Welcome back for another SEASON of Altered Carbon. Last we saw of Tekashi Kovacs he was trying to find Quellcrist Falconer after killing his sister and solving his friends problems. Now we find Kovacs 30 years later on his own and still finding himself drawn into strange situations as an Envoy. So let’s stop wasting time and see what’s happening with season two!
1. Poe Is Alive
After the big heist in the first season, it seemed like the only person not to make it out was Poe. Who, although he is not technically a person, still brings a lot to the show. Poe was the primary resource for Kovacs as he tried to figure out the new world he was in and helped provide valuable logistical information. He is back, but instead of being stuck inside the hotel, he can go anywhere his emitter is. While it is exciting to see Poe and seems like he is still trying to help Kovacs the best he can, he has been injured and often has to be rebooted with no memory of the conversation beforehand. Since it is the beginning, it’s too early to say whether or not it is a liability, but I do think it will hurt Kovacs one way or another before this season ends.
It’s also nice to see as an audience that Kovacs does have someone from his recent past to be by his side. It’s still unknown what has happened between the finale and now, but it’s good to know he may not have been alone throughout it all.
2. New Kovacs
Our first view of Kovacs isn’t anywhere near what he used to be. The first view he’s been re-sleeved into is a female singer inside of the club. It feels like it’s a personal choice not to draw any attention, but he’s put into a more fight-friendly sleeve after being shot and killed. Anthony Mackie will take the role of Kovacs this season. Not only is he more jacked than Joel Kinnaman was in the previous season, but he’s also got augmentative weapons and faster regenerative healing ability.
Although Kinnaman did a great job in the first season, it will be interesting to see Mackie’s different take on the show. I think it only makes sense to switch up the leading actor with a show like Altered Carbon where many characters got to switch around in the first season. Plus, there have already been a few short flashbacks of the original Kovacs played by Will Yun Lee, so there is some originality in the show.
3. Motivation
Last season Kovacs’s forced goal was to solve the murder of Laurens Bancroft for his freedom. This time around, it’s another meth named Horace Axley who finds Kovacs and “hires” him for protection against an unknown force. Since Kovacs already had his freedom, what’s the carrot at the end of the stick? It’s Quellcrist Falconer. Reileen had told Kovacs right before she died that she had hidden her stack somewhere, and now Axley was saying the same thing. Right now, that’s Kovacs’s main objective; to be reunited with the woman he loves and the only piece of his past.
It’s interesting to see him attached to someone instead of the first season when he was very stoic and did his best not to let anyone get close. Although he still has his Envoy intelligence, it does seem like he lost a step by getting trapped into helping Axley. However, if Kovacs has left the audience with anything, it’s that he doesn’t let anything happen by accident.
4. Tanaseda Hideki
Kovacs and Poe end up in a place called Harlan’s World with seemingly nowhere to stay. Kovacs alludes to a place that an old friend owns, and it seems like a hint at Poe’s old hotel, but it ends up being somewhere different. Kovacs enters a shady, abandoned-looking hotel filled with armed men. He pretends to be a man named Tanaseda Hideki, which seems to go well until it’s revealed the man he’s been trying to convince is Hideki’s great-grandson. This is Mackie’s fight debut in Altered Carbon, which does not disappoint. While he may not have the speed he used to have in his old sleeve, he does have a lot more strength and barely winces when he gets a bottle broken over his head.
Continued belowHideki ends up being someone that Kovacs had once saved over 300 years ago. It’s rare to hear about Kovacs’ past, so saving someone, even despite being deeply involved in the Yakuza, is fascinating.
5. No Clue
Kovacs has no clues on where Falconer could be and no jumping-off point after being forced into a crap situation and waking up to Axley already murdered. Kovacs’s closest thing to her is a “ghost-like” version of Falconer, but he hangs on her every word. He notices this big wound on his chest, and with her advice, stabs himself to enter a “state-dependent” memory.
It’s crazy, but it’s this desperate Kovacs the audience has never seen before, so he’s going to do anything that he can. It felt like a “What the eff” kind of moment from my end because with no other options, he stabs himself. However, it ends up working, and he remembers the Mackie sleeve’s interaction with Falconer. This season’s opener gives a lot more questions than answers, and with only eight episodes instead of ten, we’ll just see where this goes.
