The invasion of Reach has begun. As Master Chief and Perez move through the city, Perez attempts a detour to save her family, only for their home to be bombed to rubble. Chief has to keep her on mission and establishes the goal is to get to Fleetcom. They rendezvous with Riz who is working with a squad of marines alongside Louis. They gather a small squad to punch through enemy lines and Riz regretfully tells Louis that Denilo had died. Grief stricken but angry, he rushes a Wraith tank with a stack of grenades to clear the path.
Soren and Halsey discuss their complicated feelings seeing each other after so long, but the Covenant attack breaks down their virtual prison. They explore their environment, discovering dead marines with plasma burns, and eventually reach the room with Cortana. Their reunion is short as she tells them to run and Makee appears, taking Cortana's data core and the Elite commander chases them out, with Soren using a grenade to block their escape.
Chief, Riz and Perez arrive at Fleetcom and reunite with Vannak, who tells them their armor is gone. Keyes is coordinating the defenses and reveals to Chief he was right about everything. He rallies the remaining troops to protect the transports, introducing John-117 as the famous Master Chief to bolster their courage. Chief leads the marines to hold the Covenant at the bridge.
Halsey and Soren find Keyes and they exchange all relevant information, including that Miranda is not on Reach. A group of jackals slip into the hanger bay, splitting everyone up. Keyes has Perez pilot the transport to save the civilians while he uncouples the fuel lines. With the jackals surrounding him, he allows the gas to drift and orders Perez to take off. The resulting explosion kills the jackal team and Keyes while the transport leaves safely.
Silver Team return to Fleetcom and meet with Halsey and Soren. They are then ambushed by Elites and Jackals, with the Elite commander leading them. Chief engages the commander in a protracted duel but another elite shoots him in the abdomen, for which the commander executes him. Makee arrives and calls off the commander from killing Chief, but when Vannak rushes him with a needler the commander kills him with one of the shards before departing. Riz and Soren pull Chief to safety as the city is on fire.
Tropes:
- Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Shortly after escaping the first round of bombing, Chief and Perez make their way through an antique shop where the caretaker berates them for disrespecting the items around them. Perez invites her to leave as they are under attack while she affirms this is where she is staying. Chief recognizes it as her own way to Face Death with Dignity, and they leave.
- Adapted Out:
- Since the SPARTAN-IIs in this series are Composite Characters with the SPARTAN-IIIs, Noble Team does not appear in this version of the Fall of Reach.
- One critical plot point from The Fall of Reach was the presence of the Circumference, an ONI Prowler that had crucial intel on the location of Earth (amongst other details) in its systems, leading to a mission where Chief was sent to destroy it before it fell into enemy hands. Since ONI bailed before the invasion began, the Circumference is not present on Reach, though Cortana would no doubt present a similar security concern based on how Keyes reacts when told of her theft.
- Anyone Can Die: The body count in this episode alone is staggering. Disregarding the millions of offscreen casualties across the planet, several dozen Marines and civilians are killed on-screen. Among named characters seen in previous episodes: Perez's family, Louis and his husband, Admiral Keyes, and Vannak.
- Badass Bystander: The episode is filled with random marines offering assistance, most of whom die in the process.
- Band of Brothers: Keyes invokes this during his Rousing Speech, telling the Marines that, even though they're staying to die, they won't die alone; rather, they'll be side by side with their brothers and sisters.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: while the Halo TV show has had impressive action scenes in the past, this entire episode is devoted to the Covenant invasion of Reach.
- Born Lucky: When Perez is shell shocked, Chief keeps pushing her forward. She asks how he can keep doing that and he tells the story of Halsey testing him with eleven coin flips. She attributes his accuracy to luck, but he insists he knew how the coin would land. He says he's always been confident in a fight because he knows he'll survive, but with regret mentions that he's lost a lot of friends.
- Bottle Episode: the episode focuses exclusively on the UNSC's efforts to hold Reach. Anyone who isn't directly involved in the fighting (Parangosky), has already bugged out (Ackerson), or is elsewhere (Kwan Ha, Laera and Kessler) just doesn't appear, though their names remain in the opening credits.
- Brick Joke: As they part ways, Chief tosses Perez a coin "for luck". Then he calls out "heads" just to prove his earlier point.
