Here’s what I expected going into Jessica Jones: a gritty neo-noir enlivened by a heroine with honest-to-goodness super powers. What I wasn’t expecting was to be so deeply, thoroughly unnerved. “AKA The Sandwich Saved Me” is an episode you feel along your spine. It’s not perfect, which we’ll get to, but the parts that work are pretty goddamn strong.
This show is introducing its backstory beautifully. It’s almost as if the show became self aware, found out that I had whined about Jessica and Trish’s underdeveloped relationship, and decided to spend the next several hours making me eat my words. I’m buying this hook, line, and sinker. “Sandwich” gives us our first flashback, showing us Jessica’s life pre-Kilgrave. She’s not exactly happy, bouncing from one unfulfilling job to the next, but it’s great to see Krysten Ritter’s perfected scowl as she casually pushes over a file cabinet or beats a bar creep at a strength tester. It’s also nice to see Jessica Jones‘ version of girl time: Trish pitching superhero costumes and aliases to Jessica (in the comics she did in fact go by Jewel and wear that white outfit).
(Side note: I am absolutely in love with the way Jessica Jones portrays its’ hero’s strength. Jessica is casual and never showy – I can’t imagine her throwing a guy down the street like, say, Thor might do.)
The flashbacks make for a nice parallel with the A-story, which involves Jessica, Trish, and Simpson trying to kidnap Kilgrave. Simpson is a valuable addition to the team, even if he and Jessica constantly butt heads. Probably because he comes off way too gung-ho alpha male in this episode, which made for a jarring change, because we haven’t seen that before (granted, we haven’t seen much of Simpson, but it’s a weird move on the show’s part to show us his soft side then his macho side).
The kidnapping goes well, for the most part, until Kilgave’s security team shows up to reclaim him. With this development comes the sick realization that Kilgrave is, and always will be, several steps ahead. Even tranquilized and prone in the back of a van he’s still in control of the situation. I’m not kidding, I think Kilgrave might be my favorite Marvel villain.
I feel that way because Kilgrave is just so damn insidious. Watching even top-tier Marvel villains like Loki, Ultron, or even HYDRA, you never really get the sense they can win. They can sometimes throw the heroes for a loop, but did anyone ever get the impression that Iron Man was afraid of Loki? Of course not. For comparison, look at Jessica when she catches a glimpse of Kilgrave: she is goddamn terrified. And she hates that about herself. The way Ritter inhabits the character, you can tell she’s unused to being afraid, and like a lot of abuse survivors, her fear makes her angry. Ritter does some great facial acting, and she says more with a furrowed brow than most actors can with a monologue.
A great example of this is Jessica’s phone call with Kilgrave near the end of the episode. Once again Jessica Jones circumvents convention with the confrontation between heroine and villain. Throughout the call, Jessica doesn’t say a word, but Kilgrave’s effect on her is written large across her face. The Faustian bargain she strikes with Kilgrave – she sends him a picture of herself every day, and in exchange Kilgrave will leave Malcolm alone – is a huge step forward for such a thorny character, but it’s impossible to feel happy for her. Her face in the first picture she sends Kilgrave is heartbreaking. Losing Kilgrave was a setback – but this is a defeat. And that’s so much worse.
A Few Thoughts
- Okay, I didn’t get to this in the actual review, but I had some issues with pacing here. After the aborted kidnapping, things ground to a halt and never recaptured the momentum established earlier. This is excusable, somewhat, because of Jessica Jones‘ fine performances, but it did affect the overall quality
- David Tennant is #1, wearing the shit out of those suits, and #2, really enjoying himself here. It’s great to see him freed from the cutesy bullshit of Doctor Who, and he really makes your skin crawl. The way he talks to Jessica is quietly horrible. “Don’t forget to smile.”
- Today in Jessica Jones Doing Sleazy Shit: Jessica doesn’t take Malcolm to the hospital because she needs him to lead her to Kilgrave. She mitigates this by helping him detox later, I’ll give you that. I have a feeling this feature is going to be harder to write. Goddamnit
- “Two for one hoagies all day”
- “I was gonna say dart gun me, but sure, shoot me in the head”
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