Not Binging Jessica Jones: Episode 13

Warning: Spoiler-y Spoilers

As I’m writing my final thoughts on Season One of Jessica Jones, it’s the end of January and the show has just been picked up for a second season. While I didn’t slow watch the whole show, neither did I binge-watch the series over a weekend. I prefer a hybrid of the two: watching an episode or two every few days, taking breaks here and there when the situations become too intense. The last few episodes seemed more mellow than the middle of the series.

Or maybe I just became numb to images of people lying on floors with their arms cut off. By the third or fourth time Kilgrave told someone to kill themselves or used a crowd of innocents as human shields it stopped feeling as urgent. Perhaps like Jessica, I had started to see through Kilgrave’s tricks. Scratch the surface and the man who can control people’s minds is really a one-trick pony. When he doesn’t get his way he imposes his will on others with horrific consequences. But in stark contrast to his protests about how he never killed anyone, his control is all over. Forcing someone to do what you want them to do is no different than you doing it yourself…is it?

I’m a mess of emotions after the end of Jessica Jones. Kilgrave is dead, but his presence will be felt long after he’s rotted in the ground. Jessica doesn’t seem convinced that snapping Kilgrave’s neck made her any more of a hero, no matter what people want to believe. Her feelings toward Luke remain unresolved, and it’s unclear how/if their relationship will progress when Luke Cage premieres on Netflix later this year. Then there’s Trish, who’s still searching for the origin of Jessica’s powers. Trish has revealed herself to be envious of her adopted sister, and given the dark tone of the Netflix Marvel series, I’m afraid of what will happen to her if she decides to go down the road she first started on when she took one of Will’s pills.

Netflix seems committed to continuing their own little corner of the MCU. Claire (Rosario Dawson) from Daredevil is a welcome sight. Reading some of the scuttlebutt on the next series, it sounds like Carrie-Anne Moss will reprise her role as Hogarth in Iron Fist. Will Malcolm show up in Luke Cage? He seemed determined to find his place in the world helping people. Who can say?

Kilgrave won’t make it back. Props to David Tennant for a brilliant performance. Like Daredevil’s Wilson Fisk, Kilgrave broke the rule that says Marvel villains suck. They just need a little more breathing room than a two-hour movie allows, it seems.

Here’s hoping Jessica Jones pops up in the next few Netflix Marvel series. A year seems like too long t wait until the next season…