Altered Carbon Season 2 Review: Re-Sleeved and Better than Ever

This review contains spoilers for the entirety of Altered Carbon Season 2, so don’t read until you’ve finished the season!

Altered Carbon is back and better than ever with Season 2. Initially, Kovacs investigating the death of yet another meth is worrisome, but Altered Carbon manages to switch gears and deliver a much more cohesive and emotionally grounded season.

The lack of a procedural element — solving a murder — helps makes Season 2 feel more connected. There’s more time devoted to world-building and character development, and the focus on character is why Season 2 is much more emotionally grounded.

Let’s dive in and discuss some specifics of the season.

A Brand New Sleeve

The futuristic world of Altered Carbon with the invention of stacks allows the show to re-invent any character by re-sleeving. Kovacs getting a new sleeve was something that I really wanted to happen in Season 2.

However, there’s a risk that we would be too attached to the first Kovacs we were introduced to, Joel Kinnaman, and Anthony Mackie wouldn’t be able to live up to the role.

Thankfully, that does not happen. Mackie does a marvelous job of stepping into the role of Kovacs. It’s a seamless re-sleeving process. The classic snark and anger that we’ve come to know and love about Kovacs is all still there, and it doesn’t take long to adjust to this new face.

There is a small part of me that wishes we saw more of Kovacs in the lounge singer sleeve though.

Another aspect that helps with the adjustment to this new Kovacs is seeing his connection with Poe. Their banter and bickering is just like old times, and this relationship, which was a big part of Season 1, helps cement Mackie into the role of Kovacs.

Admittedly, Kovacs is extremely harsh and rude with Poe throughout the season, and Kovacs’ outbursts do toe the line of going too far. It seems like we’re expected to believe that Kovacs’ search for Quell (and later attempts at healing her) is making him more emotional and, therefore, more short-tempered.

Kovacs: I know I’ve been impatient.

Poe: That’s putting it mildly.

Kovacs: Okay, I’ve been an asshole.

I don’t really buy it. And while it is nice that we see Kovacs regret his outburst on Altered Carbon Season 2 Episode 2, “Payment Deferred,” that should have been the last outburst from him.

There are different ways to show disappointment without yelling, and the last envoy should’ve been able to come up with some other tactic. However, Kovacs’ increasing anger towards Poe, and later firing, is devastating and ends up giving Poe such a great, emotional arc.

Old Friends

Going into Season 2, it is expected that we, unfortunately, wouldn’t be seeing a lot of the characters we fell in love during Season 1. Season 2 does take place on a different world and all.

However, Altered Carbon Season 2 manages to bring everyone back in a way that not only makes sense but serves an emotional purpose, which makes each moment even more impactful.

After the initial glee of seeing everyone — I may have screamed “ORTEGA!!!” at my screen when Kristin first appeared — Altered Carbon delivers a sucker-punch.

Whether it is Kovacs trying to make amends to Kristin or Poe clinging on to the memory of Lizzie, every character from Season 1 who pops up brings us immense joy at seeing them again. They also enrich the episode and the season as a whole.

This is because they aren’t included for fanservice; they fit into the big question of the season: what makes us who we are as a person?

Identity Crisis

Altered Carbon Season 1 focused on how the elimination of deaths with stacks affects people and their humanity, and Season 2 examines how big of a role our relationships and experiences shape who we are.

We see this in Poe, Quell, and Kovacs.

At first, it isn’t obvious how all three storylines are connected. Personally, the lightbulb goes off when Poe goes to talk to Miss Falconer about her situation as he ponders whether or not he needs to reboot.

This is such a great way for the two of them to connect, and even though Quell isn’t quite herself, their conversation features her in the wise, mentorship role, much like the one took on when training Kovacs and the Envoys all those years ago.

Poe: Do you miss her, the woman you once were, who you no longer remember?

Quell: It’s like missing land when you swim out too far into the sea. It’s beneath you in the deep, out of reach. As you float above it, you can’t touch it, and yet still, it’s there.

Speaking of Quell, it is fascinating to see her without her memories, trying to figure out who she is. During Season 1, we really only saw her through Kovacs’ memories, and while watching the early episodes of Season 2, there’s a question as to whether or not Kovacs romanticized her at all.

Poe’s identity crisis has the added emotional element of fear of letting his best friend, Kovacs, down and/or doing something to endanger him. It’s absolutely devastating to watch Poe make sticky notes, trying to be there for Kovacs and retain his own sense of self and his soul.

Out of everyone’s identity crisis, Poe’s is the most emotional. He’s someone we grew to love during Season 1 and watching him struggle while Kovacs is a grade-A jackass to him is heartwrenching. Poe deserves the world.

It is a little annoying that no one thinks about backing up Poe’s memories until Annabel/Miss Dig brings it up on Altered Carbon Season 2 Episode 4, “Shadow of a Doubt.”

Now, I don’t know anything about AIs, but computers can be backed up regularly, and it just seems a little insane that Kovacs nor Poe bring up this option. If this was brought up earlier, we could’ve been spared the “to reboot or not to reboot” conundrum dragging on for as long as it does.

