Jessica Jones 1x13 Review: That's the Power of Love

“AKA Smile”
Written by Jamie King, Scott Reynolds, and Melissa Rosenberg
Directed by Michael Rymer
 
The Story
Jessica takes Luke to Mercy General, but it’s actually super difficult to treat someone with unbreakable skin. Luckily, Claire is there! Jessica convinces her to help, and they start heading out when Kilgrave shows off the new extent of his powers: he can do it remotely—at least while he’s in the same building, perhaps. Claire gets out with Luke before she can be affected, but Kilgrave sics everyone else there on Jessica. He flees before she can fight her way to him. Claire manages to find a way to relieve the swelling in Luke’s brain, and she and Malcolm take turns watching over him while Jessica and Trish go after Kilgrave. Kilgrave considers the risks (barely) and decides it’s worth it to power up as far as his dad can manage it. Sadly, that doesn’t kill him. Jessica calls Hogarth because she wants her to represent one of the guys Kilgrave has been controlling for the last few days. Like Hope, he’ll end up charged with murder if he doesn’t get help. Jessica and Trish follow Kilgrave’s bait to the docks, where he has a boat waiting to set off. There are lots of bullets, and then Killgrave has a bunch of people start attacking each other. Jessica freezes when he says stop, and for the next couple of minutes, he tries to find out if she’s bluffing by talking about what he’s going to do to Trish, the one person Jessica loves. He eventually believes he really has control of her again, but Jessica was only pretending so he’d get close enough for her to snap his neck. Luke wakes up and pulls one of those irritating superhero exits on Claire. Hogarth gets Jessica off for Kilgrave’s murder, spinning a story about how it was a suicide and she has way too many witnesses for the whole “mind control” thing to be a problem to the case. Malcolm sticks around to be part of Alias Investigations with Jessica, and Trish has lots of intriguing material to go through about the company behind Jessica’s powers and Simpson’s meltdown.
 
 
I think “altruism is the best cure for self-loathing” might actually be the main theme of the entire season after all. I like it. It makes the final confrontation with Kilgrave perfect. Jessica finally tells Trish she loves her and snaps Kilgrave’s neck, symbolizing that she’s overcome the damage he did to her ability to love. She can open up now, and she’s less afraid of helping other people. Malcolm, too, has realized that simply running away won’t make him feel better, but helping will.
 
Things I Liked

• CLAIRE
• The doctor being flabbergasted when she realizes Luke is superpowered
• Jessica dressing up as a doctor again.
• Dang, Claire and optic nerves. What’s up with that?
• Claire and Jessica dead-pan snarking at each other. So different from how she and Matt interacted. I love it.
• Jessica snuggling with Luke and telling him how she pictures a future with him
• Even the drugs that affect Kilgrave’s powers are purple!
• ...I kinda ship Malcolm/Claire
• Malcolm and Claire’s conversation
• Jessica recommending altruism for treating self-loathing to Hogarth
• Trish in Jessica’s clothes, listening to super loud music so as not to be Kilgraved (why haven’t they been doing this all season?)
• Mighty leap!
• Most satisfying neck snap ever
• Luke’s reaction to the news that Jessica killed Kilgrave is promising!
• Altruistic Hogarth is kind of a joy, shockingly
• Full circle! Broken door, Malcolm in Jessica’s kitchen

 
Things I Didn’t

• Kilgrave getting remote mind control powers is SO CREEPY (but how can that work if control is facilitated by a virus?)
• “Evil? Come on, how reductive.”
• Jessica telling Luke she’ll stay out of his life. I mean, probably the mature decision, but noooooooo I ship them so hard!
• AAAAAH ARMLESS KILGRAVE’S DAD. AAAAH BLENDER MINION.
• Murder flashmob!
• “From your perspective I’ll be raping her every day.” YOUR perspective?!

 
The Characters
I can’t wait to find out how Matt reacts when he hears about this whole Kilgrave thing. As powerful as Kilgrave was by the end of the season, there really wasn’t any other way to defeat him than to kill him.
 
Now that Kilgrave is losing hope of ever being able to control Jessica, he’s willing to settle for killing her. Because that’s control, in a way. Another check mark down the abusive relationship list. The end Kilgrave fantasizes about giving Jessica is the one he’s been living, but I don’t feel sorry for him at all, because he deserves to wither away from not getting what he wants. Or, you know, to get his neck snapped.
 
Overall Rating
5/5