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In Altered Carbon, S1 E4: "Force of Evil", the main character, Takeshi Kovacs, is...
captured and tortured for information.
While he's there, there's a woman nearby. She appears to be dead, and as the episode advances she progressively gets dissected. By the end her organs are arranged in boxes around her.
Is there any immediate indication who she is or that she's important in some way, or is it just a screenwriters' indication of how terrible these people are?
It appears to have been Anemone (Alice).
Whilst this is only speculation, multiple sources seem to back it up including this reddit thread.
EvidenceBasedSwamp: It's the one in the peep show that Tak lies to claiming he's the mother.
darkvstar: I had to watch this a few times. I am pretty sure it is Abalone/Alice. Her sleeve is dead and they obviously destroyed her stack so they are harvesting her organs???
r/alteredcarbon, Episode Discussion - S01E04 - Force of Evil
And this blog post which refers to the woman as Alice on multiple occasions but I will just show the first.
Al stops him, reminding him that they taught him not to talk about women that way during sensitivity training. Miles retorts that he’s just expressing his appreciation for the female form. What’s wrong with that? As they’re talking, the camera moves around behind their work area to show Alice’s body, naked, bruised, still in her hooker make up, about to be sliced open. I’m sure they’re appreciating the female form by dissecting her as well.
Metawitches, Altered Carbon Season 1 Episode 4: Force of Evil Recap
The woman is Alice, the hooker that Kovacs was previously talking to about Lizzie Elliot. You may recall that she was killed in the altercation at the end of Episode 3.
There is little information on their actions, but it appears that they are harvesting the organs to sell on the black market. Since Alice is real-dead, they are effectively making her body disappear, while retaining anything that they can use to profit.
From a screenwriting point of view, the show is emphasizing the lack of moral compass that this organization has, while also giving a representation of how much time Kovacs is spending in virtual.
