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We waited years for a Halo TV show and unfortunately what we got is something loosely connected toHalo, made by a team that didn’t know or use the games for reference on a budget of your average Marvel movie.
Over 200 million dollars spent across two seasons so far, and though the Critics praise the show, the gaming community, arguably the biggest audience of the show, is pretty split on their portrayal of old Master Chief. Mainly because he can’t keep his helmet on. To show how ludicrous it gets, here’s every time Master Chief takes his helmet off.
Why Does Master Chief Take His Helmet Off?
Before we dive right into every moment we unfortunately see the face ofwhat the show is calling “Master Chief”, it’s worth answering why he keeps taking his helmet off. Thoughthe showrunners are a little glibwhenever directly answered, if you’re familiar withmodern sci-fi or Marvel shows and movies, you already know why.
For those not in the know, whenever someone in these shows,usually a high-paid actor, has to wear a helmet, there’s going to bea lot of time spent not wearing their helmet. This is usually because they wanta lot of face timewith their big star on the screen to help sell the show,show off their acting chops, or the actor themselves wanted alot of face timeoutside of the helmet.
Or, and what’s more common, whoever is in charge of the direction hadno faith that their actor would be able to pull off subtle emotionwith a simple helmet move. Though it was later confirmed by the shows star Pablo Schrieber that he thinks the audiencewouldn’t be able to tell what Chief was feelingif we couldn’t see his face.
Despite there beingtons of great examples of emotingwithout being able to see Chief’s face in the games.
Just take a look at thegrowing trend of every modern Marvel moviewith its “nanotech helmets” thatconveniently appear and disappearwhen there needs to be a scene for a specific actor and you’ll see what we mean.
Master Chief, in particular, issomeone who never let us see his faceand we could still tell what he was feeling with a stare, a nod, a subtle turn of the head. The TV version,played by Pablo Schreiber, needs his hat off so he can vaguely emote and even then it’s mostly wooden.
This isn’t the John we know, this is Jimmy Chief,his non-canonical cousin.
Warning: Spoilers For Season One And Season Two Of Halo: The TV Series
Season One
Going into the Halo show for the first time you would hope thatChief takes his helmet off very little. But unfortunately, as the show goes on over the first two seasons, the scenes with him actually wearing his fancy hat becomefew and far between. So in order to track every time he takes it off,he has to actually put it onin the first place.
In season one we do seequite a number of scenes with and without the helmetas well as two episodes that aren’t about Chief at all chucked in the middle of the first season.There’s also astrange system in placewhere you can almost start to guess correctly how long he’ll have the helmet on for. In most cases it’sthree minutesfor some odd reason.
But here’s what we caught inseason one.
Episode One
We got anexplosive start to the first episodeof the first season of the first-ever proper Halo TV show, and it’s all downhill from there.
TheColony of Madrigal is under attackfromThe Covenantand we get a lot of exposition from a fellow Scotsman and the chance towatch some colonists get high on some nutsbefore they get massacred and Mr. Jimmy Chief and Silver Team finally make an appearance, andChief has his helmet on.
For now.
If you didn’t know that Chief wouldspend the next two seasons taking his fancy hat on and offto “emote” you would be mistaken at this point into thinking we’re getting aproper Halo showthat sticks close to the source material.
Don’t worry, we all thought the same.
Ironically in this same episode,Kwan asks the Chief if he ever takes his helmet off, to which he implies he always needs it on. Guess “John” was lying on that one because itdoesn’t seem as importantfor the rest of the show.
Then the timecode for the first episode hits50 minutes and Chief takes his helmet offfor the first time in the show. It happens whilstKwan has him at gunpointand he decides to take his helmet off. The idea is toshow vulnerabilitywhilst trying to convince her that the UNSC is planning to execute her.
However, everyone in the audience is too focused on the fact thatwe just saw Pablo’s faceand at the time it ignited Twitter feeds around the world. The episode ends asChief goes against his orders and bails on the UNSCas the Forerunner Keystone that’s been found sets off an EMP blast.
An EMP thatonly impacts everything in the city except the Chief’s ship, which had already been disabled by the UNSC’s own EMP weapon but now works again somehow, how convenient.
