The good thing about “AKA Top-Shelf Perverts,” the mid-point of this season of Jessica Jones, is that it sets up a crucial turning point in the over-arching plot. No longer will the show waste our time pretending to care about Jessica’s private-eye business; from here on in, it’s going to be all Kilgrave all the time. This will not only permit us to really dig into the fascinating, creepy, nuanced performance David Tennant is capable of bringing to what could have been a very one-note villain. It also lets the show get back to doing what it’s truly good at: exploring how this damaged protagonist (and Krysten Ritter is just excellent in the part) will find a way to keep surviving in the aftermath of her trauma.
It’s just…
Okay, well, I’ll run you through the events of the episode real quick. While Jessica’s out trying to drink away her misery over what happened with Luke last time, annoying neighbor twin Ruben is getting murdered by Kilgrave for trying to bring Jessica some banana bread.
Upon discovering this, Jessica has a breakdown and develops a plan to get herself locked up in a maximum security prison. Once she’s there, she reasons, Kilgrave will have to compel his way past a whole bunch of levels of security, the whole thing will be captured on surveillance videos, and she’ll have proof. This is a Trauma Plan not a Proper Plan, but Jessica commits to it anyway and refuses to be talked out of it by Malcolm, Trish, or Jeri. She shows up at the local precinct with Ruben’s head in an effort to unnerve Lester Holt into tossing her into supermax.
Sadly for her, Kilgrave foils the plan, showing up at the precinct to erase their security footage, take off with Ruben’s head, and — by the way — profess his undying love for Jessica.
On a first watch, I was mainly annoyed that the show went to the trope well and came up with “sexually obsessed with Our Heroine” as a motivation for the villain’s behavior. I’m willing to let in slide, in retrospect, just because I do think the show finds new things to do with it in the upcoming episodes, and because David Tennant sells the material so well. A line like “You are the first thing — excuse me, person — I ever wanted that walked away from me” could have been a disaster if anyone else besides David Tennant was saying it. In his delivery, it’s flawless.
Actually what’s wrong with this episode is that it’s so earnestly writerly it’ll make your teeth hurt. “Tell Ruben we can go to the zoo,” intones Annoying Alive Twin Robyn yearningly, like she’s whatever theater girl played Emily in your high school production of Our Town. “I’ll take him to see the giraffes.” Or across the way there’s Luke Cage’s substitute barback wisely asking Jessica, “You know the trouble with burning a bridge? You have to learn how to swim. . . or fly.”
Per uzhe, the best, least forced, moments are about Trish and Jessica’s friendship. Trish, in a persistently unsidekicky manner, has been pursuing her own lead on Kilgrave, because she’s awesome and unrelenting. On Jessica’s farewell tour of New York City, she stops by Trish’s estranged mother’s studio to threaten her with bodily harm if she comes near Trish ever. “You will respect Trish’s wishes,” she informs her stonily. “Which I will enforce.” (It’s Trish and Jessica’s relationship in a nutshell!) And:
YOU TWO.
Over in Jeri-land, Drinky Jessica tries to strong-arm Wendy into signing the divorce papers so Jeri can marry Pam(‘s boobs). Wendy takes exception to this and shows up at Jeri’s office with print-outs of emails Jeri wrote to her about bribing jurors. She demands seventy-five percent of Jeri’s assets, she says, or she’s calling the New York Bar Association. Pam is super cool about it because Pam is Anne Boleyn but also SERIOUSLY GIRL you are going into court and I can see like eighty percent of the surface area of your boobs so RECONSIDER YOUR WRAP DRESS MAYBE.
Jessica breaks things: A lock on the door to a bridge cause she wants to climb up it and gaze down at the city as part of her farewell tour, while the show’s theme song plays in the background. Her handcuffs, in the interrogation room, to prove to Lester Holt that she has superpowers. A chair in the interrogation room, same reason.