“The villains have more fun” is what they always say. As much as some actors love to be the hero, the one the kids will look up to, get the more committed dramatic types drawn to the greater complexities of the villain roles. It’s certainly what drew David Tennant to joining Jessica Jones. The middle of the episode shows exactly why.., and God you will love him for it.
Episode 6, You’re A Winner – Luke hires Jessica to help find a missing friend’s brother in order to obtain the truth about his wife’s death with Jessica trying to keep him from learning it was her. Meanwhile, Killgrave makes a curious financial investment and Hope reveals that she’s pregnant following her under his control.
After being more chill than Netflix for a couple of episodes, it’s great to see Luke Cage and his relationship with Jessica playing a central role again. There’s some fantastic psychology involved in their pairing. Jessica’s instincts are to be closed off and reclusive yet in Luke, she’s finding someone she wants to open up to and confide in, only to have the most crushing of secrets stopping her do so: that under Killgrave’s control, she killed Luke’s wife (Reva Conners). This only weighs more heavily on Jessica as Luke becomes more understanding over her ordeal with Kilgrave. Not just the trauma itself but what it really means to her. Luke wants to help her fight him but completely understands when she says that she needs to face him alone; he knows that she needs that closure. It’s also good to see increased significance placed on Reva’s presence the night of her death: that in fact she was summoned by Kilgrave to obtain some as yet unknown information she possessed on a flash drive. It gives the whole scenario more purpose than just driving a wedge between Luke and Jessica. The investigation becomes a lot of fun from the pair-cruising on Luke’s Harley, to some good fights and Jessica’s hilarious chirpy phone voice as she lays the competition trap. This is topped all off by the final act scenes packing the biggest emotional punches of the show so far. You feel the pain in both of them as the truth tears them apart... again.
Now that Kilgrave’s character has been fully established, the show is really starting to have some fun with him. The opening poker scene is a wonderful example of that. Kilgrave could have easily made each one of his opponents hand over their money in a flash, but instead he takes pleasure in toying with the other players and make them think their stupidity lost their money rather than him taking it. Yet again, David Tennant excels here, and when he’s in such an excitable mode, you get familiar shades of his Doctor Who portrayal coming out on screen, which makes it all the more effective when the killer comes out from behind the clown. This episode delivers multiple snap character changes as Kilgrave gets bored or angered by a sudden change that can bring out his most sadistic actions, like making someone beat their head into a pulp on a pillar. We also start to see some really enjoyable cases of when he deliberately chooses not to use his powers to get what he wants, often without any clear motive (as Scream pointed out, a villain without any motive becomes all the more terrifying). When buying the house, he actually goes vastly out of his way to make the current owner willingly accept his offer and feel genuinely happy about it. It’s almost like he’s so self-assured of the end results that he occasionally does things the harder way to give himself more of a challenge. The significance of the house is a great reveal that immediately sends your mind racing over just what he has in store for it.
The Hope scenes turn into a great twist in the way they improve the prior events with hindsight. Hope paid big Cissy to viciously beat her in a Hail Mary attempt at a make shift abortion (presumably she couldn’t find a coat hanger.... thank you Cards Against Humanity for that one). Not only is this a curious plot development but it becomes a physical representation of Killgrave’s psychological damage. Hope is left a living reminder of how badly he violated her, leading her to hate it (and even herself) more than Kilgrave, “I won’t give life to this.... thing”. Then, there’s Jeri Hogarth’s involvement which produces the episode’s biggest shock. Her suspected intentions over Kilgrave just became a whole lot clearer.
You’re Winner feels like the start of a second act in the series with the attempted Kilgrave abduction concluding last week. It sets a lot of great arcs in motion while being an absolute on screen riot and an emotional overload. Someone tell me again that Marvel is just for kids.
Episode 7, Top Shelf Perverts – When Kilgrave leaves Jessica a bloody surprise in bed, Jessica decodes she can’t fight him anymore and tries to get herself locked away in prison to escape his influence. Will and Trish follow a lead to Kilgrave’s location, but is Will too determined to end their man?
The main story of this episode is a wonderful narrative of helplessness at futility. It makes its strongest character feel like she has no possible way out other than willing compliance with Kilgrave. Consider Mark Rufallo in The Avengers telling the others he tried to put a bullet in his head and be free only for “the other guy” to spit it out. Jessica’s story is extended version of that same idea: taking the most extreme way out, getting herself arrested on pretty horrific means in order to be locked away in the darkest hell society can conjure. In her own mind, she’s already in hell, and this would just be change of scenery. The subsequent settling of affairs scenes provides a great range of emotions from her character. From the remorse of trying to make amends with Luke to the passion and determination of warning Trish’s abusive mother to stay the hell away from her (you have to love her “tots & tiaras” style talent agency, painting her as the pushy mom from hell). Yet it’s her final personal moments that prove the episode’s visual highlight as she scales the Brooklyn Bridge for one last few of freedom and her city home. This also calls nicely back to Roy’s remarks back at the bar, “You know what happens when you burn a bridge, you gotta learn to swim... or fly”; as she stands at the top of the bridge both options lay before her.
