Altered Carbon – Season 2 Episode 8 (The Finale) Recap & Review

Angelfire

The Season 2 finale of Altered Carbon begins with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. A literal bang sets us off, as the soldiers enter the bar led by Kovacs Prime, intent on finding Kovacs and the others. Poe manages to surprise him though and it’s enough for him and the rest of the group to rise up and overpower the troops. After killing the soldiers he’s with, it turns out Kovacs Prime is on their side.

Semetaire confronts the possessed Carrera and meets a grisly end, while the group themselves head off in search of answers. They arrive at Trepp’s Father’s place and she sees the snapped stack for herself, knowing he’s never coming back. Given Anil is also gone from her life, Trepp turns her back on the group and refuses to take part in their mission.

Quell, Kovacs Prime and Kovacs all team up together and decide to storm Danica’s mansion, arriving at her estate and pleading with her for help. She scoffs at the notion, telling them the Elders are extinct and turning her back on their idea. Quell steps forward though and reveals the truth that the Elder Stack is in her own mind.

It’s here Danica admits the truth about what she’s given to make sure this war has gone ahead and the guards turn the guns on the trio. Quell tries to talk her into making a deal so she can control Angelfire, as Poe suddenly arrives and informs them that The Orbitals are moving – meaning the possessed Elder is about to make his move.

With the final fight approaching, Kovacs talks to Quell about what she intends to do, which includes stopping Jaeger once and for all but taking the Elder back inside her Stack, where she can control it and save the Orbitals in the process. At the same time, Kovacs Prime speaks to Trepp and convinces her to come back for this one final fight.

Everyone converges at Needlecast Station where the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Needing to gain the Elder’s trust, Quell convinces the group not to head up with weapons while down below, Trepp locks onto a signal thanks to her coils.

Inside the station, Quell tries to talk Carrera out of destroying the planet. Only, Danica turns on them all and starts firing, shooting Carrera down and prompting a fight to break out inside and outside the Station. Carrera however, ambushes her and kills Danica. With the Governor now dead, Kovacs and Quell both charge for Carrera and try to fight him off. He’s too powerful though but Kovacs Prime arrives and prompts a three on one fight to break out.

With Angelfire raining down, Kovacs sacrifices himself to save them all. With Harlan’s World safe for now, Kovacs Prime sweet-talks the commission into believing Quell and Kovacs are no more. With him being the only Kovacs sleeve alive, that means it’s not technically double sleeving and the group agree to run with this story.

Trepp decides to honour her Father by taking up his position in her Father’s workshop and things appear to be returning to normal for the residents in the city too.

As the episode closes out, it turns out Quell survived and she intends to find a new world to settle on. Meanwhile, Dig 301 writes about Poe in her books, until Poe materializes before her, unfortunately without his memories. Deciding to start from scratch, Dig 301 renames herself Anabel and promises he’ll get his memories back. As they touch hands, they begin to look through the data together. Anabel tells him to get the good whiskey ready, as we leave things open for a third season.

With a good dose of finality to this episode, season 2 of Altered Carbon ends with the world saved but plenty of scope for the show to progress and grow from here. With Kovacs teased to still be around, courtesy of Poe and Dig 301, this sci-fi series leaves things open for another season to follow. Whether Netflix will renew this one or not remains to be seen but if it’s not, there’s a satisfying enough conclusion here to make for a decent watch nonetheless.

Anthony Mackie does a decent job as Kovacs too although to be fair, it’s not a touch on last season’s Joel Kinnaman, who absolutely stole the show and made this role his own. Although the season isn’t perfect, there’s enough here to make for an enjoyable watch nonetheless and one that may just have another season hidden up its sleeve yet!