Jessica Jones - A Lotta Worms

There is a lot of discussion about truth. Trish to Malcolm about murdering murders, conquering evil by killing those who commit evil, how it isn't easy, that doing so helps add balance to the world, "balancing the scales". She tells Malcolm about her abusive father, how he beat on Dorothy. Trish tells Malcolm about how heard that thump, finding her mom on the floor bleeding. And Trish tells Malcolm about adding blood to her body and clothes, telling a neighbor that her father hit her. That lie removed the man that smacked her mother around for her life. So Salinger is the next one she has to remove from the picture.

Jessica tries her best to keep Trish from "going too dark". Erik could feel Trish's descent. That is his own curse, Erik enduring the headaches that come when encountering evil in humans. And Erik can feel Trish's descent. He tells Jessica Trish is "5-ish" in a scale of 1 to 10. Jessica works hard during "A Lotta Worms" to keep Trish from completing her total heel turn. She puts her life on the line by making herself vulnerable to Salinger, allowing herself to be drugged by him, bound to a chair, listening to this scar-faced mutt talk about her gifts being in vain, how she's no hero, that all the sacrifices made for her were in vain. Jessica gives it back to him in regards to the pleasure he had in murdering Dorothy. When Salinger has to confront his own truth, it doesn't taste so good. What Jessica gets Salinger to do is admit he killed Dorothy on record, as she planted a camera where he couldn't see it with Erik in another room seeing it all. So the duo are able to finally capture evidence -- real evidence in that admission, while also holding Jessica hostage and threatening to kill her -- that can legit put Salinger away.

It isn't enough for Trish. She needs to avenge her mother's death by confronting and killing Salinger, no longer letting him breathe ever again for the crimes he committed...especially against her mother.

Jessica talks about Dorothy, how she was truth. She had plenty of faults, but Dorothy never was a fraud. So that is her weapon of dialogue against Salinger, who will not listen. In the end, Trish couldn't bear to let Salinger "work the system". As long as there was breath and a beating heart, Salinger, to Trish, could somehow get away. So no matter what efforts Jessica put forth to keep Trish from slipping into total darkness never to escape -- such as Malcolm hitting her with a taser that allowed him and Erik to get her to a safe place to remain chained and out of the way -- the end result was still a dealt blow she couldn't stop.

The third season has been about Trish wanting to do the right thing according to her own code, using murder to clean up the streets, not rectifying how doing this gives away pieces of her humanity. Jessica's heroism is trying to stop that from happening. But the story arc remains on a trajectory never in doubt: Trish's downfall and Jessica having to be the one to bring her to justice. 

I love this particular scene between Jessica and Erik at a bar. He talks to her about regret in bringing Jessica a lot of misery, while appreciating how she helped him. Discussing a romantic relationship seems to be thwarted by Trish's situation. The two of them work to resolve that. Unfortunately, Salinger's arrest simply isn't a resolution Trish could feel satisfaction in. 3/5