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“Jessica Jones” recap (1.09): Don’t box me in

Previously on Jessica Jones: Jessica goes back home to live with Kilgrave. I know, I thought it sounded like a terrible idea, too. But then she went all WWJJD, and I liked the idea a lot more.

You know when you’ve been saving up a really, really good burn and then it is finally, finally time to deploy your epicness? Yeah, I bet Jessica feels just like that. She has successfully trapped Kilgrave in the hermetically sealed, sound-proof room. He whines about being lied to. Oh, boo-hoo. Cry me a river. Or, maybe he already did from the looks of the standing water in the cell.

Kilgrave says some awful stuff. Jessica tries not to murder him with her bare hands. Kilgrave says some more awful stuff. Jessica punches the satisfyingly large red button and sends a satisfyingly large jolt of electricity through Kilgrave’s body. Ah, so that’s what the water is for. Finally a truly excellent use for men’s tears.

Trish is dealing with her own man tears, or I’m assuming there are tears there behind all that blood. Guess getting blown up by the nosey neighbor didn’t kill him—just fucked him up badly. Trish is now racing him to the hospital. Hey, did you know they have these convenient and sanitized transportation devices complete with medical equipment that specializes in taking people to that very place?

Jessica is playing clips of experimentations on Kilgrave—and other kids. Is she trying to get to his root? In the midst of interrogating him, Jeri walks in. Kilgrave plays the victim, which is so gross on so many levels. She is appalled by what she sees, which is a bit puzzling. I mean, she’s a successful power lawyer in New York City. This? This is nothing.

Oh, wait, she isn’t appalled by the torture. She is appalled by the poor legal standing which a confession obtained under duress will have in the courts. Ah, that makes more sense. Jessica still hasn’t proven Hope’s innocence and Kilgrave’s assholeness beyond a shadow of legal doubt.

And now the clock is ticking because Hope has been offered a plea deal and only has 48 hours to accept. But that would mean Hope would still need to do about 20 years. Jessica can’t have that, so she leaves Jeri to watch Kilgrave while she goes to get the final piece she needs. Um, isn’t he already in an impenetrable box? So, then, why does he need a babysitter?

We all realize this is a terrible idea, leaving the two of them alone, right?

Jeri is furiously texting with her divorce lawyer about being furious at Wendy’s settlement demands—which have gone from 75 percent to 90 percent of her assets. They trade barbs over the phone all under Kilgrave’s watchful eye. Hey, did you know he can read lips. Yeah, see I told you this was a terrible idea.

But then, even though he offers the tantalizing prospect of making any stubborn problem disappear, she doesn’t appear to take the bait. Whew, right? I mean, dodged a morally ambiguous bullet there, right? Right?

Simpson is now at the hospital but refusing to let anyone but some mysterious Dr. Kozlov see him. But despite being blown to hell, he is still obsessing about killing Kilgrave. He tells Trish she must do it now. So, when your boyfriend orders you to kill someone—even an evil someone—it’s kind of a dealbreaker, yes?

Kozlov arrives and shoos Trish out of the room. Simpson says something about wanting back in. Does he mean a book club? I bet he left the group when they were reading the latest Jonathan Franzen and now that they’ve moved on to Roxane Gay he wants back in. I’m pretty sure I’m right about this.

Jessica returns and tries to bait/beat Kilgrave into deploying his mind control for the cameras. It doesn’t go well. But were we expecting it to go well? Jeri wants to stop the train wreck, but Trish arrives in time to stop her and share her great on-screen chemistry with all female characters.

But because there can be only one ship to rule them all on Jessica Jones, Jeri leaves. Trish then proves once again that Trishica Jones is the real thing and stops Jess right before she actually kills him. Then she offers to pay for them to run away together. I’m not even joking, that’s what happened.

Jeri is back at her office fuming about her ex. How have I not noticed her ridiculously gorgeous view of the Empire State Building before? Also, how have I not noticed that Pam’s dress pattern is a bunch of rams? Oh, I don’t know, maybe because this scene is stupid sexy and I couldn’t pay attention to anything other than where Jeri’s hand was going.

Gotta hand it to Pam, on most shows “the other woman” would just be a pair of nice boobs who looks pretty. On Jessica Jones, sure, she had nice boobs and looks pretty—but she also has her own agency and what she wants is the cutthroat Jeri, who gets her hot, to come back to her. And until she returns, can’t handle her ex-Jeri ain’t getting none. Now that’s what I call motivation.

Also, raise your hand if you rewound that scene a few times? Don’t worry, I won’t ask where your hand was.

Trish and Jessica zero in on Kilgrave’s parents as the key to breaking him. While he finger paints on the cell wall, they sleuth out that they used to be professors at the University of Manchester. More calls later and she has their names.

Across town, Jeri is visiting Hope in prison and presents her with the plea offer. Then she says some bleak things about the real world and happy endings. You know, her whole family is dead, and she is in prison for their murders—you couldn’t maybe sugarcoat things just a little bit for the poor girl?

Jess and Trish are still searching for Kilgrave’s parents when Jessica steps on the photo of his mother and leaves a footprint on her face. It sparks something, which makes her run off to a support meeting. No, Jessica hasn’t become a friend of Bill W. It’s the Kilgrave support group, and she came because one woman in the group looks suddenly familiar.

It’s Kilgrave’s mother—her scarred face the evidence of his terribleness even in childhood. But before you think they’re terrible Dr. Frankensteins who created a monster in the name of scientific exploration, they explain they were actually trying to save his life. He was born with a terminal neuro-disease and, you guessed it, the treatment they tried gave him his super powers. Whoopsie?

Trish is on Kilgrave duty when Jeri arrives. Jeri suggests she step outside for some fresh air. Well, now, remember how earlier I said leaving those two alone would be a terrible idea? Yeah.

Also in terrible idea land is Simpson, who is somehow miraculously feeling a lot better. Kozlov gives him a series of color-coded pills—one red to get going, two whites to stay even and a blue to come down. Either he is going into The Matrix or a rave. But then Simpson takes two reds, so it looks like someone is gonna be way too high to dance.

From here things move very quickly. Jeri looks like she is about to let Kilgrave out, but then Jessica arrives. She has brought his parents with her. And then the detective gets there with his gun drawn. But then Trish draws her gun on the detective. Are you still with me? Because we haven’t even started.

Kilgrave’s parents go into the cell with him. But, don’t worry—there’s that killswitch, remember? Jeri seems…worried. Is it the cop handcuffed to the pipe behind her? I dunno. But for some reason, she seems more worried than usual about Jessica’s plan.

There’s a lot of yelling about parental abandonment. Everyone feels bad. There’s a hug; everyone seems genuinely sorry. And then Kilgrave’s mom pulls out some big-ass kitchen shears and stabs him. Well, I did not see that coming.

What happens next, yeah, I totally saw that coming. Kilgrave tells his mom to pick up the scissors and stab herself for every year she left him alone. As she does, Jessica knows she has him. So she pounds the killswitch. But, oops, the wire has been cut.

So, pretty much, everything goes to hell. His mom kills herself; Trish shoots through the glass to stop him from having his dad do the same. But now he is free and sharing air space with everyone. He commands Patsy to put a bullet in her head. He commands the detective to come with him. He tries to command Jessica to let go of him. We’ll call this one Kilgrave 4, Jessica Jones 1.

Let’s hear it for free will. In that moment, Jessica realizes he can’t control her anymore. It’s pretty awesome, aside from the death and him escaping and plan going all to shit part. But otherwise, yeah, it’s a good moment for our hero.

Find more from Dorothy Snarker visit dorothysurrenders.com or @dorothysnarker.

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