Jessica Jones S01 E13: AKA Smile

Cancel Sweet Christmas. If I was really clever, that's what I would have said at the end of the last episode when Jessica had to shoot Luke Cage in the face to stop his Kilgrave-powered rampage to kill her. We know Luke's okay, super-tough skin and upcoming Netflix series and all that, but the characters on the show don't.

Jessica rushes Luke to the closest Hell's Kitchen hospital, Metro General, which is where Claire Temple, Night Nurse, works. As other nurses struggle to give Luke medical treatment, bending needles and all (a plot complication that comes right from the pages of The Pulse), Night Nurse is there to help. I love Rosario Dawson so this is a more than welcome appearance.

The pre-Civil War antagonism is still festering, as another nurse sneers toward Luke, "he's one of those." Claire notes later that she herself is not special, but she keeps running into special. Claire gets the comatose Luke out of the hospital while Jessica contends with the Purple Man's amplified powers turning everyone in said hospital against her.

Night Nurse and Jessica have very good repartee and I would love to see them together again. At Jess' place they get Luke resting, and Jess patched up. Later a scene where Jess curls up with Luke is ruined by too much talk. Show, don't tell, folks. After a bit for Jess, it's back in the trail to Kilgrave. When Malcolm shows up (they keep writing him out but he never seems to leave), he and Claire get on well - I hope they both show up in "The Defenders."

If Kilgrave wasn't dangerous before, he's getting a real knack for the super-villain game now. Amazing what a jilted love and a couple days in a torture cell can do. A previous episode's title asks, what would Jessica do? Obviously she would turn a selfish jerk rapist into a full blown super-villain. She even found his mad scientist dad to help him modify and maximize his powers. Thanks, Jessica. And did anyone else think that, just for a second, Kilgrave was going to actually turn purple?

The horror show left in his wake at the penthouse where Dad amped him up is not for the squeamish. That last shot of amp must have messed him up good. There's a showdown with many people on his side, police and civilian, and a tense confrontation with Patsy, who should never have been there in the first place. The ending of Kilgrave is however too easy, and completely unsatisfying. And I hated it.

The closing of the series is more promising however, noir with a bit of hope. Jessica, Patsy, and Malcolm all on the road at least to being a hero. The first seven episodes, and the last two were very good, in between, not so much. "Jessica Jones" has been renewed for a second season, but first we'll have to see how "Daredevil" fares in his second...

Jessica Jones S01 E12: AKA Take a Bloody Number

We pick up scant moments after the last episode, when Luke Cage blew up his bar with himself in it, as per the Purple Man's commands, made sure Jessica Jones saw it. He is of course unhurt, but his bar is toast. As I wondered if he had insurance and what an insurance investigator might make of his story, we dove into flashback - Kilgrave has been busy during the episode where he was missing.

When he left the hanging restaurant with his father, he ran right into Luke Cage, who had been following Jess in hopes of running into Kilgrave. Best line, and our title reference comes when Kilgrave asks Luke what he wants. His reply is to kill him, and Kilgrave's sharp comeback - "Take a bloody number." Then he commands Luke into the getaway car for clarification and interrogation.

The second best line is when Jess brings Luke back to her office/apartment and tells him to mind the mess from the fight with Nuke. Luke asks if he needs to know what happened there, she simply replies, "I guess we're both lousy renters," to which both Luke and I said in unison, "at least it's not on fire." Five minutes in, this one's not so bad so far. I'm smiling.

Of course now that Luke is at her side and Jessica has sworn to kill the Purple Man, there's some creative stalling. Trish is still paranoid about Simpson, asks around and finds the program is a made-up organization called IGH, with initials that apparently stand for nothing. I wonder though, could that H stand for Hydra?

Despite Jessica's warning, Trish's mom comes to visit her estranged daughter in the hospital. What a harpy. Good thing Jess doesn't know. As she joked with Trish earlier regarding Simpson, Jess can only fight one big bad at a time. I guess Nuke and the harpy will have to take a bloody number.

There's mention made of Hammond Labs as being the place where Hope's fetus was sent. This could be a number of different references. There's a Hammond Labs where Speedball, later Penance, got his powers; or it could be a reference to Camp Hammond, a Marvel Civil War era training facility for superhumans; or simply a nod to the original android Human Torch.

The writing is much better in this episode, elevating it above previous ones. I'm not surprised to see the name Hilly Hicks, Jr. on the script. The playwright and screenwriter is also responsible for the excellent "AKA 99 Friends" earlier in the season. Perhaps he can be convinced to write more when the second season of "Jessica Jones" rolls around.

