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| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
You know how just about
every superhero-based movie and TV series has a moment in the second half where
the protagonist looks to be at the end of his or her rope and the villain looks
to be nearing victory? Of course you do;
you read this blog and watch many of these same shows and movies! In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1 it
would be right around Hydra’s coming-out party, specifically when Ward reveals
himself to be a Hydra agent and Coulson gives his “S.H.I.E.L.D. has to mean
something” speech. In Daredevil
season 1 it would be Matt and Foggy’s huge fight which ends with “Nelson and
Murdock” quite literally in the garbage.
In Jessica Jones season 1, this episode is the first time that
Jessica hits that low point, though it is not the last one.
The episode begins
with Kilgrave inside Jessica’s apartment/office taking a look around. However, while he is there Jessica’s upstairs
neighbor Ruben comes down with a loaf of banana bread for Jessica. Kilgrave kind of mocks Ruben for being nosy,
and finally demands to know why Ruben came down, at which point Ruben says that
he “loves” Jessica. The scene ends here,
but it doesn’t talk long for us to find out what happened afterward: Kilgrave told Ruben to lie down in Jessica’s
bed and slit his own throat. This is not
the darkest moment of the season—or even of this episode—but it is nevertheless
tragic, as Ruben is easily the most naïve and innocent character in the series,
despite being a bit creepy in the way he “pursues” Jessica. His death has a galvanizing effect on
Jessica: here’s yet another death which
Kilgrave has caused in his pursuit of her, another death for which she blames
herself. This discovery pushes her to do
something completely desperate in a desperate bid to stop the carnage.
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| Image Courtesy www.comicbookmovie.com |
For her part, Jessica
starts the episode already in a fragile emotional state: the last episode, “AKA You’re a Winner”
(1x06), concluded with Luke’s discovery of her role in Reva’s death and
subsequent rejection of her. How does
Jessica cope with this? How else; she goes
to another dive bar and gets resoundingly drunk! In fact, her first scene is of her getting
thrown out of that bar and landing in a pile of trash. Between the previous trauma and the “liquid
courage,” she is not in the best frame of mind when she confronts Wendy to
pressure her into signing the divorce papers for Hogarth. Jess follows Wendy into a subway station,
where she actually picks her up and holds her out over the tracks while the
subway is coming to threaten her into agreeing to Hogarth’s terms. Unfortunately, Jess is a little drunk and
accidentally drops her onto the rails.
She has to jump down and throw Wendy back onto the platform, and jumps
out of the way just in time to avoid the coming train. At this point Jess is quite alarmed by her
actions and chooses to flee without getting the papers signed. This is when Jess returns to her apartment
(with a little assistance from Malcolm) and finds Ruben dead in her bed. It is incredible just how far this pushes
Jessica—she is very near the brink, now that there have been no less than 3
deaths she’s directly connected to (the Schlottmans being the others; the
police don’t know about her part in Reva’s death).
Partly because of
Ruben’s death, and partly because of her guilt over Reva, Jess decides that she
needs to draw Kilgrave out and force him to use his powers in a context where
he can be caught on video. The best option
she can come up with is to use Ruben’s murder to get herself locked up in the
Supermax Prison: if she is there, then
Kilgrave will have to come out of hiding and actually enter the prison to get
through all the security to reach her.
It’s a ridiculous long-shot for her to assume that he would come after
her before going after anyone else, but I think at this point it should be
fairly obvious that Jessica is not thinking clearly. Jessica decides to wait until Detective
Clemons (the detective who questioned her concerning the Schlottman murders)
comes on duty that evening, turn herself in to him, and take responsibility for
Ruben’s murder. Again, it’s a terrible
idea, but it definitely shows Jessica starting to spiral as she tries to take
on Kilgrave by herself.
Before she can turn
herself in and hopefully (!) get locked up for the foreseeable future, however,
Jessica decides that she needs to take care of a few things to protect the
people she cares about. First, she tells
Malcolm that he needs to get out of town so he’s safe from Kilgrave. Next, she stops at Luke’s bar to try and say
“goodbye” to him, though he’s not there.
Instead she tells Roy (his bartender) to pass on a message that “the
right people are going to pay for what’s been done.” Finally Jess goes to see dear old Mom
(meaning Trish’s mother, whom Jessica also calls “mother”) at her “Stars &
Tykes Talent Agency.” From this scene it
becomes abundantly apparent that Jessica and Dorothy do not get along at all. Evidently Dorothy took advantage of Trish for
the duration of her childhood and built her talent agency using the royalties
from Trish’s acting career. However,
Jessica seems to have put a stop to it by placing Dorothy under an unofficial
restraining order—something to the effect of “You get too close to Trish and
I’ll tear your limbs off.” Now that she
is going to prison, Jess wants to make sure that Dorothy is aware that the
“restraining order” is still in effect, and that Jess will carry it out even
from prison (how???). From a character
standpoint, this scene really does a lot to fill in the details of Trish and
Jess’s relationship. Even though in
previous episodes Trish told Jess that she didn’t need her protection anymore,
Jess is still looking out for her, and specifically with the one threat against
whom Trish has no defense: her
mother. Even without a single flashback,
this scene tells us everything we really need to know about Trish, Jess, and
Dorothy’s history.
