Once John and his Spartans make it through a gravitational gauntlet on the way to the Covenant holy planet (don’t ask me why or how he did this, because the script oddly takes Cortana out of commission for this challenge and John somehow intuitively figures out a way through some sci-fi mumbo jumbo obstacles), Silver Team prepares for an orbital drop to the location for the climactic battle while Makee and the Prophets begin a ceremony to unite the 2 artifacts and “light the way” to the location of Halo.

When the battle begins during what should’ve been the most thrilling aspect of the finale, we’re instead subjected to a final stretch that peddles in all the worst aspects of a “Halo” adaptation come to life: gooey physics, shoddy VFX work, disorienting editing, and a copious amount of pandering action sequences. Even the setting itself feels like a poorly designed video game level from “Combat Evolved,” featuring only a tiny slice of land available to interact with and a sense that characters could practically run into the invisible wall if they strayed too far off the designated map. All of this comes at the cost of the show’s carefully established identity to this point, trapping our protagonists in a bizarrely low-scale climax that doesn’t feel nearly as momentous as it should.

Woefully outmatched and outgunned by the sudden appearance of Covenant reinforcements hidden underground, the Spartans endure every possible injury short of actual death before Makee activates the combined artifacts. Along with knocking back their enemies and revealing the (incomplete) coordinates to Halo, this promptly transports herself and the Chief back to their shared vision of Halo. Here, this metaphysical plane of existence is treated more like a moral test than a novelty, with Makee insistent on living out this fantasy together while John urges her to “let go” and send them back to reality. The choice is made for her when Kai snaps John out of this stasis and puts a bullet into Makee’s chest — an abrupt and underwhelming end to a villain who certainly seemed to be primed for a much longer and more interesting arc.

But with John moments away from being overrun by the advancing Covenant and Cortana insisting that there’s no way to recover the artifacts and save his team, he makes the only decision he can at the cost of his own humanity. Instructing Cortana to fully take over control of his body and mind to salvage this mission and give humanity a fighting chance, the reluctant AI does exactly that and merges man with machine … and nothing really seems to change all that drastically? He’s just as proficient in combat as before, with the only difference being that Cortana calls in air cover from their orbiting Pelican (which seems like something she could’ve done much earlier when they were all pinned down in the first place!).

The confusing logistics of this (otherwise thematically appropriate) development allow our heroes to retreat with the all-important artifacts while Halsey, safe and sound as she prepares to make her escape from Reach, narrates the closing soliloquy about how she means to “rewrite what it means to be human” and “achieve transcendence” — whatever these villainous, but frustratingly vague statements are supposed to mean.

It’ll be up to the new showrunner, David Wiener, to figure that out for next season. Let’s just hope he finds a better balance between the fascinating weirdness of what this “Halo” series wanted to be and the more traditional adaptation of “Combat Evolved” that the franchise may be obligated to deliver on.