More than any other episode so far, Jessica Jones really shows its hand with “AKA Top Shelf Perverts.” This is a dark hour of television, darker and more mature than most Marvel fare dares to go. It had everything: a messy divorce, mortal peril, suicide, and stalking. I can’t get enough of this show.
You know we’re in for something rough when the episode opens with Kilgrave in Jessica’s office. Kilgrave wouldn’t be half as scary if he just wanted to kill Jessica, but what he wants is something far worse. When Ruben comes to the door – with yet another plate of banana bread – its a foregone conclusion that Kilgrave won’t take kindly to his intrusion, especially after he forces Ruben to admit he’s in love with Jessica. Ruben ends up dead, discovered by Malcolm and Jessica, and that’s where the episode really takes off – as if it wasn’t off to a good enough start already.
Jessica’s plan is to frame herself for Ruben’s murder and get herself locked up in Supermax, where if Kilgrave wanted to see her he’d have to go through seven rounds of security, thereby proving his existence several times over. As plans go, it’s not completely boneheaded, and moreover it shows the sacrifices Jessica is willing to make to keep others safe from Kilgrave. She’s torn up about Ruben – “This is the third death I’m connected to” – but to be honest it doesn’t entirely land because in every episode thus far, she has actively despised him.
Obviously, no one is on board with this plan, because there wouldn’t be much of a show if Jessica went to prison – this isn’t Sons of Anarchy, where the SAMCRO gang went to prison every other season.
This is a strange episode for Jessica Jones, inasmuch as there really isn’t a B-story. So much of “Top Shelf Perverts” revolves around Jessica’s attempt to atone for the tragedy she has wrought on people like Ruben, Reva, Hope, and Luke. This makes it pretty much the perfect halfway episode, and a damn good way to split the season. It’s a truly striking scene when she walks into the police precinct to dump Ruben’s head on Det. Clemens’ desk (played by Clarke Peters of The Wire!).
Naturally, this all falls apart, due to – who else? – Kilgrave. He’s always several steps ahead of everyone on the show, which should make him boring, but Jessica Jones avoid that pitfall, due in large part to David Tennant’s phenomenal performance. This man was born to play a villain, and Kilgrave is absolutely written to his strengths. Kilgrave is so far removed from anything even resembling humanity that you get the sick sense that he actually believes himself when he tells Jessica he loves her. In his own fucked up way, he does love her, which in a way makes him scarier. It’s the difference between evil and conviction – Kilgrave truly doesn’t believe he’s evil, which separates him from other Marvel villain like Loki, Thanos, Ultron, the Mandarin, HYDRA…well, any Marvel villain who just focuses on world conquest. There’s kind of a lot of them.
Which is what, in my mind, makes Marvel’s NU so much better than its MCU (the NU is the Netflix Universe, which is like the Cinematic – ah, you get it). Kilgrave is by far Marvel’s creepiest villain, in the same way that Daredevil‘s Wilson Fisk is its most neurotic. And you know what the worst part about Kilgrave is? He wins. at the end of “Top Shelf Perverts,” Jessica follows Kilgrave back to her childhood home. She does this voluntarily.
The bad guy wins.
A Few Thoughts
- Today in Jessica Jones Doing Sleazy Shit: um, dangling Wendy over the railroad tracks? Thanks for making this feature easy today, Jessica Jones
- I’m liking Trish more and more, but Rachael Taylor loses her American accent pretty often
- “Manual decapitation…you’re full of surprises”
- “A beautiful funeral doesn’t guarantee heaven”
- Ruben’s pseudo-incestuous, cartoonish sister is way out of place on this show
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