After really compounding the idea and making us think that the series will turn into “Orange is the new purple” for a few episodes, Kilgrave’s intervention proves overwhelmingly powerful as he kicks the last leg out from Jessica’s chair in phenomenal style. David Tennant is a force of nature in the police station as he showcases what’s already become the outstanding defining aspect of his character: the snap bipolar mood changes. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans will be familiar with the same well used technique by Brett Dalton’s Grant Ward but this is on a different scale. Tenant goes from soft-spoken composure to energized psycho quicker than a hummingbird’s heartbeat. His every moment holds your attention in unblinking composure, just waiting for when he’ll flip the switch. If he continues this to the end of the series, then forget picking sides over Civil War: deciding whether Tennant’s Killrave or Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk was the better villain will be the real fan divider. The play out of the police station scene delivers the biggest shock of the series to date and also some of its best dark humour as Kilgrave literally makes everyone laugh it off.
The Will and Trish scenes form a very curious side plot. Their continued “enthused” bedroom antics are actually giving Luke & Jessica a run for their money, and they continue to be a fun pairing. Trish’s security firm snooping keeps her feeling like a contributory member of the team but the most interesting points come from Will. As suspected a few episodes ago, he looks to be taking further steps down a darker road as he deliberately lies to Trish about finding Kilgrave, who gives Jessica’s family home a retro makeover. Will still feels convicted on his “kill not capture” treatment of Killrave, and is already showing signs that he’s prepared to cut the others out of any such decision. It’s now just a question of when he’ll get his shot rather than if he’ll take it.
The most surprising hit of the episode is upstairs neighbour Robyn. We haven’t even seen her in several episodes as her brother Ruben attempted to win Jessica’s over with baked goods (if only he’d brought hard liquor). While she begins in the expected (and funny) comic relief capacity, her final scene comes as an RKO “outta nowhere” to the feels as she breaks down in acceptance of his loss. Her words suddenly throw their entire relationship into a whole new dimension. As she remarks about Ruben’s love of giraffes and that he’s got an Etch A Sketch he plays on regularly, suddenly it dawns on you.... Robyn wasn’t just his sister, she was his carer. She wasn’t living him because she wanted to but because she knew he needed looking after and presumably there was no one else (their parents could easily be dead too). When a show can suddenly make you feel that much for such a minor character, you know it’s doing everything right.
Top Shelf Perverts is the show’s best episode so far for the new emotional heights it elevates its cast too, especially from the most unlikely of places. Roy’s remark about Luke and Jess having a baby is a great Easter Egg (they famously had a child in the comics) and reducing our heroine to her lowest now gives her the back half of the season to rise back again.
Episode 8, WWJD? – As Jessica tries to accept her new life living will Kilgrave, she makes some shocking discoveries about his past and possible future leading her to one question: could she harness his powers for good by staying with him? Jeri’s divorce negations are going badly and Will takes a more militant approach to the Kilgrave problem.
Last episode saw Jessica walking into the clutches of Kilgrave feeling like she has no alternative but to suffer this hell for others, but this follow-up does the amazing job of giving her genuine reasons to willingly stay. A notion that transitions perfectly form being idle speculation to a life changing consideration so smoothly through the episode as Jessica gradually discovers that she can use Killgrave’s romantic feelings over her to control or at least direct his powers. In his desire to make her happy, he’ll go as far as helping others if it’s what Jessica wants. This is eased in from gradual steps of Killgrave not hurting their rude neighbour on her request to a full blown act of heroism in dealing with a police hostage situation, “Oh you want me to do the hero thing”. In a simple and effective scene, director Simon Cellan Jones (who also helmed episode 7) really sells what a great team they can actually make if they cooperate; her strength and his mind control providing solutions for almost any situation. Then, there’s even some outstanding and wholly unexpected apathy created towards Kilgrave as Jessica learns more about his past. A key idea being that he’s bad because no one ever taught him how to be good (a classic misunderstood monster). In many instances of this series, David Tennant has made Kilgrave feel like a spoilt child trapped in an adult’s body, knowing he can have anything he wants. Here, we see there’s actually some truth to this as his parents abandoned him aged 10, following a horrible childhood out brutal experiments (the fluid extraction footage is actually difficult to watch). This comes in great contrast to Jessica’s ideals of her own troubled childhood only to find that Kilgrave was living an even greater nightmare.
