—
AKA 1,000 Cuts
Marines: A bloody, shot up Kilgrave stumbles down the stairs and out of the building Jessica was keeping him in. Hogarth is in her car, trying to get away, but Kilgrave sees her and yells for her to stop. She pulls out her gun, but Kilgrave orders her to throw it away, unlock the door and drive. She follows all of his directions.
Jessica: Dammit Hogarth. No time for guns, just drive! Aaaaagh!!!
Mari: Jessica runs outside, but by the time she does, Hogarth and Kilgrave are gone. Hogarth is hyperventilating a bit, saying she didn’t know Kilgrave would kill his own mother. Like, GIRL. What part of what you’ve seen and heard made you think that was the line he would draw? Kilgrave sticks to the story that his mom performed barbaric experiments on him and the world won’t miss her. Or his father, after he kills him, too. He orders Hogarth to get him to a doctor.
Jessica: I’m still furious that he got away this way. I know I should move on with the plot but, just… damn! This should not be happening!
Mari: In the holding room, Kilgrave’s dad is unconscious in the standing water. His mother is dead. Trish is still trying to get a bullet in her head by taken spent bullets and hitting them against her head. Jessica runs back and stops her. Trish says that she has to get a bullet in her head. Jessica thinks on her feet and tells Trish to open her mouth. Jess pops the bullet in and then asks her, “is there a bullet in your head?” Trish thinks about it and calms down.She’s followed Kilgrave’s orders. Jessica tells her to spit the bullet out. (J: Poor Trish. I was so scared for her! )
Jessica is thinking on her feet here, but there is also a level of having figured this out a little. She’s lived with him and thought about the way his orders worked. She can think around them and even, as we saw last episode, resist those orders.
Clemons comes in. Jessica asks if anything is broken, but he says it’s nothing that can’t be fixed, unlike Albert who looks real close to dead. Trish offers to call an ambulance, but both Jess and Clemons tell her not to. Once the ambulance gets here, there will be lots of questions and Kilgrave will get further away. Clemons says he’ll call in some cops who won’t muck up the evidence. Jessica notices that someone cut the fail safe wire. (J: Dammit, Hogarth!)
Albert comes to and sees his dead wife. And in his brain is still the order to cut out his own heart. Jessica stops him and Clemons throws her some duct tape so she can tie Albert up. She does and then says she’s going to go after Kilgrave. Trish tells her she can’t. She’s seen now how powerful Kilgrave is and it’s time to get realistic.
Okay, this is SO HEARTBREAKING because I get that everyone can now see how powerful and awful Kilgrave is and I know it’s different to experience a thing than to be told a thing, but it speaks so much to the experience of victims. No one just believed Jessica. Not even those who believed her experience was true truly believed what she said about what Kilgrave was capable of. And for everyone now to be telling her that they get it? My heart. (J: Seconded.)
Jessica tells Trish that Kilgrave told her to let go and she didn’t.
Hogarth has brought Kilgrave to Wendy OMFG. (J: Um, what are you doing. No. NO.) Wendy opens the door and starts yelling about how Jeri can’t just barge in here with bloody people making demands. Kilgrave yells that he’s the patient
and Wendy needs to get her medical bag and fix him. Wendy runs to obey. Hogarth tells Kilgrave he doesn’t have to make Wendy sign the divorce papers. Kilgrave says of course he does. He’s a man of his word. Sometimes.
Jessica: So that was the deal for cutting the failsafe wire.
Mari: Back at the holding cell, Trish asks how Jessica can be sure. Clemons says he saw Jessica resist Kilgrave’s demand. All this time, Kilgrave has been telling her he wanted her to choose him and it’s because he knew he couldn’t control her any longer. (J: Aaaaaah! The implications! But first, carry on.) Albert perks up and asks if she’s immune to Kilgrave. Jessica says yes and then asks Trish to take Albert back to his motel and stay with him until the command wears off. Albert says that Louise always believed they’d find a vaccine. Everyone is like SKRRTT. Turns out, Kilgrave is emitting a VIRUS that infects those in his vicinity. Albert and Louise have been working on a vaccine for decades and Jessica might be the missing ingredient. Jessica doesn’t think there is time, especially because they can’t untie Albert. Trish offers to be his hands. Jessica gives in and tells Trish to take some of her blood. She grabs gauze from the first aid kit and soaks up some of Jessica’s blood. She heads off with Albert.
