Halo holds steady as it navigates the emotional fallout of Reach in "Aleria"

Last week, Paramount+'s sci-fi action show Halo dropped a bombshell episode with "Reach," which showed the horrific destruction of one of humanity's most populous worlds at the hands of the alien Covenant. This week, it dials things back a bit for "Aleria," sifting through the emotional damage our characters suffered during what was arguably the series' most traumatic event to date.

On the whole, Halo nailed the balance. The show has been on the rise throughout season 2, and "Aleria" proves the series has reached a point where it can do quieter emotional episodes just as well as big epic battles. Beware SPOILERS ahead as we talk through "Aleria."

Halo Episode 205 review: "Aleria"

If someone had told me a year ago that I'd be misting up multiple times during an episode of Halo, I don't know that I would have believed them. In both season 1 and the early episodes of season 2, Halo's strength has pretty consistently been anything dealing with the Spartans and the human-Covenant war. When it's fallen back on smaller, character-driven stories, it hasn't always been able to keep up the quality.

If "Aleria" is anything to judge by, those days may be over. The entire first half of Halo's second season was dedicated to setting up the devastating Fall of Reach, and in Episode 204 that setup payed off in a big way with a spectacular episode-long battle. I was a little nervous about how the show would pick up after that. Given how high the stakes were during the Fall of Reach, it was important that Halo not undercut its biggest event with a half-baked follow-up.

I needn't have worried. "Aleria" is an episode that unfolds in multiple acts, and each one is powerful in its own right. The episode kicks off seconds after "Reach" ended with the death of Vannak (Bentley Kalu), with the Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) lying dazed on the ground as battle rages around him. This sequence keeps the excitement up from the previous episode and serves as a great reunion for our whole crew when Laera (Fiona O'Shaughnessy) shows up in her ship for a surprise rescue. The scene of Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha) gunning down Covenant from the ship's boarding ramp was badass; Halo has dialed back Kwan's material this season a bit, but what scenes she does have have been way better than in the first season.

That leads into the first emotional gut punch of the episode. As everyone scrambles onto the ship, Riz (Natasha Culzac) makes the fateful decision to leap back off to grab Vannak's body. There's an extended, tense pause, and then she stumbles back out of the fog with Vannak slung across her shoulders — only to get shot in the back right as she boards the ship.

At first I thought this was kind of silly. Vannak was already dead; Riz left safety and was subsequently shot just to grab his corpse. But the show really dialed into the grief of the characters, and made it all very believable by the end of the episode given Riz's ultimate decision to lay down her weapons and join the settlers on Aleria. It was never just about Vannak; it was about the way that each of our characters navigate loss in a universe which has mostly denied them the opportunity.

"Aleria" digs into that theme with pretty much the entire cast. This was an episode of reunions, as the majority of our disparate characters all end up together on a planet where the people live much closer to nature than on a typical Halo world. We see how John and Riz react to being around Doctor Halsey (Natascha McElhone) again, and it's just as complicated as you'd hope, given that she turned them into child soldiers through a horrifying scientific experiment that kills two out of every three candidates.

We also get some quality time with Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) and Laera as they try to find their son Kessler (Tylan Bailey), who was shipped off to Aleria just before the thugs on the Rubble made their move to take over Soren's operation there. The fact that this plotline was as good as it was in this episode feels like a testament to how much Halo has improved as a series. Even in the season 2 premiere, I didn't totally buy into Soren and Laera's plotline. But in this episode it really sang, helped along by excellent performances from Woodbine and O'Shaughnessy. Soren and Larea felt like believable, flawed human beings who only just realized how far they would go to see their son again. That the UNSC has taken Kessler was a great twist that I didn't see coming; I'm very curious to see where it leads.

Hell, we even got a callback to Kwan Ha's mysterious foresight, which we haven't really heard anything about since the penultimate episode of season 1. "Aleria" picked up a whole bunch of plot threads, tied them together into a satisfying knot, and reassured me that wherever it's headed from here, I'm happy to go along for the ride.

Halo Bullet Points

• The funeral of Vannak was at the heart of the episode, and I really enjoyed how the show depicted what it meant for all the different characters involved. Kwan telling his body that she's never been able to bury someone she lost before and that she hopes he can stand in for all of them was beautiful and heartbreaking.
• The woman who spoke to Kwan during her vision is the same shaman who was on Sanctuary, the planet that the Covenant destroyed in the season 2 premiere.
• Laera's wig came off! Obviously, that platinum hair was a wig, but I didn't expect Halo to actually make the wig a plot point. It worked surprisingly well.
• Kai is alive! As we thought, she skipped out of Reach with Ackerson just before the attack. The episode ended with a great tease showing how she's now at the head of a new UNSC army preparing to strike back at the Covenant.
• But also, did you notice how there were a bunch of signs saying to "finish his fight" with pictures of the Master Chief? Ackerson intentionally decided to make him a martyr by abandoning him on Reach, in order to galvanize the next wave of human soldiers. Brutal.
• I think Riz's decision to stay on Aleria is something the show did a really great job with. Seeing little kids waving at her and welcoming her, right after Halsey tells her she'll be no one if she stays behind, felt like a really solid emotional payoff considering how dehumanized the Spartans have been.
• I need to shout out Makee (Charlie Murphy), Cortana (Christina Bennington/Jen Taylor) and the Arbiter. They had some engaging scenes together, with cool alien dialogue. The Covenant language is as good as any fictional TV language, and Murphy does a solid job of making it sound believable.
• With Makee and the Arbiter searching for the Halo and Halsey encouraging the Master Chief to do the same, it sounds like the show is speeding toward the events covered in the first Halo video game, which takes place after the Fall of Reach.
• Speaking of the games, I need to note that the Arbiter is a playable character in Halo 2 and 3, where he teams up with the Master Chief to take on the Covenant. Makee said that if the Arbiter goes after the Halo, the Covenant will pursue him as an enemy. If the show is setting up an eventual team-up between the Arbiter and Master Chief, it's going to be a very thorny affair considering that the Arbiter killed Vannak. I'm looking forward to seeing where that goes.
• I do hope that next episode reminds us a little better of why the Halo matters. That's something that hasn't been talked about a whole lot in season 2, and if it's about to become a big plot point I think clarity will be necessary.

Verdict

if "Reach" was Halo proving it could pull off a huge, episode-long clash between armies, then "Aleria" was the show proving it has the mettle to handle human stories on a small scale. Those smaller stories are where Halo has historically struggled more, so the fact that "Aleria" succeeded as well as it did is a testament to how much it's improved. On more than one occasion I questioned a decision "Aleria" made, only to have it pay off later in the episode. That should go a long way towards reassuring viewers; it certainly did for me. If the series can keep up this level of quality, season 2 may elevate the show into a higher echelon of genre television.

Episode Grade: B+

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