Previously: Flashbacks to the founding of a friendship.
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AKA Take a Bloody Number
Marines: We start where we ended last episode– an explosion at Luke’s bar. First responders arrive. Jessica and Luke are hiding around the corner. Luke is in shock as he says he did it. He did everything Kilgrave told him to. Jessica demands to know exactly what Kilgrave said. Luke thinks back. He said to blow the bar up with Luke in it and make sure that Jessica saw. Jessica presses him for more information and he’s kind enough to give us a whole flashback.
Two days ago, Luke followed Jessica to a restaurant. Jessica didn’t come out, but Kilgrave did. Luke just takes off running after Kilgrave, who easily stops him by yelling “stop!” Kilgrave asks who the hell he is and what he wants. He’s Luke Cage, and he wants to kill Kilgrave. “Well take a bloody number,” Kilgrave spits out.
He wants to know if Jessica told Luke to do this. Luke says no. He followed Jessica in the hopes that it would lead him to Kilgrave. Annoyed, Kilgrave orders Luke into the car.
Jessica: Mike Colter does such a great job here. Luke makes it just up to Kilgrave before he’s stopped, and you can just feel the tension and seething rage as he towers over Kilgrave, but can’t quite shake off the effect. It must be difficult to pull off “act like you want to do a thing but don’t actually do the thing,” and Mike Colter pulls it off convincingly.
Mari: As they ride together, Kilgrave says he didn’t kill Luke’s wife. Jessica did. All he wanted was her copy of that video. What was he supposed to do? Let someone expose him? “Yes,” Luke says firmly. Kilgrave tells him to shut up, but then he asks how he even knows Jessica. Luke says they were lovers. Kilgrave pettily points out that Jessica lied to him. Luke replies that she did, but then she came clean about everything. Kilgrave wants to know if Luke buggered his chances with Jessica. “No. You screwed that up yourself.“
The fact that this delusional man still needs to be told that…
Jessica: Yeah, all his delusions are firmly in place. And when someone comes along to contradict them, well, just wait. But his angry glare and past horrific crimes will give you a good indication.
Mari: Out of the flashback, Jessica tells Luke that he’s fine. It’s over. Luke is like, “GIRL. My bar just blew up.” All he had left of Reva was in those four walls. Jessica realizes what she said and apologizes. More police arrive on the scene and Luke says he needs to go. Jess tells him the police will want to question him about his bar blowing up, but Luke says it isn’t his. Reva made sure his name wasn’t anywhere on the paperwork. (J: Aw.) Luke hops on his bike and even though he has no idea where he’s going, Jessica climbs on behind him.
Alias Investigations, which is still a mess from the fight with Simpson. Luke says he was a fool. He didn’t believe Jessica about Kilgrave. Not enough. I’ve said this in the last 3 recaps but Y E S. This is what gut punches me about Jessica’s whole experience is that if people believe her, they believe her by halves. Kilgrave has gotten away repeatedly because people believe Jessica not enough. (J: Hard seconding of that statement.)
Jessica takes some of the blame and says she wasn’t trustworthy. That doesn’t make Luke a fool. He says that trying to catch Kilgrave does. Jessica takes a seat next to him and carefully tells Luke that when Kilgrave made her kill Reva, it broke something, and now he can’t control her. Jess points out again that Kilgrave could’ve had Luke blow the bar up with her in it, but he still doesn’t want her dead. Not yet, anyway, so she still has a chance to kill him. Luke wants to help, but Jessica says he needs to hit the 12-hour mark with no Kilgrave. She tells him to go sleep on the bed. Luke offers to take the couch, but the truth is that Jess wants to keep an eye on him, in case Kilgrave ordered him to do something she didn’t think to ask. (J: Legit.) Luke sadly goes into the room. Jessica turns on a police scanner and listens while literally watching Luke.
