In “Payment Deferred,” we start to see the more serious and angry sides of Takeshi, his brooding nature and his “shoot first ask questions later” nature. It is great to see Anthony Mackie’s performance leaning into the character, but there are some odd choices, which may be on the writers or Mackie. Poe is back, but the storyline with him just doesn’t seem too gripping at this point, more of a pointless ruse for him to not be at 100% capacity, leaving Takeshi more vulnerable. There is another large reveal at the end, which was honestly surprising but was cut too short in my opinion. Overall, another good episode, just not great.
Mackie’s performance as Takeshi is still very interesting to watch, but some of his temperaments and choices don’t seem like the Envoy we all know and kind of love. For example, Takeshi is trying to track down Falconer, and Poe acts as brain to his brawn. Takeshi often asks for help but bursts out in anger and yelling when Poe doesn’t do what he is told. Poe is showing some serious glitching and obsession with Elizabeth from Season 1. It is interesting to see Poe become more rounded out as a character, giving him his own motivations, but they seem too contrived and not natural. Poe was very logical in the last season, but he is now terribly emotional, not willing to reboot and fix himself in order to help Takeshi. Now that Poe is refusing to fix himself at the risk of losing some or all of his memories, Takeshi can’t trust him or his abilities. It is understandable that he would be angry, but Takeshi doesn’t seem prone to emotional outbursts like that.
Let’s talk about Quell (Falconer). Her character is shown and made out to be a murderer or criminal using Quell’s sleeve. It is confirmed up until the very end, in which both Quell and Takeshi recognize each other. It is an interesting plot point, but I think it was a waste to only have this crazed, murderous Quell only last for two episodes. In the end, she looks lost, sympathetic, and as if she didn’t know what she was doing (killing an entire night club). Could there be another stack sharing her sleeve? Could it be her just going insane? We don’t know and as soon as we have the sliver of a chance to learn anything, she has to go. This will inevitably lead to at least an entire episode, probably more, just trying to find her again and then hopefully talking to her to understand what in the settled worlds is going on.
This pacing and the fight against the other super-sleeved soldiers just seem like a way to make the show run a little longer than it needs to. This includes the political conversations with Danica Harlan which have even less of a connection with Takeshi than the other Meths from Season 1. Hopefully, Takeshi won’t have to deal with the “wolf pack” as I will refer to them the entire season, because they are more of an annoyance trying to get Takeshi’s sleeve back rather than of a pivotal part of the story. And the season will connect Danica to Takeshi sooner, giving her a reason to be on the show.
What did you think about Quell’s actual return and tease/reveal? How are you liking Poe’s journey? Let us know in the comments!