Altered Carbon S1E5: "The Wrong Man"

Time to keep kicking my way through this overproduced trainwreck. I've still got at least two episodes ahead of me (the patron is considering changing the eventual episode 7-8 reviews to something else), so buckle up.


Today's introductory Kovacs (Falconrer? Kovacs' voice, but it usually sounds like he might be reciting her doctrine) thought is that in a world ruled by lies, the truth is not only a weapon, but a tool of revolution. As he speaks, we see whatsername the dead girl jumping off of something and plummeting down into the clouds.

So uh. They just never bothered to consider suicide?

Up until now, I'd been assuming that the body was dead before it was thrown into the bay. Like, that there was a stab or gunshot wound or something. If it was the fall that killed her (which now seems to be the case), then that should have been obvious from the autopsy. Given the amount of poverty, alienation, and stress endemic in this society, one can only assume that suicide isn't super rare. So, why are the police so insistent that this is a murder case at all?

Hmm. Actually, she does have a conspicuous neckband thing that reminds me of the necklace Alice used to hide her choke marks. If she was hiding similar marks, I guess it's possible that they might have been mistaken for the cause of death? Maybe?

Then we jump to a dark warehouse, where Kovacs has someone tied to a chair and is demanding information from them. I guess he put Dimitri in a new sleeve for interrogation purposes? Weird, I figured he'd just use one of Poe's VR chambers; maybe Poe just wasn't willing to let Kovacs use his equipment for something that blatantly illegal or something. But...wait, he's demanding answers about BLONDIE's murder. Did Kovacs ever even learn about that case, let alone have a reason to care about it?

...oh. He's kind of swaying drunkenly and speaking in this sort of weird drawl, while engaging in much clumsier and more brute force intimidation tactics than I'd expect from Kovacs. It's a flashback, not a flashforward. This is Ryker.

The man who he's beating and threatening is a cortical stack technician who works for the agency that modified the victim's stack to make her resurrection-proof when she converted to ICPism. Only, there was never any documentation or records of her conversion, only the word of the agency that that's why she had them do it. I could have sworn her mother mentioned knowing about this prior to her death back in episode 2, but maybe I'm misremembering. So, Ryker - who it turns out was a childhood friend of the victim - is trying to beat the truth out of this stack programmer.

The programmer insists he knows nothing about any of this, even when threatened with permadeath. It looks like Ryker (who, as I mentioned earlier, really does look and sound drunk. Also, he takes some kind of eyedrops at one point, and his body language right afterward suggests that these are not prescription meds) might be about to make good on his threat when Ortega comes in and stops him. Over Ryker's protests, she assures him that this programmer's agency only handles stack modification for people who are needlecasting in from other planets. So, even if someone did nefariously turn her mortal to prevent a testimony, this guy and his coworkers would have never had an opportunity to be the ones who did it.

O...

Ortega w...wa...

Ortega was the sane one in their relationship.

Ryker looks even worse when you think about it for a second. If there was a statement from the agency that modified her stack that she'd converted to Juggalism, then the agency in question must have been clearly identified. Ryker would have had access to that information. And he still decided to kidnap and torture someone who works someplace else entirely.

Also, note that Ortega is still only the sane one relatively speaking. The fact that she's trying to calm and comfort Ryker instead of holding him at gunpoint is pretty damning.

She cuts the victim loose and tells them to get out of here, and then returns her attention to Ryker. Cooing and worrying over him. He has, after all, just had a very trying experience. As she hugs and whispers to him, Ryker mutters that "she's all alone in there," and Ortega simply whispers back "I know." Not sure who they're referring to. If it's the dead lady, then I don't think "alone" is a valid description. It's not like you're conscious in an inactive stack, on top of the fact that these ones apparently are programmed to wipe you or something when your body dies. So yeah, she's um...just dead.

They could be talking about someone else. Or Ryker could actually be crazy enough to believe that she's alive and banging against the inside of her cortical stack begging to be let out. I wouldn't even blink at this point.

Back in the present, Ortega has finished telling her story to a thoroughly unamused Kovacs. He points out that if she was going to stalk him to make sure her boyfriend's sleeve doesn't get damaged, she could have at least helped him help her with that and told him he was in the body of a corrupt cop who half the citizens of lower Bay City are probably itching to take out. Ortega gets outraged and whines at Kovacs that Ryker wasn't corrupt, has he even been listening to her story?

