Halo | Thoughts and Theories | Review of S2E8 

Looks like Kai is getting The Linda treatment.

Quan was totally talking to the Gravemind. The visions she had in the previous episode led her to opening up the forerunner laboratory and releasing the flood.

I just finished watching Halofollowers review of this episode, he said the fight between Chief and Arbiter was awsome but he wished it was Arbiter who killed Vannek so it make more personal for Chief. I was like wait a minute, Var 'Gatanai aka the Arbiter was the one who killed Vannek in episode 4 lol

It's refreshing to see a prominent halo youtuber that isn't on the hate band wagon and actually appreciates the positives of this season. I thought this finale was epic and genuinely great.

Maybe the inflection forms are smaller because parasite is trying to use the available biomass as efficiently as possible, making smaller forms at first while still using the host as a combat form

I wonder if Parangorsky is going to be integrated into a proto-gravemind.

Mjolnir armor in this timeline has durability of Praetor Suit(DOOM)

The Flood here was incredible. Not how we experienced the Flood before, but a very interesting and unique take on a Flood outbreak chosen for this. If and when Season 3 comes out, I feel that's where we'll see more traditional Flood infections with Infection Forms and Combat Forms.

Okay theory for the Spartan III's, I theorize that they are currently unaugmented. Right now they are more like ODST's in advanced space assault armor and will be augmented later, essentially they've combined the S-III's and S-IV's and Black Daggers/ODST's into one. I'm pretty sure that Soren will be a Johnson type character, it will be interesting to see if he ends up on the surface of Halo in the next season (I'm assuming so). Maybe we'll even get him being overrun by the Flood and a Breaking Quarantine type story for him. Kai-125 is a Kelly/Linda analogue (also Kurt as well as noted in the video, but I agree that she didn't earn the right to die like Kurt did to save HIS S-III's). Note that she is drifting in a debris field around the Halo like Linda was at the beginning of First Strike however sans the Cryo Pod. Speaking of which Halsey infected in an in suspended animation in a cryo pod was a cool move. No idea how that's gonna play out, if they want to bring her back they'll have to come up with a way to cure or at least stop a Flood infection which according to lore isn't possible even with composition. Then again...Silver timeline who knows what they have changed. We saw Parangoski being attacked by Flood combat forms so will she take the place of Keys and Ackerson becomes the new CINCONI? Or will Ackerson survive, make it to the surface and be an Elias Haverson type character, possibly a Commanding Officer on the Halo like Captain Keys. I wonder if Kwan Ha has a Librarian gene song, she seems to be aware of a lot more about the Flood as "The Monster" or potentially some kind of Ancient Human female leader, like a female counterpart too Forthencho. I enjoyed the horror aspect of an early Flood outbreak via spores which like 00 stated would be a great way to explain a more advanced Flood outbreak on the ring. I also enjoyed the Chief and Arbiter fight, I'm enjoying that the Chief isn't just a full on tank and wins every fight easily. He takes hits and gets tossed around we aren't sure if he's gonna win each fight which adds a level intensity and fear when he gets into a fight because he might lose. Each fight feels higher stakes if you will. Lastly, the Monitor. I think it is 343 Guilty Spark, I think the conversation Chief and he are having likely takes place post Flood fight on the ring. As we see at the end his visor is broken which implies an intense fight and Chief seems shaken which is how the Chief is feeling in The Flood after his initial encounter with the Flood and breaking quarantine. I'd guess this is a bit of a flash forward to next season.

Gotta say, i’m really leaning towards kwan being talked to by the gravemind, and maybe a second proto-gravemind being made out of parangosky like what happened with keyes. When I was watching this episode, i kept thinking “dude, this is so flood behavior. Flooding stopping attacking? Manipulating a main character tied to chief? Fucking with chief himself? Thousand percent gravemind.” It could also just be how the scene was shot, but i feel like parangosky might be made into a proto-gravemind. When she was being “attacked”, she seemed relatively calm to me. She was still freaking out, but I didn’t get the vibe of being eaten alive like the randoms did. It also seemed like a bodypile to me, more in line with the creation of a proto. If the flood assimilated the knowledge of the random officers in the CIC, then it would at the very least have an idea of the power of parangosky. If I was the flood, I would want to keep her around to a degree and keep her semi-independent in the form of a gravemind, rather than just toss her in the trash like I would the janitor.

