Previously: Jessica had Kilgrave, but then he got away.
—
Jessica: We start off with a black screen, Malcolm in voiceover. “There was a kind of freedom to being under Kilgrave’s control,” he says. “You’re not a slave to guilt, or fear or even logic. You just… do what you’re told.”
A snap of a match flares to life, followed by guitar rock music. As the match lights a cigar, we see Kilgrave’s face. He threatens the match-holder that he’ll make him put the cigar out in his eye if he lights it. We pull out further. Kilgrave is at a card-gambling table. Cigar Man sasses Kilgrave a bit, but when Kilgrave gives the order, the man drops the cigar into his probably expensive drink beside him. He grimaces a bit, as though asking himself, why did I do that?
A woman deals cards out to several people at the table, including Kilgrave. Sassy Cigar Man continues to poke the bear when he tells Kilgrave he should work on his poker face.
Kilgrave looks excited, and learns from the card dealer that the pot is just over a million dollars. He then orders the group to fold, which they do, though they look confused as they do so.
“Oh, I guess that makes me the winner,” Kilgrave says, and he ALMOST BUT DOESN’T get a title card because 1) that’s not quite it and 2) he’s the worst, please no, booooooooooo.
Marines: Giving him a title star would’ve made me queasy. I’m glad we avoided it.
Jessica: As Kilgrave has the nearby women pack up his money, Sassy Cigar Man looks furious. Kilgrave tells them they’ll tell the story for years, of losing a million dollars to the worst hand ever. He tosses a stack of money to the card woman “for the luck” and starts to walk out. Sassy Cigar Man is now Death Wish Man and tells Kilgrave he’s going to sit down and play some more. In return, Kilgrave tells him to try and put his head through a nearby post. Sassy Cigar Death Wish frowns, but promptly walks over to the post and starts bashing his head against it. Gross wet thumping sounds happen as the other men in the room gather around him in consternation, and Kilgrave walks out.
Jessica’s apartment. Malcolm’s voice is back, except it’s him lying on the couch talking to Jessica, who is lying on the floor, looking frustrated. Malcolm says no one knows how Kilgrave controls minds. Jessica says that part isn’t as important as where he is, so she can grab him. She tries to get some info out of Malcolm on the places that Kilgrave might frequent, but all he offers is “I know his power isn’t magic.” The reason? “The same way I know elves don’t exist.” Poetic, Malcolm, but not exactly helpful.
Malcolm wants to talk more about Kilgrave. Jessica tells him to do that at the survivor’s group. She’s more interested in “useful” information. (M: Yes, but Malcolm’s offer to share as much as possible and spot patterns isn’t bad…)(J: Definitely not. I get the feeling that a lot of stuff that equates Kilgrave with talking and feelings gets shut down by Jessica ASAP regardless.) A knock at the door. Malcolm and Jess tense until Luke says it’s him. He wants to hire Jess. Malcolm thinks it’s weird he’s coming in the middle of the night and he’s probably been “Kilgraved.” Jess opens the door anyway.
In the midst of their stare-off tension, Malcolm adorably offers to kick Luke’s ass if he tries anything. Jess gives Malcolm a pat on the back and sends him on his way. She asks Luke why he’s there. He wants her help finding someone. She offers to send him to someone else, but Luke wants her help, despite how hard it was for him to come here. He needs someone discreet, fast, and who can “bring something extra to the table.” Woo, super powers club! I like to think this is how someone would approach me who needs help with say, discussing Lord of the Rings books vs. movies, or waxing poetic about the Star Wars universe. #knowyourstrengths
Mari: Jess: Let me refer you to Tumblr. Client: No, Jess. I need someone who can bring something extra to the LotR table.
Beautiful.
Jessica: LOL, perfect!
Luke lays out the case. A kid named Antoine Greer is in trouble with a loan shark and disappeared a week ago. His sister Serena supposedly gave him money to pay off the shark, but after a “conversation” (an interesting one, judging by the gaping bullet holes in Luke’s shirt) with the shark’s men, Luke learned no payments were made.
