: John's flash clone...
: 1) dies and is replaced with another clone that grows older.
: 2) dies and John makes return trips to Eridanus when he's older.
: 3) is listed as dead, but is secretly kept alive by technology.
: 4) is listed as dead, but is kept alive by his geas/luck.
: 5) is listed as dead, but kept alive by the Insurrectionists once they see
: how much the UNSC is watching him.

: So... do we have a second Master Chief walking around the galaxy, fighting
: for the Insurrectionists? It would certainly make sense with the big
: points that are brought up in the audio drama. Are we getting the evil
: duplicate plot line?

: Also of note, Chief's armor (aside from the recently-made hole) is
: surprisingly new-looking compared to the armor we saw in the first Halo 5
: trailer. Why such a drastic difference if not to differentiate two
: nearly-identical characters?

We already have one Jane Shepard expy in the Halo Universe. Frankly, I approve of the idea that the Insurrection took the clone, repaired the genetic damage from the flash cloning, and raised him to be their version of the Master Chief. Given the number of Spartan defectors we're seeing from S-IV, it wouldn't surprise me if they reverse engineered the S-IV augmentations for Clone John, built a suit of MJOLNIR using their combined resources and leaked ONI research, and set him off on a "false flag" op to discredit the "Real" Chief and claim his legacy for their cause. Or, alternatively, that this clone was raised by ONI itself and is now being deployed to replace the original as a more loyal "saviour," to create a crisis so ONI can cling to power in a post-war galaxy.

Either way, I like that idea much better than Mass Effects answer of a full-body clone with identity issues - this way the clone has a full backstory, motivations and a personality, and gives the Master Chief a complicating personal crisis - clearing his name, dealing with the fallout of someone else's actions, and being isolated.

Unless we're reading more into an ONI stealth campaign to discredit what they see as a threat.