Jessica Jones: AKA Three Lives and Counting
March 11, 2018 11:55 AM - Season 2, Episode 11 - Subscribe
Shocked by her own actions and haunted by visions of Kilgrave, Jessica worries she's turning into a monster. Trish's plans for Karl become clear.
*AV Club - Jessica Jones faces her demons
*Jessica covers up the evidence of her killing Dale, then writes a suicide note over his having murdered prisoners, and drops his body off the roof of the building while an imaginary Kilgrave applauds her.
*The new guard, Marilyn Toussaint, is nice, and lets Alisa call Jessica to check up on her after her 'date.'
*Jessica takes Oscar's forged documents to the motel only to find Karl gone. Back at prison, she hears the guards chatting about Dale's death, and nobody's sorry to see him gone. Marilyn lets Jessica and Alisa speak unsupervised, but Alisa has no clues for Jessica on where Karl might have gone, and suspects Trish is behind it. Visions of Kilgrave continue to bedevil Jessica.
*Back at the office she discovers Malcolm's snooping of her photos on the cloud, and finds Trish's sunglasses in his bed. She uses his dating app 'you are x miles from so-and-so' function to triangulate his location (which is bound and gagged in the trunk of Trish's car while she forces Karl to dig his super-power-making tech out of storage). A Trish-fan snaps a photo of her and Karl as they drive away.
*In a parking garage, Malcolm frees himself and confronts Trish, but she fires her gun at his feet when he tries to stop her, and she drives away with Karl when Jessica arrives on the scene.
*In prison, the guard's tv show gives Alisa a flashback of her first kiss with Karl, at the beach where he told her he was shutting down IGH because he no longer trusted Hansen and Kozlov, and would instead find somewhere they could live together, ethics be damned.
*From the logo on her shopping bag, Malcolm figures out where Trish had gone while the car was parked, a nearby veterinary office, where Jessica bullies the vet tech into admitting she sold them some anesthetic and FVRCP feline distemper vaccine. An increasing number of imaginary Kilgraves urge Jessica to embrace her killer nature, and she almost chokes a random bystander. Malcolm tries to deescalate the situation while Jessica takes off for IGH.
*At the old clinic, Karl has hooked up his old equipment and started the procedure at Trish's encouragement. Jessica arrives just as sedated Trish begins bleeding from the mouth, and Jessica breaks through the window and rips the equipment away, then stops herself from killing Karl despite her internal-Kilgrave's urging. But Karl abruptly decides to end it all himself, and takes aim on the oxygen tanks with Trish's gun, blowing up himself and the clinic once Jessica has grabbed Trish and run outside.
*In the hospital, Jessica and Malcolm have it out, and she fires him/he quits. Jessica waits for Trish to recover, and has one last conversation with Kilgrave about her not being him or her mother, that she has control over her actions.
*In prison, Alisa sees on Marilyn's tv the news report of the IGH explosion, which includes that the man presumed dead in the explosion was Karl, who social media has linked with Trish due to photo posted by the fan outside the storage unit. Alisa starts sobbing uncontrollably, and when Marilyn enters the cell, she knocks her out and smashes down the doors.
*AV Club - Jessica Jones faces her demons
*Jessica covers up the evidence of her killing Dale, then writes a suicide note over his having murdered prisoners, and drops his body off the roof of the building while an imaginary Kilgrave applauds her.
*The new guard, Marilyn Toussaint, is nice, and lets Alisa call Jessica to check up on her after her 'date.'
*Jessica takes Oscar's forged documents to the motel only to find Karl gone. Back at prison, she hears the guards chatting about Dale's death, and nobody's sorry to see him gone. Marilyn lets Jessica and Alisa speak unsupervised, but Alisa has no clues for Jessica on where Karl might have gone, and suspects Trish is behind it. Visions of Kilgrave continue to bedevil Jessica.
*Back at the office she discovers Malcolm's snooping of her photos on the cloud, and finds Trish's sunglasses in his bed. She uses his dating app 'you are x miles from so-and-so' function to triangulate his location (which is bound and gagged in the trunk of Trish's car while she forces Karl to dig his super-power-making tech out of storage). A Trish-fan snaps a photo of her and Karl as they drive away.