Ortega. You might be disturbing, but sometimes you are also just adorable.

Unasked is why the hell she thinks that Ryker would ever be getting out in his old sleeve. We were shown in the pilot that sleeves are in high demand, and that physically fit ones get sold off for high prices almost as soon as they're freed up. What does she think she's saving it for?

...well, in any case, it explains why she gets furious at him for leaving his hotel. Why she comes after him to yell at him for doing so without any explanation, on the other hand, is just down to Garfield Minus Garfield.

Kovacs also makes a connection that Ortega fails to on her own even after he shares the relevant information, because she's terrible at her job. The first Dimitri fork came after Kovacs knowing who and what he was. The second Dimitri fork seemed to still be under the impression that Kovacs was Ryker, and that he targeted his "brother" for a reason. He also mentioned that he had previously framed Ryker for a crime that he couldn't blue wall of silence his way out of (unlike the others that he evidently could), and now Ortega is telling him that Ryker was investigating the maybe-Juggalo's maybe-suicide when he was framed.

In other words, one or more versions of Dimi the Twin must have been involved in both cases. And, two sky-related deaths in the same city, being covered up by the same high-end mercenary, suggests a single culprit. So, however little Kovacs likes Ortega, it's starting to look an awful lot like they have a common enemy other than Laurens Bancroft himself.

Well, if Dimi is just an (expensive) hired gun, getting him to talk shouldn't be the hardest thing in the world. They'll just need to figure out the best way to spin him up on the down low.

Cut back downstairs to Poe and Hubert. The latter is still being all butthurt at someone other than him being able to help his daughter. Poe tells him that her recovery is gradually proceeding, no thanks to him. I can't even blame Poe for being sharp with Hubert at this point. When Kovacs comes downstairs, Hubert tries to whine at him about what a big meanie Poe is being by not ruining his daughter's medical treatment on her father's whim, and Kovacs tells him to shut the fuck up and get out of his sight. He has no idea why Hubert thinks he cares (especially since, you know, Hubert himself has pointed out that he doesn't care from the beginning...), but he doesn't, and Hubert is lucky he doesn't just stop paying for Lizzie's treatment right this second. Kovacs then marches out into the night without another word. I can't blame him for being grumpy, considering what he just experienced. Falconer's training might have taught him to resist torture, but that doesn't mean he suffered any less for it.

A moment later, Ortega comes downstairs carrying Dimi's severed head and ignores Poe when he begs her not to steal the antique linen from the lobby couch to wrap it up.

I'm not sure if Poe is telling the truth about that or not. Notably, he didn't seem too concerned with getting blood splashed all over the lobby a few episodes go. But that doesn't change the fact that Ortega is unapologetically bullying the most likeable character in the show out of frustration at someone else entirely.

...also, where the hell is she going with that head anyway? Wouldn't it make more sense to tear out the cortical stack and leave the rest here, where it won't risk incriminating her?

Unless Kovacs already did remove the stack to bring to his own employer, of course. But in that case, what the heck does she want the head for?

Jump ahead to Kovacs entering the Bancroft skycastle, without announcing his arrival or knocking. It isn't until he enters the foyer itself that the security chief catches him and asks him why the hell the guards let him in without telling anyone.

Kovacs is pretty clearly trying to make a point here. The point being that if Kovacs put his mind to it, this could all stop being a game for Laurens really, really fast. Hell, maybe this isn't even a demonstration; maybe he's actually already decided not to play anymore.

He's just finished beating the security chief unconscious as well when Miriam walks in on him. She explains that Laurens isn't home right now; he's currently off "ministering to the masses" in Oldtown. That sounds incredibly euphemistic and ominous. She offers Kovacs a drink, which he refuses, and sex, which he also refuses. Then, she tells him that she'll double whatever her husband is paying Kovacs if he drops the case and lets her help him disappear from Laurens' grasp.

Well that's not suspicious as all hell or anything.

She claims that as soon as Kovacs uncovers the truth and is forced to tell Laurens that no, really, he just got drunk and tried to kill himself, Laurens will fly into a rage just like he did when the police told him the same thing, and Kovacs won't be walking away from that. Not with his freedom. Probably not with his life. She then tries to play it like she's terrified of him, and that if he hears something he doesn't want to hear he WILL find someone to punish, and she cares about herself and her children a great deal.

And yet, she also claims to be able to hide Kovacs well enough to protect him from Laurens with certainty. In her words, "anywhere in the Protectorate."

And...she seems to think that making Kovacs disappear won't make Laurens mad? She's not afraid of the possibility that he might figure out what she did?

Yeah, this isn't adding up. She's not all that good at this lying thing.

She also, for reasons that are hard to me to follow but that are consistent with how the NPC's in this world seem to be scripted, goes on a tangent about how Laurens won't let anything he likes change, end, or grow. That's why he's kept his children on a financial leash and fostered dependence and immaturity on them. It also, she implies, is why she's still with him; he'd just make it too hard for her to do anything else.

Again, not sure what this has to do with anything, but I guess Kovacs accidentally clicked on the wrong side of the dialogue tree so now he has to sit through her whole life story.

She also tells him that if he accepts her offer, she'll spirit him away through a private island she owns that her husband allegedly doesn't know about. On this island, she has a custom cloning lab where she keeps extra backups, as well as her illegal personality forks in storage. Sometimes, she tells him, when Laurens is away for extended periods, she activates them in clone bodies and has extended orgies with herselves. Kovacs is welcome to stay there for as long as he wants before choosing a new planet and identity for himself to be needlecast to.

The "constantly being edged by her own sleeve's sex drugs" theory is starting to look more and more likely.

...now I'm wondering if that was actually Naomi pretending to be her mother back at the party, or Miriam pretending to be Naomi pretending to be her. Hmm. I don't *think* she would have been able to pull off a double bluff like that against Kovacs, but it's possible that she's actually much smarter and better at acting than she's been letting on.

Anyway, Kovacs tells her that that's very generous of her and all, but he's really not interested. Awww, man, missed opportunity there Kovacs. You had the perfect opening to say "go fuck yourself" and mean it both metaphorically and literally. How often do you get a chance like that? What a waste.

Kovacs takes a sip from the drink she offered him only after she leaves the room while telling him to think carefully about this while he still can. Then, he throws his cigarette butt into the indoor fountain before leaving.

Later that night, in a rainy alleyway, Ortega drops the severed head onto the ground and digs the cortical stack out with a knife.

Why didn't she just do this back at the hotel and leave the head there? Well, if you could ask her that question I imagine she'd turn around, very, very slowly to reveal unblinking eyes stretched painfully wide open and say "For the same reason cavemen painted on walls."

After pocketing the Dimi fork and washing her hands in the rainwater, Ortega calls Micki the misogynistic computer guy and tells him she has a new under-the-table job for him. He complains, but acquiesces, as Ortega's coworkers always seem to in the end even though she never seems to offer any kind of quid pro quo. Fear? Probably fear. At the same coffee stand that Micki is buying an early morning cup from, another cop with a badge reading "Levine" sips his own beverage. Micki leaves. Levine stays. Soon, he is joined by a familiar looking Asian man with a distinctive mustache.

Mr. Invisible takes note of Levine's last name, and of the Star of David symbol displayed on a ring he's wearing. He then asks him, out of the blue, if he's "one of the chosen,' and complements him on his bravery for wearing it so openly. Levine acts defensive at first, but then opens up and seems glad to have met another.

On one hand, this is *not* how Jews talk to each other. On the other, there are enough Jews in Hollywood that I very much doubt that the writers don't know that, so I don't think this is them just botching it like I'd probably assume if this was a different minority culture they were portraying. So, I think we're meant to infer that there's been a major upsurge in antisemitism in recent times, at least locally, which has driven them to be more furtive and guarded. I suspect the Neo-Catholics are to blame. The aesthetics might be brand new, but they may have rediscovered the hunting of their ancestors' natural prey.

Anyway, I'm guessing that Mr. Invisible saw Micki receive Ortega's call, and figures that since Levine was getting coffee with him he can try and work him over to get close to Micki and prevent the interrogation. Something like that.

As the sun continues to rise, we jump back to Kovacs approaching what looks like some kind of crumbling abandoned mall or train station or something. There are armed guards blocking the entrance, but when Kovacs tells them he's working for Laurens Bancroft they part and let him in. Without asking for any kind of verification whatsoever, lol. Literally anyone could have just meandered in to this secure facility with those words, apparently. They just hand him a pair of gloves, and tell him not to touch anyone or he'll die. Um...okay?

Kovacs enters the dark, dilapidated structure, which seems to have been converted into a sort of refugee camp full of huts, tents, and shanties made of junk, all falling apart. Ragged, dirty-looking people are packed in densely. As Kovacs makes his way deeper into the camp, he hears children excitedly shouting that the "city father" has returned to them, and sees them rushing toward Laurens Bancroft where he stands in the middle of the camp handing out candy and offering piggyback rides.

Kovacs, whose mood has scarcely improved since he left the skycastle, cuts right to the chase and accuses Laurens of putting him in Ryker's body just to torture Ortega. Laurens sighs, and has the beggar children wait over by the supply truck he just brought them while he talks with the mean scary man. Once they're out of earshot, Laurens just unapologetically says that Kovacs needed a combat-capable sleeve and that Ortega needed to be taken down a peg, so this was an efficient use of resources. As for why he didn't tell Kovacs about this, even after seeing that Ortega was stalking him because of it, well, Kovacs didn't ask. When Kovacs tells him that this resulted in an immense waste of time that he could have spent investigating the murder and also just incredibly petty and childish, Laurens gets all huffy about it, and then...Kovacs asks him why he doesn't choose a younger-looking sleeve body.

Like, there IS a very thin connecting thread here, about Laurens' emotional maturity, chronological age, and appearance having little to do with each other, but it's really, REALLY thin. For Kovacs to just change gears and ask about why the middle aged looking sleeve in the middle of confronting him about Ryker...I'm trying to see if there's any way this could be a galaxybrained Envoy tactic or something, but I am not succeeding. This really is just a nonsequitor.

...

I had a look at the writing credits for this show, and what I found was amusing, but not remotely surprising. The showrunner and lead writer for Altered Carbon was one Laera Kalogridis, whose earlier writing credits include the 2004 "Alexander" and "Catwoman" movies, "Terminator: Genisys," and "Alita: Battle Angel."

I haven't seen Terminator: Genisys, but I sure heard about it. Alexander and A:BA, meanwhile, are two of the most awkwardly written big budget films I've ever seen, and they're awkwardly written in pretty much the exact same way as Altered Carbon. The nonsequitors, the autobiographies-at-the-drop-of-a-hat, the pseudophilosophy, the heavyhanded drama that ends up feeling more like camp comedy, all of it.

She isn't credited for writing this specific episode (a very obscure and seemingly inexperienced TV writer named Nevin Densham is), but having her in charge of the script department definitely shows, because this particular type of bad writing is pretty consistent in the aforementioned titles.

...

Laurens explains that he picked a middle aged body because in most pagan belief systems, the head of the pantheon - the Odins, Zeuses, Baals, etc - were usually portrayed as middle aged men. No, really, that's what he actually says. In the show. I'm barely even paraphrasing.

...also, just for another bit of intertextual lol, the megalomaniac immortal villain also describes his chosen archetype as "he is Father, with many children."

As Laurens rambles, he shakes hands with, hugs, and gives out food and trinkets to dozens of the refugees, without any gloves in sight. Kovacs notices that Laurens is starting to get the visible black veins in his face that all scifi diseases give you, which prompts Laurens to share the history here. Some decades ago, the continent was ravaged by a biological weapon. The survivors regained most of their health, but remained carriers of the virus, and their children were born likewise. Ever since then, they and their descendants have been locked up in these leper colonies. As he speaks, the lines across his face get bigger and he starts sprouting these hilariously fake boils between shots, like we're about to be told that he's turning into a salamander from traveling at warp 10.

I don't know why they're skimping on the special effects budget HERE of all places, given how much money this show seems to dump into unimportant background visuals and the like, but it's just blatantly obvious that Laurens' symptoms remain static for as long as his face is onscreen, and then escalate dramatically whenever the camera cuts away for half a second.

Kovacs points out that if Laurens actually cared about helping these people, he'd resleeve them and end the need for generational internment. Laurens just gives him a condescending look with his blistered 90's vintage scifi horror face, and says "Would you have me fix nothing, just because I can't fix everything?"

Erm. Can he *not* fix everything, in this case? Even if we assume that resleeving this many people would be costly enough for him to feel, it seems like there's a lot of other things he could be doing for them. Like renovating the camp and giving them proper housing and utilities, for instance. Maybe even teaching them technical skills so that he can have them build a lab or factory or something to work for him in; if he paid them a decent wage, they'd be able to improve their environment on their own while also making him back at least part of his investment.

