Friday, July 23, 2021

Netflix Retrospective - Jessica Jones Season 3 Episodes 11-13

We’re running down to the final episodes of Jessica Jones, Sallinger looks set to get away with murder, minus a scar or two, and Trish is beginning to set down a dark path in the wake of her mother’s death.

AKA Hellcat

Once again, we rewind the clock a bit, this time to Trish being coached by Dorothy into acting. Apparently, it’s a last gambit since they’re short of money. We cut back to Trish seeing Dorothy’s body. She knows Sallinger did it and is intent on making him pay for it.

We see the masked vigilante head into Sallinger's apartment building, knocking out the two officers outside. She bursts down the door and gives him everything she’s got, having her dead to rights until Jessica comes in to stop her. We see a few scenes from the aftermath of it all from Trish’s perspective.

We see Dorothy taking Trish to her audition, giving her red hair instead of the advertised blonde, Dorothy uses a gambit to get them to the front of the line. She warns her to look interesting rather than just smiling.

In the less distant past, Trish is woken up by some violent-sounding noise next door, Malcolm arrives with her clothes. And again, this is a rehash of a scene from earlier. Trish bangs on the wall to stop the noise and one of the guys arrives at her door, she beats the crap out of him, having apparently ignored the caution from episode 2. Still, at least this time you could argue self-defence more easily.

She’s beginning to work out again when she gets the scene with Jessica and Erik explaining what had happened and that Sallinger is going to get away. Coming out of the room, Erik is reverting to his old gambling habit. We then see Trish in the hospital, eyeing where Sallinger is, Sallinger lets her visit and the two have some back and forth and Sallinger reveals he left his latest work in ‘the most obvious place’ hence her looking at the photo album when she goes to the house.

In the flashback, Trish did get cast, but as the best friend and Dorothy isn’t happy. Fortunately the girl who was cast to lead is sick, so Dorothy convinces, with a pinch, Trish to offer to read her lines whilst she’s absent. Trish reluctantly agrees. Trish eventually does find the photo much to her horror. She comes to Erik, wanting to use his gifts to help her. A particular target in Nussbaumer springs to mind and I think you can see where this is going.

She gets Erik to have Nussbaumer meet him in a secluded location. In the shadows, Trish taunts him about all the people he’s killed, gaining his confession but when Trish confronts him directly as the masked vigilante, she can only see Sallinger’s face. She hits hard and he hits his head on something, causing him to bleed out. She rips off his badge before realising that he’s dying. Erik can’t help but laugh upon realising that his death has relieved his headaches.

We’re back at the funeral home with Trish waiting for Jessica to show up, she’s of course indisposed with the police. Something Trish soon discovers reading the NYB article. She leaves and is soon accosted by the detectives.

She comes to Erik and their plan of action is to hit another marc from his list and mention Nussbaumer to him, they ensure Jessica has a tight alibi and clear her of suspicion, the consequence being that she’ll likely work out it was them. The table read is a major success for Trish and they give her the lead. Dorothy is there to offer some rather aggressive advice.

Montero is their next mark. And they begin staking out his operations, they spot him at a trailer park. The first performance is a major success and now Dorothy starts pushing to give Trish even more of the spotlight by changing the show’s title. Trish in the present gets ready for the funeral when she gets a visit from Hogarth.

Hogarth shows her the footage and promises to delete it if she helps her with the Patseras situation. Trish begrudgingly agrees to that but warns Hogarth she may be next. We cut to after the funeral, Jessica now has a warrant for her arrest and Trish decides they need to hit Montero quickly but if she’s in the wind, she doesn’t have an airtight alibi. Trish plans to use Nussbaumer’s badge to further solidify the narrative they want to pull.

Erik notices Jessica tailing Trish and calls the cops on her, in police custody she has an airtight alibi for what happens next. Trish confronts Montero and beats him into a confession. You know it’d be useless in court, right? Still, she brings up Nussbaumer as required but the old Sallinger face crops up again and she beats him to death.

Erik’s headaches go away briefly before Trish realises that killing is in fact effective and plans to continue doing so.

