Welcome back to the 2021 Summer Binge of Altered Carbon. The last time we saw Takeshi Kovacs, he had just found out that his sister Rei had not only killed all the Envoys and his love Quellcrist, but that she had manipulated everything to get him back to her. He’s still reeling from all of this new information before he has to get back to Laurens Bancroft’s case. So let’s just jump right into episode 8 “Clash By Night.”
1. Rei Blackmails Kovacs
Now that Rei has semi-gotten Kovacs back into her life, she wants to keep it that way. And the best way to ensure that is to get him off Bancroft’s case. The big problem is that he hasn’t solved it yet. So she decides he has to give Bancroft a suspect and make a story believable enough to call it an open-and-shut case. If we’ve learned anything about Rei from the previous episode, it’s that she’s ruthless in her tactics to get what she wants. Kovacs was starting to grow emotionally and show that he does have a heart, but with Rei in charge, she just wants the cold-blooded envoy she knows he can be. Her only goal has been to get Kovacs back so they can live forever. The fact that she’s a borderline Meth was just the icing on the cake.
It does seem like she has something up her sleeve as well for wanting the case closed: when Kovacs questioned if she pulled the trigger, she’s quick to deny it. There’s a “business” arrangement or relationship that has yet to be revealed, but it’s coming.
2. Ghostwalker’s Beliefs
Speaking of a cold-blooded killer, Kovacs also finds out that his sister’s favorite dog is Ghostwalker. She’s threatening to kill anyone (Ortega, Vernon Elliot, and maybe even Poe) that Kovacs even mildly cares about to make sure he does her bidding. He also gets a little one-on-one time in an elevator and asks Kovacs if he’s a “true believer.” This means that he sees Rei as a true, in-the-flesh God. She lives forever, essentially cannot be hurt, and has immeasurable wealth and power, so she is a God in his eyes.
He mentions beliefs throughout his brief appearances, and he’s shown praying in between fighting and killing people, but we don’t know his specific religion. Rei uses that to her advantage to get him to do whatever she wants for possibly some of the same rewards or further training. Ghostwalker has yet to reveal whether he has any ambition or goals other than to serve, so in his eyes, he’s living his dream scenario. Either way, he’s ready to kill whoever he has to in order to make Rei happy.
3. Ava’s New Sleeve
To close the case for Bancroft with a fake story, we’re going to need some good phony evidence. Now Kovacs can do a lot fighting-wise, but he will need help with the computer manipulation stuff. He gets his sister to pull some strings and get Vernon’s wife out of prison and into a new sleeve. The big catch is that she comes back into a man’s sleeve instead of a woman. The situation slowly becomes more sad than funny because she’s confused about what is going on and broken-hearted to see her daughter stuck in virtual reality.
Vernon is still trying to make sense of his wife’s new sleeve while still figuring out how to tell her about their daughter’s attack. This episode also gives the audience a happier Vernon than he has been in the past because of the small family reunion. Seeing them both back in his life gives him the strength to push the button to help Kovacs with his plan to manipulate Bancroft. Their daughter Lizzie is also getting some self-defense training from Poe as a part of her therapy that will likely come in handy as this season slowly reaches its end.
4. Case…Closed?
Now to find out who is going to be the person that killed Laurens Bancroft. And it’s the easiest person to blame, the lawyer Oumou Prescott. She hasn’t been shy about getting in anyone’s face who tries to get Bancroft’s way, not because she actually cares for him but because she wants so desperately to become a Meth. Her hunger for power is the easiest way to convince Bancroft that she was the one who planned and pulled the trigger. Arguably nobody knew his schedule and emotions as well as Prescott, so it was just a matter of timing. The look on her face as Bancroft starts to believe the lie and decides at that very moment not to have her arrested but take everything from her is priceless. The audience could understand her want for power and money, but she was never shown positively, so there was no reason to like her. The only disappointing part of this reveal was that she was pulled out of the room and the audience could not see her punishment.
Continued belowWhile waiting around for Bancroft to come back with the contract pardoning Kovacs of his previous prison sentence, Kovacs starts to look at the crime scene again. As he looks closely and is flooded with all the previous information about that night, he begins to piece together what happens.
5. Ortega Won’t Let It Go
An episode of Altered Carbon wouldn’t be complete without Ortega finding a clue to her case, and now she’s on the trail for Rei. Kovacs had to blow Ortega off, or Ghostwalker was going to kill her. She’s smart enough to know something else was up and blackmailed a guy she had arrested before to take her where the Meth clones were stored. She figured out that Rei must have been rich and had some stored away if she needed them. This is the big fight scene that was waiting in this episode as Ortega faced off against not one Rei but seven. Her metal arm has come in handy way more than she probably expected, but Ortega is happy because it’s keeping her alive. After she faces off against all the clones, she leaves with a little girl the audience already knows is Rei in disguise. With only two episodes left in the first season, Rei has to have a few more tricks up her sleeve to kill Ortega and get her brother back on her side.