I think Parengosky will be used as the basis for a gravemind, similar to how Keyes was used in CE.

I love your expertise and positivity. Theres a lot of hate out there on youtube for this show, nice to have a place to go that isnt like that.

Quwons ancestor is the gravemind.. It is Quwon who opens the forerunner door ultimately unlishing the flood. The gravemind even says "We were waiting for you" , meaning gravemind was deceiving her to open the gate so that flood can be released

I thought Perez was going to get Sam's death, I'm glad she survived. The only part I really didn't like was what Halsey getting infected.

For Kwan, my thoughts are that the religious leader was in fact a human, that the other characters interacted with, and had an emotional impact on each of them. The gravemind, seeing this somehow, used the image of this impactful figure to speak to Kwan and guide her as needed. Making the religious leader a hallucination brought on by the gravemind's power, which in this timeline, we don't know the extent of. So that's one possibility, and the one i think will turn out to be true, though i wouldn't be surprised at all if it was her gene song or some combination of both. Like her ancestors were also infected by the flood, and they are speaking to her, but speaking to her through the gravemind's connection to infected their DNA since DNA transfers from one generation to another. Also, the scene of Chief saving Kai and the spartan 3s (who i think have no enhancements in this timeline, they're just trained more efficiently than the average infantry unit and given better armor) was a scene that made me tear up like Matthew McConauhey in the famous "Interstellar" scene. That was the Chief we've been waiting for, for over 20 years to see in live action, and it only got better as the episode went on. If season 3 keeps on the same trajectory as the finale of season 2, I'll be eagerly waiting for every single episode. Which is a stark contrast to my attitude from season 1, which was more... unenthusiastic let's say.

I think they took more inspiration with how infections work in Halo Mona Lisa, next season we’ll probably see more traditional combat forms as the infection spreads on Onyx. Also i 100% think it was the Genesong that saved Kwan. My guess is that her family were entrusted by the Forerunners to “protect” Madrigal/Forerunner tech. And since they were still in the feral stage of infection her Genesong was able to at least pacify them long enough for Kwan to escape.

I don't hate the show, but watching is frustrating. There's a lot of lackluster storytelling, loose plot threads, weak character motivation and development... they never really explained Mackee being alive, unless I missed it. Why are the flood the thing that connects Kwan? Why was chief just sitting in the Pelican after seemingly walking off with conviction. Why did he know Cortana could still be found on the Covenant ship and not the escape pod. How is baby Halsey not infected. Why is everyone suddenly so concerned about the damn Halo on the human side, like they understand the importance, but are flippant about chief's suspicions earlier in the season. Fall of Reach was an epic fail. CG budget could be used better, more spread out and not all in one scene. Honestly, they need to get off of this new trend of low episode count. The kind of story they need to tell requires a traditional 20+ episode season.

The Shaman sure feels like the Gravemind...first tricking Kwan into helping Halsey/Miranda open the lab, and then when cornered, sparing her as thanks for releasing "her kind". It also felt like the Gravemind was taunting the flood's legend in that inner monologue to Kwan. It could also be a Librarian type figure, as I haven't fully figured out the significance of the glyph on the shaman's head.

Didn’t like seeing the visor damaged in last scene.

I can't remember what source it's from, but there's a source out the that says that it takes a *single spore* to destroy an entire planet... Onyx is a clear example of this and it is *insaaaanely* scary

You are a refreshing break from people like HiddenXperia

I just want to say thank you for not being one of those channel that moans about this series, I got fed up with all the negativity of other channels and stopped watching them but thankfully I can still watch my favourite halo RU-vidr though.😊

A couple thoughts: first, the religious leader Kwan sees may not be the Gravemind but the Librarian guiding her via the genesong. This isn’t THE Librarian, but a kind of algorithmic construct that has activated in the presence of Forerunner technology that Kwan is supposed to interact with, taking the appearance of the religious leader in order to make Kwan more likely to cooperate. Second, I’m concerned that the next season, ideally the next two, will compress the original trilogy into a fast paced narrative, culminating with an activation of Halo to quell the outbreak. It is with this in mind that the Halo may be the only such installation in the Silver timeline.

