S02.E08: Broken Angels

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

With the fate of the whole planet on the line, Kovacs, Quell and team race to find Konrad Harlan and stop a catastrophic blast of Angelfire.

Dropping on Thursday, February 27, 2020.

[thuganomics85]

And so it ends (for now?)

So, if I'm understanding everything correctly, Kovacs allowed himself to be corrupted by the Elder instead of letting Quellcrist do it, and sacrificed himself, by turning Angelfire on the Elder, which took him out in the process.  But it seems like Poe used the code that Dig 301 had created to store his memories and actually used it to save Kovacs instead?  That's why Poe doesn't have his memories, right?  Kind of confused by a lot of that.

Surprised that Kovacs 2.0. is still around.  Figured he was going to sacrifice himself; especially after they found out he permanently killed Trepp's father; but I guess there is more in store for him?

Meanwhile, it looks like Quellcrist has accepted that the revolution on this planet is fruitless, so she's put herself back on ice and is hoping to find another planet that she might have better luck with.

Danica had actually killed Konrad this entire time.  Not sure why they had bothered getting Neal McDonough for such a minor role then, but I guess that was a solid twist.  But, of course, Danica would fall victim to her own arrogance and get a fitting death because of it.

If (and that's big one) this gets another season, I guess they'll have Kovacs be put back into a new sleeve and played by another actor.  Personally, I think I would find it more interesting if they let Will Yun Lee have a go at being the lead as Kovacs 2.0., but I know that's a pipe dream.  But I find it interesting that while both Joel Kinnaman and Anthony Mackie worked well enough as their respected Kovacs, they tend to get overshadowed by the supporting cast.  This season, I found the highlights to be Simone Missick, Will Yun Lee, and, once again, Chris Conner as Poe.  But I guess we'll see how it goes!

 

[WatchrTina]

19 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

it seems like Poe used the code that Dig 301 had created to store his memories and actually used it to save Kovacs instead?  That's why Poe doesn't have his memories, right? 

Oooooh.  Is THAT what happened?  I was confused but I LIKE your interpretation.  If so, that means next season we will have two Takashi Kovacs again.  They better keep that on the down-low -- re-booted Takashi (i.e., Will Yun Lee) JUST got out of hot water for double-sleeving.

Okay here's my theory about next season.  Takashi senior (the version played by Anthony Mackie) gets brought back courtesy of Poe's sacrifice.  He then goes off in search of Quellchrist via Needlecasting.  Eventually he finds her but neither of them is in the body we've come to associate with them (new cast!)  Meanwhile Will Yun Lee's recently-rebooted Tak will be living on the planet with the orbitals (they gave him a job there after all) but he'll be available to play Tak in flashbacks as we follow new-sleeved Takashi senior and Quellchrist on more off-world adventures.

Or . . . the opposite will happen and Will Yun Lee will be the central character in the next go -round with no reference to Quellcrist and Takashi senior at all (once rebooted Takashi senior goes off to find Quell.)

Or there won't be a next go-round.  (There isn't very much chatter on these boards so that makes me concerned that not enough people are streaming this to warrant an third season.)

 

19 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Meanwhile, it looks like Quellcrist has accepted that the revolution on this planet is fruitless, so she's put herself back on ice and is hoping to find another planet that she might have better luck with.

Yeah and they slipped in a line about somebody collecting her body after she needle-casted to a new planet though you have to hand-wave pretty hard to accept that the body of such an infamous criminal/hero would be safe in storage on that planet.  But okay -- we'll a assume a few people loyal to Quell survived and will take charge of her body and protect it (so that the same actress can come back next season.)  Then again, if they decided to NOT use the same actress again (or if she is not available) they can always do a re-boot with a new actress just like they did with Joel Kinnamen embodying Tak in season 1 and Anthony Mackie embodying him in season 2.  (But OG Takashi -- a.k.a. Stronghold Kovacs -- will always be the best Takashi.  I do love me some Will Yun Lee.) 

But really the only characters who MUST continue to next season are Poe and Dig 301 Annabel. Poe is the lynchpin of the series and after all he's been through he deserves to have a friend.  Besides -- she's still the Hotel AI.

Fun series.  It was well worth watching.  Twice.

[shrewd.buddha]

It was an okay end to season 2, but it didn't feel completely satisfying because so many things were left unfinished. 
The big battle at the top of the tower came off as a bit clunky to me. .. a little too much like a WWE brawl with the double- and triple- teaming.  Why did evil governor Danica think she could take on Kovacs, Quell and Yager+Alien just because she brought a gun? 

I was expecting, and hoping for, much more ramifications and changes to Harland's World after the revelation of the Founders' alien genocide. It seemed as if they sort of brushed that whole thing under the rug and carried on with business as usual. 

I would like a season 3 - if only to wrap up 'the Quest of Quellcrist'.
On the other hand, I am not very excited about the prospect of another season where Kovacs and Quellcrist try to work out their destined/cursed relationship issues. 

