In the Time Skip since the previous episode, Dr. Halsey has been able to set up a temporary base on Eridanus II surrounding the Second Keystone, which her team cannot move: it's glued into a pillar that resists all attempts to shatter it. Silver Team, Captain Keyes and Miranda, amongst others, are deployed aboard the UNSC Pioneer in support of the effort. Miranda gets a particularly warm welcome when she makes a suggestion to Halsey and then gets bluntly ignored. Meanwhile, John, seeing Kai's red-streaked hair, recognizes that she has removed her pellet and grounds her immediately, pronouncing her unready for combat. Kai protests that he ought to be grounding himself as well, since she only did it because she saw him do it.
On Madrigal, Soren's motorcycle breaks down. He handcuffs Kwan to its carcass while he goes to scare up a new vehicle. She manages to break free and then ambushes him when he returns, hitting him with a stun baton, grabbing his revolver and holding him at gunpoint. That is the complete extent of this subplot. Elsewhere on the planet, Makee is leading the search for the Keystone. Her Sangheili confirm that the artifact is no longer on the planet, but she insists that the ruins may lead them to the companion artifact. Sure enough, her hunch pays off when, on Eridanus II, the Second Keystone suddenly breaks free of its crystal pillar, releasing a signal that resonates with the ruins on Madrigal, through which Makee is able to divine its location.
John discusses his memories with Captain Keyes, whom he looks up to: he is frustrated to know, from the recollection of Dr. Halsey in his parents' kitchen, that he has been lied to. Since the episode's opening Flashback is of Dr. Halsey and Jacob Keyes visiting Eridanus II in the guise of prospective colonists and observing a six-year-old John, Keyes is only so willing to open up the investigation, preferring to focus on retrieving the Second Keystone. John then asks Cortana to look up records of his stay in the orphanage and adoption by the SPARTAN program. When Cortana discovers that those records don't exist, for him or any other Spartan, he knows something is up. To get answers, he decides to touch the Second Keystone, despite Cortana warning that its vastly greater power could kill him. With it, he has a flashback of his own kidnapping from his parents' house, with Dr. Halsey administering the Instant Sedation. Overcome with Unstoppable Rage — remember, he's missing his Emotion Suppression pelletnote — he lunges at Halsey, who has Cortana render him unconscious.
Chief awakens and begins to chase after Halsey, only to be interrupted: the Covenant have arrived. In a Big Badass Battle Sequence, Covenant Banshees take out the Pioneer, and Grunts and Jackals are dropped in massive numbers. Kai, ordered into battle by Miranda, reports for duty, and Chief details her and Keyes to defend the cave whence the Second Keystone lived, now housing all non-combatants, while he, Riz and Vannak drive the Keystone via Warthog up out of the excavation area to the Endymion, Halsey's personal Drop Ship. Unfortunately, the Warthog is knocked over by a crashing Banshee and the Keystone is thrown from the wreck. Meanwhile, there's a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome for Kai down below: without the pellet, she's overwhelmed by the battle and almost defeated. John saves her by commandeering a Banshee and smashing it into the Phantom, dealing with the survivors by hand — and a side helping of Extreme Mêlée Revenge that even Kai, wounded though she is, recognizes for what it is. However, a Covenant Spirit shows up and deploys a Brute; using his Gravity Hammer, he knocks John away long enough to grab the Second Keystone and make his escape.
While Vannak and Riz check in on Kai, John takes stock of the situation, and trips over the most unexpected survivor he could imagine: a human who escaped the Covenant ship in the melee. It's Makee.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: John blows the Second Keystone Escort Mission to save Kai.
- Blind Obedience: Kai tries to get Vannak to question why the Covenant want the artifacts or why they want to kill humanity, but all Vannak cares about is their mission. For the first time, we get a good look at why UNSC rank and file sometimes find SPARTANs creepy.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Almost literally in this case. In the previous episode, Kai's description of how the Needlers work serves as a setup for this episode, in which we see it in action — Ludicrous Gibs and all.
- Also the shockstick Kwan picked up in the previous episode is used by her to stun Soren.
- Conflict Killer: The Covenant arriving sidelines the conflict between John and Halsey, and to a lesser extent his issue with Kai removing her pellet.
- Curb-Stomp Cushion: The Covenant attack is rather decidedly a defeat for the UNSC, losing their ship, many soldiers and the artifact. But the Covenant lost most of their infantry they deployed, only managing to acquire the artifact with quick action rather than expert strategy.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: When John realizes that Kai removed her pellet as he did he declares her unfit for duty and tells her to stay low, and she points out he is similarly compromised. When the Covenant attack they both jump in as they have been trained to do, but without the pellet they are unable to keep their combat focus as they usually do. Kai ends up having a panic attack after being knocked away by an explosion, and while John is able to stay in the fight he is clearly more emotionally driven and goes into an Unstoppable Rage in order to protect Kai.