Episode Two
Episode two opens witha flashback to 22 years ago for some world and character buildingas we get a young Chief doing things John didn’t do with people John didn’t know. So it’s nice to see we’re sticking firmly withthe “Jimmy Chief” timeline, and there’s still no helmet to be seen.
After that, we’re back to the present, andmodern John has no helmet onas he has some pointless dialogue with Kwan, and we don’t see him slip his hat back on for quite a while. At 12 minutes Chief comes out of a doorway with hishelmet miraculously onas he goes to meet with his old “friend” Soren.
We gettwo whole minutes of Chief with his helmet onbefore he takes it off again to say hello to Soren and then it’s “Helmetless Jim” for the rest of the episode. That is until about43 minutes in when it goes back on againwhen Jimmy leaves Soren after using theForerunner Keystoneagain to get more information on it.
We get roughly about aminute of footage of Chief with his helmet onas he goes back to the UNSC to talk to Halsey thenhis helmet is back off again at the 45-minute markand he’s Pablo faced for the rest of the episode. Brilliant.
In the entire53-minute episode, three of those minutes are of Master Chief with his helmet on.
Episode Four
Episode threedoesn’t have any scenes with “John” wearing his helmet, but we do get somefull-body nudityand he does hold his helmet later on, not that one. But henever puts the classic Mjolnir headwear on his bonce. He just walks about with his blank Pablo face, so we’ll be skipping ahead to a good chunk into episode four.
For most of the front end of the episode,good old Jimmy Chief is rocking the helmetless lookagain and it takes about nine minutes for us to wait for a scene that’s just absolutely ludicrous.Chief arrives on his old home planet, plonks on his helmet, gets in a Warthog for a short drive, and thenimmediately takes his helmet off againwhen he gets there.
Guess they didn’t want Pablo in the car and had tocover up his body doublesomehow. Anyway, That’s about30 seconds of helmet wearing, that was fun, time to move on. Pablo needs his screen time after all.
At around25 minutes we see him put the helmet back onbut that’s just soCortanacan use his fancy hat to recreate what his old family home looked like. Kind of like that one moment inthe original Robocop, but duller.
But even thenthe camera hangs around inside the helmetso we can see Jimmy Chief react to what he’s seeing. Instead of letting the helmet and subtle acting carry it. God forbid welet the audience interpret anythingfor themselves.
Until this point, we get a lot ofjumping back and forth to Kwan’s side plotwith Soren.
Five minutes after the little walk down memory lane andthe helmet gets taken back off again, hooray. Why even wear it if we’re going to continually see his face throughout the scene, only to then take it back off again? Don’t think about it,Pablo has to brood.
During this sequence, we also see the iconicHalsey and John coin flip scene. But unlike the source material which is a few minutes long and carries a lot of weight, this one gets cut down to aboutfive seconds.
At 47 minutes in,the helmets back on again very briefly, but that’s because Master Chief needs to let his body double go for a ride in the Warthog again. We get anothertwo minutes of Master Chief walking around with his helmet onas he finds the second part of the Keystone, and that’s ourallotted three minutes of helmet timeout of a 54-minute episode done.
On to the next one.
Episode Five
Right off the bat, we’re inFlashback County USAwith another young “John” and Halsey scene before we go into the build-up for abig bombastic battle scenethat drops later on in the episode and probably took a good chunk of the show’s budget to pull off.
As far as our old friend Mr. Jimmy Chief is concerned, he surprisinglystarts off wearing his helmet, and it only took usfour minutesin this episode’s runtime to get there. We get afew sweet seconds of Chief in his helmetbefore it’s back to Kwan and the buzzing sound of white noise.
But it’s ashort five-minute waitafter that to see Master Chief again and he’s still got his helmet on, for two minutes until hetakes it off again as he tells Kai to take her helmet offbecause dialogue has to happen. Though it’s mainly so he canhypocritically confront Kaiabout taking out their inhibitor pellet, even though he took out his before her.
Even going so far as to say she’sdistracted, compromised, and dangerousto the mission. Cortana also takes Kai’s side butChief tells her to stop talking. This version of Chief is a bit of an ass it seems.
