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“Jessica Jones” recap (1.12): Tender is the night, except the opposite

Previously on Jessica Jones: Trish and Jessica reveal their bond, past and present. Luke reveals his flame resistance, mostly present. Simpson reveals his assholery pretty much always.

So Luke has been Kilgraved to blow up his own bar. Jessica grills the still stunned and singed, Luke on what else Kilgrave told him to do. But he insists it was just the kaboom. The only good news is that Kilgrave apparently doesn’t know about Luke’s unbreakable skin, and the authorities don’t know the bar was his—so he goes into hiding with Jessica.

Well, hiding is a bit of a stretch. They just go to her place with its broken Carl and smashed walls. So much for your security deposit. Amid the shambles of their lives, they figure out one thing—Kilgrave can’t control Jessica anymore because of Reva.

Unfortunately, it’s a fact Kilgrave is also keenly aware of. He has been using his not-so-dear old dad to help increase his powers. But they aren’t increasing fast enough for his liking. Granted, megalomaniacs never think they have enough power.

Jessica hears from Trish, who is at the hospital and doing a much better job remembering how to breathe. She has been asking around about Simpson’s doctor Koslov. He works for a company called IGH, which is an acronym for “I Grow Hostile” when I take the red pills. Fine, it’s not—but it should be. It’s actually a shadowy corp. with no known background.

Next, in a segment about admission and forgiveness, Trish’s mom comes to deliver flowers in the hospital. She lays on some underwhelming guilt about not being given another chance to be a good mother. Trish asks her to leave. Back at Jessica’s place, she tells Luke he could leave and never have to worry about Kilgrave again. But he tells her that’s not the kind of man he is. So he leaves with her. Juxtaposing narratives, yo.

They run into Malcolm, who is also leaving—but for good. He says he has had enough of the “loneliness” he feels around her. It’s harsh, but probably not wrong. Actually, I’m OK with this. The less people around, the less potential for collateral damage. Look, you have to be pragmatic when you’re dealing with a psychopath intent on personal destruction.

Luke and Jessica try to track Kilgrave and his dad. It leads them to a lab which is working on some compound to help make Kilgrave’s powers stronger. While they wait, Luke apologizes for blaming Reva’s murder on Jessica. He says now he finally understands Kilgrave’s powers. And he forgives her—for everything. Oh man, this is such a nice moment which means now something terrible is going to happen. Come on, we all know this isn’t the happily ever after show, folks.

While Luke has taken the high-road to apology and forgiveness, Trish’s mom has taken the buying-your-love route. She has come bearing a file on the mysterious “IGH,” which she hopes to trade for a relationship with her daughter—and/or a lucrative bottled water endorsement. So, yeah, maybe still no mother-of-the-year mug for her. The paperwork is from Jessica’s adoptions files. IGH paid her medical bills from the accident. Well, this just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.

Jess and Luke spot a courier running into the lab to retrieve the product for Kilgrave, so they follow him. They follow his taxi until he gets out and starts cutting through Central Park. Then—because Kilgrave is an endlessly inventive homicidal maniac—the courier eats a pair of garden shears.

Rattled, Luke and Jessica return to her apartment. She knows time is running out because sooner rather than later Kilgrave will be leveling up, and then no one will be safe. Luke shows unexpected tenderness and concern while trying to soothe her. It surprises her, and me. This is not a comment on him (or her) but on all the relationships on this show that do not involve Jessica and Trish.

Speaking of Trish, she is standing outside of busted Carl. She has the IGH paperwork, but when she sees Luke, she hides it back in her bag. Trust no bitch, amirite? Luke and Trish meet for the first time, which involves a lot of unconscious sizing up of the competition on Trish’s part. Ship them or not, she’s clearly trying to decide whether this guy is worthy of her Jessica.

Jess asks Luke to give them a minute. Then Trish says the papers can wait because it’s private. Um, no. Never say in a movie or TV show you’ll tell anyone anything later. That’s shorthand for “You’re about to be murdered and then we’ll never find out what you were going to tell them and then that will be the mystery narrative for this entire story.” Sorry, I may watch a lot of TV.

Then Trish makes some pointed remarks about how Jessica pushes everyone who wants to get closer to her away. Well, the girl does speak from experience. Jessica says she can’t allow herself to feel, well, anything while Kilgrave is still out there. Trish understands, but says when it’s over, and Jessica has won, she hopes she allows herself some happiness. And she wants more than anything else to be the cause of happiness in her. But, if she’s not, then she can’t stand in the way, you see? Because what she is feeling now is the unstoppable force.

I’m sorry. Did I lapse into Imagine Me & You fanfiction again? That happens from time to time; I apologize.

Meanwhile, Malcolm remains humanity’s conscience and instead of leaving as he has planned, he goes upstairs to help a freaking out Creepy Twin Girl. She is attacking the mail delivery lady, ranting about mind control and body parts and the like. But all it was was a package that dearly departed Creepy Twin Guy had ordered before he was made departed. She admits it was him people liked, not her. This show is just one gut-punch into pathos after another.

Less of a gut punch and more of a nonstop nausea machine is Kilgrave, who continues to whine and complain. He is focusing most of his berating on his father, who isn’t making his superpowers even more super-powered fast enough. He has commandeered a gay couple’s penthouse apartment and is making his father mad science his abilities. But when it isn’t going as planned, he threatens to have his dad turn his hand into a smoothie. Kids. Yeah, still pretty happy with my choice to only have furbabies.

Jessica and Luke decide to look for reports of hoaxes or magic tricks to see whether Kilgrave has been testing out his powers. Of course, he has. They track him to a theater where he called the crowd a bunch of wankers. They go to check it out, but instead of finding video evidence of Kilgrave they find Kilgrave himself.

He is testing out his supercharged powers, but they still don’t work on Jessica. Sadly, they already worked on Luke. You see, he wrote his whole forgiveness script. Luke has been under Kilgrave’s control the whole time. Ooof. Well, that’s not great. That’s really not great.

Kilgrave orchestrated everything. All those “tender” moments. It was Kilgrave still trying to prove how much Jessica should love him. But, considering he is also a misogynistic sociopath with a superiority complex and oversized feelings of entitlement, that is never gonna happen. So instead, he punishes her for not choosing him and orders Luke to kill her.

A pretty epic throwdown ensues. Chairs, cabinets go flying. Bodies go flying, too—mostly Jessica’s. She implores him to push Kilgrave out because he is stronger than her. But he can’t—or possibly doesn’t want to. It’s hard for Jessica to tell what with all the fists flying at her head.

Jessica does everything she can to get him to stop, but, in the end, it comes down to the barrel of a shotgun. It makes him pause, but he can’t stop himself. So he tells her to do what she has to do. And so the gun goes off, and it’s finally over. Well, it’s all over but for the horrible swelling on the brain.

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