The Halo series never cared about aliens, and so it never got weird

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the final episode of Halo season 1.]

“We lose the artifact, we lose the war,” a bloodied John, neé Master Chief, tells his comrades. “No matter what [the UNSC] has done to us, we’re all we have now.” This is supposed to be a big moment for him — not a “just had sex” kind of big moment, but rather rallying his fellow surviving kidnapped-children-turned-supersoldiers to fight their true enemy.

But after nine frustratingly bad episodes, we understand so little about the Covenant that there’s not a lot left to hope for in this Paramount Plus show. Its season finale HaloThey tried to understand the consequences of John trying to become human. But what they should’ve done by now is show us the depth of being an alien.

There’s the obvious reasons: Aliens are, famously, sick as hell. In a show that is as bizarre as Halo, there was promise in a group like Covenant. They are the straight-talking, highly religious enemies from Halo. Halo It was the first episodes. With Halo The game’s lore was being restructured, so the time seemed right to evaluate the antagonist and experiment with their alien nature.

However, it’s not true! The show opted instead to (mostly) focus on Master Chief’s trauma. However, since all those who supported the UNSC corrupt regime made Master Chief’s miserable life possible by point to the Covenant threat as a justification for their actions, the show frequently fell into the vacuum it created.

Photo: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount Plus

Perhaps no one embodies this better than Makee (Charlie Murphy), the woman raised by Covenant aliens who saw her potential as a “Blessed One” in their doctrine. It promised to be bold and deep: An alien-raised human to hate people could express hatred for humanity even on her own body. Even if it was through body horror (as we saw in episode 8, when she pulled out her nail sword and the cuticle along with it), then at least through costuming, makeup — anything to indicate that she wanted nothing to do, physically or spiritually, with her own kind. Makee could’ve been fucking It’s weird. Instead, she’s a conventionally attractive woman for Master Chief to love and lose.

Makee’s story, like so much of HaloIt feels boring and unimaginative. What could you do with the lore and building blocks that make up Halo Universe? It’s certainly more than Makee and her cast have. She was exposed to a Halo Ring. and John make her more sympathetic to humanity, her double-cross — and, later, triple-cross back to the side of the Covenant — means little since we have only a small grasp of what actually compels the Covenant at all.

This means that the show’s ostensible Big Bad, the threat that characters constantly feel bearing down on them, is virtually nonexistent. Despite its flaws, Game of ThronesThis is a good example of what I mean: The Battle of Hardhome and other moments are powerful reminders of just how terrorous the White Walkers really are. There are many characters trying to figure out why they do this, as well as the struggle of fighting them. HaloIt lacks a visceral feeling of the enemy and is inconsistent with its premise. It’s a major problem, and one the show made no attempt to shore up, despite letting the alien threat be 90% of the motivation for characters like Halsey, Keyes, and Admiral Parangosky.

Photo: Adrienn Szabo/Paramount Plus

Ultimately, Halo’s alien problem feels like a symptom of the show’s biggest problem. It becomes evident how deeply Makee and other aliens dominate the plot as each character mentions the Covenant Threat. It is so deeply incurious about the ideas defining these characters’ lives that they become virtually meaningless. So the Spartans’ danger as brainwashed supersoldiers becomes easily neutered with a rallying speech from Chief, and Miranda is simultaneously curious and slow to act until she hears a recording. Even John himself — having spent most of the season defying and struggling to understand the depth of villainy he’s complicit in and controlled by — gamely runs back into battle.

The pep talk the admiral gives him about leaving “John” behind to be “Master Chief” should be shocking, but Halo hasn’t quite found that gear. It would have known that Covenant was more than just a faceless horde. It deserved to be explored as a force unto itself, interrogated as to whether it really was the worst of two evils enough to justify ruining Master Chief’s shot at a normal life. It was at the minimum, something that we could enjoy with aliens. Instead, as ever, HaloIt was more maddeningly the same.