Club. Kilgrave bursts out, pissed. “100 feet. You call that improvement?” Albert says that’s up from 80. Kilgrave yells that he doesn’t have time for incremental changes. Jessica is trying to kill him now. Albert replies that they won’t know if he can control Jessica without Jessica. All they can test for is time and distance. Kilgrave keeps throwing his tantrum and says that his distance is piss-all. Did Albert hear the hecklers in the back row? Albert imitates them and it’s delightful, though Kilgrave doesn’t think so. Some other club goer comes outside to say that Kilgrave was awesome, but he orders him to shut up. Kilgrave wants to know if his father is doing everything he possibly can. Albert says yes. Random Club Boy smiles. Kilgrave orders him to cross the street, face the fence and stay there forever. Damn, that’s cruel.
Jessica: Every opportunity he has, Kilgrave orders someone to do something harmful to themselves or others. Only once, ONCE, have we seen him not do that, and that was only because Jessica was there to keep him from murder. This guy SUCKS.
Mari: Morning, Alias Investigations. Luke is still sleeping. Jessica is on the phone with Trish, who is about to be let out of the hospital and wants to know how she can help. Jessica’s suggestions of resting and upping her home security system don’t go over well. Someone already got into her house and cleaned up the mess of the two dead men. They just took Simpson and left. (J: Rude. But also, good riddance Simpson.) Trish wonders if he’s still alive. Jessica doesn’t know and doesn’t really care, despite Trish’s insistence that he was a good guy.
Jessica: Yeaahhh, I’m on Jessica’s side on this one. Maybe Simpson started out as a good guy, but he definitely wasn’t by the end. Maybe my multiple viewings have jaded me toward his character, but the more I re-watch, the more I am not a fan. He’s interesting from an analytical standpoint, but from just a viewing standpoint – booooo.
Mari: I flip-flopped so hard. I can only imagine how much I would hate him from the start on rewatch.
Trish has been asking around the hospital, and Simpson’s doctor works for a private research corporation called IGH. IGH doesn’t really exist, though. Jessica tells Trish she can only fight one big bad at a time. Trish says of course. Kilgrave first. Jess promises to keep her posted.
The door to Trish’s room creaks. She grabs a steak knife and calls out to whoever ‘s out there. It’s a real villain: her mother. (J: A+) Trish calls her out on eavesdropping. Dorothy denies it, saying she got worried when Trish’s show got preempted and she bullied the station manager into telling her where Trish was. The nurse said Trish took something. Trish assures her that she didn’t relapse. She’s fine. Dorothy goes on about how great Trish’s show is and how many calls she still gets about her daughter. Trish is having none of this, not even when Dorothy admits to being an awful mother back then. Trish asks her to leave.
Jessica tells Luke that she has a theory. He wants to join her, but Jessica gives him any out. He could leave, open a new bar, stat a new life. Luke wants Kilgrave dead just like she does. If they get close to Kilgrave, he’ll bail because he also doesn’t want Kilgrave to control him again.
Jessica: Can I just point out how great it is that Jessica takes time to reach through the gap in her broken window, from the outside, to lock her door? I need to grasp at some levity – this is a doozy of an episode. And series.
Mari: Thank you for pointing it out! I kept noticing, and giggling, but was so tuned to the heavy stuff happening that I never wrote it in. Every time, she reaches through the broken window and locks. It’s amazing.
Outside, Jessica explains that she thinks Kilgrave is trying to increase his power so that he can control her again. Malcolm walks by with a suitcase. Jessica asks where he’s going. He says he’s going far away from her, back to his parents to face their anger and heartbreak, which would still be better than the loneliness he feels around Jessica. He leaves and Jessica looks gutted.
I get where Malcolm is coming from, but it’s a little strange to have him project all of his loneliness onto Jessica. I suppose it come from her meaning so much to him and also having no time for him.
Jessica: Yes, I think he’s lashing out at the person he admires most. It’s heartbreaking.
Mari: Motel. Jessica says this is a long shot, but this room is the last place she saw Albert. She breaks in and the room is exactly as Albert left it. They are almost immediately found by the landlady, who is none too pleased to find them there. Jessica says they are just here to pick up Albert’s stuff. Landlady says that she actually sold all this lab stuff since Albert stiffed her on the bill. She wasn’t able to sell the chemicals though because they are worthless. Jessica goes to check them out, but the Landlady stands in her way and tells her it’ll be $50. Jessica gives Luke a look. Luke easily lifts the Landlady and moves her aside. Her “woah, woah” as he’s doing it is funny. Jessica looks through the box of chemicals and says it’s all pretty basic except a vial of something she can’t pronounce. Landlady is on it, though, and says it’s an adeno-associated viral compound used genetic brain disorders. She looked it up. It’s expensive, hard to come by and impossible to resell. Jessica tells Luke that it comes from a local lab and then leave.