There’s even a great notion about Kilgrave’s powers actually being a curse. He has to choose his every word and phrase carefully (“screw yourself guy” we feel for you) to avoid causing unintended havoc. Even the simpler concept that whenever he does ask for, something we will never know if they genuinely want to do it or it's being forced. Suddenly, his warped morality and “more selective conscience” make more sense when you consider he’s incapable of recognising kindness or even love when he receives it. This feels in keeping Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk ideals of believing his more evil actions were necessary for the greater good. We now see Kilgrave in that same in between villain stage, waiting for that plunge off the deep end into his full blown villainy. When you consider what we’ve already seen Kilgrave do to people this series, the fact that the writers and cast can actually make us feel this level of apathy for someone with such sadistic tendencies deserves nothing short of a standing ovation. They could probably make us like Donald Trump if they wanted (..... but please please don’t).
Due to the heavy focus of the main pairing, we don’t get much action from the greater cast (an observation rather than a complaint). The Jeri Hogarth scenes don’t add much; they just feel like a holding station for a bigger role in an upcoming episode. Her wife still has her cornered/blackmailed in the negotiations. It doesn’t look like Jessica will be finding any dirt on her, so this could well be the insert for some form of reverse engineered mind control weapon extracted from Hope’s aborted fetus. This is actually a fascinating mirror to Jessica’s story. As she’s wondering what she would do if she could harness those powers for good, Jeri is thinking about a very different use for them. Will’s story forms a good continuation on last week as he distances himself from Trish and assembles his military buds for more than just a catch up drink. The result could even be is own moment of creation.
WWJD is an incredible episode that builds itself up wonderfully to genuine consideration of the most unlikely question with highly satisfying results. The end position certainly signals a gear change and sees Jessica Jones flying into the final run of episodes. Can someone announce a 2nd season please?
Episode 9, Sin Bin – With Killgrave captured in the sealed room, Jessica needs to get viable evidence of his mind control abilities on camera in order to acquit Hope of murder, and she needs it fast. Kilgrave’s stubbornness forces some extreme measures with drastic results. In the hospital, Will demands to see a doctor Kozlov for some very familiar red, white, and blue pills.
Be careful what you wish for when trying to unleash a monster. That’s a simple moral of this episode’s story. Jessica’s ever more desperate measures to provoke a mind control reaction out of Killgrave yields disastrous consequences and his transformation into full villain form. The final minutes are among the most shocking the series showed, but all that precedes it must not be overlooked for the sensational examination of power and control it delivers. It begins with Jessica feeling like she finally has Killgrave under her control in reversal of her prior ordeal. He’s in a hermitically sealed room complete with an indoor swimming pool and jerry rigged electric shocks. Yet within barely 10 minutes, Kilgrave has completely turned the tables on Jessica with the simple knowledge that he has something she needs. By doing absolutely nothing and staying helpless within his cage, he suddenly holds all cards, and despite a certain degree of misery, he takes great pleasure in playing up to the cameras and the others Jessica brings to see him. At the same time, Jessica’s efforts to make his mojo deliver some good fulfilment, from at least her early feelings of control as she flaunts his childhood memories with the projector to physically laying the beat down on him (even if she didn’t rip his balls off after all). The episode also pulls things back nicely towards the detective mystery element as Jessica and Trish set out to find Kilgrave’s parents in the hope that his horrific childhood will bring out the worst in him (be careful what you wish for). This reveals some interesting expansion on his childhood experimentation as his parents actions were more benevolent than initially made out. Yet even cast in a darker light again, the episode still produces some sympathy towards its villain as he confronts them. This thanks in shortage to (yep... you guessed it) some monolithic acting from Tennant. I don’t want to keep going on about him every time but despite some great work elsewhere, he is now stealing every episode by a mile.
The scenes with Kilgrave’s parents develop into an excellent argument of accountability with almost a (probably intended) echo of Civil War themes to it. While Albert and Louise proclaim their innocence, Jessica is adamant that their actions (or lack of) have a part to play in the responsibility for Kilgrave’s damage, “If your parenting didn’t make him a sociopath the lack of it did”. At the same, time the scars on Louise’s face help establish that they did their fair share of suffering too. It’s a lot smarter than most people (or at least those that didn’t see Daredevil) would expect from a comic/superhero based show.
Will’s hospital subplot all but confirms we will see him in action as Nuke. The only question left is whether or not we’ll see him flag-paint his face. Although it’s kept predominantly in subtext, we can piece together that he was part of Doctor Kozlov’s drug experimentation program back in the military but has been off them since as the remarks that taking them, “feels good, like old times”. The red, white, and blue varieties are straight out of the comics, and Kozlov talks about them doing important things together it carries a very sinister edge. Could we see Kilgrave controlling a drugged up Nuke and sending him against Jessica?
This episode could very easily have been the build-up to a finale. So with four episodes still to go, thinking what else Melissa Rosenberg and co. have in store is enough to give you tingles. Every time you think the show cannot show you another angle of its main hero or villain, it does just that.