Marvel's Jessica Jones Review by Henry Tran

Marvel's Jessica Jones 1.03: AKA It's Called Whiskey

Marvel's Jessica Jones 1.03: AKA It's Called Whiskey

Written By:
Liz Friedman and Scott Reynolds
Directed By:
David Petrarca



I thought it was very interesting to know at the beginning of this episode that Jessica Jones tried to be a superhero. Most likely this was after Tony Stark's announcement that he was Iron Man and perhaps before the Battle of New York where the Avengers took on the Chitauri. But anyway, the key point is that she did try, and ultimately failed. That fact does inform on her somewhat prickly and sardonic demeanor along with her tendency to repel people. She knows that she's a nuclear, toxic personality, and the fact that it's tied to the return of Kilgrave amplifies the tendency to push people away. It is for their own safety, after all.  







Only, the one person who wasn't affected by all of this ends up being the person who is the most intimate with Jessica in what may be a long time: Luke Cage. Putting aside their sexual relationship, it seems like Cage is the only person in Jessica's orbit who is willing to accept her for who she is. They share "powers" so they clearly don't freak each other out. They both seem so lonely that it's quite a marvel (pun not intended) to have even found each other in this section of Hell's Kitchen. Which is why there is genuine pain and disappointment when Jessica gets scared and pushes Luke away at the end of the episode. Unfortunately, there are other priorities for her to deal with. The threat is too immediate to put aside and work on her own happiness. Then again, there is also a huge obstacle in the way of developing their relationship to one that is beyond superhero sex. 


That threat is obviously Kilgrave. Coming off the heels of finding out that surgical anesthesia is his primary weakness, or rather a major deterrent to the effectiveness of his mind control, Jessica goes all-out in her pursuit of said drugs. Putting Kilgrave down is her version of dealing with an addiction, and it goes out of its way to consume and destroy the few close relationships that she has. First, she convinces an all-too-willing Trish to interview Hope Shlottman in order to both debunk the growing rumors about the murder of her parents and convince Jeri Hogarth of Kilgrave's corporeal existence as well. The radio interview starts out well enough, until Hogarth hijacks it by painting Hope's story as a product of an intense delusion masking symptoms of PTSD. It's a reasonable argument for Hogarth to even have a chance at plausibly arguing the case in a courtroom, if it ever gets to that point. The only thing Jessica and Trish are concerned with is convincing people that Kilgrave is out there, as an invisible threat. Only, the interview takes a big turn when Kilgrave himself calls in to basically threaten Trish's life.






So what started out as a fairly average episode ratchets up the tension and suspense by putting both likable characters so far (Trish and Jessica seemed to have returned to a state of equilibrium with their friendship before the radio interview fiasco) in some heightened danger. Kilgrave's mind control power means that anyone could conceivably just walk up to Trish and kill her. Her status as someone famous and in the public spotlight also paints a target on her back. Which only reminded me of Jessica's story told to Luke Cage about trying to be a superhero and failing. That is perhaps how Kilgrave knew of her and put her under his spell for a time. That is perhaps also how he knew that Reva Connors is Luke Cage's wife and that Kilgrave then ordered Jessica to (brutally) kill her. 


The flashbacks continue to add more and more layers to the story. And that's not even mentioning the cop who comes to Trish's "secure" apartment in order to kill her. She put up a good fight, but he nearly finished the job before Jessica intervened. Jessica merely disables the cop, rather than killing him, because she needs him to lead her back to where Kilgrave is. Unlike last episode, she seems very much aware of the damage (and potential death) she can cause, and goes out of her way to minimize exposing innocent people to that damage.






That leads to the final scenes of the episode, where Jessica saves the cop from jumping to his death, thus revealing herself to Kilgrave. We, the audience, get our first look at the Purple Man, and even then, his presence is altogether terrifying. It's all in his casual demeanor, aided by how easily he took over this innocent family's beautiful townhouse apartment at the end of "AKA Crush Syndrome." One minute, he's enjoying a rugby match on TV. The next, he has seen Jessica Jones, the source of his entire obsession (the room full of Jessica's pictures is way too creepy to describe), and is gone from the scene in a flash. 


They both know where each person is now. There can be no escape from a second encounter in person. The question is whether Jessica can use the surgical anesthesia (which I liked how she used Hogarth's wife first to try and get her hands on some, then used Malcolm's drug addiction to get access to the Metro-General medicine room) on Kilgrave before he throws his whammy on her again. All bets are off on that right now.

Our Grade:
B+
The Good:
  • The protagonist is super-complicated and damaged, and that’s awfully compelling
  • Kilgrave’s depravity is being revealed in layers and it just keeps getting worse
The Bad:
  • The beginning of the episode was a little slow

Henry Tran is a regular contributor of review for Critical Myth; The Critical Myth Show is heard here on VOG Network's radio feed Monday, Wednesday & Friday. You can follow him on twitter at @HenYay

Marvel's Jessica Jones by - 12/7/2015 7:36 AM1959 views

Your Responses

Flaco_Jones
Flaco_Jones
CONCURRING OPINION

Grade: A-
My favorite episode so far. I loved the balance of Jessica's investigative skills with the action in the latter half. I think this is also the first episode to have all the primary characters fully fleshed out and doing their own thing. This one really came together nicely.

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