It’s a bit padded at the beginning, but this is another strong character dive for Trish as her descent continues

Rating 7/10

AKA Lotta Worms

Their plan to get Jessica freed works and Jessica is allowed to go. Jessica arrives home and Gillian says she found Erik passed out on the floor. He explains everything that’s happened in thankfully brief detail. Jessica knows she’s going after Sallinger, just as he’s about to discharge himself from the hospital. They confront each other and Jessica mentions how she didn’t destroy all the evidence, making her gambit for the episode. It’s a solid gambit too.

Jessica catches her off guard and throws her to another rooftop buying them enough time to escape. She’s ready to dump him off with Hogarth but she doesn’t have anywhere to put him and Sallinger is ready to leverage this to his own advantage and get Jessica’s protection.

Erik pays Malcolm a visit and it’s the awkward situation as Brianna enters, Malcolm is sick of Trish’s games and thinks its time for the cops to handle her but they have a plan. Jessica and Sallinger act as bait for Trish looking over from across the rooftop. Jessica discovers the device holding the photos that incriminate her and destroys it, removing some of Sallinger’s leverage.

Malcolm and Erik tase Trish unconscious. She wakes up, chained to a post, in her place. They’ve made it so everything is out of reach so she can’t escape.

Jessica returns home and not unexpectedly is straight to the bourbon but unbeknownst to her, it’s been drugged and she passes out. Sallinger has her taped to the chair ready to reveal her truth. The sedative used also paralyses her. Sallinger wants her to admit that she wants badly to be a hero but she’s bad at it. Jessica tries to turn the tables, he claims to go after the unworthy but it’s all a mask as he gains sick pleasure out of it.

Sallinger tries to deny it but Dorothy does not fit his usual MO and he breaks. Jessica had a camera recording his confession and reveals she could easily have broken out of the tape. She tosses him around and calls in Costa, willing to testify against him for abducting and attempting to kill her, but also with the recorded confession of him admitting to killing Dorothy, helped by Erik keeping an eye on the camera.

Malcolm’s keeping a watch on Trish and she tries to explain how she believes the ends justify the means, reciting a story about how she got rid of her wife-beating father by telling a neighbour it was her that was being abused. It really says a lot about Dorothy that she did not try to argue her story. Malcolm tries to talk her down but its unsure if its working. Jessica arrives and tells Trish that Sallinger is down as Costa arrives at her place to find Sallinger gift-wrapped for them.

Jessica removes the chains, and the two hug, Trish heads back to her job but it’s clear that she’s still not over it. Her co-star talks about how he’ll probably use the legal system to his advantage and she says she’ll take care of it. Jessica gets a phone-call from Sallinger who tells her she’ll have to face up against Trish eventually, something she is not happy to hear.

Sallinger is about to be transferred to the courtroom, but Trish as the masked vigilante knocks out his guards and attacks Sallinger. Jessica arrives to give her testimony but soon sees, along with everyone else Sallinger’s dead body. It’s not a pretty sight.

It’s the final nail in Trish’s coffin, now she’s crossed the dark path, Jessica’s got the toughest choice of her life ahead, I like it. I also love how she beat Sallinger in the end.

Rating 9/10

AKA Everything

Jessica walks out of the Courtroom, feeling somewhat broken and not for the first time. Costa asks for her to do something. She returns home to find new big man of Harlem, Luke Cage. He’s here to compare her dilemma to that of him with Willis Stryker, his brother. The guy in the stupid power suit who came after you. Apparently, it killed him to do it, fact is you barely knew him until he started trying to kill you.

He tells her he hopes if he went too far, someone would take him down. I think Misty Knight has your number but whatever, we’ll never know. So, after his frankly superfluous cameo, Jessica’s got to make a decision.

Jessica pays Trish a visit and the moral dilemma is barely debated and it’s a shame because law enforcement being useless most of the time is a facet engrained into the Netflix shows’ DNA. Erik shows what she’s become by standing right in front of her as blood comes out of his eyes. Jessica needs Trish to turn herself in but like an idiot, she lets her go and clean herself up. Naturally she disappears.

