Macbook Pro 2016 stuck on "restarting" after installing mojave Whenever I try to upgrade my macbook with updates which require a system restart, it will begin the update then freeze on the screen with an apple logo and partially filled progress bar with the text "restarting".

System Info:


MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
2.9 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3





This began when I was running macOS 10.13.4 and attempted to upgrade to mojave (without installing 10.13.6 first). The same issue as described above happened so I powered the system off and restarted it.
The update was not installed but it booted up fine and worked normally so I tried again, this time leaving it on overnight but the same thing happened.
This time I tried to install the 10.13.6 update before mojave but got the same results when installing 10.13.6. Upon reboot the system was still at 10.13.4
I tried installing the 10.13.6 combo update, same thing happened
I tried resetting my PRAM with Command + Option + P + R but that didnt change anything
I booted into recovery mode and ran first aid on my disk
I booted into recovery mode and reinstalled the macOS. This succeeded and set me at 10.13.6, hooray.
I opened the app store and tried to install the security update before moving on to mojave, just in case. System rebooted, began install, then froze on the "restarting" step.


I am under the impression there is an error during the install which also prevents the reboot sequence but I don't know how to track it down. Does anyone have insight into what is happening here?
I ended up trying to install the updates from safe mode and that worked. It doesn't solve the issue but is an acceptable workaround for me.