Review: Red vs Blue “Why They’re Here”

Are you scared?

Spoilers Below

As a longtime viewer of this show will know, the titular struggle between Azure Assailants and Crimson Combatants is, in reality, nothing more than a purple-ish smokescreen. The true purpose of this conflict is to test a select few of elite soldiers known as Freelancers; special agents named after 49 of the United States, and their use of Artificial Intelligence given to them through less than legal means. Throughout the show’s 13 years, we’ve seen this experiment through multiple angles in the past: From the Red and Blue soldiers whose lives are made forfeit to play a part, to the willing Freelancers who slaughter them mercilessly once given the order, and even behind the curtain as to how all the pieces come together through the Director himself. What we had yet to see was how the casting sessions went.
The second, third, and fourth episodes of this anthology are directed by Kyle Taylor, who acted as Assistant Director for the Chorus Trilogy, and written by Jordan Cwierz, who is best known for the Rooster Teeth Animated Adventures. These three chapters shed light on this previously overlooked piece of history for our better known band of Simulation Troopers. “From Stumbled Beginnings” showed how the comedic duo of Grif and Simmons met, and “Fifty Shades of Red” covered the selection of Sarge and the audition of Tucker. “Why They’re Here” aptly tells us…why exactly they’re here. In the background of the previous two episodes has been Freelancer Agent Florida, AKA Butch Flowers, voiced by Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies, who has been carefully putting together the pieces for a highly crucial and delicate operation. This episode puts him front and center to reveal that plan: Observing and controlling the Alpha A.I., AKA Church.
…And if you’ve seen the show, you know how well THAT goes. But the purpose of this story is seeing these characters just before the start of the journey we’ve been following them through for over a decade. It’s always at least somewhat interesting seeing long running characters at earlier points, especially before all the insanity they end up in. We somewhat saw that in Season 9, which was itself a mental simulation of this whole shebang, but it’s nice to know the exact events. The other aspect of note is adding a rather dark twist on things we previously assumed were fact, which just goes to show how screwed up this project was at the end of the day.
This story really feels like it’s bringing the show back to its roots, and not just because they’re using the Halo 1 engine and sticking everyone in a box canyon for the umpteenth time. We’re seeing the main cast before they are themselves, as the seemingly flat individuals who had no idea about whether you could pick up chicks in a tank, what the proper name for their jeep was, if beating someone with their own skull was physically possible, or what they were even fighting for. As prequel trilogies go, this is one of the better attempts.