Alright, time for Season 1 Finale. After the last episode saw Rei become the villain, will this episode continue to maintain the momentum or will this episode crash and burn?

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhFM8akm9a4[/embedyt]

Warning: Spoilers Ahead! Turn back now if you haven’t seen the episode!

We open the episode with Kristin Ortega (Martha Higareda), at her Family’s house just after they are murdered. She is going through the house looking at the horrible scene that Ghostwalker left behind and it turns out this is a VR Room that Ghostwalker is using to Torture Ortega. It loops for some time and eventually, Ortega is left in a black void. Meanwhile, Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman), and Vernon Elliot (Ato Essandoh) are still surrounded by guards. Reileen Kawahara (Dichen Lachman), turns her back to look at Ortega when Kovacs starts to attack the guards. Rei then puts a gun to Vernon’s head while Kovacs is punching the guards and she tells him that she has the only gun on the ship. Rei then sends Ghostwalker to the hotel where the signal of the hack came from and she tells him to destroy everything and everyone there. Meanwhile, Poe (Chris Conner), Ava and Mickey are checking the computer systems and freaking out that the pulse fried their systems. Before they can escape, Ghostwalker makes it to the hotel with his goons and he starts to kill Poe with a device that can kill AI. Poe tells Lizzie (Hayley Law), what is going on and sends her mind to the Head in the Clouds so she can live and Poe sacrifices himself. Before Poe dies, Mickey tries to grab the gun from one of the goons and gets his stack shot out. Poe is killed and Ghostwalker takes Ava as a hostage.

We cut back to the Head in the Clouds with a guard looking around storage and finds a female sleeve on the ground. He picks up the sleeve and tries to have sex with it and we find out it’s Lizzie who snaps the guy’s neck. Meanwhile, Captain Tanaka (Hiro Kanagawa), is still at the crime scene when Oumou Prescott (Tamara Taylor), walks in, wanting to speak with Tanaka. Tanaka tells her to leave and Prescott tells him that she knows where to find Ortega. Meanwhile, Ortega is still in the VR Room when Kovacs pulls her out. Rei then has Ortega, Vernon and Ava down on their knees in a line. She gives Kovacs the gun and tells him to choose one to kill because there is one bullet in the gun. Kovacs tells her he won’t kill any of them and points the gun at his stack. Kovacs pulls the trigger with no bullet coming out, Rei gave him an empty gun. Rei is surprised that Kovacs would give his life for them and decides to grab the bolt gun and try to kill Ortega. Kovacs tells her to not do it and that he will stay with her if it means letting his friends go. Rei tells her guards to take them away and that Kovacs will kill them later. Meanwhile, Lizzie is walking around the place and finds a man with 2 sleeves he killed. He tells her that he didn’t ask for her but will take her away, Lizzie then puts a knife through his head. Meanwhile, Rei has Kovacs forced into a chair and she says that she is going to remove the cam in his eye and his stack from the sleeve. Meanwhile, Lizzie comes across Vernon, Ava and Ortega being taken away by the Ghostwalker and guards. Lizzie comes and starts to attack the guards with Ortega escaping to Kovacs. Meanwhile, Ortega comes to the room with Kovacs and throws a knife into one of the guard’s throats, causing a distraction so Kovacs can break free and start fighting. Ortega gets to Rei and they both fight each other with Kovacs taking out the guards. Meanwhile, Lizzie, Ava and Vernon get to the control room and shut down the ship.

