Monday, July 19, 2021

Netflix Retrospective - Jessica Jones Season 3 Episodes 9-10

 2 more episodes of Jessica Jones, let’s see how things progress.


AKA I Did Something Today

Sallinger is unconscious and losing a lot of blood but alive, despite Trish’s best efforts, Trish is concerned what might happen now Sallinger knows who she is, a concern that’s entirely justified by this episode. Jessica knocks her out and gets her out before the cops show up. She helps clean her up as Trish moves from the anger portion of grief straight into depression. Jessica is there, helping her through it the best she can, and removing any of Sallinger’s blood from her.

They get a call from Costa about Dorothy, and he also tells them that Sallinger has only told them he was attacked by the vigilante, despite seeing her unmasked. The hairs from Nathan’s body that they found a few episodes back are on their way to the lab.

The attack has made things more complicated, especially since Hogarth is using it for more publicity and to advance her crusade against the masked vigilante, offering a $250,000 reward to get her unmasked. Making matters worse, an unknown number shows a picture of unmasked Trish to Jessica’s phone. Jessica asks Malcolm to help her get Trish out of the country.

But Sallinger has a different play as Jessica finds out as she pays him a visit about the photo. He’ll release the photo if he’s arrested, and Jessica has to decide whether to let a murderer go free, or risk exposing the only person she has left in her life. Gillian has had enough with calls from the press and is on the point of quitting but decides to stay given how exasperated Jessica is. The death of Dorothy is affecting her too and whilst I could list a dozen reasons why Dorothy is terrible as both a mother and as a human being in general, Jessica has both the death and guilt over what lead to it.

Erik shows up and the two talk. With Trish’s public profile hiding her isn’t gonna help her for very long if she’s exposed. Their only option would be to break into the police crime lab and do what Sallinger asks. Laurant approaches Hogarth, and of course the donors to the charity have filed suit against them after the revelations about Peter’s embezzlement, most are willing to settle out of court except one, an estranged former-friend named Patseras. He’s not backing down, Hogarth suggests they need new lawyers. Kith does not know about this meeting so there’s not much that can be done, yet.

Erik knows a guy on the police force named Nussbaumer. And it turns out he actually dug a little into this guy. He’s murdered drug dealers, chocked it up to street crime and stolen their cash and product, mad himself enough money to pay a sizeable blackmail to Erik. Jessica makes the move and Nussbaumer threatens to ‘beat the shit out of her’ seriously? You think it’s a good idea to try and fight her, she’d destroy you. Erik can sense that he’s done the same thing since and is annoyed all he could do was blackmail him

Eventually he relents and agrees to their terms. Malcolm delivers the clothes to Trish and she’s totally spent believing that despite having everything righteous on her side, the bad guys end up winning. Hogarth pays Kith a visit directly, saying point blank that she still loves her. And admits to cyber-stalking her… You’re totally a strong, stable woman, Hogarth. It doesn’t go anywhere.

Erik reveals the first time he used his powers for good, discovering his father had sexually abused this sister… Of course it didn’t end happily, his mother OD’d on his arrest and Brianna blamed him for it. Nussbaumer upholds his end of the bargain and opens the crime lab, giving Jessica an access card so she can get around. Complicating matters is the fact that Costa is there at the lab, wanting answers about the hairs found on Nathan’s body.

Needing to get him out, Jessica heads to the sewage main and turns a handle that floods the room with sewage, lovely. The distraction works and the Jessica deals with the hair. Next step is telling Trish about what has happened and she takes it well… Now that her exposure is no longer an issue she needs to get back into a normal routine so the cops don’t suspect anything, and with that comes visiting her mother’s home.

Malcolm tells Hogarth that he doctored the footage and gives her the real footage, he quits and she fires him at the same time it’s quite amusing. He’s had enough and walking out with or without Zaya’s approval. As Jessica’s beginning with funeral arrangements, Costa knocks on the door and tells Jessica about the evidence being destroyed. Jessica framed it to look like an accident. He’s been put on administrative leave, basically the fall guy for Dorothy’s murder in particular, but his collusion with Jessica has also earned some ire.

Hogarth reviews the non-tampered security footage, as Kith approaches her with the info on the company so Hogarth can help resolve their legal woes, but makes it clear she’s not interested in rekindling any old flames. Hogarth continues to review the footage on what must be some pretty nice cameras as she can see Trish’s fish in the reflection of a monitor.

