The fifth episode of Halo The Series is titled “Reckoning” and that’s actually a fitting name for this episode. The status quo of the season is somewhat changed after this episode. This episode also has the most Halo stuff in it and that includes different ways of seeing certain Halo tech used. There are story beats that make things even shadier than what they already were, which is saying something with how the Spartans were created.
Jonathan Liebesman does an amazing job in this episode. Richard E. Robbins and Steven Kane packed this episode full of action as well as shifting most of the storylines into interesting places. The least interesting storyline is the Kwan storyline. She continues to make frustrating decisions and makes you want her to just stop. She continues to make life harder than she has to for both herself and Soren. The continued evolution of the relationship between Master Chief, Cortana, Halsey, and both of the Keyes is interesting. The newest wrinkle is Kai and her lack of pellet and how that affects both her and Master Chief.
This is the most that we’ve gotten to see the Covenant since the first episode. This is also the first we see of what a needler does to a human body, and boy howdy is it rough. My favorite thing shown in the episode is Jackals using an energy sword with their shields. That’s something that I’ve never seen in a game but would be interested in seeing it in one. This is also the first time we see a Brute in the series, as well as a Spartan using a Jackal energy shield.
“Reckoning” is probably my favorite episode of Halo yet. I don’t know how many episodes this season is going to have but if it keeps getting better, aside from the Kwan storyline, it’ll finish strong. The more the series adds from the lore the better it gets. That goes double when they do something different with what they use. You can stream this episode along with the rest of the series on Paramount +. I give “Reckoning” 9 alien artifacts out of 10.