Previously: Jessica learned Kilgrave’s weakness and Luke’s secret.
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AKA It’s Called Whiskey
Stephanie: We open with the wonderful credits which go on for a half hour because I’m still watching them over and over. (Ha ha. JK. That would be weird…)
Credits over, the scene picks up where we left off last time. Jessica is still feeling up Luke’s unbreakable pecs and abs, but this time, in a more sexual manner. She tears off his shirt (M: how is he even getting home now JESSICA) and they start aggressively making out. The pants are quickly unzipped and they have super powered sex against a wall.
Sadly, they’re interrupted when the male half of the Creepy Twins peeks in. Jess slams the door in his face.
Cut to Jessica and Luke eating at a food cart. Luke tells her that it’s good to go out with a girl who likes to eat and I roll my eyes. Whatever, Luke, women who adore food are a lot more common than the mythical salad-only eater. Anyway, Jess tells him that she’s never slept with someone who has “gifts” and asks how unbreakable he is. He’d rather not find out, but considering he let Jess go at him with a saw, let’s guess very unbreakable.
Marines: Yeah, this whole, “please don’t bite my pinkie!” wasn’t quite in line with his, “this is a saw. This is a saw on my abs” demonstration.
Stephanie: Luke turns the questioning on her and asks what kind of things Jess can do. She says she can stop slow moving cars and jump really high and then fall. Luke laughs at that and then makes an Avengers reference, saying he knows about the green man and his crew, but wonders if there are even more out there like them. Jessica gets uncomfortable at that and gets up to get some coffee. When she comes back, Luke asks again if she knows anyone like them. “Not like us,” she responds. Jessica is the first that Luke has met.
He continues the questioning by asking if Jess was born with her powers. She wasn’t, she got them in an accident and Luke got his from an experiment. Luke then asks if anyone knows about her abilities. Jess says she isn’t hiding them, so a few do, but Luke keeps it low key, only using his for protection. Jessica confesses that she tried to be a hero once, and Luke teases her about having a costume. It didn’t work out for her, but Luke says she still gets points for trying. Jessica doesn’t think it’s enough to cancel out the bad. (M: …she’s got red in her ledger?) She changes the subject and asks Luke if he wants “more”. But she’s not talking about food, so it’s time for more sex.
Mari: Not hungry for food means Fifty Shades flashbacks; ruined for life.
Stephanie: Fortunately, I have not read those books and remain untainted.
Cut to more sex. This time, all that combined strength breaks the bed. After the sex, Jessica heads to the bathroom. She opens the medicine cabinet and sadly looks at the photo of the woman again. We get a quick flash of Photo Woman slowly being pushed backward before Luke comes in and closes the cabinet door. He says Photo Woman died in a bus crash. Jessica apologizes and stands there uneasily for a moment. She shakes it off and leaves, using work as an excuse.
Outside, Jessica heads to a corner store to pick up some booze. On the radio, people are calling in to complain about Hope and her “lies” about Kilgrave. Jessica asks if the cashier is trying to drive people away with the radio and he’s like, “whatevs, shop somewhere else.” She puts her money on the counter and leaves.
Back at her apartment, Jess listens to an audio clip of a woman accusing Hope of lying, while researching the drugs she needs to go up against Kilgrave. The women in the clip says that Hope is using “the devil made me do it” as an excuse. The Jessica Jones Voice Over kicks in and asks, “what if the devil actually made you do it?” As she prints out a list of hospitals, JJVO continues to ask questions. Would anyone forgive you for what you did even if there was proof? Could you forgive yourself?
Hogarth’s office. Jessica comes in annoyed that Hogarth hasn’t been doing anything to defend Hope against the media slander. Hogarth says that she can’t do anything unless she’s sure that Hope isn’t a lunatic. Her words, not mine. Jessica thinks the real reason she won’t get involved is because she has no figurative balls. Hogarth throws that back at Jessica by asking for her testimony. She’s found out that Jess is one of Kigrave’s victims from Hope. Jess doesn’t want to get her story involved in the case because she’ll probably end up in jail too, but says there are plenty of other broken people left behind by Kilgrave who would come forward if Hogarth did anything to change the public’s perception of Hope. Hogarth explains that going public would undercut her credibility and hurt her arguments in trial. Jessica accuses Hogarth of being a cheat and a coward. I don’t know shit about law, so I don’t know whose side I’m on in this argument.
Mari: I think it’s supposed to be feelings vs. reason right now. While I feel for Jess, I don’t actually know what she wants Hogarth to do besides going around on the radio going, “NUH-UH.”
