Exclusive Halo Clip Shows Off Iconic EVA Armor, Covenant Ship

Halo’s second season set up the famed Fall of Reach and delivered, but the action isn’t stopping there. As the show keeps trucking—and trying to remind folks turned off by the first season that it’s still got the juice—we’ve got an exclusive clip debut of an action sequence from the upcoming sixth episode, Onyx, premiering March 7 on Paramount+. Don’t worry, we aren’t showing y’all Master Chief’s latest sex scene. Don’t mean that kind of action.

In the clip—which is largely in first-person to mimic that in-game Halo feel—we get a look at an upcoming firefight that Talia Perez (Cristina Rodlo) and a squad of UNSC Marines get into with the Covenant. Though they go unseen, the Covenant forces take out quite a few of the UNSC troops in the fight. Perez, who’s clearly distraught throughout the skirmish, doesn’t seem to be having a good day! It’s unfortunate Master Chief is nowhere in sight to help the squad out. Lord knows he can teach those Marines a thing or two.

The snippet we see also seems set in a Covenant base that reeks of the hallways Halo players have undoubtedly fought through time and time again. It begins as the UNSC Marines jump through a surface reminiscent of a bubble shield. If you all knew how many times I’ve frustratedly played through Halo: Combat Evolved’s Library level, you’d understand the rush of feelings this sight gave me and how much I empathize with the crew getting merked in this clip. I’ve been in those boots.

We also get our first look at how EVA armor looks in the Halo show! The design is closest in appearance to the all-white GEN1 Mark IV design previously seen on the character Kelly-087 from Halo 5. You especially get a good shot of the armor right at the end as a soldier is stuck with a shot from a Needler, delivers a line clearly in service of the “Finish the fight” tagline of Halo 3, and dies on the spot.

I haven’t watched the show, but the way some of these dudes flip and crumple after getting blasted reminds me of the charm of Halo’s physical humor. Looks to me like the series is trying to meld the campiness of the larger series with some (if not all) of the seriousness of modern prestige TV. Season 2 of the Paramount-produced show is now delving into the fallout immediately after the Fall of Reach, one of the most important moments in the series’ history. Tuning in to see how that integral event plays out and ripples through the familiar world of Halo in another light might be worth it alone. That and the fact that our resident Halo freak swears by the show, of course.

The sixth episode of Halo season 2 airs on Paramount+ on Thursday, March 7.