More clues about IGH come from a surprising source. When Trish's mom comes to visit her daughter at home, again against Jessica's wishes, she brings her a folder marked IGH. It contains Jessica's medical records from the accident that killed her parents and brother. IGH paid her bills. But I guess that's a mystery for another day.

The main event is the showdown in a blue-hued theater between the Purple Man and Jessica - and Kilgrave's proxy is Luke Cage. The whole episode, as their chemistry blended and he played sidekick, Luke was in Kilgrave's power, a puppet working her like a dummy. And now they dance. It's a fight we didn't know we wanted, and it's awesome.

It's a fight that can only be stopped by a shotgun blast to the face. Is the "Luke Cage" Netflix series canceled now? To be continued…

Next: Smile!

Jessica Jones S01 E11: AKA I've Got the Blues

Almost as if the showrunners knew I had given up on the show, they open this episode with something to grab my attention. As they've been doing for most of the series, they dangle Patsy Walker in front of us as bait. I doubt we're going to get Hellcat, at least not yet (I still hold out hope for "The Defenders"), but they have given us Patsy.

The flashback begins with young Jessica waking up in the hospital after the accident that killed her family. Patsy is there in her red wig and her mother. We even get a bit of the "It's Patsy" TV theme song. It actually has a bit of the Josie and the Pussycats movie vibe to it. Any chance of that showing up on iTunes? No? Too bad, I know I'd buy it. It's only a it though, and then it's back to the same old dreary "Jessica Jones" business.

Searching through morgues looking for Kilgrave's father, Jessica discovers something else - Clemons, murdered by Simpson. Not only has Nuke gone rogue from Kozlov and 'the program,' he's on his drugs and looking for both Jessica and Kilgrave. He's gonna hit them like a, well, like a nuke.

Along the way, Jessica, working on no sleep, gets hit by a truck. There are good moments with Malcolm and Trish. Like Flashback Island on "Arrow," we get short but intriguing vignettes of Patsy and Jess as kids, informing the relationship. It's like watching an alliance be formed, explaining the strength of the current friendship.

Then Nuke attacks. He's powered by his combat enhancers and Jess is battered by her accident, so they are almost a match. He believes that she's lying, and that she's been protecting Kilgrave from the start. The fight is no hallway fight like in "Daredevil," but it's probably the best we've seen so far in this series.

But it gets even better when Trish shows up to 'save the day.' As ridiculous as that sounds, she does. Trish takes one of Will's reds and evens the odds. Between her fighting like a 'hellcat,' and Jess helping, they take down Nuke. Trish nearly loses her life by -I kid you not- forgetting to breathe, it works out and is one of the highlights of the episode.

The end of this one is a bit puzzling. Kozlov and other 'boys from the program' retrieve Simpson, so he's not out of play yet. And Jessica gets a text from 'unknown' saying they ran into her boyfriend. Jess immediately rushed to the bar in time to see it blow up and Luke Cage, aflame, stagger out. Cue credits.

Kilgrave is on everyone's minds and lips this episode but he does not appear, which is refreshing. I liked all the young Jess and young Patsy bits. And of course I loved my sadly non-costumed Hellcat moments. This was better than previous episodes, let's see if they're on a streak...

Next: Take a Bloody Number

Jessica Jones S01 E07: AKA Top Shelf Perverts

We had a short reprieve in the last episode, but just like that, the horror is back. We open on Kilgrave rooting through Jessica's office in the dark, taking a leak (something I never imagined I'd see a "Doctor Who" title actor do), and then greet one of her creepy twin neighbors at the door. It's Ruben, one half of the couple that makes Cersei and Jaime Lannister seem normal. When Ruben admits to Kilgrave that he loves Jessica Jones, the Purple Man leaves his corpse in her bed as a gift.

David Tennant's Kilgrave is surely the most terrifying super-villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yeah, and I'm counting Thanos the space God who worships death. Tennant, through simple facial expressions, gestures, posture, and a modicum of dialogue, is simply chilling. While the tone of "Jessica Jones" has been primarily that of modern film noir, there have been moments of pure horror, and they belong solely to Kilgrave.

The Purple Man, or Zebidiah Killgrave as he's known in the comics, was at first a rather silly villain, created by Stan Lee and Joe Orlando. A Croatian mutant who actually had purple skin and hair, he was chiefly a Daredevil villain. I was aware of him years before I ever actually read a story with him in it. I first saw him in the Emperor Doom graphic novel where Doctor Doom used him as a weapon against the Avengers and the Champions, and eventually enabled the armored monarch to rule world temporarily.

