‘Halo’: What Happened to Kessler? Why Did the UNSC Take Him?

We’re more than halfway through Season 2 of ‘Halo’ and Episode 5 was kind of a filler with only a few important things revealed. One of the notable subplots of the episode was Soren’s & Laera’s search for Kessler as the boy seemingly vanished into thin air. Now this is really interesting since Laera finds out near the end of the episode that the UNSC took him. Why would the military take a child in the middle of the most devastating war in history?

Kwan-Ha sent Kessler away to protect him, but he was lost in the chaos

Back in the previous episodes of ‘Halo’ season 2 we saw that Kwan-Ha and Kessler formed a friendly relationship, especially after Soren was taken by the UNSC and, as we know, Kwan-Ha lost her home planet to Covenant Glassing permanently putting her under the care of Soren and his wife Laera.

Before Kwan-Ha was about to kidnap the ship and save Laera, she knew that she couldn’t even try something so dangerous with a child in tow so she sent him away for safekeeping, however, Kessler never made it back to his mother. He was lost somewhere between the Rubble and Reach. Laera arrived just in time to save Soren and the rest of his company at the time but there was no sign of their son.

Because Rize’s condition was severe the crew decided to visit a field “hospital” on Aleria with Soren and Laera visiting the local “merchant” who might know something about Reach refugees. The merchant at first refused to divulge any information until being bribed, he showed them the records, and Laera spotted one description that seemed to match Kessler.

She and Soren made their way to a couple of women who confirmed that a boy around that age was with them but they refused to show him due to the boy arriving in a severe condition that seemed to imply that he was abused long before he arrived at their place.

While Soren was negotiating with the women, Laera stumbled across the boy that the women were talking about, and yes, the boy was around the same height as Kessler and had a Spartan helmet in his possession, the one that Soren gave Kessler, however when he removed the helmet, Laera noticed that it was a much older boy than her son.

The boy explained that Kessler gave him his helmet because he was obviously afraid, which seems to align with something that Kessler would truly do, but the boy also confirmed that Kessler got taken away at one point and he had no idea what happened to him.

Back near the field hospital, Laera returned to that same Merchant who gave them intentionally wrong information, and following what looked like an upcoming torture session, Laera managed to find out who exactly took Kessler – it was the UNSC.

So, why does the UNSC want Kessler?

This is an interesting question, it might be that they simply evacuated him along with the refugees from Reach, but it was also possible and even more likely that he was taken intentionally and for a reason.

First, being Soren’s child Kessler is a pretty powerful bargaining chip. We know that Soren was a thorn in UNSC’s side for quite some time now which is why his family did end up in this predicament when he was arrested chasing ghosts and Halsey. By having Kessler, the UNSC has a warranty that Soren will do what they say, when they say it, and have a way to manipulate him. This is bound to cause a rift between Soren and Laera, as she already pointed out that this was Soren’s mess, as even when he manages to escape his past he always gets pulled in.

Second, Kessler is also the son of a Spartan, the only one we know about in the show at least, I mean Soren never truly finished his training and Halsey seemed to imply that his augmentations failed at one point but it’s still an undeniable fact that he is valuable research specimen into researching Spartan reproduction and the possibility of their enhanced genetics being transferred to a child.

We know that Ackerson was developing his own Spartan program all this time, and I wouldn’t put it past him to kidnap the child and use it for his own goals, despite the same thing happening to his sister, which is why he hates Spartans and Halsey’s guts.

In any case, we will have more information next Thursday, when episode 6 drops. In the meantime, if you have any ideas, please drop them in the comments below!

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