Power Man.
By Eric Goldman
We’re writing up separate reviews for all 13 episodes of Jessica Jones. For the purposes of binging brevity, some may be notably shorter than our usual reviews. Click here to see all of our Jessica Jones review.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Quickly getting rid of any discussion about whether Luke Cage did or did not have any powers yet, the second episode of Jessica Jones gave us our first superhero team-up on the Netflix/Marvel series, in a satisfying manner. Yeah, it wasn’t an intricate martial arts fight like on Daredevil, but it still was really fun seeing Jessica and Luke lay out all those guys in that bar, proving their strength was no match for a bunch of normal joes – especially when Luke just swatted a couple aside. And Luke displaying his unbreakable skin was a cool way to end the episode.
Meanwhile, there were some intriguing questions raised, as we learned Jessica was following Luke for her own reasons and not because anyone had hired her…
We want to hear it.
Erin Moriarty was a standout in this hour, as we saw all the pain Hope was in after the horrors she’d gone through thanks to Kilgrave. Yeah, she may be projecting her venom at Jessica (telling her she should have stayed to make sure Kilgrave was dead – and that she should kill herself), but this poor girl just was forced to kill her own parents, on top of everything else Kilgrave made her do. Moriarty did excellent work, showing Hope veer from sad, to screaming to menacing, as she tried to process what had happened.
Kilgrave continues to be incredibly unsettling, as we get more glimpses of him in the present. The way he casually gained access to that home and ordered the kids into the closet was chilling, as it’s clear he just has zero empathy for anyone and only is about pleasing himself. David Tennant is perfect delivering lines like, “Be warned. I have a very particular palate,” with this episode really playing up the metaphor of Kilgrave as a vampire of sorts, being given permission to come into the home and then using it for his own purposes.
We want to hear it.
Even when Kilgrave isn’t physically present, seeing the wreckage he leaves in his path is highly effective, as when Jessica found the poor ambulance driver Kilgrave had used to replace his kidneys – trapped in his own horror show with a crazy mother, while begging Jessica to kill him and put him out od his misery. This is bleak stuff to be sure, but it’s also gripping. And the glimpses in those flashbacks of Jessica stumbling away as Kilgrave was hit by that bus offer plenty of “What exactly was going on?” questions, even she learned a way to nullify his powers.
It was great to see Trish’s mysterious nosebleed was thanks to her training to fight. As a big fan of Hellcat in the comics, I’ve been very curious to see how this character is handled here, and finding out she’s already on this path is very cool.
Some other notes:
-Jeri’s wife knowing about her affair was weird, given that didn’t seem to be the case at all in the first episode.
-Fun to see Jessica pay a visit to Metro-General Hospital, the workplace of Daredevil’s Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson).
-The scene with Jessica’s neighbor telling her off (“You’re not all that!”) felt a bit forced and off, but Jessica’s reply (“you’re a very perceptive asshole”) was very funny.
-Great to see The Wire’s Clarke Peters as the cop questioning Jessica at the start of the hour. Hey, if you haven’t seen Person of Interest yet, Clarke Peters has a very intriguing recurring role and Season 1-3 are all on Netflix, where you’re watching Jessica Jones, right now! (I will take any “You should check out Person of Interest” opening I see…)
The second episode of Jessica Jones wasted no time, quickly letting Jessica (and us) know about Luke Cage’s abilities, showing more of the truly chilling results of Kilgrave and hinting that Trish Walker’s got a hell of a future ahead of her.
