Ep 5. I Wake Up Screaming

In Altered Carbon season 2 episode 5 entitled I Wake Up Screaming, Takeshi Kovacs finds himself working with an unlikely ally as he tries to figure out what happened to his friend. The episode begins with Kovacs and Poe waiting for a clue from their ally Dig 301, a woman who owns a dog kennel. They hear a knock on the door, and when Poe answers, they find that Dig has sent her dog, Luca, to lead the two to her.

With Luca as their guide, Kovacs and Poe find Dig’s safe house and meet Islay, an expert in VR technology who also happens to be in love with her employer, Dig. She explains to Kovacs and Poe that a wealthy man named Jaeger had put a bounty on Ortega and her team after they discovered a weapon that could control AI. Kovacs believes that the weapon is connected to Quellcrist Falconer but he needs more information.

While asking Islay questions about the weapon, Kovacs hears Quell’s voice telling him to remember something. He sees images of a burning forest and a figure of a woman before her voice is drowned out by Jaeger’s men breaking into the safe house. Kovacs, Poe, and Islay escape through the VR system, but not before Kovacs realizes that Quell’s presence in his mind is growing stronger.

Once they’re out of the VR system, they find themselves in a different part of town. Kovacs and Poe separate from Islay and continue their search for Jaeger. Poe reveals to Kovacs that he’s been slowly deteriorating and that his memories are beginning to fail him. He admits that he doesn’t know what’s causing his decline and wonders if it’s a result of his resurrection.

After a long search, Kovacs and Poe finally locate Jaeger’s base of operations in a casino. They come across a room with a program that can allow someone to enter another person’s mind. Kovacs sees this as an opportunity to find out more about Jaeger’s involvement with the weapon, and decides to use the program to go into the mind of one of Jaeger’s men.

While in the man’s mind, Kovacs experiences a series of strange and troubling memories. Eventually, he uncovers a memory of Jaeger and Ortega’s team using the weapon to control a group of soldiers. But before he can find out any more information, he’s pulled out of the program by Jaeger himself. Jaeger tells Kovacs that he’s been tracking him and that he wants to make a deal. Jaeger reveals that he knows where Quell is and that he’s willing to lead Kovacs to her if he turns over the weapon.

Kovacs is hesitant to make the deal, but seeing no other option, he agrees and hands over the weapon. Jaeger then leads him to a pod containing Quell’s stack. As Kovacs approaches the pod, he’s engulfed in a vision of the burning forest and the woman he saw in the VR system. He realizes that the woman is Quell and that her consciousness has been trapped in the pod for centuries.

The episode ends with Kovacs staring at the pod, unsure of what to do next. He knows that he needs to find a way to free Quell, but he doesn’t know how. Meanwhile, Poe’s condition continues to deteriorate, and Kovacs is forced to confront the reality that his friend might not be able to help him much longer.