Stephanie: Hogarth says that she’s the only other person trying to save Hope’s life. Jessica sarcastically responds that she’s overwhelmed by her compassion and walks out.
Out in the lobby, Jessica gets a cute text from Luke informing her that he got a new bed. I like Luke. It’s safe to like Luke, right? (M: Gosh, I hope so.) Anyway, Jessica starts slamming her finger against her touch screen way too hard to make a call and we switch to her and Trish exiting an “I’m a rich person in NYC” golden elevator. Jess is trying to convince Trish to talk about Hope on her show, but Trish doesn’t think it’s a good idea to make claims about the existence of mind control. Well, this is a universe where everyone is aware that there are people with special abilities, isn’t it? How is mind control any more far-fetched than a beautiful god man with a hammer?
Mari: I’m sure no one would believe that if it were an ugly man with a hammer. Maybe they should lead with David Tennant and end at mind control.
Stephanie: “Trust me, I couldn’t possibly make up a man this attractive!”
Anyhow, Trish says she’ll think about talking about it as she uses a fancy fingerprint lock to open her front door. She asks if Jess is hiding from Kilgrave, but Jess isn’t because he’d have come after her already if he wanted to. He’s more interested in making her suffer. Trish stands in her doorway expectantly, but Jessica just turns to leave. Trish stops her, saying she knew Jess asking to do lunch really meant she wanted her to do favors. Jessica says it’s not that, she has to go get surgical anesthesia to knock out Kilgrave’s powers. That grabs Trish’s attention and she drags Jess into her apartment.
Inside, Jess tells Trish that the drug she needs is only available in hospitals, but it’s cool because she’s just going to steal it. Trish pulls off her sweater, revealing that she’s covered in bruises and Jess freaks out. She asks if Trish’s mom is back, so I guess it’s safe for us to hate her mom even though we’ve never met her. Trish continues pulling off items of clothing, unconcerned, while Jess wonders if the bruises are the reason Trish has crazy security all over the apartment. Jess asks what she’s afraid of, and Trish responds, “not much anymore” as she leads Jess into her former room, now converted into Trish’s gym for training. Trish shows off just how well her training has been going by doing this:
When Jess left she took up Krav Maga. She leaves Jess smiling on the floor to make them some sandwiches. I like this friendship. I also can’t stop worrying that all the things I like will be destroyed.
Mari: I’m going to irrationally blame you, even though I like all of these things too.
Stephanie: I apologize in advance for dooming all the good things.
Hospital. A doctor walks into an exam room where Jessica is waiting on a bed. The doctor is Hogarth’s wife and Jessica is there to manipulate her into giving her the anesthetic. She says she’ll do absolutely anything to get her hands on the drug and Dr. Wife just looks at her like, “girl, wut?” She tells Jess to get out, and Jess switches to her new plan by bringing up her impending divorce to Hogarth. Dr. Wife tells Jess she’s making a lot of assumptions. Hogarth is too smart to throw away the life they built together. Jessica says that if she gets those drugs, maybe Hogarth will be reminded of Dr. Wife’s good heart. Come on, Jess. I like you, but you do many terrible things to get what you want. Dr. Wife tries to get Jess out again, but Jess gets serious, saying someone is out there hurting people and she needs the drug to stop them. Dr. Wife starts writing up a prescription, but psyche, it’s for an antipsychotic. Jess scoffs, but take the prescription anyway as she leaves.
Another hospital. Jessica enters, checking out a security camera on the way in. She scopes out the people milling about and JJVO decides that knocking out a few people to catch Kilgrave would be worth it. More and more people start appearing and Jess realizes it’s probably not a good idea to knock out the entire staff. She leaves.
Outside, Jessica spots her neighbor, Malcolm, almost get hit by a cyclist while crossing the street. The cyclist completely overreacts by physically assaulting Malcolm while also stroking his own ego about how much he cares about the planet. He rides a bike after all. Jessica eventually cuts in, forcefully pushing Eco-Douche out of the way, and using Pilates as an excuse for her strength. I love the half-assed way Jessica hides her powers. (M: Gangs on PCP!) Malcolm tells Jess she’s a good person, but Jess just tells him he’s high and walks away.
Later, Jessica’s asleep (in full lipstick, wtf?) in her apartment. A knock on the door wakes her up, and it’s two repairmen there to fix her door. Jessica’s irritated with them and asks for a price. They hand her a quote that she’s definitely not pleased with, but she agrees to let them come in for repairs the next day and closes the door on them, still irritated. I think irritated is Jessica’s default mood. It’s why I like her so much.