Chief continues to make questionable decisions,all without his helmet on, until around 19 minutes when the second Keystone starts sending out big horrible, and painful sonic signals. Chief runs up to the big noisy thing with his helmet on, stops and looks at it,then takes his helmet offwhilst everyone around him is screaming and clutching their ears.
Helmet removed, he thenstares at the Keystone as it cuts to blackand the story moves on. Thosefew seconds of helmet timewere totally not worth the wait for that. The rest of the episode is “John” finding out more of his backstory and how he was abducted for the Spartan Program.
ThenHalsey has Cortana knock him outbecause he gets extremely mad about it, as someone naturally would in all honesty.
Things get excitingabout 27 minutes in when the Covenant arrivesand the budget starts to get used. Chief sticks his fancy hat back on and joins in the fight. Although we getplenty of shots inside the helmetbecause they need to keep showing the actor’s face.
This takes away a little from what is already apretty great scenein an otherwise very slow show.
We close out the39-minute episode with Master Chief caked in alien blood and gore, with the helmet on his head untilthe last eight seconds of the episodewhere he has to take it off again just before the credits roll to look down asMakee has appearedinfront of him.
Episode Six
Episode six presents aslow open to helmetless Master Chiefonce again as he sits and sulks. Going over all therepressed memories of Halsey kidnapping himand the subsequent anger problems it’s apparently brought along with it. That’s what everyone loves about Master Chief after all, his PTSD.
We also geta scene of Master Chief giving in to the anger and trying to kill Halseywith a Radiation leak whilst Cortana begs him to stop. He does relent, but he leaves it tothe last few seconds. Remember when Master Chief tried to kill a defenseless woman?
Us neither, but the rest of the episode is“John” without his helmet onor even his armor. Instead, it’s just a big long sequence of people talking in rooms. Sotime to skipto the next episode.
This episode isthe first time we get to see the Halo Ringfor a few seconds. Although it’s ina weird dream world, it’s all we’re getting of the Halo Rings for the entire season of the Halo show. Andsix hoursin too.
Episode Nine
It’s asubstantial jump forwardas episode seven is a slog where it turns intothe “Kwan And Soren Show”, there’s no Master Chief, just Kwan having a vision of John. Annoyinglywith and then without his helmet, even though he has no speaking lines.
Episode eight is alsoanother very odd choicethat we’ll be skipping over. Jimmy Chief goes without his helmet and armor for the entire episode, anddoesn’t even consider putting it on. But he does start toquestion the UNSC, go a little bit nuts, and also getsphysically intimate with Makeethe Covenant Refugee/Spy.
She’sa character who’s supposed to be a spy, but then does her own thing, whilstCortana watchesthe two of them enjoy their ‘special evening’ together. A first for Halo certainly and a choice that definitely got people talking. So we’ll bypass thingsstraight into the last episode of the seasonwhere we get plenty of action scenes with Master Chief finally keeping his helmet on, mostly.
It’s a bit of along waitas the final episode of season one has a lot of non-helmet-wearing Jimmy Chief until about30 minutesinto the 48-minute episode. So almost over half of it.
But we get “John” looking like he’s supposed to as he’sdiving from a Pelican with Silver Team from high orbitonto a hidden alien planet to stop Makee and the Covenant from finding the Halo Ring first. It’s28 minutes inand it’s long overdue.
What follows is anotherbig bombastic fight sceneagainst a literal horde of Elites,Grunts, and Brutes on a set that looks likea multiplayer Forge map, opens with a gag, and completely makes up for the slow burn over the rest of the season.
We get anotherhelmet removal at 35 minutes inat the climax as John talks with Makee inside their Blessed One headspace. Though whyJohn appeared in his armor covered in sandwithout the helmet is anyone’s guess.
We getHelmeted John about two minutes laterthough, so it’s brief at least. But we still get lots ofinterior helmet shotsto show off Chief’s face, and it gets a little excessive as the season starts to wind down. Finally,Cortana saves the dayand “Master Chief” is last seen wearing his helmet again, for now.