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge: In saving Kai from an Elite, John loses his temper and punches the Elite in the face repeatedly before crushing its skull with his boot.
- Face Palm: Kwan after realising she's tossed away her water bottle in her rage after Soren cuffs her to the bike.
- Fakeout Escape: After breaking her cuffs, Kwan buries herself under the sand until Soren returns with a vehicle, then ambushes him when his guard is down, thinking she's tried walking off across the desert.
- Flashback: The episode opens on a flashback to the Eridanus II settlement while the Reach for Life program was still operational. Halsey and Keyes are being given a tour when John saves another child from falling from a great height — despite deliberately knocking that child off that height — thus showing how Halsey first took an interest in him.
- Heroic BSoD: Kai first freezes up, and then panics in the middle of a firefight, when she first has to come to grips with the emotions involved in seeing numerous Marines dying right in front of her.
- Indentured Servitude: Annoyed at the loss of his ship and lack of payout, Soren decides that Kwan will have to work off her debt to him, whether she wants to or not.
- Internal Reveal: John realizes that Kai has removed her pellet, and she likewise reveals that she did it after observing him doing the same.
- Invasion of the Baby Snatchers: John's latest memory involves being kidnapped by Halsey, and replaced with a (presumably flash-cloned) substitute.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- John grounds Kai because she's removed her pellet, reasoning that she's a liability. She points out the same is true of him. Both Sides Have a Point: Kai has a panic attack mid-battle, and John loses his temper while saving her.
- Despite her being positioned as, arguably, the main villain within the UNSC, this episode also shows that Halsey was right to have those Emotion Suppression pellets installed. John may be a better fighter with it gone, but he's a worse soldier, and is unquestionably the sole point of failure who lets the Covenant get the Second Keystone.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- During the battle, John runs out of ammo, and Cortana reminds him, "Switch to secondary!", which references players in the video game quick-drawing another weapon during combat.
- John replies, "I know how the game is played."
- Mythology Gag:
- The Warthog run eventually involves all three SPARTANs piling into it, Riz in the back manning the Gatling Good and Vannak in the front passenger seat firing his pistol while John drives. This is a very familiar experience to anyone who has played Halo multiplayer.
- When Chief and Cortana go into combat for the first time, she tries offering advice to micromanage his actions, while he responds with "I know how the game is played." This is similar to a scene in The Fall of Reach, where Chief and Cortana's first time working together was a live fire training exercise and she would relay information and advice he already knew from years of combat experience.
- Pet the Dog:
- In her personal and professional life Halsey barely even acknowledges Miranda, her own daughter, even exists. But when Miranda is caught under fire Halsey doesn't hesitate to run out and help her to cover.
- Much as Miranda resents it, her father abruptly taking her off the artifact study is meant to protect her in case the scandal her parents were involved in came out.
- Shame If Something Happened: When Parangosky threatens to pull the plug on Halsey's retrieval of the artifact, noting how Halsey has been willing to lie to get what she wants, Halsey says that Admiral Hood would have to be put in the loop and would implicitly scapegoat Parangosky if his own involvement were investigated. This makes Parangosky back down.
- Super-Speed: The Spartans get to show off how fast they are during their run to the Endymion, keeping up with a Warthog going full throttle, on foot, at a dead sprint.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: John and Kai had removed their hormonal suppression pellets and start experiencing a fuller array of emotions, Chief did it to unravel the mystery of the Madrigal artifact and its impact on him while Kai was just curious. Those pellets were meant to help the Spartans maintain extreme combat focus, and John intends to keep Kai out of combat when he finds out what she did. In their first battle after removing them Kai finds herself having a panic attack when things start getting messy, while John disobeys orders and fights with atypical rage. They've never had to fully comprehend their own emotions in a battle, and with the pellets gone they don't know how to manage without them.
- This Is Gonna Suck:
- On facing the Brute, Master Chief asks Cortana for a weapon. Her response is: "I don't think that will do much good."
- Makee does not look happy about being dropped into the midst of her enemies with only a plasma blade hidden in her finger.
- Throw-Away Guns: Master Chief engages a battalion of Covenant soldiers starting with using all his magnum ammo, throwing it at a Grunt and grabbing a shotgun off the ground. He proceeds to cycle through any weapons he could find nearby, trying to keep shooting over looking for more ammunition for the right gun. This is a Mythology Gag from the games, which was built around being selective over which two guns you can use and grabbing enemy guns when needed (John grabbing and utilizing a Jackal shield is especially notable, as doing so has been a fan request for years, and this is the first time anyone has actually done so).
- Unstoppable Rage: When John uses the second Keystone to access his dormant memories, he realizes that Halsey abducted him for the SPARTAN program and attacks her in a rage, only being stopped because Cortana shuts him down. When the Covenant show up, it's put on the back burner.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Makee is sent down in a drop pod, which the Covenant then fire upon, so she'll be taken by the UNSC and hopefully lead her to the Keystone's location.
