This article contains spoilers for Halo season 2 episode 2, "Sword". The Paramount Plus video game adaptation is back to continue the fight between the UNSC and the Covenant.
In episode two, we find out a ton of stuff. Dr. Halsey's being kept in some sort of facility, Ackerson continues to suspect that Master Chief isn't fit for active duty, and the Chief makes a startling discovery about Cobalt Team's whereabouts. Here's a full recap of everything that went down in Halo season 2 episode 2.
Ackerson's warning
Halo season 2's second episode begins with Dr. Halsey, being held in some sort of facility. A young girl brings in tea and biscuits for her and sits down opposite her. She then presents a backgammon board and asks Halsey to teach her how to play.
Halsey agrees, but only if the girl's willing to tell her about what happens when she leaves the room they're in. The girl feels pressure not to reveal anything; when Halsey presses her to reveal personal details about the man she mentions, the girl's nose starts to bleed, and she eventually falls dead sitting opposite her on the table.
Back on Reach, Kai questions Riz about her combat readiness, since the wounds she sustained in Halo season 1 have taken their toll. Riz rebuffs her encouragement to take a step back. Kai then collars Master Chief.
The pair discuss their new boss, Ackerson. The Chief confides that Ackerson suspects there's something wrong with him. John tells Kai that he saw Makee on Sanctuary; Kai's confused, given she shot Makee in the season finale. Their discussion is curtailed when the Chief sees a tech walk up to the Spartan deployment board and change the status of Cobalt team to "Standby". When the soldier can't tell Chief what's happened to them or who told him to change the board, Master Chief storms off to confront his boss.
After the titles roll, we hop over to The Rubble and rejoin Kwan on the streets. Goons looking for wayward servants (who are tagged with a tracking device by their owners) pick up Kwan's signal and chase her through the streets. Kwan leads them to a factory of some sort; inside, she rips out her beacon. After a struggle, she slips away, having used the discarded device to kill her pursuer.
Later, Riz is training with Louis, an ex-Spartan who has gone blind. He helps her control her pain and encourages her to consider life beyond being a fighter. She can't see that path for herself; Louis tells her he used to feel the same way. When she asks what made him change his mind, Louis simply says she's not ready to understand.
Back on Reach, Master Chief confronts James Ackerson. He demands Silver Team be cleared for action; if Ackerson refuses, he promises to find someone who'll let them go after Cobalt Team. Ackerson essentially tells John to remember who is in charge of this situation: The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) now controls the Spartan program... and Ackerson is the head of ONI.
Ackerson further insinuates that the Chief might not be of sound mind and unfit for combat after losing Cortana. He also lets slip that no one corroborates the Chief's accounts of the Covenant troops on Sanctuary... not even Corporal Perez, the soldier he saved from Bravo Team. And when the Chief challenges him, Ackerson admits that the UNSC does need the Spartans and the Master Chief, but at the end of the day, the Chief is "just a guy in a suit".
Dinner date
Back on The Rubble, Kessler brings Kwan some food; she tells the boy she's going to have to go on the run. Kessler maintains that, when his dad returns, Soren will keep them safe: Kwan tells Kessler Soren isn't coming back, and the boy runs off in his father's Spartan helmet. Meanwhile, Soren's wife Laera goes to confront her husband's crew for a progress update on how repairs to their ship are going, seeing as Soren would never have left any of them behind. When they tell her it could take a couple more days, she sense the pirates don't want to go looking for their former Captain.
We're back with Silver Team next. The Chief is pushing Riz to her limits in training exercises on Reach; Kai tells him to stop being so hard on them, but the Chief tells him the Covenant is training for something, so they have to be ready. Despite Riz's injuries and the fact they've trained throughout the night, he orders them to run the exercise again.
Halsey is in the same room, interrogating an identical version of the same girl from earlier. Halsey tries in vain to get more info from the girl, but she dies in the exact same way. Speaking to the room, Halsey asks what the point of this exercise even is.
After training, Louis and Riz chat about the session in some sort of waiting room. Louis tells her why he never revealed he was losing his sight until he went fully blind: he wanted to feel like a true Spartan, to the end, and how he felt pride standing alongside them. He finishes his story, and she's called in for a session with a man called Danilo. Later on, we see how he helps her manage her pain with a message and his meditative voice.
Ackerson expresses his worries about the Chief's mental state to Kai and whether his behavior could be a threat to Silver Team. Kai says no, but admits she thinks he's dealt with and seen an awful lot, and that might be weighing on him. Denying again that she has concerns about him, Ackerson says he hopes the Chief values her loyalty, but invites her to come and see him anytime.
Meanwhile, Master Chief heads to Corporal Perez's home. Talia tries to get rid of him at the door, but her grandmother invites him in for dinner. After the meal, he asks her about what happened; she confides that her confusion about what she heard when the comms relay went down and why she was left alive is the reason why she didn't corroborate the Chief's story about the Covenant ambush. She doesn't understand why she was awarded the Colonial Cross; the Chief offers some harsh words about how difficult coping with the death of her crew will be.
We're reunited once again with Halsey. Ackerson is now in the room, meaning she's trapped in some sort of ONI facility. She reasons from their ensuing chat that Cortana is being kept somewhere, and demands to know how she and the Chief are doing. Ackerson says nothing, leaving her with another clone of the girl whom he names as Julia. He promptly leaves the room, walking through some sort of barrier, and emerges in an ONI facility. Where is Halsey being kept? Is this all a simulation?
After that confrontation, the Chief uses a UNSC computer to track Cobalt Team's flight path. Eventually, he learns that the squad hasn't left Reach. At the same time, Ackerson walks into another secret room, where the Halo Keystone from Madrigal is being held... along with Cortana!
Ackerson has asked her to run predictions about some sort of event (we don't know exactly what that is). The AI confirms she has predicted that that thing will happen with a 97% probability rate, and will occur regardless of whatever variables she considers. Ackerson stoically accepts there is "nothing to be done", and promises to try and come back and see her again; Cortana calls out this obvious lie.
Master Chief has Silver Team suit up and fly off for a new mission which he says they're cleared for. Having deduced the Visegrád Relay has gone down and Cobalt Team never returned from their investigation, he's made a stark prediction that the Covenant must already be on Reach.
The episode then ends with a scene from UNSC's Sword Base on Reach. Two squads of Marines are attacked and killed by some Covenant Elites, who are accompanied by Makee. One of her warriors opens the door to a vault... one containing the large Halo Keystone from Eridanus III.
Halo season 2 is now streaming on Paramount Plus.
