”You can kill him now.”
By Eric Goldman
Note: We’re writing up separate reviews for all 13 Jessica Jones episodes, though for the purposes of binging brevity, some may be notably shorter than our usual reviews. Click here to see all of our Jessica Jones episode reviews.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
As I noted in my review of episode 9, the Jeri/Wendy/Pam storyline had seemed like a sometimes odd inclusion in Jessica Jones, until Jeri’s big temptation in episode 9 to use Kilgrave to stop Wendy’s demands… and wow, did that storyline become central in this episode, in a brutal, bloody way.
From the moment Kilgrave ordered Wendy to give Jeri “death by a 100 cuts”, things turned full horror movie. This was nasty business to be sure, and Jeri screaming in terror as she was slashed up also included some cool beats like her grabbing the knife in her hand… but it all came to quite a brutal finish with Pam accidentally killing Wendy while stopping her. In the wake of this, we saw how ice cold Jeri was, as did Pam, leading Jeri to end up all alone… and perhaps to evolve further into her own supervillain-type persona in these Marvel/Netflix series.
Though I must say, it was odd to learn (and obviously Jeri had to be telling the truth, given the circumstances) that nothing could be done with the fetus Jeri took to replicate Kilgrave’s powers. Why introduce that in the first place if it was a go nowhere plot point? But we’ll see… just because it hasn’t worked yet doesn’t mean it won’t ever, right?
Meanwhile, Simpson’s own changes into his Nuke persona continued. It briefly seemed he was on his own Punisher-type warpath, determined to find and kill Kilgrave. But when he shot and killed Clemons, it was clear that he had totally lost it, now so set on his mission, it didn’t matter who was in his way. And, frustratingly (but of course, good for drama), Jessica has just lost the one person in law enforcement who finally believed her about Kilgrave.
The one thing that really didn’t work for me in this episode, and actually stuck out as the weakest thing that’s happened in this great show so far, was the use of Robyn. From the start, that character has seemed too over the top and mannered to really fit in this world, but it wasn’t a big deal when she was on the periphery. But here, there was a lot of Robyn and it really just felt off. The scene where she overheard Malcolm talk about what really happened to Ruben and then recruited the support group members against Jessica just fell flat. Robyn is such a caricature, it didn’t feel believable anyone would listen to her – much less with such a dubious argument as blaming Jessica, one of Kilgrave’s victims, for things Kilgrave had done to the rest of them. It made Robyn so insufferable that the scene where she took Kilgrave’s gag off was infuriating, rather than bringing about a, “Oh no, don’t do that!” response that could have been gotten from an innocent neighbor of Jessica’s freeing the random tied up man.
Thankfully, there was a ton of strong material around this misstep, including what followed after Robyn freed Kilgrave. Because once Jessica and Kilgrave’s father walked into that restaurant and all those people, Malcolm included, were ready to hang themselves, the show had again created an amazingly macabre, well constructed scenario with Kilgrave (who’s just an amazing villain) at the center of it.
I was really sad to see Hope die, even though given the dark tone of this show, it was obviously a likelihood. As Kilgrave and Jessica discussed, Jessica hoped to save this girl as a way of feeling like she was saving herself and having her see some semblance of, well, hope by getting her freedom from jail – and noting she managed to keep her sanity after everything – only to then be once more captured by Kilgrave and in a situation she saw no other way out of was a gut punch. Her reason for killing herself – that without her alive, Jessica would see no reason to hold back when it came to Kilgrave – was such a twisted, yet understandable, motivation for what she did, given how much she wanted him to pay for what he did to and took from her.
The flashbacks we got here to that moment where Jessica nearly got away from Kilgrave were a bit trippy to be sure, with her fantasy of jumping down and getting on that horse, but ultimately offered more insight into just how screwed up and sick Kilgrave is – someone with such a skewed perspective that he could ever think Jessica would want to be with him, even briefly. And who would idealize a memory where he nearly had her slice her own ears off.
Now what was going on their with the vaccine? Did it not work at all? Did it work a bit, but ultimately, wasn’t strong enough for Albert to resist? Or was Albert just acting like he was under Kilgrave’s thrall? Given Kilgrave took Albert with him, we should find out soon enough.
As we heard into the final episodes, Jessica Jones has gone even further into dark, twisted places in an ever-compelling way. Pam killing Jeri, Simpson killing Clemons, Hope killing herself… This is brutal stuff, to be sure. And some riveting TV through and through.
But Hope wouldn’t have even been in that restaurant if it weren’t for Robyn, so screw you, Robyn!
