Jessica Jones 1x09 Review: Boo Hoo Your Tragic Childhood

“AKA Sin Bin”
Written by Jamie King and Dana Baratta
Directed by John Dahl
 
The Story
Jessica now has Kilgrave locked in the hermetically sealed room, and she’s trying to get video proof of his powers. He’s very good at not slipping, though. Hogarth continues to be in it for herself, and she wants Hope to take a plea bargain, which means Jessica only has forty-eight hours to get the evidence. Trish makes a comment about Kilgrave’s (well, Kevin’s) parents as they play the footage over and over to try shaking him up, and Jessica realizes she can probably get him if she finds his parents. She does her detective thing, following a slim lead from the footage and learning that his parents were professors at Manchester University. Hope wants to take the deal, but with this lead, Jessica has what she needs. She finds Kilgrave’s parents because his mom has been attending the support group, and she recognizes her from the photo. Simpson is getting patched up by a highly unusual doctor using highly suspect “medicine.” He clearly has some kind of Riley Finn-esque dodgy military background involving supersoldier drugs and anger issues. Jessica brings Kilgrave’s parents to the hermetically sealed room and tricks Detective Clemons to come so he can act as witness. Unfortunately, Kilgrave’s mom decided that she’s responsible for Kilgrave and that he’s past saving, which is why she sneaked in a pair of sewing scissors. She stabs Kilgrave but doesn’t succeed in killing him, so he orders her to stab herself with them. Jessica tries to knock them all out with the shock button, but the line was cut, so Kilgrave’s mom stabs herself over and over until she dies. Trish empties her gun into the glass in front of Kilgrave’s head, which is very lucky, because as soon as it breaks, he orders her to put a bullet in her own head, but she can’t do that now that she’s out. He orders Clemons to follow him, and Jessica grabs him to stop him leaving. He orders her to let him go, and she doesn’t. She’s been immune to his powers ever since she carried out the order to kill Reva, but this is the first time he’s slipped so she would realize it. Kilgrave might have escaped, but Jessica feels powerful now that she knows.
 
Things I Liked

• Jessica figuring out the burn victim lady from the support group is Kilgrave’s mom because of the dirty footprint she leaves on the picture, which sorta looks like the burn scars
• Malcolm looks so much better!
• That Kilgrave’s “horrible childhood” was a super unreliable account of what happened
• Jessica’s little smile when the detective shows up and points a gun at her. Right where she wants him!

 
Things I Didn’t

• Hogarth
• Jacket guy

 
The Characters
Jessica does yet more great detective work! I don’t like that she seems to believe Kilgrave’s parents were responsible for Kilgrave turning out to be a psychopath. Aren’t psychopaths born, not made? It sounds like he was already heading down that road as a young child. What non-psychopath child throws a tantrum at age ten and orders his mom to burn her face with an iron? Ten is at least four years older than the normal age at which children develop empathy. He’s had his mind control powers for a while, so he knows people take his orders literally, yet he just tossed that out and didn’t immediately retract it? I don’t blame his parents for running away at that point.
 
Hogarth has a lot of power, but it’s precarious. Wendy can destroy it if she wants to, which she increasingly does. She thinks she’s the best manipulator there is, since she can play an entire courtroom like a fiddle, but she’s about to bite off so much more than she can chew by trusting Kilgrave to hold up his end of whatever deal they made. How guilty does she feel over her part in helping Kilgrave kill his mom?
 
I think Kilgrave actually believes his own fabrications. He doesn’t just control other people; he controls his own perception of reality. He makes it completely favorable to him. The closest he came to accepting responsibility for anything (anything unpleasant, that is) was when his mother was standing right in front of him with her horrible burn scar. I do think that apology was genuine. He’s felt wronged by his parents for most of his life, but he didn’t see the damage he did them until now. Too bad that was the moment she chose to try stabbing him. I have no idea how that encounter would have played out if she’d just kept hugging him, but it probably wouldn’t have ended in horrific violence.
 
Trish hated throwing that switch on Jessica so much, but she’d rather hurt her for a second than watch her lose control to Kilgrave.
 
Strike three, Simpson! Abusing the already dodgy medications from your weird military doctor? Yikes.
 
Overall Rating
5/5