Shortly after the events of Season 1, Master Chief has gone completely catatonic and Cortana is removed from his head. Six months later Silver Team is back in action—or so they say at ONI. In truth, they've been stuffed to minor jobs in evacuating civilians instead of being sent to the front lines, which is proving hard on their morale. In an attempt to recover a team on Sanctuary who's gone silent, Master Chief fends off a squad of Elites who had sabotaged a comms array and was only able to rescue one member of the team, Corporal Perez. Despite having Chief well outnumbered, the Elites leave as the Covenant start glassing the planet.
Back on Reach, Admiral Keyes debriefs Silver Team on the recent Covenant attacks, with planets like Sanctuary and Madrigal being glassed in the recent weeks. They are then introduced to James Ackerson, the new head of the Spartan Project. Despite some optimism in having someone with combat experience in charge, Chief sees a massive increase in UNSC propaganda with his armor at the forefront and Corporal Perez awarded a medal for bravery. Ackerson doesn't trust Chief after the incident with Cortana and will not send them to real combat missions where the Spartans can change the balance; their only concern is to evacuate the outer colonies and tell the inner colonies everyone is safe.
Soren observes the arrival of numerous refugees from the glassed planets arrive in The Rubble, where many are auctioned into indentured servitude. One offers valuable information, a lead on the missing Dr. Halsey which he quickly takes. His wife is concerned his judgement is impaired and isn't taking the greater Covenant threat seriously. When the refugee takes him deep into the wreck of a UNSC ship it proves to be a trap and he is promptly arrested.
In the Spartan locker room Silver Team interacts with Cobalt Team as they are being sent to investigate a comms relay. Chief sees that this might be a pattern and tells Cobalt this may be a trap and not to let their guard down. Chief goes down into a virtual brothel where he alters the appearance of the holographic courtesan to resemble Cortana, but ignores all attempts to chat and simply expresses his own feelings of being incomplete without Cortana and losing Makee.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Job Change: Instead of being the founder of the SPARTAN-III program, Ackerson is made the head of the SPARTAN-II program.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Ackerson absolutely despised Halsey and her SPARTAN-II program, having made the SPARTAN-III program just to one-up her. He has more respect for her work this time, and presents himself as more humane towards Silver Team despite his misgivings about Chief's hallucinations.
- Anime Hair: Curiously, Felix has a mop of blonde hair very carefully arranged on his forehead. Even when in the space suit this distinctive style is maintained.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Ackerson assures Silver Team that their missions in the outer colonies serve to make the inner colonies feel safe. John simply asks, "Are they?" Ackerson deflects.
- Ascended Extra: James Ackerson was a minor antagonist featured in Halo: The Fall of Reach, with later stories expanding his role as the man who founded the SPARTAN-III program and an intense rival of Dr. Halsey and her SPARTAN-II program (so much so that he tried to kill the Chief in the middle of a training exercise). He's made the head of the latter following Halsey's disgrace.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- After taking out several Elites, Chief is surrounded by a multitude of them while attempting to recover Corporal Perez. But they suddenly turn off their energy swords and disappear, right before the Covenant begin glassing the planet.
- Admiral Keyes mentions that Madrigal was glassed by the Covenant. While it seems like that Kwan Ha might have been among the victims, she turns up alive and well at the end of the episode, hiding in Soren's compound.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
- Ackerson tries to present himself as a Reasonable Authority Figure who values the SPARTAN-II soldiers as the best hope for humanity, but it's clear he's driven by his own ambitions (Parangosky describes him as such), and dismisses Chief's concerns about a long-term Covenant game plan as him just having hallucinations. Silver Team sees right through his facade and take a disliking to him.
- Felix seems like he's just a scared farmer's boy from Harvest, but he's actually a ruthless UNSC operative who successfully lures Soren into a trap and has him arrested.
- Broken Ace: Chief's skills are unquestionable as always, but he's hurting over the death of Makee and the fact that the UNSC removed Cortana from him. Ackerson senses it enough that he doesn't buy Chief's report of encountering an army of Elites, chalking it up to hallucinations from his trauma.
- Cassandra Truth:
- Chief's claims that he was facing an army of multiple Elites is dismissed by Ackerson on the grounds that Chief may still be experiencing hallucinations from the trauma of his recovered memories, as well as Cortana being removed from his body. While ex-Admiral Parangosky believes his claims, even Chief is convinced he's seeing things.
- Soren himself is told that he's losing his touch by his own wife, and that he should just accept reality has changed with the Covenant forces rapidly attacking the outer worlds. Soren stubbornly dismisses those concerns out of hand, and it gets him captured by the UNSC.