Jessica tells Clemons to give her 10 minutes to clear the area. He tells her that it was Hogarth who cut the wire, but she figured that out through process of elimination. Clemons also points out that her face has blood splatter on it. She wipes it off as she walks away.
At Wendy’s place, she’s patching Kilgrave up while he complains about his unappreciated grand gesture to Jessica. Wendy somehow thinks this is akin to one time Wendy took Jeri to Paris and she was on business calls the whole time. Dick move? Sure. Same thing? NO. Stop sympathizing with the rapist, Wendy.
Kilgrave asks if Wendy ever thinks about revenge. She says sure, but how do you avenge death by a thousand little cuts? The final stab was the secretary. Kilgrave says he also gives and gives. What does Jessica want from him? That wasn’t a rhetorical question. He tells Hogarth to answer him. She says that Jessica wants him to pay for what he did to her. She wants him to pay for what she did to Hope Shlottman. “Tell me something I don’t know,” Kilgrave grouses, so Hogarth admits that Hope was pregnant with his child and they helped to have it aborted. She further confesses that she kept the remains to see if Kilgrave’s power could be replicated. Wendy calls Hogarth disgusting. (J: Seconded.) Kilgrave wants to know where the baby is now, so Hogarth tells him. Kilgrave asks what Jessica’s plan for the remains are, but Hogarth tells him that Jessica didn’t know anything about this.
Hogarth’s cell phone rings. She pulls it out and tells Kilgrave that it’s Jessica. He tells her to answer it but to admit to nothing and try to find out where Albert is. Hogarth answers. Jessica asks what happened to her. Hogarth says she ran and is now laying low at her apartment. She asks what happened to the detective and to Albert. Jessica lies that Trish took the detective to the hospital and Albert is gone, probably with Kilgrave. Hogarth says that she saw Kilgrave run and Albert wasn’t with him. Jessica says she doesn’t know, then. Wendy walks back into the room and asks if that’s Pam on the phone, loud enough that Jessica can hear her. Jessica tells Hogarth she’ll keep her updated and hangs up. There is a knock at the door and Kilgrave freaks, thinking that it’s Jessica. He picks up a scalpel and tells Wendy to get her death by a thousand cuts. Hogarth doesn’t hear, so when she turns around, Wendy slices her face and counts “one.” (J: Fuuuuuck.)
Holding cell. Clemons hears someone coming, so he hides and grabs a weapon. It’s Simpson, acting all weird. Clemons asks who he is and there is a weird, “you know who I am!” moment. Like… is Simpson real? Is he really a cop? Who is this guy? Clemons is clearly also getting the heebie jeebies from Simpson right now and tries to tell him to go secure the perimeter or something, because a killer with abilities is out there, but they finally have enough evidence to get him. Simpson says that if this guy has abilities, though, then maybe they won’t be able to contain him. He’s a terrorist who cannot be put on trial. Clemons tells Simpson that’s not his call to make. Simpson says he has no other option but to take Kilgrave out himself. Simpson pulls a gun on Clemons and demands to know where everyone is. Clemons says he doesn’t know. Kilgrave is gone and Jessica went after him. Simpson asks where Trish is and then backs down with the whole gun thing, putting it away. Clemons hesitantly tells Simpson where Trish is AND THEN SIMPSON SHOOTS CLEMONS IN THE HEAD OH MY GOD, WHY.
It was so FAST.
And I was just starting to really like Clemons!!!
AND I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU, SIMPSON.
He spills a chemical all over Clemons’s body and over the rest of the equipment and evidence. He drops a lighter and we watch everything catch as Simpson walks away. I hate it so much.
Jessica: This was such an insane escalation that it is hard to process. I was also thinking Clemons was taking an advanced role in this! But no. Dammit Simpson!
Mari: AND IN EVEN MORE STRESSFUL NEWS, Wendy is up to cut 17 and Hogarth is stumbling bloodily all over the house. This is really horrible to watch, as Hogarth screams and tries to get away, and Wendy counts off cuts, twenty-one, twenty-two… At one point, Hogarth manages to grab the scalpel and it looks like she may wrestle it away, but Wendy slices her palm open. They fall together, over furniture, and Wendy ends up on top, slicing Hogarth’s body even more. We hear knocking at the door and Hogarth cries out for help. We don’t see who comes in, but we hear someone busting in. Suddenly, Wendy is knocked out. We get a better look at what’s happened: Pam came in the door and knocked Wendy in the head with a sculpture. Wendy looks real dead, as he head slammed against a glass table. Jessica walks in the door and assesses the scene. Hogarth immediately says that she didn’t know. How could she know? BECAUSE JESSICA TOLD YOU OH MY GOD.
