Halo Season 2, Episode 3, ‘Visegrad’ Recap

Warning: The following recap contains major spoilers for Halo Season 2, Episode 3 “Visegrad.”

Halo Season 2’s third installment, “Visegrad,” opens in the sector of the same name on colony world Reach. Here, John-117/The Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and Silver Team search for Cobalt Team, who went missing last episode. Heavy radio static backs up the Chief’s theory that Cobalt ran afoul of the Covenant, however, Kai-125 (Kate Kennedy) senses something off about their mission.

Master Chief’s Search Lands Silver Team in Hot Water

Investigating Visegrad’s relay station, the Master Chief triggers a strange broadcast. He identifies the broadcast as identical to the one he and Corporal Perez (Cristina Rodlo) heard in Halo Season 2, Episode 1, “Sanctuary.” After the broadcast ends, a rhythmic thudding noise starts up nearby.

It turns out to be a blast door that keeps sliding open and closed. It abruptly stops, as elsewhere on Reach, Perez – tapping in time to the thudding while she sleeps – is woken by a blast of distorted audio in her headphones.

Related: Where Does Halo Season 2 Fit in the Franchise’s Timeline?

Back at the relay station, a squad of UNSC soldiers arrives and orders Silver Team to stand down. When the Master Chief refuses, the troops’ commanding officer reveals that Silver Team is acting without UNSC Fleet Command’s authorization. Undeterred, the Chief barges through the blast door.

The room Master Chief enters is empty, however, he still insists that Cobalt Team previously visited the Visegrad relay station. He adds that he can prove it, but Kai replies that his current approach won’t get results. Noticing his fellow Spartans’ dejected body language, the Master Chief silently agrees.

Has the Master Chief Lost His Mind?

Halo Season 2, Episode 3 then shifts its focus to a hospital room in one of Reach’s more well-heeled sectors. Silver Team’s new boss, James Ackerson (Joseph Morgan), shaves the face of his senile father. Ackerson’s old man reveals that he knows about the catastrophic impending event Ackerson learned about in Season 2, Episode 2, “Sword.” Ackerson told him expecting he would forget.

Ackerson admits that he’ll have to leave Reach soon and can’t take his dad with him. Subsequent dialogue between the pair confirms that Ackerson’s mother and sister, Julia, are both dead. It also establishes that Episodes 1 and 2’s Julia clones are based on Ackerson’s late sibling. Before Ackerson leaves, his father makes him promise not to let the Covenant take him alive.

Meanwhile, at UNSC headquarters, Captain Jacob Keyes (Danny Sapani) gives Silver Team a dressing down for what happened at Visegrad. When he suspends the team, the Master Chief reiterates his belief that Cobalt Team was in the sector. In response, Keyes pulls up a flight plan proving otherwise. The Chief is adamant the flight plan is a fake, however, Keyes relieves him from active duty.

Related: What Is The Fall of Reach in Halo Season 2, Explained

The rest of Silver Team then confronts the Master Chief over his actions. He doesn’t back down, and implicates Ackerson’s intelligence outfit, ONI, in a supposed conspiracy. Riz-028 (Natasha Culzac) and Vannak-134 (Bentley Kalu) leave in disgust, while Kai tries to make the Master Chief see sense.

The Chief demands to know when Kai started questioning his judgment, and she brings up his Episode 2 admission that he saw dead Covenant mole Makee (Charlie Murphy) on Sanctuary. Kai then tries reasoning with the Master Chief as a friend, however, he’s not interested. They part on bad terms.

Cut to: asteroid settlement the Rubble. Laera (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) is yanked into a back alley by Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha). Kwan tells Laera that she and her son, Kessler (Tylan Bailey) are in danger, as her pirate husband Soren-066’s (Bokeem Woodbine) crew is no longer loyal.

The Truth About Cobalt Team Emerges

Acting on this information, Laera returns to her quarters. There, Soren’s crew claims that their ship is now ready to mount a rescue mission for Soren, whom they abandoned earlier in Season 2. Seeing through their ruse, Laera takes Kessler and goes on the run, with Kwan in tow.