*In a parking garage, Malcolm frees himself and confronts Trish, but she fires her gun at his feet when he tries to stop her, and she drives away with Karl when Jessica arrives on the scene.
*In prison, the guard's tv show gives Alisa a flashback of her first kiss with Karl, at the beach where he told her he was shutting down IGH because he no longer trusted Hansen and Kozlov, and would instead find somewhere they could live together, ethics be damned.
*From the logo on her shopping bag, Malcolm figures out where Trish had gone while the car was parked, a nearby veterinary office, where Jessica bullies the vet tech into admitting she sold them some anesthetic and FVRCP feline distemper vaccine. An increasing number of imaginary Kilgraves urge Jessica to embrace her killer nature, and she almost chokes a random bystander. Malcolm tries to deescalate the situation while Jessica takes off for IGH.
*At the old clinic, Karl has hooked up his old equipment and started the procedure at Trish's encouragement. Jessica arrives just as sedated Trish begins bleeding from the mouth, and Jessica breaks through the window and rips the equipment away, then stops herself from killing Karl despite her internal-Kilgrave's urging. But Karl abruptly decides to end it all himself, and takes aim on the oxygen tanks with Trish's gun, blowing up himself and the clinic once Jessica has grabbed Trish and run outside.
*In the hospital, Jessica and Malcolm have it out, and she fires him/he quits. Jessica waits for Trish to recover, and has one last conversation with Kilgrave about her not being him or her mother, that she has control over her actions.
*In prison, Alisa sees on Marilyn's tv the news report of the IGH explosion, which includes that the man presumed dead in the explosion was Karl, who social media has linked with Trish due to photo posted by the fan outside the storage unit. Alisa starts sobbing uncontrollably, and when Marilyn enters the cell, she knocks her out and smashes down the doors.
Of course this episode is great because of David Tennant, but Krysten Ritter is also putting in a stellar performance!
posted by Pendragon at 1:16 PM on March 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Pendragon at 1:16 PM on March 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
Hard to say if it's this episode or the previous where I crossed over to annoyance-watching (can't say it raises to the level of hate-watching). Just too many times of bending the lines into stupidity driven or plot driven actions (what kind of PI doesn't password protect her computer?). Just not into the Kilgrave flashbacks and the mother/daughter origin story.
posted by kokaku at 2:26 PM on March 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 2:26 PM on March 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
Jessica, if you can't shooter her, give me the gun and I will. Bringing mom back was a terrible idea that has be terrible done.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:34 PM on March 12, 2018
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:34 PM on March 12, 2018
Oh no. Malcolm is reminding me of Tara from True Blood -- I'm spending all his scenes screaming at him to run away from these awful people, just get away before it's too late.
posted by grandiloquiet at 9:46 PM on March 12, 2018
posted by grandiloquiet at 9:46 PM on March 12, 2018
what kind of PI doesn't password protect her computer?
One that's blackout drunk about every other night, if not every night. The thing that stuck out for me is that she didn't wear gloves to a breaking and entering.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:41 PM on March 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
One that's blackout drunk about every other night, if not every night. The thing that stuck out for me is that she didn't wear gloves to a breaking and entering.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:41 PM on March 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
Karl's sudden turn from agreeing to experiment on Trish to suicide was incredibly abrupt.
This kindof makes sense to me in one of two ways:
1) Karl did not actually commit suicide, is not dead, and the explosion was the cover for his clever scientist escape.
2) Karl is pretty much kept going by his desire to do science and his belief that perfecting his technique and solving problems is just around the corner... and if he confronts a situation where that might not be possible (dragged by Jessica or someone else to jail), then he'd rather die. Plus maybe his subjects aren't the only ones whose moods/mental health has been affected by freaky science.
I think #1 would be better writing, and I will be disappointed if that isn't how it is. He hasn't seemed like he gave up on anything easily thus far. And speaking of people who don't give up easily, Hogarth clearly wants to find him from at least one pitch she gave Jessica, and I doubt even being conned once ain't gonna convince Jeri to go gently into that good night. Why, I'd be willing to bet that by the end of the season she hires some convenient young sharky and hungry PI types to do the job of finding Karl or at least some of his work.
posted by wildblueyonder at 11:28 PM on March 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
This kindof makes sense to me in one of two ways:
1) Karl did not actually commit suicide, is not dead, and the explosion was the cover for his clever scientist escape.