Annabel does mention that it will be difficult to create this program, showing that it isn’t a simple back up and restore option, but Poe still seems shocked by her mere suggestion of a program to do this, making it seem as if it didn’t even cross his mind to attempt to back up his memories.

It’s fascinating to watch these characters all go through their own journey. Out of everyone’s identity crisis, the most shocking is definitely Original!Kovacs.

The second you realize that we’re not seeing Will Yun Lee in a flashback, the stakes are raised. It is exhilarating.

It’s so great to see more of Original!Kovacs, and the fact that we are seeing the version of him before he reunited with Reileen is a great choice. We barely got to know this Kovacs during Altered Carbon Season 1. The focus was more on their reunion and life with the Envoys.

Through Original!Kovacs, we get to see just how much Kovacs was shaped by his past, especially meeting Quell, and it is fascinating to watch Original!Kovacs come to terms with those events and try to decide what path he should take.

Kovacs: We fought, that much you know. She wasn’t aiming to kill. There were a million things she could’ve done – fought back, bargained, she could’ve taken the gun. That’s when I knew.

Original!Kovacs: She wanted you to do it.

Kovacs: I believe so. Still, I pulled the trigger, and her fate was sealed long before, the moment I let Jaeger draft me into CTAC and trusted him to take care of her. That was our mistake. We set all of it into motion. From then on, Rei was just riding on borrowed time.

The conversation the two Kovacs have about Reileen, in particular, is beautifully emotional. It’s haunting for Kovacs to relive, and Original!Kovacs goes through so many different emotions as he listens.

Kovacs actually gets a chance to talk to his younger self, and both of them learn so much from each other. It’s amazingly well done and definitely one of my favorite scenes of the season.

Final Episodes Missteps

While the season is well done overall, there are a couple of missteps, especially in the final two episodes. The first of which involves Trepp.

Trepp is an excellent addition to the season, and it’s fun to see her working alongside Poe and Kovacs, but her family is everywhere.

Anil is a great way to have Trepp be emotionally invested in Quell’s situation, and at first, meeting Myka and TJ gives us some good background on Trepp, allowing us to get to know her better.

But then things go a little too far. The breaking point is when her wife, Myka, also happens to be the expert Dannica needs to translate the symbol that the elder was having Quell carve on a wall. Myka’s inclusion is too coincidental and feels forced.

The only purpose of Myka being the expert is that it allows Trepp to step into Kovacs sleeve for an outing on Altered Carbon Season 2 Episode 7, “Experiment Perilous.”

It’s an unnecessary side storyline that could’ve been cut.

There are plenty of other moments where Dannica shows her fascination with elder technology and her savagery — killing her own father, for instance — making this storyline pointless. It takes up time that should’ve been spent discussing far more important things.

The storyline is an example of a bigger issue present in the final two episodes: the pacing.

Altered Carbon Season 2 struggles with bringing us into the loop on certain things, especially as they pertain to the elders and their technology. The final episodes give us a lot of world-building and history all at once; it’s an info dump.

There’s so much to process, and Altered Carbon gives us very little time to do so. The pacing is off when it comes to these revelations. We should’ve been given them earlier or had another episode to process it all.

In fact, the elder “big bad” reveal doesn’t fully work because we’re all still processing everything we just learned, and so there’s no time for us to really grasp the severity of the elder being in Carrera.

There’s no looming sense of danger or concern for any of our characters as they go to negotiate/fight the elder on Altered Carbon Season 2 Episode 8, “Broken Angels.”

Then, next thing we know, we’re drowning in emotion as Kovacs sacrifices himself and Poe vanishes moments before that to be rebooted.

The finale is a big “wait, WHAT?!”

Taking the time and slowing things down would have really benefitted the final two episodes. Instead of going out with a bang, Altered Carbon Season 2 ends with this feeling like we’ve missed something.

What’s Next

What’s really fascinating is the way Altered Carbon Season 2 Episode 8 sets up a myriad of options for a (yet to be picked up) Season 3.

We could follow Quell in a new sleeve as she goes off-world to try to re-inspire a revolution, and we could see her working (potentially) closer with Original!Kovacs.

Alternatively, we could continue to follow around our Kovacs with Poe and Annabel. It’s impossible to describe the sheer joy when Annabel discovers that Poe is housing a raw human DHF. Poe always comes through.

Any option would be wonderful and could potentially allow Altered Carbon to tackle things from a variety of perspectives. If we get a Season 3, who would you want it to focus on?

Stray Thoughts:

• The full-circle moment of Quell hallucinating Kovacs is beautiful.
• Miss Dig/Annabel is a great addition to the show; it’s nice to see Poe have a partner.
• I still can’t decide how I feel about Dannica. There are times her scenes were boring and other times intriguing.
• Seeing Lizzie and Poe together again brings such happiness.
• Quell showing Original!Kovacs the hologram of Reileen visiting Quell in her “tomb” is so emotional and very well done.

What did you think of Altered Carbon Season 2? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Altered Carbon Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

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