Jessica Jones, Season 1, Episode 5: AKA The Sandwich Saved Me
As we reach the fifth episode and the end of the first act of this story -- the Netflix series are really structured like reading a particularly long book -- we finally get confrontation. After all the buildup we get from the past four episodes, Jessica finally uses Malcolm (who I may have called Marcus in previous episodes) to track down Kilgrave, and we see several times Jessica's desperate ruthlessness in doing this. She ignores the danger that Malcolm may be in, something pointed out by Simpson, she ignores the moment in the lift when Reuben thinks Malcolm may have overdosed... it's not quite approaching Constantine levels in moral ambiguity, but it's still pretty brutal.
And when Jessica does track down Kilgrave and figure out a plan -- remarkably quickly as she does so around fifteen minutes into this episode -- she recruits Trish and officer Simpson in an attempt to take Kilgrave down. Jessica and Simpson don't like each other much, but they grudgingly admit -- not to each other -- the need for backup. Jessica certainly can't do everything she ended up doing herself, and Simpson is... well, he's kind of an airhead, spec ops skills notwithstanding. No idea how he got that super-awesome soundproof room, though.
Also, Trish and Simpson are banging, a relatively odd turn of events that's actually lampshaded by Jessica.
The little plan was pretty awesome, and it's great to see the untouchable Kilgrave actually get taken down. Of course Kilgrave had other plans in place, including hiring (sans mind-control) a bunch of taser-armed bodyguards and placing a tracker on his body. It was a nice, realistic plot twist and definitely a great complication that someone as paranoid as Kilgrave would've taken.
But the main character development for Jessica in this episode is involving Malcolm. That speech from Jessica to Malcolm about how it's his turn to help her, by not continuing the drugs and not going on a self-destructive spiral and killing himself coincides with Kilgrave making a relatively odd threat. Jessica needs to send selfies to him in exchange for Kilgrave leaving Malcolm alone. And I do like how Jessica is about to basically tell Kilgrave to fuck off, to not give in to the demands of this psychopath... only to return to Malcolm's room and see that he's chucked his drugs into the toilet. Yes, it's probably a blow to Jessica's ego to give in to Kilgrave's demands, but like Trish's on-air apology yesterday it's also the smart thing to do. There is such a thing as pride... and there is such a thing as swallowing it in order to buy time for a later comeback.
It is might seem a small victory for Kilgrave, but it's definitely a pretty low moment for Jessica, because not only did she utterly fail to capture Kilgrave and he can now just call her up and give ultimatums, she is also forced to send photographs of her every day to her presumed rapist. Granted she doesn't fill every one of Kilgrave's conditions because she's not smiling, but that's a pyrrhic gesture at best. And can we talk about Kilgrave's whole control thing? He doesn't rely exclusively on his superpowers. He has other more mundane means to control people -- as in the money he used to pay those bodyguards -- and he is definitely also trying to exercise more control over Jessica. What a fucked-up man.
Also Malcolm himself makes it far more ambiguous, noting that Kilgrave was the one who got him addicted to drugs to ensure that he'll do anything to cooperate for said drugs. Poor fucker.
We also get an unexpected series of flashbacks to Jessica's past, which was nice. Still no origin story and I'm honestly quite fine with it, but we get a fair amount of information both in the flashbacks and in the present day. We learn that Trish's family adopted Jessica, so they're basically sisters already. We see her being generally frustrated with her job as a generic office worker, and at one point humiliating a sleazebag that's sleazebagging all over Trish. Generally you don't walk up to a woman and say how her show taught you to masturbate.
I thought the flashback was structured relatively oddly. Some parts of it are obvious -- like when she first saved Malcolm and met Kilgrave, or when they're discussing superhero names and costumes -- but I didn't catch that the sandwich thing was supposed to be part of the flashback and not the beginning of Jessica's plan to sneak up to and take down Kilgrave. Small complaint there.
The sandwich scene was adorable, though, and it's nice that the title didn't somewhat spoil the climax and is absolutely misleading to the contents of the episode. We also get references to Jessica's in-comic alter ego, Jewel (which she dismisses as a slutty stripper name in this show) and Trish somehow managed to get her hands on the freaking costume. Meta appreciation aside, though, it's a bit odd because no one really wears flashy superhero costumes in the MCU. Captain America, maybe, but even his costume is relatively military. Iron Man's costume is kinda the whole point why he can go toe-to-toe with metahumans, and Daredevil hasn't existed yet. Most of the other superheroes wear generic civvie or spy clothing.
I thought the bit with her superheroing could've been extended more, because it seemed that her stint as a superhero ended up saving the little girl as the Sandwich, and stopping those muggers from killing Malcolm before Kilgrave randomly shows up, goes in full sexual offender more and takes control of her.
Simpson seems to be integrating himself into the main cast pretty solidly, and the conflict between him and Jessica is nice to see. I absolutely love the scene where they trash-talk each other pretty brutally, then smile and thumbs-up each other because the damn room is soundproof. It was hilarious. Trish still continues to be fun, and there's something about her excitement about Jessica being a superhero, about how she's taking self-defense lessons, and how bummed out that she was taken out after that taser shock and was all self-deprecating that seemed to imply she's got some issues.
Hope shows up to... uh... ask money from Jessica. Did she just get stabbed to death near the end? I thought that would be appropriate on Kilgrave's part just to get at Jessica, but then again this is Netflix and if it's death it would be explicit. Dunno what that is all about.
Also as a final note before I wrap it up, Kilgrave telling someone to throw hot coffee onto his own face is petty and brutal, but darkly hilarious.
Overall a great episode! It's got a tense action portion and some great flashbacks and details that flesh out Jessica Jones's mysterious past. It's definitely an unorthodox superhero series and it might turn out a crapton of casual viewers, but I for one am starting to like it quite a bit.
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