“You said you only protect yourself and what’s yours,” Jessica says, trying to dig deeper into Luke’s motivation behind this case. He says Serena needs help. “Is she yours?” she asks and oof, this hurts a little. Luke twists the knife a little deeper. “You really want to know?” Jessica holds his gaze a bit then looks away. (M: Ouch.)
She refuses the envelope of money he offers her, pushing it back, saying she owes him a favor. Luke pushes it forward, insisting he doesn’t need a favor, and their fingers touch. Both flinch away, and Luke leaves the money on the table. Jess says she’ll double check Antoine’s house first thing tomorrow, then offers her hand to shake. He shakes it, and she’s the one to pull her hand away quickly. Luke leaves, and Jessica sits down and sighs deeply.
The phone rings and it’s Hogarth. We see she’s being chauffeured in her car, with a sleepy Pam leaning on her shoulder. Jessica says she still hasn’t found dirt on Wendy, which means that she’s probably clean. Hogarth says keep looking, but the reason she’s calling is she just heard from the prison infirmary. Hope was attacked. Jess’s swearing transitions into her meeting Hogarth just outside the prison, as Hogarth is exiting. The attack doesn’t appear to have been Kilgrave, she says.
Hope’s not talking, but Hogarth bribed a guard and learned that someone named Sissy was the attacker. Jessica suggests Kilgrave, but Sissy received no visitors so it doesn’t seem likely. Hope won’t let herself be taken into isolation though, and Hogarth calls the situation “expensive and exasperating,” and tells Jessica it’s her turn to deal with it.
Jess next goes to see Hope, in the infirmary. She asks if Hope is punishing herself, but Hope replies instead, “I’m pregnant… Still.” Jess says there’s a doctor, but Hope says the two-month wait is too long. She will keep trying to get rid of it, by any means necessary, though she says she wants to live. “OK,” Jessica says, and looks thoughtful. The pain and heaviness in this scene is tough to bear.
Mari: They leave a lot of obvious crumbs for us, so that we think Sissy is the one beating up Hope for nefarious reasons. And I ate every one of them up. I didn’t guess this until the right moment, and then the image of Sissy hitting Hope’s stomach came back to me and UGH.
Jessica: I absolutely did not expect this twist, and it was so incredibly painful when it came to light.
Subway. Jessica walks up to check on Antoine’s house. Her voiceover tells us that this case is personal, due to Luke, and therefore against her policy. But here she goes anyway — until her phone alarm beeps. Time to send a selfie to Kilgrave. She snaps it, and we cut to Kilgrave sitting alone at a busy restaurant. He’s on his laptop, apparently browsing through real estate listings.
Suddenly he yells, “Everybody quiet!” and the whole restaurant falls eerily silent, the diners with mostly stunned faces. Her photo comes through, and he scrolls through a number of them with just the creepiest look possible on his face.
Back to Jessica on the case. She enters the building, and we see the eyes of someone watching her from a nearby car. The apartment door is partway ajar. She enters cautiously. A thud from a nearby room scares the bejeezus out of me even on the fourth re-watch (thanks, headphones!) but it’s just Luke, who got there first. He snarks a bit about her being late, though she insists she wouldn’t blow him off. He’s skeptical. (M: On account of she has already blown him off.)
They search the apartment, but Jess says since Antoine’s toothpaste and deodorant are gone, it’s likely he went of his own accord. “Kidnappers aren’t generally big on hygiene,” she says and like, I don’t know, I think that could make a fun little cross-stitch throw pillow saying. Anyone?
Luke still wants to find him, insisting that he needs to keep his word to Antoine’s sister. Jessica starts going through the trash, finding pot paraphernalia and lots of lotto tickets, which she says is useful. She dials her phone and leaves an amazingly ditzy sounding, high-pitched voice message for Antoine, telling him he won an Xbox. “Congratulations, you’re a winner!” And congratulations to you Jessica, because YOU GET THE STAR.
