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Jessica Jones: AKA Facetime

"The line keeps moving. And I keep stepping over it."

This episode was all about Jessica's increasing vulnerability, leading up to a huge a ha! and way too vulnerable moment at the end.

It was inevitable that Jessica and Oscar would hit the sheets. How interesting that instead, they hit the artwork. Spreading around spilled purple paint (Jessica's theme color) as they made love on the floor was a rather fun way of saying that their relationship was about to get messy. I have to add that Oscar lessened my good opinion of him and edged into creepiness by doing that purple pastel portrait of Jessica while she was sleeping. Not a surprise that Jessica didn't want to look at it, that she turned the portrait to the wall. She doesn't like to see herself vulnerable. I also thought it was interesting that she initially showed up at Oscar's door with wet, uncombed hair, looking like a defenseless little girl.

Speaking of Jessica as a little girl... okay, I could see the "Mom" thing coming a mile away. It's been done so many times in fiction, and the scarred, bald back of the powered woman's head even reminded me of Darth Vader. Do I even have to say that it's not good if a newly revealed parent reminds me of Darth Vader?

(By the way, I find it really annoying to write about a character that doesn't have a name yet. Since we've gotten the reveal now, IMDb lists Janet McTeer's character as "Alisa Jones.")

As Jessica was discovering that she wasn't quite as orphaned as she had originally thought, Trish was trying to completely screw up her own life. I've always liked Trish and I hate seeing her this way. I initially thought it was deeply revealing that in the previous episode, Trish said that she didn't want to marry Griffin, she wanted to be Griffin. But this descent into superhero addiction is a much bigger clue that Trish doesn't want to be Griffin at all. She wants to be Jessica.

The trip to the exclusive men-only golf club was probably supposed to be funny, but it wasn't. It was more of a practical demonstration of how Jessica and Trish are reversing roles. (Maybe Jessica's court-mandated anger management classes are actually helping.) Just like the trip to the pawn shop earlier in the episode, Jessica got results at the golf course while a wild-eyed Trish was yelling at people and even pulling guns on them. How long can the juice in that inhaler last? Trish is going to crash big time, isn't she?

I can understand why Jessica attributed Trish's new mania to losing Griffin, but why didn't Malcolm notice what was going on? You'd think it would be obvious to someone who has recently defeated his own addiction. Although I couldn't help but notice that Malcolm has replaced his addiction to heroin with sex. He's been hooking up with strangers every night, and now he's moved on to Trish. I don't see a good outcome to this particular development.


Finally (and again I could see it coming a mile away), we found out what Jeri is after. Of course she isn't keeping Inez around out of the goodness of her heart; Jeri wants a cure. The thing is, I'm really confused about Dr. Karl Malus and IGH, and I think we're meant to be confused at this point. Are they, or were they, benevolent or evil? Why were some people like Justis Ambrose's son Eric simply healed while others, like Jessica and her mother Alisa, were turned into super people?

Inez told Jeri about a boy with powers who healed Inez with his hands, leaving some super nasty scars on her thigh. I bet Jeri will now do anything she can to track this guy down. Can't blame her.

Bits:

— Alisa's recorded rendition of "Ain't We Got Fun" is just a bit disturbing. There's a discordant undertone of sorts. It sure doesn't sound fun.

— Oscar said his ex is using their child against him.

— If Alisa Jones is alive, whose ashes are in Jessica's closet? And why didn't Jessica recognize her sooner?

— Justis Ambrose said that Jessica was "flawless," like an art work or a piece of jewelry. Did Jessica once have scars like her mother's?

— Dr. Karl had a coffee mug with an octopus on it. And btw, cheers for the casting of Callum Keith Rennie. He can play a nice guy or a psycho or both at the same time, a reminder that we still don't know much of anything about Dr. Karl. Except that he likes octopi.

— Malcolm once had a full ride at a great college and a girlfriend named Nichelle, whose ID he stole. A little glimpse into what Malcolm used to be, pre-Kilgrave. Or did he lose it all before Kilgrave came along? I'm a bit unclear about that.

The wit and wisdom of Jessica Jones:

"Love isn't for the weak-hearted. It's for idiots. And murderers, apparently. So the creep and the maniac have found happiness together. Guess there's someone for everyone. Almost everyone."

"Fish were hurt. People were terrorized. We just want to find the people responsible."

"There's a saying in my business: where there's an ex, there's always a why."

"Your past always catches up with you. Might as well rip the band-aid off now."

Trish: "And they're right. I'm an asshole and he's a great guy."
Jessica: "That guy sucked up all the air in the room and there was no space left for you. It was the right move."

"I can repress feelings all day."

"A powered woman used as a weapon? Deja vu sucks ass."

Ambrose: "I'm taking a mulligan on that putt, by the way."
Jessica: "I don't... care what that means."

An interesting episode, although it didn't blow me away. Three out of four octopus coffee mugs,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

2 comments:

  1. I bet the boy with healing hands will turn out to be Jessica's brother. The screwed up Incredibles. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The mom thing surprised me. I was expecting a trap instead. I didn't realize it until she smelled the perfume.

    ReplyDelete

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