How’d you get YOUR superpower?
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.
So much sex! And no, I’m not offended. And yes, we see far more graphic depictions of sex on other shows on cable (and Netflix). But still, it’s difficult not to think, “Wow, this is Marvel show!” when you see Jessica and Luke passionately ramming into each other in so many scenes here, simply because it’s such a different use of what has become such a huge brand. But it works within the context of the show and these characters for sure, and so the idea that Jessica and Luke, already hot for each other, would really go crazy, bed breaking included, after finding out they each have superpowers is very amusing. And as a way to get Luke’s “Sweet Christmas!” catchphrase from the comics into the series, this sure worked well!
It was also great to see them comparing notes on their abilities, how they got them (“Accident.” “Experiment”) and other people out there with them, “The big green dude and his crew,” included. [Though I will say, Agents of SHIELD still feels oddly an island onto itself in the MCU as far as no one directly referring to things that happened in it in other projects. That show has introduced a ton of superpowered characters now, some of whom have been seen in public, so it would be nice if Luke had mentioned, say, the Absorbing Man.]
Of course this episode also revealed the big, dark secret Jessica is keeping from Luke, and it’s a doozy – she killed his wife! It was under Kilgrave’s orders, but still, it’s obviously an effectively monumental secret, setting up her telling Luke things were over by episode’s end.
The reveal that Jessica did in fact commit murder while under Kilgrave’s thrall was juxtaposed with the introduction of the one notable part of the Jessica Jones cast we hadn’t met yet – Wil Traval’s cop, “Simpson” (who may be the MCU version of a certain Marvel character introduced in Daredevil comics), who was sent to kill Trish. This set off a really thrilling course of events in the episode, beginning with Trish’s attempts to fight Simpson off, as she got in some very good hits of her own, before he overpowered her – only for Jessica to save the day. We know Trish has been taking learning to fight, and it was very well done how she showed she was indeed formidable, while not quite at the place where she could stop someone like Simpson. (Hellcat she ain’t… yet).
We want to hear it.
After that, we got Jessica following Simpson to Kilgrave – and kinda/sorta bringing our hero and villain together for the first time in the present, as they at least saw each other, though there was no conversation. Jessica fighting off the possessed members of the family was another great touch, and it was capped off by her having to figure out how to save Simpson, while he was compelled to jump off the building. My only issue with this entire sequence was at the very end, when Jessica told Simpson he hadn’t actually killed anyone, but didn’t elaborate or explain in any detail. It just was an odd moment, where it seemed Jessica could and would explain the situation better.
Jessica using Malcolm in such an exploitive way to steal the drugs she needed for Kilgrave was a notable moment, as it got the impact of her betrayal across (a nice moment for Eka Darville) – and underscored that Jessica, while attempting to do some good, can be pretty dubious in her methods.
We want to hear it.
Also strong was the scene where Hope went on Trish’s radio show, setting up Kilgrave sending Simpson after her in the first place. Hogarth turning out to have manipulated the whole situation, in order to make Hope sound crazy, was a diabolical turn of events, that shows just how Hogarth works in a vivid manner.
Going back to Trish, there were a couple of fun moments here that were nods to the comics. The most direct was the fan who told her he missed her red hair, since Patsy Walker has always been a red head. The other was Kilgrave’s rant about how much he hated the teen show Trish starred in, which seems to be the MCU version of Trish/Patsy’s comic book history, where she was the “star” of a comic book about her life as a teenager (which was the meta way Marvel incorporated the actual Patsy Walker teen comics, dating back to the 1940s, into her backstory).
Jessica Jones continues to build steam in episode 3, with some of the biggest action yet (including Simpson fighting Trish and Jessica fighting… a family), while also putting Jessica and Luke’s relationship into better context. That included showing how much they were drawn to each other, to say the least, while also filling us in on just what it was that had her feeling so bad up until now.