Largely considered a joke or one-note villain, he vanished from the comics for years. He fathered a daughter, the Purple Girl, who appeared with Alpha Flight briefly. Killgrave would reemerge triumphantly and horrifically in the pages of Alias, under the creative power of Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos, as a major force in the backstory of Jessica Jones.

David Tennant, most well known as The Doctor in his tenth incarnation, brings the villain to life here on "Jessica Jones." He's not purple but wears it, has a strange supernatural glow of the color, and all of his lighting has that weird hue. A vastly better and moodier effect, I must say, than actual purple skin. The showrunners also altered the spelling of his name, and have yet to call him 'the Purple Man,' all of which I'm fine with. But I'm never going to look at The Tenth Doctor the same way again, Tennant is that scary.

With the murder of Ruben, Jessica is at her wit's end, and has come up with an insane plan. A ridiculous plan, if I may, one more fitting an episode of "I Love Lucy" than a 2015 entry in the Marvel/Netflix Television Universe. She's going to get herself arrested and put in a supermax prison, and when Kilgrave comes after her, they'll trap him there. I'm waiting for Ethel Mertz to join Team Jones any second now.

The rest of the cast revolves around her as she finalizes plans. Pre-Hellcat and Proto-Nuke are still going at it like high school kids, but Trish does know where to find Kilgrave's bodyguards. They're helping him move in. To the house that he bought last episode. Jessica's childhood home. And for some effed up reason Simpson isn't telling Trish what he sees, he lies to her. He even sees what happens at the end of this episode before the credits roll... is he still in Kilgrave's thrall?

Jessica moves through the episode preparing her goodbyes, like stopping by Luke's bar, making sure Jeri can be her lawyer, and threatening Trish's mom (Jessica's foster mom) to leave her daughter alone. Both Trish and Malcolm try to talk Jessica out of her plan to no effect. And Robyn, now told by Malcolm that her brother was involved with Jessica, is weirder than ever. Wait 'till she finds out what really happened to Ruben.

Malcolm, now that he's straight, is a great character. If the rumors are true and he will also be in "The Defenders" on Netflix, I wouldn't mind at all. Eka Darville is very good. And as long as Trish is there as Hellcat, I'll be happy.

When Jessica turns herself in to the police with the severed head of Ruben in tow, we get a return of Clarke Peters from "The Wire" as Clemons but he's sadly given little to do. Kilgrave has invaded the police station and made everyone pull guns on each other. He wants her released, and for her to come home - but it has to be of her own choice.

In the end, with nothing else to do to stop him, and no other way to save others from him, Jessica goes home, to Kilgrave...

Next: WWJD?

Jessica Jones S01 E05: AKA The Sandwich Saved Me

There is an interesting dichotomy in the life of Jessica Jones. As we open on our girl as a cubicle slave in a dreary desk job eighteen months ago we learn what that is. There's life before Kilgrave and there's life after Kilgrave, that's it. She was still sassy and sarcastic and smart as hell back then, but she wasn't apathetic, mean, paranoid, and in pain.

This is a world of difference. Jessica figuratively and literally trashes her job to join best friend Trish for happy hour. She is actually playful and fun when she teaches the perv a lesson. Believe it or not, Jessica was happy once.

My favorite part, of course, are the thinly veiled hints to Trish's possible future. Trish wants to save the world, and when Jessica suggests she put on a cape and do it herself, she exclaims without hesitation, "You know I would if I could!" Enough foreplay, how long do we have to wait for Patsy 'Hellcat' Walker to arrive??

Back to the present day, having determined that her junkie Malcolm is the Purple Man's unwilling spy, Jessica trails him. It's even suggested Kilgrave made him an addict. A visit to the park leads her to her prey, but just a glance at Kilgrave sends her frantically into her street naming mantra to combat her post-traumatic stress disorder.

I don't know whether it's my comics knowledge that Will Simpson is Nuke, or the fact that I don't even trust the character as portrayed here, but his involvement with Trish is bothersome. He feels like a wedge between the two, and neither Trish nor Jessica seem to be thinking straight when he's around. Could he still be in the Purple Man's thrall? And if not, why doesn't he have PTSD like Jessica?

Along with Trish and Will, Jessica has a plan to capture Kilgrave, but seeing how I don't trust Will, I don't trust the plan. There are times when he talks and acts like Nuke might. More tidbits of background fall through the cracks to us viewers, things like Trish, the highest paid child star ever, took Jessica in after her parents were killed. Hope is apparently in trouble in jail and asked for money from Jessica.

But the biggest treat was in flashback. After saving a little girl while dressed as a hoagie (yeah, thus the episode's title), Trish designs a costume and name for Jessica - Jewel. Yeah, it's the pre-Alias costume, looking pretty sad in live action reality. I would still like to see her wear it at least once though, just for kicks and giggles.

