John, Kai, Perez, Ackerson and Soren all choose their sides.

The big thing I’m taking away from this season of the show is how much more confident it is. The opening scene here shows that perfectly, with John and Makee debating what their beliefs mean for the galaxy in a shared vision of the Halo. Ahmadu Garba’s directorial choices here are great, both John and Makee seeing the blurs of adversaries entering the room. Literally challenging what they’re both trying to do, changing the reality around them. It’s fun, clever, subtle stuff and the entire episode works on this level.

It’s also pleasingly character driven, and gives everyone some really interesting things to do. Halsey, Keyes and Kwan discover a city beneath Onyx and a puzzle that locates the Halo and tells them all how different they are. Natasha McElhone, Olive Gray and Yerin Ha have always been good but they’re on top form here and the way the show steers Kwan’s sometimes infuriating visions into the main plot is fantastic. There’s a major element of the Halo universe we haven’t seen yet and this sequence, with stars going red as they flee from the room, suggests we’re about to get a… let’s say Flood, of answers.

Elsewhere Schreiber, Rodlo and Kennedy do fantastic work as three soldiers fighting on different fronts. Schreiber has been great all season but the moments here where we see the Chief make his peace with his reputation being larger than his needs are fantastic. Kennedy too is superb, as she’s always been, as a Spartan with a different worldview but no less of an iron core. As Master Chief to Kai, Kai to Perez and the horrors all three face are presented honestly and poignantly. These soldiers have lost everything but their lives. So back on the line they go, because that’s what they want to do.

Soren’s plot is a clever mirror of that, as Laera finally calls him on the fact he misses being a Spartan. Soren finally chooses a side when he rescues his son from a training mission that broke him as a child and it’s a moment that gives Bokeem Woodbine even more great material in a season where he’s been a breakout star. It also emphasizes the show’s multi-faceted exploration of the costs of war. The remnants of Silver Team, the SPARTAN-IIIs, Parangosky, Ackerson and Soren and Laera and all the rest have been fighting the gravity of the war and the Halo.

Verdict: Next week, that gravity overwhelms them all. But this week we’ve got another great episode in a ridiculously strong season. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart