'Altered Carbon' Season 2: What makes Chris Conner's Poe a force to reckon with in the new season?
Spoiler alert for 'Altered Carbon' Season 2
Chris Conner's Poe was a central character in the dystopian drama's pilot season. Apart from being Takeshi Kovacs' (Joel Kinnaman) loyal aide-de-camp of sorts and a good friend, the smooth-talking, witty and resourceful AI was also a problem-solver who had a major plotline of his own.
Those of them who thought he met his end in Season 1 will be happy to know that Poe is alive and kicking. Except, he isn't at a 100% functionality. Poe glitches rendering him to forget the function he's in the middle of. This gives Kovacs (Anthony Mackie) reason to believe he will be compromised in his mission to find Quellcrist Falconer (Renee Elise Goldsberry) who he believes is still alive.
Over the course of the series, Poe has his own battles to face and a lot of it has to do with the glitch that he experiences. Adding to this is his quest to becoming more human and a desperate attempt to retain the memories of his saving of Lizzie Elliot (Hayley Law).
And despite his compromising code function, Poe manages to keep helping Kovacs, despite the latter dismissing the AI's services. Season 2 sees Kovacs, Quell, Kovacs Prime (Will Yun Lee) take on the 'Elder'. The trio figure out the only way to neutralize the threat would be to unleash Angelfire on the Elder and it means a necessary sacrifice. Mackie's version of Kovacs manages to pin the Elder down and is a victim of Angelfire. However, despite the multiple glitches, Poe, who's in the process of rebooting, manages to copy down Kovacs stack code before it burns to a crisp.
It is in the final few minutes that we see a rebooted Poe with no memory of the past. However, Dig (Dina Shihabi), another AI who is central to Poe's recovery, accesses his memory drive and notes the code. It is then they realize, Poe has actually managed to save Kovacs's stack details implying he would return soon. Add to this, the extensive help he's been of over the course of two seasons, Poe is simply indispensable.
Not many saw this coming. And all the while, Poe was seen as a malfunctioning machine. Guess he gave Takeshi Kovacs the biggest gift of all — A chance to be reborn.
What are your thoughts on Poe being a vital cog in Season 2?
'Altered Carbon' Season 2 is streaming now on Netflix.