- Central Theme: Uncertainty in changing times. The Covenant have ramped up their assaults on UNSC colonies, and ONI is trying to play damage control by using the SPARTAN program as PR to make it seem like the situation isn't as bad as it truly is. The pirates on Rubble are just as frightened by the prospects of the Covenant, and Soren's nonchalant adherence to the status quo rather than acknowledging that times are changing is not helping morale. And Chief himself is still reeling with the death of Makee and the removal of Cortana, uncertain of himself and his own eyes as he's trying to protect the only family he has left.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The role of the SPARTAN program's new handler is Ackerson, a military veteran. Unlike Halsey, a scientist who believes that her "children" are the future of humanity's evolution, and is willing to cross any moral line to accomplish her goals, Ackerson is an ambitious bureaucrat who sees the SPARTAN program as a PR tool, respecting its troops, but not convinced they are capable of handling the more dangerous missions. Silver Team hates Ackerson right out of the gate, instead of holding all respect for Halsey until the truth of what she did to them is revealed.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The communications team sent to fix the array are slaughtered by the Elites. Chief turns the tables on what forces do attack him, though they strangely decide not to finish him off when he's outnumbered.
- Deadly Euphemism: The Marine Captain tells a civilian on Sanctuary that he's authorized to use whatever force necessary to "protect" her- by which he means forcibly removing her people from the planet.
- Don't Celebrate Just Yet:
- The Chief successfully kills the attacking Elites and goes to check on Perez. As he's doing so, a dozen more appear. After a tense moment, they simply fall back without engaging, and the Chief spots a human figure among them.
- An evacuation ship manages to lift off before the Covenant glasses the site, only to take a plasma beam right through it, killing everyone aboard.
- Face Death with Dignity: A local Shaman and accompanying acolytes refuse to leave Sanctuary even though the Covenant is in orbit. She explains that the UNSC had already relocated them a couple decades earlier from a more hospitable planet, and feel there is no value in running to something worse. Chief last sees them approaching a molten lake from a glassing laser.
- A Father to His Men: Chief begs Ackerson to warn Cobalt Team about a possible Covenant force hiding in plain sight, not wanting them to get killed in an ambush.
- Hidden Depths: Vannak started watching nature documentaries since he took out his pellet.
- Impeded Communication: The comm array on Sanctuary is malfunctioning, putting out interference that blocks radios within a short distance. This prevents anyone from confirming the Chief's story about the Elite ambush, since the Sole Survivor of the repair team doesn't back him up.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Chief found a couple of abandoned vehicles where a comm team was sent to, then they started shooting at him in panic. He calls off their attack, commenting that he knows they are the tech team because of their poor aim.
- Indentured Servitude: On The Rubble, refugees are sold into indentured service to bidders for two years, assuming they have something of value to contribute. A criminal is seen as more valuable than Felix, an agricultural technician, because the former is good for manual labor and Felix's skills aren't in high demand on a space station.
- Interservice Rivalry: Cobalt Team trade some hostile barbs with Silver Team, implied due to Halsey favoring them. Notably, though, they are still very respectful to Master Chief personally.
- Invisibility Cloak: The Elites on Sanctuary uses cloaking devices to cover their approach, a tactic especially effective in the dense fog.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Sure, Ackerson is clearly trying to hold Chief and his team back for PR purposes, but his questions about Chief's well-being aren't entirely unfounded; even Chief himself comes to wonder if the trauma of losing Makee and being separated from Cortana is causing him to hallucinate.
- Killed Offscreen: Madrigal is confirmed to be one of the many victims of the Covenant's forces in between seasons.
- The Lost Lenore: Chief has been having faint hallucinations since the events of the last episode. He visits a virtual brothel to try and create an avatar that resembles Cortana, but uses it more of a therapy session to express himself without military record. It's clear the loss of both Cortana and Makee had left an impact on him that he is struggling to reconcile.
- Lured into a Trap: Soren is given intel on Halsey's location by a civilian who ends up at Rubble. Soren is suspicious, so he takes the guy along for the ride. When they finally reach the cryo-pod Halsey is supposedly in, Soren realizes he's been duped and he's arrested by the UNSC.
- Meet the New Boss: Ackerson is introduced as the new head of the Spartan Program. He comes across slightly more of a Frontline General since he has combat experience but it's evident he doesn't trust the Spartans for truly dangerous missions, John especially due to his unique situation with Cortana.
- Mythology Gag: Ackerson is placed in charge of a SPARTAN program, being described as a military veteran turned desk jockey, driven solely by ambition. His entire character is summed up in such a manner during The Fall Of Reach.
- The Nose Knows: The Chief can't see the Elites through the fog and their cloaks, but he can smell them.
- Offhand Backhand: The Chief dodges one of the attacking Elites without looking and blows him away with a shotgun in the same motion.
