Thursday, August 20, 2020

Altered Carbon - I Wake Up Screaming


The episode where Takeshi Kovacs (Anthony Mackie) fights himself (Will Yun Lee), literally. Breaking both law and taboo, Carrera (Torben Liebrecht) spins up an earlier version of Kovacs to hunt the missing Envoy and Quellcrist Falconer (Renée Elise Goldsberry). Using the sudden appearance of Quellcrist Falconer to stir up panic, Governor Loren (Lela Loren seizes more power and declares martial law, cementing her position against further threats from Carrera. In the race for power and the chance to prove which one is the season's more villainous character, it remains a stalemate.

On the run with Quell and Trepp (Simone Missick), Kovacs goes back to what he knows both because he believes Stronghold may be able to offer a defensible poisition and because he hopes the familiar setting might trigger more memories from Quell whose fragmented mind and murder of Tanaseda Hideki (James Saito) hasn't stopped him from protecting her against all threats, even herself. What he doesn't expect is to be tracked down by himself. The Kovacs vs. Kovacs fight is intriguing as it sets up a young, less experienced, but also more focused and determined, version of the character against our protagonist. The end of the fight opens up multiple new paths for the series. The episode's B-story features the determined Poe (Chris Conner) looking for a possible cure for both Quellcrist Falconer and himself in a completely virtual world that offers seduction with the reappearance of Lizzie (Hayley Law), but all is not what it seems.

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