Kilgrave's Watching - Jessica Jones / It's Called Whiskey

Previous to It’s Called Whiskey, Jessica Jones has been emphasizing the sexual (and budding romantic) relationship between the “reluctant heroine” and Hell’s Kitchen bartender (who is “unbreakable”), Luke Cage. Cage, victim of an experiment he admits to JJ, seems impervious to “bodily damage” (he uses power saw to prove this as it doesn’t break the skin while the disgruntled husband of a recent lover can’t even cut him with a broken liquor bottle), having lost his wife seemingly to “a bus accident”. In episodes prior to It’s Called Whiskey, JJ opens the medicine cabinet in Cage’s bathroom, visually unsettled by the photograph of his dead wife. The death of Luke’s wife haunts JJ and why is answered in this episode as she recalls just the hold Kilgrave had over her…in a command she is unable to quell, Kilgrave ordered Jones to deliver a single, very shattering blow into the chest of Luke’s wife. The face of Luke’s wife, just this brief image where the blow whiplashed her back, replays occasionally, until the voice of Kilgrave and the muted expression of an obedient Jessica relays to us what happened. Unable to communicate responsibility in her death to Cage, Jones ends their relationship abruptly…Luke considers the “ghost” of his wife the reason for it. As Trish challenges (unwisely) Kilgrave by questioning his manhood and provoking him through name-calling on her news show as Hope is interviewed by Jeri Hogarth regarding his control over her which led to the death of her parents, JJ tries to talk sense into her…no manner of kickboxing/martial arts training can prepare her for able-bodied men overpowering her due to an advantage is size and strength. It isn’t for a sake of trying, though, as a police officer arrives, under orders to kill Trish as she equips herself well with a variety of holds and fisticuffs. It will take JJ arriving to even the odds. And as irony would have it, JJ will have to rescue this very police officer when Kilgrave orders him to jump from the balcony of an apartment complex! Hoping to subdue Kilgrave with an anesthesia (his weakness) so she can kill him, JJ finds this quite difficult when he sends a barrage of mind-controlled victims at her. JJ just hurling one body or head into a wall after another at the end does become rather hilarious to me, including average folks who aren’t exactly in her league, sort of serving as distractions so he can get away. Kilgrave “commandeering” the home of a family, as his every word seems to immobilize them into service for him…the children even ordered to the closet, with the daughter urinating as he orders! Kilgrave, as if his voice were a magic wand, speaks and his every whim is granted by those he comes in contract. Quite a villain! The ending is especially disturbing as JJ finds a surveillance room where Kilgrave kept obsessive tabs on her, as photographs (including a collage building towards a complete face of Jones) document the walls with her face and person. This will be a tall task!

*** / ****

--AKA It's Called Whiskey