Jessica asks if Kilgrave is still in the house. Hogarth says he went after his father. Jessica starts to leave and a very distressed Pam tells her not to. Jessica apologizes and tells Pam that what she did was in self defense. Jessica looks at Hogarth and says that what she did was murder. She’s on her own now. Jessica leaves. Hogarth tells Pam that she’s going to deal with this. With all of this.
Motel. Trish is on the phone with Jessica, who is saying that Kilgrave is looking for his dad. Albert hears that part and figures that Jessica wants to use him as bait. Trish is like, “of course not!” We cut to Jessica, walking down a street, saying she wants to use Albert as bait. Trish tries to convince Jessica to go the vaccine route. Jessica seems to give in, telling them they have 24 hours to get the vaccine donw. Trish hangs up and tells Albert that Jessica has total confidence in him. Albert is like yeah okay.
Malcolm and Robyn are walking together, hanging missing posters for Ruben. Malcolm is very uncomfortable, and tries to talk himself out of this situation, but Robyn is insistent. Jessica walks by and Robyn walks over and gives her some posters saying, “if you see something, say something.” Robyn walks on, so Jessica asks Malcolm WTF this is. She understands that he might be feeling guilt, but this isn’t actually helping. Malcolm says they should tell Robyn the truth, then. Instead, Jessica throws out the flyers she’s got in her hands and goes inside to her apartment. Robyn grabs the flyers out of the trash and then seems to think about something. Why would Jessica throw those away? Malcolm lies that he doesn’t know and says he’s going to go post the fliers in the subway. Robyn looks sad and confused, as she tells the picture of her brotherlover that they will definitely get him back.
Jessica walks into her apartment and I’m so stressed Kilgrave is in there. We watch Jessica change her shirt and then go into the kitchen for a big swig of alcohol. Kilgrave is behind her OF COURSE. She pushes him and says that he can’t control her anymore. Kilgrave has known this for a long time, but she was slow on the uptake. Jessica threatens to kill him, but Kilgrave says she won’t because she doesn’t know what would happen if she did. Jessica lets him go and Kilgrave calls that a good choice. If she had killed him, there would’ve been a string of “random” suicides in the neighborhood and who would’ve been to blame? “Not me, you prick,” Jessica says. Kilgrave says maybe she’ll believe that one day.
“You know what I call this phase of our relationship,” Kilgrave asks. “Finished,” Jessica guesses, but no. Kilgrave calls it “the wrath.” He lists the various, recent deaths: the Shlottmans, Ruben, Louise, Hogarth (he presumes). Who next? Jessica says he’ll be next, but Kilgrave doesn’t think so because he has something she wants. “A stupid name and a death wish?” No, he has Hope. The person, not the feeling, though he does call himself a hopeful man. Hope is the living embodiment of Jessica’s guilt. Jessica slams Kilgrave against the wall and grabs his wounded arm, pointing out that she doesn’t have to kill him. He cries out in pain and admits that Hope is still in prison until the next morning when her release papers go through. Jessica lets him go and Kilgrave further explains that he visited the DA and influenced him to release Hope. Kilgrave’s bargain: his dad for Hope, plus he stays as far away from Jessica “as he can get” (which is a weird qualifier…) and she can get back to her life of underachievement and mediocrity. Jessica seems to consider it, at least for Kilvgrave’s benefit, and says she doesn’t know if she can track Albert down. Kilgrave snarks that what she needs is an ace PI.
Pam is cuffed in an interrogation room. Hogarth is led in and she looks surprisingly okay for all those cuts she suffered? Like I would be in bed, milking that excuse, for AGES. (J: Yep.) Hogarth wants to know if Pam’s been questioned, but Pam wants to know wtf Kilgrave was even doing at Wendy’s place. Hogarth says it’s complicated, which Pam knows is what she says when she lies. Pam realizes that Hogarth took Kilgrave there to get Wendy to sign the divorce papers, (J: Yeah……..) but Hogarth says it wasn’t like that. He made her take him there. It was complicated. Plus, Pam told her to handle things. Pam is like, “wow, so you made me a murderer?” Hogarth says she did no such thing. Pam decided on her own to pick up that sculpture and bash Wendy’s head in. (J: Um, WTF? Oh no, Pam.) Pam says that now that she sees Hogarth’s bullshit, she can’t stop seeing it. When the cop comes in to book Pam, she says that she needs to call a lawyer because she has no idea who Hogarth even is. Hogarth is sad.