- Platonic Prostitution: Chief goes to an alley used for virtual brothels and is greeted by a hologram. He inputs a chip that brings up appearance preferences that makes the virtual courtesan resemble Cortana. While the hologram tries talking to him and figuring out what he wants, he basically just talks to himself that he feels something is missing with Cortana gone as well as what happened with Makee. Earlier he affirmed to Ackerson that Cortana... "It" was out of his head, making this come across as a therapy session without risk of compromising his military duties.
- Put on a Bus: Cortana was taken out of Chief's systems (though the opening scene implies that won't be the case forever). It's affected him more than he thought, as he's visiting an A.I. sex service on his off hours to try and "recreate" her, to little success.
- Rank Up: Captain Keyes is now an Admiral in the UNSC.
- The Reveal: After several mentions of Madrigal being glassed Kwan's fate was left in the air. She is revealed at the very end as now living in The Rubble and has a friendship with Soren's son.
- The Scapegoat: Admiral Parangosky has been booted out of the UNSC, made the fall guy for Dr. Halsey's experiments.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Soren's crew runs for safety and leaves their boss to the UNSC's mercy.
- Slave to PR: The Spartans are used heavily in UNSC propaganda, Master Chief especially. The reality is they have been doing less and less actual combat missions and more low key civilian rescues, implying to be because they want everyone to see them. Chief and the other Spartans can see through this and believe it's a mistake, they are deflecting the reality of the threat hoping no one panics.
- Soft Reboot: A handful of plotlines were left dangling at the end of season one, with the assumption season two would follow through with them. This episode is quick to alter a lot of things and use a Time Skip to establish a new status quo, no major characters are dropped and the story associated with them is implied but it feels more like a Sequel Reset.
- Chief had himself gravely injured so Cortana could take control, leaving him as seemingly an Empty Shell with a massive question mark on how much of him was left. How will he come back? The first shot of this episode has him flatlining and doctors mention they are removing Cortana from his head. Six months later and he is back to normal. Mostly...
- Madigral's struggle for independence and the conflict between Vinsher Grath's UNSC loyalists and the former Insurrectionists comes to a brutal end as the planet is glassed offscreen by the Covenant. Kwan's position as restoring the mission of her father and learning more about Forerunner secrets on Madrigal is seemingly dropped as she evacuated the planet and was sold into slavery on The Rubble - though the secrets part could be translated to whatever monster she was speaking of along with the cave markings in the end.
- Dr. Halsey managed to distract the UNSC with a flash clone and escape into hiding, implying she had a network of people loyal to her that will let her continue machinations from a distance. This episode uses rumors of where she is hiding as a trap for Soren, while the actual situation she is in is followed up in the next episode and it is not what would be expected.
- Sole Survivor: Chief goes out to recover a comms team at a relay station that wasn't reporting in. Of the four, three are killed by cloaked Elites but Chief manages to rescue one, Corporal Perez. She is brought back to Reach and public relations gives her a commendation twisting the story that she helped fight off the Covenant and rescue the civilians.
- Spotting the Thread:
- Chief believes he's found one that's far outside Covenant tactics when he sees they've taken a communications relay. Normally, they would just glass the planet unless it has Foreunner artifacts, but this colony didn't. Chief rightly suspects they're planning something big, possibly a training ground for a bigger invasion, but Ackerson dismisses his concerns as hallucinations from removing Cortana. It turns out he was right, as they have a massive fleet in hiding.
- During his hunt for Halsey, Soren suspects something is off about Felix. Those suspicions are confirmed when Felix fails to identify which panel he saw fall from the cargo container she was hiding in, but by then it's too late; Soren's crew takes off without him, a group of Marines emerges from the shadows, and Felix has Soren arrested for piracy, kidnapping, and treason.
- Time Skip: About six months have passed since the events of the last episode, the first scene implies John's body was going catatonic after that mission and Cortana was removed from his head. Silver Team is shown back in operation in the next scene.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Vannak and Riz are a lot more light-hearted and give off playful banter compared to how stoic they were last season, mainly as a result of them taking out their pellets.
- Tranquil Fury: Chief storms into Ackerson's office to confront him about not informing Cobalt Team about his intel, being just a hair's breadth away from turning his new boss into pulp.
- Visible Invisibility: The Elites are at first completely invisible, yanking the repair team members into the fog as if being pulled by nothing. When they move to attack the Chief, they become slightly easier to spot as distortions in their cloaks appear.
- Wham Shot: The Elite leader appears at the end, watching as an entire Covenant fleet emerges from beneath the fog.
- Workout Fanservice: Silver Team are shown changing in a locker room, with everyone in some form of exercise attire.
- Worthy Opponent: To a small degree, Chief mentions that the Elites that nearly attacked him before running off had one who was clearly the leader. Ackerson questions how he knows that was the leader and he implies he knows certain qualities.
