Episode 5 begins in a lot the identical means that earlier episodes have: with a flashback going down years previously, in regards to the early days of one in every of our predominant characters. On this occasion, we see a younger Halsey taking a tour by a college on Eridanus II arm-in-arm with Captain Jacob Keyes (Danny Sapani), below the pretense of selecting to “settle your loved ones right here,” as her ignorant information fortunately states. The sinister objective underlying this show shortly turns into clear when Halsey turns to watch John as a toddler (performed by Casper Knopf), roughhousing along with his classmates and in the end having to avoid wasting one from a nasty fall. This undoubtedly components into why Halsey selected John for his management abilities and bodily prowess within the first place, in the end resulting in the uncomfortable revelations that got here to mild final week along with his artifact-aided childhood recollections turning into restored.
We neatly segue to the present-day, the place the trio of Keyes, Halsey, and Grasp Chief are proper again on the very same planet all these years later, now tasked with excavating and airlifting the second historical artifact again to Attain. The good thing about truly placing Keyes out within the area for a change is fast, as this growth provides him (and Olive Grey's Miranda Keyes) one thing to do this's integral to the continuing plot. In truth, that is the primary time that so lots of the present's main gamers have been in the identical basic location on the similar time, giving rise to some sorely-needed character interactions.
Take cases just like the Chief hypocritically dressing down Kai for eradicating her hormonal pellet and rendering her unfit for fight, or the tense dialog between Keyes and Grasp Chief about distrusting Halsey. The latter appears like one thing that ought to've occurred a number of episodes in the past, notably when the Chief exhibits such fierce loyalty to Keyes (calling him “my Captain” and acknowledging that he is “all the time been there for me”), and Keyes responds by reminiscing about having “fought alongside one another for a few years,” regardless of viewers by no means getting a lot as an inkling of this relationship till now.
The early parts of the episode proceed to run down a laundry record of much less fascinating plot threads earlier than attending to the good things. We briefly contact base with Admiral Parangosky (Shabana Azmi) and the interoffice political bickering that largely appears like window dressing at this level, expressing concern over the Chief's deteriorating psychological state and Halsey's outright defiance of her orders. When Halsey as soon as once more skates by with no precise penalties, the episode revisits the fraught Halsey/Miranda/Jacob household dynamic to equally blended outcomes, largely amounting to Miranda getting introduced into the dig website by her father to show her price … solely to instantly get pulled off the challenge out of Captain Keyes’ concern to maintain her palms clear.
Fortunately, the episode's last 12 minutes or so greater than make up for this sluggish begin.
