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Jessica Jones: AKA You're a Winner

"Sweet Christmas!"

This is probably my favorite episode so far. If anyone was on the fence about this being a very well written show, this episode would have to convince them.

Luke's back! I like Luke. I don't want Luke to get Kilgraved, and now that he knows his new girlfriend is the one that killed his wife I worry he'll wind up blindly throwing himself into Kilgrave's cross-hairs. The scene in the street was perfectly acted by Mike Colter. He was desperate for revenge and dead set on not listening to a thing anyone had to say. Until he didn't have a choice. So much of TV is about toeing the line and in the end there is a lot of 'you were very wrong for this thing you did, but I understand why you did it and you did eventually admit it/try to make it right/do the right thing so no big.' Luke was going to kill a man. Probably with his bare hands and teeth if the rage in his eyes was any indication. There was no crisis of conscience or last minute revelation that killing is, you know, not nice. Similarly, not allowing Jessica the patented TV land need to come clean is supremely more real. Hell, she even leaves Luke to fend for himself when he was being triple teamed to try and get the bus crash info for herself. It doesn't make her any less of a hero or him any less awesome, but it does remind us that they are human. Still, I can't blame Luke for being so angry. As I suspected, he was able to accept that she wasn't in control of herself and can't be held responsible for Reva's death, but the stalking and subsequent sexy time(s), half-truths and secrets aren't so easy to forgive. This show is so interesting, because it doesn't gloss over any of difficult topics it covers.

What could Reva possibly have had on the jump drive?? It was obviously dangerous enough that she felt the need to hide it. And important enough that she left the letter for Luke. She didn't want whatever it is to die with her.

Jessica lied about Antoine being the winner of a new Xbox. In fact there were absolutely no winners in this episode.

Hope is pregnant. Hope is pregnant and Erin Moriarty hit lovely notes with everything she was given. I wanted to give her a hug. The actress and the character. I can't even fathom how to play someone that has been so broken (which is maybe why I'm not an actor), and the hits just keep coming her way. You could see her devastation at having such a visceral reminder of all that has happened. Kudos to the writers again. It would be so easy, not to mention easier, to dance around topics like this, but they really faced it head on. Whatever your personal views are, you have to admire them for making a decision.

Hope was pregnant and now she isn't and Hogarth took the dead aborted fetus. I'm almost positive that I don't want to know why, but I'm sure we're going to find out. It's possible that it has to do with Hope's court case, but a few episodes back Hogarth made a comment about Kilgrave wasting his abilities. Maybe she wants to reverse engineer his abilities??

Sometimes a Netflix binge can drag. This is the way to do a 'filler' episode. I feel reattached to the characters. Did we move the central plot forward? Not until the very end, but everything else worked too.

4 out of 4 Takis or Sunchips.

Bits and pieces

I liked the bit right at the beginning with Malcolm and Jessica hanging out and I thought it was sweet that Malcolm threatened to kick Luke's ass. I want them to be friends, but I don't think she'll let that happen very easily.

Hope paid Sissy $50 and a pack of cigarettes to beat the daylights out of her. It had to hurt. It had to be difficult not to scream out while it happened. She ended up physically battered and bruised and didn't even accomplish what she was trying to do. It seems clear that she would relive that 100 times over than be subjected to Kilgrave's control again. Is psychological torture that much harder to live with or is the ability to make choices more comforting than even our health?

Luke's face when Jessica used her uber bubbly voice to call Antoine was so, so good.

Five selfies. Five days since the last episode. Did he stipulate that the pictures had to be of her face? I kept thinking she could just take a knee shot. Or pinky toe or something. I guess he isn't the kind of guy you try to outwit, though.

If Kilgrave finds out about Luke, will he lose interest in Jessica and focus on a new goal?

Luke won't hurt dogs that are trying eat him, but he will commit premeditated murder.

IMDb had this to say: When talking to Luke, Jessica refers him to another P.I., Angela Del Toro. Angela Del Toro is the civilian identity of another superhero: White Tiger.

Are there no witnesses that are going to call the cops after Luke threw the bus driver out of the window?

Why did Kilgrave need the current owner to be happy about selling him the house?

Malcolm: "There was a kind of freedom to being under Kilgrave's control. You're not a slave to guilt or fear or even logic. You just do what you're told."

Kilgrave: "If you light that thing, I'll make you put it out in your eye."
Smoking Poker Guy: "I'd like to see you try."
Kilgrave: "Assholes try. I just do. Put it out."

Jessica: "Hi! This message is for Antoine Grier. Congratulations! You're a winner."

Luke: "Jessica Jones, you are a hard drinking, short fused, mess of a woman, but you are not a piece of shit."
Aw. I think she even almost smiled in the morning.

Luke: "You touched me with the same hands that killed my wife. I was wrong. You are a piece of shit."
No no no no no no no.

5 comments:

  1. Nice review, Laure. I liked this one, too. I knew it was too soon for Luke. He knows about Kilgrave but he can't really "get" what it's like to be Kilgraved. Let's hope he never does, even if it would make it easier for him to forgive Jessica. Who doesn't need to be forgiven because it wasn't her fault. Well, maybe emotionally.

    I loved how Luke and Jessica both cared about not hurting the dogs.

    Poor, poor Hope. What a completely destroyed human being she is.

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  2. As I suspected, he was able to accept that she wasn't in control of herself and can't be held responsible for Reva's death, but the stalking and subsequent sexy time(s), half-truths and secrets aren't so easy to forgive. This show is so interesting, because it doesn't gloss over any of difficult topics it covers.

    I agree! And I think it's interesting that this is another form of very weak mind control: Luke would have made a different decision about sleeping with Jessica had he known all the facts. By not disclosing them, Jessica was warping the situation to her own desires, with little consideration for what he might want/need to know.

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  3. Yes, Mike Colter is really good. His is my second favourite character in this show (after Simpson, of course).

    I think that Kilgrave just wanted to exclude any possibility of that homeowner assuming he was, well, Kilgraved, and relating all of it (including Kilgrave's current location) to Jessica.

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  4. Very good episode. That scene in the end with Jessica and Luke was great. Colter and Ritter really sold the intensity of the conflict.

    Come to think of it, it is very creepy that Jessica would sleep with Luke. Maybe it wasn’t so troubling to us as the audience because we first saw them sleep together and only later we learned what happened. But Luke’s disgust is totally understandable. At the same time, Jessica is such a broken person I can’t fault her for it. She had no malice, just didn’t think through it.

    I instantly remembered of Veronica Mars when Jessica pulled a fake super cheery voice on the phone.

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  5. Excellent episode.

    My reaction to Gerri taking the fetus is that it was for the case. It's possible Kilgrave's DNA will show signs of something being very different from a normal human, like mutants, in which case the fetus DNA will be extremely useful in the court case. Although they did treat it very ominously so I'm afraid that's not Gerri's plan.

    When Geri proposed to Pam, my reaction was Pam seems really nice (other than the sleeping with a married woman). Gerri doesn't deserve her.

    I actually agreed with Luke's assessment of Jessica. She could have not told him and not slept with him, or she could have told him and maybe slept with him (if he was still interested), but not telling him and sleeping with him is not cool. I appreciated that Luke was pissed at Jessica for that, not for killing his wife. Even as an emotional wreck, he was smart enough to realize she wasn't in control when she killed his wife.

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