The trailer for the forthcoming season one finale of Halo teases an action-packed episode full of butt-kicking from Master Chief and Silver Team.

As you can see above, the trailer starts with Miranda Keyes telling John that Makee has left Reach with the second half of the artifact. A wounded Master Chief then contacts Cortana, whom he now trusts after the AI betrayed Halsey and saved John’s life from the rogue Spartans in “Allegiance.”

It looks like the UNSC will then take the fight to the Covenant planet, which they find with the help of Cortana. The admiral wants to send the marines, but Master Chief convinces her that he and Silver Team can handle it. We then see glimpses of the fight to come on the Covenant planet, with John and his squad taking on different enemy types and even exchanging blows with the brute we saw in episode 5.

At least now we can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that the Covenant isn’t destroying Reach like they did Criterion in this week’s penultimate outing.

After years of waiting, Halo fans are being treated to a live-action adaptation of their favorite sci-fi franchise, even though the reception has been mixed due to all the changes they made to Pablo Schreiber’s Master Chief. The producers don’t seem to mind the controversy all that much, because if you do decide to watch their take on Halo, John removing his helmet will ultimately prove to be the least of your concerns.

At any rate, it seems Halo has helped give Paramount Plus a much-needed subscriber boost amid the ongoing streaming wars, so we can safely bet that the next season won’t take as many years to produce as the first one did.

HBO has released a short clip from the upcoming Game of Thrones spinoff series, House of the Dragon, that introduces fans to Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, next in the line to succeed King Viserys.

In this short sneak peek, clipped from the recent trailer, Rickard Stark, Corlys Velaryon, and Boremund Baratheon kneel to swear fealty to King Viserys I Targaryen, but also extend that oath to his firstborn Princess Rhaenyra, portrayed in live-action by Wanderlust star Emma D’Arcy. You can check out the short teaser here.

The story takes place some 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, chronicling the history of the Targaryen dynasty from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood novel. When Aegon the Conqueror arrived on the shores of the Seven Kingdoms with Balerion the Black Dread, one of the largest dragons in history, the proud houses of Westeros bowed before the invader, thus beginning the reign of House Targaryen until their downfall during Robert’s Rebellion in 280 AC.

The upcoming spinoff series is set in the middle of this 300-year rule, somewhere between 103 AC and 129 AC when the fifth Targaryen king Viserys I (Paddy Considine) took the Iron Throne. As for Rhaenyra, the young princess is the heir apparent to Viserys I, while his uncle Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) also known as the Prince of the City, roams the Red Keep as the heir presumptive and the direct rival of Rhaenyra.

House of the Dragon, the first show in HBO’s extensive line-up of Game of Thrones spinoffs, will make its worldwide premiere on Aug. 21.

Halo is building towards its conclusive finale this week with the eighth and penultimate episode of season one, titled “Allegiance.”

As you can see in this exclusive clip below, our characters are turning to desperate measures as the clock starts ticking for the UNSC in the race to retrieve the second half of the mysterious artifact from their alien enemies, the Covenant.

Dr. Halsey is still influencing everything from her place of confinement, and the latest victim of that psychological manipulation is Makee, the Blessed One, working with the Covenant to retrieve the artifact and quite possibly bring the downfall of mankind.

Halsey is trying to convince Makee that the only way forward is to trust her and to use Master Chief to uncover the hidden nature of the Halo arrays. She also refers to our protagonist John-117 as just another tool for humanity, which seems to unsettle an eavesdropping Cortana in the background.

That could serve as a turning point for the relationship, or rather, the eventual friendship, between Cortana and Master Chief. Up to this point, the flesh-cloned AI has been loyal to Halsey’s cause, but her allegiance could shift after seeing through the character’s lies and manipulation, hence the name of the episode.

It’s highly unlikely that the series will give us all the answers by the time we’re done with the finale on May 19, but the promo content seems to indicate the forthcoming penultimate episode will be a plot-heavy and action-packed outing. Frankly, when it comes to Halo, you just can’t go wrong with that.

“Allegiance” premieres this Thursday on Paramount Plus.