Jess’s cell rings and it’s Trish. Jess asks if Trish was able to find a brainwashing expert to interview, but Trish has something better. Hogarth set her up for a live interview with Hope. Jessica doesn’t think it’s a good idea to drag Hope out in public. Trish assures Jess that she’ll go easy on Hope, but it’s not that. Jess is scared Kilgrave will be listening and thinking about her. Trish says that he’s already thinking about her. When Jess doesn’t respond to that, Trish again assures her that she only wants to help Hope. Jess stands there, still unresponsive, and has another flashback of Photo Women falling back. She hangs up without saying anything.
Luke’s bar. Jess comes in while Luke is closing up for the night. She apologizes for how she took off without any post-sex cuddles. Luke responds that it’s hard to know when to bring up a dead wife. Jess abruptly changes the subject to drugs, asking if Luke knows where she can get some. Luke is all, “this bar is in Hell’s Kitchen. I know all the dealers.” I dunno, I always thought Hell’s Kitchen was pretty nice, but I also grew up in Harlem, so I guess I just like all the shady places. Anyway, Jess describes the anesthetics she needs, but Luke says he can’t help with that. He asks if she really came over to talk about drugs, and they stare at each other before we transition to them collapsing on the bed after even more sex. Luke compliments the good sex by saying “sweet Christmas” and I have no idea what that means, but it sounds not so sexy.
Mari: I was going to make a joke about how he must be delirious or something because who would say that, but thankfully I Googled it and apparently it’s Luke Cage’s catchphrase. And I found this video about why.
Stephanie: Incredible.
The moment gets serious and Luke tells Jess to say whatever it is she hasn’t been saying since they met. She denies that she’s been hiding anything, so Luke teases her about it being a “racial thing.” They lie there quietly for a moment before Jess says that maybe it’s about another person who has mind control abilities. Luke asks if this has something to do with Hope. Jess suggests that maybe Hope is telling the truth, but Luke says maybe she’s actually nuts, and ugh. I have a pet peeve with people in fantasy settings who are skeptical even when they’re AWARE that impossible things happen in their world. Thankfully, Jess calls him out on this by bringing up his unbreakable abs. Luke counters by saying that Jess can see and touch his skin, but she doesn’t know what’s on his mind. Well, no shit, she’s not the one with mind powers. Am I being unreasonable here by wanting a situation where people just believe each other? Oh, well. Jess smirks at him and proves that she does know what’s on his mind by touching his super dick. He says that he has no idea what she’s thinking and Jess says he does and starts kissing him. The scene fades away, but they’re probably having (M: super) sex again.
The next day, Trish conducts her interview with Hope via phone call. Hope describes the way Kilgrave would control her. When it was her mother’s birthday, he made her call her so she wouldn’t worry. Hope wanted to say that she was being held prisoner, but it was like those words were in the back of her head. Saying what Kilgrave wanted her to was like a need. The birthday call was the last time she spoke to her mother before her parents came to find her. Jessica, visibly troubled, listens to all of this from Trish’s studio. Trish asks if Hope was aware that she was being controlled. Hope responds that she wasn’t at first, but occasionally would get glimpses of herself that she couldn’t hold on to. She fought not to kill her parents, but she couldn’t stop it. When Trish asks if she loved her parents, Hope firmly says she did. She only killed them because Kilgrave wanted it.
When Hope’s done speaking, Hogarth takes over the phone and says that her clients delusion is obviously fully formed. Hope looks at her confused. Trish is confused too, and asks if Hogarth thinks Hope is lying. Hogarth calls telepathy unprecedented and Trish counters with another reference to the Avengers. I’m a little behind on my Marvel movie watching, so I hope these are actually Avengers references. That’s the last Marvel movie I’ve seen, whoops.
Trish says that perhaps what happened has happened to other people too. Hogarth says that anyone who has had a similar experience with Kilgrave can call her office, but Hope experiencing a psychotic break is more likely. Hogarth points out that it seems as though Trish believes Kilgrave is real. Trish and Jess exchange glances and she says she does. She begins insulting Kilgrave by calling him sick and perverted and Jessica tries to tell Trish to shut the heck up, but she’s on the other side of soundproof glass. She continues insulting him with words like weak and impotent and other bad idea things to say to the kind of person who clearly gets off on power and control. Jess tells a woman working in the studio to cut Trish’s mic and then storms into the recording room and tears the mic off the stand. She yells at Trish that Kilgrave will hear everything.
