Collapse

Collapse
Season 5, Episode 13 (51)
transcript
Air date	April 23, 2011
Written by	Jon Graham
Directed by	Jon Graham
Episode guide
Previous Cheaters	Next Genesis

"It doesn't surprise me that a dose of emotion would have a toxic effect on an emotion-deprived cretin like you. Who's really the plastic one here? Your bleak outlook on life is poisonous. Maybe the world is a big sinking ship. But we can't accept that as an inevitability and use it as an excuse to act like shitheads. We have to be the change we seek. We have to build something better for ourselves."

— Arbiter, to Trent Donnovich during their battle.

Collapse is the thirteenth and final episode of the fifth season of Arby 'n' the Chief.

Summary

With a list of 'leet hacks' at the ready, Arbiter and Master Chief prepare to take down the Donnovich wedding and stop Claire from making the biggest mistake of her life.

Plot

Josh Butterballs is covering Trent and Claire's wedding live. As the sisters walk inside, Josh stops the broadcast. The news crew leaves as Claire stands on the building, looking at the horizon. Trent asks why she is standing up there, and Claire states that the two of them shouldn't be seen together. Trent scoffs at Claire and asks if she is superstitious, and Claire doesn't reply. Beckoning Claire back inside, Trent begins to walk away as Claire reveals her sadness about Arbiter's absence, and Trent blows it off and tells Claire he's probably doing something else. Claire finally turns around and walks with Trent back inside.

Meanwhile, Arbiter prepares to enter the wedding server, When he is finally ready, Arbiter tells Chief to grab his controller, but he notices that Chief is gone. Hearing the microwave beeping, Arbiter heads into the kitchen to see Chief making some mac and cheese. Telling Chief to stop and get in the living room, Chief exclaims that he is hungry, but Arbiter orders Chief to get a controller because the wedding is starting soon. Chief reluctantly complies and gets a controller. Arbiter goes over the consequences of them crashing the wedding, and Chief simply states that they will pay the prices later on, and high-fives Arbiter.

Now entering the server, Arbiter and Chief walk up to Cameron and Cody, who are protecting the entrance. After having guns pulled on them, Arbiter and Chief draw their weapons. Arbiter proceeds to count from five, and after Chief says zero, Arbiter tells him to "do it now" and several Warthogs  start to explode due to the toy's hacks, distracting the guards, giving Arbiter and the Chief plenty of time to take them out while the explosions go off. Hearing the explosions, the wedding crowd murmurs as Trent asks Cody and Cameron what is going on, but he gets no response. The sisters then decide to go to the roof to check out the situation. Arbiter gives Chief the run-down of how they are going to stop Trent. Their first priority is to take out Brian, who could ban them in an instant. Arbiter says that once Brian is taken out, they'll have several minutes to their advantage, although they were screwed either way. Arbiter then tells Chief to eliminate the sisters if they pose a problem, and Chief happily complies. Arbiter then tells Chief that Claire and Trent are off-limits, and to leave them to him. Chief accepts, but on one condition: he gets to kill everyone else. Arbiter warns Chief that their weapons can steal Xbox passwords and send them to the hackers, and insists that they minimize casualties. Chief goes on to say that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but eventually asks if any weapons won't have that effect, and he looks at their list of hacks and mods, and tells Arbiter to respawn all cars, so Arbiter does, causing all the Warthogs to reappear. The Chief then walks up to the back of one of the Warthogs and asks if turrets have the effect, and Arbiter says he doesn't know. Chief gives Arbiter a choice, and says "turret or sniper" and asks Arbiter to pick one. Arbiter reluctantly tells Chief to get on the turret while he drives.

As the two begin to drive away, the news crew returns and asks the two about what their intentions were and whether or not they were terrorists. Arbiter replies that Trent was the bad guy and he was an "adultering asshole." The crew presses them for more info, but Arbiter says that they didn't have much time, and Chief kills the news crew with the turret. The two then drive inside the building (after much difficulty), and causes a commotion in the reception. Chief gets off the turret and snipes Brian, and then gets back on the turret to wreak havoc on the fleeing guests. After the turret overheats, the Chief and Arbiter get out of the Warthog to meet with Claire and Trent. Trent begins to call for help, and Arbiter tells him that his goons won't be there anytime soon. Claire exclaims what was happening, with Arbiter apologizing and explaining why he returned, and that there was no alternative. Trent pleads with Arbiter to stop, and if he does, he'll let Arbiter keep his online access, but if he doesn't, his online access will be nullified. Claire asks what is going on, and Trent tells Arbiter to leave, but Arbiter tells Claire about Trent's affair and how he banned him and the Chief from seeing Claire, much to his dismay. Claire asks Trent if this is true, and Arbiter notices a Falcon flying in. The sisters are in it, and the duo tries to get to the Warthog, but the sisters destroy it. Arbiter then tells Chief to get to cover at the entrance. Arbiter tries to talk to Claire, but he is shot at by the sisters, forcing him to retreat back outside, with the sisters following close behind. Claire then demands Trent for some answers while Arbiter tells Chief to destroy the sisters' ride with his Spartan Laser, much to the reluctance of Chief, who asks who made the Arbiter the boss. Arbiter then tells Chief to stop arguing and get to the roof while he distracts the sisters, who should be at eye level with the Chief.

