Jessica Jones - I've Got the Blues

Kilgrave is absent in body but his presence is all over the episode even though he isn't the primary antagonist: Will is. Will has been taking an experimental "combat enhancement" drug that basically turns him psychotic and incredibly powerful. Jessica learns that the hard way when she must endure his blows and tosses, essentially wrecking her apartment and hurling across rooms, into furniture, and through glass. The same gun he uses to kill Detective Clemons aims for Jessica but she somehow avoids a direct hit. That can't be said for his fists and there is plenty of manhandling. With bad ribs after a truck plows into her (!) during a chase towards who she thought was Kilgrave, Will has an advantage he wouldn't otherwise. Will is driven by his need to kill Kilgrave, believing Jessica will continue to get in his way, and with the psychosis that derives from side effects of the drug she must be taken out. Trish, always feeling as if she is a weak link, decides enough is enough, slipping one of Will's pills in her mouth, gaining a surge of adrenaline and strength that results in her actually combating him! Of course because he cares about Trish, Will holds back but her relentlessness eventually causes him to retaliate. Ultimately Jessica will subdue him, redirecting the advantage her way, knocking him out with use of a refrigerator after hurling him across the room. All of this action bookends the episode as Jessica nearly loses Trish when the drug appears to have stopped her heart!


The episode establishes flashback memories that remind Jessica of what Trish has been through with her mother and first learning of her own surprising strength, hammering her fists on a sink that breaks apart, with her even lifting it up off the floor. When Trish's mom tries to "vomit her" over a toilet, Jessica reveals her strength by taking the grown woman and sending her out of the bathroom into the hall wall. And while Jessica proves to be a source of protection for Trish, Trish has more than given back to her friend. And the first season continues to reiterate and reinforce their closeness. While Jessica loves Luke Cage, it is Trish who truly has her heart. They are certainly sisters, and their loyalty to each other keeps them both alive somehow.

Will's murder of Clemons is eventually uncovered by Jessica, after finding the burned remains of the detective in the morgue, later catching him slip up in revealing details about how the victim died and info he shouldn't know about. Will's persistent pursuit for Trish's heart eventually meets its end after his behavior at the conclusion of the episode has Jessica's apartment in tatters, his unconscious body recovered by those behind the experimental drug (clearly designed to create a breed of supersoldiers).

The episode even takes time to focus on Malcolm's gradual disappointment after attempts to serve his fellow man, as Robyn admonishes him for his efforts in congregating Kilgrave's victims for therapy. Robyn's corrosive attitude (a face seemingly fixed in rage and a voice always piercing) and cynicism, taking him to task for even believing that he can make a difference, leaves much to be desired. But when Malcolm sees folks in Jessica's apartment, he almost calls her...but decides not to. He has decided to just mind his own business.

4/5