Trish heads to the morgue to see Dorothy’s body. The next morning NYPD turn up at Jessica's door, with a warrant to search the premises, turns out Nussbaumer was beaten to death the night before and thanks to the run in where he turned off his body cam, they suspect she may be involved.

I like this episode but in terms of moral dilemmas, it’s not like we’ve never seen this before

Rating 7/10

AKA Hero Pants

We see a body being taken to a funeral home from the morgue, it’s of course Dorothy’s. Back at Jessica’s place the police search the house, forcing Jessica to ignore calls from Trish. They find a file on Nussbaumer which may well prove he was dirty but since Jessica isn’t forthcoming, the cops promise they’ll be in touch. Jessica suspects that Erik did the deed

Jessica eventually goes to the funeral home. Dorothy had made some arrangements for the funeral including having Trish giving a eulogy which she refuses to do. The cops are on Jessica’s tail now trying to piece things together, including talking to Trish who is less than impressed.

Kith arrives at Hogarth’s office, the IRS’ fine has been reduced, as has the settlement to the trustees, however Patseras’ refusal to settle seems personal and it turns out it is, he was a domestic abuser and Kith got his wife away from him. Hogarth says she’s looking into potential exploitable weaknesses. When Kith leaves, Hogarth asks that her secretary set up a meeting with Trish.

Erik pays Jessica a visit and claims that is not responsible for Nussbaumer’s death. He was beaten to death with bare hands and his knuckles aren’t bruised, but like Jessica he has little to offer as an alibi. Luckily Malcolm is on her side and wanting to help, officially rehired by Jessica after he quit Hogarth’s firm. She wants him to look into potential other suspects for his murder the police are overlooking.

She heads down to Hogarth’s law firm as Jeri herself is dealing with the will. She promises that after everything, her firm has cut ties with Sallinger, which is funny considering after her death they made that whole anti-vigilante speech but I digress. Trish has been left half of everything, the other half is donated to a tax-shelter/charity, Jessica gets some liquor, which may well have just been a dig and a chair she liked as a kid.

Another reminder that Dorothy had her good moments, we’re later treated to a phonecall from one of her clients who got the role thanks to Dorothy’s advice. Jessica is very blunt with the, let’s face it, child on the other end of the line, it’s kinda tragic. Malcolm has obtained the police report on Nussbaumer’s death, whoever did it also removed the officer’s badge, which is likely what the police were looking for when they searched Jessica’s place.

Time for Malcolm and Zaya to have the talk. I think they break up, it’s not easy to tell. Jessica manages to sneak out of the apartment without the cops noticing and heads to Erik’s. The both console themselves over sh*tty dead parents and begin having some sexy-time together. Kith stops by Hogarth’s place. Patseras’ still isn’t going down without a fight, they’d have a chance in court but it’d be a long and ugly battle. Jeri offers to have one of her friends look into his accounts since her forensic accountant suspects tax fraud but Kith sees this as not dissimilar to what she did to Peter and refuses.

Erik is sleeping and Jessica uses the opportunity to search his apartment, hoping not to find the police badge, which she doesn’t, but she does find files which she photographs. A guy named Montero who she tasks Malcolm with looking into. It’s the day of the service and Jessica gets dressed up in a suit jacket, she’s still clearly hurt by the death of Dorothy, in spite of everything.

Hogarth takes her morning pills and gets a call from Kith. Patseras has threatened legal action against Kith and she agrees to let Hogarth do whatever it takes. Turns out Montero is a property developer whose buildings have been conveniently catching fire and whose insurers have been paying out big money.

Jessica meets up with Trish to go together as Brianna arrives at Malcolm’s. She’s sobered up and just needs someone to give her another chance, before she announces her return to her brother (he got her out of town a few episodes back) the two didn’t expect a big turnout but it’s actually quite sizeable as word got out to a lot of her former and current clients, I guess that’s why she wanted a memory board. I guess Malcolm is skipping the funeral for other activities. A lot of them have stories to tell about how Dorothy helped them, often in a way she never could for Trish.

Just as Trish is about to make her speech, Jessica gets a call from Gillian who tells her the police now have a warrant for her arrest as someone else apparently saw Jessica getting aggressive with Nussbaumer. She sees Trish’s bruised knuckles and realises that it was Trish who did the deed. She follows her for a day but before it can bear fruit the police arrive and arrest her.

Erik is watching from outside as Montero is attacked

They’re using this downtime with Sallinger to build up Trish as the final antagonist. It’s going to be interesting to see how Jessica gets out of this one

Rating 8/10

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