Jessica Jones, Season 1, Episode 4: AKA 99 Friends
Another great entry! For what's kinda feels like a breather episode, this one has a distinct feel of paranoia in the beginning. There's Jessica obviously suspecting everyone in the streets and generally feeling uneasy about every single human being nearby. There's the sequence of Jessica investigating her customer, afraid that she's another one of Kilgrave's pawns. There's the couple of moments where she seemed ready to rush-tackle a dude that seemed to photograph her but not really. There's even some moments with Trish being absolutely fucking scared of other people in the beginning, though the policeman trying to ram down her reinforced door probably doesn't help matters. Trish herself apologizes on air to Kilgrave to save her skin, backpedaling from the powerful statements she made last episode and while definitely the smart and right thing to do, it probably hurt her a lot.
A good amount of the episode is devoted to officer Will Simpson, who tries his hardest to just, well, be a swell guy and fix things. He bonds with Trish through the door, and I do like the moments of uncertainty like when Trish points the gun at the door, or when she finally lets him in and she is still holding that gun. Not sure if officer Simpson will be a big player in the future, though having a friend in the police definitely helps.
Jeri Hogarth also gets decent airtime here. There's that argument where Jessica just explodes on her when she implies that Kilgrave's power could be used to greater effect on 'their side'... and honestly there are no way a mind-control power can be used ethically. We explore more about her divorce, and there's an excellent scene where she brings her new girlfriend to the place where she proposed to her ex-wife... and the heartbroken "oh really now?" look on her ex-wife is just... so sad. Hell, even Hogarth's girlfriend leaves her after she gives Wendy that big talk-down. Dude's kind of a bitch. And she calls in Jessica's favour to... dig down dirt on Wendy. Man, poor girl can't catch a break, can her?
The main villain of this episode is Audrey Eastman, a mysterious civilian who asks Jessica to look into her husband's supposed affair. A good part of the episode is devoted to Jessica trying to find out if she's a Kilgrave pawn... and while it turns out that Audrey Eastman doesn't have the best interests for Jessica, she's still a villain, so to speak. She's apparently on a crusade to hunt down all the 'gifted' people and she gives this big rant about how 'gifted' and 'special' people should be called freaks and retards. What a bitch! And her sob excuse is that her mother died in the battle of New York...
And Jessica gives an absolutely awesome rant punctuated by throwing things around the room that she's not even there -- the Avengers were. And just because her wife is killed during a superhero battle it doesn't give her the right to kill other super-powered people, and Jessica gives a damning comparison that her parents are killed in an accident, but she doesn't go around killing all the drivers in the world.
It's a bit strange why the show goes out of its way to not say 'Hulk' or 'Captain America' and instead uses euphemisms like 'big green guy' and 'flag waver'.
Jessica gives the titular 'I've got 99 powered friends' to scare her out of town, which is cool. The whole Audrey Eastman thing, as well-written as it is, still ends up being a red herring and an excuse plot... but the show makes great use of said excuse plot, integrating it to Kilgrave's effect on Jessica, while developing her character as well. Jessica's rant comes off as relatively painful especially considering how she's blaming herself for the death of Luke's wife, despite it arguably being similar to how Audrey's mother died.
Fortunately we get some more Kilgrave even if we don't actually see the man. We get a hilarious montage of people who wants to use Kilgrave as an alibi, and Jessica has to sort through them. It's absolutely believable that anyone who gets pregnant or jacks a store or whatever will use the excuse that someone 'made them do it'. Hell, it's not unheard of in real life either. We also get a not-so-hilarious example of actual Kilgrave survivors, a dude who's forced to leave his son in the curb (couldn't Kilgrave just tell the child to shut up?) and it's so fucking sad.
Thanks to getting access to street camera records from her alliance with officer Simpson earlier, though, Jessica ends up using this information to track down the one that's been taking pictures of her... which is Marcus. I had assumed Kilgrave used many different separate people, but I guess this makes sense too, and gives Marcus an actual point in the story beyond just hanging around being high and we don't really know what's going on with him. Hell, maybe Kilgrave caused him to become a drug addict just so Jessica won't suspect him?
Cool to see him have a point, even if it's as a plot device.
We also learn that Kilgrave's power has a ten to twelve-hour limit before he has to recharge and reassert control over his victims, which is another limitation in his OP powers. And there's the matter of him controlling that creepy little girl, too. That was unexpected and disturbing.
Overall a pretty great and solid episode. It's not without its flaws, of course, but overall the show is starting to somewhat live up to its hype.
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