Cut to the lab. Luke watches as Jessica pushes around a lab tech, who then runs back inside. We cut to Jessica joining Luke up on a roof and sharing what she found: Kilgrave was here twice, cleaned them out of the AAV1 stuff and is coming back for more. Luke asks if that explains why that guy ran back to work. Jessica says that if Kilgrave asks you to work non-stop, you literally work non-stop. The place smelled like piss and shit and a couple of them fainted. Uh, Kilgrave, seems like a bad way to actually get what you want. I’m not only saying this as an HR lady.
Jessica: Another reason he is terrible – it’s actually in his better interest to not be terrible to these people but no. Just terrible all the way, to the maximum.
Mari: Jessica says all they can do now is wait. She takes the opportunity to tell Luke that talking about a trauma helps. He hesitates for a moment, but then tells her that he waited at the bar, smelling the gas, thinking that he should put down the lighter. But he couldn’t do it. It made him realize that he was wrong for blaming Reva’s death on Jessica. Jessica doesn’t want his apology, so instead, he offers his forgiveness. He promises to tell her that every day for as long as she needs to hear it. Jessica looks both emotional and uncomfortable but then a little bit relieved.
Trish’s place. Her mom is at the door, though Trish doesn’t look happy about it. Don’t open! Don’t open!
Trish opens after her mom lifts an envelope with IGH on the outside up to the camera.
Inside, her mom comments on the apartment so it’s clear that she’s never been here before. Trish wants to cut to the chase of where her mom got that envelope, but mom is clearly enjoying this. She says she wasn’t really eavesdropping earlier at the hospital, until she heard Trish say IGH. Her mom hands over the envelope, but Trish hesitates because she knows her mother wants something in return. Dorothy says she she just wants a relationship with her daughter. Trish doesn’t seem to be biting until Dorothy mentions that IGH has something to do with Jessica.
Inside the envelope are medical bills from Jessica’s accident, all paid for by IGH.
DAAAAAAAMN. Okay, wow.
Trish asks Dorothy if she told IGH about Jessica’s abilities. Dorothy is like hell no, mostly because Jess threatened to “tie her earlobes to her brain” if she ever did. Trish asks if she never thought to question whether IGH did something to Jessica. “Why would I?” Dorothy asks. “It was already done.” Dorothy invites Trish to come home and go through her files since there may be more. She lays it on a little too thick, brings up a sponsorship opportunity, and tells “Pats” that you don’t piss on money. Trish asks her to leave. (J: Good.) Dorothy starts to walk out, but turns back to say that the files will still be waiting for her. (J: Just can’t get rid of this woman! And we know that offer will be too tempting to pass up on later.)
Lab. A taxi pulls up, and it’s a man, but it isn’t Kilgrave. They still follow him though because there’s a chance he could be the courier. The man leads them to a park, but Jessica tells Luke to hang back since Kilgrave could be in there. Jessica loses sight of the man for a moment, in a crowd around a fountain. By the time she catches back up to him, the man picks up some shears, left nearby by a landscaper, and impales himself on it. Jessica isn’t in time to stop him. (J: It’s upsetting.)
A crowd gathers around the man. Jessica checks the bag, which is empty, and runs off.
Alias Investigations. Jessica is pissed, and Luke tries to calm her down. When they reach her floor, Trish is waiting there. She’s got the IGH envelope in her hand, but when she sees Luke, she stashes it away again. There’s a bit of an awkward introduction between Trish and Luke. Trish kind of questions how Luke knows about Kilgrave and he gives the tl;dr version: he found out the hard way. Trish sincerely says she’s sorry. Jessica kind of curtly asks Luke to give them a second. Luke lets himself into the office, but not before saying that his wife used to love Trish’s show.
