This Review Contains Spoilers!

Episode 5 starts off strong, with Chief, Soren and Riz fighting against the Covenant and then, a Brute. The VFX on the Brute are great as always with Season 2, but it is quickly cut short when Kwan Ha (yes Kwan Ha) shows up on Reach and saves them… yes I wish I was joking too.

After they leave Reach, we see Makee looking at Reach from space shedding some tears. And throughout the episode we get a better look at how the Covenant view the situation and just how bad of a situation Makee & The Arbiter are in.

Where Do We Go From Here?

I think we are now getting the Hunt The Truth storyline in the next episode as the episode ends with Riz staying on Aleria as a nobody, Chief heading for Ackerson and Parangosky with Soren because the UNSC took Kessler (I’d imagine this is because he is a Spartan 2.1)

On the Makee side, she is now on her own journey with the Arbiter in hunt of the final artifact.

So it’s pretty clear next episode will focus on Chief, Soren, Kai and Ackerson, it is currently unknown if Kai knew Reach would fall, highly doubt it though.

The Verdict For Episode 5

I feel like this season is split into 2 separate stories, The Fall of Reach & Hunt The Truth. Episode 1 – 4 was The Fall of Reach and it is looking like the remainder of the season will be the Hunt The Truth storyline.

This episode is brought down alot by the Kwan story and the Kessler, I imagine Kesslers story will actually go into something pretty cool with him being a Spartan 2.1 n all but the way it was handled this episode was done in a way just to rack up the screentime. Kwans story is still as pointless as ever and she really just should not exist in this show what so ever.

Episode 5 is saved by it’s good, though. The 5 stages of grief Master Chief goes through, the way Riz is written out of the story in a satisfying way (although I wish she wasn’t) and the funeral scene with Chief coming to terms with the situation, it’s all really well written and it’s a shame it is brought down by the rest of the plot points.

Overall I feel this episode missed the mark considering the incredible episode prior to it, I understand saving on budget and filler but this isn’t the time nor way to do it. This was an episode about grief and coming to terms with a awful situation. I hope it improves from here with the Kwan, Soren storylines.

Next episode looks much more promising though as it looks to be going the Hunt The Truth route we should have got in Halo 5 and if this is written correctly it could be a really solid episode.

Episode 5 will hopefully be the low point of the season, but I guess we will have to wait and see on that.

Episode 5 Rating: 6.5/10

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