Altered Carbon S2E2 Television 

Five Thoughts On Altered Carbon‘s “Payment Deferred”

By | August 18th, 2021
Posted in Television | % Comments

Welcome back to the crazy world of Altered Carbon as we follow Tekashi Kovacs on his quest to find who killed Horace Axley and reuniting with his love, Quellcrist Falconer. Last episode ended with Kovacs seeing a memory of Falconer letting his new sleeve live, and now he just needs to figure out what it means. So let’s stop wasting time and check out episode two of season two, “Payment Deferred.”

1. Colonel Carrera

In this episode, we are introduced to the antagonist of the season, Colonel Carrera. He’s a leader within the Protectorate, and from his opening scene, it’s clear that he demands respect and takes whatever he wants. His first scene is “investigating” Horace Axley’s death, but after getting the details of his murder, he kills the detective on the scene and all of the other police to make sure there are no loose ends. His motivation is revealed later on by wanting to take over Harlan’s World (the city where this season takes place) because Harlan’s daughter is in charge now and decides to strike at what he believes to be a weak leader. There’s no reason shared with the audience other than power, but as with any villains or bad guys, power is often more than enough to cause chaos and destruction.

This man had already shown that he can be emotionally manipulative by pretending to listen to the police on the scene before he got what he wanted and turned. He’s also already made it clear to the daughter, Danica Harlan, that he won’t be leaving until he gets the sleeve that was initially meant for his unit: the sleeve that Kovacs is now inhabiting.

2. Poe’s Reboot

Kovacs’s sidekick Poe was one of the originals back from the last season, but he didn’t make it all the way back. After nearly being killed the previous season, he hasn’t quite been the same, which for an AI, he can often lose his short-term memory and not be nearly as helpful as he was in the past. Kovacs has known, but at a time when he feels so close to finding Falconer again, he doesn’t want to risk it. Poe knows that he can be fixed it with a reboot, but he’s afraid of losing his memories of Lizzie Elliot, the woman that he rescued in VR to rebuild her life.

Poe has also been emotionally needy but still willing to do whatever he can to help Kovacs or the Elliots on missions he feels are for the greater good, but it’s interesting to see him in this new light. Poe has this strong sense of fear of losing out on everything he’s built and learned already. At one point, he tries to use sticky notes to help him remember, but it’s no use with Falconer on the line and Kovacs growing more impatient by the minute.

3. Bounty Hunting

Kovacs still has no link back to Axley to find out whether he was telling the truth about Falconer or not; he’s nearly run out of options until Poe reminds him of one person: the bounty hunter. She managed to capture Kovacs and bring him to Harlan’s World, so if there’s one person that may have a clue, it’s going to be her. After capturing the top five bounties, Kovacs knows she’ll be after he finally gets some one-on-one time for some information. It’s another unlikely friendship in the works as she sees him as a means for money, but he’s trying to keep his distance so he doesn’t end up losing someone else he could care about.

It also initially looks like she’s just a cold-blooded bounty hunter, but she takes the money she gets from the five bounties and puts it towards a reward for a mystery man. We don’t get much else on personal details about the bounty hunter, but we see she has her motivation.

4. Falconer’s Sleeve

In disbelief of the idea that Falconer could be back, in a form that is killing everyone in her way, women and children included, Kovacs concludes that someone must have found her sleeve and took it over. His memories of her are the opposite of the actions she’s doing and he knows that, despite her knowledge of weaponry, it’s only to be used in dire situations.

Continued below

Kovacs gets what he wishes for as Falconer finds him in a club with Axley’s other associates hoping to find the motive behind his murder. As the fight comes to an end, she snaps out of her hypnotic-like spell and recognizes him, which leads Kovacs, and the audience, to think that maybe it’s not that someone is in her sleeve but somehow manipulating her to do what they wish. Ultimately Kovacs lets her go, but in doing so, he takes the spot as Carrera, and his troops show up.

5. Animal DNA

Throughout this episode, there’s been the reminder that Kovacs’s new sleeve has been genetically mixed with some canine DNA. It doesn’t seem like it had a major mix with anything he’s done thus far, so I know I was certainly confused with the consistent reminder up until the final moments of the episode when Kovacs gets the jump on Carrera. It finally revealed the importance because Kovacs cannot pull the trigger on a downed Carrera because of the canine DNA.

Since the sleeve was a part of his program, it’s believed that the soldiers below Carrera all have this canine DNA to keep them from turning on him, AKA the alpha. It ends with Kovacs being knocked out and taken by Carrera and his soldiers, but it raises the hook-ending question of how he will get out of this situation. Two episodes deep into this new season, and it’s off to a slow start by adding more questions than answers, and it seems like the writers are banking on this “so close, yet so far” aspect of Kovacs chasing Falconer. We’ll just have to cross our fingers that whoever is in her sleeve will help him out of this kidnapped situation.


//TAGS | 2021 Summer TV Binge | altered carbon

Alexander Manzo

Alexander is born and raised in the Bay Area. When not reviewing comics for Multiversity he's usually writing his own review for his Instagram @comicsandbeerreport. He's also a sports fan so feel free to hit him up on twitter with any and all sports takes @a_manzo510.

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