‘Altered Carbon’ on Netflix Episode 9 Recap: Get Off Of My Cloud

If you hadn’t noticed yet, Altered Carbon would like you to know the future is fucked up. The weather is permanently set to rain-drenched slog, the only two career options seem to be A) prostitute or B) cop who cleans up the dead prostitutes, every light on Earth is stuck on a flickering neon setting, and, right, eternal life has turned the wealthy class into amoral monsters who literally have to murder the poor just to feel something.

Even then, even after all the awfulness we’ve seen over eight previous chapters, “Rage In Heaven” feels like an unnecessarily cruel episode.

The problem, mostly, comes down to Reileen as this show’s Big Bad, a character who so very quickly turned from intriguing to cartoonishly evil. It turns out, everything that seemed so connected, the grand conspiracy web—Bancroft’s murder, the mysterious Neo-C forgeries, the 652 Law, and Mary Lou Henchy’s fall from the sky—were all just part of a scheme to keep Reileen’s weird, violent brothel afloat. Kovacs’ younger sister committed every atrocity under the sun, including just so, so much murder, to keep her business in the black.

At least the journey to get this information is a fun one. Well, it’s fun right after Ortega’s extremely innocent family is slaughtered by Leung, children and all. Again, that particular plot-point was a violent curveball that didn’t exactly need to be thrown. But it does at least effectively demonstrate that Reileen’s protectiveness over her brother extends several miles past what you’d call a normal familial bond. Not only did she murder Ortega’s mother and father, she took the BCPD agent’s body itself, wearing it to The Raven to taunt Kovacs. (And proving Altered Carbon is the type of show where a character acts too overtly flirtatious and my first thought is, “Oh, that’s clearly his sister in another body.”)

As much as I do enjoy watching Joel Kinnaman sit and stare at shadows by himself, this series always excels when it turns into a team effort. “Rage In The Sky” is no different. The plot to save Ortega and lure Reileen into a confession is a combined effort from the “pack” Kovacs has assembled since waking up in Bay City, a crew that now includes Ortega’s BCPD colleague Mickey.

Oh, and also a second Kovacs.

To throw his sister off his trail, Kovacs uses Isaac Bancroft’s cloning device to copy himself, then sends his own identical twin off to Miriam Bancroft’s private orgy island for an all-Miriam sexapalooza. All in all, it’s not a terrible deal for Kovacs 2. And while it never quite reaches “Michael Fassbender teaching himself to play the flute” levels of intimacy, Kinnaman is just deadpan enough to coat his clone interactions—game of rock, paper, scissors and all–with a great amount of low-key humor.

And this episode needs the humor. Because away from Miriam’s island and back on dry land (so to speak), the rest of the crew need to break into the horrific Meth-only sex palace known as Head In The Clouds. Vernon is the face of the operation, posing as a Meth-level general to get in the door. Kovacs will smuggle himself in alongside him, with a tightly closing window to get close enough to his sister for Ava to infect her backup with Rawlin Virus.

What they find up there is more horrific than anything being offered in your average Jack It Off. Reileen’s business offers the Iridium Package, the chance to murder a prostitute who isn’t aware she’s been secretly marked with Neo-C coding. “Killing a girl who doesn’t know she’ll never come back,” as Ava puts it. Ato Essandoh, who has been consistently good at displaying Vernon’s angry disgust at pretty much everything, is particularly great here as the father of a sex worker stuck in any father’s worst nightmare.

Meanwhile, Kovacs spiking with Reaper to fool the building’s security sensors. You may recall this is the second time Kovacs has been Reaper-sick during the pivotal moments of a mission, which is one part lazy writing and another part just kind of hilarious.

But still, Kovacs and Vernon manage to beat the clock and corner Reileen in her quarters, which is where we get her full confession (recorded in a micro-camera, implanted behind Kovacs’ eye). Reileen needed to blackmail someone as powerful as Bancroft to make sure 653—which would allow murder victims to be spun back up even with Neo-C coding—did not go through. With the help of Miriam Bancroft (who has some explaining to do of her own), Laurens was drugged with the aggression-enhancer Stallion. Hopped up on the drug, he real-deathed a Head In The Clouds employee; another, Mary Lou Henchy, decided to throw herself from the brothel rather than have her stack destroyed forever by the Hulking out Bancroft.

As for Bancroft’s death, the simplest answer really did turn out to be the true one: Consumed by grief, the Meth really did commit suicide, right at the point of his backup where he would not remember the time he crossed his one moral line.

In a storytelling tradition dating back to the beginning of time, Reileen explains her complex plan just long enough for our heroes to get snuck up on. That’s where we leave off heading into Altered Carbon‘s first season finale, our questions answered but the ending still unsure. But that’s the thing about a world without death, right? The endings are always unsure when there’s no guarantee that they’ll stick.

Vinnie Mancuso writes about TV for a living, somehow, for Decider, The A.V. Club, Collider, and the Observer. You can also find his pop culture opinions on Twitter (@VinnieMancuso1) or being shouted out a Jersey City window between 4 and 6 a.m.

Watch the "Rage In Heaven" episode of Altered Carbon on Netflix