Jessica Jones moved firmly into its endgame with “AKA Take a Bloody Number.” These are always risky episodes: there are a lot of plates to keep spinning, because the show has to start wrapping up its loose ends, while leaving enough of them untied to draw viewers back for a second season. “Bloody Number” does an admirable job, and smartly chooses to go a quieter route than most episodes of this nature would.
“Bloody Number” is at its best when it focuses on Luke and Jessica. Luke was sorely missed for the last few episodes, and Mike Colter and Krysten Ritter have such great chemistry that it makes you wonder why the whole show isn’t about the two of them. But that’s what Jessica Jones does so well: there’s no will they/won’t they about Luke and Jessica; the show makes it explicitly clear that these two shouldn’t be together, which makes their scenes especially heartbreaking.
Forgiveness is a big theme of “Bloody Number,” and in scene is this more apparent than when Luke decides not to apologize to Jessica, but forgives her instead. So much of their relationship – including their breakup – has happened off screen, that it’s rare for the show to give us a “moment” like this. It’s a rare instance of emotional honesty, made more remarkable coming from a show that concerns itself with lies, manipulation, and coercion.
Kilgrave is using his dad’s expertise to help him expand the range and the duration of his influence on people. It’s a scary thought, compounded by Kilgrave’s complete commitment to the idea. He’s given up any semblance of humanity, and has taken to testing out his powers on unsuspecting night club patrons (to a young man who annoys him: “Cross the street, face that fence, and stay there forever”). The scariest thing about Kilgrave is that there’s no perceivable difference between him when he’s trying to impress Jessica by not using his powers and when he’s said “fuck it” to the basic concept of morality or empathy.
Where this becomes appallingly apparent is in the revelation that nothing Luke did this episode – including forgiving Jessica – was done of his own volition. He’s been under Kilgrave’s control the whole time, and watching him attack Jessica is pretty upsetting, especially as Jessica pleads with him to overcome Kilgrave’s commands. Eventually she puts a shotgun to his throat and pulls the trigger, knowing that it won’t kill him. She just wants to stop him, but he’ll always have to live with the knowledge of what he did, and what Jessica did. It’s a pretty shitty fate.
Elsewhere, “Bloody Number” does a much better job of characterizing Trish’s mom than did “AKA I’ve Got the Blues.” True to form for this episode, Trish’s mom utilizes a sickeningly subtle form of manipulation, one that even Trish isn’t able to recognize right away. Their scenes together are nicely disquieting, and do a good job of setting up season two. Dr. Kozlov is employed by IGH, who maybe/possibly/probably gave Jessica her powers. It shows a nice sense of scope on Jessica Jones‘ part, and does a damn good job of expanding the show’s world.
“Bloody Number” also did a nice job of wrapping up the Malcolm/Robyn subplot, as he took her to the place where he dumped Ruben’s body. Robyn finally gets a scene that redeems her as a character, forgiving Malcolm while recognizing his latent attraction to her. If she’d been like this – more human – for the rest of the season, she might not be such a garbage character.
“Bloody Number” did the job, more or less, of any penultimate episode, in that it served to set up the finale and the second season all at once, but it did a damn good job of it. While not Jessica Jones‘ most remarkable episode, it still played to the show’s strengths, and left us wanting more.
A Few Thoughts
- “You can help yourself to…well, there’s nothing”
- Luke gently picking up and moving the motel manager was a solid sight gag
- “I hope they have express shipping in heaven”
- One nice touch: for all of Luke’s strength, he doesn’t seem particularly adept at fighting. His technique is functional and inelegant, and it’s obvious that he’s had no training. Great characterization
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