It’s a similar story back on Reach, with the Master Chief decking his UNSC guards and fleeing the base. None of Silver Team is aware of this, least of all Riz, who’s visiting blind ex-Spartan Louis-036 (Marvin Jones III). She has dinner with Louis and his husband, and they return to their previous conversation about life outside the UNSC.

While this is happening, Kai visits Ackerson. She acknowledges the Master Chief’s actions were wrong, but also defends him and the rest of Silver Team. Ackerson reveals that the Master Chief is now on the lam and suggests his mental health may never improve. Kai won’t accept this and asks Ackerson what she can do to help the Chief.

Related: Halo Season 2 Delivers a Stronger Second Campaign (Review)

On the Rubble, Laera, Kwan, and Kessler sneak aboard a ship. Along the way, Kwan admits her shame over failing to protect her homeworld, Madrigal, as her family had done for generations before Halo Season 2. The trio’s escape plan fails, however, Laera gives herself up to buy Kwan and Kessler time to get away.

At UNSC headquarters, Ackerson and Keyes are in the morgue. Cobalt Team is laid out on slabs, dead. Ackerson states that Cobalt’s members will be listed as MIA. Keyes confronts Ackerson about his role in the cover-up and his dismissal of the Master Chief’s concerns. Ackerson isn’t cowed and reveals that the UNSC top brass already knows that the Covenant is on Reach.

Keyes calls for them to start evacuating civilians en masse, however, Ackerson shoots him down. Instead, the plan is to covertly move “essential assets” off Reach, before the Covenant fleet arrives to destroy the planet. Horrified by what he’s heard, Keyes declares he will stay and fight.

Perez Cracks the Covenant’s Secret Code

Halo Episode 3 then cuts back to the Rubble, where Laera watches from captivity as Kwan and Kessler board another ship. It’s a brief interlude from the action on Reach, where the Master Chief is having a clandestine meet-up with ex-admiral Margaret Parangosky (Shabana Azmi). She admonishes the Chief for drawing attention to himself, and he shares his theory about Cobalt Team’s fate.

Parangosky warns the Master Chief not to go head-to-head with ONI, in favor of toeing the company line. This will keep him useful to her. In response, the Master Chief accuses Parangosky of still being part of ONI. He storms out of their meeting, seemingly ending their alliance. Meanwhile, another tense meeting of the minds is going down in Dr. Halsey’s (Natascha McElhone) cell. She has a guest, Ackerson, who tells her he’s there to say goodbye.

Ackerson also informs Halsey that her Spartan program will serve as the foundation for his much larger schemes. Halsey responds by recounting how Julia Ackerson died after her body couldn’t handle Spartan augmentation. Ackerson pretends to leave, only to return with Soren.

Related: All Major Actors & Cast List for Halo Season 2

On the Rubble, Soren’s crew interrogates Laera over the location of their former captain’s hidden treasure. Laera replies that the stash doesn’t exist – but if it did, she wouldn’t tell them. She’s tortured in an airlock, only for Kwan to kill the crew and free her. It turns out only Kessler left on that outbound ship.

Halo Season 2, Episode 3 wraps up its final stretch on Reach. Up first is Ackerson, who assists his father in committing suicide ahead of the Covenant’s imminent arrival. As Ackerson’s dad dies, he’s visited by one of the Julia clones (Bronte Carmichael). “Visegrad” then cuts to Master Chief and Perez in a church. They briefly discuss faith, before the Master Chief asks Perez if she also saw Makee on Sanctuary.

Perez confirms she did, then shares the recording she was listening to at the start of the episode. It’s a cleaned-up recording of the Sanctuary broadcast, which Perez translates as a ritual offering intended to guide the Covenant to a Halo ring. An explosion rocks the church, signaling the Covenant’s arrival.

And that’s our recap of Halo Season 2, Episode 3. Check out additional episode recaps here.

Halo Season 2 is currently streaming on Paramount+, with new episodes dropping Thursdays.