99 Friends and Audrey Ain't One - Jessica Jones / 99 Friends

There has been some emphasis on what superheroes often do wrong when trying to save the human race. With rubble and machinery often toppling attacked cities as the superheroes unintentionally hurt when trying to help due to the adversaries unleashed upon the earth, there is collateral damage and unfortunate casualties. Jessica Jones learns this the hard way when a potential client arrives with a job for her to follow her husband. When JJ tells client, Audrey Eastman (Jessica Hecht), she has “99 of her friends” (those with “gifts” AKA “superpowers”) in just her general area alone, it is indeed a warning and revelation that there are more out there similar to her than she realizes. Jones demolishes Audrey’s home, following her and her husband throughout the city to verify if Kilgrave has anything to do with them at all (like if he is the initiator in Audrey’s hiring of her). JJ laying waste to their home is her way of making a statement: don’t fuck with her and her kind much less blame them for deaths that might involve them when accidents do happen when there are attacks by others on the area (or planet).

That during 99 Friends JJ inadvertently—with help from her client, the attorney powerhouse, Jeri Hogarth—brings together a “support group” of manipulated victims of Kilgrave (Trish’s “apology” over the radiowaves to Kilgrave, requested by Jones so that he would back off, brings out a lot of folks to Jeri’s office, so JJ must determine which are possible victims or not) brings a nice bit of realism to the superhero genre…well the show has done that within its series format where urban Hell’s Kitchen and surroundings convey a sense of authenticity while adopting noirish aesthetics in style and storytelling. People are unable to deny what Kilgrave wants despite fighting, and failing, not to obey, resulting in trauma and residual emotional effects. Much like JJ when she was forced to kill Luke’s wife, a police officer who was saved from a leap from a building by Jones is horrified in the possibility that he murdered Trish, wanting to make things right although nothing administered by Kilgrave was his fault. Kilgrave has limits like how he must be within a certain vicinity of victims in order to mind control them, but many are left in his wake combating the mental toll of being psychologically maneuvered by him (one such victim is even forced to give up kidneys and another was ordered to conduct surgery at Kilgrave’s urging!). Trish, with the marks on her neck left by the suffering police officer, Will Simpson (Wil Traval), has been humbled by her own near death experience, reluctant to even allow him at her door to see if she was alright. JJ understands how Will feels, being rattled and shaken by what Kilgrave did to him, so she tries to humor him as Trish must also address her own enduring fears. Eventually Trish realizes Will is legit, not under any spell by Kilgrave, letting her defenses fade, even allowing him inside her house and accepting a gun he provides her illegally as protection.

There is also a recurring subplot that I am not quite sure how it fits within Jessica Jones’ world except as the means to develop Jeri, in regards to her wife and a secretary who is now her new lover/partner. Susie Abromeit, as the secretary, Pam, I just watched Sunday on an episode of CSI: Miami (as a musician who is raped by a convicted killer she helped to set free), having a difficult time serving as a source behind Jeri’s breakup with physician, Wendy (Robin Weigert). Wendy confronts Jeri who had brought Pam to their regular eating establishment (quite in bad taste, as Jeri does very little to offer sympathy to the very one that deserves it due to being wronged in the relationship) about choosing somewhere else to dine, resulting in a pitiable exchange.

***½ / ****

--AKA 99 Friends.