Once Jess and Trish are alone, Trish is all !!!! because she quickly figures out that this is Reva’s husband. And Jess is clearly sleeping with him. Jessica says she isn’t… anymore. She quickly changes the subject to whatever is in Trish’s bag, but she says that can wait. Jessica presses, but Trish says that what she has isn’t going to help her stop or kill Kilgrave. It’s important, but it can wait, especially since she has company. Jessica says it’s not like Trish is interrupting some kind of romantic interlude. “Why not,” Trish asks, having clearly seen how foine Luke Cage is. Oh, and also, she thinks he clearly has feelings for Jess. She can’t think about any of that because, you know, people dying. Trish says that’s all fine, but she hopes that when Jessica wins this, she hopes she’ll finally allow herself some happiness.
J: I love Trish!
Mari: Same. She’s an amazing BFF and one that fits Jessica Jones incredibly.
In her apartment, Luke is on the phone. Jessica looks through the cabinets for something but they are all empty. Once Luke is done, he explains that he was telling his bartender that the bar blew up. Then he pulls out a bottle of booze from underneath the couch. Jessica chooses this moment to pull out the USB that belonged to Reva that Luke was meant to find. The videos of the experiments on children are on there, but there is a lot of other stuff that Jessica never opened. Luke takes it and says it was for security. To protect him. Luke asks to use Jessica’s shower. She drinks.
Malcolm leaves his apartment and sees through Jessica’s broken door that she’s sitting at her desk drinking. He turns away from her and walks to the elevator. From here, he can hear Robyn yelling at someone. He seems to think about just leaving, but can’t. He goes upstairs and finds Robyn yelling at a delivery woman, accusing her of being one of Kilgrave’s spies. Malcolm intervenes and explains to Robyn that the woman is just trying to deliver a package. To Rueben. (J: Ah, man.)
Robyn opens the box and cries over the charger cord Reuben ordered two weeks ago. Robyn didn’t let him pay for express shipping. Malcolm sits in the hall across from Robyn and tells her that Reuben was a great guy. He was kind, gentle, and made really great banana bread. Robyn cries that she’s no good without him. People don’t like her. They liked him. He’s probably looking down on her right now, so damn disappointed. Malcolm doesn’t know what to say.
Somewhere in the city, Kilgrave has forced his way into someone’s apartment. Albert is still experimenting. Kilgrave is still demanding it work now now now. Albert says he’s tired. If only he could rest, he’d be able to focus. Kilgrave orders his dad to the blender. He makes him turn his hand and lower his hand in there slowly, stopping him just before his hand hits the baldes. Kilgrave asks his dad if he’s focused now. Does he still need a little nap? Albert shakes his head no. Kilgrave unplugs the blender and walks away.
J: This was horrendous and so terrifying to watch.
Mari: I had to squint at the screen. I didn’t expect Kilgrave would let his dad mutilate his own hand, but the threat of it was enough to freak me out. We are almost to the finale, and I’m just HOPING Jessica takes this bastard out. PLEASE. SOMEONE END HIM.
Alias. Luke is out of the shower in nothing but a towel, and he tells Jessica that when he first got his powers, he went to a junkyard to test them. He thinks maybe Kilgrave is doing the same. Jessica’s looked for things like that, but Luke says that if someone had seen him, they would ask where the wires and the hidden camera were. They would think it was a hoax. Jessica starts searching again and this time she finds a video of a girl who was at the club where Kilgrave was testing his powers. Jessica wants to head there and see if they’ve got any security footage. Luke kind of stops her, and it’s clear he’s not entirely sure what he wants to say. He settles for saying he doesn’t want her to get hurt. Jessica thanks him and the loaded moment is ended when Luke offers to go put some clothes out.
Malcolm brings Robyn to where he dumped Rueben’s body in the river.
Malcolm explains about the whole body dumping thing. Robyn thinks it’s fitting since they are both Pisces, and the sign of a Pisces is two fishes swimming together. Malcolm again apologizes for his part in all of this and Robyn tells him to stop. Pisces are the most forgiving sign. Together, they throw the charger into water. Robyn says goodbye and hopes they have free express shipping in heaven.