Not gonna lie, when Chief says to Makei "I know what he said" I got a little giddy.

we can see the jarring contrast between the writing, story direction and the CGI, chereography and character designs. the former is a total bastardisation of the lore, while the latter tries its very best to align towards a tv series adaptation to the game. if only they stuck to the amazing canon story and lore the show would have been epic.

Miranda won't cure the infection, this will be how Halsey loses her arm in this timeline.

Ive noticed that no-one is talking about how just after kai blows up the carrier, parangosky asks to get a line with vice admiral stanforth who i think is leading the UNSC fleet thats near the ring

I will say I'm annoyed that there was no answer to Makee being brought back to life

16:27 "Also, where Makee got block-heel platform boots from The Covenant is beyond me" 🤔 HAHAAHAH!!!

I kinda saw a subtle parallel between silver team and noble team, vannak dies by a needle(Kat) riz leaves her dog tags (Jorge) And Kai crashes her ship (Carter)

My favorite part was when Arbiter broke Chiefs sword then threw away his sword to punch chief then pick up his sword to pose triumphantly then get surprised that chief was alive. 😂

Really appreciate a review with no click bait title or shouting about the episode. Good anaylsis

The fact that (maybe) Spark said something to the affect “you’ll meet it in the dark” and “I’ll be watching” makes me thing the full fledged Flood is alive and well in containment (probably for now) in whatever facility he’s in.

The second season of halo makes me want to play halo. New and old. I believe the quality of the show is overriding some of the more biased critics who seem to criticise the show regardless of its quality.

I think that ship coming through the clouds at the end was the pillar of autumn. There was an unsc radio message at the time.

Perez had biofome applied. It's in the books too.

Love love LOVE this episode! Seeing the UNSC fleet going against the Covenant fleet was spectacular, seeing the Halo up close finally, the Flood, holy shit did they bring them into the series brilliantly! The flood didn't strike swiftly and immediately like we've seen in the game and book, it gradually spread, took over, then struck (Which I think it could be a result from being dormant for so long and after some time since being reawaken, we will see it infect much faster later on) Though we are slowly seeing them turning into the combat flood forms though, which is awesome. I have no doubt that should (and I'm hopeful for it) a 3rd season is released, we will see the flood in its more familiar form. Also, I think Miranda will find a cure or at least something to help save Halsey from her infection, not on her own mind you, but most likely, through the Forerunner facility where this all started from by going through the notes and data that one forerunner they saw left and work off that.

26:23, I assume she’ll be the Proto grave mine in season 3. Like how captain keys was in Halo CE.

I enjoyed everything but the writing, everyone gave 110% the actors, the stunts and locations, CGI was all Top Notch.

Ill be honest, the "new" infection forms reminded me of the Yeerks from animorphs...random IK

Thanks so much for the fair coverage of the show and how it relates to other halo lore. I have learned alot from your channel

A thought me and my friends had was that the religious leader was an imprint of the librarian. More on the fringe of theories

Like I said Master Chief should keep his helmet on for the foreseeable future, because at this point he's fighting the flood

The Flood’s infection process is probably slowed due to dormancy, but it also might be due to there not being an active immediate necessity for a transformation to occur unlike in the games where they need to fill in the action quickly.

Also, the way Chief gave the arbiter his honorable death gives me hope we will get Thel

I so appreciate your reviews of this season. And its been an epic season. You explain things so well, in a calm and detailed manner. You are my #1 go to for all things Halo. 😊👍💚💙❤️

you i love to see more on offensive bias, and if we will ever see him in a game

Is Perez going to be the "Sarah Palmer" character? Is Kai still alive?! I hope yes to both.