We then cut to Rei closing the door on Ortega’s face while she grabs a clip for the gun and shoots at Kovacs, missing and hitting one of the windows. While outside the room, Ortega confronts Ghostwalker and they both fight each other. Both parties continue to fight for a bit as we see that Tanaka brings a squad with him on the ship to find Ortega getting the upper hand on Ghostwalker. Ortega grabs Ghostwalkers weapon and kills him with it, she then goes to the door to call for Kovacs. Meanwhile, Kovacs and Rei both stabbed each other with Katanas. Rei says they will never get in and Kovacs tells her that they can stay there, wait for the ship to crash and take Rei into custody. Rei says that they will never put her back on ice and wants Kovacs to help her, in return, she will give him Falconer. Rei says she backed up Falconer before she died, Rei is the only way Kovacs can get Falconer back because she has her backup hidden somewhere only she knows. Kovacs still says no and Rei shoots his shoulder before he takes the gun from her and aims it at her neck. Kovacs shoots her and tells everyone to leave him so he can be with Rei. Takana forces Ortega to leave and grabs everyone else so they can escape. Kovacs sees Falconer and he asks her to tell him a story that doesn’t end in death and tragedy. Falconer tells Kovacs a story while the ship is falling and the ship finally crashes into the ocean and explodes.

We then cut to a VR Room where Kovacs has been told that he was found in the wreckage and is put in the VR Room to be questioned. Kovac’s clone is also put in a VR Room and they are both told that only one of them can live because it is illegal to have two of the same person. Kovacs wants to talk to his clone in a separate room and the two of them talk about how Kovacs killed Rei. They decide to play Rock, Paper Scissors to see who will get to live. The clone gets to live and goes to visit Ortega while she is setting up a shrine for her family. Meanwhile, Ortega goes to visit Miriam at her mansion when she plays new coverage of what Rei said to Kovacs. The reporter says that Bill 653 will be reconsidered, letting victims testify against their killers, even with religious coding. Miriam goes to Laurens and tells him that she will stand by him no matter what. Kovacs enters the room and tells Laurens that he is gonna be arrested for the murder of Mary Lou. Miriam doesn’t believe him but Kovacs says that they found her stack and if the bill passes, she is going to talk. One of the guards tells Laurens the police are waiting downstairs and he goes down to see them. Lizzie comes with her parents to tell the police that she was pregnant with Lauren’s child and Miriam beat her up. Prescott is there and tells everyone that Miriam wanted a fixer, so she got Rei to put her in one of her clinics, drive her mad and dumb her in an alley. This caused Miriam to owe Rei a favour and that is why she drugged Laurens. This all leads to Miriam getting arrested for the sleeve death of Lizzie with everyone being shocked.

We then cut to the end where Ava get’s a new sleeve and the Elliot family is living in peace. Meanwhile, Ortega and Kovacs move all of Ryker’s stuff back to her apartment with Kovacs saying he will give up the sleeve. Ortega asks Kovacs what he is going to do after the sleeve transfer and he says he doesn’t know. We then see that Kovacs grabs his stuff from the hotel and walks out, ending his time there and walking away with a new mission, to find Falconer.

Wow… I must say that this was a fantastic episode. Everything was wrapped up nicely and now Kovacs is in a new sleeve but we don’t see his face. It creates a mystery of if we will see Joel Kinnaman return for Season 2 of Altered Carbon. Also, will we see anybody from Season 1 come back for Season 2? We haven’t got any confirmation yet but I hope we get a second season.

I love the Lizzie was finally able to escape the VR World, find a body and help save her family. She has come along way from when she was stuck in the VR World, but to also have her killing and saving people means that she is a hero to her family now.

I also like that Kovacs doesn’t really get a happy ending. He has to kill his sister and he doesn’t stay with Ortega in the end. Kovacs instead choosing the freedom he has been wanting from the start and he ends up getting it.

One thing that I said last time was that Rei was going to die, she couldn’t come back from what she had said and done. I’m glad to see that I was right and she ended up drowning with her creation.

I think if I were to sum up this episode with one sentence, it would be this:

The Verdict:

Episode 10 was exactly what I expected the Season Finale to be. It wrapped everything up, gave everyone what they wanted and leaves the door open for people to return and a new setting entirely. I think that Season 2 will have a new setting and actors playing different characters, even for Takeshi Kovacs. We actually don’t see how Takeshi looks like or where he is going in the end. So, let us hope that Season 2 can be just as good as Season 1 was.

10/10