Jessica: Luke can’t help but be impressed. As they walk outside, Jessica grabs a nearby guy suddenly, shoving him against the fence, asking if he’s following her, and if Kilgrave sent him. Luke grabs the guy’s nearby buddy, and notices the bandage on his face. These were the loan shark’s guys he dealt with before. “Didn’t I just kick your ass yesterday?” Luke asks.
The loan shark steps out. Luke suggests they work together to find Antoine, so the guy can get his money. Jess is less enthused with this idea, roughly releasing the lackey and shoving him back toward his boss. Luke negotiates a deal, offering Jess’s PI skills for 5% of the loan shark’s finding rates. Jess isn’t happy but she follows Luke’s lead. Loan Shark agrees and leaves. Luke offers Jess a ride back home on his motorcycle, and after some initial hesitation she accepts.
Motorcycle montage. Close-up of Jessica’s hands encircling Luke’s waist. They pull up to her place and she lets go. She tells Luke she’ll do some internet sleuthing and call him if she finds anything. He has thoughtful face as she walks away, and we see Malcolm approach. He tries a not-so-indirect line of questioning to figure out if Luke’s been Kilgraved, which Luke interprets as Malcolm possibly having feelings for Jessica. Malcolm says he doesn’t want to see Luke hurt her. “She’s been through hell and saved me from the same.” Luke asks if that means Kilgrave — a name he’s heard now multiple times from both Malcolm and Jess. Before Malcolm answers, a telephone ring transitions us to the next scene.
Hogarth’s office. Pam picks up Jessica’s call, and hands it to Hogarth, after some A+ level sass. “Were you just rude to Pam?” Hogarth asks and it’s kind of adorable and weird coming from scary shark Hogarth. “I’m rude to everybody,” Jessica replies, and asks if Hogarth got the medicine for Hope. Hogarth says yes, all thanks to Pam and goes on a bit of a rant, about Pam who does this and Pam who does that, ending with “Pam who I want to spend the rest of my life with.” We cut from Pam’s surprised face to Jessica’s exasperated “I didn’t ask for your wedding vows.” As I stifle my laughter, Jessica hangs up and we return to Pam and Hogarth’s unexpectedly truthful moment. In response to Pam’s “did you mean that” Hogarth produces a ring box. Pam looks happy yet holds back. She doesn’t want to accept until the divorce between Hogarth and Wendy is final.
Jessica’s in her apartment, internet sleuthing. A knock at the door presents an outline that’s unmistakably Luke. She approaches the door but doesn’t open it, and tells him to go home. He replies that Malcolm told him all about Kilgrave, and posits that’s the reason she broke it off with him, because he didn’t believe her. She says that it’s not. He wants to know what it was, so that he can make it right. The camerawork has been emphasizing the door, the barrier between them. Now Jessica opens the door and tells him he can’t, because he did nothing wrong. She’s the one who’s the piece of shit.
Luke pushes his way gently inside the door, and shuts it behind him. He says it doesn’t matter what she’s done, because it wasn’t her, it was Kilgrave. “You don’t know,” she protests but he says, “Jessica Jones, you are a hard-drinking, short-fused mess of a woman, but you are not a piece of shit.” You can see that she is so torn, trying to protest yet also so desperately wanting to believe him. She kisses him and we fade out for sexytimes.
Jessica: It definitely hurts. Because you know Luke isn’t meaning to be blasé about it, but we just know more than he does and we know him so … we’re pretty sure nothing good will come of this.