Heck, he'd not only help them, but also make things safer for Earth as a whole - himself included - if he just sank serious money into isolating the cause of their asymptomatism so that they can immunize the general public. Then there'd be no need for the camps at all. This seems like the kind of thing that one could easily do with the sort of biotechnology the setting possesses, and the only reason I can imagine the government NOT having done it already is that it would be more expensive than just keeping these camps running. Even if Laurens couldn't afford to do something this big on his old, he could at least pitch in part of the money and convince other meths to do the same.

Laurens doesn't want to help them at all. He wants them to continue being miserable beggars, so that they can be grateful to him when he walks among them and hands out candy and teddy bears in person.

...

As we can clearly see, the root problem here is immortality. If the rich people weren't immortal, these infected would have all been cured and liberated already. That's the cause. Not anything besides that.

...

For some stupid reason, Kovacs just lets Laurens ramble and pontificate without interrupting him or even trying to bring him back the topic he CAME HERE TO DISCUSS until he dies of bad special effect. Even weakened and in pain, Laurens manages to maneuver himself into a photogenic position for the crowd before his sleeve can breathe its last. The witnesses all ritualistically moan and howl in unison, performing well-practiced hand gestures as the "city father" dies for them once again.

He's been doing this for decades. Maybe generations. He's actually managed to literally deify himself to these people.

He's not actually making any real "sacrifice" for them, of course, despite them believing that he is. If only he could die for real, this wouldn't be happening. Then he would just be completely ignoring these people and letting them rot outside of his sight, as is right and proper. Immortality is the problem.

Kovacs just kind of stares gormlessly at the corpse and worshippers for a moment, and then we cut to the police department, where Ortega is wondering where the hell Officer Levine is. She sent him to get her coffee more than an hour ago and he isn't back yet, what a lazy fuck. Some people are actually working, nabbing illegally collected evidence outside of the department's knowledge or control for a personally motivated vigilante investigation, and the least he could do is bring those people their goddamned coffee on time. Just think about what the taxpayers would have to say to you right now, Levine! Ortega manages to find Misogynerd Micki, and orders him to resurrect this dangerous psychopath she just secretly brought in, and to not inform anyone else of this. Micki nervously points out that he doesn't think spinning up a known personality-cracker in virtual without telling the cybersecurity staff would be a good idea. Ortega tells him to steal a sleeve to put him in then, they'll interrogate him in meat space. Micki whimpers that that's an even worse idea, but Ortega just kind of stares at him and makes Hannibal Lector sucking noises until he fearfully obeys.

That night, Kovacs returns to the Raven. Wait...it's night again already? What? What the fuck has been going on since early morning?...and finds Hubert still sitting in the lobby drinking himself into a stupor on Poe's booze, presumably hoping it'll go on Kovacs' tab. When asked if he's stealing Poe's booze now, Hubert actually says "It's only stealing if you get caught. See any cops?" Just as Kovacs is probably considering whether or not he should just kill this prick already, a cop does enter the building. Specifically, Kif. He's come here to tell Kovacs that Ortega has really not been doing well since losing Ryker, so Kovacs had better not do anything to upset her.

Because Kovacs has been deliberately seeking Ortega out and interacting with her, instead of just barely, painfully tolerating her own repeated intrusions into his life.

Kif also acts like Kovacs is deliberately wearing Ryker's sleeve in order to torment her. The whole presentation is accusatory.

He does share some new information. For instance, the sheer extent of Laurens Bancroft's petty sadism. Ortega had apparently taken out a mortgage on Ryker's sleeve - a difficult thing to afford on her salary - so that he could have his original body back when and if he got out. Bancroft specifically paid several times what it would normally cost in order to buy that specific body out from under her.

I guess that explains some things about why people are assuming that this body has any ongoing connection with Ryker. Although...I'm not sure how Dimi would have known about that. Or, rather, I'm not sure how he could have learned about Ortega reserving Ryker's body without also learning that someone else had outbid her for it prior to said body actually reanimating. Unless Laurens somehow kept that a secret, and I don't know why he'd have done this.

Anyway, to get to the point, Kif says that no matter what kind of supersoldier Kovacs is, he will find a way to kill him if he hurts Ortega.

He also demands that Kovacs swear - even though he doesn't believe that the word of a Falconerite is worth anything - to treat her with "decency and fairness."

...

Kif, if anyone were to deal "fairly" with Ortega it would mean her getting a bullet to the stack.

...

Another demand is that Kovacs "keep her away from this insanity with Bancroft." Because that's something that he thinks Kovacs can do, apparently.

The conversation ends with Kovacs sternly telling Harley Quinn over here that he's not here to save anyone, not even Mistuh Jay. The latter then stares at him meaningfully and asks "not even yourself?" and the camera pauses over Kovacs' face like this is supposed to have been some kind of deep philosophical challenge or something.

Kif leaves. Poe then approaches Kovacs with a drink, and a useful lead. Kovacs is in a terrible enough mood to not want to hear anything from anyone unless it's really important, but Poe insists that this time it really is. An AI friend of his, the "Madison" who was once a union member but since somehow got slaved to a human, currently works as property manager at a fighting pit. She claims to have seen Laurens at the establishment the night that he was killed, just shortly before the murder took place. Okay, that actually is something useful, assuming Kovacs still even wants to solve this case at all instead of just trying to flee the city and/or planet.

Cut to Ortega coming home from work. She goes inside, has a nice hot shower, and then hears shouts and gunshots coming from downstairs. She hurries back down, and sees Kovacs taking cover near the doorway while her mother fires warning(...?) shots and screams about how he's an abomination. Kirsten quickly takes the gun from her mother, who angrily stomps over into the kitchen and starts chopping vegetables very loud and violently while glaring at Kovacs.

Kovacs asks if Kirsten's mother perhaps disapproved of her late boyfriend just a tad bit. Ortega responds that every time Kovacs speaks, she becomes more okay with the idea of someone actually shooting him.

...

I want Kovacs and Poe to kill everyone in Bay City.

Every single one of these supporting characters is so uniformly vile that the only investment I can have in them is wanting to see them die. I want Hubert to die. I want Kirsten and her mother to die. I want the Bancrofts to die. I want Kif to die. I want Micki to...well, maybe not die, but at least break an arm or something. The only supporting characters who I don't completely hate are either dead, or unnamed extras. Kovacs, however flawed he is, however often he's poorly written himself, does not deserve to have even a single one of these grotesque caricatures of humanity inflicted on him, let alone all of them. The good end would be Kovacs downloading Poe into a mobile platform, getting out of Bay City with him, and then detonating the nuke he planted behind them.

...

Kovacs tells Kirsten that he's confirmed Laurens' presence at a place called Fightdrome shortly before he was murdered, and that the AI that runs the rings has footage of some interesting interactions he had there. Ortega tells him that the whole point of Fightdrome is that no cameras or recording devices are allowed, so people can have whatever bloody spectacles they want without being judged for them, but Kovacs assures her that an exception seems to have been made in this case.

Kirsten mutters that he sounds just like Ryker. Oh gee, thanks for informing us. I know she means that in terms of WHAT he's saying rather than the voice he's saying it in, but I don't think she's a reliable enough narrator on this subject to make that sort of claim.

Cut ahead to Kovacs and Ortega approaching Fightdrome. Because apparently Kovacs trusts Ortega and wants anything to do with her at this point. And trusts her to be useful in an investigation that she's not been any help whatsoever with so far. Because the plot says so. He's asking her what Ryker's mannerisms and speech patterns were like, either to avoid triggering her more than he has to or for whatever zany infiltration scheme they're about to pull off.

Ortega's description of Ryker is more or less consistent with what we saw in the flashback.

A reminder that back when Ortega and Ryker were partners (and also lovers? is allowing that a good policy for a PD to have? Eh, I guess PD's have never had good policies, so that's not necessarily a plot issue), Ortega was the sane one and Ryker was the crazy, scary one. Probably the most dystopian detail of this setting so far.

They approach the building, and are greeted at the door by a weirdo who goes by the name of "Carnage." He recognizes Ortega and "Ryker," and expresses surprise at the latter being out already.

What are the odds that this specific fight club owner would know these specific cops by name and face in a metropolis the size of Bay City? It's starting to seem like Ortega is the only detective in the entire damned city.

Anyway, they tell him that they know he has footage of a certain night's performance and audience, and that they'll keep it a secret as long as he lets them have a look. Also, Carnage is apparently an android. His body has this limited shapeshifting/restructuring ability that lets him make a bunch of extra weird faces and stuff. I'm guessing he's a human mind in a robot body, then? Or maybe the actual human owner of Fightdrome has multiple AI employees/slaves, with Carnage and Madison being two of them. Either way, android bodies are a confirmed thing now, which means that Poe's main avatar is probably also one.


Halfway point. Splitting here.