As Trent tries to explain, Chief makes his way for the roof while the sisters shoot at the Arbiter. With Trent angered by Claire wanting to break up, he walks away, cocking his pistol, cursing Arbiter's name. As Chief gets to the roof, Arbiter tells him to hurry up, and Chief begins to charge his laser, but before he fires, he gets a better idea. With Arbiter asking Chief what he is waiting for, the sisters get closer to destroying his cover. He then notices Chief on a Falcon flying into the map, telling the sisters they are going down, but Chief is confused as to how to shoot the guns, but Arbiter explains that only a passenger can use the mounted chain gun. Hearing this, Chief quickly lands and runs for it, barely escaping the Falcon as it explodes. He then proceeds to attempt to fire his laser at the sisters. Trent comes out of the church, firing at Arbiter, claiming that he ruined everything, but Arbiter says that he brought this on himself. Explaining why he is doing what he is doing, Arbiter says he is doing this for Claire, with Trent asking if Arbiter really thinks that Claire loves him, and saying that she doesn't. As Arbiter says he loves her, Claire walks out of the church.

Trent then disappears, with Arbiter taunting him. Chief manages to survive against the falcon's firepower using an infinite armor lock, because the hacks stop it from running out. As the sisters' turret overheats, Chief seizes the opportunity and fires his laser, destroying the Falcon and killing them. The destroyed Falcon then lands on Trent, killing him too. Claire then walks up to Arbiter, stating that she can't believe it. Meanwhile, Chief gets off the rooftop and stands inside the church, exclaiming how much fun he had. As he says this, Trent walks up behind Chief and assassinates him. Trent then takes Chief's modded Sniper Rifle and Spartan Laser and heads outside, much to Chief's confusion. Arbiter then realizes with horror and explains that they didn't kill him, and that the Falcon's wreckage did. Trent then walks up to Claire and Arbiter. Trent, enraged at what Arbiter had done, points the rifle at Claire, claiming that Claire's death was the consequence of Arbiter's actions. Arbiter protests, Trent tells Arbiter that he would be the next to go. As he says this, Trent's gang respawns, much to Arbiter's confusion. Brian walks up and explains he had lifted all of the placed bans, and that the duo's online access was terminated. Trent explains that he would just find himself another wife, while Arbiter would live the rest of his life alone. As Trent prepares to ban the duo, he notices another player coming from the island, who no-scopes everyone but Trent with a Sniper Rifle, distracting Trent and allowing Arbiter the sneak up and assassinate him. As Arbiter looks at the mystery player, he notices that the player's icon was a spider as well as having an Operator helmet, leading him to believe that Greg had rescued them.

Arbiter puts down his controller and looks on the ground. He finds a controller with one of Greg's post-it notes on the controller, which says "talk to her".

Back in the game, Arbiter and Claire have a long talk about their past and what their real feelings are, and Claire reveals that she doesn't love Arbiter, but she thinks of him as a good friend who she'll never forget. Before the console is banned, Claire gives Arbiter her email address and says that there is someone out there for him. Him and Chief then walk away as their console is slowly banned, with Claire standing on the island, alone.

Chief and Arbiter then eat some mac and cheese and play Scrabble after the console is banned. After a day of being banned, Chief professes his anger and how he wants to play Halo, but Arbiter recommends that the two play scrabble again, but Chief says that scrabble doesn't have a part where you kill aliens, and walks away.

Arbiter, as he is awoken by a voice very similar to Cortana.

However, Chief eventually plays scrabble with Arbiter, and uses obscene language. The two then argue about whether "quex" is a word, which leads to Chief walk away to watch porn. Arbiter puts away the scrabble game as a result and walks into the kitchen, where he finds his long lost helmet, along with a post-it note from Greg above it. Arbiter picks up his helmet and puts it on. He then thanks Greg and tells him to come back soon. Later on, Arbiter finds Chief asleep in bed and goes to bed himself as well. In the distance, Greg's shadow is seen from the wall.

Post-Credits Scene

In a post-credits scene, Arbiter is seen sleeping during the daylight. He is then awakened by a voice that sounds similar to Cortana's.

Cast

• Microsoft Sam as Master Chief
• Microsoft Mike as The Arbiter
• Greg as himself
• Elizabeth Carr-Ernst as Claire, Brittany Donnovich
• Jon Graham as Trent Donnovich, Josh Butterballs
• JC Cheng as Victoria Donnovich
• Ian Beckman as Cameron Jones
• Hollywoodangels as Cody Hammond
• Ron Campbell as Brian
• Microsoft Mary as Unknown voice

Episode How-Tos

• HOW TO get leet hacks
• HOW TO apply aforementioned leet hacks to your Halo: Reach profile via a USB cable
• HOW TO crash a wedding
• HOW TO charge your lazaaah
• HOW TO become more than just a toy

Transcript

Main article: Collapse/Transcript

Reception

"Collapse" was highly anticipated and garnered unanimous acclaim from viewers and fans upon its release. The pacing, dialogue, action sequences and confrontation between Trent and Arbiter were seen as the episode's strongest points by most viewers. It continues to be highly revered by viewers and fans as a satisfying season finale, and many consider it to be one of the best episodes of the series.

Trivia

• A few people initially believed that Greg had hanged himself in the end. Jon had to clarify that he was actually hanging from his abdomen by his webbing like most spiders do in the Director's commentary of the episode.
• Interestingly, Chief took a Sniper Rifle and a Spartan Laser to crash the wedding, which were the exact same weapons he used to bring down the Halo 3 wedding in the episode "Wedding".

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