The second episode of Marvel’s Jessica Jones – Crush
Syndrome – sees superhero turned private eye Jessica move out from the seedy
back alleys and smoky bars of Hell’s Kitchen as the nature of her enquiries
takes on a more personal nature.
As always, this review will include spoilers so please be cautious if you have not yet watched the episode.
Read our review for episode 1 here
Read our review for episode 1 here
There’s a recurring visitor to Jessica’s bathroom in this
episode in the form of a cockroach who pops in and out of her sink plug. The
cockroach, that seemingly indestructible survivor, comes to symbolise the
despicable man who has ruined not only Jessica’s life but now Hope’s too. Kilgrave,
whom Jessica had believed crushed to death in the bus crash that also took the
life of Reva Connors, has survived. In the course of her enquiries Jessica –
and the viewer – learns with growing horror the lengths to which Kilgrave will
go to in order to survive and the disregard for the wellbeing of others he has
while fulfilling his wishes. This can’t be made clearer than her visit to the
paramedic who treated Kilgrave at the scene, to find the young man paralysed
and wired up to a dialysis machine after the monster ordered a surgeon to rip
out his kidneys to replace his own.
Hope, meanwhile, who was unfortunate enough to become
Kilgrave’s messenger, now faces life in prison for the apparently pre-meditated
murder of her parents. She relies on the evidence of other victims of Kilgrave’s
abuses who can corroborate her claims, and for this Jessica must face her demons and bring her abuser back into her life. Hope's lawyer, Hogarth, is
having a little difficulty in believing the power of mind control herself – even though
this is a universe in which there exists a man who can turn into a rampaging
green monster and a god with a magic hammer. Jessica is anguished to realise
that Hope was chosen for her athletic ability although her long jump capabilities
could never match the superhero's powers. “He said I was never as good as you,”
Hope states flatly, revealing the extent of Kilgrave’s obsession with Jessica
who, he has said, left him to suffer, to die. Now he wants to get back at her, and Hope is
aware that terrible things could happen should someone with Jessica’s powers
come under Kilgrave’s powers. There might be a way out. “You should kill
yourself,” she tells the PI. "Probably," Jessica retorts, "But I'm the only one who knows you're innocent."
Meanwhile mystery grows around the enigmatic Luke Cage. When
the police find surveillance photos of Luke in Jessica’s office he is subject
to a routine check by officers investigating the Schlottman killings and he’s
quite unhappy about being dragged into the mess. Then it emerges that it wasn’t
Luke’s lover’s husband who called Jessica in to spy on the couple – so if not
him, then who would be so interested in this dive bar owner? But it’s only when
Jessica becomes involved in a bar fight with Luke that they discover they both
have powers: Jessica’s super strength and Luke’s unbreakable skin. Now there
are two ‘gifted’ individuals hiding out in Hell’s Kitchen for their own reasons
– Luke’s background, of course, is another story…
As Jessica insists on pursuing her nemesis, her fear and paranoia grow. She has visions of Kilgrave and every shadow, every strange noise could be him. She even attacks a workman in her own flat, thinking he might be a home invader. But if he has any doubts that she's doing the right thing then she just needs to glance upwards in her elevator: the bloodstains from the shooting are still there. Like Hope says, if Jessica had made sure that Kilgrave was dead, this would never have happened. She's responsible now for ending it all. Despite her terror, Jessica is still reluctant to
involve anyone else in her hunt, especially Trish, at the risk of putting them
in danger. Trish, however, is taking her own precautions to stay safe,
undergoing an intensive programme of martial arts training. Is this the start
of her own transformation into Hellcat, if this is the path that the character
is to take? At the same time we learn that Hogarth’s personal life has taken a hit as her wife is now aware of her affair, meaning things are about to get
difficult for her. There’s also a comic twist when Jessica learns that the
feuding couple from upstairs are not partners, as she thought, but actually
twins, Robyn and Ruben. From first impressions is doesn’t seem as if Jessica
and Robyn are setting out to be BFFs.
Kilgrave still lurks in the shadows, with his menace being
largely ramped up through anecdotes of some of his heinous acts. But suddenly here's the man himself, knocking on the door of an
apartment and requesting entrance with unerring politeness. It’s the quietness
and the civility of his interactions that are so chilling, the way that he
makes such terrible and unreasonable requests in such a cultured and reasonable
tone. As he sits at the strangers’ dinner table ominously wielding a knife it’s
clear that it’s not going to end well for that family. Like a good Hitchcock
thriller, the power of imagination does all the hard work.
So, how can someone with the power of mind-control be
defeated when they can fend off an attack with just a few words? Thankfully Jessica
may have found a way to subdue Kilgrave. On the trail of Kilgrave, she makes the
important, though gruesome, discovery that Kilgrave underwent kidney transplant
surgery while conscious, with just an epidural. The surgeon who performed the
operation tells her that anaesthetics can shut down different parts of the
brain – this is what Kilgrave fears.
She now has a plan: get close to Kilgrave,
knock him out, incarcerate him. And this, Jessica hopes, is how she will crush
her cockroach.
Cast
Jessica Jones - Krysten Ritter
Kilgrave - David Tennant
Luke Cage - Mike Colter
Hope Schlottman - Erin Moriarty
Hogarth - Carrie-Anne Moss
Trish Walker - Rachael Taylor
Malcolm - Eka Darville
Robyn - Colby Minifie
Ruben - Kieran Mulcare
Pam - Susie Abromeit
Marvel's Jessica Jones is now available to stream via Netflix
Comments
Post a Comment