Next morning, they’re in bed together. She tries to get up, but he’s too adorable and she quickly relents, snuggling up against his bare chest instead. He tells her she doesn’t have to face Kilgrave alone if she’s still going to go after him. “Yeah I do,” she says. He sighs and replies, “Good for you.” He starts to say something else, but her phone rings. Someone has taken the bait from her ditzy contest-winner voicemail yesterday. She takes down his address and says he needs to be there to sign for the prize. When he hangs up, she asks Luke if Antoine has a Puerto Rican accent. He doesn’t, so that means that someone else has Antoine’s phone. Not a great sign for Antoine’s well being.
Luke confesses that Antoine’s sister Serena is someone he barely knows. The real reason he’s doing this is she might have proof that his wife’s death wasn’t an accident. Jessica’s expression says it all, but Luke doesn’t notice. He tells about how he want crazy after Riva’s death, having to be dragged out of the hospital.
Jessica stammers that Serena could be using Luke for his strength, but he insists there’s more. In Riva’s stuff he found instructions in an envelope, to something she had buried in a warehouse, near the corner where she died. He went there, and dug but couldn’t find anything. As he describes this, Jessica’s expression grows more horrified, and we shaky-cam into a flashback, that starts with an axe being swung, digging up a concrete floor. Pulling out, we see it’s Jessica digging the axe into the ground, and watching her are Riva and Killgrave.
Jessica digs, her hands bloody, until she fishes a metal box out of the ground and opens it. Inside is a bright yellow USB stick. Kilgrave takes it, studying it with a serious, intent expression. Both Jessica and Riva have these dreamlike zombie expressions, and with the eerie music the whole thing is super creepy and awful.
All three walk back into the street and Kilgrave says, “Take care of her.” Jess turns to Riva, who looks back at her in slow motion. Jessica winds up for a punch, but before the blow is delivered we snap back to the present, to Jessica’s horrified face. She wants to know what Serena has, but Luke says he won’t find that out until he brings her Antoine.
Looking down at her phone, Jessica suddenly swears. The 10 a.m. alarm didn’t go off. She shuts herself in the bathroom and sends another selfie to Kilgrave at 10:02. Through the door, Luke says he’s leaving and will meet her later. He gives a concerned look at the door and then takes off. Meanwhile, Kilgrave has sent back a text. “You’re late. Don’t let it happen again.”
Jessica heads down the hallway out of her office, and scoffs when she sees Malcolm, who now seems to have warmed to Luke. “It’s not for you to decide who knows my history,” she says which, fair. Malcolm agrees and seems apologetic. He says he went to the Kilgrave survivors group, and says it felt good to talk about it. Jess doesn’t want to talk, because there’s always someone who had it worse. “It’s not a competition,” Malcolm says but she lets the elevator door shut between them.
Hospital infirmary. Jess hands Hope the medicine to get rid of her baby. She tells her she should be 1,000% sure and Hope tosses the pill back immediately, without any water. Jess goes to Hogarth in the doorway and tells her to stay with Hope, offering in exchange to dangle Wendy over a balcony to get her to sign the papers if necessary. Hogarth accepts this exchange.
Normal looking house in normal looking neighborhood. Kilgrave knocks on the door. He attempts to make small talk with the man who answers, but it’s just awkward and creepy. As the man tries to shut the door, Kilgrave blocks it with his shoe, saying he wants to buy the house. It’s not for sale, and the homeowner threateningly tells him to leave. The zoomy cameraman goes up on Kilgrave’s face as he says, “You are going to—” then he shakes his head and sighs. He unzips the duffel bag at his feet, which is full from the cash he got at the beginning of the episode — $1.26 million. He offers it to Homeowner in exchange for the house.
Homeowner is stunned. Kilgrave gives him a real estate contract he’s had drawn up, assuring him it’s all legal and binding. The only condition is Homeowner needs to be completely moved out by the end of the day tomorrow. “If you choose to sign,” Kilgrave adds, and zoomy cameraman gives a lingering look at his just suuuper creepy but handsome but also creepy face.
Mari: How did he just manage to make asking for permission even creepier than demanding?
Jessica: Kilgrave is and continues to be THE WORST!
