Jessica Jones - Everything

 There is just nothing worse than having to do the right thing and in doing so it will cause someone you love to be arrested and put away. To not do anything but booze and booze some more won't dull the hard decision Jessica has to make in getting Trish to either turn herself in or bring her in.

Erik is a gauge to determine how dark Trish's soul is. When she touches him, the pain is so severe he bleeds from his eyes.

"Everything" brings Jessica and Trish to a confrontation. Trish is dangerous to the very public she believes she plans to protect from whoever might die by her hand next. And there will be other victims. The pain Erik endured was evidence of that. 

Jeri Hogarth saw what Trish was capable of when that elevator reached the lobby of the precinct in Hell's Kitchen. Jessica also saw what was left of Salinger, proving to her that Trish has given herself over to the darkness. So this final episode of "Jessica Jones" closes that chapter. The three season arc of Trish's descent is complete and Jessica's pursuit of her is essential to keeping a body count low. Beating somebody up for tax evasion and needing to know from Jeri Hogarth that he was worth going after ("he's a monster"), only to find a daughter there with a phone identifying her as the masked vigilante on the run.

There comes a point where Trish has Kith held in a choke-hold while Jeri has a gun and Jessica is trying to diffuse the entire situation. Bottom line: Trish needs to be taken in because she's a danger. Jeri loves Kith and will do what it takes to keep her safe. Jeri does indeed love her some Kith, but the entirety of this relationship arc, I personally never felt this was going to result in anything but a split up. Jeri tells Kith she has ALS while sending Trish after the tax evading creep. Kith feels like Jeri put her in that situation where she's locked in that Trish choke-hold. Kith just sees no future with this woman. Jeri telling her she would be the last mistake she would make closes out her own story arc for this specific show. Jeri does lead Trish to a very sketchy contact who can get her out of the country, in a well stocked coffin set for Thailand. Jessica, Malcolm, and Erik work to find Jeri and Trish in order to locate Trish before she can get out of the city.

We see Trish as someone completely gone from rational conversation on using her abilities to hunt down, attack, and kill bad people. As Jessica rightly brings up: what happens when Trish attacks someone who could be redeemed or even kill an innocent person wrongly identified as criminal? When Trish leaps at Jessica with a knife to stab her, that is the moment where all bets were off. Trish was willing to kill her sister, and she would have if Jessica wasn't a super. A knife through the hand meant for somewhere more injurious was the intent. Trish, once in confinement, listens to all the charges against her when read from Detective Costa and must acknowledge to herself that she has become the very criminal she was against.

So at the end, Jessica tells Erik she just can't trust him, so he must prove to her that she's wrong. Jessica, however, puts Costa in contact with Erik, setting up a possible partnership to go after criminals. Those headaches and the euphoria that comes when criminals are removed from society, if Erik has to deal with all that, why not work with Costa to help in some capacity.

Malcolm is left with Alias by Jessica who seems prepared to leave for Mexico for a fresh start after the whole Trish debacle. But will Jessica just give up being a super and live a normal life? That seems doubtful. Kilgrave's voice echoes on her mind and why would Jessica let him be the voice of reason?

I can recall a conversation with a friend I used to work with about this show while we were carpooling home. She told me about "Jessica Jones", describing the story and highlighting, in particular, Jessica's brief arc with Luke Cage. Well, Cage returned for a scene in this final episode of the JJ series, in a suit, sort of serving as a voice of reason, also, sort of nudging Jessica towards finding and arresting Trish, as it was the right thing to do, even as it was difficult. I was happy to see Luke, even though I admit that his absence during the tenure of the series was such a bummer. I never felt another male lead, romantic or not, matched Luke for Jessica. In just this one scene, that chemistry between them is off the charts. It has remained just undeniable.

I get that a lot of first season fans of the show checked out afterward, just never quite able to groove to anything else after Kilgrave's departure. But, for me, Ritter never lost my adoration for her character, how she dealt with a lot of emotional pain, the dichotomy of those she loved often placing her in this vice of angst and existential turmoil. And Jessica's own combat towards being a recognized super, feeling she could ever embrace that, I never wavered in my appreciation for how Ritter took on that role with all its nuance and dexterity in performance. While many others decided the show just wasn't for them, I'm glad I stuck around. Did the series ever quite maintain that high quality of season 1? Even I recognize that is unfair because Kilgrave was an incredible villain and Tennant's work as him went totally unmatched. There was just no way anyone could follow him, though Bobb gave it the ole college try. 3/5