"Jessica Jones" Recap: "AKA The Sandwich Saved Me"

Written by Scotty

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

With the new information that Jessica has pieced together, she now knows that her friendly junkie Malcolm has been the one keeping tabs on her for Kilgrave and knows that she will be able to find her torturer once again.  Following Malcolm to a drop point, Jessica sees that a random stranger approaches Malcolm and gives him a destination to hand off the photos.  Seeing her tormentor in the flesh once again, Jessica has to come up with a plan on how to drug Kilgrave and take him to a place where he will not be able to hurt anyone going forward.  If not for her own sanity, for Hope’s sake so she can be proven innocent in her actions and released from prison.

Trish has found a new suitor in the form of the man that tried to kill her.  After finding out more about Will Simpson, she has fallen for him in a way and Will is not putting up with Jessica’s distain for him. Simpson has some abilities of his own that could prove useful to the group and after bringing himself in on the fight against Kilgrave, he may prove to be more valuable than not.  Being former Special Ops, Simpson knows more about the underbelly of the city and is ready to put his knowledge and skill set to work in capturing Kilgrave and having a place where the monster can be held, Jessica has no choice but to bring him into the loop.

Running their own operation, Jessica, Trish and Simpson are able to locate Kilgrave, but when the mission starts to go awry, Jessica has to make herself seen by the man that changed her life.  Running out in the street and yelling at him, Jessica is able to cause enough of a diversion to have Simpson move in for the tranquilizer shot and the group is able to make it to the safe house.  But little do they know that Kilgrave is prepared for such a situation and a group of mercs move in and secure him before the group knows what hit them.  Having one hostage from the situation, Simpson is able to put his knowledge of interrogation to the test to find out what happened and where Kilgrave was taken, but it may be too little too late as the man that can control others minds is already moved away from the premises and waiting to make his next move. 

---

With nothing else on her plate since Kilgrave has been taken to a secure location out of her reach, Jessica turns her attention to Malcolm.  As he admits that he did not succumb to Kilgrave’s mind tricks, he was just doing it for the drugs, Jessica has a plan of her own to clean him up.  Knowing that he is overall a good person, she locks him in her bathroom and waits for the drugs to fight their way out of his system.  Giving Malcolm a choice of what he can be, Jessica even lays his drugs on the counter and is grateful to see that he is willing to take the next step when all of the drugs are thrown into the toilet.  Jessica may not have been able to save the world or other people affected by Kilgrave, but she just might have gotten another ally in the fight against Kilgrave.

In this episode, you get to find out much more about Jessica’s back story.  After seeing Jessica save a little girl's life before she gets run over by a cab, Jessica might have found the business that she is good at.  As Trish is crazy over the idea of her friend defending the streets from the vermin that have been making people’s lives hell, she will back Jessica with all that she has got.  Although they cannot work out a costume, much less a name that Jessica can agree on, helping people is something that she is really good at.  But all is not as it seems when she saves a man from being mugged and a tall dark stranger approaches and commends her on the task.  Meeting Kilgrave for the first time, Jessica does not know who the man is, but soon finds out that she will do anything that he asks of her.

Not completely the origin story of Jessica, but you get to see what happened to her and why Kilgrave is the bane of her existence.  With all of the good she has tried to do on the streets, there is plenty of bad that she will have to live with as well and it came from Kilgrave himself.  Simpson has proven his worth to the team and even though he is digging his time with Trish, he is ashamed that the group was not able to hold the most powerful villains that he has ever encountered.  Hope is having problems in prison and big Sissy has her eyes on the young girl and not in a good way.  I am not sure what to think about Jessica’s neighbor Ruben, but he seems to be in the right place at the right time and might be hiding something about himself and his twin sister that will come to play in the story.  And Malcolm is going to try to sober up and become something more than just the junkie down the hall, he has Jessica to thank for not being dead yet and hopefully he will be able to repay the favor.  With so much going on, this episode had more lines that I laughed at than the previous episodes combined.  That is a feat and even though there was a bit more comedy, it is not taking away from the story of Jessica and her fears that Kilgrave can bring to light.  On to episode six!

---