Cut to Jessica walking down the city street. Her voiceover tells us some people might call Hope selfish for her decision, “but she’s got nothing on me.” She was supposed to help Luke, but now she might hurt him worse. She needs to get to Antoine before him.
However, Luke appears with two coffees right then. Jess is frustrated, but tries to hide it. This is where they told the fake contest winner to meet them. Jess tries to get Luke to let her follow him alone, but that “you’re too close to this” excuse is pretty weak sauce, and Luke passes. They follow Fake Contest Winner’s taxi on his motorcycle.
The chase takes them to a sketchy warehouse. Jess rips the lock off the door and they go inside. A short jaunt down a hallway takes them into a large room where a massive marijuana grow is going on. Growling reveals to large Rottweilers ready to attack. Luke says sharp teeth are his specialty and stays to deal with the dogs. Jessica continues the search for Antoine.
Alerted by the dog barking, a lackey opens a door to yell at them. Jessica lifts him off his feet and demands to know where Antoine is. We zoom in on Antoine, who is sitting at a table with headphones on, singing as he measures weed and rolls it up in papers. His singing is interrupted as Lackey is flung through the room, and Jessica appears. She manhandles Antoine away, and as they walk he says he knows he owes the loan shark but his plan was to sell the marijuana on the street and be an “entrepreneur.” He’s surprised to hear his sister Serena sent her.
However, as they go back into the grow room, multiple opponents approach from multiple angles. It’s the loan shark, and he brought more lackeys. Jessica tries to bargain the weed in the grow room for Antoine and his debt, but the Loan Shark decides he’ll take both. He orders his Sharkboys to attack, the first getting thrown over a table by Jessica. As Antoine hides, Luke approaches to take on several Sharkboys as well. As they stand back to back, Luke assures Jessica that he didn’t hurt the dogs. <3
They start kicking the Sharkboys’ asses in spectacular fashion. As Luke gets mobbed, Jess makes it to the door with Antoine. She shares a conflicted stare with Luke, who is being strangled from behind, but he breaks free and she urges Antoine out with her. The Sharkboys continue to try and throw themselves at Luke like a bunch of idiots until he one-hand tosses an entire table at them and they go down.
Serena’s place. Jessica knocks on the door and presents Antoine. Jessica waits impatiently through their reunion then demands what she promised Luke. Serena is reluctant, but tells Antoine to leave the room. Serena goes across the room and picks up a file folder. Jessica is tense with anticipation, but right then Luke appears behind her, angrily saying he should get used to her bailing on him. She tries to play it off but he’s pissed. He takes the file from Serena. Jessica tells him that whatever it is, it won’t make things better, but he snaps back, “Why do you care?” She says that holding on will only hurt people, but he walks away from her, opening up the file.
As Luke reads and looks more intense, Jessica starts so say there’s an explanation, but he replies, “Charles Wallace.” That was the bus driver, who caused the supposed accident that killed Riva, because he was drunk. Jessica looks a tinge relieved, but still conflicted. She tries to tell him that means it’s over, but his face is intense, angry. He walks out without saying anything.
“It’s over,” Jessica says, holding the file now, looking at it. But Serena comes up behind her and asks for god to forgive her, because “he’s going to kill that man.” She reveals that the fact that Wallace was drunk was covered up by his brother, who runs the claims division. Wallace still drives the same route to this day. Horror and realization wash over Jess’s face. She throws the file on the ground and stalks out.
Mari: Did she really expect Luke to do nothing?
Jessica: Bus at night. Ominous music. Luke rides with several other passengers, staring daggers at the bus driver at the front. People get off, but he doesn’t move. Ominous music turns into a version of the theme song. The bus pulls up to its last stop, the last few people get off, and the driver turns to Luke, telling him it’s the last stop. Luke stalks down the aisle, asking if the man knows who he is. Charles Wallace shakes his head, but when he hears Riva’s name, his face changes. “You the husband?” he asks. “And you’re the asshole who killed my wife,” Luke replies. Charles Wallace stammers out an apology, saying he’s been sober since, but Luke’s fury is palpable now and he is not appeased. He throws Wallace through the windshield.