Her next job is dealing with Patseras for Hogarth. Speaking of Hogarth, Kith pays Hogarth a visit, and Jeri finally confesses about the ALS, Trish calls at this inopportune moment to ensure that Patseras is bad enough of a person to make her list. Hogarth tells her that she’s a monster. Jessica isn’t ready to out Trish just yet, feeling that making it public would chase her out of town.

Speaking of Trish, and I was, she’s busy throwing Patseras around. But holds back from killing him when his daughter intervenes. Malcolm notices the link between Hogarth and Patseras and puts 2 and 2 together. Jessica confronts Hogarth and tells her she has an idea to bring Trish in, with Hogarth providing the bait.

Malcolm and Zaya settle things as Hogarth announces on the news that she knows the identity of the masked vigilante and plans to reveal it. Kith pays a visit. Patseras or at least his family has agreed to drop the lawsuit and despite the fact that what’s just happened should horrify her, she feels relief for it all to be over.

Trish arrives soon after and falls into Jessica’s trap, problem is, Trish takes Kith hostage. This, incidentally, is the first time Kith has crossed over into the A-plot. Desperate to save Kith, Hogarth offers another alternative. Kith’s life for getting her out of the country.

Making her life harder is the fact that Jessica has decided to out her identity to the public, in a video that quickly goes viral. Hogarth has to go to more extreme lengths. Basically, she’s gonna have to lay in a coffin for 17 hours. Thankfully, Jessica and her team are very good and quickly track her down. As soon as Hogarth’s safe she calls Jessica but Jessica’s already there and quickly manages to find her. I swear I heard the music cue in Breath of the Wild.

Trish dims the lights to try and even the playing field. But Trish is no match for Jessica in a fight, and despite Jessica taking a knife in the hand, she does take down Trish and she's arrested. In custody, Costa reads out the charges against her and it’s finally dawned on her that she has become the bad guy. Kith decides to leave Jeri, feeling her life is not for her, however short it may be.

Erik pays Jessica visit and offers to work with her, but Jessica says she doesn’t trust him enough, he promises to do something about that, taking it better than most would. Jessica’s packing up anyway, ready to head away and leave it all behind. She hands Malcolm the keys to both her flat and hence Alias investigations.

Detective Costa pays Erik a visit, Jessica arranges for them to meet, believing Erik might be able to help him. Jessica watches as Trish is transferred to the Raft Prison. Jessica still feels awful about it, hence why she’s trying to leave it behind. Jessica is prepared to take the midnight train going anywhere, at Grand Central, in the middle of the day.

But it wouldn’t be a season finale without another cameo. Kilgrave telling her that she’s right, she turns around and walks out without buying the ticket.

So that was Jessica Jones and hence the end of the Netflix Marvel era.

The Netflix shows try to do the dark things the Marvel movies couldn’t do. They discussed sex, got violent, showed blood and had more bad language than Deadpool. Part of this is compensating for a lack of budget as it’s a lot cheaper to do more combat orientated action than the explosions and sparks a Marvel movie would. But it did allow them to carve out their own unique identity.

The biggest problem, as I’ve made clear so many times, is pacing. Netflix likes to drop an entire season at once, I don’t understand why it makes a difference how many episodes there are. Iron Fist season 2 was a breath of fresh air by being a shorter series, though don’t get me wrong, it still had issues.

But to Jessica Jones itself, they were brave doing an ALS diagnosis for Hogarth, unfortunately it never really felt like it went anywhere, her main storyline is around a love interest, for the third season in a row. I really like her character I just wish her radar was pointed at something more interesting.

Trish’s descent felt inevitable given how season 2 left her. I remarked that she became nigh unbearable last season and they took that idea and ran to its inevitable conclusion.

It’s kinda sad that Oscar and Vido just kinda disappear after episode 2, for that matter, wasn’t Malcolm supposed to be working for Pryce Chang, he just kinda disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Sallinger was a compelling villain, I’ll give them that. And the slower pacing of this show is more warranted as the characters are more interesting. That being said, if a few things had been cut and we’d had 10 instead of 13 episodes, I wouldn’t have complained.

Rating 8/10

So, after this I feel I need something a little lighter, with a Dragon perhaps?

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