2) Karl is pretty much kept going by his desire to do science and his belief that perfecting his technique and solving problems is just around the corner... and if he confronts a situation where that might not be possible (dragged by Jessica or someone else to jail), then he'd rather die. Plus maybe his subjects aren't the only ones whose moods/mental health has been affected by freaky science.
I think #1 would be better writing, and I will be disappointed if that isn't how it is. He hasn't seemed like he gave up on anything easily thus far. And speaking of people who don't give up easily, Hogarth clearly wants to find him from at least one pitch she gave Jessica, and I doubt even being conned once ain't gonna convince Jeri to go gently into that good night. Why, I'd be willing to bet that by the end of the season she hires some convenient young sharky and hungry PI types to do the job of finding Karl or at least some of his work.
posted by wildblueyonder at 11:28 PM on March 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
Yeah #1. Perhaps we won’t know until season 3.
Even real death is not death in a comic anyway. Simpson came back.
posted by about_time at 5:21 PM on March 15, 2018
Even real death is not death in a comic anyway. Simpson came back.
posted by about_time at 5:21 PM on March 15, 2018
I was really not into Kilgrave's reappearance -- didn't find him compelling at all, and the whole conceit was just really cliched.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:43 PM on March 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:43 PM on March 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
I tend to not go with #1, as it's both too much of a comic book cliche and I don't really see what the point of keeping Karl around would be, since Jessica has his notebook. He doesn't seem to have a lot of personal resources; he needed Jessica to get him traveling papers, and agrees when Jessica mocks the idea of him setting up again in Uruguay. He knows that he's created monsters and this might have been the last straw.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:46 AM on March 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:46 AM on March 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
The building blew up a few seconds after Jessica was able to get clear. Malus wouldn't have had time to find someone, kill them, plant his ID on the body, blow the place up and escape.
posted by plastic_animals at 6:17 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by plastic_animals at 6:17 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]
Well, I can buy that Trish would do anything to become a superhero (plus well, maybe heal the damage from the inhaler). Sigh. I am bummed that there will be no scene in which Jeri demands superpowers too now. Very bummed about that.
I nth that Karl blowing himself up was uh...a super spontaneous mostly outta nowhere decision just designed to make Alisa go bonkers. Poor Marilyn.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:26 PM on March 22, 2018
I nth that Karl blowing himself up was uh...a super spontaneous mostly outta nowhere decision just designed to make Alisa go bonkers. Poor Marilyn.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:26 PM on March 22, 2018
Bringing back the S1 villain for an episode in a generally lackluster S2 worked out really great for Daredevil. Not so here, and I think it's the quality of the writing. Hauling David Tennant back in to generically taunt Jessica was nowhere near as powerful (or fun) as Vincent D'Onofrio beating the shit out of Frank Castle. Were they clever with the "smile for me" scene? a hint that the guy she pinned had actually catcalled her would have improved that I think.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 5:56 PM on March 29, 2018
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 5:56 PM on March 29, 2018
What a mess. Anyway, I guess Karl was paying the elec bill all these years for his abandoned clinic.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:58 PM on April 5, 2018
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:58 PM on April 5, 2018
I found the new prison guard situation implausible to the point of sexism. Fellow mom is swayed by mom stories and therefore completely eases up on security for a powered prisoner? Come on. The guard could be compassionate within her role as a guard and still enforce basic protocols.
> what kind of PI doesn't password protect her computer?
One that's blackout drunk about every other night, if not every night.
Eh, habit and motor memory take over for things like door locks, laptop passwords, etc., even when you're habitually drunk.
posted by desuetude at 8:32 AM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
> what kind of PI doesn't password protect her computer?
One that's blackout drunk about every other night, if not every night.
Eh, habit and motor memory take over for things like door locks, laptop passwords, etc., even when you're habitually drunk.
posted by desuetude at 8:32 AM on April 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
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But I'm pretty much just nodding in agreement with everything the AV Club said. Karl's sudden turn from agreeing to experiment on Trish to suicide was incredibly abrupt. Ah well. 11 down, 2 to go.
posted by oh yeah! at 12:18 PM on March 11, 2018