Kilgrave is at Jessica’s desk while she’s in the bathroom. She texts Trish that they don’t have 24 hours. They need the vaccine now. Kilgrave yells that she’s stalling. Jessica snaps back that she’s peeing, and flushes the toilet. Out in her office, Kilgrave says that his dad isn’t going to come willingly, as he doesn’t care about some random girl’s life. Jessica points out that’s one hell of a glass house. Kilgrave chuckles, saying he’ll miss her provincial yet snappy repartee. They make a good team. Jessica says he’s a lot of shitty things, but she never thought he was delusional. Kilgrave gets closer and says that he sees things very clearly. Jessica is like, “not if you think I could ever feel anything for you but disgust.” Kilgrave says that’s crap, and reminds her of one time, while she was kidnapped, that for 18 seconds she stayed with him while he wasn’t actively controlling her.
18 SECONDS. He’s been holding on to 18 SECONDS.
We flash back there. Kilgrave and Jessica are up on a roof and she turns to him, smiles and kisses him.
Back in the present, Jessica says that she remembers, too. She had been waiting for that moment for so long. We flash back there and see Kilgrave going in for a kiss, but Jessica pulls back and tells him that it’s getting chilly and they should go in. She’ll clean up their drinks. Kilgrave says okay and heads inside. Jessica climbs up on the ledge of the room and looks down toward the street. A white horse comes walking up. Jessica jumps down and lands in a crouch. She stands, mounts the horse and rides off. Out of her reverie, but still in the flashback, we see that Jessica really is on the edge of the roof, but she didn’t jump fast enough. Kilgrave calls for her to come inside.
And back in the present, Kilgrave calls that revisionist bullshit. She didn’t jump. “Because I wasn’t fast enough,” Jessica says. “Getting you out of my head was like prying fungus from a window. I couldn’t think.” Kilgrave insists. He knows her face. He saw her. Jessica says he saw what he wanted to see. Jessica remembers everything. Flashback. Kilgrave is back outside, yelling for Jessica to come down now. He asks why she doesn’t listen to him. Jessica, under compulsion, says that she doesn’t want to. Kilgrave asks what the point of having ears if she won’t listen to him. “To listen to someone else.” Kilgrave hands her a knife and tells her that since she won’t listen, she should just cut off her own ears. Jessica starts to, but then Kilgrave stops her and pulls her into a hug, comforting her by telling her that he’ll always be here. Present. Kilgrave tells her to admit that she wanted to be with him. Jessica tells him to admit “this” and pulls back her hair and her ear so that he can see the scar that runs along the underside of her ear. Kilgrave reaches out to touch the scar and Jessica spins on him and punches him IN THE FACE. So hard that he goes flying into a wall.
Support group. Malcolm is having a rough go of it, by the looks of it, and ends up talking about how he helped Jessica when Kilgrave set her up for murder, by dragging out Ruben’s body. He’s wracked with guilt, but can’t say anything until Jessica gets Kilgrave. One of the ladies thanks him for his share, and from a stool at the bar nearby, Robyn leans back and also thanks him for sharing. (J: Whoops.) She rages about the death of her brother, telling all the support group people that they should be angry. Everything that Kilgrave did to them can be traced back to Jessica Jones. Malcolm tries to talk them down, but Robyn keeps riling them, in a very KILL THE BEAST kind of way. The villages agree to all go kill the beast.
Jessica has Kilgrave tied up, his mouth duct taped. She’s talking to Hope on the phone, assuring her that she’ll be free in the morning, and they’ll go get some food together afterwards. They hang up and Malcolm runs up to Jessica’s door and bangs on it. Malcolm gets inside and tries to tell her what’s going on and close the door, but the support group villagers are right behind him and get into the apartment. The two guys start attacking Jessica. She fights them off, but then Robyn is there and slams something across Jessica’s head. She’s down for the count, bleeding from an injury to the head. Robyn starts calling out for Ruben (omg girl, he DED), but instead finds a captive Kilgrave. And she takes the tape off his mouth. He smiles, wickedly. All these people FREEING KILGRAVE WHEN JESSICA HAS HIM. WHYYY.