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| Image Courtesy www.gloveo.com |
While Jessica is
saying her “goodbyes,” we also learn that Trish has been blaming herself for
the failure of their first attempt to capture Kilgrave, though Simpson tells
her that it’s actually Jess’s fault for refusing to kill Kilgrave—an assertion
which Trish vehemently rejects. However,
Trish has a plan to make up for that failure:
she went to all the private protection companies in the city and managed
to “persuade” them to tell her the names of the new bodyguards assigned to
Kilgrave. Simpson agrees to follow them
until they lead him back to Kilgrave, at which point Trish will call in Jess
and they can take another run at capturing Kilgrave. Simpson agrees with everything up until the
last part; he thinks that they need to put Kilgrave in the ground because he is
just too dangerous to be allowed to live.
I think this is when we really start to see a divide within “Team Jess,”
with Jess and Trish both intent on capturing Kilgrave—Jess to save Hope, Trish
to put him on trial for his crimes—while Simpson refuses to consider the
ramifications of killing Kilgrave and instead has become focused on the need to
kill him. At this point in the series, I
find myself very much sympathizing with Jess and Trish, that they need to capture
Kilgrave if they’re going to have any hope of freeing Hope, but I can still see
Simpson’s reasoning. The fact of the
matter is that Kilgrave truly is dangerous; the question that needs to be asked
is whether killing him is worth Hope losing her one shot as freedom, to say
nothing of whatever other consequences his death might have. Simpson of course finds Kilgrave quite
easily, working to make Jess’s old house look as much like it did while she was
growing up as possible (creepy), but he does not share the information with
Trish.
Trish goes over to
Jess’s office to explain the plan to her, but she instead finds Malcolm with
Ruben’s dead body. After freaking out,
she agrees to help Malcolm cover up Ruben’s murder and prevent Jess from
throwing her life away on what is by all rights a long-shot. Malcolm takes the body down to the docks and
tosses it in, while Trish waits for Jess.
Jess is angry when she gets home and learns what they had done, but
Trish tries to convince her not to carry through on her plan. However, Jess eventually convinces Trish to let
her try it, and that this could be their only chance to take Kilgrave in. I find the end of the conversation, with Jess
apologizing for not being the hero Trish wanted her to be, and Trish telling
her she is “exactly the hero I wanted you to be,” to be very touching.
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| Image Courtesy www.insidepulse.com |
Jess goes down to the
docks, retrieves Ruben’s head, and takes it down to the police station, where
she drops it on Clemons’ desk and tries to convince him that she belongs in
Supermax. Though he is at first
hesitant, he changes his tune when Jess says she ripped the head from the body
with her bare hands, and proves she has the strength by breaking her handcuffs
and folding her metal chair up like cardboard.
However, before Clemons can book her, an officer who should be familiar
from Daredevil (Brett Mahoney) walks in and releases Jess. Jess and Clemons walk out into the main room
to find all the officers holding their handguns on each other or
themselves. Brett suddenly pulls his own
gun and points it at Clemons’ head, and Kilgrave himself appears. (Side Note: Stan the Man sighting!) This is a terrifying scene as Kilgrave tries
to convince Jess to leave with him. He
tells her that he loves her, he tells her that he is the only one who matches
her, he tells her that he wants her because she’s the only person to ever walk
away from him. Finally, after the police
have finished deleting the footage of what’s happening, he leaves, telling them
that it was all a joke and they are going to let Jessica go.
Jess returns to her
apartment, where she discovers a gift Kilgrave had left for her: her journal growing up. In the journal she finds a note: “Start at the beginning.” This is when she realizes that Kilgrave is
waiting for her at her childhood home. Considering
how things have gone down, I think Jessica realizes that she has no choice but
to walk into Kilgrave’s lair to try to take him down—or at the very least get
the evidence she needs—before he does something worse than he did at the police
station. As a result, the episode ends
with her going back to her house and going inside with Kilgrave while Simpson
watches from his car.
I really like all of
the emotional moments in this episode, particularly Jess looking out for
Trish. I think this is when Kilgrave’s
plan starts to take shape for us: he is
trying to win Jess over because she is the “one that got away.” The precinct scene was every bit as crazy and
horror-inspired as the trailers made it appear to be. And the ending—Jessica going to Kilgrave’s
house—was definitely not what I was expecting.
Overall a good lead-in to the remainder of the season.
What did you think of
this episode? Do you agree more with
Jess or Simpson as far as what to do with Kilgrave? Let me know in the comments!
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