The USNC race to recover the second artefact before the Covenant can discover it, but Makee is on the hunt and conflict is inevitable. John makes a horrifying discovery about his past. Kwan and Soren have a disagreement.

So the second mysterious doohickey has been found, and now the USNC simply need to remove it before the Covenant come calling. Well, that should be easy enough, right?

Problem the first is that the thing is encased in rock and doesn’t seem to want to be moved. Problem the second is that the USNC has relatively little idea what the hell they are dealing with. That second one is what’s going to really cause them trouble.

Meanwhile, John is still stuck on the fact that he has memories of seeing Halsey before he was orphaned, meaning that she lied to him. Her explanation that he’s simply getting his memories confused due to emotions isn’t washing, and it isn’t helping his agitation on this point that even Cortana, blessed with the whole of human knowledge, has no record of either him or his fellow Spartans in terms of their origins. When he takes the inevitable decision, it puts Cortana in the position of having to make a choice, and whereas that choice might seem straightforward, I’m still not entirely convinced how much Cortana is obeying everything she’s ordered to do by Halsey and how much she’s being protective of John – time will tell I guess.

On Madrigal, Kwan and Soren aren’t having the best of times. Kwan still can’t accept that her father’s rebellion is dead and gone, and Soren really doesn’t have the time or patience for any of it. When their bike breaks down, so too does their tenuous relationship, and things escalate very directly. I wonder how this will play out, not least because I’m still struggling to get an exact read on Soren – promises to be interesting.

Inevitably, the Covenant, led by Makee, do find the second artefact, which means – you guessed it – it’s time for another extended set of action scenes to remind you of the games you played that made you care about this IP in the first place. Once again it’s well enough done, recalling the games and delivering competently shot action. Where it struggles a little is that it can’t really break away from that feeling, so it ends up giving the exact impression of a bit of video game rather than an actual living, breathing action sequence. John does all the things you’ve seen him do on the Xbox and then when the scene goes for a bit more depth with an unexpected twist on things, that twist doesn’t quite come off.

As the episode comes to a close, we’re left with a feeling that we have seen much of this already, and I worry slightly about exactly where the show intends to go next. Then again, it’s worked well so far, so I have a little faith for now.

Verdict: Proving that it works better when it isn’t trying too hard to ape the games. 7/10

Greg D. Smith