Not Binging Jessica Jones: Episode 5
It must be the timing, or lack thereof, that gives Marvel its villain problem. With the exception of Loki, all of Marvel’s movie villains have failed to bring the sense of fear and dread that Wilson Fisk did in Daredevil. Vincent D’Onofrio’s Fisk had a season for viewers to know, hate, and fear him, compared to less than two hours for a Ronin or an Ultron. I think Loki proves this rule, as he’s the only villain that has spanned several movies, (Thanos aside). We’ll see how this bodes for bad guys like Thanos and Crossbones in the MCU, since they’ll be around for a few movies more.
In the meantime, Tennant’s Kilgrave is establishing himself as the scariest thing about Jessica Jones and possibly in the MCU, now that Fisk is out of commission. Kilgrave’s cavalier way of hurting people makes him scarier. There’s a scene in Episode 5 “AKA The Sandwich Saved Me,” where Kilgrave is leafing through magazines at a stand, waiting for his contact. When the shopkeeper confronts him, Kilgrave calmly says “Pick up your coffee. Throw it in your face.” And walks away as the man does it. It’s a short scene, but the cold approach is what gives me shivers, which now happens every time Tennant is on screen.
Episode 5 is a slow burn, the kind of mid-season exposition episode Game of Thrones likes to dish out once a season. While Jessica, Will, and Trish set up plans to kidnap Kilgrave—plans that go horribly, horribly wrong—the audience also gets flashbacks of Jessica’s life before Kilgrave, when she worked dead-end jobs and saved people on the side. As a nod to readers of the comic book, Trish holds up Jessica’s comic-book costume and suggests Jewel for a superhero name (one of Jessica’s aliases in the comics), both of which Jessica rejects. While the MCU may be a silly place from time to time, such silliness doesn’t extend to Hell’s Kitchen.
One of the reasons I’ve been watching these episodes one at a time instead of all at once is their super-dark nature. Jessica Jones is the kind of series where I need to hug a puppy after each episode. There’s little levity in Episode 5 to escape the grimness of Jessica’s reality, a reality where druggies are used as human puppets and prisoners are beaten up without repercussion. While I continue to hope that everything is going to work out, I’m steeling myself for the inevitable loss. Someone will die; I can feel it in my bones. And every time Kilgrave smiles, I fear for Jessica’s safety…
