While the first episode of season two of Halo really brought us back to the world after the events of season one, episode two dove into those events and how they affect our characters. It’s not perfect, but it’s a solid episode to continue the story.

Our main story progressed in four phases during the episode following Master Chief, Soren’s family, Halsey, and Makee. Was this too much? I think the argument could be made that trying to focus on four different stories in the episode might be stretching viewers, but it was easy for me to partition them.

Master Chief: Chief has an interesting episode. We saw him pushing his team very hard in training due to some insecurity about not being chosen for a mission, and he “stole” an aircraft, lying to his team to go find the Cobalt Team after they lost contact on a mission to Reach.

However, the highlight of the entire episode was Chief’s visit to see Corporal Perez after finding out that she didn’t corroborate his version of events on their previous mission. Their connection over survivor’s guilt was a great moment. Just terrific TV.

Soren: We get Kwan Ha barely escaping slavers as she goes to meet with Soren’s son. Then, Soren’s wife confronts his crew for abandoning him leading to his arrest.

Halsey: Well, she lives, is being held prisoner in a simulation by Ackerson, and knows that she’s in one. That was all very uncomfortable to watch.

Makee: We received the confirmation that Makee is still alive and on Reach. She has an Elite rip open a door where the keystone is being held. What’s she planning?

This episode sets up threads that will be tied together at some point in the season. How will we get there? That’s the big question. I’m really enjoying what we’ve gotten so far, and I can’t wait to watch the third episode.