Well that was a doozy of an episode. Lots of things happened very quickly and now Jessica is in dire straits. After Luke basically decided he was done with her after the previous episode, Jessica has gone on a bender to try and forget. But Kilgrave won’t let her forget that easily and his plans send Jessica, Malcolm, Trish and Jeri into a crazy convoluted race against time.
Here are some thoughts.
1. The first scene clued us into the direness of the situation
The very first thing we see is Kilgrave walking around… Jessica’s apartment. The episode wastes no time in telling us that things have become much more serious since the previous episode. Kilgrave has now invaded Jessica’s home. There’s no way things aren’t going to get worse from there.
2. Jess should not drink and do her job at the same time
The first we see of Jessica is her being thrown out of a bar into a pile of trash. Obviously, she is still trying to deal with her final confession to Luke. She clearly loves the guy and his (very reasonable) rejection of her is totally founded. So now that she’s good and sloshed, she goes out to try and get Wendy, Jeri’s ex, to sign the divorce papers. Only she does it by dangling her over the F train. And then accidentally dropping her. Bad form, Jessica, bad form.
3. Malcolm is doing Jess’ job!
In a cute little reversal, Malcolm opens the elevator doors to find Jessica fully incapacitated and drunk out of her mind. So he helps her back to her apartment. It’s nice to see Malcolm taking on the role that Jessica had for him for the first half of the season. But what they find in the apartment…
4. Oh, boy… Poor Reuben
He is quite dead. He made the fatal mistake of knocking on Jessica’s door when Kilgrave was there and it looks like Kilgrave compelled him to commit suicide in Jessica’s bed. I knew he was going to have some significance in the show, but I’ll admit I was definitely not expecting this. Jessica has a mini break down and decides she’s going to try and get herself into a maximum security prison, so that Kilgrave can’t get to her.
5. We get a nice bit of moral philosophy courtesy of Frank and Trish
First though, we see them having passionate, intense sex. But then they get into a discussion about- what else are you going to discuss post-coitus?- murder. Frank says that Kilgrave should be killed, but Trish says it’s not up to them. Killers decide who dies. And they’re not killers. It’s an interesting bit of philosophy thrown into an episode that is otherwise very kinetic and action based.
6. Jeri and Wendy’s divorce is getting real rough
Wendy goes to Jeri’s office after Jessica almost kills her and tells Jeri she wants 75% of her assets. Otherwise, she’ll show the bar association that Jeri tampered with a jury member some years ago. Yeesh. This divorce is officially no longer amicable.
7. What is Frank up to?
He’s been tailing the security detail that Kilgrave hired, but when Trish calls in to ask if he’s seen Kilgrave, he says no. Even though as he says it, he’s looking right at him. What does he have planned? Is he going to attempt to simply kill Kilgrave? That seems like a bad idea, if that’s the case.
8. The scene at the police station is maybe the best scene of the season so far
Jessica goes to the station, drops Reuben’s severed head on an officer’s desk, and demands to be taken in. But Kilgrave has other plans. He makes the captain release her and when she leaves the interrogation room, she finds that every officer in the building has their gun trained on themselves or someone else. Then Kilgrave shows himself and… professes his undying love for Jessica. He says they belong together and that she’ll come to that realization soon enough. Then, he leaves and tells all the officers that in 30 seconds, they’ll all realize it was a hilarious joke and let her go. Which they do. It was a nice button on an otherwise very intense sequence.
9. This show is very good at showing consequence
We got to see Malcolm and Robin, Reuben’s overbearing sister, have their first scene together of the season. And it was devastating. Malcolm knows that Reuben is dead, so he is forced to lie to Robin about the whereabouts of her brother. Watching her start crying out of concern for her brother, who can’t take care of himself, was heartbreaking. It displays this show’s ability to treat the victims of horrible violence and abuse with compassion and nuance. Reuben wasn’t just a body. He had a sister who loved him deeply and needed him just as much as he needed her. The show doesn’t shy away from showing us how violence can destroy people’s lives.
10. And now Jessica is out of options
She has nowhere else to turn. She doesn’t want anymore people dead. So she hands herself over to Kilgrave, who has bought her childhood home and recreated it to look exactly how it was when she was a kid. So let the ballad of Kilgrave and Jessica commence.
