust that was being built up, and a MP tasing her only brings back memories of her childhood abuse, so she goes through with the original Covenant plan.
• Bench Breaker: A literal version. Vannak and Riz leave Kai handcuffed to a concrete bench in their barracks, the cuffs strong enough to withstand even the extreme strength of a Spartan. Unable to break the cuffs directly, Kai instead kicks the bench her arms are cuffed around until it breaks, allowing her to just pull her hands over the stump.
• Big Damn Heroes: Just when Vannak and Riz have John dead to rights, Kai bursts in to rescue him.
• Big Word Shout: John ignores Cortana trying to warn him until she shouts "STOP!"
• Car Fu: Cortana remotely activates a Warthog and drives it into Vannak to temporarily disable him so John can focus his attention on Riz.
• Character Development: Halsey offers Cortana the chance to take over John completely like she originally wanted, but she no longer wants that.
• Crazy-Prepared: While the Zed Protocol sounds like—and was probably framed to the SPARTANs as—a contingency plan against a Military Coup, it's likely not a coincidence that it also gives Dr. Halsey a means of directly controlling her creations independent of the chain-of-command.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: John is severely outmatched by two Spartans in full armor while he's only wearing his undersuit, but with Cortana's aid he manages to hold his own for far longer than one would expect.
• Fingore: Makee pulls the plasma blade implant from her finger, which requires pulling out the entire fingernail, revealing the actual device is embedded about an inch into her finger.
• Gambit Pileup: Parangosky decides to accelerate Halsey's departure for a remote lab off-planet because they don't want her anywhere near the Keystone when they test it with Makee. Halsey, knowing this is her only chance to achieve her goals, activates the Zed Protocol, ordering the Spartans to retrieve John, Makee and the Keystone to bring to Halsey and make an escape. Cortana finds herself questioning this decision, and decides to abandon Halsey to warn John. As this happens, Miranda realizes Makee was involved with the attack on the Gladius and reports this to Parangosky, just as Makee has been brought to the Keystone. So at the same time there is a Spartan vs Spartan fight, Makee is being tased by an MP, which convinces her to lunge for the Keystone to fulfill her original goals.
• Godzilla Threshold: John convinces Parangosky and Jabob to allow Makee to use the Keystone, through which they may be able to locate the Covenant homeworld. The alternative is continuing to try and fight the Covenant conventionally with no means of retaliation, as they were just reminded the Covenant will glass planets in this conflict and they're bound to find Reach eventually.
• Heel–Face Turn: Relatively speaking, Cortana was acting under the directions of Dr. Halsey. As Halsey's actions get more and more extreme, and Cortana quietly contemplates the slippery slope she is riding, she decides to cut ties with Halsey and warn John of an ambush.
• Hope Spot: Thanks to John, Makee gradually sheds her misanthropic worldview and even removes her fingernail blade, abandoning the Covenant and her mission. Then she gets outed as the one behind the attack on the Gladius, which leads to an MP shocking her in the exact same way she was shocked as a child, causing all her hatred for humanity to come surging back...
• I Warned You: Adun warned Hasley that Cortana would turn against them.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Miranda cleans up the signal from the Gladius enough to realize Makee was behind the attack.
  • Halsey learns that Kai removed her hormone pellet. Since John and Cortana had already figured that out, it seems that both didn't think it worth mentioning to her.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Vannak, Riz and Kai are tuned in to a backdoor protocol Halsey put into their conditioning, and their goal is to incapacitate Master Chief. Kai is immediately cued in that something is not right, and ends up disabled by the other two. When they fight Chief is trying to get them to stand down, and there is hints that Riz is hesitating when she has a gun to his head, but the fight is interrupted before anything affirmative happens.
• Manchurian Agent: Halsey activates a secret Spartan signal she calls the Zed Protocol, where all upper UNSC leadership is declared compromised and the Spartans report to Halsey personally for everything. Riz and Vannak comply with no questions, but Kai is quick to realize something is not right. Riz and Vannak had previously indicated Undying Loyalty to Chief, but under the Zed Protocol even that is disregarded and they target Chief without hesitation. Riz seemingly hesitates to kill him, but Makee activating the Keystone interrupts that moral dilemma.
• Mexican Standoff: The battle between the Spartans ends with Kai and Vannak having drawn on each other, while Riz has a kill-shot on John and seems to hesitate to take it. Makee then activates the Keystone and the shockwave sends everyone flying.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Makee is on the edge of turning against the Covenant, but the reveal that she was behind the attack on the Gladius causes Parangosky to immediately distrust her. This is followed by a guard shocking her the same way she was shocked as a child, firmly turning her against humanity.
  • Halsey's attempted rebellion involves cutting comms to the facility so no one will realize what's happening until she's off-planet. Crucially, this break in communication allows Makee to be brought to the Keystone before Miranda, having figured out she was behind the attack on the Gladius, can inform Jacob and Parangosky of what she's learned.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • John is confident that Makee can be broken of her conditioning to the Covenant. Jacob is skeptical, as a lifetime of indoctrination doesn't simply go away, but John contends that if he can do so then Makee should be capable of the same.
  • Halsey taps into the comm system to talk to Makee remotely, trying to convince her to go along with a new plan to retrieve the artifact and John and get off Reach. When Makee questions Halsey's motivations, she goes on a monologue about the limitations of humanity, describing the need to find and control Halo. But Halsey's line "And then we will..." is finished by Makee with "become gods?" The look on her face clearly indicates that the Covenant religion and Halsey's science is not that far apart.
• Orbital Bombardment: We're shown the aftermath of a Covenant attack on Criterion. A city of 11 million people was reduced to molten slag by Covenant cruisers bombarding it from orbit.
• Poor Communication Kills: John and Kai failing to discuss with their fellow SPARTANs what they learned about Halsey's deception backfires badly.
• Scar Survey: John and Makee wordlessly examine each other's scars before making love.
• Scenery Gorn: The aftermath of a Covenant Orbital Bombardment is shown. Sustained plasma fire has reduced what was a city to a lava-filled hellscape.
• Spanner in the Works: Kai and Cortana serve as this for Halsey, the latter more than the former. Kai having removed her pellet means Halsey can't control her, so she has to hastily have Riz and Vannak knock her out and restrain her in the barracks. Kai escapes after regaining consciousness and immediately issues orders to have Halsey's ship locked down. Cortana, meanwhile, seeing the lengths Halsey will go to achieve her own agenda, warns John of the coming ambush and completely locks Halsey out of the UNSC network, leaving her plans at the mercy of fate.
• Super-Strength: Kai is shown engaging with regular marines as they bet how much she can lift on a pulley system. Even without her armor she was lifting a warthog off the ground with people inside. Later on during his fight with Vannak and Riz, Chief improvises weapons and shields using heavy weight lifting equipment as though they were casual items.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: This is quite likely the first time either Makee or John have had sex. John has had his hormones suppressed all his adult life. As the Blessed One, Makee would have been isolated from other human prisoners like Reth (whom we know met her) as much as possible to maintain the Covenant's control over her. When they make love it creates such an empathic bond that it makes Makee abandon her mission to kill him.
• With My Hands Tied: Kai enters the fight with Riz and Vannak with her cuffs still on. She maneuvers Riz into breaking them for her.
• Worf Had the Flu: Master Chief had to fight Vannak and Riz at the same time, which might have been slightly more in his favor if they weren't in full armor and him in just his undersuit.
• Wrecked Weapon: Chief manages to disarm Vannak of his DMR, but a punch from Riz shatters the gun and sends him flying backward.

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