Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Halo episode three, “Emergence.”
The highly-anticipated Halo series on Paramount Plus continued this week with a third episode that was a far cry from the show’s first two action-packed outings. Here’s everything that went down in “Emergence.”
Warning: Spoilers to follow.
At the end of last week’s episode, Master Chief leaves Kwan Ha with his old friend Soren and surrenders himself to the UNSC. Being their most decorated soldier, though, the powers that be decide to mitigate his punishment by forcing him to adopt Cortana, Dr. Halsey’s artificial intelligence which will serve as a failsafe of sorts if John betrays his orders again.
Master Chief finally succumbs to the decision and prepares himself for Cortana’s neural implant. Meanwhile, it’s revealed that Cortana is basically modeled after Halsey’s own brain and even resembles her visually. The artificial intelligence, portrayed by her video game voice actor Jen Taylor, comes to life and introduces herself to both the characters and the viewers.
Elsewhere, we learn that the Blessed One, conspiring with the Covenant, was actually a human worker whom the aliens abducted in childhood. The Blessed One infiltrates a UNSC ship and kills everyone on board but fails to learn the location of Planet Reach, UNSC’s headquarters.
Master Chief sees more visions of his childhood, but can’t make sense of them due to the emotional inhibitor inside his body. The protagonist decides to remove the chip with Cortana’s help, once again interacting with the ancient artifact and learning the name of his home planet, where another part of the device is supposedly stored.
John also learns through the memories that he had a rough relationship with his parents, especially his father, but according to what Halsey reveals at the end of the episode, he’s still far from learning the real truth. Master Chief, Halsey, and Cortana then make their way to the home planet aboard a spaceship in the hope of finding the other half of the mysterious artifact.
Halo continues next week on April 14. You can now catch the first three episodes in the series on Paramount Plus or via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate if you have a subscription.
