Jessica Jones Review: AKA WWJD? (Season 1 Episode 8)
When the episode opens with Kilgrave stating he’s not delusional, you know you’re in for a ride.
But then again, it feels like you always are with Jessica Jones .
The eighth episode of a the first, thirteen episode season of Jessica Jones feels like somewhat of a milestone. We’re past the halfway point already. It’s either sink or swim, and boy, are we swimming. We’re swimming so hard that, in this hour alone, we go from he what to the are you kidding me straight to the this has to be a joke, only to end in the am I really seeing this? And I mean this in a good way. In the best way possible, really.
Sometimes I start composing a review before the hour is done. I don’t always do it, there are some days where you just can’t look away from the screen, but if I have the time, and the inclination, I’ll pick the one idea I think I should base my review on, and run with it, even as I watch the final few minutes. I do this understanding that the whole thing might backfire completely, of course. If the episode ends in an unexpected way, I might have written five hundred words that I’ll never, ever use.
Not to toot my horn, but that hardly ever happens to me. Emphasis on the almost never, because this is the rare episode where it did.
Did I expect Jessica to just lay down and take it? No, not really. Did I assume she was going to use her brain and the resources available to her to send the Kilgrave recordings to Hogarth right away? Nope. TV has become so contrived that sometimes, even a little common sense is an amazing thing to see. The worst part is, they’ve trained me to expect stupid plot devices instead of realism, so when Jessica behaves like a normal human being with good sense, I can’t help but cheer. You’re not just winning against Kilgrave, Jessica! You’re landing a blow against of whole genre of stupidity!
Her decision to go to him means that this episode was the first time we got to see the Kilgrave/Jessica dynamic, and though I don’t really like Kilgrave one bit, I still sort of enjoyed it. As I’ve said before, the magic of Kilgrave is how David Tennant plays him, with a kind of childish naiveté and a sense of wonder that seems wholly at odds with who he is and what he does. He knows some of the things he’s done are bad, he just doesn’t ever stop to think about them. He doesn’t care – one way or the other. That, to me, makes him not only a villain, but a monster. A real one.
But look at it from his point of view: It’s hard to be overly invested in anything when you can get whatever you want.
As brilliant as Tennant is, and as much depth as they’ve given Kilgrave, the woman we met eight episodes ago is nothing to the Jessica Jones we know today. When we first started seeing this she was a victim. Now, she’s a hero. And not only because she’s trying to save herself, and others, but because she’s finally facing the truth of what happened with Kilgrave. The truth of what he did. The truth of what he made her do. For seven episodes Jessica has talked the talk but not walked the walk. She’s hogged all the guilt. But not anymore.
What would Jessica Jones do? She’d find a way. That’s who she is.
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Jessica Jones Season 1 is available on Netflix right now.
Lissete Lanuza Sáenz
Lawyer. Writer. Columnist. Geek. Falls in madly in love with fictional characters. Hates the color yellow, misogyny, and people who are late. Can always be found with a book. Watches an absurd amount of TV every week, often, while eating coffee ice cream. She has no regrets. You can check out her blog here: Absurday. Lissete is a senior writer for Tell-Tale TV. Follow @lizziethat