A call comes through and Trish tries to answer it but Jess cuts the call off. She tells Trish she’s going to piss Kilgrave off and she needs to stop pushing him until she can neutralize him. Another call comes through and this time it’s Kilgrave himself. Everyone immediately recognizes him, even Hogarth can sense the Scary in his voice. Kilgrave calls himself a long time listener and applauds her courage for speaking out. Then he basically says that it’s a very bad idea to insult a man who could make her kill herself. He then hangs up as politely as a terrifying monster could. As this happens, Hope screams and bangs her cuffed hands against a table.
Mari: We’ve seen so very little of Kilgrave so far and every time we see a little more, HE GETS EXPONENTIALLY CREEPIER.
Stephanie: David Tennant gives good creepy voice.
After the interview, Jess and Trish discuss what happened as they leave the building. Trish thinks that Hogarth was throwing Hope under the bus, but Jess says she was actually setting Trish up to defend mind control so she wouldn’t have to. Trish calls this smart and evil, and I think that’s an adequate way to sum Hogarth up so far. Jess warns Trish that Kilgrave is likely to send someone to kill her now. A man comes up from behind Trish, grabbing her arm, and she spins around to knee him in the gut. He falls to the ground, and so does all the fan paraphernalia he was carrying. No sympathy, you can’t just grab ladies in public. Grabby Fan doesn’t seem to mind too much though because he still asks Trish to autograph a magazine. Trish apologizes as Jess drags her away.
Jess follows Trish to her apartment door and tells her she’s set up some kind of tracking app on her phone. She tells Trish to set her alarm and leaves on her mission to find drugs.
Later, Jess is on the phone trying to get a hold of Dr. Kurata. She arrives at her apartment with her new door set up, but her key won’t let her in. She finds a note under the door that says “pay us we give you key” What? Can they do that? Probably not. Anyway, locked doors ain’t stopping Jessica and she forces the knob to turn and enters. Inside, she gets a forwarding address to contact Dr. Kurata in New Delhi. Dude ran all the way to India to get away from Kilgrave. I don’t blame him.
The elevator opens and the Male Creepy Twin emerges with a very high Malcolm. Jessica comes out and Creepy Twin tells her that Malcolm ended up in their apartment and scared his sister because she thought he was a rapist. Jessica sighs, but helps Creepy Twin carry-walk Malcolm over to his real apartment. She unlocks his door while Creepy Twin continues blabbering and Malcolm keeps asking if he’s bleeding (he’s not). They get Malcolm inside and Creepy Twin says he understands why Malcolm would be scary to someone. Because everyone’s a little bit racist, aren’t they? Jessica just stares at him making the same face we all do when people say dumb shit like this.
Mari: It’s the face that says, “you are a lot racist.”
Stephanie: Hospital. Looks like Jessica has come up with a most likely not so moral plan to get her drugs. She enters with Malcolm, who’s protesting about being in a hospital. Suddenly, she pushes him into an oncoming cart, knocking him, the cart, and a nurse onto the floor, creating a diversion allowing her to sneak past the staff. What the heck, Jess?
In the stock room, she finally gets a hold of the drugs and casually walks out. On her way out, she looks at Malcolm, clearly feeling bad about using him like this.
Mari: If you are Malcolm, what are you even saying right now? “No, listen, a moody superhero just brought me here and pushed me out of nowhere. Are you writing this down?”
Stephanie: Meanwhile, Trish is in her apartment checking her security cameras. She spots a cop standing at her door and uses the intercom to speak with him. He claims that he’s there about the assault on her fan. Trish tries to get him to ask his questions over the comm, but he insists they speak face to face. Trish says she’ll call her lawyer first, but when the cop threatens her with an arrest warrant, she grabs a metal stick and unlocks the door.
Once the door is open, the cop immediately begins to attack her and pulls out his gun. She fights him and is able to get the gun to fall to the floor. They struggle and the cop manages to get his arms around Trish’s throat, but she breaks free and runs away from him. The cop eventually fights her down to the floor and she uses her legs to trap his head, but this works in his favor, and he pulls her up and slams her hard against the floor. Fuck. I hate writing about this. This time, she’s weakened enough for him to start strangling her. Fortunately, Jessica runs in and knocks him off of her before I start crying. The cop keeps trying to get back to Trish while Jess fights him. She throws him into a shelf and goes over to help Trish. As the cop gets up, Jess starts screaming and crying that he killed her. The cop inspects the two of them and then leaves. When he’s gone, we see that Jess injected Trish with the drugs. She puts a pillow under her head, and then grabs Trish’s phone to plant it on the cop. The cop pulls out his gun on her, but says he won’t shoot her because Kilgrave said it wasn’t her time. He leaves and Jess begins tracking him with her phone.
