Jessica Jones - Top Shelf Perverts

 Although Jessica wants to be locked away so Kilgrave will implicate himself, things don't go according to plan

*** / ****

This also includes response to content in You're a Winner!

Kilgrave professes his love to Jessica. It isn’t the kind of ooey-gooey romantic cliché expected with an eccentric Brit protesting to the woman he loves total devotion. He does so while a New York police department’s staff and officers hold guns on each other awaiting orders from him to shoot! And prior to this, Kilgrave orders Ruben, always sweet on Jessica (considering himself in love with her!), arriving at her apartment/office with banana bread (!), to slit his own wrists and throat…just because he felt threatened and enraged by him. Ruben laid dead on Jessica’s bed for her (and Malcolm) to discover is Kilgrave at his most diabolical. It is a message to her that no one will stand in his way and all attempts to avoid him are futile. And when Jessica aims to get herself put in a “supermax” (with the worst of the criminals locked up), it doesn’t go according to plan thanks to Kilgrave’s one-upmanship in the police station. He wants her to come to him willingly, his love for her returned in kind. The most important thing to Jessica is keeping those she loves and cares for safe, while also halting Kilgrave from committing any more bloodshed. Surrendering to Kilgrave appears to be her only course of action…or at least that is what she probably wants him to believe she’s doing.

Hoping to dump the severed head of Ruben on the desk of a detective who considers her suspect in the matter concerning Hope’s parents’ deaths so that she can be imprisoned (in the hopes that Kilgrave will come after her, exposing himself in the process), Trish, Will, and Malcolm will try and get Kilgrave the correct way…proving he’s a killer that should be tried and convicted, not just killed. Trish does make a good case to Will (after hot sex in her bedroom where she’s totally in charge, on top, and unwilling to let him ever take control) that Kilgrave deserves to rot in prison, spending time unable to use his powers against others. Trish even assists Malcolm in covering up the crime against Ruben by cleaning the area where he was found so that Jessica’s plan of being implicated for his demise cannot work. Trish and Jessica always there for each other despite being quite different personality-wise has been one of my personally favorite aspects of the show. A good conversation piece where Jessica confronts Trish’s child-actor talent agency director mom (Kathleen Doyle) about leaving her recovering-addict daughter alone (a new reveal about Trish’s past here) or else there would be repercussions. There is even a flashback to where Jessica used to live with Trish and her mom (talk of “orphan Jessica” exploited to help her showbiz daughter factor into the heated exchange that culminates in admittance about regretting taking her in as a child), put in the backseat and told to start behaving herself. Trish was not yet comfortable as a child with Jessica, the two polar opposites in attitude and wardrobe. Jessica and Trish’s mom offer us a glimpse at the resentment and tensions between them for obvious reasons…Trish recovering from pills and having nothing to do with her mom for the dysfunctional upbringing unveils why these two are close, despite their differences.

Malcolm’s recovery and rehab through therapeutic café talks with other Kilgrave victims has reversed his downward spiral, and he has become Jessica’s support system as her estrangement with Luke continues to haunt her. Luke learning of Jessica’s (involuntary) involvement in the murder of his wife—tied to the finding of a particular flashdrive dug up at the orders of Kilgrave in an abandoned building—has certainly not helped her ongoing struggles, only magnifying them. Because she didn’t come clean immediately, and instead decided to hold onto her secret, have sex with him, and gain his romantic interest in her, Luke is appalled at her actions. He almost killed a bus driver (who was intoxicated) because a report given to him by someone needing her relative found and returned (the one hiding from thugs looking to get their money back) claimed he was responsible. Jessica has to rescue the driver and in doing so alienate the man she cares for. Luke goes away, pissed and repulsed at Jessica for allowing the information about his wife remain a secret until she had no other option but come clean. Luke and Jessica’s mad chemistry is obvious, and so this being it for them I consider doubtful. With very little positive happening for Jessica, a relationship with Luke could have at least given her something of significance to lift her slightly out of the doldrums. Alas this would not be the case. Luke walks away devastated and angry while Jessica goes to get drunk, hoping the alcohol can dull the pain.

So Jessica has Kilgrave ruining her life and Luke walking away from it…complications continue to make Jessica miserable. And on top of all this, Jeri Hogarth has her wife not wanting to file for a divorce, needing Jessica to scare her into it. A mishap on the platform of a subway nearly results in a death that would have even made Jessica’s life worse, so Jeri’s love life (further complicated by her wife’s blackmail, using bribery in an email exchange as dirt) adds extra difficulty. Jessica gives Hope a pill that should kill the fetus inside her, but Jeri wants the remains…why?