Luke and Jessica arrive at the club. The gates are locked, but the club lights are on upstairs. Jessica is not worried about any of this because she is handy with the breaking and entering, and Luke adds, with the punching and kicking. Across the street, poor random doomed clubgoer is stills staring at the fence. He’s sweating and shaking and he’s peed on himself.
Inside the club, it’s empty save one man. He yells at them to gtfo, but Jessica pretends to be there from the liquor authority, investigating a report of underage drinking. The owner sighs and offers to bring them into his office to review the security tapes. The man brings out some cash to pay them off. Jessica easily accepts it, but says she still wants to see the tapes. The man grudgingly, and in the face of Luke’s menacing scowl, lets them see it.
Except, the footage is gone. It’s been deleted.
On the camera, they see as, real time, Kilgrave walks out on stage. He hams it up and Jessica tells Luke and Owner to get as far away as they can. They run out and Jessica goes out onto the catwalk and them jumps down to the lower floor in front of the stage. Kilgrave almost immediately starts testing his power, telling her to stop. Jessica takes more steps towards him.
Jessica: Purple just throbs through this whole scene.
Mari: Kilgrave definitely has a brand.
Kilgrave, still unable to control Jessica, still has a trump card. He says, “I want you to know that I forgive you. I’ll say it every day for as long as you need to hear it.” (J: That’s what stops her in her tracks.) Jessica asks if he heard that. Kilgrave smiles because he wrote it. “Surprise!”
Luke is there now, and he pushes Jessica so hard she goes flying and rolling. Oh no, oh no, oh no. Kilgrave explains that his powers are growing. The 12 hour rule is now 24 hours and a hundred yards. Jessica stands slowly and holds her ribs. Kilgrave asks if Jessica thought Luke was more powerful. Is that why she desired him? Luke asks if Jessica really thought he could forgive her. She killed his wife. Jessica tells him that’s Kilgrave talking, but he orders her to shut up. Kilgrave says he tried to avoid this, but she chose wrong. He orders Luke to kill her.
Jessica and Luke fight. She is just as strong as he is, really, but he’s got size on his side. She seems to be clouded by emotions and by wanting to go after Kilgrave as well. As they fight, Kilgrave yells that all the tender moments they shared were all from him. It was their sexual tension. Jessica always chooses wrong. Jessica keeps fighting, telling Luke to push Kilgrave out and wake the hell up. When Jessica gets the upper hand, Kilgrave runs out of the club like the slimey little awful coward that he is. Jessica chases after him, and Luke gets up and chases after her.
Jessica closes herself into closet and grabs a bit of stage frame. She stands by the door, waiting for it to open so she can attack Luke. Except Luke PUNCHES THROUGH THE WALL and grabs her there. Jessica again tells him to fight it. It seems like he is for a second, but then he starts punching again. Luke is all brute force. Jessica punches and kicks him a lot, until he’s slowed down. She runs out of there, straight outside, where police have been called. She begs them to leave, but they won’t, and soon get knocked the hell out by Luke for their trouble.
Now outside, Luke charges Jessica again. She rips the door off of the police car and uses it to protect herself from Luke’s punches. Luke manages to grab the door and chuck it. Next, Jessica reaches into the cop car and grabs a gun. Luke pulls her out of the car and slams her on the floor. Jessica points the gun up, right against Luke’s chin, and begs him to stop. He does, for a moment. It looks like he’s trying but he can’t really. “Do what you gotta do,” he tells her, and before he can punch again, Jessica shoots him.
Luke goes limp. Jessica crawls over to him and cries over his body. The last shot is completely still and completely quiet.
On account of the spoilers of him existing elsewhere in the universe, I know how this ends, and that still doesn’t take the DAMN! out of this scene.
One episode of season 1 left!
Next time on Jessica Jones: Jessica and Luke get help in S01 E13 – AKA Smile.
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 28 year old graduated English major and almost librarian. I can often be found singing too loudly (poorly) in the car or spending some time (hours) on Tumblr. I am a lover of Harry Potter, the Spice Girls, and too many other things.