Jessica: This is like a nightmare. Kilgrave is bad enough without coincidence and hapless bystanders continuing to help him out! Aaaaagh!!!
Mari: Motel. Trish is following Albert’s instructions to make the vaccine. He’s still eyeing sharp objects, so Trish helps him focus back on their work. There is knock on the door and Trish asks who it is. Simpson answers. (J: Shit.) She’s confused, but she lets him in. He’s all wired and jittery, which he equates to being on meds, and starts asking a million questions about the vaccine and about Albert, who confesses that he’s Kilgrave’s dad. Simpson pushes Albert down on the bed and makes to punch him. Trish tries to stop him and he pushes her so forcefully, she bangs her head against a wall. Simpson is immediately apologetic, but Trish yells that he’s all messed up. They’ve messed him up. Trish pushes him out of the room and locks the door behind him. And then she shows us that she managed to steal his meds.
Jessica comes to and the phone is ringing. She answers her phone and it’s Hope wondering where she is. Jessica tells her not to move. To lock herself in the bathroom if necessary. Jessica rushes to the prison, but she’s too late. A guard tells her that Kilgrave is at his favorite restaurant and she’s to bring his dad or “lose all hope.”
And back at the motel, Albert is free from Kilgrave’s influence and finishing up the vaccine. Trish is worrying over the meds. Simpson is hurt, but not feeling anything, plus he was hyper-focused and jittery. Albert guesses it’s some sort of combat enhancement for wakefullness and to numb the pain center.
Jessica arrives and asks if the vaccine is ready. Albert says it is, but there is only one way to test it. Jessica breaks the news that Kilgrave has Hope. Albert and Jessica arrive at the once-Italian restaurant Kilgrave loves. Albert is trembling. He calls himself a coward. Jessica tells him he isn’t. He sprays himself down with the vaccine and they go inside. Malcolm, Robyn and the two other guys from support group are standing on the bar with nooses around their necks. Jessica yells that she’s here with Albert. Kilgrave makes everyone take a step forward and then tells Jessica not to yell at him. He wants an apology. Jessica begrudgingly apologizes, so Kilgrave tells his captives to stay.
Hope yells for Jessica to just kill him. Kilgrave says she won’t because at her core, Jessica still wants to be a hero, and save Hope, the ultimate innocent victim. Kilgrave tells his father to come over. There is a moment of hesitation, so it seems like the vaccine worked, but then Albert shuffles his feet and gets closer to Kilgrave. He apologizes to Jessica on the way. Kilgrave hugs his dad and threateningly says it’s just the two of them now. Hope stands and smashes a wine glass. Kilgrave says she can’t kill him, but Hope says that Jessica can. She stabs herself in the neck. (J: !!!!) Kilgrave grabs his dad, yells for the captives to step forward, and runs out the back door with his father.
Jessica super jumps and grabs the pipe the 4 captives are hanging from. She kicks and pulls until she pulls the entire pipe down and stops them all from hanging. Next, she runs over to Hope and tries to stop the bleeding, but it’s too late. Jessica asks her why she would do this, and she says that now Jessica can kill Kilgrave. She makes Jessica say that she will. Jessica does, and Hope dies.
This show is so intense, man. The shift in Kilgrave’s behavior toward Jessica from romance (in his messed up way) to now more outright antagonism is like fresh hell, honestly. And I mentioned it before, but the way that people keep doubting Jessica and don’t believe her just makes me feel more and more for her. If you are keeping score, we care more about Jessica each episode. Kilgrave gets worse each episode. ALL THE TENSION AND EMOTION.
Jessica: Exactly. And now the body count is growing, and we have a much more antagonized Kilgrave to deal with. BUT we have the one good thing that Jessica is immune. But also, so much has gone wrong. Dammit.
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.
I'm a chronic book nerd and love storytelling in all forms. I'm particularly excited by the rise of the television show as an art form with long, cinematically beautiful plots and complex character arcs (I also watch cartoons). My travels in the past handful of years have led me through three continents and most recently landed me among the majestic mountains of Colorado. Some day I will compile all my travel journals/blogs into one place. Some day. Until then, you can find me with craft beer in hand, ready at any moment to deeply and passionately discuss survival tactics for the zombie apocalypse.