And that’s awrap on season oneof Halo.
Season Two
When last we left Master Chief. He wasunconscious but being controlled by Cortana, the Keystone was with Silver Team,Makee was dead after Kai shot her, Halsey was being arrested, Soren did some action scenes andKwan side-tracked the storyfor her own pointless thing.
But overall, there was adistinct lack of helmet-wearing.
We got aboutfive episodes in total with Master Chief wearing his helmetand it gets egregiously worse in season two. Whilst the last outing had only a few skips, this time around we’re looking atonly four episodes out of eightand amassive jump in wait timefor a fully armored Master Chief once you get past episode three.
The rest of the time he’scompletely without his armor. Here’s what we caught inseason two.
Season twobriefly tricks the audienceinto thinking we’re getting a full episode of no mask as “John” lies on a medical table. But wequickly time jump ahead within the first 20 secondsof the episode to Chief with Silver Team. The squad is on Sanctuary,babysitting a UNSC contingent that are evacuating civiliansbefore the Covenant shows up. But they appear pretty quickly.
So we geta lot of time with him wearing his iconic helmet, kicking Alien butt with a lot of great fight scenes that have somevery shaky camera shotsand will quickly be forgotten about as the show slows right down again. But we had thisbait-and-switch before with the first episode of season oneand you would be right in thinking they do it again.
We don’t find out how John recovered after the season finale,six months have passed and he’s just fine nowand Cortana was taken out of Chief.
At15 minutes in the helmet comes offas the team leaves behind Sanctuary whilstthe Covenant starts to glass it, and it stays off for the remainder of the 57-minute episode.
Chief then goes off on a little quest to figure outwhy the Covenant were on a planet they were going to glassanyway. But that’llplay itself out pretty quicklyas the season goes on.
We also see Chief go see a hologram AI Sex Workerthat he makes look like Cortanaand talks to about his feelings.
Episode two opens withHalsey in an ONI Prisonbeing constantly tortured by having to watch a flash clone of the Head of ONI’s sister die in front of her every day. It’s revealed its penance as the girl in questiondied during the Spartan programafter her body rejected her augments.
So to be fair,Halsey does deserve itand honestly she seems more annoyed that the clones can’t help her own escape in any way. Also Kwan is back.
But we don’t get John for quite a while so we’ll have to skip ahead to the next time Chief has his helmet on. Because whilsthe does pop up five minutes in, he’s got no helmet again anddoesn’t put it on until 20 minutes into the episodewhen Silver Team are doing a training exercise in the wilds of Reach.
We get ourallotted three minutes of Chief wearing a helmetfor the entire episode, just like they did back in season one, and then we’re back to the Halsey side story again. Skipping to26 minutes we get brief cuts of “John”back in street clothes wandering about Reach, going for dinner, andgenerally doing his own thingfor the remainder of the episode.
Even though things end with him in his armor,but without the helmet. Also,Makee is backas well by this point.
Episode Three
Whilst the last episodeset things up for an action-packed fight, sadly things slow right down as there is no fight. Just as they did back in season one,we focus on people having conversations in roomsas we wait for Reach to be invaded by the Covenant. But we doopen with Chief in his full armor on Reach, helmet included, for aboutsix minutes.
Double the length of what we got in episode two.
It’s a small improvement asepisode three of season one didn’t have him in his armorat all. But then we cut away to another scene andJohn is standing with no helmet on, getting chewed out by his Admiral Jacob Keyes.
And that’s all we get for this entire53-minute episodeas any further appearances by “John” are without his Spartan armor.
Episode Eight
We’ll be making a massive jump to the end of the entire second season asChief goes without his armorfor quite a while.
To fill in the gaps, It’s anexplosive opening into episode fouras the Covenant hidden on the planet reveal themselves and thingsplay out in a much watered-down and smaller feeling versionof the destruction of Reach. If you’d like a better representation of the fall of Reach,play Halo: Reachor read the book instead.
Focusing back on ourmain protagonist in power armor. Jimmy Chief is without his armor once again for a prolonged period of time, all whilstthe Covenant are invading, what luck.
