Altered Carbon is not your usual sci-fi TV show. It is a mix of violence, ruthless torture, tightly woven storylines and mind-blowing sets. The show is a younger sibling of Blade Runner. A whodunnit crime mystery full of gangsters, attractive actors and some of the darkest scenes in the history of TV, Altered Carbon delivers what it claims. It is surely a treat to watch such a show, however, some scenes are not at all for the faint of heart. Today, we shall be sharing with you ten such grueling moments when the show was too much to handle. Major spoilers ahead.
Torture Of Takeshi Kovacs
In the fourth episode, Kovacs is kidnapped and brought to the creepy Wei clinic where he is tormented. The clinic is a virtual torture chamber used to mentally break the targets. It is revealed later that the kidnapper is Dimi 2, who is apparently a twin of the gangster killed by Kovacs in the lobby of the Hotel Raven.
He repeatedly calls Kovacs by the name of Ryker and inflicts some extremely brutal torture on him, like pulling his nails out, sawing his limbs off and stubbing him with cigarettes. He also changes himself into a slug, enters through his wounds and kills him over and over again.
Vernon’s Visit To The Brothel
Vernon visits the brothel in the ninth episode and, through his eyes, we catch a glimpse of what goes behind the curtains at the exclusive sex club Head In The Clouds, owned by Reileen. Wealthy people rape, torture, mutilate and even permanently kill. They do not know, however, that they are coded Neo-C and can never be resleeved again. One of the most messed up quotes from the series has to be – “You can cut holes in me anywhere. F*** me in them. Tear me apart.”
Drugged Bancroft And The Prostitute
Mister Bancroft often frequents Head In The Clouds and indulges in his perverted fetishes. He enjoys tormenting, burning, raping, cutting and killing young girls, but, he is generous and always resleeves those he kills.
There is a scene where, shortly after losing a business deal, he visits HITC and orders two prostitutes. He doesn’t know that he has been drugged by his wife with a powerful drug called Stallion and under the effect, RDs one of the girls by shooting her stack during the act.
Fight Of The Married Couple At Bancroft’s Party
With eternity in hand, the meths are quite often bored so they have invented some special games for fun, like bullfighting, fought between humans, of course. They call it Fight Drome. At Bancroft’s party, Kovacs sees a real-life couple fighting each other in a game where one of them has to beat the other until the death of the sleeve. The fight is extremely violent and Kovacs somehow gets involved. He tries to help the couple out and is eventually challenged as a punishment for interfering in the game.
Miriam Beating Lizzie Mercilessly
Lizzie is a favorite prostitute of Mr. Bancroft at Jack It Off, a brothel from the streets. Apparently, he has a soft corner for her. In one of the sessions, she conceives a child by him and goes to his house to meet him and share the news.
She runs into Miriam instead. When she introduces herself to Miriam, the latter gets very furious and in a psychotic episode, beats her to a pulp. It reaches a point where Lizzie suffers a miscarriage and is later tortured at the Wei clinic, ultimately losing her mind.
Naked Sword Fight
In the eighth episode, the audience witnesses a catfight between a naked Reileen and Ortega. The former fights with a sword in the initial rounds and later they make use of everything in the vicinity. There are a dozen naked Reileen though, and only one Ortega, so, with her sheer evilness and highly manipulative skills, Reileen wins the fight and kidnaps her. The battle is cruel, titillating, delicious and hot at the same time.
Ruthless Destruction Of The Envoys
Reileen is the long lost sister of Kovacs. She leads her brother into believing that she is on the Envoys’ side by turning on her master and killing him before running away together to the wild. Thus, she gains a trusted position as a trainee under Quellcrist. She grows extremely jealous of the growing proximity between her brother and Quell. As soon as she gets the chance and an offer of an insane amount of money, she betrays the rebels by bombing and infecting all of them except, by a stroke of luck, Kovacs. The scene of the dying people which includes pregnant women and children was gruesome.
Reileen In Ortega’s Sleeve Trying To Seduce Kovacs
Growing up, Kovacs and his sister had no one but themselves to protect each other. After the death of their mother, they share a very close bond and a mutual hate and fear of their father.
In the current time, after defeating Ortega, Reileen visits Kovacs in Ortega’s sleeve and tries to tease and seduce him into getting in bed with her. She reveals later that she has been infatuated with him since their childhood together and could never love anyone else again.
Bancroft Playing God
One of the many fancies of Bancroft is playing Jesus. He frequently visits the refugee camp where people infected with the plague live and wait for their death. During the visit, he deliberately touches them and distributes goodies. In every visit, he gets infected intentionally, dies and then resleeves himself. He does this every few days as a self-proclaimed philanthropist. He could give new sleeves to all of them, but that would defeat his purpose, which is pretending he is God. Let’s just say James Purefoy has totally nailed this scene.
Miriam And Kovacs
Miriam plays a typical cougar who loves to seduce young men. She falls for Kovacs the first time she sees him and stalks him to the hotel Raven to have some gala time with him. In her defense, she is more than a hundred years old with twenty-one children! The scene of a helpless Kovacs forced to have wild sex with Miriam is a bit over the top. She had on a sleeve, which was genetically enhanced with a pheromone. Shortly before both of them lose themselves, she whispers in his ear that she has that biological pheromone in her saliva and her sweat, to tease him.