Jess follows behind the cop as he walks down the street and into an apartment building. Jess enters and runs up the stairs. Over the phone she can hear the cop speaking to Kilgrave, informing him that Trish is dead and Jess is upset about it. Jess makes it to the roof and finds a glass ceiling that she can look in through. How she knew that would be up there is beyond me. Through the windows, she can see Kilgrave sitting on the couch watching soccer and being served by the woman who probably lives there. We still only see the back of his head. Jess preps her drug syringe and watches as Kilgrave dismisses the cop, telling him to exit through the glass doors leading onto the balcony. The cop goes through the door and starts to climb to the edge of the building. Before he can exit in the worst way possible, Jess jumps from the roof down onto the balcony and grabs him, throwing him away from the ledge.
When Jess turns around, she’s face to face with Kilgrave and we get our first look at Scary Tennant.
Mari: YOU ARE NOT MY DOCTOR.
Sorry. I think I just had to type it out loud.
Stephanie: It’s tough because he even dresses kind of doctor-y
They stare at each other through the window and then we flashback to Kilgrave, Jess and the Photo Woman on the street at night. Kilgrave tells Jess to “take care of her” and Jess complies by punching Photo Woman in the chest so hard she flies backward.
Jessica’s face is filled with regret as the woman hits the floor. She goes over to check on her while Kilgrave shouts behind her. The woman is dead and Jess gets up and walks away from Kilgrave. He follows her, yelling for her to come back, but she ignores him and continues walking. We get a shot of Jess’s face as she turns around toward Kilgrave, but only hear the sound of a crashing vehicle.
Flashback to the present where the cop is getting up again. Kilgrave gestures with his head toward him, and Jess turns around to rescue him again. She does this by knocking the poor dude out against the door. When Jess looks inside the apartment again, Kilgrave is gone.
Jess steps inside the 20 million dollar apartment (seriously, what the heck is this luxury estate?) and starts to make her way down the stairs but one of the inhabitants grabs her leg and knocks her down the rest of the way. He tries to take her out with a bat, but she fights him and then chokes him until he passes out. She goes down ANOTHER flight of stairs. What. I am too poor to comprehend the existence of this apartment. Downstairs, she’s attacked by another family member with a giant knife. She takes him out to by kicking him into a wall. As she exits the room, another person leaps on to her and they struggle for a moment before Jess apologizes and knocks her out too. She grabs a cord from a nearby lamp and uses it to seal the door behind her. Why does a three person family need a three floor apartment in Manhattan? Sorry, I’ll stop now. Jess continues her search through the apartment and hears a mechanical noise. She follows the sound into a creepy stalker room covered in photos of herself walking around the city and a printer printing out even more. She grabs one of the photos which simply reads “see you later.”
Mari: Was that all prepared in case Jessica ever found him or did he run down here and press print on one more before escaping? These are the tough questions.
Stephanie: Ha! I didn’t even think of that. Silly Kilgrave.
Outside, Jess has managed to rescue the cop by tossing him into a pile of trash. He looks around confused and asks what happened. She tells him that he jumped off the roof, but she caught him. He did what Kilgrave said, so it’s over. She pulls out a crumpled photo of herself and asks if he took them. He didn’t and he doesn’t know who did. The cop is still confused and asks to know what happened again. Realization sets in as he remembers killing Trish. Jess assures him that he didn’t. He’s just confused. She tells him to go home and he walks away, disoriented.
Luke’s building. Jess knocks on Luke’s door and he comes out. He notices the cuts on her face and asks if she had a rough night. She ignores the question and tells him that she did something and she can’t ever come in again. It isn’t right. Luke says that it feels right to him. He thinks she’s ending things because she can’t handle the dead wife, and he’s not wrong, I guess. He sighs, tells her to do what she has to do and closes his door behind him. Jess leans sadly against the wall for a moment and then leaves the building. Out on the street, she notices the balcony where she snapped photos of Luke matches her location in the crumpled photo. She holds the photo and looks around while the camera pans around her. I guess this is supposed to indicate that she’s probably being watched all the time? I don’t know, but I am full of sadness.
originally published on January 22, 2017.
Next time on Jessica Jones: Jessica sets out to find Kilgrave’s spy in S01 E04 – AKA 99 Friends.
I'm a miniature adult who still gets offered the kid's coloring menu at restaurants. I like to pretend I'm an illustrator, but mostly I spend my time complaining about TV on Twitter. My life dream is to have my consciousness placed into an android body so that I'll have more time to watch/read things.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