Just when the plan seems to be going so right, Kilgrave drugged, out, and being taken to the safe house, it all goes horribly horribly wrong. He has a tracker on him, and a security detail. He's not as dumb as our erstwhile heroes think. They might not have underestimated his power but they definitely underestimated his brains.

When Jessica tries to get a clue from Malcolm about Kilgrave, a horrible truth presents itself. She saved him once when she was trying to do the right thing, when she was trying to be a superhero (if not dress like one), and that's the night Kilgrave discovered her, and took her away as his prize... Serious props to Eka Darville who plays Malcolm here. He's terrific in this role, and previously has been in a number of projects varying from "Power Rangers" to "Spartacus."

Jessica determines to make/help Malcolm kick in the end, but Kilgrave has a demand. She does Malcolm's job, send him a photo of herself once a day, and Kilgrave will leave the addict alone. It's heart rending, but in a way, Jessica both wins and loses this round...

Jessica Jones S01 E03: AKA It's Called Whiskey

For the longest time, superhero sex has been a verboten topic. It's rarely brought up out of immature puberty, Mad magazine, or Kevin Smith movies. There is that great Larry Niven essay "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex," Superman II, and in recent years the seen-but-not-spoken-of red solar lamp in Lois and Clark's bedroom... but for the most part, beyond innuendo, not much else. And yes, I am completely ignoring the Hank and Jan incident in Geoff Johns' Avengers.

In the last episode of "Jessica Jones," when our heroine and Luke Cage realize how strong and durable they both are, of course they have sex. Their first time in "AKA Ladies Night" was full of tentativeness and gentility, and remarks about not breaking each other. This time they can really cut loose, aware that 'normal' boundaries are no longer in the mix. They can relax and go with instinct and not hurt anyone - at least physically.

Just when I was going to make a comment about how Krysten Ritter and Mike Colter might only have chemistry when loving or brawling, I'm proven wrong by a post-coital coffee talk about their powers. It took three episodes, but the two have finally clicked. Colter was always good as Cage, but Sweet Christmas, Ritter finally caught up. I did dislike the idea that their destinies are intertwined however. Cage's wife being killed by a Kilgraved Jessica is a bit much, even for the funny pages.

With Jeri defending Hope, Jessica needs to turn public opinion regarding the case so she asks Trish out to lunch. Maybe some "Trish Talk" might sway some folks about the case. That's when we get a bit of explanation about Trish's training. She's doing Krav Maga, making sure she can defend herself now that Jessica isn't her roommate any more. That's why the training, the bruises, and the bloody nose. And then there's also her mysterious abusive mother. There's a lot more to Rachael Taylor's Trish Walker than at first meets the eye.

Patsy Walker is one of my favorite comic book characters, and not just because she has a cool last name. She first appeared in Miss America Magazine #2 as a romance/comedy feature in 1944, when Marvel Comics was known as Timely Comics. Think Betty and Veronica with cooler adventures. There's a very short list of characters who have been around non-stop since their beginnings in the Golden Age, and Patsy is one of them.

I was introduced to her when she popped into Avengers in the 1970s as a subplot that wouldn't go away. When the opportunity arose for Patsy to put on the powered costume of The Cat and join the Avengers in superheroing, she jumped at the chance, rechristening herself as the Hellcat, a more fitting name for this feisty redhead. She's floated around the Marvel Universe ever since, as an Avenger and as a Defender.

Seeing as the Defenders is the endgame for these first four Netflix series, I'm not the only one hoping Rachael Taylor will be donning a catsuit sooner or later. Also notably this is not Taylor's first foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as she was also in 2005's Man-Thing.

In this episode, in an attempt to defend Hope, Jeri tricks Trish into putting it all out there on the air of her radio show about Kilgrave and mind control. Of course it tempts the Purple Man out of the shadows and he calls. Was I the only one watching with a stone in my stomach worried he might give a command to the entire listening public? I think not. Later as Jessica and Trish leave the studio they have an encounter with a fan who they suspect is an assassin sent from Kilgrave. The fan says he misses Trish's red hair and has a Patsy Walker comic book for her to sign.

When the real assassin does come in the form of a police officer, Trish does fight like a hellcat, but it's not quite good enough. Good thing Jessica comes to the rescue. And again, she fights with her wits as well as her fists. She follows the assailant back to Kilgrave and we finally get a look at him. He escapes and leaves Jessica in a room walled with images of her. He's been watching and he can be anywhere all the time. The eyes of New York are essentially his eyes...

See you later.