*A few spoilers.*
Another stellar episode. Rewatching the first season of Daredevil, I wasn’t quite able to muster the enthusiasm I’d had the first time around, but each revisited episode of Jessica Jones just reminds me how much I loved this season.
Even as Jessica grows closer to Luke, her first priority remains defeating Kilgrave. In trying to accomplish this, she has several balls in the air. 1) Obtaining a means to stop him. 2) Finding his location. 3) Mitigating some of the damage he caused to his last victim. On the third point, Trish agrees to help out, but as her approach extends beyond Jessica’s control, Jessica worries that the maneuver will put her friend in danger.
I feel like I keep using the phrase “reel out” in these reviews, but it’s apt. With the way this arc is constructed, each episode feels like it’s letting out a little more of the fishing line. We learn a bit more and are drawn in a bit further as the picture is painted in more, always remaining on the hook. This time around, we gain an important puzzle piece from Jessica’s past experience with Kilgrave, one that helps us gain a greater understanding of how her time with him wrecked her even beyond the enormous violation of her autonomy. Jessica carries around shame and humiliation from that time, and guilt and grief, and anger (at him, but at herself too,) and even as she’s bound and determined to bring him down, he still terrifies her.
Similarly, more is filled in with relationships both new and old. It’s a strong episode for Jessica and Trish’s relationship, as Jessica discovers more of what Trish has been shaped by her own “experience” of Kilgrave through her knowledge of what happened to Jessica. The arguments between them are deeply reflective of how they still care about each other, and when they clash, it’s ultimately because each badly wants to protect the other. Jessica needs Trish’s help, even as she both hates that she needs to ask anyone for help and is worried about putting Trish in the middle of it, while Trish is determined to prove that she doesn’t need Jessica fighting her battles for her. On the Jessica/Luke front, we get some really enjoyable scenes of them getting to know one another better, but at the same time, we also see the things that are standing in the way of true closeness between them, at least on Jessica’s end.
Much of the episode continues with the same sort of teasing presence for Kilgrave that the first two have, and it’s as effective as ever. We see his effects, both the physical ways he’s bent others to his will and the lingering psychological marks he leaves on his victims, and we get menacing hints of the man himself. But this is also the first time he see him head-on, in full view, in all his brutality.
A couple things strike me here. First, while Kilgrave is undeniably, viciously malevolent, the world is probably lucky that he’s as self-centered as he is. With his powers, he could wreak untold havoc on the entire world, but he’s mostly content to use them just to satisfy his own desires, leaving discarded people in his wake as he plays with their lives. Second, there’s something about David Tennant’s appearance that’s just chameleonic. It’s not unusual for me, in praising his work or that of his fellow actors, to say I don’t see their Doctor at all in other performances of theirs, and when I say that, I typically mean that in terms of their acting. And that holds true for Tennant as well—obviously, Kilgrave is nothing like Ten or Fourteen, and Tennant does a bang-up job here. But I mean it physically too. I look at him in this role, and I can’t see his Doctors. It’s not just the different hair or clothes. I don’t know how he does it, but it’s so effective. Even as he still looks like David Tennant, he’s completely different from the most beloved roles I’ve seen him in. Kudos to Tennant for that.
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