WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of Altered Carbon, currently available on Netflix.
Season 1 of Netflix's Altered Carbon introduced fans to the esteemed Quellcrist Falconer (Renée Elise Goldsberry), a soldier who developed "stack" technology that could store human consciousness, allowing it to be transferred to clones or other bodies called "sleeves." However, she went rogue and turned on the Protectorate when she realized her tech was being used to oppress the poor by the Meths (aka the elites).
Quell eventually led a galactic rebellion against their worlds with the Stronghold soldier sent to infiltrate and turn on her, Takeshi (Will Yun Lee), actually becoming her lover and right-hand man. She was killed when the rebellion was blindsided, which led to Takeshi -- in a new body (portrayed by Joel Kinnaman) -- trying to figure out if she was still alive. Season 1 ended with the revelation that Quell's stack was somewhere out there but as Season 2 unfolds 30 years later, Tak finds that Quell isn't the same person she was. In fact, she's no longer a mere human soldier as she's become a sinister cosmic weapon with a celestial bit of firepower.
Last season, it was revealed Rei (Dichen Lachman) turned on Quell and sold out the rebels, being jealous of Quell's relationship with Tak, her brother. When Tak was reborn, he and Rei fought to the death after she was outed as the traitor. She didn't give away details of Quell, though, but when the new Tak (in Anthony Mackie's body) discovers Founders of his homeworld, Harlan's World, are being killed off, another shocking revelation occurs in that Quell's the murderer.
She founded the key to immortality and now, she's slaughtering elites for perverting the tech. But Tak sees her wielding some power inside that appears to be alien, as she causes the Meths to rot from the inside out. At first, he thinks this could be a clone, but he's shocked as it's the real Quell, albeit corrupted. As the Protectorate and Tak's former mentor Jaeger (Torben Liebrecht) hunt Quell and her insurrectionist agenda, Tak locates her and flees with her to the caves they established their bond with each other centuries ago. They're reconnected and he believes this old rebel location is the key to saving his lover's soul. After all, Tak realizes there's something else within her consciousness, and he hopes the location will jog her memory and cast the entity out.
However, when his A.I., Poe (Chris Conner) plugs him into her mind, the dark truth comes out about what Rei did in the cave and how it led to an alien infection. Rei kept Quell's stack and planted it in a clone's body, keeping her frozen in a stasis chamber for centuries. She was angry Tak gave his loyalty to Quell and as time went by, Rei would show up and torture Quell. But Rei didn't know the Founders, including Konrad Harlan (Neal McDonough), had slaughtered the inhabitants of these very caves when they colonized the planet. The Founders broke the rules as only uninhabited planets could be claimed, so they killed all the alien kids belong to this being, who Tak realizes is an Elder, an alien connected to the energy of the very land.
Rei left Quell to suffer and die, but the Elder's soul, stored in the roots of the Songspire tree, was awakened and wrapped around Quell's chamber to possess her when a team of rebels blew the cave open years later. The Elder's infection killed them but a secret deal was struck with Quell where she'd become its vessel for revenge. It would share in her consciousness because the Elder could live in the alloy that stacks were made of. They were mined from the planet itself so Quell was perfect as its instrument of destruction. The techno-organic being would, in turn, not raze all of Harlan's World, with this new Quell going after the Founders only as part of the vendetta. This created the Jekyll-and-Hyde persona within Quell's mind and it's why she doesn't immediately recognize Tak when they first meet. His body's different but after a couple of encounters, they both connect to each other's minds and souls as star-crossed lovers.
The only problem is this act of mercy from the Elder is all a facade because it doesn't trust humanity and once it's done with the Founders, it wants to extinguish mankind. It doesn't help that Konrad's daughter, the new Governor Danica (Lela Loren), wants to trap and weaponize the Elder, sowing more distrust. It has the power to not just create storms or alter the terrain, it channels solar flares known as "Angelfire" and connects to mysterious alien tech known as orbitals which shielded the planet. This is what it uses to incinerate the Protectorate army in the forests and what Danica wants to harness from within Quell's sleeve. So as much as Tak and Quell do want the Elder to get its vengeance, there's no chance of peace as long as the likes of Danica and her fellow advocates of genocide live. They're colonizers who always seek to deepen their pockets at everyone's expense, and it's why the Elder takes over Quell in the final few episodes, to ensure all human lives are eradicated for the sins of the past.
Developed by Laeta Kalogridis, who also executive produces the series, Altered Carbon stars Anthony Mackie, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lela Loren, Simone Missick, Chris Conner, Dina Shihabi and Torben Liebrecht, with Will Yun Lee and James Saito. Season 2 is currently available on Netflix.