‘Altered Carbon’ on Netflix Episode 6 Recap: Hey Little Sister

So far, the best moments of Altered Carbon have been philosophical meditations on life and death, on what it truly means to be a human being, what it means to be a god. “Man With My Face,” the series’ shortest episode, has no time for any of that nonsense. It only has time for badass robot arms, underground mutant cage fighting, slightly terrible covers of Rob Zombie music, and sudden appearances of sisterly sword-wielding assassins. It’s more than a little absurd. It also kind of owns. This is Altered Carbon without the carbs, just lean meat all the way through.

But first, we do get some background on the grand conspiracy that is seemingly surrounding Bay City. Or, at least, names to faces. The person pulling the strings is a man named Hemingway (Arnold Pinnock), who is apparently balls-ass wealthy enough to utilize the same type of backup cycle that Bancroft uses. Hemingway’s influence is deep; he works with low-life scoundrels like Dimi the Twin, mysterious mystics like The Ghostwalker—whose name we learn is Leung—and even has BCPD Captain Tanaka in his pocket.

Tanaka’s corruptness is something Kovacs sniffs out, standing by Ortega’s hospital bed after outfitting her with the aforementioned robot arm. (Paid for, of course, with unlimited Bancroft funds.) It’s a bit of a stretch that Kovacs deduces so much so quickly like some sort of futuristic Sherlock Holmes, but it’s at least an interesting piece of performance from Joel Kinnaman. There’s no drawn out investigation or explanation here; we only get to watch the wheels in Kovacs head through raised eyebrows and charged glances. It’s subtle, but it works.

Plus, you know. Robot arm.

Among it all, the Bancroft investigation continues. The Isaac Bancroft lead that seemed so much like a sure thing turns out to be a brick wall. The drunkest of the Bancroft children didn’t want to murder his father. Like most young, drunk sons, he just wanted his massively wealthy father’s respect. He went about it oddly, sure, cloning his dad’s body and brokering billion dollar trade deals, but—as Kovacs’ cryptically points out—he doesn’t have the sheer rock-bottom levels of rage it takes to murder your own flesh and blood.

So who is guilty? Still unclear, but it looks like all the moving pieces are more complicated than anyone could imagine. Leung, at least, seems to be serving some sort of higher purpose. “I serve only as the right hand in a holy cause,” he tells Dimi. For his part, Dimi doesn’t give a tatted up sleeve about that. He just wants Kovacs dead for murdering his “brother,” the illegal copy-sleeve that died in The Raven during episode one. It’s a desire for revenge that leads to some drastic moves. Dimi breaks off from Leung and needlecasts his consciousness into a new sleeve, Kovacs’ former Envoy body currently being kept on ice by Carnage in the Fightdrome. (One of the simpler joys of this episode is watching Byron Mann effectively pull off Dimi’s Russian accent.) “Looking forward to working with you, Mr. Kadmin,” Carnage says, disturbingly.

“Working with,” in this case, means violently abducting both Kovacs and Ortega and placing them into the Fightdrome, where hundreds of customers will gleefully watch two mutants straight out of the early 90’s Ninja Turtles cartoon try to rip the stacks from their bodies. People really did not like Elias Ryker when he was alive, apparently.

The real star of the show here, though, is Matt Frewer’s performance as Carnage, which is part sci-fi monster, part old-timey carnival barker on all sorts of meth. Director Alex Graves utilizes Frewer’s malleable facial features to great effect, adding a hint of the surreal to the already madcap scenario.

The ensuing fight itself is frenetic and violent. Both of the mutants bite the dust thanks to a combination of Kovacs’ Envoy training and Ortega’s newly tricked out appendages. (As does a random spectator who gets gored in the stomach. R.I.P random death fight spectator.) The duo also put a decisive end to Dimi the Twin; despite a knife laced with Reaper, the Russian assassin is bested, his stack sliced out by Kovacs and crushed to pieces by Ortega.

But then that cover of Rob Zombie’s “More Human Than Human” kicks in, so you know the shit has not yet ceased to go down. Carnage orders the audience to kill Kovacs and Ortega, but a hooded figure emerges from the crowd, acrobatically cutting people to pieces like a cyberpunk Sith lord. With an entire room of people decapitated, the figure knocks out Ortega, but stops just short of Kovacs.

Because it’s his long-lost sister, Naileen. “Hey, big brother,” she says. Because even surrounded by slaughter and rhino mutant blood, family is family. Even if that family is wearing another man’s face.

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 "Man With My Face" episode of Altered Carbon on Netflix