Im so glad someone was torn between the same two interpretations i was torn by, referring to the flood freezing when they cornered Kwan 😂 i was thinking the same two things and im starting to really want an answer, I never thought I'd actually end this season looking forward to the next lol, love the video bro, much love to you and keep up the amazing work 😊 all the best!

slime molds can make the series onyx outbreak make sense. At first, the initial contact is with a nearly dormant spore. But, once in contact with a host, the spore did not bloom into more spores, it just began the first phase of it's development. Later, it wasn't transmitting just in airborne spores, otherwise everyone who got close to a flood would have been infected. Instead, it manifested as a direct contact bloodborne pathogen. Similarly, it took an amount of time to spread, depending on the severity of the contact. Later still the phase of life pursued by the organism could easily be justified as a more rapid exposure by a much more developed organism capable of delivering a significant and diverse mix of cells specifically targeting a human body, which could result in virtually immediate conversion (assuming a rapid enough metabolism in the organism). If the larger facehugger is able to penetrate a large artery, it might be able to circulate the bloodstream for the host, resulting in complete exposure to the entire body in a matter of a few large pumps. (matched with a blood thinner and additional fluids). But,,, just as irl organisms must focus on one form of reproduction at a time (mostly, for example slime molds) ,, it can make sense that the only time there might be airborne spores is when that is all that the organism can afford to produce,, but once it is capable of producing something that more thoroughly infects the host more rapidly, it no longer would waste energy and physiological real estate on airborne spores.

I think it is not Gravemind but a precursor itself.

Overall I liked the finale, we kinda got our Halo CE in the end. I really wanted Chief to spare Arby, but I guess it wouldn't have made sense with Vannak's death at his hands being so close and all, while in the games it was Arby who had more of a vendetta against Chief for blowing up Instalation 04

I’m going to guess that we get to see a new Arbiter ‘born’ next season.

It bothers me that the fans who built halo as far as interest is concerned are being labeled haters. The writing is so upsetting considering the wealth of source material available. This is not halo

I was thinking for a few episodes that the old woman was the essence of the librarian after someone mentioned in lore she appeared to ancient humans as an old woman. As far as Parez goes…. She knows how to fly a ship. Did anyone order a warthog? Maybe she is the shows version of Foehammer

It’s crazy how we got the Flood but no Grunts this season 😂 Also, this is the first time EVER seeing the Flood in live action!

That last shot of him with the broken visor was EPIC! Honestly, I can't wait to see what was capable of doing that much damage to his suit and how he won that fight. The action sequences on the ship leading up to Chief's arrival reminded me of Forward Unto Dawn, with each soldier being taken down one-by-one until he shows up and slaughters everything.

The SPI armor was no better than chief being in a tshirt and fatigues

Kawn holy mother vision makes sense if you combine both theories the gravemind needs permission of someone with a strong gene song like kawn to infect them or maybe the ancient ancestor(s) can prevent the gravemind from accessing information.

they could potentially bring Halsey back as a new kind of healthier flash clone, then have her finally be in that position of questioning her humanity like Cortana or the Chief - even more than she already does, as this morally grey, inhumane and cold scientist character

Kwan halting the flood infected people is kinda stupid. But. It has occured to me that some may have geas. Oi. They better do that right.

Seems that the flood is more and more like the wraith in StarGate. Damn, that was a good show.

I cant imagine the horror we will experience if the flood ever hit earth

I thought it was a good show and it made me smile when I say a lot of halo RU-vidrs like the episode. I think halo deserves this show maybe there is some weird things in the show but it dosent mean people need to go ham and just post negativity about it

Crazy how a lot of people are still hating even after a finale like this, yet they still watch the show😂🤡. This youtuber is unique respect to you.

I think the smaller infection forms make more sense. Let’s be honest, if they were that small in game they’d be hard to deal with especially considering hit box issues, and in CE at least they’d be like 1 polygon

I think the Gravemind explanation is the most plausible.