- Brought Down to Badass: This trope is evoked through the Spartans being without access to their armor. They are still augmented Super Soldiers with added strength and trained in every weapon available, and demonstrate a cool head and fast decision making that makes them perform well above the regular marines around them.
- Call-Back: Chief tells Perez the story of Halsey testing him with a coin flip and he called it eleven times in a row.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Makee orders the Arbiter to spare the Chief after he's been wounded, simply saying "Not yet."
- Cassandra Truth: Chief can only take so much pleasure when Keyes tells him everything he believed was true and that Ackerson had gaslighted everyone.
- Celebrity Paradox: In the antique shop a first generation Xbox can be seen on a shelf. The same XBox that had Halo: Combat Evolved as a launch title and Killer App.
- Crucified Hero Shot: After being killed by a needler shard, Vannak is shown sprawled out in this position.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Perez sees her building blown out and wants to find her family, but Chief insists they have to get back to Fleetcom in order to help mount a counteroffensive. She then starts telling as many civilians as she can to move and look for safety, but Chief keeps pushing her along. However good her intentions were, in a situation like this they couldn't get too caught up with every single person in danger.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Even out of armor, Chief is a formidable warrior and is able to dodge most of the attacks from the Elite commander in close quarters. He still ends up shot by another Elite because he failed to anticipate that their duel would be interrupted.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Chief tackles an Elite terrorizing a plaza, but not being in his armor or even carrying a proper weapon puts him at a disadvantage. You can see him struggling just a little without the added strength and taking some direct harm, since while he is strong enough to trade blows with the alien, he can't meaningfully harm it until Perez provides a stake for him to run through it.
- Death by Irony: Vannak had previously shown an appreciation for the Needler weapon. He uses a Needler against the Elite commander, managing to penetrate his armor with one of the shards, who pulls the shard out and stabs him in the chest with it before it explodes.
- Dented Iron: Riz jumps out of the second floor of a building after dropping some grenades behind her. While she lands fairly clean she clutches her side in pain, though quickly shrugs it off.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In canon, Captain Keyes was infected by the Flood on Installation 04, and John gave him a Mercy Kill to prevent him from being completely taken over. In the Silver Timeline, Admiral Keyes performs a Heroic Sacrifice to unhitch the fuel lines to the last transport leaving Reach, and kills the Jackals by detonating the fuel tank.
- Don't Ask, Just Run: When Halsey finds Cortana, Cortana's brief surprise is replaced with a simple command: "Run." Then Makee takes her drive from the holo-display, followed by the Arbiter slashing through he glass with a plasma sword. Both flee and Soren chucks a grenade behind him to discourage pursuit.
- Dying Moment of Awesome:
- After the death of his husband, Louis chooses to go out by grabbing a vest full of grenades and walking into a Covenant Wraith tank, completely destroying it.
- Keyes leaves the evacuation ship to disconnect the fuel lines and then detonates the remaining fuel to kill the Jackals surrounding him, allowing Perez to fly to safety.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Halsey is The Social Darwinist of the highest order, and has done many horrible things in the name of human evolution. When Keyes makes a Heroic Sacrifice, she's beyond devastated.
- Exact Words: Earlier in the season, Colonel Ackerson did say that Chief was just a man in a suit, and it didn't need to be him in it. Sure enough, he took all the MJOLNIR armors with him when left Reach.
- Facial Dialogue: After several conversations between Chief and Perez about what it means to be a soldier or Spartan, when they get to Fleetcom Chief prepares to leave her so he can get in his armor and return to the fight. She asks him if he's just going to leave without saying goodbye. He quietly just stares at her with an expression indicating she already knew the answer. It's possible this is the same expression he uses with the helmet on. Though he does offer her a coin from before "For luck."
- Forcefield Door: Halsey's holographic cell has an energy field that would ordinarily kill even a Spartan attempting to cross it, but a power failure shuts down the cell and allows her and Soren to simply walk out.
- Frontline General: Keyes is prepared to go to the front line himself, but Chief demands he stay behind because they need a leader more than just another soldier. He later had the option of leaving with one of the transports but chose to be the one to disengage the fuel lines so they could escape, dying to a trap he set up for the jackals that surrounded him.
- Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die: Keyes bluntly tells his Marines that anyone who stands and holds the line against the Covenant is going to die, but will be remembered as heroes by the civilians who they're defending as they evacuate Reach.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Louis detonates a grenade vest to destroy a Covenant Wraith threatening the squad.
- Keyes takes down the fuel lines holding the last transport in place, and detonates the rest of the fuel to kill all the Jackals, buying time for the transport to hightail it out.
- Hidden Depths: In what turns out to be one the last depths he ever shows, Vannak is shown feeding pigeons that he named in his spare time.
- Hold the Line: Keyes offers a Rousing Speech to the troops at Fleetcom and he is honest that most of them will likely die in the battle, but every person they evacuate will spread the story of this fight and help ensure humanity has another day.
- Insistent Terminology: The Spartan augmentation process was done with the knowledge that it could kill or permanently disable the recruits in some fashion, such as Soren's mutilated arm. Halsey expresses regret for what happened to him but describes it as an "accident," which causes Soren to do a double take over how she was justifying herself.
- Internal Reveal:
- Chief learns from Keyes that Cobalt Team is dead and the higher ups screwed Reach over. Later, he learns that Makee is still alive.
- Keyes likewise reveals the man behind the Master Chief armor, and shows what John truly looks like to the rest of the UNSC.
- Halsey and Soren were captured and contained together on Reach. When their cell lost power and they escaped, they find Keyes and the general reaction was more mild surprise rather than extreme shock, given the current situation that was going on.
- I Told You So: Keyes jokes that he had hoped Chief was dead so he wouldn't have to hear about how he was right about the Covenant.
- I Want Grandkids: Halsey lampshades this when asking about Soren's son Kessler, as it's her understanding that parents usually ask such things of their children. Halsey isn't actually committed to the idea, but there's an obvious scientific curiosity to her line of questioning, wondering how much of what she made him into passed onto his son.
- Lodged-Blade Recycling: The Arbiter rips out a Needler spike Vannak shot him with and uses it to stab Vannak in the heart. Then the round detonates, making it abundantly clear Vannak isn't getting back up.
- Mook Chivalry: Subverted. At first, the Arbiter and Chief duel each other among the chaos with the remainder choosing to stay out of it, until an over-eager Elite pops Chief in the abdomen with a plasma pistol while he's distracted. The Arbiter beheads his subordinate for interfering.
- More Expendable Than You: Chief follows orders to protect the transport, but absolutely refuses to allows Keyes to do the same, as his leadership will be needed if humanity is to have a chance. Sadly, Keyes dies anyway making sure the transport can escape.
- Mythology Gag:
- During their initial conversation, Keyes mentions that UNSC forces are attempting to defend the ground generators powering the orbital MAC guns, which are the only means to hold off the invasion force from glassing the planet. This was a key aspect to The Fall of Reach during the novel's events.
- Chief recognizes the strategy to hold the Covenant off for as long as possible as being similar to the Battle of Thermopylae. During his SPARTAN training, Chief and many of the others learned of ancient military battles for their own tactics, particularly this one.
- Before he commits his Heroic Sacrifice, Keyes pulls out a pipe. It was his Companion Cube during the original novel.
- Vannak is killed by a Needler, similar to Catherine-B320 being killed by a Needler Rifle during Halo: Reach.
- Chief shares with Perez the story of calling 11 coin flips in a row to Halsey, some call it luck but he just has a natural instinct that he'll win. The story comes from The Fall of Reach and adapted in season 1, but him being Born Lucky was part of Cortana's opening monologue in Halo 3.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Chief suffers from severe injuries and Vannak is killed because ONI took the MJOLNIR armor with them when they left Reach. They also rather inexplicably left Cortana behind, completely active, allowing the Covenant to potentially secure a vast database of UNSC secrets when Makee steals her storage unit.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The only reason Chief doesn't die horrifically before Makee can intervene is because another Elite tries to kill Chief with a plasma pistol. This angers the Arbiter enough that he cuts said Elite's head off, buying a precious few seconds that when he finally does go in for the kill, Makee arrives and tells him not to kill Chief.
- Not So Stoic: Previously Dr. Halsey would approach everything with a calm demeanor, with only a few gasps of surprise when in serious danger. After Keyes is killed she's reduced to a crying wreck, and with Soren observes the city still being attacked.