Jessica runs up and stands in between them. She yells at Wallace to run, and tries to stop Luke, pushing against his chest, but her feet slide backward. She asks if Riva would want him to be a murderer. He says it doesn’t matter since Riva is dead, and pushes her to the ground, advancing on Wallace like the terminator. Jessica stands up painfully and calls out, “Charles didn’t kill your wife.” Luke slowly turns. “I did.”
Luke doesn’t believe her, but she says that she and Kilgrave took Riva to the warehouse. Kilgrave forced Riva to tell him where the thing she’d hidden was, and made Jessica dig it up. Then he told her to… she stumbles. He forced her to…. Luke screams in rage and slams her up against the front of the bus.
“I hit her,” Jessica says, now that she’s talking, unable to stop, despite the pain on Luke’s face. “Full strength. She was dead before the bus even got there.” Luke screams again and punches the bus right next to Jess’s head. He stares at her in rage and sadness and betrayal. He says being with her made him think he could get past Riva’s death. Starting to cry now, Jessica says she didn’t plan that. “Did Kilgrave force you to do that?” he says. He’s completely betrayed that she carried on a relationship with him, slept with him even, knowing that she had killed his wife. “I’m sorry,” she whispers. He asks if she would have ever told him the truth if he hadn’t found out about the bus driver. Her non-answer is the answer.
“I was wrong,” he says. “You are a piece of shit.” And he walks away. Jessica cries and watches him go.
Coffeeshop. Malcolm is talking with the survivors group. He says that while Kilgrave made him into an addict or a thief, he doesn’t know if that was already in him to begin with, or if that means it’s a part of him now.
Hospital infirmary. Hope is writhing in pain as the drugs kick in. The nurse tells Hogarth it will be a few more hours. Hogarth then bribes the nurse to “collect what you can” of the results and send it to a specific lab. Ugh, when you thought Hogarth couldn’t get any worse! (M: I kept thinking about a baby with Kilgrave’s abilities…) She goes to sit by Hope’s bedside and puts a hand on Hope’s forehead.
Jessica’s apartment. She’s sitting on the floor, liquor bottle beside her, reciting the street addresses she says to calm herself down about Kilgrave stuff. Birch Street. Higgins Drive. Cobalt Lane.
Homeowner from before hands Kilgraves a set of keys. Kilgrave asks if he’s happy with the deal, and Homeowner says absolutely. He tries to tell a story about how the kids made it a game to pack everything but Kilgrave bores of him and gives his first order — that he leave. The man leaves, surprisingly unharmed. Kilgrave walks through the empty house, running his hands along the wall. He stops at a door jamb. We see it’s marked by pencil. He pulls the wallpaper away, to reveal names written by the pencil marks. Jessica, 9 through 14 years old. He stares at the name, almost trancelike and definitely villain-like. Creepy music plays. We pan away from the exterior shot of the house, down the street and up to a street sign. Birch Street, crossed with Higgins Drive.
IT’S HER HOUSE. HE BOUGHT HER CHILDHOOD HOUSE GOOD GOD HOW MUCH CREEPIER COULD ANYONE IN THIS EPISODE POSSIBLY GET?!?
Mari: We keep saying that. He keeps getting creepier…
I'm a chronic book nerd and love storytelling in all forms. I'm particularly excited by the rise of the television show as an art form with long, cinematically beautiful plots and complex character arcs (I also watch cartoons). My travels in the past handful of years have led me through three continents and most recently landed me among the majestic mountains of Colorado. Some day I will compile all my travel journals/blogs into one place. Some day. Until then, you can find me with craft beer in hand, ready at any moment to deeply and passionately discuss survival tactics for the zombie apocalypse.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
