Halo Review: Emergence (Season 1 Episode 3)
Halo Season 1 Episode 3, “Emergence,” brings an iconic character into the fold with varying levels of success.
One of the most definitive components of the early Halo games is the presence of Master Chief’s AI, Cortana. She is this foundational aspect of the games and it could only be a matter of time until she was included here. She serves many functions throughout the franchise ranging from confidant to logistical support.
She is instrumental in making these games a success. In part, she’s an expository shortcut. She can deliver any relevant information and have it be deemed reasonable because she could know anything. She’s also crucial to Master Chief, as a character, because she can draw out more of her personality.
That’s a long way of saying that she is a very important character in this story and it is a big deal for her to be introduced. She’s also one that is so beloved that there is a kind of pressure to get her immediately right. Fans won’t have a lot of patience for a depiction that is too off.
On a pure presentation level, it is fairly solid. Notably, the series has changed the look of Cortana to more resemble the voice actress Jen Taylor, along with Halsey. It’s an adjustment but not an insurmountable one.
What easily makes up for it is Taylor, who also played Cortana in the games, is providing the voice work and that can help with a variety of sins. That voice, which borders on outright mischief, is sixty percent of what makes the character so enjoyable.
The downside to all of this is much less flattering. The way that Halo has decided to characterize Cortana is a significant hurdle to clear. It’s difficult to say what feels wrong about her without explicitly pointing back to the games and novels but that’s unavoidable.
It’s hard to reconcile these two versions of the character. Cortana here feels like a very standard AI with clear-cut, limiting directives whereas the Cortana from the games felt anything but. She was extraordinary and not only that, she chose Master Chief. She wasn’t assigned; she had the agency to pick which spartan she would go to.
It wasn’t as a means of control but as an enrichening. She was to take an already great soldier and make them even better. She was to be another weapon in the arsenal against the Covenant. If she had a directive, it was to make sure the mission was a success, even if Master Chief or herself had to die to see it to fruition.
The problem here is that the way they are choosing to contextualize Cortana feels inauthentic. Can they course-correct from here still? Sure, of course. They have started this out on the wrong foot, though.
In an effort to bring to life a character who is so large within the original framework, they have made her unbelievably small.
What did you think of this episode of Halo? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Halo airs Thursdays on Paramount+.
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Drew Koenig
Drew has an ongoing, borderline unhealthy obsession with pop culture, but with television in particular. When he's not aggressively trying to get out of a perpetual state of catching up, he can be found passionately defending the ending of Lost. More of his online work can be found at The Lost Cause and he also co-hosts The Lost Cause Pod.