I agree with you that Halo CE and Halo 2 events will be merged on a single Halo ring. There are far more UNSC troops on the ring (with all the ships flying to Halo) than in CE, and I can only see High Charity arrive on the ring after what happened (Kai pretty much destroyed most of the fleet, Chief killed the leader of the fleet so there arent many covies left atm). So yeah either the Gravemind already exists and will extend, or will be formed faster than the proto-gravemind of CE due to the biomass available. For Kwan I do not really know what's going on, I thought the Mother was the Gravemind tricking her, but there are things that contradicts it. I had a theory that she is an ancient human basically, like not a human that got devolved and reseeded, but I think this no longer holds too. Perhaps the Mother tried to bring Kwan to Onyx's shield world to find a Forerunner that survived (Librarian?), but the flood was accidentally released and a containment protocol closed the world. What if her geas (and visions) was activated after an outbreak happened on the Halo chief is on? In his dialogue with the monitor Chief had fought the Flood on Halo, so perhaps the outbreak is older than when they arrived. So yeah my current prediction is that the Mother was a geas helping Kwan to release a Forerunner that survived inside Onyx (Librarian perhaps, Halsey literally said they were in a library) to help them against the flood. But the Flood was accidentally released so a containment protocol closed everything. I'm pretty sure this will be a subplot for Miranda, she is kinda stuck on Onyx on her own now, so her only option left is to go back to the shield world and seek for help. Perhaps the Librarian or a lifeworker (or even a device Miranda finds) will be able to cure Halsey since the infection is only minor and she has not "transformed yet". My theory is that her and the ONI agent that hated chief will meet at some point, then explore the inner world and fine something or someone to bring back Halsey. Finally, pretty sure Kai isn't dead, she is getting the Linda treatment. As you said she is a fan favourite, so they will bring her back later. Still they will have to introduce a whole lot of new characters since many have died (Parangosky, Vannak, Keyes, Arbiter) or are out for now (Halsey, Rizz, Kai). Hopefully Johnson is one of them unless Soren takes his place, same for Thel Vadame and Tartarus. I could also definitely see them bring in Forerunner characters.

The fight between the Arbiter and Chief was awesome but I dislike that the Arbiter dies. It was good to have the Covernant`s side of the story at least somewhat. The Covernant is currently not active on Halo and I wonder how much of a role they will have in Season 3. Maybe High Charity will arrive on Halo? Kwan saw the Gravemind. He very likely communicates with her and Chief thru time and space. Her role is it to unleash the flood and I think she will do it again on Halo. Ancestors of her were consumed by the Gravemind and thats how he talks to her.

You can tell all of the people who supposedly like this show don’t really like it, they are the “positive” crowd, who are more aligned to names and symbols above substance. Gotta consume product and get excited for more product. But what makes it worse is the smug, self-righteousness and moral superiority these people get from liking trash like the Halo show, lol. We see you, lol. They could have objectively made the worse show ever, but because “Halo” is slapped on it, it’s gold…which is pretty much what happened here. 😂 There can’t be a dissenting voice or anyone saying anything about their “precious”. It requires ZERO thinking and a room temperature IQ to be this detached from reality. But TV is made for someone I guess. 🤷🏾‍♂️

I don’t think Kai is dead.

Thank you for taking a nuanced and level headed approach to the show

Why did no one pay attention to Miranda asking if the scientist “touched” the artifact. This was showing touch/contact spread rather than airborne, hence Miranda wasn’t infected first. Also accounts why it took so long before mutating

I think you’re confusing space world for halo. Halo doesn’t have a tv show yet.

I agree the cure for the flood needs to be hard earned. I am not so certain the show will make it that way. I'm guessing they will have Keys just come up with the cure all by herself as the show has previously just given Keys all these accomplishments before without earning it. I do think the humans should come up with a cure for the early stages of the infection in season 3. This was actually needed in the game lore as I just could never see how the humans and covenant were able to contain the infection on earth in Halo 3. If the Flood really were that impossible to stop during the Forerunner era then it just seemed like it would have been way more difficult to contain the flood infection in Africa.

I can see them doing something similar to Halo's First Strike, where they discover how Johnson survives the flood with Boren Syndrome and then do some type of play on that as a quote cure for Halsey. Then it wouldn’t be a “cure” and closer to the 1/1Billion chance we had in the lore

Your voice does NOT match your face. Here I've fallen asleep to your videos because your voice is so soothing, then here's some new-age kid here doing this badass work. And I'm in my 40s.