Unfortunately,he never puts his armor or helmet onin this episode. SeemsAckerson stole it, but it was worth mentioning for the timeline of events, plus“John” takes down an Elite with his bare handsat one point and it’s quite entertaining. Althoughyou can barely see itwith how much the cameras shaking around.
In episode four we seethe retconningof John’s iconic coin flip. Instead of him just being a really weirdly lucky guy, now he hasa supernatural ability. But they never expand on that at all.
Next in episode five“John” goes without his suitfor the entire episode, Reach is in ruins and it’s mostly filler. Episodes six and sevenalso have an armorless Chiefas Ackerson still has his suit.
So our version of “John” runs around likea generic action hero fighting the Covenantand then ONI who have gone allPower Armor and Propaganda maduntil the season finale.
That’s aboutfive hours of no armor or helmetwearing.
Whilst episode seven does close out withMaster Chief wearing his armor, he just frustratingly sulks andrefuses to put the helmet onuntil the finale.
Speaking of, the finale opens andthe Halo Ring is in sight, after waiting all this time we finally see it andget to be on a very small part of itfor a few minutes. But we have towait about 17 minutes into a 54-minute episodeafter hours upon hours of fluff for Master Chief to finally put his helmet back on.
When he does we get to watchMaster Chief in his full suit of armor, helmet includeddiving into a fleet battle between the UNSC and the Covenant. We also get someZombie stuff withThe Floodand more teasers for the future, just to make sure everyone comes back for season three. Oh andMakee apparently kills Cortana, but she’s fine.
On the topic of Chief keeping his hat on,we don’t get to actually see him do anything in his armoruntil roughly five minutes later from us last seeing him. This time he’ssaving Kai whilst fighting a bunch of Eliteswith a Power Sword. We get aslow-mo badass entranceand one minute later he’s gone again asthe story pivots to Kwanand mild Flood body horror.
You’ll need to jump ahead again orwait until around the 27-minute markto see “John” drifting through space to the Covenant ship Cortana was left on by Makee. We get ourallotted three minutes of John seen wearing his helmetagain before it’s back to Kwan once more.
At31 minutes in we’re back with Chief on the Haloin all of his armor, andten seconds laterthe helmet comes off. Though you would think he wouldcheck the atmospheric levelsto make sure it’s safe to breathe, but no he just rips it off and starts gulping down Halo Ring air.
One minute laterthe helmet thankfully goes back on, but I guess we had to see Pablo’s face for just one last little bit, becausewe hadn’t already seen it enoughso far. We get abouta minute of the helmeted Chief talking with Cortanabefore it cuts away again for another10 minutesto do some side-character things again so Kai can have a noble sacrifice.
We do get12 seconds of Chief reacting to the explosion Kai kills herself inas if he knows what just happened, but that’s physically impossible.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter as it hasno impact on the battle, and the story’s more concerned with the fact thatthere’s a Flood breakout at the Onyx basewhere they’re handling the fleet battle from. It seems Halsey, Miranda Keyes and Kwanaccidentally recovered a sample of the Floodthat’s now got loose and infected everyone, including Halsey and Sorens’ wife. Great job everyone.
Back to Chief though and at43 minutes inwe’ve got a showdown between a fully suited Master Chief a.k.a Jimmy Chief, a.k.a Johnny Halo against Makee, andthe show’s version of The Arbiter. We get our usualthree minutes of funas Chief beats The Arbiter to death beforekilling him with honorby using a Power Sword.
This version ofThe Arbiter diesafter being on the Halo Ring for about ten minutes.
After thosethree allotted minutes of screentime are up, we cut back to everyone’s favorite character by this point, Kwan. Sorry Chief, you’ve been side-lined in your own story again.
It’s anotherwait for a few minutes to see Chief in his full suit, this time listening to Makee have her villain moment.
We then getone minute of helmet-wearing timebefore fading to black and a slow fade onone final look at Master Chief without his helmetas he talks to 343 Guilty Spark as season two winds down to an underwhelming cliffhanger conclusion.
In the final shot of the seasonChief puts his helmet on for a second, but the visor is smashed in. So we’ll probablynot see him wearing it much againin the next season.
