Confused About Altered Carbon? Season 2 Explained For Dummies

Altered Carbon was resleeved early this year and was needlecast to us on Netflix. Cyberpunk thriller, AC is spun around a dystopian future where Meths rule and death is no longer the final truth.

The show is a whole course on pseudoscience and to understand it thoroughly, you must read the original book series by the author Richard Morgan. But, if you haven’t, and are finding yourself out of place with symptoms of sleeve sickness, nothing to worry about! We will walk you through the whole storyline of the latest season, with all the major events explained in detail!

10 Year 2414: Maghda Prime

The first season of Altered Carbon was set in 2384. Takeshi Kovacs spent 30 years searching for Quell, i.e., between the first and the second season. Kovacs is still searching for Quellcrist Falconer, taking on menial jobs on the go, to get by.

This is when Trepp hunts him down and a Meth, Horace Axley hires him on the role of a bodyguard! Axley offers him a new military-grade sleeve with tons of functionalities, a fat salary, and whereabouts of Falconer.

9 Back To Harlan’s World

As soon as Kovacs wakes up in his new sleeve, someone hits him from behind. When he comes to, he finds Axley and his men dead! Kovacs and Poe decide they should stay on his home planet, to look for Quell. Konrad Harlan has abdicated his role, and his daughter Danica Harlan has taken up his job, as the new Mayor.

Danica imposes a cease-fire to settle the conflicts with the new Quellist leader Joshua Kemp. Colonel Carrera takes over the investigation to look into the mysterious death of Axley, who was Real Deathed.

8 Trepp

Kovacs sets out to find the only link he has to Quell, Trepp. He kills the top five bounties on the planet for Trepp, in exchange for the names of people who might know more about the attack on Axley. Kovacs and Poe are constantly indulging in verbal spat over the latter’s reboot.

Poe’s glitches are getting worse and he keeps forgetting crucial things, for example, he forgot to wipe Kovacs’ biomarker from Axley’s tank (which Kovacs had asked him to). Poe forgot to disable Kovacs’ bio tracker too, due to which Jaegar tracked him to the Soul Market! Quell RDs Haruki and Anton Durov. Kovacs gets himself arrested to save Quell.

7 Jaeger’s Obsession

Carrera wants to stay on the planet, the HW. He tortures Kovacs to find out his true identity. Poe hears the news of Kovacs’ execution and tries to connect with the AI management union. He meets Miss Dig 301 for the first time. Later, he tries to involve Trepp.

Trepp gets a lead on her brother Anil. Miss Dig and Poe hatch a plan to take the Circle offline. Carrera reveals to Kovacs that he is Jaegar. The three fighters wear their sleeves and memory stamps of Ortega, Reileen, and Quell.

6 Kovacs’ Rescue

Quell comes to Kovacs’ rescue and knocks all the fighters down. The Circle operator (a Quellist follower) shuts the power down for a few moments and Quell rescues Kovacs. Kovacs makes a plan to escape with Quellcrist. Quell kills Tanaseda, who was arranging for their needlecast. She does not know why she is killing the members of the HW founding team.

Carrera wakes Kovacs Prime up, revealing that he had double-sleeved Takeshi Kovacs, which is a crime. He brainwashes him into thinking that the original version of his, has changed sides and turned a traitor. Kovacs Prime is given the mission to eliminate Quell and Takeshi. KP is immediately spun back up and assigned a team.

5 The Confrontation

Kovacs Prime follows Takeshi Kovacs to The Nevermore only to find the deserted hotel. Kovacs, Quell and Trepp flee from the hotel to meet Joshua Kemp. Poe explores the renouncer’s VR construct to find Konrad Harlan. He finds out that Konrad is not in the rumored construct and that Soul Brasil is being paid, to keep the lie going.

Kovacs Prime tracks Takeshi and team to the mining tunnels and they both have a penultimate fight in which Kovacs survives. KP convinces Quell that he is the original Takeshi Kovacs and asks her to hand him the weapon. They go back to the Stronghold tunnels and Quell tells him how Reileen had trapped her there.

4 The Betrayal & The Wrath Of The AngelFire

The fugitives meet Joshua Kemp and soon realize he is a fraud, playing from the Protectorate’s side. Takeshi tells Kovacs Prime how and why Reileen died. KP has a change of heart. Joshua has brought the Protectorate onto Kovacs and the team. The first thing the military forces do is shoot Joshua down. It is revealed that Danica had hired Kemp to revive the uprising and keep the planet at war. Carrera is arrested by Danica’s men.

The Elder takes over Quellcrist’s mind and summons the Angel Fire down, burning the whole forest to ashes! Kovacs, Quell, and Trepp drive away from the forest unscathed, back to Trepp’s bar.

3 The Big Reveal

Miss Dig runs a diagnostic on Quell’s sleeve and finds out that her sleeve is shutting down because someone else is riding her stack. Poe and Dig begin building a VR construct, to trap the invader and clean Quell’s DHF. Kovacs goes inside Quell’s stack. Danica frees Carrera and asks him for his help. Kovacs Prime and Carrera track Kovacs and enter through a gate in Miss Dig’s construct. Kovacs finds out that the invader is an Elder.

The Elder shows him how Konrad and the other members of the founding team had killed their entire species (along with their unborn offspring) before claiming the planet for themselves. Quell makes it out of the construct safely. The Elder abandons Quell’s DHF and takes over Carrera’s.

2 Mystery Of Konrad Harlan

Kovacs, Quell, and Kovacs Prime meet Danica to run a proposal by her. They ask her to give the Elder what it wants – Konrad Harlan.

Danica reveals that Konrad is dead and that she killed him. She agrees to hand over the fragmented stack to the Elder in return for the device it has made, to control the Angel Fire.

1 The Ultimate Sacrifice

Danica, Kovacs and Quell enter the needlecast station Carrera is in, to make peace with him. Carrera aka the Elder agrees to the truce, but, Danica tries to play smart. The Elder RDs her and gets furious. It summons the Angel Fire. Kovacs jumps in and kills Carrera. The Elder now invades his stack.

Meanwhile, the orbitals are fired and both Kovacs and the Elder are grilled to ashes. Kovacs Prime is recommended to stay and serve the planet. He arranges for Quell to needlecast safely and secretly, to a planet of her choice. The last scenes show Poe finding a decryption key to a raw human DHF, stored in his data. It is hinted that the person is Kovacs.

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