I'm just glad Perez made it out alive,I'm curious if she's going to go to the Halo with chief or go back to onyx and deal with the flood.she looks to have gotten the riz finale treated where she gets injured and has to deal with it going into the next season,she seems to be dealing with a lot of loss,with her family,chief(for a while) her s3 team and Kai but I hope that eventually learning that John actually came back for her and Kai reinvigorated her.

Wait did anyone notice that the spartan armor energy shield is nowhere to be seen in episode 8 ?

The monitor is NOT guilty spark. it is the monitor of ONYX. Chief goes back after the battle of installation 04, probably to get revenge on parangosky who is now a keymind and also because halsey is in cryo there. He gets taken by surprise by the flood outbreak. Pay close attention to the dialogue between chief and the monitor, the context clues, the transition to the beginning of the episode, and the fact that his armor damage is different. I explained this in way more detail on reddit, it’s been KILLING me that nobody picked up on this.

I wonder if the old woman was a manifestation of ancient humanity consumed by the Flood and was just briefly able to push its way to the front and hold the collective consciousness at bay. No idea why we saw her in episode one other than to establish the face for the viewer as someone mystic.

@Installion 00 I watched the show on Paramount with captions on and when the religious leader was talking with kwan the name of the character was "The Mother" so possibly a new type of gravemind or my personal theory a connection with the Domain

Havent watched the last epsiods, me and my friend have been exclusively hate watching it. Hopefully this episode is actually good

This was an outstanding finale! I was riveted. Although I don't like the Flood as it is so scary, & creepy, I couldn't take my eyes away. This interpretation of the Flood makes more sense in that instead of being a swarm, you "appreciate" how this organism more slowly takes over a host. Dam creepy! Thank you for your continued exceptional content.

Wow, someone not just sh*tting on the series. Thank you for the thoughtful breakdown!

We really got the flood in the TV show before a 343 game 😭😭😭

Chief shredding through those Elites and walking onto the bridge with the sword still ignited is a literal copy paste from the end of Mando Season 2 and I’m all here for it tbh

I hope it's renewed. I worry though that the inevitably higher cost of the full on actual depiction of the war may make them reticent to renew. If they don't move forward we will never get another shot at seeing live action HALO ever again.

I think they aren’t arguments on the show the marine girl become a spartan 3 like a few days after reach so I doubt they augmented all those Spartan 3s in that time

Overall I’d give the season a 7/10. Still not where it needs to be. But the good stuff they do is a step in the right direction

My first thought when Perez go hit was Sam.

Hey, just thought I'd mention that at around 31:00 you refer to the Shaman Lady talking to The Chief directly on Aleria. She was actually only seen by Kwan on Aleria as a hallucination, and instead was seen by everyone on Sanctuary in episode 1. Sanctuary is also the planet that got glassed. Aleria is fine. Love your breakdowns by the way!

Honestly, I was surprised season 2 was even approved. I wouldn't have been sad if it hadn't. With this last episode though, I can sort of see a hazy view of where they may want to take the plot, and I'm looking forward to it.

have you ever done a vid and lore theory on prelates?

Did anyone else notice that some of the flood infectees basically became manic before freezing up? Both Halsey and patient zero seem to have lost their minds and lost any sense of danger before freezing up.

I can't forgive the show for ruining the fall of Reach story. The game had a FANTASTIC story, pure 10/10. Possibly the best story in any game I've seen. Meanwhile the show story was 1/10.

I think the floods slow progression was intentional as when they were introduced when humanity first found them when they first entered the galaxy in mainline lore.

I feel like the priest lady a shadow/memory of a precursor speaking Kwan through gene song.

I enjoyed the finale it was a lot of fun

Two things that I wonder, 1. What did the monitor mean when he mentioned that there was something waiting for Chief in the halo? And 2. Will we get a name drop of the Forerunners and a story of how they tried to stop the flood in this continuity