On 3/2/2020 at 11:10 PM, WatchrTina said:

Yeah and they slipped in a line about somebody collecting her body after she needle-casted to a new planet though you have to hand-wave pretty hard to accept that the body of such an infamous criminal/hero would be safe in storage on that planet.

.. I also found it hard to believe that Quellcrist could just walk around and use the space travel facilities with no problem - and then just leave her body unattended.  

Edited March 5, 2020 by shrewd.buddha

[AnimeMania]

Observations:

Could have used more nudity, compared to Season 1, this was extremely tame.

All the major fights were filmed so dark, that they shouldn't have even bothered.

The story line was not very complex, very straightforward. Throw in a few twists and turns.

I thought that the lone Archeologist Lady would have way more importance. I thought that Archeologist Lady, Dig 301, Trepp's cybernetic enhancements, and the device that the Carrera/Alien was using, would lead to a way for a human to control the Angelfire network. This would allow Quellcrist Falconer and her rebels to create a planetary stonghold on Harlan’s World from which to wage war against the UN Protectorate.

[Enero]

On 3/4/2020 at 2:50 PM, AnimeMania said:

Observations:

All the major fights were filmed so dark, that they shouldn't have even bothered.

I agree. When Quell and Kovacs1 were fighting in the cave, it was difficult to see who was winning. At times I wondered if I needed to eat more carrots to help the eyes. Lol. Anyway, they could’ve done better with the lighting in not just the fight scenes but all the scenes that took place at night. Quell and Kovacs2 goodbye on the balcony was pretty dark too. 

I’m going to go back and watch the series again because there were some things I missed. However, I will say that this season wasn’t quite as good as Season One. Nonetheless, it was still good. I loved the fact that almost the entire cast was minorities. Absolutely loved that. Such a feat is unheard of for a show such as this. So bravo to Netflix and the producers of the show on this.

It took Mackie a couple of episodes to settle into the role, but once settled he was good. I thought things didn’t start to get interesting until episode 3-4. Loved the badassery that is Quell. This woman can kick some major ass. Lol. As far as the series giving her another shell ala Kovacs, I don’t know how well that would work since like Poe her character has been consistent throughout these two seasons. REG is Quell. At this point, I can’t imagine anyone else playing the role.  

Overall good season. I’d watch a third, but honestly I don’t know where else they can take this and keep the story interesting. 
 

 

[meira.hand]

On 3/2/2020 at 10:05 AM, thuganomics85 said:

But it seems like Poe used the code that Dig 301 had created to store his memories and actually used it to save Kovacs instead?  That's why Poe doesn't have his memories, right?  Kind of confused by a lot of that.

Yes, but what I found very interesting, and a little alarming, is that they specifically showed that the reconstructed Kovacs stack had some of the alien left in it. They actually zeroed in on it at the last moment.  This makes sense as when Poe backed him up they were already joint but it makes for a whole lot of trouble if they go for season 3:). 

[supposebly]

Well, that was almost what I was hoping for. I rather have original Kovacs instead of dealing with old Kovacs' girlfriend issues again in season 3. I liked this season more than the first, probably I felt it was more straightforward. With one plot, kinda.

Really, the only really kind people in this show are the AIs.

 

 

[Ottis]

On 3/21/2020 at 5:13 PM, Enero said:

Overall good season. I’d watch a third, but honestly I don’t know where else they can take this and keep the story interesting. 

Many, many options. The war between "the resistance" or whatever it would next be called and "the empire" remains. We don't know a lot about it but clearly one party is in charge and has bad actors while another party seems to be oppressed ... or are they?

There is the "new actor, new film noir mystery" route. Make the show be about the world and a new lead each year with connected crimes and crime solving. I kind of like that approach, if they can have the crimes be about the wider society.

Then there is simply further exploring the wider society. I posted this in earlier eps, but it's almost criminal how fascinating this world is, especially the impact of not actually dying on human society, and yet the show barely touches on those ramifications and spends most of its time on who loves who and who is a hero and family. Put that stuff in the backseat and let's go explore this universe!

I actually was intrigued by the perspective that allowing humans to live more than 100 years leads to no good. That was barely a side point to a revolution that turned out to not even be real. Let's look more at things like that. 

As for the ending, meh I guess. It became very conventional, with some choosing to sacrifice, enemies teaming up and some losing perspective. The battle in the tower was like watching a Marvel movie. This series could and should be much more than that.

 

On 6/14/2020 at 7:03 AM, meira.hand said:

Yes, but what I found very interesting, and a little alarming, is that they specifically showed that the reconstructed Kovacs stack had some of the alien left in it.

Yet another thread to follow, if there is a season 3. Shoot, we don't even know if the alien was bad. It was more like the tunnel monster in ST:TOS protecting its young and lashing out at humans, because of what a few awful humans did. It was going to stop until Gov. Irritating shot it.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Ottis