Altered Carbon
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Then again, onAltered Carbon, death is only temporary.
The Killers opens with a fake-out, showing us Officer Kristin Ortega coming home to find her murdered family.
She screams, Let me out!
Shes going to destroy Kovacss fireflies and make him watch her do it.
It ends here, she says.
Back in Bay City, the Ghost Walker comes to retrieve the rest of Kovacss Scooby Gang.
She refuses to run.
She wants to be sent to Head in the Clouds.
Meanwhile, Mickey gets shot through his stack (we hardly knew you, Mick!)
just before Lizzie is sent to Head in the Clouds.
Poe dies, cleverly quoting his namesakes Annabel Lee.
Lizzie gets to the satellite of sin, ready to kick some ass.
As she preps herself for an assault, Ortega is pulled out of VR by Kovacs.
Rei wants make her brother choose who dies first.
She speaks of evolving as if playing God is the natural evolution of man.
Embrace that power, she says.
Be on the winning side.
Kovacs holds the gun to his throat.
He pulls the trigger, but she gave him an unloaded weapon.
He offers to stay if shell let his friends go.
She says their mom was weak and deserved to die.
She also mentions how she killed the little girl she once was to become something stronger.
After she spots the people taking away Ortega and her parents, a fight ensues.
Freed by Lizzie, Ortega goes back to save Kovacs.
She hurls a knife at a guard and Kovacs joins the fight, too.
Its time for showdowns!
Its Rei vs. Kovacs in one room and Ortega vs. the Ghost Walker in another.
Meanwhile, the Elliots work together to take down the entire ship.
They pull switches, draining the power and sending it plummeting to Bay City.
Ortega super-arms her enemy while Kovacs and Rei stab each other at the same time.
They look into each others eyes in pain.
Ortega gets her advantage just as Tanaka arrives, but she lets her kill her enemy.
Are you a believer, motherfucker?
she asks, and then stacks him.
Help me and Ill give you back Quell, she says.
Quell didnt even know that she could return with one flip of a switch.
Kovacs looks torn, but he knows what the leader of the Envoys would insist.
He gets the gun and points it at Reis stack.
She just stares right back at him.
Can he kill his sister?
Ill never stop, she promises.
And those are the final words of Reileen Kawahara.
The ship starts to plummet, and Kovacs says good-bye to Ortega through a closed door.
Hes going to stay with Rei to the bitter end.
The ship crashes into the water as Kovacs vision of Quell tells a story about the death of love.
Of course, we know that Takeshi Kovacs was double-sleeved.
And it turns out that they even save the stack from the crashed Head in the Clouds too.
So now, one of those sleeves has to die.
Theres an interesting consideration here: Do you keep the memory of your sisters death or erase it?
With the big mayhem settled, there are still some loose ends to tie up at the Bancroft mansion.
First, Laurens realizes that he real-deathed a girl, and actually did kill himself.
Then she sent her to the Wei Clinic and almost destroyed her forever.
The Wei Clinic is run by Rei, so she was owed a favor.
Thats why Miriam dosed her husband, setting everything in motion.
We have ruined each other, Laurens says.
Can you live so long and become so rich that you lose your conscience forever?
As the season closes, they get Ava back in her real body and the Elliots seem happy again.
Finally, Takeshi Kovacs has to turn his sleeve in.
Its not Elias Rykers fault that he was framed.
Where will Kovacs go?
What will he do?
He knows Quellcrist Falconer is still alive, at least in stack form, somewhere.
Other Notes
We got the first full credits this episode since the premiere.
Also, Renee Elise Goldsberry, a.k.a.
the actress who plays Quell, sings Aint No Grave over the closing credits.
So, do you want a second season ofAltered Carbon?
If so, which stories do you want see developed?
This world certainly seems deep enough, and the shows creator hashinted that season twocould beverydifferent.
Im ready for it.
