Jessica Jones 1x10 Review: I Remember It Differently

“AKA 1,000 Cuts”
Written by Dana Baratta and Mica Schraft
Directed by Rosemary Rodriguez
 
The Story
Kilgrave hijacks Hogarth to get him the hell away from Jessica and to a doctor who can patch up his bullet wound. She takes him to Wendy, and the two of them commiserate about being “wronged” by the ones they love. And it’s gross that Kilgrave would consider himself in the same category as Wendy, when he’s really the Hogarth in his and Jessica’s “relationship.” Kilgrave makes Wendy actually act out the revenge she’s been fantasizing about: death by 1000 cuts. She makes it to about twenty-five by the time Pam shows up and whacks her over the head with a very solid vase, killing her. Hogarth tries to assure Pam she’ll fix everything, but Pam is super done with Hogarth now, because she’s realized Hogarth was going to use Kilgrave to make Wendy sign the divorce papers. Jessica arrives, having guessed where Hogarth would’ve taken Kilgrave, then leaves Hogarth to her mess. Kilgrave pops out at Jessica at her apartment because he genuinely believes she likes him too much to kill him. She knocks him out and ties him up after they argue over whether or not she willingly stayed with him. Trish and Kilgrave’s dad are working on an antidote to Kilgrave’s mind control virus, synthesized using Jessica’s blood. Also, Simpson is going nuts from his enhancement meds. He shoots Detective Clemens in the head because he doesn’t want Kilgrave merely going to jail. He continues to act erratic and scary when he goes to find Trish, so she kicks him out. Malcolm confesses what happened to Reuben to the support group, but Robyn was eavesdropping! She riles them all up and sics them on Jessica. They knock her out and unwittingly free Kilgrave. He grabs Hope and uses the support group as impending compelled suicide leverage so Jessica won’t try anything. Hope thinks things will be much simpler for Jessica if she’s no longer in the equation, so she stabs herself in the carotid artery with broken glass. Jessica only has time to save the support group, not Hope, and Kilgrave gets away with his dad. Also, it looks like the antidote doesn’t work.
 
Things I Liked

• Jessica’s loophole for Kilgrave’s “put a bullet in your head” order to Trish. Just stick one in your mouth!
• Hogarth’s extreme discomfort with all her forced honesty
• Pam dumping the crap out of Hogarth
• The different versions of the flashbacks based on who’s telling them
• The support group just accepting what Malcolm says about Kilgrave making Reuben kill himself! They know Kilgrave is real, so they believe it without a doubt! Amazing.
• Trish stealing Simpson’s pills. Slick!
• Anti-Kilgrave spray, like he’s a nasty odor

 
Things I Didn’t

• Holy crap, Kilgrave told Wendy to do “death by 1000 cuts” to Hogarth so casually!
• Wendy’s death is horrible
• WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, SIMPSON?!
• Dangit, Robyn, stop being so weird and sowing so much discord!
• Kilgrave’s predatory smile when Robyn takes the tape off his smile is SO SCARY
• Hope’s death

 
The Characters
It’s such a huge weight off of Jessica to be immune to Kilgrave’s power, but the situation is still complicated. I love how she doesn’t entertain Kilgrave’s idea for one second. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d looked all troubled when he mentioned those few seconds after his control expired, before he renewed it. But she just sweeps aside his revisionist history, because that’s not how it happened and she knows it. Self-possession for the win!
 
Hogarth gets a rather enormous taste of her own manipulative medicine, and boy is it bitter. But it clearly wasn’t enough, because she’s not repentant at all, even though Wendy is now dead. She’s just upset Pam dumped her and that things didn’t go how she wanted them to. Ugh.
 
I haven’t liked Pam’s character at all so far, because screw anyone who enters a relationship with a married person (and screw the cheating spouse too), and how could she possibly not have noticed what a bastard Hogarth was in all this time? But she gets points for dumping Hogarth, and for taking decisive action when she saw Hogarth getting viciously attacked.
 
Holy crap even more symptoms of an abusive relationship in those flashbacks. How dare Jessica not appreciate what Kilgrave does for her! She may as well cut off her ears if she’s not listening to him! He suffers so much because of her. It’s disgusting. I’m surprised Jessica told him she didn’t think he was delusional. That’s a pretty massive delusion right there.
 
Overall Rating
5/5