Welcome back to this week’s installment of the Summer TV Binge 2021. We’re hitting the half way point of season two of Altered Carbon and things are starting to connect and bigger mysteries popping up. Takeshi Kovacs and Quellcrist Falconer have escaped the Circle and now are two of the biggest bounties on the planet. Let’s not waste any more time and see what the episode, “Shadow of a Doubt” has in store!
1. Learning About Trepp The Bounty Hunter
Before this episode, not much was known about Trepp other than her occupation and that her brother is missing. We find out that not only does she have a son but that he’s not in his original sleeve. It’s revealed that he had stepped on a mine and it nearly costs him his life. This bit of information helps give Trepp some more depth to her other than just a hired hand – – and perhaps some external motivation when it comes to making money for her family.
We also find out that Trepp’s partner was once wanted because she was looking into the missing archaeological AIs on the planet. This information helps show that Trepp may have a soft spot in her heart after all and a lingering clue for the mystery of the AIs going missing. We’ve seen interactions with Poe, and they spoke about being locked up, but there is no reason shared with the audience as of yet.
2. Falconer’s Targets
Quellcrist Falconer still has no memory of who she once was or why she was going around Harlan’s World killing people. As she looks into the things that gave her notoriety, she only sees it as bad since they label her a terrorist and murderer. It takes Kovacs talking about his point of view of her, and her teachings 2g2zxto help calm her down and understand why he has been looking for her for so long after finding out there was a chance she was alive.
We’re still not sure what is hidden inside Falconer, but part of her motive is revealed in this episode. It is revealed that she’s not killing meths in general. It turns out they are specifically targeted as they are part of the founding team of the planet, Harlan’s World. Most of the kills that we’ve witnessed from Falconer are brutal and bloody, but when she kills Kovacs’ friend, Tanaseda, it is done quickly and with respect. The fact that he asked for death when he was destined to live forever means there was something that he could no longer live with coming to light.
3. Poe’s Replacement
Kovacs’s frustration continues with Poe and his mistakes, so he fires him and hires Dig 301 to take his place. While Poe is upset, he doesn’t harness any ill will towards Dig. He only blames himself because of how afraid he is to lose the memories he cherishes so much. But Poe’s new friend soon becomes his unwilling enemy.
The audience gets to see the final message that Lizzie Elliot left for him before going on his new mission with Kovacs. It’s heartbreaking because while his relationship with Kovacs is a bit one-sided, it was his bond with Lizzie that he seems to cherish the most in his memories. He helped her not only heal from a traumatic event in her life but give her the power to take back everything that she once had and then some. Dig is happy to have a job again because of the years of being idle but hates that it causes friction between her and Poe, so she offers some help. Since she was an archeological AI, she was used to preserving and storing delicate materials and could help Poe save the things he protects most in his mind while he does the reboot.
4. Carrera On The Trail
Since losing Kovacs from The Circle, Colonel Carrera is on the warpath to try and find him again. His soldiers rounded up all the people working in the station to find out who let him and Falconer out. When Carrera gets involved with the torturing, it feels like it’s more fun for him than actually trying to obtain any information, especially while he’s ripping out a prisoner’s teeth. He mentions he already knows she helped them escape. However, he does learn something new about a supposed “war” that the governor is hiding from the public.
Not only do we get to see how ruthless the governor is when she senses Carrera on her trail but also how desperate she is. She gets the prisoners transferred out of the Colonel’s authority and straps them to fireworks set to go off. Throughout the season, she is constantly belittled about her lack of power and inability to father in her father’s footsteps, but it seems like she’s got some tricks up her sleeve.
5. Kovacs’s Link In The Chain
Kovacs is the one to find Tanaseda’s corpse and immediately pulls out his stack to access the final moments or some clue into what has happened. The machine takes it back to Tanaseda’s biggest regret, and it is him and the other founders of the planet surrounding a burned corpse. Kovacs cannot see much else because he’s ripped out of there by Trepp in fear he could lose his mind to the machine. This is when Kovacs discovers Falconer’s hunt for the founders and what it could mean.
The episode also happens during a day of celebration for the planet, and so it seems like every hint and clue that is trying to be hidden away has to do with the founding of Harlan’s World. This isn’t the mystery that Kovacs had started on, but it’s going to be the next one that he solves.
