Altered Carbon season 2, episode 7 recap – “Experiment Perilous”

This recap of Netflix Series Altered Carbon Season 2, Episode 7, “Experiment Perilous” contains significant spoilers.

• Read the Season 2 review.
• Read the recap of Episode 8.
• Read the recap of the previous episode (6)
• Access the archive of all the episode recaps.

Altered Carbon Season 2, Episode 7, Experiment Perilous” gave the audiences the answer they were looking for. It opens up with Danica and her team checking out the site where the beams from the sky obliterated the soldiers. They find Kovacs Prime alive — Danica wonders how the others got away. Danica talks to Stone about Quell changing the course of history with her powers on the Orbitals — she wants that power herself.

Anyway, Quell’s health is very fragile; Trepp believes Quell controlled the Angelfire from the sky. The issue is they see the same decay in Quell as they saw in Taneseda and Anil — the time is limited for Quell’s life.

To learn more about the decay, Trepp enters Anil’s stack; she learns Anil found Quellcrist in cryo in the same place at the old tree in the cave. The tree released energy that slowly killed Anil and his crew — they all collapsed and his mind was broken. Kovacs has a lightbulb moment and wonders if there are two souls in one stack. Poe suggests using VR to find out with Quell — the invader will be inside the construct. Kovacs wants to go inside the construct as well.

Danica now needs Carrera’s help and she asks him to help capture Kovacs and Quell. If he does, she will relieve him of his sentence. Danica wants to prevent The Uprising. Danica also offers to give him back his name — Jaeger — and his legacy will be remembered forever. Danica also offers him Kovacs Prime. When Carrera speaks to Kovacs Prime, he believes he can track down Kovacs and Quell. They track an AI (Dig) opening a construct — they suggest entering the construct so they can find Kovacs and Quell in the real world.

The construct is activated; Kovac enters and sees a young girl that says, “Daddy, what’s wrong?”. Quell shows up and tells Kovacs that children are the future. Kovacs senses instantly that it isn’t Quell, it is the invader.

As the construct is live, Trepp learns that Myka and TJ have been captured by Governor Danica; Trepp argues with Poe, stating she needs Kovacs’ sleep to help save them — he agrees while Kovacs is in the construct. Trepp swaps sleeves. Meanwhile, Danica wants to know how to control Angelfire and wants answers from Myka.

At the midway point of Altered Carbon Season 2, Episode 7, “Experiment Perilous”, Kovacs speaks to the invader, which leads to a fight. Kovacs wants to know what the Founders did for the invader to want revenge — as they fight, the construct starts collapsing; Quell goes into cardiac arrest and Dig 301 has a lag in her system. The construct reset. We learn that the invader consciousness was in the songspire — she escaped when Anil and his crew came through. She’s not human, she’s an Elder.

Due to the collapse in the construct, Carrera is under rubble. He tells Kovacs Prime that he can do better than his original and asks him to leave the construct. The Elder shows a memory to Kovacs — it shows Konrad with Teneseda as they discover life force; Konrad, against Teneseda’s warnings, carries out genocide on the Elders.

That explains why Quell has decided to kill so many Founders — it’s purely revenge from an outrageous act.

Myka tells Danica about Elder technology in the Songspire — Trepp enters in Kovacs’ skin and kills Danica’s men and shoots Danica in the leg. Myka also has a go at shooting a bullet in Danica. Trepp quickly swaps back to sleeves after saving Myka and TJ.

Kovacs learns that the Elder (in the subtitles as Jailer Quell) was helped by Quell to get revenge for the genocide by the Founders. Jailer Quell gets mad at Kovacs for refusing to help her in the construct and starts trying to attack him again, but Dig activates the firewall to keep her out of Quell’s mind and Kovacs leaves.

Quell wakes up and she is disappointed. She explains to Kovacs that she made a promise for her body and a promise for her mercy — “Now we’ll all burn”.

I’m not sure why Quell did not reveal this beforehand, but I’m sure she had her reasons.

The pretorians are heading their way. Dig 301 says there’s a shadow file in her system that has allowed the enemy to track them all and asks Poe to power her down so they cannot use her. Poe and Dig 301 were about to kiss as Dig is powered down. A sad moment for Poe.

Altered Carbon Season 2, Episode 7, “Experiment Perilous” ends with the pretorians breaching. In the construct, the Elder finds Carrera and infiltrates his stack. The Elder has a new body.

Altered Encryptions

• Trepp asks Gertie to strip the Protectorate vehicle they stole.
• Poe wants to help Dig 301 with the trauma she is experiencing.
• Dig 301 is making a software program to help Poe’s fractured memory.
• Trepp leaves Myka a message about finding Anil and being too late.
• Kovacs tells Poe he took a risk going into the Renouncer and admits he has been an a**hole.
• Kovacs Prime asks Carrera why he helped Rei. It was because he wanted Kovacs back.