- Not Worth Killing: Despite his anger at what Halsey did to him, Soren decides not to bother. That said, he doesn't promise he won't accidentally hit her in the crossfire.
- Off with His Head!: Master Chief and the Arbiter are about to duel with energy swords when another Elite shoots Chief with a plasma pistol. The Arbiter is clearly unhappy and swiftly decapitates the offending Elite for interfering.
- Oh, Crap!: Both Halsey and Keyes are understandably horrified when they learn that Makee has stolen Cortana, giving the Covenant access to a living database of UNSC secrets.
- The Oner: A couple of action beats are unbroken for up to at least a minute, though you might catch some hidden cuts. Chief fighting an elite in a restaurant is one, while him reuniting with Riz and they punch through enemy lines is an especially long take.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Chief and the Arbiter are about to duel with plasma swords when another Elite knocks Chief down with a plasma shot. The Arbiter is furious that the battle was stolen from him and slices the offender's head off.
- Pet the Dog:
- Halsey shows a surprising amount of warmth towards Soren, praising his qualities as a child and even inquiring about his son. This only makes Soren nervous given their history.
- When they get back to Fleetcom, Chief is ready to get back in armor and leave Perez. She asks if that's it and he silently shrugs. He turns to leave, but then offers her the coin he took from the antique shop for luck.
- Point of Divergence: While the initial point was ONI hiding the truth about the Covenant's invasion from the public, their actions cause further changes to the Fall of Reach where Chief and Silver Team have no armor thanks to it being taken during their evacuation. This lack of extra protection results in Admiral Keyes dying on Reach to save civilians rather than making it to Installation 04, and Cortana being captured by enemy forces instead of being on the Pillar of Autumn by the time the invasion began.
- Precision F-Strike: Keyes caps off his Rousing Speech with "Let's show those scaly bastards they FUCKED with the wrong planet!"
- Put on a Bus: Miranda Keyes had already left Reach some time before the season began, but Admiral Keyes can't disclose where she is.
- The Reveal:
- Soren was allowed to escape the SPARTAN program because Halsey knew he held sway over the other candidates, including John. If he stayed around John may not have become the leader he needed to be, and implies if his augmentations had taken properly he might have been the lead Spartan over John. Halsey has also been keeping tabs on him from afar and knows about his son.
- Keyes puts together the puzzle and figures the Covenant disabled Visegrad relay to leave a gap in the sensor net, allowing smaller transports to sneak in. Now the battle centers on protecting the power stations that maintain the MAC array in orbit keeping the greater Covenant fleet away.
- Rousing Speech: Keyes gives one to the troops before they march out to their deaths, encouraging them to fight to the bitter end to buy time for the civilians to escape.
- Skewed Priorities: John and Perez encounter an antique shop owner who is more concerned with tidying up than fleeing to safety. Perez can't fathom her motivation but John knows that she's seeking comfort in the familiar in what she knows to be a hopeless situation.
- Taking You with Me: Both Louis and Keyes choose to die and take as many Covenant with them as possible so that others can make it to safety.
- Tricked into Escaping: Halsey reveals she deliberately weakened security at the Spartan training facility so Soren could escape, as allowing him to stay would have been detrimental to the morale of the others, given his charisma.
- Wham Episode: Reach has been nearly taken over by the Covenant; Louis, Vannak, and Keyes die in the line of duty; and Makee has stolen Cortana.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Kai is absent in the episode. While Chief thinks she's already fighting on the front lines, her conversation with Ackerson last episode implies that she may have gone with ONI when they bailed.
- Worf Had the Flu: Everyone was caught off guard and ill-equipped away from Fleetcom, and to rub salt in the wound, ONI absconded with Silver Team's armor. Thanks to that, the Spartans are not as devastating as they otherwise would be. Chief has an extended fight with an Elite with only a silverware knife, which is too small to even properly wound the warrior. He is only able to kill it thanks to Perez grabbing a larger stake. At Fleetcom, Chief ends up shot in the abdomen with a plasma pistol while fighting the Arbiter, and Vannak is killed when the Arbiter stabs him in the heart with a Needler spike, both of which would have been considerably less damaging and easily shrugged off were they in full gear.
